Learning from Experience I

Character sheet · by **Lenz** on March 12th, 2014, 5:22 pm

21st of Spring, 514 AV
Dragoon Training Grounds

Her mind was dead set on vengeance. Revenge filled her emotions to the brim. She was enraged, yet completely at peace. She knew what she needed to do. She had planned everything out. The woman was going to learn how to fight.

Her hair was ratty, worn and greasy looking. Her eyes were dark and the bags that rested underneath them were heavy and ugly. Her entire body ached as she walked.

She continued to walk, her eyes never wavering from the line she placed each of her feet on. She didn't traipse, she didn't jog. In a way, she almost strutted the entire time she walked down the street.

No thoughts rambled inside her mind. She knew what she was going to do and she knew how she was going to do it. She brought money, she knew how to beg somewhat. She knew what she was planning on doing.

She was going to learn how to fight. Firstly, she knew how she was going to defend herself a little better. She wanted to bear the knowledge of how she was going to react to being taken off guard.

She didn't want to be taken advantage of any longer. She was ready to be in control of her life no matter what it took. She wanted to not only protect herself but those she loved.

With a face as hard as rock, she proceeded to broaden her knowledge in the arts of self defense and offense.

She woke up to the sound of birds and their blissful voices singing out to the brightness of the morning sun. In no way was Lenz feeling bright and cheery. She felt rather melancholy, her head throbbing near the temples and her nose stinging so bad that it made her start to cry.

She couldn’t recall how she wound up inside the tent last night. Her memory fled her when it was needed most. It didn’t bother a whole lot, though. It didn’t haunt her or hang over her shoulder like she had told a lie. It wasn’t like her past was creeping up on her again, its malevolent claws extended and grimace brighter than ever.

She made sure she was able to move. This was her first fear, not being able to move, becoming paralyzed for whatever reason had caused her to hurt so much this morning. The first question that popped into her head echoed. What happened last night?

She felt dirty, like she was a perversion of a woman. Images of prostitutes trampled into her mind, rejecting anything positive or optimistic. Finally her memories no longer fleeted. They retreated back into her brain, stunning her heart into skipping a beat.

Had she really done that? Had she really tried to seduce a man in gruesome and slutty ways only to try to steal his money? And in the end, she could recognize a fist as it hammered into her face, jaw and eventually, her nose.

She touched it with tender fingers and quickly retracted them when a burning sensation spread across her cheeks. She squinted, tears forcing themselves to the surface, readying themselves for a time of freedom.

She wouldn’t dare look at how bad it was. She was going to pretend like nothing had ever happened. Hopefully she would be able to sneak out of the tent before Ipisol woke up and return after she had fallen asleep.

Sitting up, the woman went to turn and grab her coat when crystal blue eyes locked onto hers. They were wide and watery, concern bubbling up inside and threatening to spill out in the form of salty drops.

“What happened to you?” she asked, choking on her words as she said them.

Lenz sighed and brushed her hair behind her ears, in turn revealing more damaged skin. Bruises littered her face. One was incidentally placed over her right eye. Thankfully, she was able to see partially out of it, for it had healed quite a lot overnight. Her nose must have looked deformed, distorted, bloody and broken. Her lip must have appeared slit, cut, ripped into two pieces. She wouldn’t have guessed who she was if she didn’t know already.

She sighed again and tried to conjure up a false scenario in her mind, but to no avail. She had to tell the truth, besides, what else would be believable? She was mauled by a wild animal? That incident had almost happened already. She tripped and fell on her face? How fake could someone get if that was their back up story?

Finally she came clean, starting to bite her lip before pain shot through her mouth, reverberating throughout her tongue and into the cavities of her teeth.

“I got myself into some trouble,” she said, beginning to play with her fingers. They two were a little damaged. She couldn’t remember when she had lost a nail or why one was a little bloody.

