Chapter 24: Chapter 24

It was training day again. This time, it was not arrows and bows. But swords. Dakar could teach it perfectly already since he was back in human form. They got sticks and sharpened them into swords. Dakar told Avril it was just for the first few weeks of training, so she wouldn't hurt herself. They had cleared a circular patch in the forest and were ready to use it to train. Tall trees stood around them, and Dakar marked them all with red paint.

Avril grabbed a wooden sword upon Dakar's instruction, and stood in the middle of the patch. Dakar was behind a tree changing. He took too much time and trust Avril, she began to run words at him.

“Just because you have long hair doesn't make you a woman, you know”, she stated and he chuckled deeply behind the big tree.

“Yeah? What do you have against my hair, girl?” he asked.

“You spend too much time on it. I don't even take care of my hair that much”, she answered.

“This hair is one of the reasons I am irresistible to the women in my pack. When we go for a pack run in our wolf form and we shift back to humans at the lake, I usually go for a swim. And when I come up the surface, they gawk at me. My wet hair on my skin gets them drooling”, he announced to Avril's contempt.

“Great! Now he's The Aquaman”, she mumbled sarcastically.

“What is The Aquaman?”, he asked and came out from behind the tree. His hair was in a bun and two curly strands fell from the left temple and right temple. He looked like those ancient Chinese or Korean men, except that he was way too muscular and huge. His wolf's head shone on his shoulder blade, like he repolished the ink. And he was wearing his traditional warrior skirt, the one Avril found hilariously ridiculous.

“How do I look?”, he asked as he smirked at her.

“Too tensed. You should lose some weight and look less heavy”, she stated and turned away from him. She exhaled through her mouth and blew air on her face with her palm.

“Man, that was hot!” she exclaimed in her mind. Because if she were to whisper that, he would hear for sure.

“All right, I'll lose some weight. I also I'm beginning to feel too heavy. I heard modern women prefer a man who's not too muscular. Someone who can be handsome and cute at the same time”, Dakar said and she turned immediately.

“Where did you hear that from?”, she asked with a frown.

“Knarti”, he answered.

“That is just crap! You're perfect. Gives me the Roman Reigns vibes”, she cooed and smiled sheepishly.

“What is a Roman Reigns?” he asked and she groaned frustratingly.

“Do you even know anybody?You're so backward!”

He laughed and grabbed a wooden sword.

“Those guys did not exist in my time”, he said and held the sword to his face, checking it out.

“Wait, I thought you mentioned having electricity and a fridge. How?Weren't you living like medieval people?”

“It was 1900s not the 1800s. In fact, we had advanced technology even before normal humans. Do you know that some crooked humans come to use for innovations? Then they take the credit and become heroes”.

“Dakar!!!!!!”, Avril screamed and he flinched.

“What is it?”, he asked and walked to her.

“Snake! A snake!”, she screamed and began to run away. Dakar used his wolf senses to glance back and he saw a greenclimbing vine being swinging in the wind.

“No, it's not a snake!”, he called after her but she was already fleeing far. He sighed and ran swiftly after her. He was too fast that he actually bumped into her and she tripped. She would have fallen on a dead tree if he had not turned her around and fallen on his back, with her on him.

“It wasn't a snake”, he gritted as he raised his head to look at her.

“This is awkward”, she whispered.

“Yes, seeing a plant as a snake is awkward”.

“No, not that. You're holding me in all the wrong places, Dakar”, she stated and his eyes widenedas he found out where his hands were.

“Oh My God”, he muttered.

Chapter 31

Avril rolled off Dakar and they both stayed on the ground there.

“I'm sorry”, he apologized.

“Which one? For making me fall? Orfor placing your hands on my bum?” she asked and he laughed.

“You guys call it a bum?”, he asked.

“Lots of name for it”, she answered.

“Uninteresting. Anyway, I'm sorry for both. Neither was intentional”, he stated.

“It's okay. Can we start with the training now?” she asked and got on her feet.

“Yeah”, he answered and stood to his feet too. There were fragments of death, wood and leaves in both of their hair.

“Dakar, you've got dirt in your hair”, Avril said and tried to pick a large dry leaf from his hair. But she was not too tall to reach there without tiptoeing.

“You've got dirt in your hair too. And more is going to stick on you when we start training. So, stop thinking about appearance and let's begin”, he stated firmly and she just nodded. They reached the circular patch and picked up their wooden swords again.

“Stand a few feet in front of me. Right there”, he pointed at the spot and she stood there.

“Now, when you're about to fight with a sword, you should detect your opponent's weakness. It could depend on various things such as height, weight, focus, stance and even breathing. You can detect if their nervous from their breath and can know if they are overconfident by their facial expression”, he spoke with a serious tone.

