Solo [The Sanctuary] Tough Lessons

[Kavala]

Timestamp: 29th Of Winter

Kavala needed to get back into shape. Just as soon as she started to feel better, Kavala hit the town looking for someone that could instruct her privately on the double bladed sword. She started at the Sasarans and worked her way from there, following one lead after another until her questions and detective work lead her to a small unassuming cottage on the end of a street on the third tier. Kavala politely knocked and when an older Akalak answered, she carefully asked for the name she’d been given.

They talked a while. It had turned into a longer affair than she had anticipated, and after multiple quarries and answering a lot of questions on her part, She’d finally learned this was the man she as after and he was indeed willing to teach her. But the circumstances were odd. He hadn’t wanted to teach her because she’d asked. He’d instead only agreed to teach her after she’d stated that she felt constantly weak and wanted to strengthen up and get back the body she had before she’d carried two children to term. And of course, after she explained her competence in unarmed combat and daggers, but that the reach was so limited on each in the face of a weapon.

Anir was an odd man, an Akalak in his early two hundreds, he agreed that he would come and train her at The Sanctuary but nowhere else. As a recluse, a man retired from both the Kuvay’Nas and his life from the Sasaran’s... he didn’t want the word to get out he was teaching officially. He explained he only took enough students every year to keep him sharp and his blade’s in good practice. And more and more he was taking on women and younger children, training them up from an early age.

So Kavala agreed to keep her time open, dropping everything to have time when he wished to give her a lesson, and returned home to wait. Waiting proved easy. She had a million things to do and a ton of physical training to perform between the times Anir and his dark brother Luc had agreed.

Anir took three days before he came, but when he did so it was still dark outside and Kavala was running on the beach with the dogs. Her fitness regiment had amped up now that she could eat food without throwing up and energize her body. Weight was coming back on slowly, but Kavala was determined that when it did, it would come back as muscle pure and simple. So she was running on the beach, giving the dogs a much needed chance to roam, and her lungs were already burning. Once she could run straight to the peninsula that led around to the port of Riverfall. But those days were gone as Ralac had grown. Instead, she ran about two miles total, as a warm up, before she retreated into the training center to lift weights and then have a meal. Kavala was covered in sweat when she rounded her halfway point and began tracking her footprints and the dogs prints back. Her lungs burned, and she had to concentrate on keeping her elbows swinging and her hips in alignment with her shoulders to get the maximum exercise out of the run. Halfway home she had to drop to a walk, clutch her side, and curse softly. She could feel the excess flesh in her middle and she hated it with a passion, wanting to run and run and run until she had her familiar form back.

Anir was waiting on the beach by the open sea gates when she arrived. He had his own double bladed sword in hand and a bright red scarf wrapped around his neck. The sky was just lightening.

“Are you ready, Kavala?” Anir asked. Kavala nodded. She would have preferred a bath and a change of clothing, but decked out for running worked as well. The Master looked her up and down, seemed content, and then told her to go fetch her own blade. Kavala was a little surprised at this, but left to retrieve it anyhow. She’d assumed they would be fighting with wooden weapons. But she had no practice blades other than her Isurian Steel Izentored weapon. She fetched it, with its ivory handled grip and perfect balance, and then returned to the beach making sure the dogs were securely kenneled on the way back.

Once back before him, she paced up and bowed. He smiled, removed the scarf from around his neck and asked her to turn around. She did so, and he firmly wrapped it three times around her head, covering her eyes, and then had her turn back around. He left her ears unencumbered.

“These first few lessons we will restrict your sight. I want you learning my techniques by feel, blindly, rather than utilizing the handicap that is your eyesight. It can become a crutch and a way of dealing with the world that can be ripped from you at any moment. I have trained hundreds of students in the blind. I will train you as well.” He said, circling around her.

“Now, the first stance I want you to learn is your at rest stance. You will remain in this stance when I lecture you and when I call halt to any of your activity. Hold your blade out before you, find your grips on either side of the hilt a shoulder width apart, and then release your right hand and bring your left hand – still gripping the double bladed sword – back behind you so the sword rests up your side, parallel to your body, but in a non threatening manner. Your blades should one be pointed to the sky to honor Syna or Leth, the other pointed towards the ground to honor Semelle. Find your position, Kavala.” Anir said firmly.

