Fledgling
Page 18
Chapter Seventeen
The next morning, she stood in the center of a new training ring. The clouds hung in the sky, blocking out the sun, and it was cold. Still, she had promised she would train today. Austin held the wooden sword, testing the weight. It still felt alien in her hands, but it wasn’t as impossible to hold.
She stared at the figure in front of her, a makeshift dummy made of cloth and flour.
“Hit the torso,” Aiden barked from behind her. She did, and he added, “No, no. Not like that. Slash, don’t stab. Slash.”
She slashed and the edge of the sword dragged on the cloth. Without waiting for another command, she did it again, this time faster.
“Arm,” he said. She swiped at the arm, fraying the worn fabric. Her arms were already sore, but when she saw one of the bystanders, an old mentor, nod in encouragement, it was worth it.
“Torso.”
“Arm.”
“Leg.”
“Torso.”
“Me.”
She followed his order automatically, spinning around with her sword already outstretched. She swung towards her mentor as fast as she could. She felt impact.
He blocked her with his bare forearm, “Harder. That felt like I was getting hit with a pillow.”
“What kind of pillows do you use?” she grumbled, swinging at him again with more force. He stepped out of her way and she stumbled forwards.
“Arm.”
She tried, but he twisted out of her way. She swung again, and again she missed.
“Low.”
She swung low, and he jumped back, his sneakers landing on the dying grass without a sound, “Legs again.”
She whipped her hair out of her face and, purposely disobeying, swung high. She caught him off guard and her sword slashed at his shirt. She felt it rake against something extra, like an undershirt. Or a bandage.
“Oh god,” she remembered how torn up his chest had been yesterday, “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he tugged at the dark shirt, separating it from the skin, “That was good. Would you mind if we took a five minute break for me to redo these bandages?”
She nodded and tossed the pack of bandages at him, something she had remembered to bring along. The old mentor from before, the one who had offered silent encouragement, waved at her.
“You are Austin, yes?” the man asked once she had walked over to him, “The storyteller’s assistant?”
“Is that what I’m known for?” she asked, a smile on her face. At least no one knew her as The Girl Who Was Kidnapped By Dustin.
“I suppose so,” the man said, chuckling, “My son told me about you. He was very mad, you see, that you made him leave.”
“I gave them the option to leave. They took it,” she shifted her weight from one foot to another. The man nodded, not seeming bothered in the slightest.
“I just wanted to meet the Fledgling who has already started to influence our city. It was wise to start with the children,” he looked past her to where Aiden was patching his injury back up, with the help of Sage.
“I didn’t plan in influencing anyone,” she said hurriedly. She didn’t want anyone to think she was purposely starting a revolution. She didn’t want to be a troublemaker right off the bat. She could bring an overhaul in a century or so…
A century. She could live a century. She could live even longer than that.
“Well, if you planned on it or not, I’d like to thank you. There are a few that share your views,” he nodded, shook her hand, and walked away.
“Who was that?” Sage asked from behind her. Austin didn’t turn around.
She just shrugged, “I never got his name.”
“Don’t talk to strangers,” Sage said, putting a hand on Austin’s elbow. Austin looked at her with an eyebrow raised. They didn’t know each other well enough for casual contact like that. Sage removed her hand, “Aiden, Derrick, and I have our hands full keeping our city safe, and you draw in a lot of chaos. For all we know, he could have been one.”
“So you’re on Aiden’s team?” she asked.
“Yeah, for now,” Sage nodded, “I won’t be around forever. Right after Chelsea’s funeral, I’m heading off to the human dimension. We’ve found a Fledgling.”
Austin faintly remembered Aiden introducing her as a guardian, “Right.”
“And she’s an air dragon, no less,” Sage continued, not noticing Austin’s lack of interest, “I’d like to have her finish high school, but that won’t be possible. Chaos dragons would just love to have one of them.”
“I haven’t met an air dragon yet,” Austin mentioned.
“That’s because there are so few of them,” Sage shook her head, “We revere them, so of course they’re main targets for chaos. They taint or kill, never leaving one whole.”
“Sounds like something they’d do,” Austin said.
“You have no idea.”
“I think I do.”
“Really? You haven’t experienced them first hand. You had what? A short encounter with Dustin? You saw one person die.”
“They killed my parents,” she said, feeling absolutely nothing as the words left her.
“Are you sure about that?” Sage asked, her dark brown eyes intense. The longer Austin stared, the more her eyes changed and shimmered. She had true dragon eyes, like Dustin and Aiden always did. Austin looked away.
“What happened?” she asked, since Sage seemed to know.
“You’ll have to ask one of your guardians,” Sage said, a tight smile on her face, “And I can guarantee that Aiden won’t tell.”
“Austin,” Aiden said, giving no sign that he overheard their conversation, “Let’s continue where we left off.”
“Yes sir,” she said, stepping around Sage. She didn’t usually talk to girls, and she didn’t know why Sage was talked to her. However, she did guess that it was somehow linked to the way the guardian watched Aiden.
Aiden took hold of his sword and pointed it at her, “Let’s go.”