Throw a Punch

Chapter 14 – Throw a Punch

                “Let’s go faerie.” Devin said, and turned on his heel to walk towards the blue mats that were placed on the ground. I slowly followed behind him, still seething from being called a disgusting creature. If I had a chance today to punch him in that pretty face, I was going to take it without hesitation. Devin stopped at the first mat, and turned to look at me. “Do you have any fighting experience at all?” he asked, distaste thick in his words. The tension between us thick enough to cut with a knife.

                “Does fighting for my life against your men count?” I snapped at him, and he rolled his eyes at me, as if to tell me to get over it. His callous response sending my temper bubbling over. I clenched my fists, shaking in anger. He looked down at my arms, and then back up in my eyes. Curiosity burning across his face as he took a step closer to me. He leaned into me, pine and lavender swirled around me, but did nothing to calm my already fast beating heart.

                “Do you want to hit me, little bird.” He whispered into my ear, using the same nickname his guard, Antony, had called me while running his filthy hands up my leg. My resolve snapped, and I bared my teeth, an animalistic growl ripping from my throat.

                “I’ll kill you, you filthy human.” I growled, and launched myself onto him. We hit the ground in a tangle of limbs as my fist connected with his bottom lip. I guess I got that chance to punch him sooner than I thought. The moment was short lived though, as he caught my arm when the punch carried through. His large right hand circled my wrist, and he pulled it towards him, causing me to fall face first onto the dirt ground. He swung his legs up and over me, pulling my arm behind my back, and digging his hips into the small of my back. Within two seconds he had me pinned to the ground, and had his full weight laying on top of my small frame. I screamed in anger, and tried to buck him off with my hips, but it was useless as he pushed his hips against mine and sunk me farther into the soft earth. My chest hurt as I struggled to breath under the weight of him, and he adjusted himself to take some of the pressure off. Leaning his face down next to mine.

                “I didn’t think you had it in you faerie, but I think I can work with this.” He said calmly, and not even slightly fazed by the short tousle. He let go of my wrist and rolled himself off of me; standing up in one smooth motion to his feet. I slammed my fists angrily into the ground before rolling over onto my back; my chest rising in heavy breaths. “You’re going to have to do better than that though,” the prince smirked, “it looks like you’ve never had a good work out in your life.”

I ignored him and pushed myself up and onto my feet. Squaring my shoulders, and putting my fists in front of my face, ready to throw another punch at him.

                “If you hit me like that, you’re going to break your thumb. You were lucky the first hit you had didn’t do that.” He said, and wiped a small trickle of blood off his lower lip. I stepped forward and threw another punch at him, but he dodged it easily, sidestepping me as if I was a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. I swung again towards his head and he ducked, taking his right leg and sweeping it under my feet, causing me to fall backwards onto the ground. My back slammed into the dirt and I gasped for air as all the wind was knocked out of my lungs. I rolled onto my side, sputtering and coughing as he crouched down next to me.

                “You’re an asshole.” I managed to choke out in between coughs. Surprisingly, he nodded, agreeing with me.

                “You might be shocked to know that I don’t condone the way my guard acted. I do apologize for bringing the memory back, but I had to do something to see if you would fight faerie.” He held out a hand for me, but I swatted him away and again pushed myself to my feet. I bent over, with my hands on my knees, still attempting to catch my breath. That may have been some sort of an apology, but I doubted the sincerity in his words. I did though, need to learn how to fight, and unfortunately, he was the one who had to teach me.

When I was finally able to breathe again, I stood up straight, and brushed some of the dirt from my pants.

                “Alright prince,” I started, and pulled my hands back up to face, “show me the correct way to punch.” The prince nodded.

                “Untuck your thumb from inside your fist.” The prince held up a fisted hand to show me his thumb resting on the outside of his pointer finger. “If you keep it in the fist, there’s a good chance you’ll dislocate it or break it when you hit something.” I nodded, and did what he told me to do. “Now, when you throw the punch out, twist your wrist at the end of the punch. That will put enough power behind it to actually do some damage.” Devin threw his fist out, keeping his wrist facing upward until his arm was almost fully extended out. I nodded, and tried it, actually feeling more comfortable than just swinging my arms around like I was in a bar fight. Devin picked up a small pad that was laying on the ground beside the blue mat, and held it in front of him.

                “Good, now I want you to hit this pad fifty times. Every time you throw a wrong punch, the counter restarts from the beginning.” He smirked at me, clearly proud to come up with some sort of torture for me to endure. I stepped up to the pad an threw the first punch, my fist sinking into the soft padding. “forty-nine more to go faerie.” I continued to punch to pad, restarting five times when I forgot to untuck my thumb, and didn’t twist my wrist correctly. By the end of it, my arms were shaking and sweat was dripping from my chin. Only when I saw Simon and Marcus walking towards us did I realize an hour had already gone by.

                “It only took you three hundred and twenty punches to get it right.” The prince smirked, “better than what I thought. Seven AM tomorrow, you’ll do this again when you get here.” Devin threw the pad back on the ground and turned to walk away. I groaned at the thought, I doubt I would even be able to move my arms tomorrow let alone throw another hundred or so punches. I watched as he walked towards the other side of the training grounds to a door that was built into the large fence, and disappear through it.

                “Let’s go faerie.” Simon snapped, and pushed me by the shoulder towards the opposite side of the field. Too bad my arms were so sore; I would love to land a solid blow across this imbeciles’ face. We walked back through the doors, up the winding stairwell, and back to my room. Marcus again lifted the large iron lock to the door, and swung it open. Inside of the room, Moira was sitting on the couch waiting for me to walk in with a large smile on her face. Two plates full of fluffy pancakes and scrambled eggs sat on the coffee table in front of her.

                “I brought breakfast! Tell me all about your morning!” Moira beamed at me, and Marcus pulled the door shut behind me. Locking the door behind him with a loud creaking noise.

                “Moira! I’m so happy to see you!” I walked over, and plopped down onto the couch next to her, eyeing up the steaming food in front of me. My stomach let out a loud growl almost as if to agree with me, and Moira laughed and handed me a fork. I dug into the pancakes first, moaning in happiness as the sweet flavor of syrup danced across my tongue. I thought the chicken from last night was the best thing I ever tasted, but I would eat these for every meal if I had the chance.

                “I have the day off today, and I thought maybe I could keep you company.” She smiled at me, her eyes sparkling as she watched me shovel food into my face. “Of course, I also want to know how it went with that hot headed prince today.” She giggled, and I rolled my eyes. I recounted the events of the morning to her while we finished our food, and she listened with wide eyes.

                “What an absolute asshole.” She stated when I was done, a look of anger across her small features. “I’m glad you got a good punch in, hopefully he’ll feel that fat lip for a couple days.” I nodded in agreement with her, and leaned back on the couch. Moira gathered up the utensils, stacked them up into a pile on the plates. I was almost uncomfortably full, and was beginning to feel my eyelids getting heavy.

                “I’m exhausted. Who knew just punching for an hour would make you so tired?” I yawned, and Moira giggled.

                “I’ll let you take a nap, and I’ll come by for dinner tonight. I heard they’re making duck tonight, its my favorite.” She said in a singsong voice, and stood up from the couch.

                “You’re the best Moira, I’ll see you tonight.” I blew her a kiss, and she dramatically caught it in her hand laughing before walking over to the door and knocking on it twice. The metal squealed as it was lifted out of place, and the door swung open and Moira stepped out into the hallway. The door swung shut behind her, and I stretched myself out onto the couch. Falling asleep to the sound of the wind hitting the tall windows.