The Marauder by Sean M. Hogan

Author:Sean M. Hogan [Hogan, Sean M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Manuscript Template, PUBLIC
Published: 2017-06-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Little Michelle swung her wooden sword so hard that she knocked off the dummy’s sack head clean off its shoulders. The smiling sack launched into the green sky, sprinkling golden straw into the hot summer air before its inevitable plummet to the grass field. The sight of the headless practice dummy brought about an involuntary jump and fist-bumping cry of victory from the young warrior queen.

The dummy’s head rolled to a wobbling stop before Atlas’ large, mud-stained boots. He glanced down at the misshapen blue and white button eyes and goofy stitched smile staring back at him with a purse of his lower lip and a twitch of his bushy white mustache.

Michelle wiped the dirt and sweat from her brow with the back of her forearm, firmly planted her hand on her hip, and gave her old master a prideful toothy grin. Her long blonde hair had grown past her waist now and glistened in the light of the sun. Though she had gained some muscle since she began her training, she was still too scrawny to fill out her white tunic and green pants and her proportions were growing more uneven and awkward with each approaching day toward puberty. But even so, she was beautiful—the kind of beauty claimed by neither child nor woman but by the fleeting twilight of change.

Atlas stopped chopping wood and planted his ax into the tree stump. “Don’t look too pleased with yourself, little one.” He clapped his hands free of dust and splinters, snatched up the head, and tossed it back into her arms. “Scarecrows don’t fight back.”

“Not without a head he won’t.” She tossed the head up and down as she made her way back to the dummy, snickering to herself while she fastened it back on its shoulders. “And stop calling me little. I’m almost twelve. I’m almost a woman now.” She puffed out her chest and jabbed her thumb her way.

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you now?”

“Yup. Pretty soon I’ll get boobs.” She cupped her flat chest.

Atlas laughed so hard he lost his balance and nearly toppled over.

The old warrior’s bear of a laugh shrank her grin. “What’s so funny?” She folded her arms across her chest, raised her chin, and turned slightly away from him. “Arthur said I would.”

He slapped his knee and brushed away a single tear from his cheek. “So that’s who you learned that absurd word from. Figures. That boy’s been filling your head with nonsense.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Arthur knows all about it.”

“It?”

Michelle looked around—as if she was about to divulge a secret—checking to see if there might be eavesdroppers nearby. “You know, boys and girls, the birds and bees.” She tilted the back of her hand toward her mouth to hide her lips from possible onlookers. “Sex.”

Atlas laughed even harder, grasping his stomach in a joyous retch. “That boy knows as much about sex as I do about quantum mechanics.”

She squinted her eyes and pressed her lips even tighter at her old teacher.

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