Closed A Squirrely Squire

[Wynn Argall]

The fifth day of summer, 514 AV.

"...I'm fighting one of those little clay creatures?" His voice wavered with uncertainty as Wynn clarified his patron's instructions by repeating them back to him. "Is that really a good idea?" After all, Wynn wasn't much for agility. Pycons were, just about, the opposite of himself. They were fast, mobile, flexible and while they weren't necessarily the strongest knights, they used their speed and size to combat those with greater strength. Wynn was neither the tallest nor the strongest human, which only served to increase his apprehension at having to spar with one of a more diminutive race. He'd seen some of the pycons training together, their small bodies darting around the fields with surprising bursts of speed. He doubted he'd be able to get a single swing in before he was dispatched.

"Where would the Order be if it did not address its weaknesses?" Ser Normit's austere visage stared down at Wynn with a hint of questioning in the slight raise of his brow. "...in trouble?" Wynn ventured, offering a defeated shrug. Overcoming his own short comings had been something he'd had to do since he was a young age. Occasionally he had to be reminded that it was good for him, not just a source of suffering. "Something like that, I would imagine." Ser Normit leaned across his desk, his elbows pushing aside the papers to make room. "Would you rather spar with someone else this morning?" The only time Ser Normit ever gave anyone an option was when there was a correct answer. Wynn swallowed, itching the back of neck nervously. "...no?"

A raised brow informed him that he'd chosen correctly. Ser Normit leaned back into his chair, folding his hands and resting them across his stomach. "Excellent. You'll be looking for one Squire Archailist." Wynn nodded, not surprised by the strange sounding name. The few pycon knights he knew of had similarly odd names and titles, so he assumed it had something to do with the pycon culture - something he knew very little about. As Wynn rose to stand, Ser Normit held up a hand to stop him for a moment. "Make sure to take your axe with you, even if you don't use it. You need to get used to carrying it around with you." Wynn nodded again before turning to leave. "Ah, one more thing, Wynn." He stopped and turned to give Ser Normit an inquisitive tilt of the head. "He's a squirrel."

Wynn squinted in confusion for a beat but nodded anyway. Ser Normit returned to his paperwork, cuing Wynn that it was finally time for him to leave. As he exited his patron's office and headed towards the stairs that led towards the training grounds, Wynn clicked his tongue in thought. A squirrel? Not completely sure what Ser Normit had meant by it, Wynn just filed it away with the rest of the clutter in his mind as he ascended the stone steps, making his way to the entrance of the grounds where he'd left his axe from his early morning training. There were several manned booths where busy squires and knights were allotted space to store their various forms of equipment, and Wynn took full advantage of their services as he was often in and out of the grounds on a regular basis. Receiving his axe, Wynn strapped the weapon onto his back before heading into the grounds.

He roamed around the fields for a time, peeking his head around corners where he heard fighting and stumbling into solo training sessions, much to the chagrin of those he ran into. Eventually he found his way into an open, field-like area that was sparsely populated with tufts of grass and bushes that dotted the landscape in groups of threes and twos. Near the middle of the field stood a clay squirrel holding some kind of stick. As the only other explanation for the creature in the middle of the field was it was a little statue, Wynn decided Ser Normit had meant exactly what he'd said. "You are a squirrel." The first words out of his mouth were quickly replaced with a rushed and embarrassed, "Ah! I'm Squire Argall under the Purple Company! P-pleasure to make your acquaintance, Squire Archailist! Saluting the pycon Wynn finished, "I look forward to training with you." in a quick deluge of sound before he shut his mouth and let his pink cheeks speak for themselves.

___

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

"Alright! Alright, that's enough of that for the day." Once again, his patron had given up. The red Akalak still had the short spear in both hands, but he soon rested the butt of the shaft against the cool grass and huffed in heavy breaths. Even a thin layer of sweat had developed over his forehead, but he wiped it away quickly. The reason he was so exhausted, could be traced back to the near two bells of sparring they'd been both enduring. Or really, it was just one of them enduring. Arch and his patron were on opposite sides of what could call.. the combat scale. Arch was small.. nimble.. acrobatic. He knew his attacks were pretty light when they did come around, but that didn't matter, because he could get plenty of them in at once. And on the other side, there was.. Ser Iros. A behemoth of an Akalak, both in terms of his natural size and his muscular build. One solid hit was all it took to knock someone off their feet.. but he wasn't exactly nimble.

