by Robin Roseau
I looked at Jasmine. "I wouldn't hit you too hard," I said.
Jasmine looked at Ralla, and she looked a little nervous.
"Trust me," Ralla said, and Jasmine nodded.
"You're with me, Beria," Omie said. She pulled me to the side, then whispered to me, "Don't tease Jasmine."
"I'm sorry," I said. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No, not normally. Jasmine is scared. She would be a good companion, but she won't be a warrior any more than your sister will. Just don't tease her about training, okay?"
"Okay."
We separated a little, and then Omie said, "We start slow. It's not about power at this point, it's about getting used to holding the staff and building your reflexes. When we start real sparring, there are rules we'll teach you. Those rules, by the way, are ignored in a real fight."
I nodded.
"You saw what Ralla and I did. You can start."
I took a gentle swing at her with the staff, holding on with both hands, but trying -- slowly -- to hit her with one end. She blocked my swing and immediately returned it with the other end of her staff, also swinging slowly, and I blocked it. We did that a dozen times each.
"Hold," she said. "Good." She turned away and watched Ralla and Jasmine for a minute.
"Hold," Ralla said, stepping away. "Omie, did you see it?"
"Yes," Omie said. She stepped sideways and took a position in front of Jasmine. "Swing at me," she said. Jasmine did, and Omie said, "Hold!" in a firm voice. "Freeze like that."
Jasmine froze, and Omie stepped away, then around behind Jasmine. She adjusted Jasmine's stance, saying, "If you were swinging faster, you would fall off balance like this. You need to remain centered."
Ralla stepped forward again. "Again," said Omie, watching. Jasmine and Ralla exchanged a few strikes, and Omie said, "Better. Try a little faster now."
She watched them for a minute, then stepped in front of me, raising her staff. "A little faster," and I nodded.
We practiced that for an hour with Ralla quietly adjusting Jasmine from time to time, Omie concentrating on me. Then I heard Ralla cry, "Hold," and step away from Jasmine.
"We're going to head out," she said. "I don't want Jasmine tired out before we even get started." I was sweating, and so was Jasmine, and I was ready to be done, too.
"This doesn't seem that bad," I said. "Actually, it's kind of fun. Why does my sister hate it?"
Omie and Ralla exchanged looks. "We should show them," Omie said finally. "If we're trying to be as honest as we can."
Ralla nodded, then Omie said, "You two, sit down. Ralla and I are going to spar, full speed, but we'll pull our blows." She looked at me. "Ralla is much better than I am, but I will do my best."
I nodded understanding, taking a seat next to Jasmine.
Ralla and Omie squared off, several paces away from us. Then Omie said, "Fight." There was a moment's pause, and then she swung her staff at Ralla.
It was fast! But Ralla deflected it, counter-swinging at Omie. After that, Omie was on the defensive, Ralla driving her around in circles, Omie launching the occasional attack, but it was clear she was outclassed. Finally Ralla did a maneuver that was far to fast for me to follow, and Omie was on her back in the grass, Ralla's staff against her chest.
I stared.
They paused like that, then Ralla bent forward and helped Omie to her feet. "Point to Ralla," Omie said. She turned to Ralla, paused, then said, "Fight!"
Omie seemed to do better this time, as little as I could tell, but then there was a thud, and Omie fell back, rubbing her ribs.
"Hold!" I yelled.
Ralla and Omie both stepped back, then turned to me. "You don't get to say that, Beria," Omie said gently.
I climbed to my feet and ran to her. "She hit you!"
"She did," Omie said. "And it hurts."
"She's supposed to pull her blows."
"She did," Omie said. "She didn't crack my ribs. It's just a bruise."
"Let me see," I demanded. I turned around and glared at Ralla.
"Your companion seems protective," Ralla observed.
I turned back to Omie. "I said, let me see!"
She loosened her tunic and let me pull it up. There was a growing bruise across her left ribs. "It's just bruised," Omie said.
