Ram laughed out loud and then grabbed his rib turning to Elora. “I just realized you actually did take it easy on me. I could have ended up squashed like a bug.”
They were curious to test her for speed as well as strength. So they put her on a treadmill, but, at its fastest speed, which was twenty miles per hour, she was practically yawning. They determined they would have to test her outside on the track and then all five men proceeded to argue about the best way to do that.
After nearly two hours they seemed to be winding up when Elora reminded Storm and Kay that she was supposed to get an opportunity to critique their fight style. Storm blinked at her for a minute because he had, in fact, forgotten that he had capitulated to appease her in the moment.
Grinning ear to ear, Ram said, “Oh, this should be good.”
Storm and Kay danced around a little, not wearing gloves because this was strictly exhibition. Elora stood a few feet away. Within thirty seconds she had stopped them to suggest a correction to the way Kay was distributing his weight. It took Kay three tries to make the change, but, when he got it, he was impressed with the difference a slight adjustment made in his speed and ability to deflect.
She asked them to begin again. This time, when she stopped them, she gave Storm a detailed explanation as to how he was slowing his reaction time and draining endurance by carrying extra tension in his trapezius. She showed him how to keep his hands up while releasing that tension. He could tell that small suggestion not only made him instantly faster, but also allowed him to put more force behind his strikes.
Elora declared that enough for one day, saying she liked to allow time for an adjustment to be absorbed and integrated before introducing something else.
Storm and Kay turned to talk to Sol and Ram. Both reported remarkable differences from just those few minutes of instruction, but everyone observing the demonstration was already sold. The implications were clear. If their interdimensional traveler was willing to share what she knew, she might give them all a better shot at staying alive. Sol turned around to ask if she would consider instructing. She was gone.
Storm, Kay, and Ram found her at the hub bistro looking up at a digital read out of the menu above the counter.
Ram came up behind her. “Can we join you?”
She shrugged without looking at him. “It’s a free country.” She stopped and thought about that and then turned to the three men behind her and asked them as a group. “Isn’t it?”
All three nodded and murmured assents.
“So what will you be havin’?” Ram continued.
“Deciding between cream of mushroom soup and a hamburger.”
“Get both,” he said.
“That would be wasteful,” she countered.
“No’ at all. We’ll eat whatever is left.”
Elora considered that for a moment, then stepped up to the counter and ordered the soup and the hamburger. She was completely unprepared for all the questions the hamburger order prompted. How did she want the meat cooked? If she wanted cheese, what kind of cheese? Which vegetables? Which sauce? What condiments? Bread with sesame seeds or without? Seeing her lost look, Ram interjected himself into the dialogue and answered the questions to please himself. Then he turned to Elora.
“Let’s start there. Before long you’ll know exactly how you like it.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he smiled. “You want juice?”
She shook her head. “Chocolate milk.”
He smiled bigger. “Excellent choice.”
She smiled back.
Watching and listening to this exchange from just behind them in line, Storm was feeling like a boy whose toy had been usurped by another kid. For the hundredth time he reminisced about the days when he didn’t have to share Elora with anybody else. Of course he didn’t want her held prisoner... exactly. But he didn’t mind being the center of her universe.
The four of them sat down at a table in the solarium. Storm and Kay went back to get the trays of food when it was ready since Ram was out of commission. She and Ram talked about food she had tried, food she hadn’t tried, but would like to, and food she used to like in her world.
When Storm and Kay returned, they said they were impressed with what she had shown them and that Sol was going to ask her if she’d consider training.
Elora nodded her head without looking up from the hamburger in front of her. “Sure. This is good.” She ate a potato chip and took a swig of chocolate milk through a straw like a kid. “I like hamburger, but chocolate milk is amazing. Do you think the others would be receptive?”
Ram touched his rib meaningfully. “If they know what’s good for them.”
Elora pressed her lips together. “I wouldn’t want anybody to be forced. That’s my only condition. If they want what I have to offer, it’s freely given, but it must be their choice.”