Chapter Thirty-OneI was about four feet away from the circle when Madrigue attacked, catching me by surprise. He grabbed me by the waist and threw me across the room as if I weighed nothing. I hit the ground with a long woof and rolled away, narrowly missing being trampled. The air his stomp displaced fanned my face and hands, and I swear, the ground beneath me vibrated. He tried to pound me into a mush, and I rolled and rolled, realized I'd run out of ground soon and reversed direction, going back. His stomp caught the edge of the beautiful shirt, but instead of rolling again, I hooked my arms around his other leg and pulled. He jumped back, giving me enough time to do a flip backward, a graceful move I learned after many painful bruises.
He rushed me, a big man with death in his eyes, a