I looked at it. "This is the part Maya hates."
"She also hates watching Malora fight," Omie said. "She's afraid Malora will get hurt. She doesn't like it when she gets hit, and she likes it even less when she hits someone else. It's just a bruise, Beria."
I looked at it, then carefully pulled the tunic back in place, helping my warrior. I stood up. "That's two to nothing?"
"Yes," Omie said. "Please go sit down again."
I wanted to argue with her, but I returned to my place on the ground. She turned to Ralla and said, "Fight."
The two exchanged blows for a moment, then Ralla did something to sweep Omie's staff out of the way and tapped Omie -- gently -- on the head.
"Darn it," Omie said. "You always get me with that one."
"You're still over-extending," Ralla said. "It pulls you off balance."
Omie stepped backwards. "Fight."
This round went longer, ending with Omie tapping her staff against Ralla's arm.
"Good one!" Ralla said, stepping backwards. "Three to one. Fight."
Ralla got the next two points, although both of them seemed softer. After Ralla's fifth point, they both took a step away then the two thanked each other. They turned to face Jasmine and me.
"Not every point leaves a bruise," Omie said. "But you get bruises. It's rare, but sometimes you get hurt worse. Not often."
"Broken legs?"
"Not at Queen's Town," Ralla said. "Not with Nori training us. But Ping broke her leg in a demon fight last summer."
"Maya's story," I said, and Ralla nodded.
She turned to Omie. "We're going to go, unless we've scared Jasmine off."
Jasmine stood up, took two steps to Ralla, and slipped under her arm. "You didn't scare me off, but you promised you would be gentle with me."
"As gentle as we can," Ralla said. And then the two of them kissed, right in front of us. I had never seen two women kiss before, and I stared.
Then, arm in arm, they walked off. "We'll be back before dinner," Ralla said over her shoulder.
Omie turned to me. I looked up at her. "Did we scare you off?"
"No," I said. I stood up, holding my staff. "Fight," I said.
"Stop," Omie said immediately. "You aren't remotely ready."
"Then it will be quick," I replied. "I need to know, Omie."
"Half speed," Omie said. "Remain under control." I nodded, and she said, "Fight."
She let me swing at her several times, easily blocking or deflecting my blows. But then she ducked under one of my swings, and I was hopelessly off balance. Her staff came up and slapped my back, although not very hard. I stumbled away.
"Maya hates even that much," Omie said.
I nodded, lifted my staff and said, "Fight."
Again, Omie let me swing at her several times, and even swung at me a few I could deflect. But then she feinted a swing at my left side, and when I moved to block it, the other end of her staff came around and tapped my ribs on the right.
I stepped away. "Is that how hard you would normally hit me?"
"Did you learn something?"
"I don't know," I said.
"You over-committed to that block," she said, "leaving your other side completely undefended."
I nodded.
"There is no reason to hit you harder unless you keep doing it," she said. "Then I might hit you harder to teach you not to do it."
We sparred for a while. I didn't collect any bruises, but my arms grew weak, and I was sweating hard. Finally Omie called a halt. "That's enough for today, Beria," she said. "You did well."
I sagged to one knee, breathing hard. She moved to me and knelt in front of me.
"Are you
all right?" she asked.
I looked up and nodded, then grinned. "What are we doing this afternoon?"
She started to smile. "You didn't hate it?"
I shook my head.
"You realize it's time to run?"
I groaned.
"You said you wanted to see what it's like. Leave your staff here."
I set my staff down, climbed to my feet, and then we started running around the field. I was slow.
"Faster," Omie said. I realized she was carrying her staff. When I didn't go any faster, she reached around behind me with the staff and spanked my bottom with it.
"Hey!" I screeched, rubbing my bottom.
"Faster," she said. She began to twirl the staff again, and I ran faster. She drove me like that in circles around the field until I thought I was going to collapse, finally saying, "Slow down, but don't collapse. Keep walking." We walked once more around the field before she pulled me to face her. I was still panting hard.
