Panic began to set in on Callum as he watched Firrol walking towards him. All the boys in the village had wrestled and play fought from time to time. It very rarely escalated into something more than playful competition. Callum knew, just by looking at Firrol, this was one of those times.
Callum was strong, but in terms of brute strength he was no match for Firrol. He was an apprentice to his father and was comfortable swinging heavy hammers from sun up to sun down. On top of this, his father insisted on training daily in combat, using all of the different weapons and tools that they forged. Firric, was the only person in the village that could be considered a warrior and he worked hard to pass his skills to both of his children.
On the other hand the only fighting experience Callum had was from he and Wenrys wrestling and pretend sword fights using sticks. But Callum was fast. Firrol was known as the strongest in the village but he could never best Callum in competitions of speed and agility. He knew this was his only hope of making out of the fight.
As Firrol approached, Callum raised his fists and took on his best impression of a fighting stance.
Callum was focusing intensely on Firrol and suddenly noticed a twitch on his left side. It was subtle but it was just enough that Callum was prepared to duck as Firrol's left fist swung at his head.
Callum raised back up, realizing that he had successfully dodged the strike. "Hey, this isn't so ba-"
Before he could finish his sentence, Firrol had whipped his right leg and connected cleanly into Callum's left rib cage. Callum nearly collapsed from the blow.
Firrol laughed, "C'mon Callum, did you really think you only had to dodge a single punch?" He followed his statement with a flurry of punches and kicks, each landing on their target with full force.
"What the hell Firrol! Was all that necessary? Callum, are you ok? Get up Callum!"
Callum could hear Wenrys yelling. His vision was fuzzy but the world was slowly coming back into focus. He was suddenly aware of his head resting on the cold, hard ground. He sat up, rubbed his face with his forearm, when he looked at his arm it was covered in warm, red blood. For some reason the sight of the blood gave him a renewed energy.
"Had enough orphan boy?" Firrol taunted.
A smile crept across Callums bloodied face as he rose to his feet. "Actually, I think I'm getting the hang of this."
In a flash Callum covered the distance between them. He glimpsed the look on Firrols face for a brief moment. "Is he afraid?" He thought.
Callum feinted with a left kick that threw Firrol off balance, then, at the perfect moment he threw a hooking punch with his right fist that struck the side of Firrol's face.
Firrol's nose was sticking out at a strange angle. Blood was pouring out of it.
"Not bad." He said. "But not enough to beat me."
Suddenly the boys were clashing again. Back and forth they went, trading blows the whole time, neither able to gain on the other.
"Where did this come from Callum? I never thought that in a million years you could stand toe to toe with Firrol." Wenrys thought to himself. "Has this always been inside you?"
The boys were standing apart from each other, both bloodied and trying to catch their breath.
"Give up already. You're not going to impress my sister by getting yourself killed." Firrol smirked.
Callum looked up in time to see Raela roll her eyes, but he also thought he noticed her blushing slightly.
"It's got nothing to do with her. I'm not as needy as you, sheep poker."
Firrol was filled with rage. He looked down and picked up a thick wooden branch by his feet.
"You may know how to punch, let's see if you can block."
In an instant Firrol was swinging the stick like a true swordsman. Each blow stronger than the next. Callum was completely overwhelmed. All he could do was raise his arms over his head and walk backwards to try to get away from the blows.
"That's enough Firrol! You're going to hurt him!" Raela screamed at her brother. She was no longer able to hide her concern.
Firrol was not responding. The expression on his face was like an animal as he swung the weapon and forced Callum to the ground.
Wenrys rushed forward, hoping to be able to stop the onslaught that his friend was enduring, but he could tell he wouldn't make it in time. "Stop! Please stop!"
Callum looked up to see Firrol raising his makeshift weapon above his head. He could see a menacing snarl on his face and he knew there was nothing he could say to stop him from swinging down into his face, so he did the only thing he could think of. He raised his left arm to his face just as the stick came down.
*Snap*