The Kitten and the She-Trolloc (solo fic)

[Jenn]

Katrie wanted to hit something.

The slender woman squared her shoulders and tried to stare down the training dummy in front of her. Now that she was actually here... the blank beady eyes that gazed back were intimidating. She knew she was being silly and that it was a mere inanimate object, but that did nothing to soothe her nerves. She couldn’t help the way she glanced around self-consciously. Light, what was she doing? The Yards was no place for her and-- From the corner of her mind where Dax inhabited, his awareness surged forward and the Aes Sedai felt herself calming as his presence wrapped around her.

The pretty Cairhienin pulled her gaze back to the dummy, going over it in minute detail. The padding looked worn and threadbare, the frayed seams visible from where she stood. That didn’t bother her, really, not for what she wanted. The frame and the core of the dummy were still solid and that was all that mattered. She gnawed on her bottom lip, reaching for Dax through the filaments of gold that connected them. He was close, now. Reassurance flooded back to her and she responded with gratitude. She wanted to hit things. She was more than prepared for that!

Warm brown eyes narrowed and she imagined that the dummy’s face bore one of the al’Nara brother’s likeness. Her stomach gave a queasy flip, but she stepped into reach and lashed out. The crook of her arm flew upwards, elbow smashing squarely into Devin’s face. A... thrill shot up her spine and she shifted, opposite fist driving into the side of his head. The force of the impact traveled up her arm. She knew that there were better ways of doing that; faces in general were hard and she still remembered the bruise that had taken over a week and a half to fade from her hand when Muscles’ face had hit her back... but it was satisfying in a way that very few things were.

The small crescent scar by the cruel empty eyes mocked her from the dummy’s blank facade. Katrie’s stomach gave another uneasy flip and she gritted her teeth. She stepped back, then slid in again, striking palm up into the dummy’s nose. Thud. Devin had hurt her. She dropped low and drilled her fists into torso and ribs. Thud. Thud. Thud. His stupid brother had hurt her. An uppercut to the chin, sable eyes flashing. Thud. They had made her feel afraid. They had dared to touch her. She jumped back, then pivoted, kicking the dummy as hard as she could, then again - thud, thud - following with a hook, a jab, and then knee into padded gut. ThudthudTHUD.

She still had nightmares about the Andorans. They made her heart hurt. Her hand struck out and crushed the dummy’s... Devin’s?... windpipe. Mama’s... Mama’s death still hurt... Tears blurred her vision, but she blinked them away, suddenly angry. Light! Her nails bit into her palms as her fists clenched tighter, half crescent gouges of pain that only made the ragged edges of her grief sear hotter. The world around her faded as she began pummeling the dummy with indiscriminate savage rage.

She let out a sharp noise as something vice like closed around her bicep, abruptly halting her momentum as it spun her around. Aware that she was off balance, but too furious to stop, the tall Cairhienin swung anyway and the sound of her fist striking solid resistance made her blink.

“Katrie.”

She blinked again, the blur in front of her gradually resolving itself into a familiar shape... A jolt of recognition and the brittle anger faded away. Her eyes lit up. “Dax?”

“Yes love.” His concern was the first thing that penetrated the fog that dulled her thoughts. “I think you killed it.” That was spoken evenly, but he did not release his hold on her arm. Callused fingers curled around her fist, her knuckles nestled firmly against his palm.

What-? What was he looking at? She twisted her head to see and her eyebrows climbed up towards her hairline. The padding on the training dummy had been beaten off. Did I do that? Smears of red marred the thin wooden beams beneath and it took her a moment to realize that it was blood. Her blood. Oh.

It... she was oddly unfazed. There was discomfort that throbbed through her hands, but she was able to ignore it. Her expression was thoughtful as she turned back around to face her bondmate. She did not look away from the perfect blue of her husband’s gaze, her voice quiet. “You told me once, in the very beginning, that my goal in any fight is to get away.” For a fleeting moment, the memory of damp cold seeping through her body was overwhelming and her fingers twitched towards the phantom sensation of Dax’s cloak draped around her shoulders.

“I remember, kitten.” He lowered her arms with gentle force and the dilapidated cottage walls retreated back into the recesses of her mind. He pulled both of her hands into his larger one, the rough fingers of his free hand brushing across her cheek with gentle tenderness before the Tairen went to tuck that stubborn curl of hair laying across her forehead behind her ear.

She gave her Warder an imploring look. She couldn’t adequately explain the sudden fierceness that welled up, nor could she properly articulate why she felt it. Mama had fought. Not in the way that Katrie was wanting to... it was different. She knew it was different. She wasn’t strong in the Power, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t fight. The Gaidin were dangerous and deadly and none of them could channel - she merely had to look at Dax to know that that was true. He had promised that she would never be helpless again; he had kept his word... but she wanted... to do more.

