How to fight

Miranda grunted in pain as, even through the padding, she was pelted with another blow to the ribs. Her older brother had been training as a kickboxer for some time, and after years of pestering, she had finally convinced him to teach her how to fight.

It wasn't going well.

Her brother was faster and stronger than her in nearly every regard. He knew how to get inside her defenses, which were poor to begin with, and he knew how to exploit her every opening. He had told her explicitly that he wanted her to know first what it was like to get her ass handed to her. She had always wanted to learn how to fight, but he disagreed. He wanted her to learn how to defend herself. And he had decided that this was the way to do that.

It was working better than she had hoped. With every blow that he landed on her, she wished more and more that she could simply keep him from hurting her. At first she had tried to fight back, completely unsuccessfully, but as she had begun to tire herself out, her brother had started pushing her. His fists came from every angle, snaking around her arms to wear away at her. The fight finally ended when he threw a kick at her, after knocking out her defenses with his punches, and knocked her completely onto her ass.

She was breathing hard as he stood over her and extended a hand out to help her up. She glared at it, considering for a moment trying to take advantage of his opening, but knowing that she didn't stand a chance. She weakly reached up and grabbed onto his hand, and he pulled her back onto her feet.

"Did you learn anything?" he asked. She was irritated at how not out of breath he sounded.

"That my defense sucks," she conceded angrily.

He smiled and nodded. That was the answer he was going for. "That's right," he said. "You have to learn what parts of you are weakest. Anyone who knows what they're doing is going to aim for those spots first. So it starts with your arms."

He grabbed her hands and pulled them up in front of her face, stopping them roughly just under cheek level. He closed her fists, putting her thumbs on the outside of her fingers. "Stiff," he said. She blinked, not entirely sure what he meant, but nodded. He let go of her hands, and she instinctively left them where they were, at least understanding enough that that was what he wanted of her. He flicked a hand out, slapping the inside of her arm, and knocking it away. A second later his other hand was out, lightly slapping the side of her head.

She was stunned for a moment by the abruptness of it. "Stiff," he repeated, grabbing her arms. She realized what he was saying, and nodded. He let go and flicked out at her arm again, but this time she was ready. She held her arm stiff, like he said, and it wasn't knocked out of the way. Then the second hand came for her head, but because her arm hadn't been moved aside, it was there to block the second blow.

They repeated motions like that for over an hour. The outsides of Miranda's hands were sore by the end of it, but she had grown exponentially better at blocking his attacks.

"This isn't it, right?" Miranda asked as they walked inside. "There's still more you're going to teach me?"

Her brother smiled. "Of course," he said. "It will take a long time and a lot of lessons before you're really ready for a fight."

Miranda smiled back at her. "Good."