extend yourself you’re going to lose to even a barely trained opponent, much less the highly trained ones you’re likely to meet in your lifetime.
“hog mi post t’ lrn at uf uo on’t ach e’,” I grumbled my words muffled by the dirt pressed around my mouth.
“What was that?” he asked. He stepped back and raised his sword so that I could roll over and clear the dirt from my mouth.
“How am I supposed to learn that if you won’t teach me?” I asked again, much more clearly the second time, if I do say so myself.
“What do you think I’ve been doing for the last year?” he asked, sounding exasperated.
“Using me as a punching bag?”
“I’ve been trying to get you to learn, to react, to anticipate.” He sighed and sat down, laying his sword on the ground beside him as he gestured for me to join him. Warily I did so, still keeping a bit of distance between us.
“Gabriel, listen. What do you expect me to do to teach you?”
“Show me how to fight?” I responded immediately.
“How?”
“...” I opened my mouth but nothing sprang readily to mind.
“Yes?” He prompted.
“Um…. Aren’t their stances or forms or exercises you can show me? Like the eastern fighters?”
“I could. And I have already shown you a few basic exercises.”
“Basic yes, I’ve mastered all those, I do them repeatedly over and over all the time. But there’s got to be more to it than that.”
“Let me ask you a basic question then,” he said. “Have you ever used any of those exercises in our fights?”
“...”
I shut my mouth.
“Exactly. Until you start using them against me and learn, by doing, how to apply them you can’t move on from where you are into anything more difficult or useful. You’ve got to learn to crawl before you can walk, and you have to walk before you can run. Right now you’re trying to run, and your body doesn’t know how to do it.”
“But I’m stronger than any human I’ll ever have to face. And faster,” I protested.
“Are you stronger than me?” he asked. “Are you faster than me? You won’t always fight humans, Gabriel. Actually you’ll be fighting your own kind, or my kind more often than not. You won’t have the full advantage of your vampiric speed and strength if you go up against someone of our type. You’ll have to rely on skill and training to win.”
“Why is that?”
“Why is what?”
“Why are wolves stronger and faster than vampires? Why do we have our strength and abilities, where does it come from?”
He sighed and leaned back. “You do love the difficult questions don’t you?”
“I try” I said, letting a grin slide across my face.
“No one really knows,” he said. “There are a lot of different ideas but we just can’t say exactly. The popularly accepted idea is that we’re something other than human. That’s obvious from the outset but more than just the obvious differences. Humans are weak versions of vampires and werewolves.”
“Why do we drink blood, and why do wolves have such a taste for meat?”
“Why do dogs like meat? Why do some bats drink blood yet others eat fruit? Why do ravens peck at corpses while eagles hunt for their own meat? It is simply a part of who we are.”
* * * * * *
Carlsbad, California: Feburary 5, 2005
“Grim was close, but not quite there. It was over three hundred years ago though so we‘ll cut him some slack. I’d studied it. I’d had some help of course, I’m no scientist, but I’d studied the research results,” I told Rachel as I handed the pipe over to her. She took it but made no move to smoke. “Yes Vampires and Wolves were basically stronger versions of humans. We have gifts and abilities that humans do not. But it wasn’t random chance. It wasn’t otherworldly power or some form of the supernatural that gave vampires their strength and their gifts, or the wolves their resilience and regenerative powers.” I leaned back on the couch.
“It’s
“hog mi post t’ lrn at uf uo on’t ach e’,” I grumbled my words muffled by the dirt pressed around my mouth.
“What was that?” he asked. He stepped back and raised his sword so that I could roll over and clear the dirt from my mouth.
“How am I supposed to learn that if you won’t teach me?” I asked again, much more clearly the second time, if I do say so myself.
“What do you think I’ve been doing for the last year?” he asked, sounding exasperated.
“Using me as a punching bag?”
“I’ve been trying to get you to learn, to react, to anticipate.” He sighed and sat down, laying his sword on the ground beside him as he gestured for me to join him. Warily I did so, still keeping a bit of distance between us.
“Gabriel, listen. What do you expect me to do to teach you?”
“Show me how to fight?” I responded immediately.
“How?”
“...” I opened my mouth but nothing sprang readily to mind.
“Yes?” He prompted.
“Um…. Aren’t their stances or forms or exercises you can show me? Like the eastern fighters?”
“I could. And I have already shown you a few basic exercises.”
“Basic yes, I’ve mastered all those, I do them repeatedly over and over all the time. But there’s got to be more to it than that.”
“Let me ask you a basic question then,” he said. “Have you ever used any of those exercises in our fights?”
“...”
I shut my mouth.
“Exactly. Until you start using them against me and learn, by doing, how to apply them you can’t move on from where you are into anything more difficult or useful. You’ve got to learn to crawl before you can walk, and you have to walk before you can run. Right now you’re trying to run, and your body doesn’t know how to do it.”
“But I’m stronger than any human I’ll ever have to face. And faster,” I protested.
“Are you stronger than me?” he asked. “Are you faster than me? You won’t always fight humans, Gabriel. Actually you’ll be fighting your own kind, or my kind more often than not. You won’t have the full advantage of your vampiric speed and strength if you go up against someone of our type. You’ll have to rely on skill and training to win.”
“Why is that?”
“Why is what?”
“Why are wolves stronger and faster than vampires? Why do we have our strength and abilities, where does it come from?”
He sighed and leaned back. “You do love the difficult questions don’t you?”
“I try” I said, letting a grin slide across my face.
“No one really knows,” he said. “There are a lot of different ideas but we just can’t say exactly. The popularly accepted idea is that we’re something other than human. That’s obvious from the outset but more than just the obvious differences. Humans are weak versions of vampires and werewolves.”
“Why do we drink blood, and why do wolves have such a taste for meat?”
“Why do dogs like meat? Why do some bats drink blood yet others eat fruit? Why do ravens peck at corpses while eagles hunt for their own meat? It is simply a part of who we are.”
* * * * * *
Carlsbad, California: Feburary 5, 2005
“Grim was close, but not quite there. It was over three hundred years ago though so we‘ll cut him some slack. I’d studied it. I’d had some help of course, I’m no scientist, but I’d studied the research results,” I told Rachel as I handed the pipe over to her. She took it but made no move to smoke. “Yes Vampires and Wolves were basically stronger versions of humans. We have gifts and abilities that humans do not. But it wasn’t random chance. It wasn’t otherworldly power or some form of the supernatural that gave vampires their strength and their gifts, or the wolves their resilience and regenerative powers.” I leaned back on the couch.
“It’s
Similar Books