“What do you mean?” the child inquired, leaning in with a face contorted into a mask of empathy and sorrow. She was so worried, but that is not what a little girl should feel. Those should be the emotions portrayed by a guardian, an adult, not a child.

“Tell me,” she pressured, giving Lenz no alternative to back out. She didn’t even suggest a compromise. She decided to start from the beginning, telling the story as if it was happening to her all over again.

“I don’t want to tell you, but you leave me no choice,” she said, shifting her position on the bedroll she sat on so that she felt more comfortable. “Do you remember last night?” she asked?

Ipisol nodded her head frantically, her eyes still bulging, as if daring to pop out of her eye sockets. Morbid and deranged thought, Lenz agreed.

“Last night I went out, as I had told you. I was walking, determined to enjoy myself. You see, I wanted to have a personal night, one where I could feel like a teenager again. I wanted to enjoy myself and have a few drinks, maybe even make some new friends.”

As the woman told the story, she began to feel foolish. It was silly of her to think that in such a city as Sunberth she would be accompanied by trustworthy friends. Everyone was using everyone else. There was no trust, there was no honesty. Everything was a façade, a fable, a falsified view of reality.

It was all fake, fallible and unjust.

“I saw a bonfire off in the distance. You see, I had heard of the slag heap parties happening around this time in the season. They usually host these parties over there. So I went, feeling ignorant and free of all worry, or so I thought. It wasn’t until I met this man that things began to turn for the worse.”

Ipisol gasped all of the sudden, pointing to her guardian’s face. Instinctively, Lenz brought her hand up to her nose, and prodded gently around the area, expecting to find blood gushing out of her nostrils and down her chin, staining the clothing she wore, which wasn’t as clean as she originally thought.

“What?” she asked, fearing for the worst.

Ipisol shook her head from side to side. “Nothing,” she said. “I just didn’t see your tongue until you started talking.”

Lenz rolled her eyes back in her head. Of course. She must have bitten her tongue during the struggle. The result of her jaw clenching and sudden punches to her face would no doubt cause her to rip the edges of her tongue to shreds. No wonder it was painful every time she tried to enunciate her words.

“That too,” she added, pointing to her mouth.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Lenz said reassuringly. “It certainly wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know.”

She laid her hand on the child’s forearm and started to massage it. She worked her finger tips into the girl’s flesh. She poked at it and made sure that she could feel her bone under her finger nails. She was tentative and very gentle, making sure that she wouldn’t hurt the girl.

She was rewarded with a smile as Ipisol closed her eyes and enjoyed the relaxing comfort. Lenz continued to knead her arm, cutting her attention in half, twice. One part of her was concentrating on one arm, another part was concentrating on the other. Another part made sure to continue to tell the story where the last part continued to watch the child’s reactions.

She was loving it as the woman pressed her knuckles into her wrist and inner elbow. She quickly became envious, for why couldn’t she be massaged right now? She was the one who needed it far more than she did!

As if by reading her thoughts, Ipisol opened her eyes and swatted her hand again, moving over to start to dig her fingertips into Lenz’s shoulders. It felt much better than she would have believed. She even absentmindedly let out an embarrassing groan.

“Go on,” Ipisol urged, continuing with her therapeutic work.

So she went ahead and started again. There was much to say, so she just let it spill out in one thick stream.

Character sheet · by **Lenz** on March 12th, 2014, 10:21 pm

21st of Spring, 514 AV
Dragoon Training Grounds

“As I have told you before, there was this man. He walked up to me before I burnt myself-“

“You burnt yourself too?” Ipisol interrupted.

“Why, yes. I guess I did.” Flustered, she went to check her leg, lifting up her pant leg to observe how it looked the next day.

It was a little pussy, still red and raw. She didn’t dare touch it, and instead simply pushed down her pant leg to cover it up. It didn’t look infected, nor did it look like it was going to leave such a terrible scar. She wasn’t admitting it looked fine and that it would heal on its own in no time, just that it wasn’t of big concern.

