Punished, Tana Stone [top reads .txt] 📗

Using the Kimitherian, I demonstrated the basics of deflecting a frontal attack, then a reverse attack without flipping him onto his back. The other pairs started to replicate my moves while I let the Kimitherian practice on me, being careful not to react as I normally would when attacked. After he managed a few attempts that weren’t terrible, I thumped him on the back.

“Good work.”

His sigh of relief was audible.

As the pairs continued to practice, I walked among them to assess their progress. For the most part, humans had paired with humans and Kimitherians with Kimitherians. Not surprising. Even though the natives to the planet had welcomed the human settlers onto their planet, the species were very different in appearance and temperament. As a Vandar who’d spent his life surrounded by other Vandar, I understood the desire to be with those like yourself, though I couldn’t help admiring how well the two peoples coexisted. Of course, the humans were lucky to have found a place after being forced to flee their dying planet—even if Kimithion III was a far cry from what I’d heard about Earth at its peak.

The suns were blazing now, and I understood why the natives were always covered, even though my skin was tough enough to welcome the rays without burning—a carryover from the times when the Vandar roamed the open plains of our home world and lived in the open air.

Despite the heat, the iron hilt of my axe remained cool, and I curled my fingers around it while I paced through the fighters. Although most of their moves were unskilled and lacking in any sort of grace, not all the males were without ability. Donal, who’d had some of the cockiness knocked from him, was one of the stronger males, and he managed to flip his opponent onto the ground.

“Well done,” I said, nodding at him as I passed.

He flushed, this time from the compliment, but then my attention was drawn to a pair in the back row, and I moved quickly away to watch them. More specifically, to watch one of them.

The wiry male in a beige cloak moved with impressive speed and flexibility, spinning and parrying away from his opponent before the other male could grab him. Again and again, the one male was thwarted by the other by sheer speed and superior reflexes. Finally, the male who was on the losing end of the grappling session stood and flipped back his hood.

“I give up.” He scraped a hand through pale hair. “I can’t even catch him.”

The opponent stopped moving but didn’t remove his cloak, keeping his head lowered.

My pulse quickened at the thought of a worthy opponent, at least when it came to hand-to-hand. “Are you willing to face off against me?”

The cloaked male gave a single nod and lowered himself into a fighting stance. I did the same, sizing up my opponents’ size and build. Although the natives were all smaller than me, this man was almost slender, with no bulky muscle stretching the fabric of his cloak.

I lunged, but he spun around the back of me, using my own body to pivot himself away. When I turned and swung my arm wide, he ducked and rolled across the ground, popping up far away from me and resuming his fighting crouch.

“You have an instinctive talent for fighting,” I said, moving sideways toward him as he parroted my movement in the opposite direction. He also had a talent for keeping his hood on and lowered just enough so I couldn’t see his face, although I’d spotted a flash of skin that was definitely not blue-green scales. “Your moves are mostly defensive though. What happens when you need to strike a blow to your enemy?”

He moved toward me slightly, but it was enough for me to propel myself forward and grasp one of his hands, jerking him off balance and flipping him onto the ground. I pinned his body beneath mine, his face to the dirt and his chest heaving as I lay on him.

“You are an excellent fighter,” I said. “For a man. Not yet as compared to a Vandar.”

I got off my opponent, pulling him up with me and holding him by his shockingly narrow hips as he regained his balance. I hadn’t fought many humans, but this man seemed too lithe. Before he could pull away, I wrapped my tail around his legs to keep him in place and tugged back the hood covering his face.

Correction. Her face.

The creature I’d been fighting was a female. Even though her hair was pulled back from her face, her features were decidedly feminine, from her long-lashed, hazel eyes to the curve of her pink lips. I gaped at her without speaking, too shocked that the best fighter in the group was a woman to say anything.

“Thanks for the compliment on my fighting,” she said, meeting my gaze with her own defiant one, “but I’m not a man.”

Chapter Four

Ch 4

Sienna

I brushed the dirt off my cloak as the Vandar stared at me. By the time I was done, he was not the only one gaping at me. Most of the other fighters had stopped and gathered around us, apparently just as shocked as Corvak that I was not a male.

“You’re a female,” Corvak finally managed to say, uncoiling his tail from around my legs. “A human female.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re all brawn and no brain.”

He frowned at me, clearly not amused. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I was trying to kick your ass.” I shrugged off my cloak, eager to get rid of the extra layer of fabric and to reveal that I was not dressed like a typical female. My dark pants were snug and tapered into my boots, and the pale blue top that extended to my fingertips and up to my throat hugged me like