I woke before any of the others and set about my routine. I quickly changed, then took my hygiene stuff to the restroom, caring for my teeth and hair. Then I got something to eat. My soreness had recovered slightly, which I was glad for.
One hour later, Keokin roused the others from their sleep. The boys groggily went to the restroom, clothes and hygiene implements in hand, before coming back up to grab food. The girls stayed behind to change then they went to the restroom to finish their hygiene. The boys sat and ate, chatting with each other as the girls came back up to join them. Once they were done, we set out to our respective mentors. It was easy for Klintock, Jael and I because our training room was in the next room.
“Good morning, Guardians. Let’s get straight to work. Same partners as yesterday. Today we will be introducing some long throws and a few more interesting holds. First, any questions about any of the holds yesterday?” Jael raised her hand. “Come now girl, you don’t need to do that here. Just don’t talk over me and we’ll be fine.” She nodded.
“I had a question about the arm bar. Once you have them on the ground and you’re holding their arm, do both legs go over their chest? Or do you put one leg on their neck?”
“Good question. Croí, if you wouldn’t mind.” I sighed. I really would mind. Can’t it be someone else for a change? As soon as I was within reach, Sacae grappled me to the ground. My head hit the floor and I squinted, groaning in pain as my headache grew but was quieted by Sacae’s calf covering my mouth as he pulled my arm into position, using his pelvis to apply pressure on my elbow.
I resisted tapping him for as long as I could while he talked to Jael about the move and why your legs went where they went. She watched with interest, then noticed my face.
“I think you’re hurting Croí.” He eased up slightly before responding.
“Nonsense. Croí knows to tap out if he can’t handle the pain. Don’t worry about it.” He released me and pulled me to my feet. I rubbed my arm. “Now, a far throw. For this one, you will need to put a fair bit of force behind the throw to get any kind of distance. I’m just going to execute the throw first so you all can watch.”
He turned towards me. This is gonna suck. He grabbed my right arm and, before I really knew what was happening, He pulled me in and used my momentum combined with his tight spin, throwing me onto his back than pushed up with his hips, flinging me over his shoulder and tossed me through the air. I landed hard on my back and left shoulder.
I laid there for a second, waiting for the pain to subside. Feeling my right shoulder throb from the force of the throw. Ow...ow...ow...ok I’m good. I got up slowly, realizing I’d been thrown at least twelve feet. I rolled my right arm and walked back. Jael and Klintock had expressions of concern on their faces. Jael had moved closer to me, probably to come check on me. I held up a hand to say ‘I’m fine, didn’t hurt’ putting on a stoic face. Sacae grabbed my arm and did it again when I got closer, but this time slower, so Jael and Klintock could see.
“The key to it is using the opponent’s momentum in tandem with your own to allow both of you to spin quickly, like a top.” He pulled me in like before, then soon enough I was off the ground, he was leaning forward to counterbalance the weight.
He set me down for a moment to explain the next part. “Once you’ve done that you must push your hip back into theirs while slightly crouched.” He pushed his hip into mine, forcing me to lie on his back with my feet dangling. “At the same time, pull their arm over your shoulder and use that as a fulcrum point, but make sure that their shoulder is even with yours or it will just break the arm.”
He demonstrated the wrong place to put the arm, causing me pain as my joints and bones bent, then put my shoulder even with his. “Once their weight is over you, lean forward, jump and pull their arm at an angle, and it will throw them over you.” He followed through with the move. This time I only flipped over his back and flopped on the ground four feet in front of him. “All of this has to be done very quickly or they won’t be thrown as far. Now you two try it a few times, nice and slow.”
This, I learned from yesterday, was my favorite part of these lessons. Sacae would go over and give direction to Jael and Klintock, leaving me standing off to the side. I would use this time to try and control my breathing or recover from the pain as much as possible before the next demonstration.
Jael took naturally to the move, as it built on her favorite move from yesterday’s lesson called ‘looking from the window’.
The window move was done when the attacker was trying to put a choke hold on the victim from behind. The victim was to grab the arms of the attacker and crouch slightly to get them to lean forward. The victim would then lean forward and to the right as quickly as they could while pushing their hips back into the attacker. Then the victim would swing their body hard to the left. It was a simple move, but when done correctly, it would throw the attacker off their feet and plop them on their back in front of the victim.