“I didn’t-“

She didn’t care if Ipisol didn’t get to see it. She didn’t want her to. She was already as unappealing on the surface to scare someone as it was. She didn’t need someone to inspect under her clothes to see what other bad things lay hidden beneath.

“That isn’t the point.” Her words exited her mouth more sternly than she would have liked. She instantly wished she could take back the harshness that filled her tone, but alas, she had already said it like she did.

Thankfully, the child didn’t seem to mind, if at all heard what she said or how she said it. So, Lenz continued.

“He was kind at first. He had this amazing accent. It was very unique and genuine. I was sure he wasn’t playing a trick on me. It was too good to be fake. Anyways, he offered me a drink. He was there hanging out with his buddies by the fire and thought that it wasn’t such a bad idea, so I obliged.”

“You drank with them?”

“I did.”

“That’s stupid.”

“Ipisol,” she said, her nerves grating against the very thin lining they were pushed up against. “Please stop interrupting me. I’m telling you a story alright? Do you want to hear it or not?”

Ipisol quieted, nodding her head, wanting, pleading, begging for more.

“Okay,” she sighed before starting again. “He offered me a drink like I said, and I took it. I started to hang out with them, easily becoming mesmerized by both his voice and the fire I stared at. I don’t know what came over me, but when he offered me another drink I gulped it down.”

She shifted positions again, her mind reeling with flashbacks. She wasn’t sure she wanted to continue, but she did anyways. She had already started, and wasn’t about to stop now. It might have been suspenseful to the child, but it was more so for her. She had lived it, endured it and managed to escape in the end with her life still intact, her body… well… not so much.

“The music was wonderful, the dancers were energetic and passionate. I think it was alcohol, but I don’t know. I began to lose it. I closed in on the man and started to kiss him.”

There was a squeal from the audience and a noticeable ‘yuck’ said in a high voice, but Ipisol was all the more interested. She was leaning in on her hands and knees, almost quivering in anticipation. Lenz was just getting started.

“I kissed him and gave him what any man wants,” she said, making sure to leave out the inappropriate parts. She was mentioning all of the to a child after all. “Finally I took it upon myself to do something very bad.”

“What did you do?”

Lenz remained silence, edging the story on with a cliff hanger. She sat back slightly and closed her eyes, images playing quietly in her head like a bad dream. She couldn’t wake up from it no matter how hard she tried. It wouldn’t work.

“What did you do?”

She saw it play out before her as if she were witnessing a play depicting her life as she knew it. She saw her hand reach into his pocket. She observed her kissing the top of her shoulder. She visualized standing up and taking off running with a wallet in her hands, yet she could not wake up. She couldn’t even open her eyes, let alone move.

“What did you do!” Ipisol shouted, finally releasing Lenz from her restrained state. Chains no longer secured her in one place. She was no longer being strangled by hands or hung by rope. She was free.

And she said only four, simple words.

“I stole his money.”

Character sheet · by **Lenz** on March 12th, 2014, 10:41 pm

21st of Spring, 514 AV
Dragoon Training Grounds

The words lingered in the air like a bad stench. The two waited it out, hoping that it wouldn’t drag on forever. The silence was unbearable. When neither of the females spoke, Lenz decided she would continue with her story, incorporating every little detail that remained important. And appropriate.

“I stole his money and ran. I was only using him, just like everyone else in this gods forsaken city. I’m being corrupt, Ips, and I hate it. Please, don’t you ever do something like this when you’re older. No matter how your life is, don’t steal from, hurt or even kill people.”

She didn’t even wait for a response. She just assumed it would be a good one. Too involved in the tale, the woman went ahead, rushing through as if she already knew the ending and wanted to get to it so that it would all be over. Truth be told, this was the actual issue.

“I kept running. I ran and ran and ran until I was out a breath. I got lost, you see and that was when I let my guard down. I stopped running for a little bit so that I could get my bearings. This is when one of the man’s friends came around a corner and threw me off my balance.”

