Kick

Rhea, Year 814 of Avia, Day 118

“Too slow.”

Ilina blocked Icarum’s jab with her palm and clasped his fist tightly. She pulled him towards her, smiling at his surprised expression. When he was just inches from her face, she reared up her left leg and slammed it upwards into his stomach.

However, Icarum wasn’t the weakling that he was six months ago. He ripped his fist out of Ilina’s grasp, swatting her hand aside. Just before Ilina’s knee made an impact, he pivoted to the side, landing a punch on her shoulder.

An angry scowl replaced the grin on Ilina’s charming face. She backed away, crouched down into a fighting stance, and angled her arms into an L. From experience, Icarum already knew her next move: she’d leap into the air and perform some sort of flying kick with her full strength. She’d use a handstand to adjust her angle if Icarum moved, making it incredibly difficult for him to dodge her attack.

Not today, he thought. If he couldn’t defend himself, his only option was to go on the offensive. He ran forward as fast as he could, trying to land a blow on Ilina before her feet left the ground.

Icarum missed his chance by a second. He gradually turned his head up towards Ilina, watching her every move closely. He saw Ilina’s leg arched mid-air and braced himself for the inevitable sting of pain. But even as Ilina landed her kick, he focused on determining her landing location.

A bruise began to form on Icarum’s lower cheek, but he paid it no attention. One kick was no longer enough to knock him down.

There. Based on Ilina’s fall trajectory, Icarum could tell that she’d land around a meter behind him. Feigning ignorance, he took a step back, preparing himself to attack the moment she was in range.

Now. He turned around suddenly and punched her in the nose. Blood came streaming out of her nostrils, dripping all over the floor. He tried to follow it up with a right front kick, but lost momentum after Ilina stomped hard on his left foot, causing Icarum to lose his balance.

Hopping on one foot, Icarum retreated, while keeping his arms up to fend off any surprise attacks.

“That’s five minutes.” Ilina forced a smile and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a white tissue to wipe the blood from her nose.

“Are you, uh, okay?”

Ilina laughed. “Never been better.”

She pointed to the training sheet lying on the ground, now wrinkled and yellowed from age. “You can scrap that now.”

Icarum’s eyes lit up. It looked like his grueling days of pushups, curl-ups, and getting beat up were over.

Ilina noticed Icarum’s expression and crushed his spirits. “Don’t worry, it gets worse.”

As she left the cavern, she raised her hand to wave goodbye. “We’ll train with your wings tomorrow,” she shouted. “Come a little earlier.”

---------------------------

Icarum sat in the cafeteria with his Khal, watching him chow down an entire chicken.

“Isn’t that technically cannibalism?”

“At least it tastes good,” Pigeon answered. “I live life with no regrets.”

Icarum rolled his eyes. He casually ate his mashed potatoes, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.

“You been listening to the radio recently?” Pigeon asked.

“Not really, what’s up?”

“Apparently the Sydurnians have won the war against the Enceladeans. It took them such a short time, too.”

“It’s good for the rebellion. More people will join our cause.”

“I mean, not really. Now the Sydurnians have all the water they need for their steam technology. Their airships will be a lot stronger than ours.”

Icarum paused and looked up at the ceiling. Small electric lamps hung from the concrete, emitting a bright orange light.

“I’ve been meaning to ask this for a while, actually,” Icarum started. “How do the rebels have such good technology? We didn’t have any of this in my old tribe.”

Pigeon picked up his fork and held it up in the air.

“Asterum!”

A boy with short, brown hair approached the table, but backed away once he caught sight of Icarum. He let out a heavy sigh and crossed his arms. “Khal, what do you want?”

“Tell Icarum about our technology.”

Khal turned to Icarum. “Wait, if Rhozo’s also your grandfather, doesn’t that make you brothers?”

“Cousins,” Asterum retorted.

“I see. But Icarum, shouldn’t you be like, really close to Master Rhozo? You could just ask him yourself.”

“I called him grandfather, but he didn’t seem to care one bit. I never met him before coming here, remember?”

“Right. Anyways, Asterum, tell him!”

Asterum hesitated, refusing to look at Icarum. With his gaze fixed on the ground, he started his story.

“Since I’m an Owl, the Council has been planning to make me Rhozo’s successor. Naturally, they’ve also been leaking information to me, little by little.”

“He’s a little full of himself,” Khal whispered. “But he’s a good guy.”

“When the Rhean tribes fled to the mountains, there was a huge problem with organization and funding. Even when the Council was formed, the tribes didn’t have the resources to mount an attack on Sydurnia.”

Asterum noticed an ant crawling nearby, and scooped it up into his hands.

“To Sydurnia, we were just a small bug that they could crush at any moment.”

He let the ant crawl down his tunic and back onto the floor. “But the anti-war faction of Sydurnia wanted to prevent King Sydurn from colonizing the other islands, so they ended up sharing a lot of Sydurnian technology without asking anything in return.”

“After a couple of years, we managed to use stolen Sydurnian blueprints to create our first airship,” he continued. “Captain Xerxes, the man in charge of the ship, used hit and run tactics to hijack a bunch of other airships, which enabled us to create the fleet we have today.”

Khal nudged lcarum. “You see?”

Before either Khal or Icarum could thank him, Asterum left the cafeteria, taking his food with him.

“What’s with him?” Icarum asked.

“He really seems to hate you for some reason. He hated me too at first, but then I gave him this cool music album that I recorded off the radio, and now he hates me less.”

Mia and Carla entered the cafeteria a few minutes later and sat down at the same table. They were both exhausted from training, and couldn’t bring themselves to start a conversation.

Without Icarum noticing, Noah slipped into the seat next to him. He tapped him on the shoulder and whispered in his ear. “Can I copy your homework? HIstory’s really not my thing.”

“What even is your thing?”

Noah pressed his lips together to make a duck face. “I can run really fast!”

“Sure, sure.” Icarum took his homework out of his bag and handed it to Noah.

“You’re a lifesaver.”

“I know.”