Kavala did as he asked, crossing the blade in front of her, finding her grip, releasing with her right hand and bringing the blade up behind her to where she thought it was parallel to the ground. When she thought she was in the correct position, she nodded. The master stepped up to her, made a tsk tsk sound, and freed her blindfold so she cold look. Her sword was tilted, one end pointing to the ground at an awkward angle to her body. The other end was pointed off to the north.

“Find the power that pulls things to the earth by gripping your blade loosely, and pretending that your arm is the weapons rack. Feel that weight, how it hangs, where it is in position to your body. This is your steel and your lifesaver so you will need to understand and be able to position it." Anrr said.

He fixed the blindfold on her again.

“Again.. No. Again. No. Again. Better. Again. Better. Again. No. Again. Perfect.” He said, calling a halt to the process.

“Now. You know where your resting position is. Bring the blade up, around, and in front of you across your body again like you are holding a hand-rail overlooking the Suvan. Feel for the weight of it. Let it settle loosely in your hands. Do it now.” The weaponsmaster said, and Kavala complied. She swung the blade around, made a grab for it with her free right hand blindly, and missed letting the Isurian steel slam into her side. It struck with only the flat, but it left a welt and made her wince. If the business end would have hit her, there would have been a cut. An alarm rang through her mind.

“No. Again. Back to the resting position and try again.” Kavala was starting to see the issue. She had no idea where the weapon was at any given time and unless she learned quickly, her body would be covered with cuts. Blindly, she tried again, following his orders.

This time she made a grab to where her left hand was gripping the blade, covering over that hand and letting it slide down off her gripping hand and onto the hilt. A loud wack resounded and what felt like a riding crop slammed into her right hand causing her to release the blade yet again.

“No. Feel for it. You will not cheat.” The weaponsmaster said. Kavala’s hand was already smarting. The bastard had raised a welt across her knuckles. Shaking her free right hand slightly, Kavala brought the double bladed longsword back to its resting position and waited. Soon enough, the command came.

“Again.”

Kavala tried once more.

[Kavala]

It took Kavala more than a dozen tries to bring the weapon from its resting position at her side and slightly behind her to a horizontal defensive position where she could catch it every time with her free right hand. By the end of the ordeal she was covered with sweat, wobbly, and doubting her sanity.

But this was how Crescent had been trained. It was harsh, but at the same time there was an edge to it that felt right. She was learning core techniques that would in the end make her a lot better swordswoman that she could be on her own. The crop on her knuckles just reminded of that fact. So too did the cut on her thigh and on her right forearm. She’d had to heal them while practicing, because when she paused to do wound repair, he’d nailed her in the forehead with the riding crop and had warned her …

“Heal if you must, but only on the fly while you are doing what I ask. If you need to pause to stop your own blood from leaking, then you will die. Learn that too, while we train. I do not shed your blood for nothing. You bleed to learn, Kavala Denusk.” The Konti had agreed.

After the first two lessons, as simple as they were, other things came a bit easier. The at rest position and then moving the blade to a horizontal position and finding it with her free hand left her thinking a great deal as to where the blades were at all times and anticipating where they would go or reappear at. It was suited, wholeheartedly, to Kavala’s mindset. She wanted to be ten moves ahead. Anir only let her think about a half a move, no more no less. If she got distracted by thinking, he’d reach out and pop her on the forehead with the crop. It didn’t physically hurt her much, just a welt or two on her knuckles where he hit harder, but it was enough to bring her attention back on him.

Kavala was still blinded.

So she stood there, the weapon at defense, and listened while he gave the first of many of his talks. “Kavala, attacks vary depending on the situation, what weapon you are facing, and what defense is required. I might teach you something entirely different than another master. But in the end, it all boils down to the fact that you fight according to the openings presented and defend when it is required. But be cautious of free gifts like openings in defenses. They can also be there to lure you in for the kill. That is why I will also be teaching you something else important while we train… the art of lying to your opponent as you fight. Some people call this feinting and deception, but why call it anything other than what it is. To be a good fighter, Kavala Denusk, you need to be a good liar.” Anir said, grinning even though the blinded Konti could not see it.

“Some instructors teach to the defense. I am not one of those instructors. I will of course teach you to defend, but I want you to be very clear about something. Do not wait to be attacked. Instead, fight to gain and hold the initiative so that you are causing them to only react react react and that keeps their mind too busy to form a strategy of attack. If you are fighting someone who already has you on the defensive and reacting rather than attacking, everything I teach you here is going to gear you up to take that initiative away. You cannot win a battle and thus preserve your life if you are reacting. You must be proactive as a fighter.” He said, clearing his throat and pausing.

