An animal is different. An animal doesn’t react to pain in the same way that a man does. Pain will make a man stop what he’s doing. An animal ignores the pain. An animal doesn’t rely primarily on his arms and hands to fight; he uses his jaws and fangs. Taking away one of his arms doesn’t stop him.
A four-legged animal, like a Calot or Thoat, won’t stop until either his head or his heart stop. Their head is at the front of their body and the first target that you can reach, but they are also very hard-headed, more so than a man, and the strike must be very hard. Strike down, all the way through the face and jaws. If the animal’s jaw is broken, here’s a chance that he’ll retreat.
You’re less vulnerable to attack if you are behind your attacker. If the animal charges you and you step to the side at the right moment, turn quickly and strike hard at the back of his head or neck or spine. If you break his neck, he dies. If you break his spine, he can’t move.
If necessary, if his legs are the only targets, take away a front leg and then the other. Without front legs, he can’t chase you. If you only destroy the back legs, he can still pull himself toward you. When he can’t chase you, take a good position and break his neck.
With a Great White Ape, it’s like fighting both a man and an animal, and like neither one. His head is not your first target. His arms are too long and he can reach his prey before you can reach his head. You can’t attack him from the front: you have to get to the side or to the back. I killed one with a blow to the head, but I was able to move faster and I’m taller than any of you except Alexia. And I didn’t attack from the front.
Stand your ground and let him charge you. You have to duck under his arms to his left and let him pass you. As he does, strike hard at his left hip. Because he runs on two legs, if you break his hip, even one, he can’t chase you. If you destroy his knee, he’ll chase you but he’ll be much slower and you may be able to escape. If you get behind him, strike his right hip. If he falls to the ground, strike his head from behind. If he’s standing he’s too tall for you to strike his head. But your next strike can be his elbow.
So, for the white ape, you have to get behind or to the side. Then the targets are his hip or knee, then his other hip or knee, then his elbows, and finally his head. After taking away his legs, you might run away. After taking way his arms, you might get behind him and use your knife to cut his neck and throat.
If possible, work together. The ape is the most difficult because he acts like an animal and is so very large.”
Aeyli was breathing hard by this time, and I encouraged her to calm herself if possible. I could see that wasn’t going to work for her yet.
I said, “Now, go practice. Picture your foe and make up your own Kata to defeat him. Picture his moves and yours. Stay calm. Choose your targets. Strike hard. Be fierce. Remember, he has made the choice to have you kill him… figure out how to help him die.”
It took a few minutes for the girls to get into the swing of it. I was asking them to do something that they’d never done before during our training: to train on their own without being told exactly what to do. Sashar especially had trouble getting going. The other four had moved off by themselves . Alexia and Aeyli seemed to have no trouble, but Sashar stood not far from me staring into the air, uncertain of herself.
I went and stood beside her and said, “Tell me about it. What are you thinking about?”
She said, “It’s easy to do what you tell me, the moves and various Kata. It’s like a dance. I can put emotion into the movements. I even find it fun. But, I have never fought, or seen a fight. How do I know what to do?”
I said, “Sashar, you told me that you were about 120 years old. Weren’t you born before the Fall of Time?”
She started to cry. Then she started to cry even harder, sobbing. I sat down on the ground and pulled her onto my lap and held her in my arms. I didn’t say anything, but just held her and rocked her gently in my arms and stroked her hair while she cried.
I hadn’t expected this. I knew that Aeyli would have strong emotions here; the training exercise was specifically for her and Alexia, so that they could process their memories and re-imagine the outcome of that terrible day when their families were attacked by the great ape. I hadn’t expected Sashar to break down emotionally.
I wasn’t sure what was wrong. Some students get overwhelmed at a new exercise when they have no idea how to approach it, but not usually with this volume of sobbing and tears. In my years of teaching martial arts part-time, I was used to hitting the point where every student faces a wall that they think that they can’t get through. I always find a way to help them through it. I never knew where the problem point would come for any particular student , they are all different. For some it was being able to hit something at all. For others it was being able to work on their own like I had asked them to do today. For others it was some point of submitting to an authority figure. For others it was staying calm when another student acted aggressively toward them in training, either being too intimidated or too aggressive in return.
This seemed different. This seemed like if I waited long enough, the crying girl in my lap would eventually tell me a story to explain her sobbing. So I just held her.
Chapter 33
Sashar’s Story
Sashar cried and I rocked her very gently in my lap. I didn’t tell her to be quiet. I didn’t tell her not to cry. I didn’t make hushing noises at her. I just held her.
It was a little uncomfortable with our belts on. I didn’t want to suggest that she take hers off, but finally I said, “Sashar, um, the belts are uncomfortable. Would it be OK if we took them off, just to be more comfortable.”
Sashar nodded as she cried and we unbuckled our belts as best we could, without standing up or having her leave my lap, and set them aside.
She said, “Make love to me.”
I held her and said, “Wait, not yet.”
It was a good sign. She was wanting to move away from whatever pain she was in, but she didn’t have the right answer. Yes, it would have alleviated her immediate anxiety if we made love. It wouldn’t have done anything to work out whatever her real emotions were trying to get her to deal with.
She didn’t argue with me, but she did settle into my arms and relax a little bit more. I felt her muscles soften just a little and she leaned into me a bit closer. I stroked her hair very slowly and held her in my arms.
Sashar was my playful little pixie… what was wrong? She’d been in Tranna since Aeyli and the other girls had been born and I had imagined that she’d had a peaceful life in the village since she was a child. Until now, I hadn’t considered that she was already 40 years old when the wars started. She must have seen some awful things. The younger girls had actually been spared living through that horrible time.
Sashar finally cried herself out and started breathing more regularly. She nuzzled into my chest as we sat together and she smiled at me weakly.
I sensed that now she was ready and that she needed me to invite her to tell me about whatever she was going through.
I said, “I love you. I always will. Always.” I hugged her against me. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
She took a deep breath and said, “Mark, I have never told anyone before. I thought that it was behind me.”
I said, “It’s OK. Sometimes the things that we put behind us still follow us. Tell me about it and we’ll face it together, if you want me to know about it.”
She hugged me and said, “You are my prince. Even though I have only known you for a few days, you are my mate and I will share every burden with you. If you had this pain, I would insist that you tell me and that we wash it away together somehow. So I have to let you do the same for me. But I can’t believe that you refused to make love to me, you stupid brute!” she joked.