The echoes of the lecture followed Lian home. The point of the lesson sinking into his mind as it had not sunk into his classmate’s.
Know thine enemy.
One cannot fight unless he knows what he is fighting.
Lian’s feet knew the way home, so he allowed himself to get lost in his thoughts. He only realized his failure when it was too late and his honed survival instincts told him he had better start paying attention.
“Five against one?” Lian asked the group of boys surrounding him mildly. Two of the boys were ones he knew well. Bullies by the name of Nova and Riker who had taken more pleasure than most at the fall of his father. Their own having been denied the position of General due to their shortcomings. It would not be the first time these boys stood against Lian, but it was the first time they had brought along so many. They must have been tired of getting beaten by a smaller opponent.
“I’ve no intention of fighting men of my own village. We are not enemies.” Lian tried.
“Shut up!” Nova snarled.
“Why?” Riker’s lips twisted in a nasty smirk. “Are you scared little fox?”
Lian could feel himself bristle at the insult. He was no fox, he was a Lion, like his father before him. A Lion of Fury.
“It isn’t me who is scared.” Lian bit back. “By the looks of it, you couldn’t face me by yourselves so you brought along more. Aren’t you strong enough?” He was baiting them, and he knew he should not, but he was so tired of taking punishment for something he did not control nor believe. His father was no coward, no traitor.
“I said shut up you traitor! You’re just like your father, nothing but a coward who runs away when the fights too hard!” Nova resembled a wild animal pulling against his leash. The boy’s face was pure hatred and Lian wasn’t stupid, he knew why. The boy was four weeks away from no longer being able to join the Guild and become a Warrior. Nova would soon be eighteen and the realization was driving the so-called fighter mad. Lian wondered if he would go down the same path should he fail to pass the exams in the span of the two years in which he’d be allowed to take them.
He thought maybe he would.
“Do I look like I’m running away?” He asked with a glance around himself.
Five boys, all of them bigger but not stronger than him. He was well and truly outnumbered but his father and the Warriors who’d come to train him had not failed in their lesson.
He wasn’t scared or worried. Lian was a Warrior, a Lion of Fury. He’d trained under his father who was a General of the Warrior’s Guild and he’d been the apprentice of many of his father’s men.
He was not made to run.
“It wouldn’t matter if you did, we would still catch you.” Riker said cruelly.
All their lives, every boy on this field has trained to join the Warrior’s Guild and ride beside their fathers in battle. These people were not his enemies, Lian knew that, and yet.
“I didn’t think you were here to argue whether the man who runs away from battle is faster than the one who runs towards it.”
Lian clenched his fists, unsure of why he was baiting them like this. His father wouldn’t do it, his father would broker peace for the sake of the Guild. Lian had no such self-control.
“No wonder your mother’s about to die. The shame you and General Allan must have caused her would kill just about anyone.”
And that was it. Those words were enough for Lian to throw away his thoughts of comradery. No one spoke about his mother like that.
Lian didn’t waste a second before lunging at the boy who’d spoken. It was one of the three he didn’t know and he’d obviously caught the boy by surprise.
His fists were clenched as he lashed out, throwing a right hook right at the bastard’s left cheek. When his hit connected, the kid went down like a newly cut tree.
Lian allowed his momentum to carry through as he planted his right foot and pivoted, swinging his left leg out high aiming for Nova’s face. The sweet sound of the impact his heel gave when connecting to Nova’s jaw gave Lian a jolt of sheer, feral, pleasure right up until a punch on his left shoulder made him stumble forward.
Lian let himself fall and rolled out popping up like a spring to face the three boys still standing. Nova would get up soon but the fifth boy looked to be out for the duration of the fight.
Lian couldn’t help but smirk. His father had taught him to fight since the day he could stand, he was the son of a Lion of Fury and he wasn’t going to let these bastards take that away from him.
The first to come at him was Riker but Lian had seen the punch coming so he side stepped a direct hit and grabbed the outside of Riker’s wrist, using the forward drive of Riker’s own body to force the arm to bend until Lian was holding the bigger boy’s wrist behind his back.
He debated for a second if he should seriously injure the other boy, but the debate was a second too long as another hit landed on his back.
Lian pushed Riker away from him and turned quickly to face the boy who’d hit him. Again it was a boy he didn’t know but Lian didn’t care at this point. His mind was focused on the fight, focused on surviving.