Ipisol gasped, but remained silence otherwise. No inquiries or interjections left those thin, chapped lips of hers.

“His hands were so big as they grabbed her arm. They threw her to the ground and kept her from squirming out their hold. Another man came to help restrain her, leaving the man she stole from the do the dastardly deed of teaching her a brutal and violent lesson.”

She hadn’t even realised she had switched from first person to third person. It was habitual instinct to her she guessed. No one wants to admit that something as terrible as this story happened to them. It was just common sense to make up someone else and let it happen to them instead.

Either way, it was in the past. She was rambling on now, trampling through the words and the sentences and the events as if they were nothing but dirt and dust underneath her old shoes.

“The man she had stolen from started to punch her and smash her face. He slapped her and clawed at her cheeks until she was bleeding. When all was done and after he had walked away, she just lay there sobbing, yet quiet, waiting for her to either pass out or die. At the time she wished it to be the latter, but obviously, she’s still around today.”

“I’m so sorry,” the child whispered, her voice coming out in a feint whisper.

“It was the heat of the moment, Ipisol. This has nothing to do with you. Do you see now why I wanted you to stay here whilst I went outside?”

She nodded her head, admitting she was wrong when they had had such an angry and double sided argument the night of the incident.

“She finally mustered up enough strength to sit up. She had suffered a black eye, a bloody lip, a broken nose and now, she realises, a bitten tongue. Her face bears bruises of various shapes and sizes to this day and cuts of many different lengths.”

“The end,” she coughed, standing up quickly and brushing off her pants.

“That’s it?” asked her audience.

“Yes,” Lenz replied.

“There is nothing more?”

She shook her head, no.

“Where are you going now?”

“I need to right my wrongs. I need to make it up to myself. I need to improve my ability to defend myself and fight for my life. In a city like this you’ll need to learn how to do that, Ips. I won’t be able to do it for you forever. Someday I will teach you, but before I can teach you, I must learn how to do it myself. That is where I am going now.”

“Where is that?”

My, the girl would not stop asking questions today. She didn’t mind, though. She understood that she must be very confused, wondering where her guardian was running off to after such a terrible and horrifying story of grotesque detail.

“I am going to this place called the Dragoon Training Grounds to try to enhance my skills in unarmed combat.”

“Can I come?”

A simple, cold, hard stare was enough to tell the child no. It was loud and clear, cutting through ice with a blade of indestructible steel.

“I’ll be back.”

“You better not look like rubbish this time.”

Lenz stifled a chuckle and continued to glare at her before slipping on her shoes and heading out the door. Oh boy, she had no idea.

Character sheet · by **Lenz** on March 13th, 2014, 1:51 am

21st of Spring, 514 AV
Dragoon Training Grounds

Her mind was dead set on vengeance. Revenge filled her emotions to the brim. She was enraged, yet completely at peace. She knew what she needed to do. She had planned everything out. The woman was going to learn how to fight.

Her hair was ratty, worn and greasy looking. Her eyes were dark and the bags that rested underneath them were heavy and ugly. Her entire body ached as she walked.

She continued to walk, her eyes never wavering from the line she placed each of her feet on. She didn't traipse, she didn't jog. In a way, she almost strutted the entire time she walked down the street.

No thoughts rambled inside her mind. She knew what she was going to do and she knew how she was going to do it. She brought money, she knew how to beg somewhat. She knew what she was planning on doing.

She was going to learn how to fight. Firstly, she knew how she was going to defend herself a little better. She wanted to bear the knowledge of how she was going to react to being taken off guard.

She didn't want to be taken advantage of any longer. She was ready to be in control of her life no matter what it took. She wanted to not only protect herself but those she loved.

With a face as hard as stone, she proceeded to broaden her knowledge in the arts of self-defense and offense no matter how hard it would be.

She remembered to quickly grab a few mizas and stuff them inside her coat pocket before leaving the tent. She also remembered to zip the tent’s door back up so that neither the cold nor any strangers could get in without being noticed.

