Efraim kicked off his shoes and strode up into the open bay of the building. As soon as he entered the ceiling crystals brightened the room to expose just where they were. The floor of the building was covered in soft spongy matting. There were several punching bags hanging from swivel bolts in the ceiling. Their red canvass coverings showed no sign of wear. If William didn’t know any better, he would have said that they were brand new. There was one pillar off center in the middle of the room. There was a weapons rack on the far side of the room full of staffs and what looked like wooden replicas of curved samurai swords. Hanging on a wall rack adjacent to the weapons rack hung jump ropes and wooden nunchakus. William stepped into the training room. He couldn’t shake the feeling of Christmas morning and he was six years old excited and nervous all at the same time.
Efraim turned around. “Get off that mat with your shoes on.” Efraim didn’t raise his voice, but the sudden noise was enough to make William jump back into the street. The humans looked at each other and with uncertainty written on all their faces as they took off their shoes and placed them just outside the training room.
Efraim didn’t make a move, just stood there for a moment. The silence was oppressive. William wanted an order to follow, anything was better than just waiting guessing what the Combat Master wanted. Efraim looked at the two wolf born. “Aceso you and Achelois are to be training next door with Ares.” He pointed with his finger to wall. “He’s waiting for you now.” The two wolves moved off to the next building, disappearing from sight. Efraim turned back toward the four remaining people. “Are you just going to stand around? I haven’t got all day,”
The four humans almost jumped into the training room. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder facing the Combat Master. Without a word Efraim grabbed Nicolas and Charles together and with a jerk of his hands and fluid turn of his body both Nicolas and Charles were flipped over their head and landed with a dull thud as the padding of the floor cushioned their fall. It happened so fast that William wasn’t sure what happened. The next thing he knew his wrist was being painfully twisted and he found himself staring up at the ceiling as well. He had landed hard on his cervix and his lower back was sore. He massaged his wrists as he raised himself up on his elbows. He looked around to see a dazed look on Katherine’s face and Nicolas was lying still, flat on his back breathing shallow quick breaths. William looked behind him to see Efraim standing there with a fist in his hand.
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He looked down at the four of them. “My job is to teach you to fight, both as humans and as werewolves.” He started circling the small group. “This will be your new home for however long it takes. No, you will not have to sleep here. But just about every waking hour will be spent here with me learning as much as you can, as fast as you can.” He stopped moving and looked at them with a solemnity that was a little surprising. “I wish you had more time but unfortunately you don’t.” Efraim knelt on his hunches to get close to eye level with the four of them who were still on the ground. “I will push you harder than you ever thought possible and when I’m done with you, you’ll be ready for what the Elders will ask of you.” Efraim stood up, turned on his heel and walked to the front of the open room. “We will begin.”
For the next several hours, William and the others did nothing but learn how to fall properly and how to do summersaults without crushing their spine or neck. The technique’s seemed pretty straight forward and William could see the benefits of this particular lesson, but he had to wonder how this was going to translate to fighting. If what Efraim had done to him when he first stepped into this place was any indicator William was glad to learn as well as he could anything this man had to teach them.
After those six hours of tumbling and falling he was dizzy and very sore. He felt like he had crushed his back and neck so many times that he was sure he had lost a good inch or two from his six-foot two-inch frame. The four of them were allowed out of the training room for lunch and none of them could stop their hands from massaging sore necks and lower backs. William spent the whole trip back to the cafeteria trying to work out a kink in his neck that no matter how he rotated it, the kink wouldn’t work itself out.
They walked through the quite streets of the city. Efraim had given them a whole twenty minutes for lunch. The only thing that stopped them from running was the pain they all felt throughout their bodies.
They entered the cafeteria and were given a generous portion of venison and potatoes. They sat down and attacked their food with a vengeance. There was no time for talk, and it was Charles, who once again stood up, with his meal unfinished. William and the others followed suit and deposited their trays at the head of the cafeteria.
Feeling much better than he had a half an hour ago he wondered what Efraim was going to do with them for the rest of the day. Their quiet reflection was broken by Nicolas. “Will somebody please tell me what all this summersault and fall crap has anything to do with fighting?” Nicolas was still rubbing his neck and shoulders. His weight room body with its soft vanity muscles bulged and flexed as he tried to massage the pain away from in between his shoulder blades.