"Good job," Omie said. "I'm proud of you, Beria."
I smiled wanly.
"Did you hate it?" she asked.
"What," I asked, panting out one word at a time, "will we do this afternoon?"
She pulled me into a hug. "Wrestling," she said. "Lets get you cleaned up."
* * * *
I loved the wrestling.
* * * *
We woke again early the next morning. The moment I moved, Omie whispered to me, "Good morning, Beria."
I rolled to face her.
"Thank you," she said to me.
I smiled but then grimaced.
"A little sore?"
I nodded.
"Omie," I said, "I need you to be honest with me."
"Always," she said. "I promise I will never lie to you."
"Never?"
"Unless Queen Malora orders me to. Or you ask me about a surprise. Or I have to lie to keep someone else's secret. Or."
I put my fingers over her mouth, and she smiled around them.
"Tell me every reason you can think of why I shouldn't go with you."
She closed her eyes for a moment then opened them and said, "All right. I'll try. Because you don't like me." I shook my head. "Because you hated yesterday." I smiled and shook my head. "Because you can't obey me and the other Amazons you would have to obey." I thought about it and shook my head. She paused. "Because you hate sleeping in a tent."
I looked around for a moment, then put my finger on my lips before turning to her. Then I smiled and shook my head.
She started to smile, but then her smile faded.
"Because you wouldn't see your parents very often."
My smile faded.
"Beria," she said, but I put my fingers on her lips again, and she grew quiet.
"How often?" I asked.
"I don't know."
"Never?"
"No, not never." She paused. "I see mine once or twice a year, but they live a lot closer; it's less than a day each way."
"What else?" I asked her.
"Because you have a boyfriend in town." I made a face and shook my head. "Because you have a girlfriend in town?" She made it into a question. I giggled and shook my head. "Because you would miss the sea."
That one I had to think about, too.
"Keep going," I said after a while.
"Because you like dressing in dresses and skirts and other girly clothes." I laughed and shook my head. "Um. Because you're afraid of spiders."
I put on a face. "Spiders? You have spiders?"
"I'm sorry. Yes."
"A lot of spiders?"
"It's the forest," she explained. "They aren't poisonous."
"Do they crawl under the covers?" I asked. And then to demonstrate, I ducked under the covers and went looking for one of her feet.
"No," she said. "What are you doing?"
"Do they grab your ankles like this?" I asked, grabbing one of her ankles.
"Stop that!" she said. "No. They're not that big."
"And do they bite like this?" I pulled her ankle to my mouth and bit it gently. She screeched, and a few seconds later, I found myself flat on my back with her perched over me, pinning me to the bed.
"No," she said, looking down at me. "They do not."
"Look at my ankle," I said. "Left foot."
She climbed off of me, stealing the covers in the process, and turned around to look at my ankle. She was looking at the wrong one.
"The other left foot," I told her.
She shifted legs, laughing, then said, "Oh wow! What happened?"
"Shark."
"What?"
"Big one," I said. "It was Maya's fault. I was seven, I think, and she kept dangling me off the back of a skiff, saying, 'Here, sharky sharky sharky'. And one came up and bit me!"
She looked at my ankle carefully. I tried to keep a straight face. Finally she covered me back up and flopped down next to me.
"I don't believe you," she said after a moment.
I burst out laughing.
"That's what I thought," she said. "What really happened?"
"Jellyfish," I said. "They don't normally scar, but this one got wrapped around me. Boy, you should have heard me screaming. It was horrible."
"Beria," she said. "Seriously, what happened?"
"I am being serious."
"There's no such thing as jellyfish."
I stared at her. "You've never heard of jellyfish?"
"Beria."
"You really think I'm lying?"
"I know you are."
"You know I am."
"Yes."
I smiled. I'd said that to Maya once, and she demonstrated the difference between knowing something and being very sure about something, only to be proven wrong. "You should talk to my sister about making claims like that," I said.
