Ziggy Malone's Arc

Chapter 5 of 8

Ziggy knew Jade's fight now. Jade jabbed, circled left, dropped her back hand. But knowing was not the same as answering. Ziggy had never drilled a counter. If Jade's jab snapped out and Ziggy froze, the reach would win and the knowing would be worthless. So before the sun rose, she went looking for someone to hit her. She found two of them at the far edge of camp. A skinny boy sat on a crate, feeding scraps to a husky whose coat ran through every color. Beside him stood a tall woman in a dark suit, watching the trail like she expected trouble to walk up it. "You fight?" Ziggy asked the woman. "No," Dorian said. "I watch. That's a skill too." She looked Ziggy over once. "You're short. You want to get inside. You can't." "Show me why." Dorian stepped forward. She snapped her lead hand out, quick, right at Ziggy's nose. Ziggy flinched and stopped dead. The second jab tapped her cheek. "You froze," Dorian said. "That's how you lose." The boy hopped off the crate. "She stops when you punch," he said. "You have to move first. Not after." He held up his small fists. "Watch." He threw a slow jab at the air, then stepped his whole body sideways. "You don't back up. You go in." Ziggy stared at the seven-year-old. "You a coach now?" "No," Emerson said. "But my grandpa said don't wait for the door. Go through it." Dorian nodded once. "The kid's right. Reach only beats you if you respect it. Slip left, plant, come inside. Do it until it's not thinking." So they drilled. Dorian jabbed. Ziggy flinched, then stopped flinching. She learned to duck her head one inch and step in on the same beat. The husky barked each time she got it right. Dorian threw the left circle. Ziggy cut the angle and cut it off. Her cheek stung. Her lungs burned in the thin air. Her legs stayed strong. An hour in, Dorian snapped the jab hard and dropped her back hand to reset, just like Jade did. Ziggy did not freeze. She slipped, stepped, and drove her fist into the open ribs Dorian left behind. The tall woman grunted and stepped back. "That's it," Dorian said. She rubbed her side. "That's the counter. Don't lose it." Ziggy's chest heaved. She had the answer now, drilled into her arms, not just her head. Jade would jab. Jade would drop her hand. And Ziggy would be inside before the reset finished. But as she caught her breath, a horn sounded from the summit camp. The bracket was posted. Ziggy climbed up to read it and found her name at the top of the first line. Under it, the opponent she would face in one hour was not Jade at all. It was a name she had never heard, and no one in camp would tell her a single thing about how they fought.