Fait Accompli: An Unwilling Tutelage

[Sal]

The part of Elke's mind that normally sat in the esteemed position of making rational choices based on a bumper crop of information, important and superfluous alike, found itself sprawled undignified on the floor of her skull as Nevina's hands met her throat.

For one half second, she sat frozen, the fading late autumn warmth of a smile still cooling from her lips. Her eyes still on the chair - now empty - where Nevina sat until just moments ago until becoming eclipsed by a blaze of red hair and a blur of creamy skin.

Then a pressure in her head, like a rhythmic hammering in time with her pulse, and the heat of panic spreading from somewhere around her liver took over.

"Nev--!" Elke rasped, unable to convey the rest of her assailant's name. "Sto--!"

In one fluid motion, Elke's hands came up to Nevina's wrists to tug them away and her knees curled up to her chest. Part of the movement was an attempt to keep Nevina from coming any closer, and part of it was to afford Elke an amount of potential energy that she converted to kinetic as she struck out with her momentum centered in her heels and directed at any part of Nevina - chest, collarbone, neck, jaw - within striking distance.