And that meant every time they went into combat, most of it was just Ser Iros swinging that damn Lakan around - a weapon that was too small to be of any significant threat - or a spear. Which was even worse, considering that all he could really do was poke at the ground and hope the squirrel was distracted enough to not jump out of the way. They'd been running the drill all of the time.. since pretty much the very beginning of their training sessions. And it'd always ended the exact same way. It'd always ended with the squirrel barely being hit at all, and the Akalak getting very frustrated because apparently, the squirrel wasn't showing his strength. "You're not even attacking! Come on, you can't just stand there and let me swing over and over. What happens when, one day, you come across someone that can swing faster than you can jump away, huh?" He knew he wasn't supposed to answer the question if he didn't want to annoy the man even more, so he kept his mouth shut while the Akalak caught his breath and steadied himself.

"We're done for the day, Arch. I'd suggest you spend the rest of your day preparing for tomorrow. I'll expect to see you here and we'll continue. And you need to try to actually hit, that time." He sighed, but nodded in obedience as the man turned and walked right up to the door - and just when the squirrel was getting ready to follow, he turned around with a surprised look on his face. He often did this.. just decided to wait until the last moment before bringing up an important piece of information. The squirrel wasn't sure whether it was supposed to be a light taunting or whether the man really was extremely forgetful, but he didn't bother to question it. "Aah yes. Why don't you practice with the squire I arranged you to practice with, there's a good squirrel." And before Arch could raise his voice in question, he'd turned and darted out. The slippery bugger. He swore, next time they had a serious spar, he really would make an attack. Straight for the ankles and knock him for always doing that rubbish.

He knew he'd better get ready for the new squire, so he turned around and hopped towards the edges of the grounds on all-fours, before picking up his blessed Py-Pole. He could still remember most of what he'd been told by his father in the use of such a weapon, but that was about it. And it was nearly five years ago, when he tried to focus on it. But, there was no time like the present to get training with it again. He wouldn't even get a choice to complain, because he'd barely picked up the damn thing when a boy turned up out of thin air and nearly startled the squirrel to high-heaven. Damn and blast it all. He tried to play it off smoothly, but even he could tell himself that it hadn't gone as he'd hoped. At least it just meant his jittery attitude matched Wynn's.

"Yes, I'm Squire Archailist. Pleasure to meet you and all that." He wasn't sure about a squirrel saluting, but he tried his best to copy Wynn's salute before straightening up again. "Now.. I suppose we should get down to business. You stand over there, I'll stand here." As he spoke, he used the metal, pointed tip of the pole to point off at an arbitrary position as he walked towards a point directly opposite it, a mere few paces away. Enough to hopefully give a bit of distance, but not too much. "And we can.. get this done. What weapon do you.. ahem, favour, Squire Argall." Oh, please be something big, please be something big...

[Wynn Argall]

Squire Archailist was more more succinct than Wynn had imagined a squirrel might be. In fairness, the other squire was actually a Pycon, and Wynn assumed the race was as capable as any other of having multiple different personality types. Still, he'd been hoping the squirrel would be a bit more endearing. Wynn had seen the creatures around the Grounds on occasion, and their merry chirping and skittering about the place gave Wynn the impression they were jovial, gregarious sort of creatures. The little clay animal before him, however, was anything but at the moment. Not wanting to put a strain on what already seemed to be a less than ideal first meeting, Wynn did as he was told. Raising a curious brow as he inspected his soon-to-be opponent's weapon.

It appeared to be a cloud amber-golden color of a material he wasn't familiar with. The pole was small enough that the specifics were difficult to glean in the short amount of time he had before he arrived at his distination, but there was a distinctly metal covering about the end that Squire Archailist gestured with. Had it not ran the length of the Pycon's body, Wynn would have thought it more of a wand or some other sort of toy rather than a weapon. Appearances aside, Wynn knew better than to underestimate any who belonged to the order. All the training he'd been throwing himself into lately had been iteration after reiteration of anticipation without subjectivity, something he found to be extremely frustrating to get a proper handle on.

