Wunderhein Academy: Book 1- Awakening

“Foot work.”

“No,” Dmitri growled back at his captain. “Hand movement.”

“Do you have to fight with me on everything Dmitri?” Aleksei snarled. “She should learn footwork. Then she can dodge attacks.”

“Hand-work.” Dmitri slammed a hand down on the Mess hall lunch table. “Then she can start taking people down.”

Kitten watched in morbid fascination as she listened to her fate being bounced back and forth between the two.

The fight was getting aggressively louder between the captain and his Second in charge. Enough that it was attracting attention from the few people that had arrived for an early, peaceful lunch. Ivan, however, seemed un-interested about the noise at their table and continued to eat his food somehow without being disturbed by it.

“They were the same with me.” Boris whispered to her, half-way watching the two and attempting to eat his own meal of home-made chicken pie. “They ended up in the hospital ward for two days fighting about it.”

“Are you serious?” Kitten asked, shocked that the two would argue so badly over something so simple. She had been taught that fighting was bad. To watch boys do it on purpose in this place was still strange to her.

“Yeah.” Boris nodded before attacking his own food. “Dmitri won though.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Instead, Kitten tried to focus on her own lunch but lost her appetite as soon as she tried taking a bite. There had been a choice between the Chicken or Vegetable pie but neither looked as good as the food her mother used to make. It didn’t taste as good either. She forced another bite. After all, her mother had always taught her not to waste.

“Foot-work.” Her Captains voice caught her attention. She dropped her fork onto her plate, promising herself she would eat it later, and looked up to watch the two instead. “She can’t run.”

“She can use her hands.” The Winter Shark was insisting. “She got small things like Boris. Think of the damage she can do.”

She blinked, then held a hand up to examine it when she felt two fingers slide under her chin, lifting her head.

She sucked in her breathe. For a moment she felt her heart racing at the touch. She forced herself to relax. Glancing out of the corner of her eye she spotted Ivan nod in approval before feeling his fingers moving from under her chin.

“You should sit up straight Kitten.” Boris gave her a toothy grin. “You’re one of us now. No-one can touch you.”

It felt strange to sit like that. Her body was too used to years of trying to hide. She ran her fingers through her fringe, making sure it hide the port-a-wine mark on her face.

“She needs to learn to move in a fight.” Aleksei argued, waving his fork at Dmitri.

“If she survives that long.” Dmitri scoffed, turning to reach out for his coffee.

The two leaders halted, seeing her attempting to sit up straight.

“Posture.” They both nodded their heads, deciding at once.

“What’s wrong with my posture?” Kitten frowned.

“Seriously?” Dmitri asked “Ya a girl. Ya should know this stuff.”

“Posture is everything. It’s part of you and your attitude. It tells people immediately who you are.” Aleksei grabbed a wooden stick from his pocket and began chewing on it. “While you’re at it, you need to lay off the nail-biting.”

Kitten immediately slipped her fingers under her, her face glowing from embarrassment. “It’s a habit.”

“I know.” Aleksei stopped fiddling with the stick in his mouth, his eyes narrowing in her direction. ”It makes you look weak. Why else would I be telling you this? You’re not the only one that did it.”

“I managed to stop nearly a year now.” Boris giggled and held out his fingers showing off his uneven cuticles with pride. “ Ivan promised me a big cake when I hit one!”

Ivan nodded with a silent smile, affirming the promise before finishing the last bite of his food.

“I’m three now.” Dmitri held up his own hands for display. “Lexie here used to suck his thumb at night.”

Kitten burst out giggling and quickly covered her mouth. The statement had been so random, it couldn’t be true.

“Yeah yeah.” Aleksei began when no-one else said anything. “It’s funny. Laugh at the captain.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re so scary. To think of you sucking your thumb…” She tried to stop but burst out into fresh laughter. “You don’t seem so scary now.”

“I’m your captain. I’m meant to be scary. That doesn’t mean I’m not human.” He replied before standing up. “And everyone has two hours of jogging to get through for training class. I would suggest starting now. Dimi, walk with me.”

Dmitri downed his coffee then ran after Aleksei.

“Two-hour jogging?” Kitten’s jaw fell. “Is he insane?”

“This is your first time right? We’ll help you warm up and keep pace.” Boris volunteered.

Kitten just nodded.

Suddenly she wasn’t finding the Captain funny anymore.

He was an evil creature of torment.

