Loop over thumb, around the wrist, across the back of the hand-

"Wrap it around your wrist twice."

Alright, loop over thumb, around the wrist twice, across the back of the hand, around the fingers three times, circle to the...pinky?

"Loop it around the thumb and then go back to the pinky. Wrap the thumb after each gap."

Ah, got it. Loop over thumb, around the wrist twice, across the back of the hand, around the fingers three times, around the thumb and back to the pinky. Go through each gap in the fingers after each loop around the thumb, then wrap around the palm a couple of times. Finish off with the velcro on the wrist.

"That was better, only three tries." Eiden clapped from where he was sitting next to me, examining the cloth that I had wrapped around my wrist. "That was better than the seven from earlier."

"Yeah, well, that was my first time," I huffed, pulling my hand away from him.

"I know it was, that's why I'm congratulating you now."

I rolled my eyes, flexing my fingers around the black hand wraps. I stood from the bench, adjusting my tank top and leggings. "Now-" I turned towards Eiden, "can you help me train?" It had been at least two hours since Eiden told me to meet him in the kitchen, and all we did was find a spot by the Oak and wrap my hands.

My friend sighed, getting to his feet. "Alright, yeah, fine."

I grinned at him, walking backwards into a clearer area of the field. Once we were surrounded by the rest of the trainees, I smiled at Eiden again. "Show me what you got!"

Eiden shook his head. "Not so fast, I'm going to teach you the basics first. You can't go on and be good at any form of combat without that knowledge."

I huffed. "Alright, fine. Show me the basics then."

"Okay, once you master hand-to-hand combat, we're going to teach you some basic weapon moves, and then how to fight in your shifted forms. You'd have learned to actually shift by then."

I frowned, not looking forward to the whole shifting part. It sounds really painful. "Fine, just teach me some stuff."

Finally focusing, Eiden grinned. "Alright, before I teach you how to attack, I'm going to teach you where to attack." Pointing to different parts of his body, he continued. "Your primary targets are the eyes, nose, neck, and groin region. The secondary targets are the ears, abdomen, knee, shins, and feet."

"I assume that I can hit all of those spots at a close distance?" I nodded, looking around his body, curious if all those spots were visually weaker than everywhere else. Eiden, who was strongly aware of our brother-sister relationship, didn't really mind me inspecting his bare chest with a raised brow.

Now that I think of it, that sounds really weird.

"Typically, yes, but it all depends on the situation. For example, the calf muscles could be rooted in place, so that wouldn't be the best place to attack, but the knee of that same leg would be weakened, so you would want to go for that. However, you may be held in a position where you can't reach the leg as well as you could his arm. It all depends."

I nodded. "Alright, anything else?"

"Of course there is. Now, the skills I'm going to be teaching you today are actually from the boxing world. I was taught by a family friend who trained as a boxer with his friends. I'll only be teaching you the basic punches to start."

"Yeah, yeah, can you actually teach me now?" I begged.

Eiden chuckled, taking a step back. "Alright, so, there are three basic punches that I'm teaching you: the left jab, right cross or straight, the uppercut, and the hook. Let's start with the jab." Bringing his fists up into a fighting position, Eiden motioned for me to do the same. "So you're going to want to keep your right fist steady at the base of your chin. When you punch, your left arm goes straight forward. However, when you do this, there are a couple things you need to keep in mind. During the punch, you're going to want to rotate the whole arm. Circle the shoulder up to protect your chin, push the elbow straight forward, not outwards, and make sure the fist extends with the palm facing the ground. The impact of the punch should land on the index and middle knuckle, preferably. You got that?"

I nodded. "I think so." Shoulder, elbow, fist, got it. "Yep, I do."

"Alright, try it." Eiden lead me toward a fabric punching bag, one of the many that hung from the branches of the Oak tree. "Remember, turn the shoulder, elbow, and fist."

"Okay." I took a deep breath, bringing my fists up into a defensive position that mirrored Eiden's. I stepped back with my right foot, staring at the bag. Keeping my right fist at my chin, I need sent a quick jab towards the bag with my left, glancing at Eiden afterwards.

"That was good, except your elbow went outwards, not straight. Keep your arm in one straight line. Try again." Eiden crossed his arms, tapping my elbow as he spoke.

I nodded, turning back to the bag. This time, I punched forward with my arm straight, sending the bag flying backwards.

"Much better. Practice those for a bit." Taking Eiden's advice from earlier, I continued punching, the feeling of the left jab growing a lot more comfortable.

"Alright, good. Now do that with the right. The right straight or right cross is basically the same as the left jab, but with the other arm and a different name. Try it."

Okay, if the right straight is the same as the left cross, I should be able to do this. Remembering everything I already learned, I sent a punch to the stuffed bag, grinning over at Eiden when I brought my hand down.

"Good, now do it again." I punched the bag over and over again, alternating between the left jab and right cross. My fists were beginning to ache, but I kept hitting the bag. "Wow, alright, you're getting very good at this. Now, let's work on the uppercut."

"Okay, cool," I said, cracking my neck from side to side and rolling my shoulders back.

"So watch me first." Crossing my arms, I stared at Eiden as he got into the proper position. In only a few seconds, Eiden sent the bag flying back on its chain. With a couple of wide-eyed blinks, I watched as the bag swung in quick circles, before turning back to Eiden.

"Oh my fu-"

"So-" Eiden quickly cut me off, walking over to me. "So there are five things you need to do when you do an uppercut. Bend your knees, keep your hips down, rotate the body, release into the uppercut and have a good, timed impact."

I frowned. "That's a lot."

"It is. To be honest, the uppercut is a rather difficult punch to master and not a good one to use when fighting with someone who's experienced. When you go in for the punch, you leave your body exposed, which will definitely be noticed by someone who's been training."

"Then why are you teaching it to me?"

"If you do it fast enough, you can get a good shot on your opponent. Now, let's see what you got. Remember, bend your knees, keep your hips down, punch upwards, pivot your feet, turn your palm towards the sky, and to get used to it, go immediately back to the defensive stance."

I nodded. "Got it." I turned to the bag and began punching. It wasn't easy to give a good, solid blow to the punching bag with an uppercut and I honestly don't know how Eiden did it.

"Remember the defensive stance afterwards."

Oh, that's right.

After a good twenty minutes, Eiden stopped me. "Good, now, let's do the last one; the hook."

To be honest, I was rather relieved that this was the last punch. A good hour had gone by, and I was done.

"Now, for this, you have to lead the punch with your hips, with your arm and shoulder following. For hooks, go for the jaw, and lead the punch as if you're going for it. Move from facing forward to facing right, that is, if you're punching with the right. Got that?"

"Yep."

"Good. Give it a shot."

Punch after punch, I attacked the bag. After I got down the basics of the hook, Eiden began to throw combinations of the four punches at me, which did confuse me greatly. Eventually, I got the hang of it, but not before breaking a sweat and watching as the sun began to set through the barrier.

"Hey, Eiden! Red!" The two of us turned to face Akia, who was lightly jogging towards us. "There you two are."

"Akia, we've been here the whole day-"

"Yes, shush, shush. Red, you need to come with me. We're all going to dinner with a family friend tonight and you need to get ready."

I frowned. "Why do I need to get ready?"

"Red, I don't think you've ever needed a shower more."

"Wow, rude," I huffed, turning to walk back towards the house.

"You know I love you!" Akia called after me.

"Yeah, yeah."