Fighting by Anaya Phoenix (sci fi books to read .TXT) 📖

“It is morning, about two a.m.” Her face scrunched up and she looked up at the rocky dome we were in before shrugging. She was a wild child and, like all wild children, she belonged in nature. Her body was practically created for it. She’d lost all her baby fat and was lither for a ten year old, her hair wild and the color of rich bark with highlights of lighter brown in her hair. Her eyes were wide but since she’d been caged they seemed to get smaller. There was nothing to look at here, there wasn’t anything green and everything was brown or gray. She’d been OK with it the first week, but then slowly the life seemed to sap from her. Leo picked her up and rested her on his shoulders.

“Ready little buddy.”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” She shrugged before taking the deepest of breaths into her lungs and letting out a piercing scream. Eva amplified the sound so it carried through the whole tunnel and it was quiet. People had gotten used to waking up at awkward times, they’d gotten used to the scream and had learned that no sound would saev them. We stood in our respective spots, waiting for the shifters to pour out. Inna and Bercelack walked in, red and blue, ready for training and the Olden Ones came out. They’d started attending training and would help occasionally in sparring when we needed to get the day over with. As the shifters poured in I geared myself to talk, I had been letting Leo and Filly run the trainings, I was too tired to talk but today I had to pop their safety bubbles.

“Change of plans.” My voice was strong, a beacon of power, and it was a lie. It wasn’t a real lie, it was a conceptual lie. A lie that, if you focused too hard on it, it would hurt your head.

“Tigers with me, birds with Filly, Lions with Eva, Bears with Leo and wolves with Urse.” Fear and excitement ran through the air and it was tantalizing to my wolf but I tamped her down. Everybody rearranged themselves until they were in the order I had commanded.

“Starting from right now, we’ll switch up fighting technique and who you fight with as the days go on. When we fight, it won’t be you against your own kind. It’ll be against humans and whatever army they’ve managed to conjure up. Humans aren’t completely defenseless, they’re going to have guns and the dark fae are going to be aiding them. We’ve worked hard to get your bases and set up and all of you are doing beautifully, but now we’re going to ruffle your feathers.” They groaned slightly but said nothing.

“Let’s begin, then.”

                As a wolf, I was automatically smaller than the cats, as a daughter of Molly Green I was shorter than a person. All of the cats that stepped up to me had the advantage of a foot or two, and I knew if they were to shift it would be the same. The first male to step in front of me must’ve been bordering on seven feet and I had to tilt my head up to look at him.

“Name.”

“Geoffrey Meer.” I nodded and got into the fighting stance, with him following. We stalked each other and blocked out the noise of the others. His eyes turned into a bright green and he watched me closely, his fangs peeking from under his lip. I wouldn’t bring out my wolf, I didn’t need to. I’d fought Filly enough times to know that he’d try to take out my feet. He stood and stepped closer, making me furrow my brow. I wouldn’t act, determined to make sure I knew what the hell he was doing before responding. Before I could ask another question as tp what the hell he was doing he reached out and tried to punch my gut, I grabbed his hand and brought him closer to me aiming for his jaw. With a tilt of his lip he twirled me arouond using the leverage that my hand grabbing him had and punched me in the back. He was tall and strong; which, if you thought about it, wasn’t fair. I stumbled slightly but got my grip and turned around, my fist strong and ready to strike his chest. With a snarl he grabbed my hand and squeezed, not hard enough to break anything, and brought me closer only to punch me in the nose. I gritted my teeth as my nose healed and brought my wolf out. His tiger was out for blood and to win, just a bit too aggressive for training. Using my speed I grabbed his arm and twisted so that he turned around, gripping his other arm as it tried to stop me and twisting that too. He struggled and I smelled the smallest ounce of fear, which he quickly hid and relaxed. I could smell the fire bubbling up through his ahnds and knew he was trying to focus on using his element, but he was using too much of his energy on that.  Hopped on his back and grabbed his hair, jerking his head to the side and put my mouth cose to his neck. He’d failed and raised his hands. I hopped off and nodded in his direction.

“Don’t focus on one thing too much, because your reaction time will be slower. You were spending too much time bringing out your element.” I raised my hand and called my element to me, letting the fire burn on my hand and spread to my forearm and back to the tip of my pinky.

“It’s gotta move through you, accept that more and you’re better off.” He nodded and moved to the back of the group, probably waiting for his friends to be done. Looking to the rest of tigers, I wiped the blood from my nose and rolled out my shoulders as the next person stepped up.

“Name.”