For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out how he kept switching between the nice guy that had given her his beloved knife and the thumb sucking kid to the monster that was making them run for two hours.

Maybe he had a split personality or something.

“Come on Kitten.”

She felt her arm being pulled by Boris. He was grinning like Father Frost had visited earlier as he led her to the training field.

“You’re happy about this?” Kitten asked the youngster in disbelief. It was a joke. It had to be.

“Well, this is one of the few things I’m really good at. I even do it on weekends” Boris admitted. “The Captain mixes up the training so it’s something we really enjoy and something we’re really bad at.”

“You enjoy it that much?” Kitten smiled. “You should have trained to be an athlete then.”

Boris shook his head.

“I wasn’t really good until I came here. Before I was just doing it. My papa didn’t find it something useful. That is....” Boris suddenly went silent for a moment. “I mean, the guys don’t care but my papa had some really bad gambling debts. I only found out later after he made me run on an errand one night before he shot himself and my mama.”

Kitten wanted to hug the youngster. But some part of her told her it was a bad idea. He didn’t tell her for sympathy.

“My mama died.” Kitten closed her eyes for a moment. “A social worker brought me here.”

“Shouldn’t you three be running and less chatting?” A dry voice asked.

They turned to find Dmitri and Aleksei had joined them on the field.

“I’m surprised ya wasting the chance to run rat.” Dmitri folded his arms and grinned, showing rows of teeth that made Kitten shudder. “Maybe ya need more motivation.”

“Back off Dimi.” Aleksei warned his companion.

“Hey Cap!” Boris pulled on his captains’ sleeve. “ Her mama died and they mixed her up. That’s why she’s here. We have to look after her Captain! We have to...”

“What you have to do is follow my orders and start running.” Aleksei responded coldly. “Now.”

Boris froze. “We haven’t warmed up yet.”

“That’s your fault for wasting time isn’t it?” Aleksei took out a pocket watch. “And...GO!”

The young boys’ mouth dropped and he began to run, grabbing Kitten’s arm as he passed her.

“Hey what…” Kitten felt lost, slowing down at some point that Boris must have over taken her at least twice. “Boris wait.”

Ivan and Dmitri calmly ran past as if they were having an afternoon jog.

Every muscle of hers was screaming as they began to stiffen from the extreme exercise. Finally, tired and in pain, she collapsed on the field. The grass tickled her nose where she lay huffing.

“That was hardly any effort.” Aleksei, who had been running himself with the watch, frowned, stopping at her side and kicking her slightly with his foot. Kitten tried to sit up, her lungs feeling like they were burning. “You have to do better if you want to keep up with us Kitten.”

“I ain’t the first out!” Dmitri pumped his fist in the air as he jumped.

Boris looked unhappy. Ivan joined the youngster, his face un-readable as he crossed his arms.

“You’re crazy.” Kitten tried to stand but her legs were still wobbly from the strain she had put on them. “No-one can run two hours.”

“That’s an excuse. Boris does four easily.” Aleksei slipped his watch back into his pocket. “As punishment for failing the task, you are to clean the urinals with your toothbrush.”

“NO WAY!” Kitten exclaimed, her eyes widening. “You can’t be serious.”

“You will report to Dmitri for duty.” The captain continued, as if she hadn’t interrupted him.

Dmitri was grinning as if he was going to enjoy watching her.

“The rest of you are dismissed until super time.” Aleksei nodded his head to the other two. “Dismissed!”

“Because I couldn’t finish a stupid race?” Kitten bashed her fists into the ground, feeling cheated. “That’s unfair.”

“Looks like we got us a date.” Dmitri stopped long enough at her side to slip his fingers under her chin before stepping away. “I’ll meet ya there with ya toothbrush.”

He began whistling as he walked off, following after Aleksei. Silently, Ivan followed them.

“It’s Monday.” Boris ran up to her side. “The Captain always challenges us on Mondays. I forgot to tell you.”

“Remind me why you like him so much?” Kitten hissed, tears stinging her eyes.

“He is really nice.” Boris insisted, trying to help her up. “Give him a chance. I know it’s not always easy.”

What she wanted to do was give the ground a good pounding, scream and throw a tantrum like a spoilt brat. Instead she took a few deep breaths, wiped the tears that had made their way to her face and nodded.

“I’ll try.” She promised as she stood up, balancing against Boris. “It’s not going to be easy.”