This was basically just an advanced version of that move, so Jael loved it. Klintock on the other hand yelled out as he was thrown through the air.
“Again! Let’s do it again!” Jael exclaimed excitedly. Klintock groaned, taking a moment to get back up. Sacae motioned to me.
“Come on Croí.” I walked over, holding my arm out. Jael looked at me skeptically, then back to Klintock. She was nervous to put me through more pain.
I remembered talking to them last night. Their concern for me. I had thought they were cruel or uncaring during training yesterday, but now I knew better. They weren’t William, or Sacae. They were my shield Brother and Sister.
“Don’t worry. I can take it.” I reassured her.
“If you’re sure…” She raised an eyebrow at me. I nodded. She smiled, satisfied with my reply, and took my hand, twirling me around and throwing me through the air. It wasn’t as bad as when Sacae did it, she was being as soft as she could with me, I was grateful. Next Klintock tried it. First on Jael a few times, waiting to throw her until he was sure he had the form just right, then he threw me.
“Alright then. One last demonstration on this move and then it’s on to other throws. This time I’m going to use full force to show how far you could throw your opponent. You’re ok with that right Croí? Or should I ask for a volunteer?” The last one wasn’t that terrible. Besides, if I’m to be a proper shield brother. I’ll take this hit for them. I’ll be fine.
I nodded. He motioned for me to come forward. As soon as I was in range he grabbed and spun me. This time he was much faster, spinning me three times before executing the maneuver with much more vigor.
I felt tremendous pull and strain on my shoulder as I was launched, then was disoriented as I flipped end over end through the air and felt the familiar dull thud as I bounced off the floor, flipping over and rolling across the floor.
It took a bit for the vertigo to wear off and for me to realize I was face down. Ow… ow… ow… I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees, wincing and gasping as my right shoulder gave out on me a little bit. I looked around and noticed that Jael and Klintock were in between me and Sacae, jaws dropped. He had thrown me over both of them.
There was a strange tickling sensation coming from my lip. I recognized it from what happened last night. I reached up and touched it to see a small amount of blood. I felt the same tickling from my right elbow. Klintock and Jael rushed over to help me as I was getting to my feet.
“Are you ok?” Klintock asked, worried. Jael seconded, but she was also smiling in amazement. I nodded.
“Yeah. Just a few scrapes.”
“You went right over us! That was amazing!” Jael exclaimed. That’s one word for it.
“Now you see the full power and use of the move. Come on Croí, the next move will be a lot easier, don’t worry.” I nodded, walking back in to get thrown across the room or slammed into the floor time after time. When it started taking me a bit to get up from the pain, Jael and Klintock got worried.
“Looks like it’s getting a bit rough for Croí, so we’ll move into a few more grapple holds. We’ll focus a bit more on the legs and torso this time.” He showed Jael and Klintock many more new moves, pulling and twisting on my limbs and joints, wrenching my spine, and squeezing on my ribs. I felt like every time he did it, he was seconds away from snapping my bones, or popping my joints out of place.
Eventually, covered in sweat and new bruises, I couldn’t deal with the pain anymore and tapped out on a particularly painful leg hold. He pushed slightly harder, and I felt a small pop from one of my tendons before he let go. As soon as the leg straightened out the tendon popped back into place, and I lay there gritting my teeth and quietly hissing in a breath against the pain. Jael noticed and came over.
“Croí are you alright?” The pain subsided enough that I could move.
“Yeah, sure, just getting tired. Thanks Jael.” She helped me to my feet, looking very skeptical. I chuckled and patted her on the shoulder with a smile, putting everything I had into faking it. Finally, the bell rang, telling us it was late afternoon. Time to take a two-hour break.
“Well would you look at that? Eight hours goes by in the blink of an eye now, doesn’t it? Off you go kids. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Sacae walked out of the room.
Klintock and Jael toweled off as they talked about the new moves they’d learned. I grabbed my towel, shaking from exhaustion and pain. My right shoulder was having some difficulty lifting the towel at first. Jael caught me on my way over to the stairs.
“Hey. If you want, me or Klintock can be the dummy tomorrow. You’re probably not learning too much just getting tossed around like that, and I bet it’s pretty painful.” I thought about it for a moment. It would be nice to have a reprieve, and it would be nice if it was one of them that suggested it, because then it wouldn’t look like I couldn’t handle it.
