My Shades of Gray

Shade 29 ~ Camping

On Saturday, since I had no class, and it was my day off at work, I trained with Hunter for a few hours. Including my breaks.

First, we went for a ran then I did the tabletop push-ups. I can finally do three regular push-ups without sweat. After that, I did my exercise with dumbbells.

"Today..." Hunter cut my exercise and stood in the middle of the wrestling mattress. "I'll teach you some fighting moves."

"Thank God." I groaned, placing the dumbbells down, and walked towards him. "Finally doing something useful."

"You've gotten strong." He pointed at my arm muscles and smirked. "Since you can do three push-ups now."

"Hilarious." I rolled my eyes and stood in front of him with crossed arms. "What do I have to do?"

"First the punches." He put his fists in front of him. "Get in a fighting position. Keep one leg in front and the other behind."

I followed his instructions, and he went around me. "You need to keep your shoulders firm and your fists tight."

"Like this?" I did as he said and he stood next to me.

"Good. Now punch and don't swing your whole body and arm behind. Just move your elbow and stick to your position."

I punched in the air with both my hands and he observed me.

"Don't move your shoulders first." He placed his hands on my shoulder and I tensed. "Focus all your energy on your lower arm and fist."

"A-alright." I gulped, ignoring the tingling of his warm hands, and did as he taught me.

He kept his hands on my shoulder till I did a few punches, then he let go of me. "Let's try it on the punching bag."

He passed me his boxing gloves and stood behind the bag. The gloves were big for my small hands, and I tightened them around my wrists so they wouldn't fall off. He held the bag to stop it from moving and gestured for me to punch.

I did a few jabs, then my arms began to hurt. It took a lot of strength to hit the bag than the air. I've been eating a lot of painkillers these days, so I can keep up with the training and my daily routine. The protein shakes were also helping with my stability, and I felt the power in my muscles. However, I haven't reached the level I wanted.

"Enough." He said when he noticed my punches getting weak. "Take these off." I took the boxing gloves off and passed it to him.

"It's not as easy as it looks," I mumbled, rubbing my knuckles, which were aching.

"It takes years for people to learn how to fight and make their body strong enough to tolerate attacks." He said and placed ice packs on the back of my hand, making me wince. "It's not something you learn in a day."

"How long did you take?" I peeked at him.

This was the first time I asked him something personal.

"To get perfect? A year," He answered.

"Who taught you?"

He snorted. "Let's say... My stepfather."

Stepfather?

My eyes widened as I took in the new information. "He taught you to be a fighter?"

"You could say that." He dismissed the topic and took the ice packs off my hands. "Now let's try some kicks."

I wanted to ask him more about him and his background, but I held the urge, knowing he would reveal nothing.

We stood on the mattress again and he held his hand in the air with his palm facing down. "Try to reach it and keep your leg straight."