A Dragon's Rider (Edited)

Chapter 11

We both step forward and raise our weapons. The instructors step aside and everyone forms a ring around us. We circle each other warily before the fighting starts.

John swings at my shins and I jump up to avoid it. He swings again, this time at my head, and I duck to the left. My dagger slashes out to hit his stomach but he blocks it with the staff. I bounce back and roll to the right. With quick slashes and thrusts, I force John back to the edge of the circle. He blocks each one successfully but is too concentrated on me to do much else. I use his distraction to my advantage and make a fake swipe at his leg. He steps right to avoid it and I step with him. My knife starts to go to his neck, but instead of submitting, he only arches an eyebrow.

The dagger is almost to his neck when his staff flashes around and knocks it out of my hand.

Before I can make a wild dive for my weapon, John is around to my back with his staff is pressed against my stomach. I can feel him breathing heavily behind me. He has a steady hold on his staff, one hand on each end, me behind it and pressed against his front. No one speaks for a moment before I stomp my foot twice in defeat and his stance relaxes. He does not, however, release the staff, so I am still pressed against him.

I clear my throat and he looks down. I gesture to the staff.

"Huh? Oh – sorry!" he releases one hand and I turn to look at him. His face is flushed, and I realize with a start that he's blushing.

I choke back a giggle. The students all swarm over John, talking about the fight and how amazing he was. I roll my eyes but laugh when John sends me a look of pure terror and mouths help me. I start to wade through the sea of bodies and eventually get to John.

He smiles at me and says, "Guys! Shut up!" It has an immediate effect, and everyone is silent. "Ok. So, um... Well..." I decide to take pity on him.

"Everyone go away! If you don't, John here won't teach you how to do that last move!" The mass contemplates that for a while before agreeing and leaving to watch the next fight.

"Liora!" John whines "Now I have to show them that last move."

"Nope." I disagree.

"Huh?"

"Well, I said if they didn't go away, you wouldn't show them the move right?" He nods. " Well, I never said that you would show it to them in the first place."

"Wha... Oh! Oh, you're bad."

I lower my eyebrows. "Darn straight. "Come on, let's go! Hunter said we could leave after we finished our duels." I tug impatiently on his arm. He laughs at my childish antics but still allows me to pull him towards the school.

A sneaky rock makes its way into my path and I almost fall but John catches my waist. Warmth rushes to my face.

Oops.

His face is priceless. He is a perfect mixture of confusion, shyness, and laughter in his eyes as he slowly lets me go. We stand face to face, barely an inch apart. My breath catches in my throat. Then we hear a low cough. Startled, I jolt back and whip around to look at the intruder. It's Jason. My mind starts to wander as the boys start talking about fighting techniques and boring things.

I hear a loud noise and blink back to reality. I jump a little when I see both John and Jason's faces in my eye line. When did they get so close?

"Are you okay?" John's eyebrows are furrowed in concern. "You spaced out for a minute there. We were worried you'd had some kind of seizure."

"No. " I reassure him "I'm fine. Just bored"

"Okay." Jason still looks confused but lets it go. "Well, dinner isn't for a good four hours, so you guys have a few options. You can go see your dragons, practice fighting, have a snack, go swimming, or... whatever else you want to do." He wiggles his eyebrows.

"Shut up!" I hit his arm. The boys decide to hit the swimming pond but I decline their offer and walk back to my room, intent of stretching and relieving my sore muscles. Before I get too far, I'm stopped by John grabbing my elbow and turning me to face him. I look up into his eyes and wait for him to say something.

"Hey. Thanks. That was fun."

I smile and nod. "No problem." He lets go and walks backward back to Jason

I continue to my room, taking the steps two at a time while I think.