Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

47 - ᴘʀᴀᴄᴛɪꜱᴇ

THE FOLLOWING day, after Athena had spent most of the morning convincing Sam to come along to the training/battle practise the Vampires had planned. She thought it would be a good idea, so they could get the necessary information about Newborns that she just didn't know from Jasper, so after asking if that would be okay she extended the invitation. It took a lot of convincing, mass amounts of convincing actually but by the time she had finished her fourth persuasive speech Sam was convinced enough to get the pack to come along.

Athena lead the begrudging wolves to the decided location for the practice, choosing to ignore all the other calls of concern and instead listen to Embry's hilarious inner monologue about something that had happened to him in the forest earlier. It involved a thorn bush and a pair of tweezers, it made her laugh even more when she noticed the ever so slight lightness of one of his paws. She walked over the hill first, coming into the collection of Vampires and Bella's view as the wolves slowly followed behind her. "They don't trust you enough to be in their human forms," she explained as she hopped over the log at the bottom of the hill.

"They came, that's what matters," Carlilise replied as he walked forward to meet the wolves. She quickly moved to stand next to Jasper, intertwining her hand with his as she noticed the tenseness that caused small lines to form on his forehead. "Welcome. Jasper has experience with newborns. He'll teach us how to defeat them," Carlisle continued, smiling at the wolves as if they were not his natural enemy. Athena had already explained those things, along with how newborns differed to her upon Embry's request so the wolves questions were already answered. With a gentle squeeze of her hand, Jasper walked toward Carlisle- no signs of a smile on his face. This was, of course, a very serious matter. Life and death really.

"Now the two most important things to remember are, first: never let them get their arms around you. They'll crush you instantly. And second: never go for the obvious kill. They'll be expecting that and you will lose," Jasper spoke slowly, adding such emphasis to his words that it bought out even more fear in the ones who already felt it. But then again that was the desired effect, fearmongering but for a perfectly good reason.

"He's intense," Embry's thought echoed in her mind, dragging her away from the intense staring at Jasper. She didn't know what it was but he looked particularly gorgeous today, maybe it was the lighting or something but she found herself unable to look in any direction but his.

Athena nodded, not really realising what she was agreeing to as she watched the first fight begin between Jasper and Emmett. Then once his words sunk in, she pulled herself away from the fight and stared at him with narrow eyes instead. "In a good way or a bad way?" she asked, flooding the words through his mind as to not disturb the goings-on around her.

She listened to the many thoughts that ran through his head, trying to decipher whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. It seemed that as time went on, he only got more confused and she had to desperately try not to laugh. "I don't know," he replied with an exasperated sigh that only added to her need to laugh. Within seconds the laughter fell from her lips, coming out in quiet snickers that she hid behind the sleeve of her jumper. It did not work with the vampires though, each of them turned to look in her direction with pure confusion written on their faces as she tried to get a hold of her laughter. By this point, Embry laughed too, in his mind, and it only greatened the pain in her stomach. She didn't even know what was so funny yet she couldn't control herself.

"Never lose focus," Jasper's voice echoed in her ears as he frowned at Emmett, who had been thrown on the floor just seconds previous. He looked at her and smirked at how the advice also applied to her at that moment. From there, Athena left Embrys head (definitely not because he was making fun of her or anything) and paid full attention as Eddie and Carlisle began their fight.

Edward smiled smugly as he thought he won against Carlisle. "Never turn your back on your enemy," Jasper sighed, letting his annoyance show clearly as Carlisle snuck back up on Edward and knocked him to the ground. Athena grinned at that ending, finding watching Edward's changing expression ever so entertaining.

Athena stepped up to the ground dedicated to fighting with a smile on her face, excited for what was about to come. Luna pulled her curls up into a messy bun as they faced each other, faking faces of pure anger as they looked at each other. As suspected, their fight began as a more joking situation with Luna laughing as Athena dodged her attempted hits and vice versa. Only when Athena finally landed an impact, did the anger levels and competitiveness in Luna rise to uncomfortable levels. They dove at each other, spinning to get out of the others way and desperately trying to get the other to the ground. Athena stopped still as Luan ran at her, delving into her mind and creating a scenario that she knew would stop her straight away. A traditional Irish pub that smelled heavily of beer and cigarettes. The flicking image only lasted a few seconds but by the time Luna was returned back to reality, Athena had knocked her to the ground and smiled smugly above her.

"That is not fair," Luna grumbled as Athena offered a hand to help her up, one that she did not take.

"There was never a rule against using gifts," she shrugged, trying not to laugh like Jasper was doing ever so discreetly. Athena was about to go back to the rock that she had been watching from when he stepped up to the 'arena' as Embry had started to call it. She turned back around and smiled, feeling weirdly more excited for this battle than the ones she had watched before it.

"No gifts," he warned as she walked towards her, gaze fixed on her eyes.

 "Sure Whitlock," she chuckled and took on a joking fighting stance, ready to attack at his sudden movement. The movement came but she had already moved out of the way, smirking as he grabbed nothing instead of her arm. The attempt at grabbing her occurred again and she dodged it a second time, nothing the flash of competitiveness flash behind his eyes. This time he lunged for her, attempting to get his arms wrapped around her shoulders so she could not move. But Athena flipped out of the way, landing on her feet mere centimetres behind him as he turned around with a deeply furrowed brow, she chuckled and this time did not move on his attack -forming a plan as he smirked smugly with his hands on her arms. She softened her gaze, looking defeated which set off a chain reaction in him. He leant forward, gently taking her chin in his fingers so he could tilt her head up when their lips met. Instead, Athena span out of the way and disappeared into the tree line - waiting for a few seconds of him looking around before he faced the opposite way that she was. She ran out from behind the trees and slid across the floor, feeding her legs through his and twisting so he was knocked to the ground in a tangle of limbs. She stood up just as he hit the ground. "Thought you said to never lose focus," she chuckled as he turned around, looking up at her as he laughed softly. This time her extended arm to help someone up was accepted and she didn't feel as bad for winning the fight as she had before. She smiled as Jasper picked a large piece of debris from the floor from her hair, smiling proudly and sort of in amazement.

Athena left the training session moments after that, needing to go and meet Eric for something they had planned weeks ago. It was just a trip into the city since he needed to go and in this climate, she wouldn't let him travel out of the w olves protection alone. So she went with him, willingly, soaking up all the time with him she could get before he fled off to whatever college he eventually decides on - having had multiple offers and even a few scholarships. He joked that it was all because of her help with Chemistry and all the other subjects but she knew that to be false and reminded him of that all the time.

As she drove she thought of all the worst things that could come from this looming battle and hoped to any otherworldly being that those would not come true. She didn't know how she would live with herself if they did.