After her work on the fields the next day, Orenda came to the area between the garden and the orchard to meet Mary Sue, to take her up on her offer, and learn how to fight. In her mind, she saw the poster that was proudly displayed downstairs, and wondered how much more effective it would have been to learn from Xac himself, but she knew from what she had seen when Lapus attacked Gareth that the people he had trained were more than capable of holding their own, and Mary Sue had had much longer to train than Lapus had.

Mary Sue was standing, staring in the direction of her father’s grave, and Orenda wondered how long she was going to do that. Days? Weeks? For the rest of her life?

Gareth and Bella sat on the back porch in rocking chairs, watching them and breaking apart beans, discarding the unedible tips and strings into one bucket and tossing the edible, broken pieces into a barrel to be stored.

“Mary Sue?” Orenda asked.

“Yes,” She turned to face her, “I… I’m sorry, Rendy. I’m ready.”

“So I’m not particularly sure what I’m meant to be doing,” Orenda said, “I’ve been in a few physical confrontations before, but I don’t think I learned very much. I feel that my goal, in those times, had been to stay alive.”

“That’s good,” Mary Sue said, “That is the end goal. It’s part of what makes us so adept at fighting- rabbits are prey animals, and are born with an ability to stay alive. There’s an old saying round these parts, ‘The cat is fighting for her lunch, but the mouse is fighting for his life.’ You’re a mouse going up against cats, Rendy. The Emerald Knight is a predator if I ever seen one. He goes into a situation thinking he’s the strongest one in the room. Never a good mindset to have. Anything that lives can die- and death can come at you outta nowhere.”

“Right,” Orenda said. “So do I need to get my staff?”

“No,” Mary Sue shook her head, “Daddy’s style don’t use weapons. They didn’t give you nothing in the cage- you have to improvise. That’s rule 1: Know your environment. Well, actually that’s the second rule, the first one is the thing about never thinking you’re the strongest one in the room. But rule 2 is to know your environment. Look around and get a good idea of where you are. There might be something around you you can use, or that you have to look out for.”

“Rule 3 is to know your strengths and weaknesses. You’re pretty big, especially for an elf. You’re taller than me- now you might think that’s a strength but it’s not. It’s hard to guard all that. I can keep low and know when you’re coming at me, but you can’t. You gotta get real good at knowing your body and where every bit of it is at any time.”

“What do you mean?” Orenda asked, and then doubled over sideways in pain. Mary Sue had moved quickly, too quickly to track, and hit her hard in the side, knocking her off balance and into the cold, autumn ground.

“What the hell!?” Orenda snapped, “I wasn’t ready! You gave no indication that we were about to begin! You just blindsided me!”

“Nobody oughta be able to blindside you,” Mary Sue told her.

“That hurt!” Orenda protested as she climbed to her feet.

“Emerald Knight’ll hit you harder,” Mary Sue said, “Don’t stay in one place too long! Move! Stand up straight, keep your core tight. Know where you’re at!”

Orenda stood, observed Mary Sue’s stance, and copied it. She tried to bounce on her feet, as Mary Sue was doing, and found that the mobility wore her out, that despite her work in the field, she didn’t have the stamina for it.

“This is exhausting,” Orenda said.

“Do it till it ain’t,” Mary Sue told her, and moved to hit her again.

Orenda saw her this time, and stepped to the side, but found she wasn’t fast enough to avoid it. When the punch connected with her shoulder she went spiraling into the fence.

“Don’t stay down,” Mary Sue told her, “bounce back, push off, use the momentum.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Orenda asked her, even as her body obeyed the command.

“You know what I think your problem is?” Mary Sue asked her, “You’re head’s not in it. You don’t wanna fight me.”

“Of course I don’t want to fight you,” Orenda told her.

“You wanna fight the Emerald Knight?” Mary Sue asked her, “You wanna take down a legend when you can’t fight a field bunny?”