Lian dropped as the boy went for another punch, crouching on his hands Lian kicked out his right leg and swept the bigger boy off his feet only to bring his elbow down hard on his sternum when he finally hit the ground. Lian glanced behind him to see where Riker was, but the older boy was up already and coming with both arms out, ready to tackle Lian down.
I can’t let him get to me the ground. I’m too small to fight against his weight. The thought was quick and decisive.
Lian went low as Riker came in high.
Riker made to get his arms around Lian’s slimmer form, but Lian didn’t give him the chance.
He was faster than Riker and it showed when he ducked under the boy’s arm using his leg to trip Riker even as his elbow connected with the older boy’s back.
Riker went face first into the ground and Lian turned quickly to face the only boy who hadn’t come at him.
“What about you?” Lian asked panting a bit. If the boy wanted to fight, Lian would defend himself but otherwise he wasn’t going to harm the boy who was obviously only a year younger than Lian himself.
Quickly shaking his head the boy took a step back, and then another, and then turned to run.
Lian watched his back as he went. That was what a coward looked like.
Lian was caught off guard as a weight slammed into his back and dragged him to the ground.
No!
He struggled as the weight held him down a hand at the back of his head holding his face to the dirt even as he tried everything to swing an elbow back and connect with something fragile. He needed to get up, needed to get free, he wasn’t strong enough to fight on the ground like this.
“You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve you coward!” Nova’s voice screamed in Lian’s ear and Lian wanted to growl.
“I’m not the one running away like a scared animal!” Lian fought back trying his best to struggle free, he had to fight, he had to get free, had to get up.
“It doesn’t matter what you do! You’ll always be a coward! And I’ll make sure everyone in this village knows it!” Nova’s voice was edged with something Lian didn’t recognize but it made his blood run cold. He had to fight, had to get free.
The first touch of the knife at his back made Lian stop.
“Yeah that’s right.” Nova wasn’t screaming now. He was speaking low and right into Lian’s ear. “I wonder how deep I’ll have to go for it to scar. You’re going to be a coward all your life little Fox. Every time you turn around they’ll see it, the proof that you’re just like your father.”
The first cut wasn’t as deep as Lian expected, but it was deep enough.
Lian started to struggle again, refusing to cry out.
“Get the fuck off me!”
“Nova!”
Lian didn’t know who’d called the boy, it didn’t matter because Nova wasn’t stopping.
With one hand holding the knife and the other holding Lian’s face against the ground, Nova dragged the knife against Lian’s back.
Part of Lian knew that his struggling was only making the cuts worse. Deeper and jagged. The other part didn’t care. The other part needed to get free because the pain was too much, he needed to get Nova away, needed to protect himself.
The fifth cut made him cry out.
“That right! Call for your mama! She won’t come for you, do you know why? She’s a coward too! Can’t face anyone in the village because her husband is a traitor! You should feel honored! It's my father's Honor Blade at your back, little fox! It's more than you deserve!” Nova’s words, the knife at his back, the pain that burned down his spine like fire, it was all too much.
“Nova man stop! He’s really bleeding!”
“Shut up!” Nova gripped Lian’s hair in a fist and lifted his head just enough to slam it back down. The panic inside Lian climbed against and he screamed.
The next cut was the deepest. It started at his left shoulder and ran down to just above his right hip, Lian only knew that because that one hurt the worse. His left shoulder burned worse than fire now, it was lava settling in one place.
Darkness crowded the corners of Lian’s vision every time he opened his eyes.
He was going to die.
He was going to die, carved up like a pig from behind by a mad boy.
He was going to die, just like his father. He’d leave his mother all alone.
NO!
The lava pooled in that one spot on the back of his left shoulder suddenly turned to ice. Power crawled from the cold into every inch of his body and he didn’t feel the next cut as it bit into his skin but it didn’t matter anymore, because from one second to the next Nova’s weight was gone from his back.
Electricity seemed to crackle around him and he forced his arms to remain steady under him.
“Lian! Stop!”
His mother’s voice jerked his attention. She was running to him, her right hand held out like she was reaching for him but there was something wrong.
Her palm was glowing.
Lian felt his arms buckle under him and as he fell, darkness rising up to swallow him whole
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