Chapter 9: First Night Out

After many long hours of training, an dover a dozen battle scenarios, Zena gathers up her blades from the small wooden table and walks over to the training area gate, where she lets herself out.  Wolf scrambles after her, feeling rather sore in many places he wasnt aware could BE sore.  Once he catches up, she asks him if he's hungry.  He nods, out of breath, and follows her around to the front of the house, where she calls out to Maurly. She sends him to go catch supper and then  tells him to leave his gear by the door. They walk inside and she goes to her room to freshen up and change into her night clothes.  She double-checks that all of the blades are securely in place on her person and then moves to the front door to let Maurly in.  She takes a medium sized grouse from his mouth and starts a small fire in teh fire place. She cleans the bird carefully as Wolf walks in and sits down in a chair at the table.  Once the bird is cleaned and the fire hot enough, she cooks the bird on a spindle.  While it roasts, she sits down across from Wolf.

     "How do you feel after your first day of training?" Zena says as she reaches down to pat Maurly on the head. 

     "Pretty Sore, actually... tougher than i thought but i think i will catch on quickly..."

Zena looks doubtfully at him and then tells him that they were going out tonight. When his eyes light up she chuckles.

   "Not what you think it will be... we have to work tonight..."  She wears a look on her face that looks as if she was having an internal conflict with herself.  Actually, that was true, she was unsure whether it was safer to leave him here alone or take him with her.  She apparently decided that the latter was smarter, because she stood up and walked over to where she kept a map of the city and showed him the route they would be taking that night.

When the bird was finished, they ate quietly and then she put the dishes in the sink to clean.

He went to his room and grabbed a light coat.  They headed out without a word, and headed to the park.  As they walked, he looked his mentor over and did a mental cataloging..

She wasn't tall, she was actually fairly short... probably only about 5' 4" or so, which was short, but not much shorter than him, since he stood at only 5' 8". She wasn't overlly gorgeous, but pretty in a modest way.  She had a carved jawline that if you looked close enough showed a faint scar. Her eyes were large, dark, and mid-to-deep set.  Her hair was long and pulled back into a high pony.  She was young, maybe in her twenties.  He realized that she was probably close to his age. Jaenes had told him that she was one of the Assassins of Justice's best assassins.  He made a mental note to not make her angry unless he wanted to die.  He gave her one last once over and realized that he couldn't make out any discernable weapons on her at all and wondered what would happen if something happened.

Once they reached Main Street of the city, Zena ducked into an alley and asked how good he was at climbing. He shrugged and started to say that he was good enough for any normal purpose, but before he could finish, Zena began to climb to the top of a large black dumpster. She balanced on the edge, pulled him up, and then jumped across to a hanging fire escape ladder.  He followed and they clombed to the top of the building.. They travel around the entire city this way, running across the tops of the roofs, until they have checked the streets between every building for any trouble. After making their way back to where the park joined the street, Wolf stops Zena to catch his breath.  Zena sighs and waits until he has his breath, and then he stands back up and nods.  They make their way back to the home and she lets him enter the house first, calling Maurly back inside for the night.  She goes into her room and changes into an overly large t-shirt and a pair of capris that she hadnt worn in quite a while, then shines her blades in the bathroom.  As she is shining the blades, Wolf walks in without a shirt with a toothbrush to brush his teeth.  She pauses in the middle of cleaning her blades to glance at him.  He was nicely muscled, though his skin shone with sweat from the rigorous work of surveilence.  She eyed him carefully before going back to cleaning her blades, trying to ignore her inner thoughts about him.

When she finished, she went to bed and waited until she heard him click off his light before she drifted off to sleep for the night, with strange slightly suggestive dreams in her head..............

Reviews

[Meat of Dog]

A nice wind down from the last chapter as they have a nice (but quick) dinner together. I'm interested to see how they fight as a team (whether they thrive, or Wolf gets in the way). I like that she is annoyed from being slowed down by his inexperience, but isn't mean or cold about it. This gives her a feeling of bonding and acceptance while not making her too soft. It was interesting and unexpected that they went running around, almost like vigilante crime fighters, making me wonder if there's more to her job than just quiet assassinations. Wow, nice cliff hanger of her fantasizing about him in the end. That raises some new questions for sure.

other suggestions:

-"an dover a dozen" over
-"fire in teh fire place." the
-"She was young, maybe in her twenties. " Try to avoid phrases like this. Unless your story has an actual third person narrator, tell us with certainty. The 3rd person perspective gives you a god-like aspect so uncertainty throws the reader off balance. Tell me that she's in her twenties, or around there. Put facts down surely.
-"clombed" climbed

[Coyote Poetry]

I like this chapter a lot. Th sharing of food and the discussion of training. I like the additional history of the characters. He is much younger then I first thought. I like the pace of this chapter. Need character building to make a story stronger and more interesting. A excellent chapter.
Coyote