“Now, we’ve learned resting and defensive horizontal positioning. Now I’m going to teach you to change sides with the weapon. Are you ready?” Kavala nodded and replied in the affirmative.

“Sometimes fighting with the double bladed sword you will need to change sides. This needs to be trained and trained and trained until it is thoughtless and automatic. Almost any guard move can result in changing sides. To accomplish one, you decide if you want to move forwards to thrust or move backwards and make more space to maneuver. Now… do as I say.” Anir said, looking thoughtful even though Kavala could not see it.

“Let loose your grip with your forward hand so that your double blade may pass through it easily. With your rear hand push the blade through the front hand until the two hands meet, fully extending the arms if possible for extra reach. Then, immediately let go with the rear hand and pull sharply, at the same time, backwards with the front hand. Now, the free hand can catch the blade and take the place as the front hand when you step forwards or backwards. The footwork changes depending on if you are moving forward or backwards. But after you have moved, be at your guard position with the blade horizontal across your body.” He said, grinning though the blinded woman couldn’t see him.

Kavala gave it a try, not exactly understanding his instructions. But when she followed them completely, she found that she could bring the blade up and around, changing body positions and sides… what riders would call their leads… by doing this in essence flying lead change in the middle of the battle with the blade. It was blade management pure and simple, and while on the first attempt she did clobber herself upside the head with the flat of one of the ends of the blades, she learned almost immediately to lean slightly off the direction she was shifting too… but not before she decided to change hands. That… earned her a sharp rap to the forehead with the riding crop.

“No. No no no. If you lean first, moving your body out of the way of your change, then you are going to let the opponent know what you are doing before you even do it. That gives them the opportunity to move in and interrupt your changeover and kill you. You can get out of the way of your own blades, but you need to do it in the middle of the transition where the enemy has no time to react. Now. Try again.” He said, clapping his hands to signal her to begin.

Kavala changed sides, slowly, awkwardly, but she managed to do it without cutting anything off – most notably an ear. She finished in guard position with her only flaw her incredible slowness and the fact that she overreached when she swung the blade around and caught the blade guard in her hands rather than the double bladed sword’s grip itself.

He made her practice over and over again, blindly, trying to find her grip, even with the roaring coastal winds blowing in as the afternoon wore on. She didn’t complain. She didn’t protest, and she certainly didn’t cry out when she missed the grips altogether and got a fist full of blade. It taught her immediately to think quick, to retreat when necessary, and most importantly to tap her gnosis on the run.

[Kavala]

When Anir had decided Kavala wasn’t going to complain, balk, or otherwise throw fits that women were prone to do when pushed, he smiled. Keeping her blind, he had her bring her weapon up to its horizontal guard resting spot, and wait. She could almost do it… bringing the blades parallel to the ground and thrust out in front of her with her elbows not being locked and her stance loose.

“We need to speak of holds and hand positions, Kavala. There are three in double blade for the beginner. The first is a normal hold. Your hands are assuming that position now. It is a classic pose and one that you will use in the majority of your fighting. The Double blade is divided into thirds. The first third is a blade, the second third is where you can grip, and the third third is blade. You hold the staff in the center third, hands shoulder width apart, with one palm facing up and one palm facing down. Almost every move I teach you will utilize this grip. But you must be flexible. I want you to practice switching these holds, leading with your right, then leading with your left and bringing your blade back into its resting and listening position. I will correct you if you make a mistake.” He cautioned.

Kavala inhaled deeply, exhaled calmly, and sweated. This wasn’t much of a workout, but it required a great deal of thought at first, trying to get her body to wrap itself around the blades and their motions. The weaponsmaster was an extrodinary teacher. She’d bled, she’d welted, and she’d learned in leaps and bounds this morning… and she’d done it all blind. With her head and her hearing, she followed him as he paced in front of her, explaining things. Then when he gave her his instruction, she nodded. Bringing the blade back to its resting position, which she was slowly learning, she released her right hand and let the left take over. She nodded, inhaled, exhaled, and brought the blade up in front of her in the horizontal guard position, gripping with her right hand, as well. When both hands were on the grips, she was holding it correctly. Then she released with her left, brought the blade to a resting position behind and beside her in her right hand, and reversed her wrist, bringing the blade back up in front of herself, twisting her hips, and joining it with the free left. The left grabbed it opposite of how the right had, and while it was still holding the staff horizontal, Kavala switched her right hand’s grip, reversing it as Anir asked.

