Friendly Spar in Ahleas Park (Seeker)

[Ayda]

78th day of Winter, 512 av (dusk)

Ayda had been working very hard at his new job and hadn't really gotten time to use the quarter staff he had bought days prior. He didn't feel it was safe to practice it in his small room and until now the weather was much to cold to do it out side. The weather had warmed up a touch recently with spring approaching and Ayda wasn't going to waste this opportunity. Night had fallen and Ayda grabbed his quarterstaff and started his search for a decent place to use it. While following the path to Koten Temple he took a left turn and stumbled onto a strange but beautiful park. Everything from the trees to the ground seemed to be illuminated with cool colours. Ayda's purple skin seemed to fit in nicely with this colour scheme.

However this wasn't a secluded area as there seemed to be people wandering around marvelling at it the parks otherworldly beauty. He wandered around until he found a fairly open and secluded area and began his exercising routine. He started with touching his toes, from a standing position he bent down and let his hands reach for his toes. He could feel the stretch in his hamstrings as his hands got closer to his feet. Ayda reverted back to a standing position and moved his torso side to side to stretch his back. He then did several reps of jumping jacks until he started to sweat. He was breathing deeply and he could feel his heart beat in his chest. Ayda then went to the cold beautifully illuminated ground to start doing push ups. He did twenty reps before flipping his body onto his back and doing twenty reps of crunches.

this wasn't a very hard work out for him, he had been doing this a bit in his down time. It some how made him feel connected to his old Akalak self. He had a feeling he did much more intense work outs when he was alive but didn't share the same keenness or energy. He was now ready to start what he had actually came for. Ayda stood up and grabbed his Quarter staff and shifted into a fighting stance by putting his legs parallel from one another. He held the staff in both hands, his left hand situated around his thigh and his right hand holding the staff out across from his shoulder. Ayda tried a few moves with his Quaterstaff, none of which were particularly spectacular. He wished he had some kind of teacher or sparing partner it would make this process a lot better.

[Seeker]

Beautiful creatures those are. Seeker thought to himself as he watched the prismflys fly about, twisting through the branches of the beautiful- yet old- fadeong tree that he currently occupied. I wonder if there's any sort of myth surrounding their presence. Watching silently, Seeker marveled as the beautiful bugs flew closer to his spot upon the branch. If I stay still long enough, perhaps I'll be able to catch one. For several more moments Seeker remained still, that is, until he heard sounds more distinct than the ones that had permeated his being for the past many moments. As if on cue, Seeker spotted the disturbance among the peaceful cadence that the park had established while he had been there. A man, may times taller than he, was twisting and turning- doing some sort of calisthenics activity, not noticing in the least his presence in the tree only a dozen or so paces away. I wonder if he is some sort of performer, come to liven up the park- or, By this point the purple man had started to do crunches. ...or, he is just looking to strengthen his body's knowledge by exercising. Yes, that's more likely.

Content for now in the knowledge he had gained on the man he turned his back on him and proceeded to slowly make his way back down the tree trunk. Focusing his attention on his hands, Seeker concentrated on his fingertips- melding them into almost lizard like suction cups. Carefully he ran his hands over the bark, hoping for the desired result. After what felt like several minutes he felt them catch and latch on, molding around the cracks and indents in the bark instead of actually suctioning to it.

Quickly and surely, Seeker proceeded down the side of the tree, looking back at the man who was now swinging a staff around. I wonder why he is out here alone? Surely one would need a partner to effectively practice with a weapon such as that. After standing next to he base of the tree for several minutes, watching the man handle his weapon, Seeker made his way over- making sure to steer clear of the staffs path. When he was no more than 15 feet away from the man, he suddenly stopped. Eying the man's posture he paused, and looked behind him to see if there was some sort of threat. Deciding on the best course of action, Seeker chose to alert the man of his presence. Hmm, what to say. Should I greet him? A 'Good Dusk to you my dear Sir?' No, too formal. Should I just toss aside the pleasantries and challenge him to a mock duel? Perhaps... although he is so tall... tall... hmm.

"My good Sir, if you haven't noticed, I'm quite short." With that said, Seeker nodded politely and waited. Keeping an eye on the mans body language as he waited- just in case he chose the wrong path of action.

[Ayda]

Ayda was suddenly startled by a voice from an unknown source, and immediately halted his actions. He would have normally dismissed the Voice as an echo left by the darker Akalak soul that previously occupied his body but this voice was much to coherent. The voice said something about being short and Ayda was expecting a short human but when he looked around all he could see was a small clay statue. He couldn't see any other people in the vicinity, but it surely couldn't be the human shaped object in front of him. Ayda then realized that he might be talking to a Pycon, the creatures made from clay and brought to life though alchemy. Ayda knew of Pycon but he still found it hard to believe that the voice he hard heard came from such a small creature. Ayda wondered if the Pycon felt at all intimidated by his large stature, Ayda decided he would need to tread lightly to avoid any misunderstandings.

Ayda knelt down as a form of courtesy before addressing the mysterious Pycon.
"I suppose I am quite tall, but no need to worry I am not one to bite. My name is Ayda, Can I be of assistance...?" Ayda said softly leaving a pause at the end to allow the Pycon to introduce himself.

[Seeker]

Seeker chuckled quietly to himself as the man knelt, it annoyed him slightly but at least he had the courtesy to be polite. "Well I am afraid if you were to bite all you'd get is clay... And I am almost completely sure that would not suit your dietary needs." With a nod and another chuckle he ducked into a quick bow. "Kneeling is not necessary, but thank you. My name, is Seeker. I was just in that tree over there," He began as he motioned to the fadeong tree that towered behind him. "...and heard you begin to practice. It was quite curious, piquing my interest as I observed the prismflys."

