A Knife in Cloth

[Calvin Freeman]

Aria watched Sti as he looked through her trunk at her weapon’s. She had gotten the daggers from her family back in Wind reach. Aria was working as a weapons saleswoman for her family. This position allowed her to travel to where ever she felt and meet interesting people like Calvin. She turned to watch Calvin as she leaned back on to her hands. Calvin was examining a Dagger close up and personally with high level of intrigue I wonder if I should tell him? Aria smirked at the flirtatious notation, which, although audible, didn’t spark Calvin’s interests. Aria turned back to Sti who looked generally displeased with the daggers, but Aria never left a customer unsatisfied. Sti suddenly turned to her and asked “Are there any throwing daggers, you might poses at the moment.”

“Hmmm let me think,” Aria respond, putting her head on her fist to consider. “Ahh yes,” Aria went under the bed again pulling out a travel chest she opened it to reveal a collection of throwing daggers. “These are the finest throwing dagger in all of Lhavit,” she then lifted her shirt to reveal a belt of throwing knives in which she took two one in each hand. As she held each dagger she began to sway and move like a swan. “These daggers are perfectly balanced for increased accuracy.” Aria threw both daggers at Calvin. Both flew in a straight line and landed in the wall past Calvin who didn’t move as reaction. “He gets so focused when he is interested in something.” She then walked up to Calvin and wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder.

The first thing that sparked the interest of Calvin about this dagger was it’s short blade. Most daggers tend to be 10’’ to 15’’ Long, but this one had a short thin blade. Calvin pictured the blade moving through a cloud of smoke. The shorter the blade the less noticeable. The second thing that sparked the interest was the shape of the blade. It was double edged and balanced coming to one center tip. This meant it would be easy entering and leaving the body. The last thing that sparked the interest was the balance of the dagger. Although, dagger’s are small enough that balance isn’t necessary to have complete balance, It puzzled Calvin why Aria’s family would make an imbalanced one when most were balance, at least to Calvin’s feel. Calvin now flipped the blade holding it to point the floor he noticed a little detachment from the tip of the pommel and the point. He grabbed the ball point tip and began to screw it off which happened with surprising ease. Calvin looked into the pommel to find it was hallow. Perfect. Suddenly Aria’s arms wrapped around Calvin. He spun the tip back on and turned to face Aria. “The other thing we needed Aria was some training”

”No problem you two just pick out a dagger and will head to the training yard.”

[Sti Pascallion]

Sti looked at the throwing daggers on in the trunk, he also noticed just how much Aria loved Calvin. Sti died inside before he left wind reach, and has not recovered from the problem.

He studied the first dagger for throwing, it was a little longer then the others but it was the only one that fit in his hand. The dagger was light and had a light medal handle with no wrapping. Sti found it so amazing that something so small can cause so much pain.

After he was done studied the dagger he decided it would be his, and asked its price. As he looked around however he saw that Calvin and Aria were doing other things so decided to wait and listen, and see what happens.

[Calvin Freeman]

As Aria was walking out of the room, Sti asked her the price of the throwing dagger. “1 gm a piece and the dagger your holding, Calvin, will be 20 gm. You get a handsome discount.” Aria laughed at this as she walked at the room and closed the door. As she walked out the door she moved with grace and smoothness over the wooden floors, but also moved really slow and wiggled a little as she walked.

Calvin watched as Aria left. Leaving a customer you just met with all your stock? She is really stupid, or perhaps just trusts me. Calvin shot Sti a puzzled look in confusion of what just happened. “Ok Sti i promised you some knife training and now we are going to get it. Aria is one of the best knife woman I know. So, grab your Kris and I will lead you to the training yard.”

The training yard was a dirt floor with a cloth canopy overhead. The canopy however, was now rolled up and being stored inside the tavern. The yard was completely empty and most had now gone inside to drink ale and wine. The snow had covered the ground and began to stack up. Around the yard was buildings on all three sides and on the fourth was the door to the tavern. Because of the four other buildings, no wind entered the area and the snow was piled high. On both sides of the yard were heavily worn and beat up dummies, barley visible over the snow.

“I’m sorry about all the snow,” Aria said “but here is the training yard free for your use, I could get the practice swords out but I don’t feel like it.” Aria snuffed and lifted her chin up into the air to complement her snootiness. “I really just want to see what you guys have so go ahead.”

Calvin went first. He thrown his jacket on and his leather gloves and moved to the closets dummy, pushing the snow out of the way. When he arrived at the dummy he cleared room and took a deep breath. Here we go. Calvin spread his right leg back and turned it to support his weight he took the dagger in his left hand and turned it so that he could have the most ease with stabbing. He raised his arm so he could just see over his arm and the dagger was pointed at the dummy’s face. He narrowed his eyesight and look like a professional assassin for a moment, until he swung his arm and missed the dummy completely almost stabbing him self in the leg, but he jumped before he could and fell flat on his back.

”That was... very good” Aria’s voice was full of snicker she was about to burst out laughing. “I liked your...” She bent over in an effort to control herself, but it was a lost effort and broke out laughing. “Well at least you looked like a knifes man with your little stance.