                I settled down on the ground and guzzled down a bottle of water, my skin was heated and I was very close to being sweaty. Leo was splayed on the ground and looked like he’d had better days. He’d been grouped with the bears and they weren’t kind to fight with. That’s why I always tried to stay on Urse’s good side. Bears didn’t particularly like cats, and Leo was the king of them all. He’d chosen them, so really it was his own fault. He’d been slammed against the wall and the floor so many times I’d just lost count.

“How’re your ribs?” Urse asked, a smile accompanied with a busted lip lifted her face.

“Ugh, I’m highly positive they’ve been pulverized.” I chuckled and drank more water, passing the bottle to Eva.

“Your lions are dirty fighters.” She grumbled before swishing water around in her mouth and spitting it out, blood streaming through the water.

“In the savannah, ya gotta be dirty to win babe.” I’m sure he winked, but he didn’t sit up so I had no clue.

“We’ve gotta teach them how to use their elements. A couple of your birds had earth elements and didn’t even know how to use it.”

“Same with the wolves.”

“And the tigers.” We were all silent, listening to the sound of life around us. Hearing them do whatever they did in their free time was so liberating. It was them living a life that was so much greater than the ones they’d had before, but at the same time still as constricting. Sometimes it killed me; knowing that we’d saved them from one cage just to put them in another. All of them struggled to keep it together sometimes, but we could see the ruffled feathers. Eva had hung around the dragons a lot more, but that was understandable. They were both creatures of the air, they both had the same background.

“Earth to Luna.” Eva snapped her fingers in front of my face with a kind smile and I blinked.

“What were we talking about?”

“We’ll have to fight in our animal form tomorrow so we’ve all got to get a hold on our animal natures. Last time it was almost a fight to the death when we brought out animals.”

“That’s because somebody was feeling a little bit antsy and started humming while we were fighting.” I threw a pointed look at Urse. She shrugged.

“I just wanted to test it out, make sure it was nice and calibrated.”

“Calibrated my ass, you almost caused a riot.”

“Almost and doing are too different things.”

“And the line between them is so small.”

“My legs have been broken in ten different places on each leg, and you guys are having a technicality contest?” Leo growled, sitting up on his elbows.

“You’re better, are you not?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. He merely glared and laid back down.

“I miss the stars.” He said softly, looking up at the rocky terrain above us.

“I miss the smell of the air and the openness.” Ursula sighed, closing her eyes and drifting.

“I miss the trees, and the dirt under my claws.” Filly replied before laying down and splaying out.

“The moon, bright and swollen. I miss that the most. The feeling of its shine on my wings and the power it gifted me.” Eva laid down on her stomach and rubbed her arms. I looked around at all my friends and knew I wasn’t alone. They all felt caged, they all felt like this was no better. Do you know what makes a cage less frightening? My wolf asked sadly, she was settling in to go to sleep but had been woken by my thoughts. The bars, because then you can see it. The outside world isn’t shut off, it’s right there. You’re still in it, surrounded by light and air and sound. Here… here there’s nothing but dirt. The difference between a box and a cage, is that with a cage at least you’re free to breathe. I watched as their minds wandered, but their eyes still looked up at the rocky ceiling. We’d already been through so much, and we would have so much to go through more.  I put my hand on Ursuala’s, rubbing the soft skin there. She’d lost damn near everything at a young age. Her oldest brother and her father had died before she came over, she didn’t like talking about it but I knew seeing us with our families tore her apart each time. Her mother had died during childbirth with her, but she’d had time to process that before we were thrown into the crappy lives at the ghetto’s.

                I looked to Eva as she breathed in the cave air, knowing that her wings itched to  be in open air. She’d been orphaned since two, her parents were murdered by rogues and she didn’t have any siblings. She had been alone for a while, and she was the toughest here. She wore her pain proudly and wasn’t scared of it, she wasn’t scared of her emotions like the lot of her. I think that’s the only thing that allowed her to carry on with her life without anyone else. Filly’s father was killed in a match for power, so it was only her mother and four siblings, but she cherished her family. She stalked around them before proceeding with anything if there was danger. Her mother was a strong woman, but losing a mate can make even the proudest of shifter into a sniveling heap. Somedays they did argue, and somedays they did talk about him but we could all feel the pain that it generated through the link. She wore her emotions like a glove around her body and mind but, unlike Eva, she wasn’t proud of it. Half the time I don’t think she even meant to, it was one of her weaknesses. She had a big heart and big weight on that heart, but otherwise she was OK. I looked to Leo, sucking in my breath