“You know, there’s no need to insult me,” Orenda said as Mary Sue advanced on her again, and hit her so hard in the stomach she felt, for a moment, as if she may throw up. She doubled back against the garden fence, breathing heavily.

“Stop!” Orenda called, “Time out!”

“Oh she is just… beating her ass,” Gareth grabbed the arm of the chair to haul himself to his feet, “RENDY! FIGHT LIKE A FIREFIST!”

Orenda didn’t know what he meant by that- she was battered, she knew the places she had been hit were going to bruise, and she was afraid that if Mary Sue didn’t come to her senses she was going to kill her.

“Stop it,” She called, “Time out! Stop!”

Mary Sue hit her in her face so hard she saw stars, and something within her snapped. This was supposed to be a lesson, not a beating. This was unfair. She had asked for help, not assault. Mary Sue went to attack her again, and Orenda reached out and grabbed her arm before it could connect. Her mouth hurt on the side Mary Sue had hit her down to the very bone. Her teeth felt loose.

There was madness in her eyes when she demanded again, “Stop it! Stop!”

The medallion below her dress began to glow, and she shoved off the fence as the fire sprang from her and surrounded her.

“Let me catch my breath!” Orenda demanded, and jerked Mary Sue forward and over the fence, where she rolled head over heels, but then jumped to her feet.

“Just like that,” Mary Sue laughed as she hopped up, “Know your environment, know yourself. Bet if I hadn’t been made of sterilite that would have burned me to a crisp. We don’t know if that magic’s gonna work on the Emerald Knight. You look madder than hell.”

“You hit me in my face!” Orenda snapped. “You did something to my teeth!”

“That little halfling’ll make you a potion, fix you right up,” Mary Sue laughed, “Come on, I got a feel for you now, I’ll show you some poses that’ll work for you. Honestly, Rendy, you’re just outta shape, but under that fat and happy nobility there’s a powerhouse. So we’re gonna do mostly exercises. You need to get to where you can move, instantly, you need to learn how to stretch and get your muscles workin. You’re bottom heavy. I bet with some training you can kick like a mule.”

Orenda felt her breathing slowly returning to normal as Mary Sue approached her, hopped the fence, and laid a hand on her shoulder.

“I want you to remember something right now,” Mary Sue said to her, “I want you to remember that you think you’re in pain right now. Because here in a little bit, maybe a couple weeks or a month, I want you to look back on this moment right now, because you’re going to think, ‘I can’t believe I thought that hurt’.”

Orenda rubbed the side of her face where the bruise was already forming and tried to figure out what she meant. Then she followed Mary Sue and allowed her to guide her body into a number of positions, to adjust her until she had each one perfect, and together they worked through repetitive series of movements until long after the sun had set.

They were moving back toward the house when Junior came running out of another structure on the property, one that a great deal of smoke seemed to come from, and hopped the fence. Orenda saw something in his hand glistening in the moonlight- Gareth’s mask.

“Uncle Gary!” He called, and Gareth turned to look at him.

Orenda saw Falsie walking the same path Junior had, at a much more leisurely pace.

“We fixed it,” Junior hopped up onto the porch and held out the mask, “We finally got it bent back into shape.”

“Thank god,” Gareth said as he took it.

“Uh, thank me,” Junior corrected, “And Uncle Falsie. We’re the ones who fixed it.” Gareth grinned, so Junior went on, “How ya holding up, old man?”

“Much better,” Gareth said, “I think I’ll make a full recovery. Your sisters tell me that Lapus left trace amounts of sterilite in my system and it has to purge it. It’s as if I ate some bad food. Recovery is a bitch, but I’ve had worse. Did I ever tell you how I got this scar?”

“No,” Junior said, “And it’s been killing me. I’ve been dying to know.”

“Oh,” Gareth said with alarm, as if someone taking an interest was an uncommon occurrence for him, “Well, my boy, sit down- actually, no, go get the children. Have everyone gather round. Old Uncle Gary is going to tell you a story.”

“Alright!” Junior said enthusiastically and disappeared into the house.