“Now, try to take a stance that will not make your opponent think you're nervous or not ready”.

She held her sword firmly, and placed her right leg in front of her, and her left leg far behind. The other hand was in a fist and projected forward, like she wanted to give a punch.

.“Try attacking me with that position”, he stated and she nodded. He took his own stance and waited for her to launch at him. She yelled and swung the sword up, aiming for his chest. But he dodged and kicked her right leg, making her fall to the ground. She groaned and tried to stand up but Dakar placed his sword over her neck.

“You were too predictable. I knew you would aim for the chest because your eyes kept darting there. Also, your legs were as far from each other like north and south. Who does that? Don't you know you can fall easily if your legs are not a bit close to each other?”

“My bad. I'm sorry”, she apologized and he withdrew the sword. She got on her feet and he began to show her how to stand and which way to sway the sword. To realize the direction the opponent's sword was coming from and to block it. In a few hours, she already began to stop his sword and Dakar was more than grateful for that. Because, the first hour was filled with winces and tells from her after being hit by his sword.

“Can we go home now? I'm starving”, Avril stated and he nodded. They were sweaty and dirty, and really tired.

“Yeah, let's go home. You did great. If you continue like this, you'll be perfect in a few months”, he complimented her and she chuckled.

“I always wanted to learn how to fight, you know. Movies about action made me want to defend myself. Just in case a zombie apocalypse comes up”, she stated and he chuckled softly.

“Do you know what a zombie apocalypse is?”, she asked as they began to pack their things and head towards the mountain house.

“Yes. I experienced one in 1961. A small village somewhere around China. We were coming home from a war when we stumbled across an empty village. It wasempty until they came out and tried to hurt us”, he answered.

“What did you do then? Did they turn any of you into zombies?”

“Are they insane? We were werewolves with extraordinary powers. We got rid of them permanently”, he stated.

“What do you think we should have for lunch?” Avril asked. She jumped over a fallen tree and looked back at Dakar.

“In the mood for some fish and bagels”, he said.

“All right. We'll go fishing straight from here. Ican't go up the house and come back to fish. That's stressful”

“Yeah, it's always stressful for you”, Dakar chimed and Avril glared at him.

“If you were still in your big bad wolf form, I wouldn't be complaining about movement”, she retorted.

“Yeah? I'm not sure about that”, he teased and she scoffed.

“Come here”, he said and stretched forth his arm at her.

“What?” she asked and stopped walking.

“Just come to me”, he repeated and she walked to him and took his arm. It was the arm that got burnt that day. The black lines were still on his hand, and Avril had a feeling they were permanently staying there. As soon as her hand touched his, his eyes flashed red and he closed them immediately.

“What is it? Why are you closing your eyes?” she asked and poked her index finger on his chest.

“Nothing, just thinking. Or meditating”, he lied.

“Why the sudden meditation?” she asked and he opened his eyes. They were green again.

“Do you know I can still shift into my wolf form? But I would not be as big as I used to be”, he said.

“The same way you used to do before, back at your home”, she acknowledged.

“Yeah. Do you want me to?”

She thought for a few minutes then shook herhead.

“No, you might get stuck again. I'm okay with seeing the human Dakar. Come on, hurry. Those bagels aren't going to bake themselves”

“And the fishes aren't going to fish themselves”, he added and she laughed. They finally got to the stream in thirty more minutes. He asked Avril to wait for him there while he ran to the mountain house. She sat underneath a tree and began to play with her sword, also reminiscing all what he had thought her.

Then her mind switched to being dirty. She remembered the little accident that happened while in the forest. Dakar had placed his hands on her butt. She fel really embarrassed but managed to hide it.

“His hands were so firm”, her inner voice whispered to her.

“So?” she asked herself aloud, then rolled her eyes.

“So, that's what Ñiraka feels every night back then”, it whispered again. She totally ignored it and continued to play around with the sword.

“Wouldn't I do anything to be in her shoes? She turned out to be his cousin, if it was me, I would not be related to him and we could continue our—” she stopped herself from thinking the next line.

“Gosh, what am I thinking?” she spoke outloud.

“Imagine being in those firm arms every night. Such a fantasy world”, that inner voice whispered again and she covered her ears.

“I should not be thinking about things like this. Stop it, Avril! Stop!”, she yelled. She got on her feet and began to pace around the bank, whispering 'stop it, Avril' to herself. But after minutes of doing that, she stopped herself and said, “But I shouldn't lie to myself. I'm secretly attracted to Dakar”. A twig broke and she gasped, covered her mouth and looked at the direction of the sound. Luckily, it was just a hawk.