Immortali: The Rising

Chapter 8-How to Fight

"This wasn't here before... right?" Pyra asked, stepping into the padded room, it's walls lined with every sort of weapon one could think of. "Because I'm 90% sure it wasn't here when you gave me the grand tour the other day."

"Only 90?" Arriana asked.

Pyra shrugged. "You can never be too sure."

Raina put her hands on her hips, observing the room. "No... Pyra's right. I've never seen this room before either."

The yellow-eyed Immortali grinned. "Oh? Perhaps I've just never shown you to this part of the house?"

Raina shook her head. Apart from the fact that what Arriana had just said was a straight up lie, there was something else that told her the older Immortal was pulling their legs. "No, the last time I was learning how to fight, you made Alrick teach me in the basement. If this was here before, you would've told him to do it in this room."

Arriana sighed. "Yes... that's right. I can't get much past you, can I?"

"Hello! Human Lie Detector, right over there," Pyra said, gesturing to Raina.

The older Immortal rolled her eyes. "Well... yes... there's also that."

"So... you're going to teach us how to fight?" Pyra asked.

Arriana nodded, a smug smile tugging at her lips. "Yes. I already know that you have... some unique instincts. I'll admit, I've never seen anyone drop down into the splits during a fight."

Pyra glowered at her. "Hey! Don't laugh, I just felt as though I could, so I did. And, you know what, it worked, so joke's on you."

Raina giggled. "You actually did that, huh? Dropped down into the splits in the middle of a fight?"

The Phoenix shrugged. "Yeah, it just felt right. I was fighting this creepy vampire/fairy thing called a lawn-na-she-duh."

"Lawn-en-she-duh," Arriana corrected.

Raina scratched the back of her head. "Evil fairy muse, right? From Celtic myth?"

The older Immortal nodded, but Pyra just looked dumbfounded.

"What the? How do you know what they are? I'd never even heard of them before! Let alone these crazy Celt people who told their kids stories about them."

The red haired girl just shrugged. "I read a lot."

Pyra went back to looking unimpressed. "Bloody reading," she muttered under her breath.

"Anyway, Pyra, it would appear as though you have some kind of innate instinct. Perhaps, naturally good at gymnastics?" Arriana asked.

Pyra considered this. "Maybe. That's kind of what it felt like: like I could do springs and flips and cartwheels."

"And did you feel well-balanced? Flexible?"

The girl shrugged. "Yeah."

"Show me."

That startled her. "Sorry, what?"

"I said: show me."

"But... but I can't just— I can't just do it, not like that!"

Arriana sighed. "But you must. You need to. In a fight, you can't wait for the right moment, you must be able to rely on yourself."

The Phoenix grumbled, but Raina got the feeling she wasn't really angry. She was nervous.

"Fine," Pyra ground out. "I'll do it, but don't expect it to be any good."

The older Immortal smiled. "I wouldn't expect anything more from you."