War Dog

Chapter 9

Equal parts irritated and amused at Ceri's ability to see right through my gruff exterior, I relent and question her about the recruits death. I sense no dishonesty in her expression, but her admission to being willing to kill him, but smartly catches me off guard. Her open honesty is refreshing and surprising, leaving me with no smart response. 

"That makes me think better of you, actually. Patient and cunning." The praise slips from my tongue with an ease that made it seem like I practiced giving compliments a lot. The pleased expression on her face makes me feel like the praise was the right choice. I gesture towards the obstacle course, indicating we should do what we came here for.

I watch closely as she moves towards the starting point stretching and warming up with a grace that most humans would struggle to attain without years of training. I eyed off the course as she gave me the rough run times. I mentally tallied the timing and found that she was pretty much on the ballpark with estimations on my ability to complete the course, but I wondered why her average times matched up with mine. By all accounts, the hybrids should be able to complete the course quicker than any humans. 

These questions were compounded when I saw her leap just straight up to the top of the a-frame. Eyes widening like saucers as Ceri grabbed the edge of top and hauled herself up like it was nothing. I noticed that she rappelled down the otherside. The A-frame wasn't particularly high, and I'd assumed she'd just leap down like she'd leaped up. The second obstacle, I felt her disgust mirrored in my gut. That muddy water looked nasty, and I didn't have to worry about fur being matted either, but she waded through it without hesitation. The water dragged on her as she pulled herself up the other edge and leapt up to grab the monkey bars. And I had some of my questions answered. A well trained human would have flown across those bars like nothing. But the way a hybrids shoulders joined made swinging incredibly difficult and I could see her struggling across them. 

Despite the struggle and strain I could see, she made it across, dropping smoothly and flattening out like a choreography. Where she had made the leaps look graceful, and the monkey bars look like a challenge, she made the army crawl look down right monstrous in comparison. Her limbs didn't move quite like a canines, and not quiet like a humans. She hinged in all the wrong places and it was slow. Like watching a car crash in slow motion. I couldn't take my eyes off of her despite the physical disgust I felt in watching how she moved. 

Relief flooded me as she stood up, and her grace again showed itself as she went hurtling towards the under overs. Leaping over them like she was born to do just that, she made up for lost time, not even stopping to position herself. Flying under the next, like her feet had wings, barely touching the ground before leaping again. Watching her now was like watching a piece of art in action, compared to watching her re-enact the human centipede by herself crawling under the nets. She passed through the tires like they were nothing and sprinted for the rock climbing wall. Her legs propelled her up, finding the holds instinctively. She climbed up like a spider monkey and rappelled down the other side, taking her time to make sure she didn't slip. A human harnessed up would have abseiled down, taking several long leaps instead of the careful rappelling she had to do without being attached to a harness. She made the way down smoothly, and fast all things considered. 

She positions herself on the next obstacle, and watching her inch herself across the cable was similar to watching her under the nets. It looked like a re-enactment of the human centipede attempting to cross the cable and my mind struggled to comprehend how anyone could look so graceless. 

At this point, I could see why she wasn't significantly faster than a human at this course. It was designed with equal linchpins for each species. Some things humans would excel at, some the hybrids could clear easily. The last obstacle I expected Ceri to clear easily. I saw Ceri's hesitation even from back here and my optimism and confidence in her dropped, remembering her words before starting the course. She was still exhausted from being feral. She'd only just recovered.