Song and Blade (Mishani Vita) (Flashback)

[Lysing Bouldershine]

Lysing wipes the sweat off of his forehead and shrugs his shoulder rearranging the position of the leather straps wrapped around his shoulders. The leather straps are attached to a crude like sled that has about twenty-five logs of wood placed on top of each other in a pyramid arrangement. Grunting Lysing shuffles into the campsite and brings the sled full of logs next to the single person tent. Lysing turns around and kicks the sled. He hates doing manual work especially something as primal as dragging logs of wood for firewood. In a frustrated mood he bends down and grabs his waterskin off of the sled. Uncorking the top he takes a long and deep swallow of the cold water from the container. As he does that his eye falls on the newly bought bastard sword leaning against the tent sheathed in a plain leather scabbard. Finishing up his drink he places it back on the sled and walks over to the weapon.

"Rote I will be back. I am going to train some with the sword because I believe I am rusty. Keep watch of the camp until I come back?

A Cyphrus Strider that stands at seventeen hand height snorts and swishes its tail back and forth as it trots over to Lysing. The mighty stallion nudges its head against Lysing's shoulder in its own way of saying Of course I will . In return Lysing pets the mane of his old friend in thanks. Soon after he grabs the sheathed blade and runs deeper into the forest in the direction of a meadow he found recently.

A few minutes later Lysing has his sword unsheathed in his right hand. Lysing takes a deep breathe relaxing his entire body and places his right foot behind him. Placing his weight on his back leg he brings the sword to both of his hand. Then he springs forward and swinging the sword upward while his right foot to the side in case he has to sidestep out of the way. After going through this swordplay motion he starts to get really into it and goes head first into more.

[Mishani Vita]

And there she was, further from home that she ever had been. The blonde woman stared to the horizon, wondering where she should go. It was a big place, and dangerous at evening, so she couldn't go too far. She started to walk in a random direction, hoping to find something interesting. She didn't get any words to her head, but she hummed something really cheery and skipped to the direction she choose, looking around. Without even noticing, she was in a forest.

"What the-" she said out loud, stepping on some branches and making them snap. How did she end up there? You should actually notice these things too... so she just continued walking, not knowing where to go, of course. She was a little terrified, her hand sweating. She was afraid of the forest, because of an old attack that happened... She slightly touched her scars on her face and shook her head. No, not now. She had to find someone. Or something. Or anything! A little panic was creeping up to her head, but she tried to keep calm.
Then she heard movement somewhere near. An animal? "Not a canine, please..." she begged, almost crying. She carefully moved behind a tree, looking towards the direction. It was a guy, practicing. She sighed in relief, but didn't come away from the tree. She just looked, and waited for a good opportunity, so the guy wouldn't cut her head off.

[Lysing Bouldershine]

Stab. Sidestep to the right. Pommel hit to the head. Cleaving off the head. Spin around to the side and kick in the chest. Bastard sword in the heart. For the past four bells that is what he has been practicing against imaginary enemies that appear out of thin air. Oh he made some mistakes like swinging to wide leaving himself open. Or putting to much effort into a stab. Yet later and later into the day those mistakes became less and less more frequent. After he finished off this set of attacks he sheathed his sword back into the leather scabbard. He wiped his forearm against his head getting the sweat away from his eyes.

He finds a stump off to the side of the meadow and sits down relaxing before he takes the small hike through the forest back to the campsite. Lysing was slapping himself now because he forgot to grab the waterskin before he left. It was probably still on the makeshift sled next to the tent. Shrugging he puts his focus on trying to even out his breathing so he can leave for the campsite soon.

[Mishani Vita]

The man was talented. Misha was hypnotized by the handling of the sword, that she didn't even notice the few mistakes. When the guy sat down, Misha noticed he didn't have a waterskin with him. Would be a good opportunity to step away from the hide, but she backed off a little, snapping some branches. She cursed at herself silently and stood completely still. It was like she would have frightened the sound she had just made. She held her breath and closed her eyes tightly, taking another unsure step back towards her city.

*SNAP*

There went an other branch. Why couldn't she just stay there. But noooo, she had to be so awesome she snapped sticks and branches so all the animals in the forest would come and eat her up. She sarcastically grinned to herself, looking at the guy between the trees. She certainly didn't die today.

[Lysing Bouldershine]

The snap sends his head head swinging towards the noise. He sees a shadow on the smaller side fleeing away against the brown bark background of the trees. The shadow reminded him of an animal he saw a day ago that he later found out was a deer. Lysing creeps off the stump as quietly as he can leaving his sword next to the stump. Bending on his knees he stealthy walks on the toes of his feet dodging the dry leaves along the forest floor as he headed towards the shadow. Without stepping on any of the leaves he is able to make it to the edge of the forest.

He leans over behind a tree to see what it is when he falls forward crashing into the forest. He lands face first into a small bush that is full of some strange blueberries. Keven looks up guessing that the deer ran away when instead of finding an animal he finds a girl. "Well you are not a deer. That is for sure"

[Mishani Vita]

Oh snap. She was detected! Misha was embarrassed and she quickly looked around. She just wanted to run away, but that was no way of a good woman to behave. She just moved her hands a little and made the dry leaves rustle. She mumbled something and hid her face, like she always did when she met new people. She giggled silently when she heard that he had thought her as a deer. She scratched her cheek and stood up. Slowly she looked at the guy, and smiled. She got some courage to speak up. "I-I'm Mishani, but people attend to call me Misha." she said with a silent voice, smiling a little. Not wanting to make other people uncomfortable, she stepped a little back. She looked at the guy more carefully. He was really nice looking. Not one of those sailors she used to meet all the time when she was in the harbor. But this wasn't t he harbor, anyway. This was a forest. Back to the guy. He was muscular, and got brown eyes. She also noticed a tattoo. Or a piece of a tattoo? It wasn't fully visible, maybe? The Drykas were tattooed, right? But normal people could have tattoos too. She had a tattoo, and she wasn't one of the awesome horsemen. She always wanted to be, thought. She got a lot more courage when she examined the other person, trying to find out more about him. Misha tilted her head sideways and blinked her eyes. Was he really a horseman?