She dropped the blade.

Cursing she belt down to quickly retrieve it, and earned a crack on the top of her head with his riding crop.

“No. Incorrect. If you ever drop your blade, leave it. If you bend to get it, that crop would have been your opponents weapon and you would have been headless. If you drop it again, your immediate reaction is to disengage with a roll dive roll to one side or the other, whichever is farthest away from the leading edge of his or her weapon. Then draw another weapon, because I would hope you have more on you… not perhaps another double bladed sword, but another weapon such as a dagger.. and throw it. Kill them. When they are dead or utterly disabled, you can go back for your weapon. If you can kill or disable them, leave the blade. No weapon is worth your life.” Anir said, folding his arms across his chest, though Kavala could not see the gesture – blind as she was.

“Now, retrieve the blade.” He ordered.

She started to reach for it and earned herself another welt on her knuckles. Kavala vowed to herself even as she winced away, that she’d wear gloves on the next encounter.

“Never reach for a blade blind. You will cut yourself. Use your boots. Push them forward, get a toe under it, and feel. You can tell even through those thin running boots what is blade and what is hilt, once you know blind, then reach for it. A healer without fingers is useless.” The man said, amusement in his voice.

Kavala nodded, feeling stupid for even trying the motion. She moved her foot forward, skidding almost, hooked it under the length of the blade, and lifted. She felt blade under her and judged by which way the blade tipped on its balance across her foot where the grip was. This time she did reach for it, confident, and her fingers found leather wrapped grip. She had it in her hands in a moment, stepped back, and was then asked again to repeat the normal hold and its switch.

She dropped the blade two more times before she got the hang of it blind. Kavala had never had a greater appreciation for her sight and what it did for her in battle as she had at that particular moment with Anir instructing her. And she was glad, too, that she’d chased down the rumors and got this man to give her some lessons. Even though her forehead had welts on it and her knuckles were now swollen, she was learning in leaps and bounds.

When she was more confident and had a better grip on the basic hold, Anir taught her two more. “There is a narrow hold, where you utilize one palm up and one palm down. You only keep a fist length space between your two hands. We utilize this when we spin the blade. I will let you spin to see how this works, but do not hold the blade as close to you normally would because I do not want you to loose an ear or a nose on this first training session." The weaponsmaster said.

Kavala tried it, moving her hands closer, then spinning the weapon in a figure eight. When she was confident in that, she tried changing the grips like a baton twirler would. This was actually easier than learning the basic hold from a resting position. She could FEEL the other hand and see it in her minds eye because the hands never really parted far from one another. It was odd how that worked, with the fighter being blind. Kavala assumed it was because the hands were in the auras of each other and was momentarily distracted summoning up her auristics. She pooled the essence of djed behind her eyes and looked to see what she’d discover in the vicinity of her hands and the whirling staff. Light flared before her, representing the power and the energy generated by the spinning blades whirling around each other. Kavala jerked her head back, shocked by the explosion of color and tripped while the blades were still spinning. She staggered back, and all but went down on one knee. The blades dug into the sand driven deep by the power of their spin.

Anir chuckled.

“Every mage does that… usually but once. I had no idea you yourself were a mage, Kavala.” He said, somewhat enlightened. “But I will tell you in this instant, that magic and weapons do not mix. Not now, not when you are first learning.” He stated, moving back and letting her sort her own situation out. She would have to extract the sword, rise, and place it in resting position… and await his further instruction.

[Kavala]

When Kavala got herself situated again, on her feet and her double bladed sword in its resting position, she waited for the old weaponsmaster to speak. He took a long time She was tempted sorely to pull off the blindfold and see what he was doing. She did not though, not uninvited. This man was teaching her too much in a very short time for her to break instruction and check on him.

He made her stand there at least ten chimes.

She had no idea what he was doing. On his part, he’d taken a brief walk to the waterline, gazed out at it, and then looked back up to where his student stood, head bowed forward, double bladed sword gripped properly at rest. It hurt his heart, deeply, that the world had come to such a point where a woman stood on the sands patiently… so desperate for instruction that she would endure his quick reprimands with his crop and then stand silent and await him just to learn more. In the old days, no one in Riverfall would have stood for it. He judged her with sharp eyes, noting her slimness and having done little investigation of his own. The people in the city thought she was crazy. She’d built a fortress up on a cliff outside the city all in the name of animal healing. No one within Riverfall’s gates believed it. Some even thought she was a mage that had lost herself to Sweet Whispers. But then she’d started supplying the Kuvay’Nas with big horses that gleamed in the sun and shimmered under the moonlight. Bred for war and trained by a woman, they’d said. He couldn’t understand it. He wasn’t sure he wanted too.

