When I finished exercising, I glanced over at the fox. He was still happily up his favourite tree. I tried to take a few, deep breaths to slow down my breathing.
I looked at David. He'd finished the eggs and put the lid back on the container.
Now, he was lying back in the grass with his arms up and hands cradling the back of his head. He looked particularly carefree, I noted.
Turning away to ignore both David and the fox, I closed my eyes. I put my arms out on either side of my body and pulled from the air around me the energy I needed.
That energy came from the water in the air. It was a very humid day, and it would be easiest to get the energy from that source. Plus, with less humidity, the summer heat would be more bearable.
I opened my eyes and walked closer to the edge of the clearing. I was ready to create my practice dummies. As I worked my spell, I could hear David talking.
"What is going on with the weather? The air feels much drier all of a sudden. It was all humid and muggy before."
Finishing my spell, I answered him.
"That's because I took the water out of the air. I needed its energy to create these.". I waved my hand towards the practice dummies.
David's eyebrows went up towards his hairline.
"Interesting.", he muttered.
He spoke again a moment later. "So, what's with the dummies? Is that some enemy of yours or something? Isn't he a little young?"
I laughed. "No. Actually, it's the image of my younger brother, as I last saw him. He was my biggest motivator. He always wants me to do my best and improve myself. Although, I am sure he looks more grown up now."
"Ah!", David said.
I took a deep breath and then leaped into action. After I took down the dummies in the first round, I carefully reset them in a different order.
"Very nice.", praised David. "Just as impressive as the first time I saw your skills at The Red Goblet."
I felt a light flush come to my cheeks.
"No. That was different."
"Different how?"
"Well, this is practice, and that was actual combat. This is practice of fight moves, and that was the traditional dance fighting of my people. Now, I am alone, and then, I could feel the presence of the Great Goddess of All."
"Don't you get tired of fighting all those dummies?"
"What do you mean?", I asked slowly.
"I mean don't you miss fighting practice with real people?"
'That is what I thought you meant.', I thought to myself.
My thoughts travelled back down through my memories. I had trained with teachers, with family and with others my own age from my village. I also remembered observing others' fighting skills during their practice.
As a little girl, I saw my older brothers practice together. My eldest brother often acted as the instructor. I have six older brothers.
Sometimes, while I sat in the shade and observed, my mother would let me hold my baby brother. As I held him, I would talk to him, pointing out each of our brothers and narrating to him what was going on.
I smiled as I thought about his little face, so serious and intently listening to every word I said, gurgling his baby talk to me in reply.
"…Sinead?", I heard David ask me.
"Huh? What?"
"I asked…"
"Oh, that's right. You asked if I missed fighting practice with real people instead of dummies. Yes, I do. Working with reactive targets instead of static targets is more real to life."
"Well, then", David said getting to his feet and stretching. "You're lucky to have me around."
I laughed. "You want to do training with me?"
"Isn't that what I said?", he replied as he walked towards me.
I raised my hand to undo the dummies but then stopped. It was better to leave them. It would add another level of difficulty.
"Whenever you're ready.", I warned him.
With a lopsided grin, he ran at me. I dogged him, taking down one of the dummies in the process. He turned suddenly, sizing me up. I knew that he knew what the game was.
A smug smile on my face, I charged him. He feigned jumping back and threw a punch at me. I blocked his punch and kicked at his shin. David jumped up in the air, so that my kick missed. I did an attack combo and only one of my punches landed.
Since we were just practicing, I was careful about my attacks. I didn't use any magic. Even though I didn't think my strength was enough to really injure David, I still tried not to punch him too hard.
We fought for about half an hour until I got clumsy and tripped over a root hidden in the grass near the edge of the clearing. David took advantage of my slowness to respond to the fall and pinned me. But, on the up side, I had taken down all the dummies first.
'Hmm.', I thought.
Now that I'd seen what David was capable of, I thought I'd ask him for another round. I wondered what his limits would be.
David backed off and then offered me a hand up. I took it, and letting go of his hand asked, "Are you ready for another round? I won't go easy on you this time."
He looked surprised.
"Easy?", he asked.
I gave him no reaction.
"All right, let's go!"
In the second round, I did my best. I could tell that David wasn't taking it easy either. After ten minutes, I could feel the sweat running down my face and back. At the fifteen-minute mark, I could hear the huffing of my breath.
At a quick speed, faster than that capable for humans, David, and I attacked and blocked attacks. The two of us we so absorbed in our combat, that the passage of time went unnoticed.
Finally, by planning four steps ahead, I pinned David. He landed on his back in the grass with me sitting on his stomach.
"Good match.", I said to him.
I was very out of breath. I never realized before how much I relied on my magic when in real hand to hand combat. Magic could easily sustain my energy level and stamina.
"Good match,", agreed David with a grin.
I slid to the left to sit in the grass beside him. As I slowed my breath, I began to stretch out my tired muscles.
"That was good. I liked it,", I told him. "It really is nice to have a sparring partner."
David chuckled.
"Maybe I should meet you here every day?", he suggested in a playful manner.
"But maybe the alpha of a pack has more important things to do besides spar with me every morning."
David opened his mouth to reply, then shut it. Hardly audible, floating along with the morning breeze came the faint sound of a musical tune.
I listened for a moment, puzzled. Then I realized it was most likely a ring tone.
"I got to go grab my cell phone.", David said as he sprinted in the direction of the noise.
I finished my stretching and went to my bag to fetch my water bottle. I chugged some of it. By the time I finished double checking I had all my things in the bag, David returned.
"Hey. Sorry about that. I have to leave, there's something I have to go sort out."
"Hey, no problem. I should get going too. I have plans for later this morning."
For a second, David's eyebrows rose. I almost missed the expression before he changed his face back to neutral.
"Well then, I will bid you farewell, Sinead.", he said with a slight bow, before he walked off into the forest.
I stood there with my mouth open. David knew that I didn't like him to bow to me. But he had such a mischievous grin on his face while he did so.
'The dumb idiot is playing with me. I am not going to give in to his teasing!', I thought to myself.
I wouldn't stay miffed for long, though. I had many other things to think about. It occurred to me to call my roommate for a ride home, but I decided against it.
I'd rather let her sleep. Besides, for some reason, I felt it would be better just to walk home.
As I stood there, I felt a small body brush against my leg. I looked down to see the fox. I smiled and patted his head.
"It's time to go. Looks like you are ready to go back, right?"
As the fox walked towards the path, I laughed and hurried to catch up with him. While we walked together, I asked him, "What did you think of that sparring battle? Did I do good? Did you think I could take him?"
The fox sounded like he was laughing as he pranced along the path.