She was walking as had been fore mention in the woman’s subconscious. She knew where she was going, because she had walked past the location before. However, her mind was elsewhere. It was floating high up, touching the sky and petting the clouds with cold fingertips.

Finally she had wound through town, passing random strangers, lost newcomers and busy locals. She had gone down pathway after pathway, street after street before taking notice of the Dragoon Training Grounds.

She had heard a lot about the Dragoon Training Grounds from various whispers and gossiping mouths throughout town. She wasn’t normally an eavesdropper, but sometimes it was the only thing you could do when hushed tones follow you as you walk.

As she walked closer, she noticed the that the training grounds lied nestled in a large courtyard. It was inside the gated community, the inner courtyard connected to the various training rooms. Multiple dummies of different sizes littered the ground. Other equipment like standing weights, archery stands and wooden posts used as targets were strewn about the courtyard as well.

One day, she could recall, her ears had picked up on the mutters saying that the training ground’s denizens are constantly reminded of the Dragoon's supreme authority on the grounds. She needed authority, someone who knew what they were doing and how to do it. However, she had also heard that outsiders were always looked at strangely, the regulars often wary of their presence.

Hopefully, Lenz thought. They won’t mind me. I’ll just slip in unnoticed.

Once she was finally inside, she trotted straight to the person she thought held more responsibility. The figure head of the whole operation was bound to tell her who she could meet with to train.

She wasn’t necessarily a newbie to the whole operation of unarmed combat, but she didn’t know everything. She wanted more. She craved more knowledge, more enticing ideas on how to both defend herself and offend her assailants.

Suddenly, Lenz remembered something important. Her dagger! Had she forgotten it back at the tent? The weapon was essential to broadening her intelligence on how to handle such a tool. If she didn’t have it then unarmed combat would be the only thing she would be able to be taught.

Frowning and pouting all at the same time, the woman almost started to stomp as if she were a toddler giving a temper tantrum. Something heavy shifted its weight in one of her pockets, however. The pocket she hadn’t stashed the currency in intrigued her. She stuck her hand in to find something sharp biting back. Pulling it out, she revealed her dagger, its sharp blade twinkling in the morning sunlight.

“Yes,” she cheered, replacing her frown with a smile. The creases in between her brows vanished as quickly as they had appeared. Her spirits were heightened again as she continued to press on.

A man who appeared of middle age caught Lenz’s attention. He was assisting another person with the proper techniques of stance. She couldn’t help but let her eyes reside on the two. She watched intently, her concentration avidly taking in each and every movement.

The man taught his student how to throw a proper punch. She watched as her demonstrated, putting his closed fist on his waist line so that it was facing upwards. He breathed slowly before thrusting it out, turning it up right again.

“Brilliant,” she breathed, a smirk toying with her upper lip.

“Can I help you with something?”

She hadn’t even realised the man had stopped teaching his pupil and had walked over to her. He was standing in front of her now, a curious expression stuck to his face as if it had been melted there.

“Y-yes,” she stuttered before clearing her throat and gaining an adamant amount of courage. “I am looking to be trained in the ways of the dagger and the unarmed.”

The man merely smiled and motion with his hand for Lenz to follow.

So she did.

Character sheet · by **Lenz** on March 13th, 2014, 11:49 pm

21st of Spring, 514 AV
Dragoon Training Grounds

He didn’t walk far before turning to face her. He held out his hand, his smile dropping for a split second. Lenz knew what he wanted. He was demanding penance in exchange for his teachings. She obliged, reaching into her pocket to withdraw one golden miza.

“That’ll work,” he said, stuffing the coin into his own pocket. One day being trained at a novice level was only worth one golden miza. Lenz was willing to part with one simple coin if it meant she could better protect herself or others from harm.

“Tell me,” he said, his breath smelling like rubbish, or horse feces.

“Tell you what?” she asked, perplexed.

