[Flashback] Where the Grass Meets the Sea (Nel Sayo)

[Vanator]

Nel was very much like one of Vanator's younger cousins. Her mind worked at a breakneck pace, her mouth spewing forth every thought rolled through her brain. It was this childlike behavior that caused the Drykas to pause as the girl stood and drew her weapon. It cleared the scabbard and was poised before her in an instant, the point of the thin blade barely wavering. Then she whipped it around, slicing the salty air with an audible swish. A rapier. It was like a skinny little sword. The previously rambling youth now stood deftly wielding her weapon in blinding arcs like it was simply a part of her arm. Though Van may have questioned the effectiveness of the thin blade, he did not doubt Nel's ability to use it. So much for books and their covers. With a flick of her wrist, the hilt was suddenly before him. Van stood, took the rapier from Nel, and twitched it awkwardly, trying to swing it like a longsword. Unhappy with his inability to make it do the things Nel did, he held it, point down, out to her. Then, the brash seafarer dared to challenge him. Oh, not in so many words, but anyone who lived by a weapon would not have mistaken her intent. Vanator let out a chuckle. Drykas pride could be a dangerous thing. To be honest, he did not doubt that Nel was faster, he could see that easily enough. Her weapon was made for speed, his for brute power. It only took one blow to debilitate a foe with his ax, though. The horseman grinned back. "I don't think that is wise. I have swung that ax for longer than you have been alive." Vanator assumed her age by her appearance, he had no idea she was nearly as old as he. "And I dare say a Drykas has little to fear from a steel tothpick!" Van did not speak cruelly or with excessive bravado. His tone was teasing, laughing. It was a language he was used to, tauntings he and his katana-wielding half-sister traded often. His Konti half-sister.

[Nel Sayo]

The lady pirate took the rapier back with a bright laugh in the face of the Drykas' teasing.

"Bet I could give you a fair haircut with this toothpick if you hold still long enough," she threatened, whipping the narrow blade about until it hovered just beside his temple. The grin on her mouth only broadened. "And just how long do you think I've been alive, then?"

There wasn't much threatening about her, but there was certainly something sly. She recognized pride in the horseman, and Sy had always taught her to abuse an opponent's pride if given the chance. It wasn't done meanly, though, just curiously.

She speared the rapier into the ground between them, hands on her hips.

"Well what if you fight with the rapier and I fight with the axe?" she offered, wrinkling her nose amusedly. "That way we're both at a disadvantage we're unused to. Or -- if you're really just afraid to spar with me...I guess we could play cards instead."

There the grin turned truly sly, but no less amiable.

[Vanator]

Vanator laughed at Nel's comment about cutting his hair. It was an honest laugh of amusement, not mocking her boast. He liked her humor, and as she whipped the rapier's blade around him, he grudgingly admitted to himself that she very well could give him such a haircut. When the sharp point of the she-pirate's thin blade hovered beside his head, the Drykas remained motionless, answering her with only a broad grin of respect. He would not voice that admiration though, the taunting dance was too much fun at the moment. Another guffaw from Vanator split the sea air as Nel made her curious proposition. "Me, fight you, with that?" Van pointed to the rapier jutting from the sandy ground between them and uttered each part of his question as if he truly did not comprehend her statement. Her smarmy grin was answer enough, and his grin grew wider in return. Yes, he liked this woman. Clever and sassy. Nodding, he answered. "Very well then pirate. This should prove most interesting." The horseman pointed towards the large battle ax hanging from his Strider's yvas. "If that ax is too big for you..." He plucked the hand ax from his belt, flipping it in the air and catching it by the haft, "...you can use this one."

[Nel Sayo]

When he agreed to the duel, she let out a high, clear laugh of delight and bounced around the rapier for a minute, before leaving it where it spiked into the ground. A glance over her shoulder towards the battle ax hanging from his horse and she kind of blinked at the thing -- then looked down at herself. Another, quieter laugh, and a shake of her head, and she reached over and took the hand ax from Vanator.

