the idea on the back burner of his mind and started working on the food dryer again. It would come to him or it wouldn't, and worrying over something that didn't want to come wouldn't help at all. It would just waste time he could be using for something else.
When he got back a few other trainees, most in brown like him, but two in black, meaning special school kids or senior students that could afford specialty exercise clothes, were going through their paces in the yard. This included, to his surprise, the near black haired girl he'd met the day before. At least it looked that way now, slightly damp with sweat. Trice? That was a funny name, but no weirder than what some of his sisters had. Even Torrence wasn't exactly a winner as far as names went. Easy to remember at least. Trice. Treez. It made him smile to think about. Who didn't like trees?
The girl didn't wait for him to get all the way in the gate before pouncing on him, figuratively at least. She jogged over, followed by the lighter colored girl, Sara.
Trice spoke first.
“I heard that the testing is going well on your new dryer! When can we start getting them? Sara already lined up sales for twenty of them on metal at eleven gold apiece. Of course she'll want a percentage since she did the work getting the sales. Ten percent is standard; don't let her tell you otherwise.” This came out in an excited rush, the other girl blushing when she heard what her friend told him.
“Um, I know that we didn't have a deal in place, but I thought that if I could show how useful I could be... If you know, you can make them?” The blond spoke softly, without making direct eye contact for some reason. They both had black on again, which confirmed that they weren't regular students here at least. If they'd been around Tor hadn't noticed them, but then they were girls. He tried to ignore those kinds of people, so that he wouldn't be tempted into embarrassment and humiliation.
Kolb looked over and saw who Tor was talking to, a smile coming over his face. He waved them all over. “Great! I knew you'd come around eventually to work with Tor here, too tempting a target to ignore. Today I'm planning on unarmed for him. Tor... Normally you'd know what to do if either of these young ladies attacked you right?” His smile went mischievous, a look that Tor hadn't seen on his face before.
“Run away?” He said, that being the standard answer. Plus, given that they were probably both able to kill him in less time than he could imagine, it made sense to him. Both of the girls looked at him as if scandalized for some reason. Or shocked. Possibly because he wasn't supposed to think that they could take him out almost instantly if he didn't scamper off? Or, just possibly, they just didn't think that he stood a chance of outrunning them? That was possible, he knew. For all that he ran nearly every day, a lot of people were still faster than he was. It was very possible that they'd trained for speed, or even that and endurance, they both had a long lankiness to their curves that spoke of a decent level of fitness.
“Exactly. Now, instead of playing merry chase, I want you to try and stand your ground for as long as you can with these two. One at a time please. He's fragile, and the dean would hate to lose him just as he's finally getting his act together...” Everyone laughed at that, so Tor did too, a polite chuckle. The dean didn't even know who he was as far as that went, so that part at least was slightly funny. They'd never met at least.
Kolb gave a bow to Trice and stepped back. Without warning a foot shot out at Tor's groin. He jumped back avoiding it, if just barely and nearly ran away out of reflex. Instead he held his ground as ordered and blocked the three blows that followed and then missed the next two, both blows to the stomach which almost took him to his knees. A kick came towards his head, a flashy thing that was really too high, a wheel kick he thought. Kolb would
When he got back a few other trainees, most in brown like him, but two in black, meaning special school kids or senior students that could afford specialty exercise clothes, were going through their paces in the yard. This included, to his surprise, the near black haired girl he'd met the day before. At least it looked that way now, slightly damp with sweat. Trice? That was a funny name, but no weirder than what some of his sisters had. Even Torrence wasn't exactly a winner as far as names went. Easy to remember at least. Trice. Treez. It made him smile to think about. Who didn't like trees?
The girl didn't wait for him to get all the way in the gate before pouncing on him, figuratively at least. She jogged over, followed by the lighter colored girl, Sara.
Trice spoke first.
“I heard that the testing is going well on your new dryer! When can we start getting them? Sara already lined up sales for twenty of them on metal at eleven gold apiece. Of course she'll want a percentage since she did the work getting the sales. Ten percent is standard; don't let her tell you otherwise.” This came out in an excited rush, the other girl blushing when she heard what her friend told him.
“Um, I know that we didn't have a deal in place, but I thought that if I could show how useful I could be... If you know, you can make them?” The blond spoke softly, without making direct eye contact for some reason. They both had black on again, which confirmed that they weren't regular students here at least. If they'd been around Tor hadn't noticed them, but then they were girls. He tried to ignore those kinds of people, so that he wouldn't be tempted into embarrassment and humiliation.
Kolb looked over and saw who Tor was talking to, a smile coming over his face. He waved them all over. “Great! I knew you'd come around eventually to work with Tor here, too tempting a target to ignore. Today I'm planning on unarmed for him. Tor... Normally you'd know what to do if either of these young ladies attacked you right?” His smile went mischievous, a look that Tor hadn't seen on his face before.
“Run away?” He said, that being the standard answer. Plus, given that they were probably both able to kill him in less time than he could imagine, it made sense to him. Both of the girls looked at him as if scandalized for some reason. Or shocked. Possibly because he wasn't supposed to think that they could take him out almost instantly if he didn't scamper off? Or, just possibly, they just didn't think that he stood a chance of outrunning them? That was possible, he knew. For all that he ran nearly every day, a lot of people were still faster than he was. It was very possible that they'd trained for speed, or even that and endurance, they both had a long lankiness to their curves that spoke of a decent level of fitness.
“Exactly. Now, instead of playing merry chase, I want you to try and stand your ground for as long as you can with these two. One at a time please. He's fragile, and the dean would hate to lose him just as he's finally getting his act together...” Everyone laughed at that, so Tor did too, a polite chuckle. The dean didn't even know who he was as far as that went, so that part at least was slightly funny. They'd never met at least.
Kolb gave a bow to Trice and stepped back. Without warning a foot shot out at Tor's groin. He jumped back avoiding it, if just barely and nearly ran away out of reflex. Instead he held his ground as ordered and blocked the three blows that followed and then missed the next two, both blows to the stomach which almost took him to his knees. A kick came towards his head, a flashy thing that was really too high, a wheel kick he thought. Kolb would
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