"Come on, Beria. Something called a jellyfish? Seriously? You can't make up something better than that?"
"You don't trust me."
"You just told me a story about your sister dangling you in the water for sharks."
"Yeah, but then I laughed. I didn't tell you I was serious."
She frowned. "You expect me to believe this."
"Believe it or not," I said, getting a little angry. "I don't care anymore." I rolled away from her, then went digging for my clothes.
"Beria," she said. "Wait." She put her hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged it off. "Was it really a jellyfish?"
I stopped, then rolled over to face her. "It was a man-o-war, which Maya says is technically not a jellyfish, but they string just like one."
"So it wasn't a jellyfish after all!"
"I thought it was more likely you had heard of jellyfish than a particular type of jellyfish," I told her.
"Which isn't a jellyfish at all. Technically."
"You told me jellyfish don't even exist," I said. "What do you know?"
"Okay, so what's a -- what did you call it?"
"A man-o-war," I said. "If I tell you, you really won't believe me."
"I'll believe you if you tell me you're not teasing me."
I studied her. "I'm not teasing you. But you're going to think I am."
"Just tell me."
"If you ask Maya, she'll tell you it's not a fish. And a jellyfish isn't a fish, either. A man-o-war is like a clear bag, about this big," and I held my hands out a short distance apart. "It floats on the surface, drifting in the water. But underneath it are thin tentacles you can barely see, and if they touch you, they sting. The tentacles are really, really long, although when they wash up on the beach, they don't seem that long. I think they break off or something."
"And what's the difference between that and a jellyfish?" Omie asked me.
"Jellyfish don't float, and they can swim, but they have stinging tentacles, too. Some of them can be very dangerous."
"You're not teasing me?"
"I came up with another reason I shouldn't go with you," I told her.
Her face fell. "Why?"
"Yo
u don't trust me."
"Beria," she said, "you have to admit, you started by teasing me, and it sounds pretty ridiculous. Jellyfish?"
"You expect me to believe in demons," I said. "Are they any more ridiculous?"
"But you saw one."
"You saw the marks on my ankle."
"Those could be from anything."
"You said you have these voices I must still. I don't hear any voices."
"You're a lot like your sister," she said.
I began to grin. "That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me."
"Jellyfish," she said.
"Technically, a man-o-war."
"And you still swim in the ocean."
I nodded.
"I suppose if you're not afraid of men-o-war and sharks, the occasional spider isn't going to startle you."
"Are you kidding?" I said. "I hate spiders. I expect the warrior to kill them."
Omie laughed. "For you, I'll kill the spiders. For now."
"Good," I said, "Because there's one on the side of the tent."
"There is not!"
"You could at least look first." I lifted my finger under my chin and pointed, not wanting to extend any of my parts any closer to the spider than I had to. Omie turned her head and shrieked then half crawled over me to get away from it. I started laughing.
"It's not funny," she said. "God, that's an ugly one."
"Are you going to kill it, fierce warrior?"
"Something wrong in there?" Ralla said from outside. The tent shook, and the spider dropped off the side of the tent and was now crawling around somewhere we couldn't see it. Omie and I both shrieked and beat a hasty retreat for the exit.
"What is going on in there?" Ralla asked firmly, but then Omie finally got the tent flap open and we burst out, both of us still in our nightclothes.
I stood up, looking at Omie, then put one hand on my hip and pointed back in the tent. "You promised," I said.
"What is going on?" Ralla asked a third time.
"Spider," I said. "And Omie promised to kill all the spiders."
"I promised to kill all the spiders back home," she replied. "I didn't say anything about Gallen's Cove spiders. I believe the native girl should take care of the native spiders."
"Oh for heaven's sake," said Ralla. She looked at me. "Is it poisonous?"
"Would I be out here in my nightclothes if it wasn't?" I asked.
"It's poisonous?" Omie squeaked. "And you wanted me to kill it?"