“Tell me what you wish to learn and I shall try my best to teach you,” he said laconically, placing his hand on his hip, patience draining from his disposition.

“I wish to learn in the ways of unarmed combat, so that I can protect myself and others better than I already can. I also wish to enhance my little knowledge in the art of the dagger. I see you’re a virtuoso in the unarmed, but are you in using a weapon such as a dagger?”

Lenz revealed the sharp blade slowly as to not startle him. He raised an eyebrow whether because he found her gesture comical or just because he was truly intrigued.

“I know a little about the dagger, but my, you have to ask me about the unarmed?”

Lenz felt overwhelmed with effrontery. Of course he knew how to fight, for why else would he be working as an instructor at such a place as the Dragoon Training Grounds?

She wasn’t aspiring to become a deleterious person, but she didn’t want to see herself being taken advantage of every again. She didn’t want her conscious to be condemned by the evil spirits of selfishness and absolute despot, but she wanted to be able to handle things when the going got tough.

This was her only option, for how else would be figure out how to fight? No one else could teach her let alone would teach her. No one was willing to do anything for anyone without an incredible amount of money in exchange for what they knew. Lenz only had to pay a golden miza for today and she already had high hopes that this man would be kind and gentle and very understanding of her current predicament.

“You have a nasty look about you, don’t you?” he asked, leading her yet again. They walked past a few other training individuals and an instructor who was yelling at them to do better.

Sweat dripped down one man’s face, the other man had blood seeping out of the corner of his mouth. The woman’s head twisted around as she strained to continue watching the two fight one another. She hoped she wouldn’t have to fight against anyone, or else she would surly lose.

Taken aback, the first words that popped into her mouth were rather repulsive. “What do you care?”

The man remained unphased as he continued to lead Lenz to the back of the courtyard where a training dummy was already propped up to her disposal. She was desiring to tear that thing apart, her emotions hanging on a last strand of solitude.

“Hold up,” he said. “I didn’t mean about how you look, although it looks like you were in a fight and lost.” He chuckled. Lenz blushed conspicuously. “I meant in your eyes.”

“What about them?”

“They hold something sinister.”

Something sinister was indeed hidden in the depths of her pupils. It was revolting and disgusting, screaming for release. It wanted to be drained in thick waves of dark cruelty. It was festering inside her, feeding on the only things that were still holding her together, keeping her sane.

“Yes.”

“Yes?” he asked. The two finally stopped their slow gait. She was now face to face with the dummy. It stared at her without eyes. It was chilling and almost as sinister as she was described as not moments ago.

“Yes, I was in a fight,” she corrected.

“I see.”

“A man tried to hurt me, after I had taken his things,” she explained.

“They usually do that,” he pointed out, a smirk brimming the edge of his mouth. For some reason this infuriated the girl. She wanted to thrash about and obliterate any object that came in her path, and this so happened to be the dummy that stood in front of her. It’s empty mask taunting her with every unsaid word.

“I was unable to defend myself, because I was taken by surprise.”

“Were you? Or were you just too weak?”

What was this man trying to do? Cause the volcano that bubbled up inside her to erupt in a fountain of harsh rage and boiling lava? Was he trying to break her into a thousand screaming pieces like a tsunami crashing into glass? Why was he prodding around in her business, pushing her buttons and hoping something would snap?

“What are you doing?” she finally inquired, her face now resembling a cherry.

“I’m trying to get you to show me your dark side. You’re good at keeping it inside you, but that isn’t good. You’ll burst, you’ll spill and sometimes you’ll take it out on people or things that don’t deserve it.”

“No one deserves it,” she countered, a frown causing a crease to form in between her eyebrows.

“Perhaps not,” he said, gesturing toward the dummy. “But this guy won’t mine if you rough him up a bit.” He coughed into his hand, hoping to trigger something from his new pupil.

“Give it a shot. He won’t bite.”

No longer tentative, more susceptible to her violent side now, she raised a fist and thrust it into the dummies face.

