Blood Part 3

There were no more blood attacks that day. At least, none directed at me. Time for what I consider the fun part of my day. Training. It was not unusual to see even one as young as five years old training. That’s the way it worked, if you wanted a chance of survival, you knew how to fight. Training starts at five years old because that is the earliest age where they are most likely to learn how to fight but still have five years to practice and perfect their technique. Obviously that means that no one would find it odd to see someone else practicing martial arts or street fighting or anything like that even in public. I don’t have a special brand of fighting, I just do what works. I landed behind a clump of trees behind the gym. I folded my wings against my back and walked into the gym through the back door.

"Hey Zaia! How was school?" My gym buddy, Marc rushed up to me, grinning from ear to ear. "School was fine, almost did not make it there though." I smiled up at him. His curly, chestnut hair was wet from intense sweating - he must be taking a break. Marc was one of the few people who were at the gym more than I was. "Damn bloods again?" He knew how I was constantly being attacked by them. He even fought by my side several times...And saved my life. "Yeah...First thing in the morning. One of them came thundering down the hall in my own house after me. Then at least five of them chase me all the way to school!" I shook my head. "They get nasty once you kill a few of em don’t they? I’ll wait for you in the ring, Zaia." He headed towards the boxing ring. We usually have several matches against each other to keep our skills sharp. "Sure...Marc?" "Yeah?" He looked back. "Prepare for a severe butt kicking!" I laughed and walked toward the women’s locker room. "We’ll see about that!" He called after me.

There were only two others in the locker room. Talia Johnson (or Tally as she prefers to be called) and Kyra Jones. "Hey Tally, Kyra. How are you two?" I asked as I made my way to my locker. "Pretty good. I did not have any problems with the bloods yet today." Kyra announced gleefully. "Lucky. I got attacked in my house then chased to school! How was your day Tally? Any bloods? Did Tye call back?" I started to change into my gym clothes. "Well I got the usual with the bloods. One attack at lunch time but it was pretty small. Tye did call. He said that he would pick me up at eight." She clapped her hands and hopped up and down a little, making her blonde curls bounce around like crazy. "Do you know where he’s taking you?" "No, he said it was a surprise." "Have fun! I should go now, I have a match with Marc." The other girls grinned at me. "You know Zaia, I think h...OW!" Kyra turned to Tally who had kicked her in the shin. "What was that for?!" She demanded. "What?" "You...OH!!" She seemed to understand whatever it was that Tally was trying to say. "Umm... What are you talking about?" I asked, confused. They both closed their lockers and turned to me at the same time and said "Nothing!" In unison. "Ookay then..." They plastered smiles onto their faces as Tally said "It’s nothing really, have fun kicking Marc’s butt." They both blushed a bit when Marc’s name was mentioned. Then Kyra muttered something that sounded like "I’m sure he will..." "What was that Kyra? I did not hear you." "Nothing, nothing! I said nothing. I have to go now... Babysitting my baby cousins." She grimaced. I decided to let their odd behaviour go. "Ha-ha. See you later then." I walked out confused and promised myself that I would confront them about that later. I ran on the treadmill for about forty minutes then I switched to weight lifting, slowly building up the amount of weight that I lifted. I spent several hours on different machines before I went to find Marc.

MARC’S POV
She walked in sweaty. We had both decided to spend a good couple hours on the machines before actually fighting. She was wearing new gym clothes. The last ones she had got destroyed in a fight against a blood. The new ones look better anyway. I thought as I remembered the old ones. The new gym outfit was tight black shorts that reached halfway down her thigh and a simple indigo t-shirt. The new outfit was simple but on her it looked amazing. Her long, black hair was tied back in a pony tail so it would stay out of her face while she fought or exercised. Her unusual amethyst eyes sparkled in the sunlight. When she saw me a wide grin stretched across her face and she jogged over to me. I felt an answering smile tug at my lips. When she got to me we were both beaming at each other. "You took you time there. What where you doing? Painting your nails?" I teased. She smirked. "Nope, maybe tomorrow. I was caching up with Tally and Kyra...They were acting a little odd today though." Tally and Kyra knew. If either of them told Zaia... "Really? What’s new?" I asked trying to figure out what they told her. "Oh nothing much. Kyra had a free day and she has babysitting and Tally has a date. The usual. What about you? How was your day?" She looked up at me, waiting for an answer.

"I got attacked by two medium bloods just before I got here at 3:00. School was boring. I got this weird letter in the mail that you might want to look at." "About what?" "I don’t know... Something about some scientist guy. You know how boring I find that. I kept it because it looked like the kind of thing that you would like." "Oh, thanks! Do you remember the name? Or what he specials in?" Her eyes were wide; she looked very exited-like a kid in a candy shop. I laughed at her reaction even though I knew that was how she would react. "I have no clue. All of that scientific stuff just confuses me. I left it at home. Do you think you would be able to come over to pick it up?" "Sure!" She nodded her head vigorously. "When?" "Anytime is fine for me...does it matter?" "Nah. Can you come over after I kick your butt?" She tried to glare at me but you could tell her heart was not into it...she was too excited. "No I can’t. But I can come after I kick YOUR butt!" She challenged. "Alright no more stalling, let’s see who is better." I led the way to the ring. It had been almost a year since we had last fought against each other; we had been too busy for anything like that. I won the last one so I was feeling pretty optimistic.

So naturally I was shocked when she delivered a two footed kick that landed directly in my stomach. I felt the air whoosh out of me and the pain in my stomach was a lot more intense than I thought it would be. "Ow!" I said in surprise. I did not double over, I could not afford to lose track of her. She was amazingly fast, that was something that I did not forget. I punched what I thought was her face but she jumped out of the way so I missed and the blow merely glanced off her shoulder. Damn, she was so FAST! This time I kicked out and managed to get her behind the knee. She lost her balance and toppled to the ground. When she did not get up I thought that I had hit her too hard and had broken something. But as soon as I got close to her, she sprung up (landing behind me) and kicked me twice before I turned around. When I did turn around she punched me in my jaw-hard- and then kicked me in the chest. I fell and stayed down. She stayed away from me just in case I was using the same trick that she had. "Okay, you win!" I pulled myself into a sitting position and stared at her wonderingly. She had gotten so much better since last time. She was very good last time but now...She was Amazing.