The thought of Sacae twisting Jael or Klintock like he had me until they were aching with pain and begging for mercy just didn’t sit right. I didn’t want them to experience this. I’d rather it happen to me than them. Besides. I told them I would look out for them, watch their backs. I’m their shield brother.
“It’s fine, I’m only tired and hungry. Don’t worry about it, you two just learn as much as you can. Don’t let my pain go to waste. I got a lot of this from my older brothers.” She didn’t look entirely convinced.
“Are you sure?” Sure, that I don’t want to see either of you writhing in agony? Yes.
“Yeah, I’m sure. No big deal.” I patted her on the shoulder and walked up the stairs to the main deck.
Ocean air filled my lungs. I took four deep breaths then went and leaned over a railing, looking down into the ocean.
Only been traveling two and a half days now. Maybe if I jump in, I could swim… I cut the thoughts short. Don’t be stupid. You’ve got at least three more months of this heading your way, and it’s only going to get worse. Toughen up or you’ll be useless to the rest of the group. And if I want to keep Jael and Klintock safe, I’ll have to keep this to myself.
I felt my right shoulder, the joint hurt, but the muscle in front was ok. The muscle behind it, however, was painful to the touch. I pulled up my sleeve to reveal puffy bright red skin. Some of the red was dark, like blood but muted as it was beneath the skin. That’s going to look lovely tomorrow.
Judging by the feeling of many other parts of my body, I had several of these bruises. I pulled the sleeve back down and took a heavy sigh.
It would be best if nobody saw them. Otherwise, they would want to switch me out as the dummy.
The door leading below deck burst open to the sound of laughter. I turned to see Lánn, Sable, and Leola all holding fishing rods and a bucket.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
“Croí!” Sable greeted. “We’re going to see if we can catch something. Would you like to join us?” I nodded.
“Sure.” I’d gone on many fishing trips with my brothers but that was to lakes and rivers, never the ocean. Was the process different? Either way, it would be nice to get a refresher from Lánn.
“Follow us.” They turned and walked up to the quarter deck. I sat down and leaned against the railing, watching them ready their hooks with fish heads and chunks of meat. Lánn looked over at me.
“Why don’t you go grab a rod? You can’t fish without one.”
“Yeah.” William chimed in as he walked up the steps. “Grab your pole, Croí, if you can find it.” He had a smug look on his face. I stared at him blankly.
I don’t get it. Was that him being mean again? Usually, his name calling, and teasing has a point to it. But ‘grab a pole’ doesn’t make any sense as an insult. And Lánn called them rods, why was he saying pole?
“I would… but I don’t know where they are.” I turned to Lánn. “Would you show me?” William laughed.
“Yeah, that’s right! I guess it would be hard finding your pole when there’s just a hole there.” He laughed again.
“At first I thought that horrid smell was the fish heads and meat, but now I’m realizing it’s your breath.” Leola said with a wry smile. “I suggest you leave us alone to fish in peace, lest I help you find your pole with a well-placed kick.” William growled, narrowing his eyes at her.
“Try it bitch, and I’ll find a hole for my pole.” Her eyes widened and a look of anger, disgust and shock held her face. The look on Lánn and Sable’s faces were equally as shocked and angry.
He took a step towards her. I could feel the tension between them, but I didn’t understand the context of anything that was being said. I stood up, just to be ready in case Will tried to beat me or her.
“Right, because any hole will do for you right? Explains why you picked Channa’s hole. She was probably the only one desperate enough to settle for something so small.” Sable and Lánn burst out laughing and smiling. Sable’s grin was more of a ready and aggressive grin. Lánn’s was amused, but also nervous.
“With a pole that compact, I doubt any hole would even realize it was there.” Sable said with a grin.
“I’ll show you small!” William growled. He started moving forward but his progress was halted.
He seemed to be pushing against an invisible force. Then he was suddenly forced back to the top of the steps where Edorin was waiting, hand outstretched, a barely visible purple glow on his hand.
The glow faded and William was able to move again. He turned around with a look of terror in his eyes. Edorin put his hands behind his back, assuming his regular posture, except his chin was lowered at William.