Reluctantly he turned, pivoted on his heel, and marches almost silently back up the sand to circle around her and face her once more.

The girl oozed worry. He almost smiled. Crazy didn’t worry. Normal worried. And so he cleared his throat and continued the lesson. “The last hold or hand position is the wide hold. Again, palm up and palm down but this time take a wider grip, at the very edge of your two-thirds space. Your hand heels need to be right up against the blade guards and far wider than you shoulders. You cannot spin the blade so freely in this position, but this does give you a steadier grip and a very superior ability to take a blow and block strikes. Remember that, We will have lessons on defense later.” He added.

Kavala nodded, patient, having enjoyed the ten chimes break or so. She’d needed it. Her strength was nowhere near where it should be.

“Now, we need to talk about stances.” Anir said, studying his still blind pupil.

“Most students make the mistake of thinking that stances aren’t important. They assume double bladed swords are all about the movement of their hands and upper body. These things are important, but when dealing with stances you must understand that they are the foundation to everything your upper body does.” The weaponsmater said, circling around Kavala. She resisted the temptation to turn her head as he paced, following the sounds of his walking as she did so. Instead she remained still, listening to how he moved around her, and what that meant in terms of combat. Her hearing had a blindspot, she realized suddenly, that was directly behind her. And when the man passed through it, she could get a definite fix on his location. It was when he came into hearing range again, that’s when she lost track of his EXACT location. She figured it was because her ears were yet untrained. That could change.

“So the first stance we will learn is called the long front stance. Stand up straight, Kavala. Place your leading leg out… front knee is bent back leg is straight. Good.. yes… like that. Your front lead foot’s toes are pointed outward into the beyond. Your back foot toes are pointing at a slight angle away from the opposite direction you are holding the blade at if it is at your side. If it is in defense like you are now, point it out away from your body slightly.” He instructed, them moved in to shove her. The shove he gave her was not gentle. But she kept her feet and seemed surprised by it . He couldn’t’ actually see the surprise in her eyes through the blindfold, but her mouth was forming a slight 0 even as he watched her stick her stance and not go down. He nodded, then reminded himself she was blindfolded, and cleared his thoat.

“Good. Now then... the next stance. It’s called the Horse stance. If you ride horses, which I know you do, imagine you are on one’s back. Your legs need to be in a perfectly straight line, past shoulder width wide, knees bent, legs almost parallel to the floor, back straight, head forward.’ Kavala knew what the man was talking about, but standing with almost no muscle tone in that position was hard. She tried to assume it, failed, and then struggled to get into it. Anir made an impatient sound. Kavala tried again. It was super difficult, blind, trying to maneuver one’s body into a position that should have came naturally. She finally managed it, and he grunted his approval.

“Now, long front stance and back into horse, moving your double blade to rest then into horizontal guard.’ Kavala almost swore. She stepped out of the stance, into the first one, and brought the blade to her side at rest, then she swung the weapon around again, placing it at horizontal guard and dropped awkwardly into the horse stance.

“That was the most ungraceful thing I’ve ever seen a woman do. You will practice this and practice this until you get it right and can move from one stance to the other seamlessly.” He said firmly, standing off to one side. “Go. Again.” So she repeated the processes, spending a good thirty minutes moving in and out of the stance until she could at least manage it without dropping the double blade, which happened twice. Kavala thought it was because her palms were sweaty… all of her was sweaty… but didn’t say anything. Anir just sounded annoyed and wouldn’t broker an excuse anyhow. The Konti was hot, sweaty, but begrudgingly had to admit that she was learning in leaps and bounds and already handling the weapon better.

[Kavala]

Kavala stood at attention, still blindfolded, when Anir called a halt to her practice on that stance. She was trembling slightly, though she tried not to show it. He did another circle around her, shook his head, and cleared his throat.

