Legacy in Ruins: Dragon Rider Book 1

Chapter 14: Dodge

Author's Note:

I'm so sorry guys for not posting last week. I think I came down with the flu or something because I just felt HORRIBLE! My head pounded and couldn't eat anything until a few days ago. I'm posting today, and i'm going to try and update my other books. 

 I'm an early bird and my work usually opens at 4:30 so I like to be there by then a write for a few hours, even if I start at 7:30 am, lol. But tomorrow I don't start till ten (It's a short day for me, don't know why, my managers weird) but I plan to get a good four or five hours of writing in. And I just want to give a big thanks to everyone who reads my books, I know I say this every chapter, but I really do love you all and appreciate you reading and voting for my stories.

Reminder: Always be nice to your fellow baristas, were humans too. :)

Enjoy! 

Swiping the sweat off my forehead, I panted heavily while looking to my partner, Lydia. The lean woman who had started off the training with her dark hair tied neatly into a bun. But three hours later and a six-mile jog, her hair was on the verge of giving up and falling out of the ponytail. Her rather small chest rose and fell quickly, heaving in as much air as her lungs would let her. Cardio had never been her strong suit.

Lydia wasn't the best fighter, in fact, she was awful, and you could definitely tell that she had never punched anyone or held a sword in her life. I didn't want to be mean because everyone had to start somewhere, but after a few hours of training, even I was getting annoyed with her constant falling and fails. As selfish as I was, I wanted to get in some actual training time too! I had been out injured for almost two weeks, I was falling behind everyone else, even with my training experience with my family. Mages fought very differently from dragon riders. We -- they were more elegant and tricky with their attack while dragon riders preferred more head-on approaches.

But one thing that I was grateful for, was my instructor. He absolutely did not care if i'm a pureblood mage. He treated me as he would any other, punches and all included. Though he only tended to whack people over the head when they were being idiots.

I threw an easy punch at my partner, one that she should have been able to dodge. But she has slow reflexes. With my fist colliding with her stomach she grunted and stumbled back a few inches before falling to her butt.

"By the gods!" She cursed, slamming her fists into the grass. Her shiny armor reflected the cloudless day, blinding one of my eyes. I raised a hand, to block the shine and extended my hand to her. "We've been at this all day."

"Come on you can do this. It just takes time." I assured her, though I've been doing that for the past few hours already. I doubt my words have any effect on her now.

She wasn't wrong about being here all day, we had begun training when the sky was painted in beautiful purple pastels, and now the sun had just risen overhead. My muscles ached and protested when I would squat or crouch, my lungs still burned from the previous run, and sweat dripped down my temples. As I made a quick glance around the courtyard, I thought that the least the school could do was place a few trees to provide us shade. But the closest thing we had to cover were the long stretches of building that surrounded the courtyard we were training in.

Looking down at my friend, I plastered on a sympathetic smile while I pulled her onto her feet. I shrugged. "This time when you move to dodge, duck and grab my elbow, pushing up. But remember this is a training exercise so don't hammer at my elbow. I don't want to add another injury to my already long list."

Lydia's almond eyes glimmering with defeat, her determination from this morning gone. And as I assumed my words of encouragement didn't grab her as I had hoped. Then again, I hadn't exactly put a whole lot of emotion into it. "This is pointless, we've been at this for weeks and I still can't get it down." She huffed, waving a hand aimlessly in the air.