With a nod of his head Seeker motioned to the quarter staff that currently occupied Ayda's hands. "I always thought that was best practiced with two people... at least, I would assume that it is." I should imagine it would be hard, to try and counterstrike strikes that are imaginary. Hard, but perhaps not impossible. Focusing himself back on Ayda, Seeker pulled out his Py Strings. "Have you ever sparred with someone the size of your foot print before?" He asked as he wrapped one end of each string around his hands.

[Ayda]

The Pycon before Ayda went by the name seeker and seemed to be a cheerful little fellow and Ayda listened intently to what he had to say. It did however still seem strange to Ayda that Seeker could talk and chuckle with no mouth but Ayda tried not to let it bother him. Seeker told Ayda early in their conversation that he didn't require him to kneel so Ayda stood back up right, Hoped he had not insulted the Pycon with his gesture. Seeker said that he had been in one of the beautiful trees near Ayda that whole time. This surprised Ayda as he normally would never miss something in a tree, he was already known for being detracted by foliage. The fact that their were exotic insect that he failed to notice was nothing but a disappointment to Ayda. The conversation went down a path he wasn't expecting. Was this small creature asking to spar with him? the answer to the question was obvious but was not a question he thought he would have to answer. He did need a sparing partner, seeker did have a point. Ayda though he would give it a try, Sparing with a Pycon the size of his foot was better than sparing with no opponent at all.

"Pleased to meet you Seeker, and you are right clay is not part of my usual diet." said Ayda with a smile "to answer your question I have yet to fight anyone, I may not look it but I am only 2 seasons old...I am no fighter by any stretch of the word but in this day and age there seems to not be much choice" Ayda paused to collect his thoughts and then continued "I will allow you to make the first move if you wish, but take it easy on me, I am only a novice." with that Ayda reverted back to his fighting stance.

[Seeker]

"Only two seasons old?" He asked with another chuckle as he looked Ayda over. "Well then, I guess you have been eating your vegetables. But, on the sparring note, I will gladly accept your offer to take the first move."

Only a novice eh? Well... good thing I'm not much better. Hm, at least the size difference should provide at least somewhat of an equal playing field. Shifting the Py Strings, Seeker made the one in his left hand an inch or so longer as he contemplated his first move. And after a moment of calculation Seeker darted right, towards Ayda's right leg. Using the Py String in his right hand he went to strike but halfway through he stumbled on an up turned root. Damnable plants- should be more observant, more careful. Attempting to use the momentum of the stumble to his advantage, Seeker twisted the upper half of his body and struck out at Ayda's heel, attempting to aim for his Achilles tendon.

[Ayda]

Seeker seemed to find Aydas age amusing and his comment about eating vegetables. It must seem bizarre to other people that someone as tall as him could possibly be only a few months old. Ayda hadn't put much though into this concept as it seemed perfectly natural to him. He wondered how old the Pycon was, Ayda had a feeling Seeker was the oldest of the two but didn't really know by how much.

Seeeker readied his attack by adjusting his odd looking sting biased weapon. Ayda had never seen or heard of such a weapon and pondered on how the Pycon planned to use such a weapon. Seeker began his attack, running with surprising swiftness towards Ayda's foot. Seeker jumped a bit and contorted his body and launched his little string weapon.

Ayda manoeuvred his stance so that his left foot was out of the way of the attack and his right leg was moved forward to keep the stance parallel. This adjustment moved him facing more in Seekers current direction. He lowered his right arm and held His quarter staff like a broom. Ayda then made a fluid sweeping motion in Seekers direction, there wasn't a lot of strength behind this technique as Ayda was a little afraid of hurting his little sparing partner.

[Seeker]

Without losing momentum after the failed hit Seeker turned his attention to the staff that was now sweeping towards him. Hm, height advantage equals long legs. I should probably have thought of that. With a simple side step Seeker avoided the staff's path and quickly grabbed onto it as passed. Sculpting his fingertips once again Seeker gripped the staff tightly and started to shimmy up it, Strings still dangling from where they were entwined around his hands. Harameus please let this idea work.

[Ayda]

Ayda should have foreseen that Seeker would have used his attack as an opportunity to latch onto his spear. Ayda wasn't sure what seeker hoped to accomplish with this manoeuvre but he wasn't about to let what ever it was happen. As if on instinct, Ayda started to alternate the grasp of the quarterstaff, causeing it to spin. While he knew to do the technique, he wasn't coordinated enough to do it properly. The spin was clumsy at best but it would hopefully be enough to shake the pycon off his Quarter staff. Ayda's white linen robe barely moved with the pitifully small gust of wind generated from the spin of the quarterstaff.

He could feel his breath getting heavier as this fight continued, he was starting to perspire with beads of sweat forming on his purple face. With the work out Ayda had done earlier he was already getting a bit fatigued but was planing to continue for as long as possible.

[Seeker]

Seeker clung to the staff as it started to spin. I am quite sure that I do not care for this unforeseen turn of events; but, since there is no other alternative, I shall just try to make the most of it- hopefully. At first Seeker tried to use the centrifugal force to slowly work his way up the spinning shaft, but that proved a little more difficult than he thought; mainly due to Ayda's lack of coordination but also due to the fact that the spinning was starting to affect the level of concentration he could hold over the transformation in his fingertips.

Not willing to accept defeat as an answer, Seeker decided to try and use the spinning to his advantage. Locking himself firmly in place, or at least as firmly as he could, Seeker let out more string from around his left hand. After timing how long it took for him to make a complete rotation Seeker struck out with the string; his hope was that the circular motion would cause it to strike Ayda in a cascading manner, across both legs and (when he reached his zenith) across his chest. Honestly I would be amazed if this works... I'm not sure how much longer I can hold on.