She chewed on her bottom lip, watching her Gaidin as he watched her. He felt calm, curious... the concern there tinged with gold and flickers of burning crimson. The Brown’s chin lifted and she pushed all of what she felt through the bond. “Dax... I don’t want to run anymore.” Her mouth set stubbornly. “I want to fight.” The bond roared with answering emotion, one in particular... shining brighter than all the others. Even though she had felt it before, it still took her a moment to recognize and name it: pride. Dax was proud of her. Her heart skipped a beat and she ducked her head almost shyly.

Thick fingers grasped her chin and tilted her face up. He grinned at her and she couldn’t help but return the smile, blushing beneath the warm copper of her skin. “Alright kitten. Give me some time and I’ll see what we can do.”

---

Malina Nessam was a bloody pint-sized she-Trolloc.

Dax’s consternation was laced with amusement and Katrie directed several unflattering thoughts and phrases at him in response as she bolted up the impossibly long corridor of stairs again. They began at ground level and ended somewhere near the top of one of the guardhouses that crowned the wall that ringed around the Tower grounds. She had tried to count them once. After a hundred, the Brown thought it prudent to stop and carry on in endorphin fueled ignorance.

She could only think her expletives; she didn’t have the breath to spare to curse at the Tairen or the she-Trolloc even though she knew they were watching her from a nearby vantage point. Half the people in the Yards were probably with Dax and Malina, watching... but that didn’t make any sense. Why would they watch? This wasn’t exciting in the least. Light, she hoped Muscles wasn’t watching... This wasn’t going the way she expected at all.

“Dax taught me how.”

“And if you were as brawny as he, I wouldn’t be here.” Those red lips pulled into a grin. “In case you didn’t know, you’re nothing like that Southerner. You are luscious, you smell nicer, and you’re smoother and softer in all the right places. If you try to fight like he does, you’ll end up with every bone in that graceful slender body of yours, broken. You’re too pretty for that.”

The taller woman frowned, chewing on her bottom lip. There was no sting or malice to the Gaidin’s words. It made sense. Katrie met Malina’s eyes resolutely. “You can teach me how to actually fight someone Dax’s size?”

“Yes, kitten,” came the answering drawl.

Smokey curls bounced as the tall Cairhienin tilted her head to the side. “We don’t know each other well enough for you to call me that yet.”

The small Gaidin threw back her head and laughed. “Oh we are going to have fun, you and I. By the time I am through with you, sweetling, yes. You will be able to fight more than just your hotblooded Warder.”

The Aes Sedai banished the memory and grumpily directed a curse at all Saldaean women. Every possible muscle along her back and backside burned. Her legs felt like jelly. Her calf was cramping. She didn’t want to get lectured again on improper stretching, surreptitiously attempting to work it out while racing up the steps.

The skin along the nape of her neck prickled as sweat dripped down from her hairline. Light, she was going to die. Maybe on the way down she could tuck and roll and simply fall... Katrie closed her eyes and reminded herself that she had asked for this. She could do it... just one more set...

---

“Again.”

Katrie did as Malina said and executed a kick. She yelped as the Gaidin caught her foot, shifting her body immediately to maintain her balance as the smaller woman simply lifted it up over her head. The tall Cairhienin winced a little as she felt a stretching... pulling... shoot through where leg joined body. She turned her hips, angling them towards Malina until the unpleasant feeling lessened.

The steely dark eyes were appraising. “You didn’t fall.”

The way it was said made the Aes Sedai bristle. “I’m sorry to disappoint.”

“You mistake my meaning, sweetling. This is a good thing.” Malina pursed her lips and pushed Katrie’s leg up even higher.

The Brown swore loudly, wobbling for a moment. The leg bearing her full weight rolled a little, knee then ankle locking as the muscles along thigh and calf flexed. Her arms shot out, flailing briefly, before she found her balance again. She stared at the smaller woman incredulously, not fully trusting the way Malina looked back at her, pleased as a cat with cream on her whiskers. The silence was weighted and measuring, significant in a way to the she-Trolloc that the Aes Sedai couldn’t quite figure out.

“Before you sleep, run five times around the Tower grounds.”

Brown eyes blinked. What did more running have to do with anything? “But-”

“And keep running your stairs in the morning,” the Gaidin continued as if Katrie hadn’t spoken at all. “After that, come find me in the Yards. While I’m sure Dax makes certain you’re kept supple and limber, your grace and flexibility are going to waste. Be glad, sweetling, you’re almost there.”

Katrie narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “What do you mean?”

The red lips puckered. “I think I’ve found a style that you are actually rather inherently suited to.” At the blank look, the Gaidin laughed. “You are almost ready for me to teach you how to fight, pretty one.”

Oh! She could not stop the way her spine straightened despite the fact that Malina still held one of her legs high above her head. The Cairhienin’s expression was one of unmitigated delighted, the Borderlander answering with a genuine smile.

---

Almost there had taken another three weeks.

“Show me what you can do, sweetling.” Malina clapped her hands and waggled her fingers at the sweaty Aes Sedai. “Begin!” the Gaidin commanded and the others in the Yards that had been roped into ‘helping’, obeyed.