“William. I just heard several troubling things slip from your lips. Did I hear right when you said, ‘I’ll find a hole for my pole’ in reference to Leola?” William started to shake his head, but Edorin yelled. “Don’t!” His voice returned to its normal tone and volume. “Lie to me William.” His eyes held a fierce glare at William. He looked horrified.
“I did. I did say it, sir, Captain. But only in anger. I wouldn’t really… She upset me, and I wanted to make her uncomfortable. But I didn’t mean it, honest, I swear by the Gods.” Edorin stared into William’s eyes for a moment. His eyes suddenly flashed purple, then went back to blue. William winced and groaned, like he was in pain.
“I believe you William, but I will not stand for such things on my ship. Not the thought, not talk of it, not jest of it, and absolutely not the act of it. Are we clear William?” William nodded several times, looking at the floor. “Very good. Now I think you should go and find some other form of entertainment for today. Don’t you?” William nodded and leapt down the steps, running back down below deck. Edorin turned to us, a pleasant countenance on his face. “I hope all of you are well today. Not too bothered were you, Leola?”
“No. I’m alright, all thanks to my backup.” She motioned to Sable, Lánn and me. “And you Captain.” Leola said with a slight bow which Edorin returned.
“That was awesome! What was that? How’d you do it?” Sable questioned excitedly.
“Yeah! How’d you do that thing with your eyes?” Lánn followed. Edorin chuckled as he turned to head down the steps.
“I called upon the ghost of the ship.” He looked back and wiggled his fingers as he made an eerie ghostly moan in jest.
“Oh, come on! Not ok Captain!” Sable yelled after him.
“I know right? I want to know how and what he did.” Lánn said, frowning.
“Magic.” Leola said simply.
“Yeah, but what kind?” Lánn asked.
“I would guess Reaving magic.” Leola said.
“No way, Reaving is dark magic, isn’t it?” Sable asked. Leola shook her head.
“Not that I remember. I thought it had to do with moving things with your mind. That and reading other people’s minds.” She said. The other two nodded understanding, but I squinted in confusion.
“Well, Croí. Follow me and we’ll get you a rod.” Lánn said.
“Uh, sure.” I was still confused. Mostly by the conversation, but also by what Edorin had done. It was magic, but magic I’d never seen before. Leola said Reaving magic. What is that?
It reminded me of when Cyclone used his wind magic, but there was no wind, and Cyclone’s glow was yellow, not purple. I stopped thinking about it and followed Lánn. She led me below deck, explaining that they were fishing rods, not fishing poles. She opened a small door to a closet filled with fishing supplies and grabbed me a rod, two hooks, and a reel of fishing line.
“There you go. Now let’s go put them to good use.” We rejoined the others who already had their lines cast. Lánn showed me how to thread the wire onto the hook, then apply the bait. She had me practice casting the line a few times to make sure I had it down before casting.
“Now, we wait.” Lánn said. “If we’re lucky something down there will take an interest in our bait and take a bite. If it does, you’ll feel it tugging and the line will start to reel out. Once that happens, pull this lever and pull up on the rod hard.” She pointed to a lever next to the cylinder of wire. “That will stop the wire from reeling out and pull the hook into whatever took the bait. Then you crank on this.” She pointed to a small handle on the side of the cylinder. “While you pull back on the rod, like you practiced, until you pull whatever it is out of the water. There’s a bit more to it than that, gotta make sure you don’t snap the line and all that, but we’ll get to that later.” I nodded.
“Ok. I’ll try to keep that in mind.” I said. Sable chuckled.
“Don’t worry. It’s simple once you’ve done it a few times, and these are heavy duty rods for big fish, even sharks. What we need to worry about now is what to chat about.” Leola and Lánn nodded in agreement. “Ordinarily you don’t talk if you’re on a river or lake because the noise will scare the fish, but on a ship like this, it’s not so much of a worry.”
I’m still curious about the conversation earlier. I’ll ask about that.
“What was that conversation earlier?” They looked at me confused. “I mean, usually when William’s teasing or insulting me it has a point to it. Like saying I’m a cry baby or I’m a little girl or something, but this time it was ‘grab a pole’ and other pole related remarks. Is that teasing us because we’re fishing?” Sable and Leola looked at me surprised, then looked at each other and giggled. Lánn thought about it. “What?” I asked. Sable waved her hand.
