James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"Yes, that would please me," she said in a gratified voice.

He found out why once they reached the baths. Allia had never in her life been immersed in water that went past her knees. She was sincerely afraid of the idea of going into the waist-deep water, though she would die before she admitted it. He also found that, like him, she had absolutely no fear of appearing in front of others nude. Tarrin found that quality to be refreshing. She undressed herself boldly before him as he did so himself, then he lowered himself into the pool and waited for her. She stood at the lip of the pool hesitantly, looking out over all that water with a bit of a wild look in her eyes. He stood by the lip right under her and reached up a paw. "Come on," he said gently. "If you want, I'll teach you how to swim. The water's not quite deep enough for it, but I can give you an idea."

She took his paw, and lowered herself into the water.

She still had that wild-eyed look, and she would not let go of his paw. He winced a bit under her grip. This woman was strong . He thought that the relaxing heat of the water may loosen her fear somewhat, so he led her towards the far end, into the hotter water. He was very careful to stay as close to the lip as possible, to give her something solid to reassure her. "Let me know if it gets too hot," he told her as they advanced into the hotter water.

The hot water had its desired effect. The grip on his paw relaxed, but she still would not let go. He decided not to make an issue of it. She was doing something that she'd never done before, something that was new and a bit frightening. "I know it's a strange sensation," he told her. "Come on, let's go out into the middle. Once you see that you're not going to go in over your head, I think you'll be alright."

She looked at him intently. Her eyes blazed for just a moment when she realized he knew she was afraid, but then, curiously, they softened, then took on an appreciative look. "You are very subtle," she said, then she laughed. "Very subtle indeed. Am I so obvious to you?"

"No, but I could tell that you didn't like the idea," he told her. "And the grip you had on my paw told me alot once you got into the water."

She smiled then, a glorious smile that would make any man's knees weak. "You are quite a man, Tarrin," she said in her accented voice. "You will bring me much honor in our friendship."

"Well, thank you," he said.

"Now, you may wash my hair," she said in an imperious voice.

"Yes ma'am," he chuckled, reaching for a cake of soap, right after she let go of his paw.

Allia, Tarrin found, was a very serious, sober woman, dignified and very much bound to her precepts of honor and propriety. That wasn't a bad thing, not at all. But, on the other hand, he discovered that, once you got past that towering barrier of iciness that she put to the human world, she was a warm, vibrant person with a very rich sense of humor and a very perceptive view of the world. Tarrin saw alot of Jesmind in her, for they had the same practical, no-nonsense view of the world, and both had the same tendancy to speak whatever was on their minds. That told Tarrin that Allia trusted him, and that pleased him greatly. They talked of unimportant things during the course of the bath, as he washed her hair, then she unbound his braid and returned the favor. All in all, he liked Allia very much, even after only a short time to get to know each other. Much like he and Dar had done, Tarrin and Allia simply clicked, quickly finding a common ground and using it to build a friendship.

By the time he helped her from the water, they were both laughing and carrying on as if they'd known each other all their lives.

There were a couple of frictions, however. The main one was Dar. Because he was Arkisian, Allia took an immediate dislike to him, and Dar was instantly afraid of her. That was a wise thing, Tarrin guessed, and from then on the young man avoided Tarrin like the plague any time he was with Allia. Tarrin didn't ignore Dar, he just divided his time between his two friends so that he could spend time with both without leaving out the other.

The next day, Tarrin and Allia walked out onto the training grounds wearing their practice clothing. For Tarrin, it was his old leathers. For Allia, it was the same sand-colored baggy clothes which she had worn the day before. She'd worn Novice clothes that morning, and looked distinctly uncomfortable in them. She was wearing the trousers rather than a dress, and when he asked her why, she laughed in his face. "Selani do not wear such ridiculous things," she told him. "It would tangle my legs when I fight."

After a quick consultation with each other over the rules of the sparring match, they faced off to quite a crowd of Knights and apprentices looking on. They had never seen a Selani face off against an Ungaardt before. The rules they'd chosen were what Allia called "child's rules". Tarrin didn't want to hurt her, since he was so much stronger than she was, so he'd insisted.

What he didn't gamble on was that he had to hit her in order to hurt her. She was wildly, impossibly fast. He'd never seen anyone who could move with the blinding speed with which she evaded his attacks. Tarrin himself was fast, inhumanly fast because of his Were-cat nature, but she was even faster than him. Tarrin was quickly put on the defensive, using every block and evade tactic he knew to keep her blurring hands and feet away from his sensitive parts. The unfamiliarity of his own body worked against him, as he struggled to work the forms that he knew around his new body, but facing an opponent like her was no time to experiment, so he simply tried as best he could to defend himself against her using what he knew and his natural speed and agility. They helped, but her own speed and agility neutralized that advantage, and his promise to pull punches eliminated his strength advantage. With no advantages over her, he was facing someone more adept in her style of fighting than he was in his, and the pummelling he endured proved it. But, after a while, he had to concede that he had never been as good as she was, even when he was human. Allia could give his mother a good fight. He would have paid money to see them face off against one another.

After about an hour of getting beaten like a dog, Tarrin started to come to understand her moves, and started anticipating her attacks. She used set, specific forms, and once he identified them, he could predict which move she would flow into next. It still didn't help much, for her speed allowed her to change moves in mid-attack. She beat him almost at will, punching and kicking him almost anywhere she pleased for that first hour, until he managed to mount enough of a defense that her attacks could no longer find him. That look of light amusement dissolved into a set look of concentration as she had to start working to get past his defenses. She could still do it, but it wasn't nearly as easy as it had been before.

Tarrin came to understand why the Selani were so deadly at that point. Had this been a real fight, and had he not been a Were-cat, she probably would have killed him by now.

"Enough of this play," she said. "Now we spar for real."

"How do you mean?"

"I mean that we do not pull punches," she said.

"I don't want to hurt you," he said.

"You will not, trust me," she said with a challenging smile.

"Alright, they're your bones," he shrugged.

One hit was all it took. Tarrin knew that. He had not used his full strength in their earlier spars. He blocked a side kick with a forearm with enough power to knock her off balance, and then he put a foot right in her belly. He did not pull the punch. Allia folded around his foot and was knocked backwards a few spans, then she sat down heavily on the ground, wheezing and gasping for breath with both hands to her belly. Tarrin knelt by her and put a gentle hand to her belly. He didn't feel anything wrong there; he'd just knocked the wind out of her.