Katrie’s eyes flickered over to the smaller woman but otherwise made no further outward acknowledgement. She floated in a bubble of calm; it was the same place she went to when embracing saidar. Given her experience and practice with that already, Malina saw no point in trying to teach her a different technique for achieving the same thing. The Oneness, the ko’di, the peace bubble... so long as it worked, it didn’t matter what it was called. The Gaidin had seemed particularly amused at the Brown’s term.

Narrow staves and practice lathes swung at her in no set pattern and the slender woman flowed into motion.

She stopped two hits with her forearms, craning her neck back as she slipped beneath a swing meant to take off her head. She twisted one way, narrowly avoiding bruised ribs and then threw herself in the opposite direction, the stave passing so close to her body that it grazed the fine hairs on her arm. Her back leg planted and she caught one of the flexible lathes with the side of her other foot, kicking it aside. Brown eyes saw the next hit coming and she could not avoid it. She lifted her front leg higher, catching the blow with her knee. The resounding crack! seemed to echo the length and breadth of the Yards but she grabbed at the stopped weapon with her hands and twisted sharply, twisting again until she was able to pull the lathe up and out of the unknown Gaidin’s fingers. She tossed it to the side.

The Aes Sedai pushed up with knee and thigh, momentarily airborne as she rotated her torso and hips, the leg she had been standing on coming up and around in a half arc of motion. Another lathe was knocked free, but the staff that slammed into her shin threatened to undo the stillness that blanketed her mind. She grunted, the calm bubble keeping the pain at bay as she landed lightly on her feet. Her palms flew up to deflect another stinging hit. The back of her neck prickled and she did not hesitate, lunging forward. Her arms locked as her palms smacked into sand and dirt. She pushed back up while lashing out with her back leg. It was not lathe or staff that she collided with but solid flesh and bone. Katrie turned towards the dropped weapon, ignoring the figure sprawled out behind her and sent the long thin cylinder of wood spinning away with a nudge of her foot.

Something... shifted. The change in the air was palpable and it made her pause. A heartbeat passed, then another. What were they waiting for? The tall woman reflexively dropped into a defensive stance. A blur shot towards her face from the very edges of her peripheral vision and there wasn’t anything for her to do except fall flat onto her stomach and roll away. She pushed herself up, settling in a wary crouch for a moment, sable eyes meeting... oh Light it was Malina! Cold rippled along the edges of the calm bubble and for a moment her mind flailed about uselessly. The red lips were not set in their customary smirk and the way the small Gaidin advanced towards her was... frightening... Oh. There came a push from somewhere in her skull, the sensation of golden warmth counteracting the icy chill. The stillness reasserted itself.

Katrie tilted her head to the side ever-so-slightly, her fingers curling into sand and dirt again. She had better reach than Malina. And Dax had taught her things that the she-Trolloc had not. The tall Cairhienin remained stationary for as long as she dared before exploding into motion. She threw a fistful of blinding, irritating particles straight into the Gaidin’s face and launched her legs forward in a broad sweeping arc, her arms briefly supporting the entirety of her weight as she sought to take the other woman off her feet entirely. Malina evaded, cursing, discoloured streaks marring her face and hair. The Aes Sedai did not relent, heaving herself upright with fluid grace, her feet seeking to crush the Gaidin’s with each step as she advanced, fists colliding with the other woman’s arms as she tested for any opening or weakness she might exploit. No matter how far Malina tried to push back, the Aes Sedai could still reach.

The Gaidin’s heel caught against toes, the boots doing little to protect them and Katrie ignored the possibility of them being broken. Broken toes would heal. The she-Trolloc had stopped moving for that. That stray stubborn curl fell over her forehead as she stepped into the distance that separated them, long fingers grabbing and twisting into the fabric along Malina’s shoulders. The Brown yanked downwards as hard as she could, ramming her knee up into Malina’s gut. She realized belatedly that the Gaidin had managed to bring her arms up to absorb some of the brutal blow and small hands gripped the underside of Katrie’s exposed knee. A jerk upwards and suddenly the ground became sky and ground again and she was staring up in confusion with another body laying half on top of her. The bubble of stillness vanished and brown eyes could only blink. Her fingers ached.

“Not bad, sweetling. Not bad at all,” came the muffled words.

Katrie tried to respond but all that came out was a muffled groan. “Thank you, I think,” she thought she finally managed to say, the pain and exhaustion dissolving into a fit of breathless giddy laughter. She closed her eyes, her mind going to seek Dax. Brilliant golden light answered her and the Aes Sedai pushed irritably up at Malina with her hip, sable orbs opening to glower balefully at the smaller woman. “You’re still a she-Trolloc.”

The Gaidin slowly extricated herself from copper fingers still trying to clutch at plain fabric and stood, those red lips smirking down at her in lieu of answering as she offered her hand. The tall Cairhiein grasped it and was hauled unceremoniously to her feet, grinning from ear to ear.