“It’s just… you’re so innocent.” Sable said.
“It’s sweet.” Leola added. A look of realization dawned on Lánn’s face.
“Oh! I get it now. He was talking about…” Sable covered her mouth, shushing her, then talked into Lánn’s ear for a moment.
“What? Talking about what?” I asked. They laughed with each other, and Leola replied.
“We’ll tell you when you’re older.” They laughed again. Sable doubled over, nearly dropping her rod. I sighed. Butt end of a joke again. Oh well, not exactly unusual but it still hurts, especially coming from them.
“Ok then.” I turned away, shrugging as I looked out on the ocean, suddenly wishing that I’d said no when they asked if I wanted to fish. “So, what do you want to talk about?” I asked to no one in particular. They stopped laughing after a moment.
“We weren’t laughing at you Croí.” Sable said.
“Well, in a way we were, but not like William does. More because you did something we find very funny. It’s endearing.” Endearing? I shrugged, with a small smile.
“Ok. Thank you.”
“I’ve got something to talk about.” Sable started. “Croí, who in the group do you think is cute?”
“What do you mean by cute?” I asked.
“Like attractive or pretty, who do you like?” I remembered my sisters talking to me about this kind of thing. Telling me to be careful with my words, and that if there were multiple women present when it was asked, to say they were all cute and name something about them that I found genuinely endearing or attractive, aside from mentioning certain body parts in a certain way. It was vague, but the best I had to go on.
“Well. I guess put like that, I would say all of you.” Sable raised her eyebrows skeptically with a somewhat mischievous smile.
“All of us are cute huh? Please do tell. Start with Lánn.” Sable patted Lánn on the head.
“Sable.” Lánn half whispered.
“Ok.” I started. “Lánn has an endearing personality, and a pretty face, and she’s small which is nice.” Lánn’s cheeks turned red.
“What’s nice about being small?” Leola asked, adopting Sable’s smile.
“Well.” I’m not sure. It’s nice, I guess because it makes it nice to hug them. Like when I would hug my niece. “I guess you could say they feel better.” Lánn covered her mouth and blushed even more. Sable smiled and Leola giggled.
“Feel better when doing what?” Sable prodded.
“Hugging. Their head fits right under my chin and the hug feels more sincere. I guess. I can’t really think of anything other than that.”
“Me now, my turn.” Sable said striking several poses. I chuckled.
“I guess that’s number one. You’re fun to be around, very energetic, and happy. You have unique eyes and hair which stands out too, and you’re small like Lánn.” She struck a regal pose.
“Please go on.” I chuckled but I couldn’t really think of anything else to say. At least not that I thought they would be okay with. I just chuckled in response and Leola cut in.
“What about Jael? You’ve been training with her right?”
“Jael is nice. She shows concern for me when Sacae is throwing me around the room, and she’s good at grappling, and not afraid to speak up most of the time.”
“And Céírde?” Leola questioned.
“Her skin and freckles are pretty. She’s diligent and precise, and very smart.” My heart was beating fast. I was nervous about every word I said. Worried that I would say something stupid or creepy.
“And Leola?” Lánn chimed in. They all seemed to be the only ones enjoying themselves.
“Leola has a lovely voice that helps calm me down, and she’s really good at fixing me up. And…” I stopped. Is it ok to say she has a beautiful figure? Or is that a creepy thing? It’s probably creepy. Then again, it worked ok when I said it to Sable earlier about the human girl. She teased me but it wasn’t bad. I guess I’ll risk it.
“And?” Leola pressed.
“Well, you have a nice figure. I mean, all of you do, but Leola’s is just…different somehow.” Leola smiled, Sable and Lánn giggled and leaned in to whisper to each other.
“Thank you Croí. From anyone else I think I’d feel uncomfortable but knowing you, I take it as a compliment.” It worked. Ok that’s nice. Man, this is awkward, gotta change the subject.
“You’re welcome. If you don’t mind, can we talk about something else?”
“Sure.” Sable said with a wry smile. Lánn’s rod jerked forward. Her eyes went wide with excitement, and she took hold of her rod with both hands.
“I’ve got one!” She waited for more of the wire to reel out of the cylinder before yanking up hard. It flexed and bowed tremendously.
