| After the run, which ended up lasting near an hour, Adria and the other girls returned to the glade. "That was a good exercise," Adria said. "I hope that you all feel great after that. Soon you'll be able to run faster for longer periods of time. Like right now, for instance." Another girl shouted to Adria. "You want us to run more?" she cried. "I told you before," Adria said. "We need to be perfect, disciplined cat warrior women; we cannot lack in anything. Now I want each of you to find a partner and stand with them. Jast, come with me. You will be my partner." When all the girls found partners, Adria instructed them to stand on a long, straight stretch of moist dirt path. "Now," Adria began, "I will stand 100 paces down the path and each two-person team will have a race to reach me first." Adria then dragged her sword across the dirt and made a line. "Now, then -- who wants to go first?" "We are far to exhausted," a black pantheress said. "We are to tired from the first run around the kingdom." "I see your point, dear," Adria said. "You may all rest until I reach the end of the path." All the girls sat down as Adria walked off 100 paces. It was a very short rest; each girl had only about a minute to rest. Some were very displeased. Adria finished her walk and turned to face the girls. "I want a group to be ready," she called back to them. "When I say to go, start running as fast as you can. Don't let up until you've crossed where I'm standing." Two women walked up to the line to begin. "Ready? Go!" The two women, a leopardess and a puma girl, took off running. They both ran stride for stride down the path towards. As Adria noticed both girls come into view better, the leopardess seemed to have fire in her eyes. She was coming up on Adria at a furious speed, as was the puma girl. The leopardess reached her first, knocking into her shoulder with her own, spinning Adria in a circle. The puma woman then ran past her, narrowly missing her other shoulder. The leopardess was horrified. "I'm so sorry," she said, backing away. "That was good, both of you," Adria said. "That felt good to get hit like that. That's the first step to becoming a good hand-to-hand combatant. Go back down the path and have another pair of girls run at me again. And take another rest, too." The process continued a while longer until Adria instructed everyone to go home, hoping that they would return soon. Most of the girls agreed to return the next day, others didn't want to. Adria returned home to Caleb and her baby son that day a changed woman. Caleb went home, bidding her good luck on the future of cat woman fighters. She hoped that someday she would have more women show up to join the force. The next day, Adria had the women gather together again, but this time there were many more. Adria thought that there were over 100 cat women present; she seemed to be right. All day long all the women did exercises, and this time Adria was less forgiving; she shouted at them, pointing out their every fault, but this time the women didn't seem to care; instead they corrected themselves. Even some of the women who swore they'd never return to the group came back, and the party grew larger. Adria was pleased. The third day of exercises was a special one; as Adria watched the girls come to meet her, she noticed that some of them were dressed in armor that was made by converting revealing clothing with metal plates, like Adria's black leather armor. Some of them even wore helmets. Adria was indeed pleased; she even had each woman get into protective dress and obtain practice swords from the stronghold. Pretty soon, Adria found that just about everyone with her, close to 150 cat women was wearing some sort of armor that left each woman's legs and arms bare. Adria addressed the large group of women. "You are now part of the greatest group of cat women who ever lived in this kingdom," Adria hollered. "You have dedicated yourselves to this cause and you shall be rewarded with enormous respect and adoration. We will be just as good as men at combat. In war, we will fight with them, whether they appreciate it or not." All the women cheered. "We love you for this!" Jast said. "This will be the greatest thing that will ever happen to cat women." Within the next few weeks, things came together better with the group of cat women; they all sharpened their fighting skills, learned to make themselves appear horrifying to the enemy, and even improved their armor from converted everyday clothing to leather and heavy-cloth leotards reinforced with metal plates and strips. All of the women had two shortswords and some even had a shield. Best of all, the group grew larger and larger; the size grew from about 50 women to close to 600, almost 80 percent of all the adult women in the little kingdom. Even the men began to wonder about the women; although they all remained faithful to the men, they seemed to be seperating. Mekes was still skeptical about the entire thing. In response to this sort of women's revolution going on, King Mekes sent a few of his finest warriors to fight in a mock skirmish. Jast was to fight one of them. In the skirmish with the guard, the kingdom witnessed some of the greatest athleticism in its history. It got to a point where Jast could do flips and jumps no one had ever seen. She fought relentlessly, swinging two wooden practice swords in blurry circles. The gentleman fighting her could barely keep his balance as Jast danced around him, striking him in the chest and arms. By the time they were both exhausted and agreed to stop, the man counted at least 20 strikes against his body, whereas he could barely see Jast's blurry form and only strike her with his sword in the side of the leg, a hit that she didn't seem to feel. King Mekes finally broke down and claimed Adria the first general of the cat women. It was something that only a few of the men applauded; some thought that in a real war most of the women would die. This sort of war party had constraints, of course; some women were not allowed to fight. These included those who were sick, too young, too old, injured, or pregnant. This was something that Adria agreed with; there had to be a few limits. Other than that, all cat women present in her force were perfect for fighting. Soon they joined the men in fighting. Chapter 3, part 1 |