"I probably couldn't lift the other one off the ground," she murmured, around another grin, as she tested the weight of the hand ax, where its gravity lay, looking no less befuddled by it than he had by the rapier. "This is gonna be fun."

She took a few steps back from him so that he could pluck the rapier from the ground, and likewise get a feel for the weapon. It was hard to say who looked more ridiculous -- the big Drykas with the elegant rapier in hand, or the tiny Konti woman eyeballing the ax like a bull would a matador. Nel had no idea how one was meant to fight with such a weapon, but she was determined to figure it out. Or, failing that, at least knock Vanator around a bit some other way. Fortunately, perhaps, for her, pirates had a very particular understanding of honor and fair fighting -- in that, they understood it, but chose more often than not to ignore it in favor of winning. So if she held onto the hand ax now with every intention of using it, she might at any moment just drop it in favor of kicking him in the shins. A fight was a fight, after all.

She passed the ax from one hand to the other, and bounced a little on her heels.

"What shall we fight for?" she wondered, eyes bright and merry.

[Vanator]

As Nel bounced around, hefting the ax awkwardly, Van stepped forward, wrapping his hand around the rapier's hilt and plucking it from the ground. He gripped the handle, testing its weight and balance. Truth be told, he had little experience with swords of any kind. Early on he seemed to have more of a knack for the axe, his unusually broad shoulders well suited to swinging the weapon. Besides, the sword took more technique, therefore more training. Being the son of an Ankal, Vanator had plenty of other things to take up his training time.The few times the Drykas had hefted a sword it was the heavier long and broad swords, quite unlike the light and well balance weapon he now held so uncomfortably. Van whipped the blade around in a poorly shaped figure eight. He found, unlike with heavier poorly balanced weapons, that his wrist played a much larger roll in how and where the rapier's blade struck. Likewise, it was obviously much better suited to stabbing rather than slashing, another unfamiliar tactic for the horseman. "What shall we fight for?" Van pondered out loud, still flicking the rapier's blade about. There was little he had that would be of any value to the woman. Nor did he see anything of particular that he wanted, certainly not the horrid liquor Sy had offered. Looking down and Nel's blade in his hand, he contemplated suggesting they fight for each other's weapon. But that would be unfair, even his battle ax was of far less value that the well balanced, thin blade in his hand. Perhaps they should spar for something less tangible. An ornery thought crossed his mind. His grin took on a wry twist. "How about this. If I win, you have to ride on my horse....and if you win, well, you come up with something."

[Nel Sayo]

The Drykas' suggestion wiped the grin right off the girl's face. She stared at him, the ax dangling from her fingers, and then twisted a bit to look at his horse. A swallow worked its way down her throat, just a faint ripple along smooth, white skin. And then she set her jaw in determination.

"Fine," she decided, nodding. "And if I win, you're coming fishing with me in the morning."

She gripped the ax in her hand more surely, and twisted it once. It was unwieldy, but now she had to beat him. Where the deep-seeded fear of horses came from, she couldn't have said, but they terrified her. No matter how many people told her they were gentle creatures, friendly and harmless, Nel had images in her mind, like nightmares, of hooves bearing down on innocent people. Memories, but she didn't know to put that word to them. Regardless, Vanator had inadvertently picked the one price that she would fight her damnedest not to pay.

She slid into a sideways stance with the ax in her right hand, attempting to find the same posture she'd have employed with the rapier, though it felt wrong with this weapon. She told herself she'd make it work, one way or the other, and summoned another smile onto her mouth just to let the Drykas know that it was still a friendly spar and nothing more.

"Okay, horselord," she laughed. "Gimme your best shot."