Lánn planted her foot against the railing to get a more stable position. “It’s big for sure.” She huffed and grunted with effort as she dipped and pulled on the rod while reeling in on the small lever. The wire was taut all the way down to the water, leaving a straight line to whatever was on the other end. The fish was moving back and forth pulling against the wire but Lánn held strong.
Leola and Sable cheered her on. The wire surged closer to the ship, giving some slack. Lánn reacted by reeling quickly to keep tension in the wire. Leaning over the railing, I could see a shape beginning to form below the surface. It was big but I couldn’t see much detail. The wire moved away from the ship and Lánn grunted as she felt the pull of the fish and the rod bent.
As it reeled back towards the ship again, the fish broke the surface. It thrashed against the water’s surface but was no match for Lánn’s experience. Soon it was out of the water, wiggling on the end of the wire as she reeled it up and over the railing, letting it flop onto the deck. It was almost three feet long. Primarily a deep blue color to match the ocean, but with a red stripe down the middle on either side.
“Go get Cairen!” Lánn yelled. Sable sprinted below deck and returned a minute later with him, sporting his cook’s apron.
“Well done Lánn. That’s quite a catch. Am I to assume this is to be dinner tonight?” Lánn nodded enthusiastically.
“Yeah. I would love that.” Lánn said, grinning. Sable was studying the fish, poking, and prodding it as it twitched and flopped, nearly striking her several times. Flint and Céírde emerged from below deck and came to observe it. Céírde began making notes about it in her book.
“What is it?” I asked.
“That there’s a Red Line Tarip (Taw-rip).” Cairen answered. “Fairly common this far offshore, and they run in schools. Ordinarily if you catch one, you’ll catch a few of his friends. This little welp must’ve been unlucky.” Céírde closed her book and bent down to touch the fish. “Let’s get to work.” Cairen said. “Lánn, grab William and I’ll show you youngins how to gut and cook him.” Lánn squealed excitedly and ran off in search of William. Cairen bent down and picked the fish up and walked off with it followed by Céírde and Flint.
Leola, Sable, and I reeled in our lines and took care of the fishing supplies. We retreated below deck and played cards in the galley while we waited for dinner. Dinner was the Tarip with mashed potatoes, carrot slices, and an assortment of other chopped vegetables I didn’t fully recognize, but it was delicious. Food was something I looked forward to now.
After dinner, we opened the books as a group and acquainted ourselves with the two unique monsters, and two creatures we were likely to face.
The first of the creatures was a Giant Crab, aptly named as its body was roughly eight feet in diameter, with its right claw being much larger than its left claw. They would burrow into the sand and wait for something to walk near it, then they would pop out of the sand and attack.
The last creature we studied was called the Hybrid Wolf. Named so because it had the face of a wolf, but the body, tail, and stalking habits of a large cat. It had four large, clawed fingers that it used to travel through the branches of trees, often upside down. They were much larger than most wolves or cats, standing five feet tall at the shoulders. They were solitary hunters primarily, but in areas where prey was plentiful, they would live, and hunt together. Céírde and Flint shared books, making sure not to waste pages by making the same notes about the same creatures. When we were done learning about those creatures, Céírde addressed the group.
“I know I said I would teach Croí and Sable, but does anybody else want to learn Common?” We glanced around.
“We all should. It will be useful for us later.” Keokin said. Céírde smiled and we gathered around her. She passed out papers and pencils for all of us, and we started learning the twenty-six letters of the Common alphabet.
“How do you spell my name?” Sable asked, after reaching the letter ‘G’.
“Finish your alphabet first, then I’ll tell you.” Céírde said. Sable was silent until she reached ‘P’.
“How do you spell voluptuous?” Sable asked. Céírde sighed with a small smile, but before she could reply, Flint piped in.
“How do you spell arse? Or gobshite? Or…” Klintock slapped the back of his head.
“Finish your alphabet, then we can start on forming words. Common is a deceptively complicated language. I assure you though, we will get to it after the basics.” Sable and Flint nodded. Sable got to ‘V’ when she took a breath, about to ask something. Céírde looked at her with a raised eyebrow, and Sable pressed her lips together and finished.
When we were done with our lessons for the night, we put everything away and headed off to some much-deserved sleep.