“Well, un-ingrain it!” Osrik barks out. See? Really helpful.
I shoot him a dry look. “Thanks, I’ll try that.”
Judd regains my attention by clapping his hands. He’s s
hirtless again, but I’m not going to complain, because the sight almost makes up for me getting thoroughly walloped.
“They’re your greatest asset, Gildy. You need to use them to your advantage.”
Sighing, I look down at the ground, the feeling of failure winding around me like threads on a spool. “I know.”
I hear heavy footsteps trod forward, and then Osrik is bearing down on me, scowl and all. “She just needs proper motivation.”
Without warning, he cocks back his fist and sends it flying forward, landing a brutal punch against my shoulder like solid stone launched from a catapult.
I’m knocked off my feet with the contact and fall on my ass in the snow, teeth gritted from the hit. “Ouch!” I snarl.
Osrik looks down at me without remorse, huge arms crossed in front of him like he’s bored. “That was my half-punch. You went down like a sack of rocks.”
“You hit like a sack of rocks,” I grumble.
I push up to my feet, my shoulder feeling like it nearly knocked right out of its socket. I roll it back tenderly with a wince on my face. “I’d hate to feel your full-punch.”
“Too bad, ’cause that’s next.”
My eyes widen as he raises his fist again, but before he can land a hit on my other shoulder, three of my ribbons snap up in response. They shoot out, wrapping around his wrist and forearm, their satin lengths gone firm as steel.
He tries to jerk away, but my ribbons don’t let his arm move an inch. His teeth gleam behind his bushy beard. “See? Motivated.”
Lu claps. “There you go, Gildy!”
I release a smug-looking Osrik, but my own lips twitch with pride that I finally managed to stop a hit.
“Alright, let’s stop for tonight,” Judd says, grabbing his shirt from the ground and tugging it on. “It’s freezing balls out here.”
Lu rolls her eyes as she comes over. “And they say women are the weaker sex. Men are only as strong as those sensitive dangly bits between their legs.”
I laugh, reaching down to scoop up a handful of untouched snow to stuff in my parched mouth. It feels heavenly, crunching through the flakes as they melt on my tongue, cooling my heated body.
“Interested in my dangly bits, are you?” Judd smirks at her.
“Only their whereabouts so I know where to aim my kick when you piss me off,” she drawls.
Both Judd and Osrik grimace, like they’re imagining her doing just that. She shoots me a wink.
The guys pick up the two torches they brought out here, while Lu plucks up the bottle of wine and fur before we all start the trek back to camp.
“Here you go, your ribbons earned it,” Lu says, passing me the bottle of wine.
“My ribbons earned it? Not me?”
“Yep. Your ribbons take charge when you’re threatened or pissed and you forget to hold them back. But you need to start taking charge of them. Have more control, learn how to use each one to your best advantage.”
Nodding, I lift the bottle to my lips and tip it back, gulping down the last bit of wine left at the bottom.
“You essentially have two dozen more limbs. You could really fuck shit up if you learn how to use them,” Judd says from my other side.
I feel my ribbons puff up slightly like they felt his ego stroke.