_“If there’s a fire you’re trying to douse, you can’t put it out from inside the house.” - Hamilton_

Rune squared his shoulders before me, adjusting his grip on his dagger.

The forest around us was dense with greenery, but all of the forest life had been scared away by the clashing of our blades. Rage and irritation was smothered all over Rune’s face, his breathing heavy and unpracticed. I only smirked.

After a few minutes of contemplation, he pounced, bringing his blade back to jab into my chest, I parried it with little effort and swung my arm lazily towards his throat. He ducked and went for my chest again, this time from a side angle but I knocked his blade to the side, creating and opening for me to strike. Instead of piercing him through, I turned my blade around and pushed him onto the floor. He grunted in irritation, stabbing the soil beneath him with his dagger.

“If I were an enemy of yours, you would be dead.” I chuckled, offering a hand to help him up.

He begrudgingly took it, groaning as I lifted him up. “I don’t see what I’m doing wrong.”

“I used to have the same problem until my old mentor pointed it out to me.” Sheathing my knife, I continued to speak, in the tone he thought to be condescending. “If there’s a fire you’re trying to douse, you can’t put it out from inside the house.”

“What in the hells is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you've started something that's gotten out of control, correct? Meaning the spars that you can never win.” I chuckled again. “You can't fix it or control it from within the situation or by using the same actions that caused the problem in the first place. Therefore, you need to change tactic, do something I don’t expect. Like maybe choosing a different attack instead of the same one every time.”

Rune gritted his teeth as he rubbed a sore on his arm. “It would help if you taught me more.”

“Fine.” I began to pace the clearing. “Lesson 1: complain less. Lesson 2: smile more. Lesson 3: I’m not a damn teacher, I’m your bodyguard. If you want to learn things, study what I do and just do the same.”

“Yeah, like it’s that easy.” Run growled.

I smirked again, “T’is.”

_(Note: I added an extra Hamilton lyric (slightly altered) can anyone guess it?)_