I rolled my eyes. “Where do you think he got the idea? He seems sincerely sorry. If he’s not, Kee will eat him alive. Either way, she gets cookies.”

Eli offered me a hand up, then easily pulled me to my feet. “You’re too soft. Let’s toughen you up.”

“I will enjoy making you eat those words, Bruck, even if I have already done an entire workout while you got your beauty sleep.”

He grinned and tossed me a pair of hand wraps. I snagged them out of the air and wrapped both hands with the ease of practice. I jabbed at an imaginary foe, testing my muscles. I’d gone hard this morning, and I could feel the fatigue. Eli would eat my lunch if I let him get close.

I removed my shoes and socks and stepped onto the mat. Eli was nearly twenty centimeters taller than me, with a much greater reach. He was stronger, and for all of his muscled bulk, he was fast, too.

In other words, he was the worst type of opponent, which made him the best for training.

I tapped my wrapped knuckles to his and then danced out of reach. I had to keep moving. Once he got me on the ground, this would be over embarrassingly fast.

He feinted at me, but I dodged the real blow and retaliated with a quick jab to his flank on my way by. “Getting slow in your old age,” I taunted.

“If I’m old, then you’re ancient,” he said.

I laughed. He was only two months younger than me.

“Make sure you tell everyone that an old crone beat you up,” I said, darting under his guard to land a light blow on his abs. We weren’t trying to hurt each other, so the strikes were just hard enough to let the other person know that they’d been hit.

He clipped my shoulder when I wasn’t quite fast enough on the escape, and he grinned at me. “Now who’s the slow one?”

We kept circling, trading taunts and blows in equal measure. I was decent at hand-to-hand combat, but in a real fight, Eli would mop the floor with me. But because we trained together, I knew how to take on a much better opponent, which had saved my skin more than a few times.

After fifteen minutes, I flopped down on the floor and tapped out. My muscles had picked up a fine tremble and I sucked in great gulps of air. “You win this round, Bruck. Don’t let it go to your head.”

He grinned down at me, barely winded. “I win every round.”

I tried to sweep his legs out from under him, but he jumped back with a laugh. “Enjoy your nap. Some of us are here to work out.”

“At least help me up, you monster,” I growled at his retreating back. “Respect your elders!”