“You must do better. These sessions with me will help, but if you want to get back to your fighting stance, you are going to have to take on more work. " She felt his hand on her arm and her sleeve pushed up. Grasping her by the wrist, he extended the limb and ran his hand down it. It was then that she felt it, the Nysel mark that burned on him and sang to her, reacting to her own. “I take it this is not your normal weight or condition?” Kavala shook her head and opened her mouth to speak.

Anir cut her off.

“I do not want to hear any excuses. I want to hear only results. You will eat as much food as you can afford. But I do not want you eating empty calories. You will eat raw vegetables, steamed, or roasted… lots of red meat and fish. I would like to see you pack on the dairy as well, drinking lots of whole milk and tea that you have brewed yourself. When you get up in the morning, you will eat. When you get done here, you will eat. When you perform any physical exercise, you will eat. I want you eating enough for three or four Konti. Do you understand?” Kavala nodded, a deep flush spread across her cheeks and down her arms. Anir released her. “I will come every other day. One day we will work the double bladed sword as you requested, but the next we will work on your strength and flexibility. Every ounce of that food you pack in I want to see produced into muscle. And I want to see the flab in your middle from that baby vanish to the point no one could ever tell you had one… or two if the rumors around town are true. When I come the day after tomorrow, you will be wearing female style leathers, the kind that will adjust as you grow strong and the kind that bare your middle to me. I know you hate your body now, but birth is beautiful and you must get used to the new form you wear before it will fully bend to your will. Do you understand?” He asked firmly.

Kavala nodded. “Yes, I do. I will be as your require.” She said softly.

“Good. Once, a long time ago, you trained me. If you look hard enough down your Chavi, you will find where we were together. I am not that same man now, and it frustrates me to no end to see you like this when I know how you could be… Crescent. We will get you back there. Our Lord has tasked me with this duty, and I will gladly see it through. It is more than enough for a man like me to get out more. I’ve been walking Chavi and searching for a long time, pulling away from society. Nysel has dictated that its time for me to get back in the world. The Ruv’na are here again. That’s what all the signs dictate. And if you are like this, you are vulnerable. We will fix that. But I will never be easy on you Kavala. Never. And you were one wicked tyrant to me in those days. So I’ll use every trick in your book, and a few more of my own, and we will do this.” A rough hand seized her jaw and pulled her chin up while another one reached around her and pushed her hips forward. “Now stand up straight. You look like a lightening struck puppy. If those shoulders don’t remain square and that spine straight when I’m talking to you, there will be hell to pay.” He said, an edge to his voice that wasn’t there before.

Kavala was stunned. She was literally without words and without the ability to process what Anir was saying. Which didn’t matter anyhow, because he gave her no time to process it. They moved immediately on with the lesson.

“There are two more stances you need to learn. The first is the front stance. This is also a common stance that involves standing square. You are balanced on your toes, and have your front knee bent, back leg straight, shoulders square, and all ten toes facing forward. Place your weapon in rest, then bring it up on horizontal guard and assume the front stance.” Kavala did so, not sure if she had it right.

He kicked her front leg forward more, edged her back leg back, and forcefully straightened her spine. She took a deep breath and tried to feel what that stance felt like. She tried to memorize, blindly, what her muscles felt like when her body was in that position and how she could move. Kavala took an experimental figure out swing with the double blade and moved out of the stance back to her resting position. Then she stepped forward and tried to assume it again. Anir squared her shoulders immediately. “Again.” He ordered and she did as he asked, ending up resting and taking the stance twenty times before he grunted his satisfaction that she figured it out.

They moved on.

“Your final stance is the cat stance, Kavala. This is an incredibly fluid light stance that I am not sure you are capable of just yet. You have about eighty to ninety percent of your weight on your back knee and your front foot is barely touching the ground. We use this for lightening fast strikes and to be able to flex back and forth or front to back at a moment’s notice. It is, however, more forgiving than the front stance. You have more flexibility in how you assume it. Just make sure your back is straight, your shoulders are parallel to the ground and you are as flexible as possible in your hips. They should not be rigid but connected to your body as a single huge pivoting join. Now try it.” He said, moving back, his voice receding in the forced darkness of her blindfold.

Kavala moved her double blades to the resting point, and then brought it back up and around in a horizontal guard, moving her feet into a planted back foot and a light barely touching front foot. Anir kicked her locked back leg out from under her. She hit the sand with a grunt and ended up with a faceful of it. At least she didn’t fall across her blade. She started to reach for where she thought it had fallen, and then danced back remembering the lesson. She thrust a toe forward, still spitting out sand, and nudged the blade… on a blade. She felt the distinct ring and then shifted her foot, dragging it along the length of the blade blindly, until she bumped across a guard and felt a hilt. She toed the blade upwards, out of the stand, and felt it tip. She grabbed for the downside of the blade draped across her toe, and moved into resting position.