[Sti Pascallion]

Sti held up his Kris in one hand facing out, he looked as if he were a serial killer ready to strike at his next victim. He slowly made his way to the dummy walking evenly with each step. Once he was close enough to strike, he whipped his blade at the dummy. Solid contact with the dummy then the blade flew from his hand spun and landed in the snow. He picked his blade back up and made his way back to where Calvin was standing. Calvin had a nice wide grin stretched across his face, but Sti's next words wiped it away. "At least i hit the target."

[Calvin Freeman]

”Okay boys I’m gonna teach you about your grip first.” Aria threw a knife up into the air and then caught it with her left hand. “Your knife is your friend it should always be there when you need it.” Another toss and catch. “We trust our friends and that is the most important thing with any weapon. Trust. Trust that it will hit your target. Trust it will guide you and trust it will not stab you in the back literal and figuratively. The second thing to think about while wielding a knife is your reach. Think of your knife as an extension of your arm. Allow it to be your new hand and fingers. Now these first two rules can be applied to all weapons, but the special things about knives is how you can move with them. Knives allow you to be acrobatic and stealthy while also adding a lethal touch.” Aria demonstrated this by doing a front flip, landing in a crouch and the sliding around to face the two men again. “Calvin you practice that.”

“Now Sti using your throwing knives you still trust but instead of thinking of them as extensions of your physical body think of them as extensions of your conciseness. Like if you were going to extend your reach to the target a throwing knife would allow you to do that. The other thing that is important with all ranged weapons is to be calm and patient. I want you to practice this by throwing your knives at the dummy across from Calvin on the other side of the field but stand behind Calvin.”

“Okay now I put both of you back to back so you can be aware of your surroundings as well.”
Both men practiced together.

Calvin set up again and commenced to practice his swing on the dummy moving his arm back and forth. He attempted to clear his consciousness of all distractions. This is how Calvin learned best. He started with his fist at his core and then extended his forearm stabbing the dummy. He wanted to make sure his grip was secure on his dagger and his movements were smoother so he moved his arm back and forth.

[Sti Pascallion]

Sti on the other hand was had a routine when using his bow, taught to him by a man who he hated. Sti took a deep breath but didn't know the first thing to throwing a knife, he looked to Aria who was doing an over hand release motion with her hand. Sti tried to imitate the movement with his arm, he place the knifes sharp side upon his back and in the same move meant moved his arm forward forcing the knife to propel in a strait line. The knife spun but it was a week throw and it lightly stuck into the ground. Sti thought for a moment the decided to try again with another knife. He quickly took another that was just looped in on his belt, inhaled and placed the knife on his back then extended his arm in an arch forwarded motion. This time the knife got high into the air but was still a little short. He decided to try once more, taking a third knife from his belt. He lifted the knife back to his back and slowly this time made the arc releasing only when he felt the knife was reaching max speed then released the knife in a similar arc across the field. This time the knife went high but instead of falling short it fell high. The knife flew over the dummy and landed in the snow in a strait line from where he was throwing. He looked a little disappointed at the last throw because he really thought it would strike the dummy down. He looked back to Aria who was focused on Calvin and decided to watch him since all of his dagger where away doing other things.

[Calvin Freeman]

Calvin pushed his arm forward and into the dummy. This was the 50 time of doing so and the movement finally began to feel natural. Thrust. retract. thrust. Calvin felt himself mastering the forearm stab and felt the need to expand he now used his entire arm to swing at the dummy. The dagger cut into the dummy. He then pulled it out and stabbed. He liked this more natural swing. Swing. slice. retract. thrust. Now he wanted to attempt a more double swing and slash he swung through the dummy and the knife reached high up into the air. He then brought it down slicing the dummy across the chest and then stab. Calvin was developing a technique. He was standing still and the target was a dummy, yet he felt a sense of pride from cutting the straw filling this dummy. He lifted his blade high above the dummy and chopped through him in the middle. Calvin was sick of standing still now he jumped back and ran towards the dummy and slid under it rising behind it and stabbed. He then threw his arm around the dummy’s neck and kicked off him. Doing a back somersault. In mid air he attempted to grab his knife and ended up missing, throwing his clairvoyance off falling on his back. While on his back he was looking up to the air and he slowly opened his eyes to see Aria’s beautiful face above him. “Hello?” Calvin smiled.

[Sti Pascallion]

Sti watch as Calvin used the dagger. He soon wanted to try again and so he did. He collected all his knives and began to through them again, each time he threw he was a little closer to hitting the dummy. It became a constant throw, throw, throw, retrieve then again. He had thrown the same dagger at least 12 times. Then after recollecting he hit the dummy, then he retried and hit the dummy again. It soon became a constant thing, he would throw more accurately each time he threw the dagger. Soon he wasn't missing, until his focus was drawn away at the site of Calvin smashing into the ground.

[Calvin Freeman]

“Hi there” Aria responded. Calvin and Sti stayed in that yard practicing over and over again just learning how to wield and use knives and daggers. Aria guided them and gave them more demonstrations. Around 5 though they all came in to share another glass of Ale Calvin paid the 20 kinas he owed Aria for the dagger and left hugging her again and holding her tight.

8:00 The sun had gone down and the moon had risen above the training yard. Their was a bit of a chill in the air as Calvin and Sti made their way home. Calvin felt good having had done a hard day of training and now he felt more useful to Sti in a fight.