Let the training begin!

Character sheet · by **Lenz** on March 14th, 2014, 12:06 am

21st of Spring, 514 AV
Dragoon Training Ground

“That’s what you call a punch?” he said, stifling a laugh that managed to evade the barricade. Her face heated up again only this time she felt like a despondent wench.

She was acting foolish. Of course she knew how to punch. She had knowledge in the areas of unarmed combat. She knew what the basic techniques were and how to use them to her advantage. So why was she acting like such a newcomer? A child playing around with a toy could describe what she was doing right now.

“I’m sorry,” she apologised, straightening herself up and going back into the correct stance.

She placed her right foot in front and her left foot in back. She bent her right knee and straightened her back leg. She placed her left hand, curled tightly into a fist, on her waist line so that it was facing upwards like she had seen someone do before. She then let it fly off her belt and into the dummy.

It wasn’t as soft as she had initially anticipated. It hurt her hand a little bit as she hit it, but it was nothing to the feeling of being slammed in the face by a fist resembling much like iron or steel. She walked it off, trying to divert her attention elsewhere.

“Not bad,” said her instructor. She tried to recall what his name was. She had heard it somewhere before. Was it Jack? No, that didn’t sound right. Perhaps it was Max? Suddenly the two names meshed together to form the name Mac. Of course! That is what his name was.

“You have the proper form down, but it’s basic. I will teach you a few more advanced techniques today. They will be easy enough for a novice to do as what I assumed you were.”

Lenz nodded.

“Watch me,” Mac said, demonstrating a new stance for her.

He applied more pressure to his left foot which was placed behind his right. He was leaning backwards, his front knee bent at a ninety degree angle. He held up his hands so that they were open, this fingers squeezing together to prevent breakage of any kind.

Lenz copied him. She watched him out of the corner of her eye and did exactly as instructed. She placed her left foot backward, because her left was more dominant than her right, and put her right I front, making sure to bend it slightly so that it matched Mac’s.

She put her hands up but forgot to open them. She held them as fists, a scowl already tainting her usually elated mood.

“No,” the man said, coming over to adjust her position. He forced her back leg to part from her front a little. Her stance was widened and he made sure to correct her hands. He opened her fists so that her palms were parallel to her body.

“This is so you can have full range of motion. If you need to close them, you can close them, but if you need to slap someone or grab something, they are open for you to do just that.”

It was incredible how much she understood what he was saying. If her hands would have been open the night of the incident, she would have broken her fall or pushed away the masculine arms that saved her from busting her nose, which ironically became broken in the end.

“Now I want you to kick.”

“Kick?”

“I want you to kick that dummy as hard as you can and as high as you can without losing your balance or else this stance remains pointless for you to use in the future. If you cannot maintain your balance on one leg, then we will need to practice this until you do.”

Her eyes grew wide. She knew something about balance and she most certainly didn’t want to practice on having balance alone. Hastily, but with an ear open and an eye targeted on the dummy, she put more pressure on her back foot and raised her front foot.

She stretched out her leg until it almost made a snapping sound from the way her pants struck her flesh. The ball of her foot made contact with the dummy, a solid sound reverberating up her calf and into her lower gut.

She brought it back and held it in front of her, showing off like the child she was. She craved recognition, praise for a job well done. However, she wasn’t treated as she had hoped.

“That was alright,” Mac said sternly. He was a good teacher after all and didn’t pay attention to individuals who sought out rewards for doing something as simple as kicking a bag.

“I think you have that down somewhat that we can move on to the next technique.”

“Which is?” Lenz rushed on, eager to learn more. She only had the rest of the day, after all.

“Which is what I like to call the horse stance and the side kick,” he announced, his face beaming with brilliance, a smile pinned to his lips.

I wonder what that is, the woman thought as she found her regular standing position. She made sure her feet were shoulder width apart before bracing for the next tactic.

“Let us begin.”

She nodded her head.

To be continued...