“Never lock your leg. It’s a propellant for a move like that. The more its locked the easier it is to cause you to eat dirt” He said dryly, with not an ounce of remorse for the bruises she’d have in the afternoon nor the sand she’d had to spit out.

Kavala tried again… she tried multiple times, over and over again until she was forced to acknowledge that Anir was right. She had just lost too much flexibility and physically could not assume the stance. He called a halt after about a half hour when Kavala was dripping with sweat again and had gone down in the sand two more times due to Anir’s corrections.

“Enough for today. Work on eating and strength. I will be back day after tomorrow. We will start with some strength training and then get into strikes.” He announced, pulling the length of red from around her eyes. Kavala glanced down at herself. She was soaked due to the mist from the sea, sand, and bruised. Her left hip still had blood running down it where she’d stabbed herself accidentally. Kavala turned after the quick exam and offered Anir a smile.

“Thank you for coming. Thank you for reaching me. I will look forward to your next visit.’ She said sincerely, and gathered up the double bladed weapon. She carefully carried it towards the Sea Gates even as Anir walked off down the beach headed back to town.

[Gillar]

Weapon: Double-Bladed-Sword 5 Blind-Fighting 5 Endurance 4 Rhetoric 4 Body Building 3 Running 2 Investigation 1 Persuasion 1 Auristics 1 Lore: Anir, retired teacher from the Kuvay’Nas and his life from the Sasaran’s Lore: Arguing with an eccentric, stubborn Akalak Lore: Sword fighting: Practicing basic techniques while blindfolded Lore: Sword fighting: Struggling with pose and posture while blindfolded Lore: Sword fighting: Basic parts of a double-bladed sword Lore: Sword fighting: Rest Stance Lore: Sword fighting: Front Stance Lore: Sword fighting: Long Front Stance Lore: Sword fighting: Horse Stance Lore: Sword fighting: Cat Stance Lore: Sword fighting: Defensive horizontal position Lore: Sword fighting: Proper basic grip Lore: Sword fighting: Normal hold Lore: Sword fighting: Narrow hold Lore: Sword fighting: Wide hold Lore: Sword fighting: Blade position Lore: Sword fighting: Accidentally smacking one’s self with their own weapon Lore: Sword fighting: Being trained by a Master Lore: Sword fighting: Experiencing exhaustion and doubt during training Lore: Sword fighting: Getting smacked on the knuckles as a grip reminder Lore: Sword fighting: Openings and Defense Lore: Sword fighting: Fighting to gain the initiative Lore: Sword fighting: Feinting and Deception Lore: Sword fighting: Be proactive not reactive Lore: Sword fighting: Changing sides with a weapon Lore: Sword fighting: Proper footwork Lore: Sword fighting: Basic sword thrust Lore: Sword fighting: Dropping one’s sword Lore: Sword fighting: Never reach for a sword while blind Lore: Sword fighting: Retrieving a dropped blade with a foot Lore: Sword fighting: Spinning a double-bladed sword Lore: Sword fighting: Unexpectedly using Auristics while sword fighting Lore: Sword fighting: Weapons and magic do not mix Lore: Sword fighting: Getting shoved while holding a sword while blindfolded Lore: Sword fighting: Never lock your legs Lore: One of Anir’s past lives was trained by Crescent, one of Kavala’s past-lives Lore: Healing: Knowing when to heal and when not to in a fight Lore: Healing: A healer without fingers is useless Comments: This was a well thought-out, put-together thread with a lot of content packed into it. I particularly enjoyed the fact that Kavala did not immediately know how to do everything Anir was passing on to her. She struggled and made mistakes and such mistakes had some consequences; Anir smacking her knuckles for example or Kavala accidentally smacking herself with the flat of her own blade. You also pointed out on a number of occasions that Kavala was out of shape and as such her difficulty training was increased which made the whole thread come together more realistically in my mind. The part about Anir's past-life being trained by Kavala's past-life was a nice touch that adds some interesting depth to the two's relationship. I think my favorite line form the dialog in this thread had to be, "A healer without fingers is useless". Great job on a well-put-together thread!