[Vanator]

The dour look that crossed Nel's face as she glanced at Backlash at first gave him some malevolent satisfaction, seeing the confident girl waver as the challenge sunk in. Then, as he saw a glimpse into the true fear she felt, a pang of guilt poked him in his chest. As a man raised among a people who not only saw horses as a necessity of life, but as family and friends, Vanator found it difficult to understand how someone could fear them so. He chided himself for his insensitivity towards his host. But the plucky girl rebounded, determined. The Drykas would have laughed out loud at the ridiculous fighting stance Nel had assumed, had his not been equally comical. One foot sightly in front of him, knees bent, Vanator held the rapier out to the side, as if ready to bring it to bear in a wide arcing swing. As soon as the ivory skinned pirate uttered her challenge, that is exactly what Van did. In perhaps the most useless technique one could attempt with the elegant weapon, Vanator swung it at Nel in a flat arc from his side, in what one could only imagine was meant to be a slashing attack. to the axe man, It felt incredibly awkward and imbalanced.

[Nel Sayo]

If she held anything against him for being insensitive towards her very private fears, it didn't show. Nel rarely took anything personal. There were too many persons in the world to always be tiptoeing around people's problems; she'd rather be happy and have fun than worry about whether or not he'd chosen horses simply to be mean to her. And besides, he didn't strike her as that sort of person.

She let out a whooping laugh when he ran at her, trying to duck beneath the swing of the rapier to get a jab inside his guard, but of course the hand ax was heavier and utterly lopsided, so while she managed to duck the Drykas' slash, she lost her balance in the attempted jab.

Her fingers managed to hold on to the hand ax as she flailed, skidding on one knee across the pebble-strewn earth, but she was still laughing as she got her feet beneath her. And then she thought about it, and realized that he'd just taught her one way to fight with the hand ax. So once she was steady on her feet again, she gripped the ax with two hands and ran at him in precisely the same way he'd just run at her, trying to swing the ax around in a slash.

[Vanator]

Even as she dodged his swing, Van let out a laugh as Nel lunged awkwardly at him with the ax. His mirth was tempered as she swiftly gained her feet and charged him with a determined smirk. Grasping the rapier in both hands, instinct lead the Drykas to raise the blade to block the ax. The thin but strong blade caught the her weapon just below the ax blade. Though Van was able to deflect the blow and redirect it away from himself, he employed much more force than was necessary, leaving him off balance. He staggered back to a steady footing, deciding much more finesse and much less brute force was required. Returning to wielding the rapier with one hand, the sweating Drykas began to think of the sharp weapon as a pointed stick, like one he had used to gig frogs at a pond. He held it out in front of him, like Nel had done, his left arm dangling, unsure of what to do with it. He laughed again. "You learn fast pirate! You must really want to take me fishing." The horseman gave her a playful wink. Vanator was feeling fine, sparring was a love of his, and it raised his spirits high. In fact, his little comment was his first attempt at flirting since he lost his wife. He only paused long enough to gain his footing, then lunged forward towards the woman, aiming the point of the rapier at her belt buckle.

[Nel Sayo]

Nel was a very vocal fighter.

For every slash, strike and parry, she let out a squeak or some other noise either in dismay or delight or some combination of both. She might have been small, but she was surely swift, and Vanator was not so different in size than her brother. So while she couldn't quite get the hand ax to work the way she wanted it to, she was at least relatively capable of avoiding the blows he aimed in her direction.

"I do really want to take you fishing," she agreed, giggling as she nearly lost her grip on the hand ax after he snapped the rapier at it to dislodge her strike.

It was perhaps fortunate for Van that Nel had no real idea when anyone was flirting with her, otherwise he might have found himself the focus of a darling, wide-eyed crush. As it was, Nel was simply a vibrant spirit on the look-out for other individuals of a similar nature. She threw herself into the spar because it felt good, and it was an adventure on its own. That he was a handsome Drykas may or may not have factored into it...of course.

"Hey, whoa--" She tried to lean back and away from the rapier when he lunged, but the tip of the narrow blade caught on the flat plane of the belt buckle she wore, and a single up-twist of his wrist snapped it loose. The belt dropped, and she tried to catch it, which only decimated her balance even more, and she went toppling to the ground and lost the hand ax in the same breath.

"--Godsdammit," she wheezed, through still more laughter, as she lay sprawled across the ground, a pile of long limbs and pale hair. "I need to practice more."