As the other squire offered and inquire as to Wynn's weapon of choice, he had already begun to unsling the massive weapon from his back. The sudden redistribution of weight caused him to stumble forwards some before he was able to swing the axe in a lazy arc to rest its haft upon his shoulder. Offering an apprehensive grimace, Wynn gave the squirrel a shrug. "Usually this, but..." He let his voice fade out as he flicked his eyes between his full body length axe and the little pycon. Sparring was going to be absolutely miserable. Pivoting the axe off of his shoulder so that it landed on the ground with a solid [i]thud[/u] head down, Wynn tilted his head in question. "Perhaps I should fight unarmed?" Ser Normit had given him absolutely no parameters for the day's training session aside from requiring him to at least take his axe with him, not necessarily to use. Squire Archailist was, however, the equivalent of whatever a host would be in a training ground, so Wynn decided to defer to his judgement.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

At the sight of the massive axe.. he lost all of his calm demeanor, slowly. It started with some strange noises in the back of his throat, that his lips pursed in order to stop it from growing. But it built up, and his cheeks bulged; the corners of his lips twisted up into a little smile. And eventually, he couldn't hold it back.. and burst into utter hysterics with such ferocity that he nearly toppled backwards and had to use the pole for support. Having those boring, long spars with his patron always put the Pycon in a bad mood.. and it'd only gotten worse from that moment on. But this.. trying to fight someone with such a massive, heavy weapon.. oh, that made up for it all. When he finally came back to his senses and made a slightly mocking motion by 'wiping' his pupil-less eyes, he could see that the boy was probably feeling a little down. So he swallowed down further giggles, for the most part, and tried to make himself seem at least a little more competent.

"Aah.. aha.. sorry about that. Couldn't control myself. Now! Haha. Yes, I think it'd be better if we just went to it unarmed. Me too, I don't want to put a disadvantage on you by not allowing you to use a weapon while I use mine. Yes, don't you worry. I'm sure we can make this fun!" He was a lot bubblier after that - with a bit of a smile on his lips and a spring in his step, even if it was for entirely the wrong reasons. Just for a bit of added fun, he didn't gently place down the pole either. He grabbed the metal tip, and then the opposite end, and slowly strained both ends until they looked like they were about to touch. A normal stick would have broken far past that point, but not the pole that he held. And when he released both ends at once.. well, the entire thing catapulted itself through the air and slammed straight into one of the rocks not too far away. Ohh, he did love doing that. It wouldn't hurt if someone got hit by that.. yet. But he still loved doing it. It made a very large thwacking noise every time.

"Now, I'm going to assume you've never fought a Pycon before." He'd never heard or met any other Pycon squires in the area and everyone he'd come across in his brief time in the city had never met one either. Certainly never fought against one, if they'd ever met one. And it was true - there weren't very many of them that were actually interested in fighting. His father was one of them and Fist down at the Fighters Pits, but that was it. The only two fighting Pycons he'd ever met, compared to the many other humans. Nearly every human seemed to have at least some competence in fighting, compared to Pycons. "So.. I'll give you some advice. Don't try to stomp on me." That never worked, ever. And nearly everyone tried it, all of the time. They always thought the small ones were the easiest to squish. "And.. stay on your feet." He took the few moments he had while standing opposite the man, to look over him.

Unfortunately, he'd come across a lot of squires and knights wearing armour. Which was always bad for a Pycon. It meant they were going to have a bit more trouble when it came down to the punching - and the climbing too. Chain-mail was easy, but plate was harder. He'd have to play it off and just see if he could get some decent punches in around the shins or the breaks in the armour otherwise. "Now... begin!" The squirrel didn't actually do anything for a few ticks.. because he wanted to see if the man was going to try and make a first move.

[Wynn Argall]

At first, Wynn thought the other squire might have been in pain. A strange, choking sort of noise eked its why through the clay lips of the squirrel who shook slightly. Slowly, his cheeks began to swell. Wynn, staring at the pycon with a mix of horror, confusion, and concern, wondered if pycons were capable of vomiting, and if their vomit would be the same clay-substance they were made of. He had no idea what they ate, so whatever the contents of his stomach - if he even had one - was something Wynn found himself growing increasingly interested in with each passing tick, despite his alarm. Wynn's worry quickly faded as the squirrel finally released a storm of laughter from his flood gates. Verging on disappointment over not getting to see the little creature revisit his lunch, Wynn offered an empathetic smile. While he'd found the idea of sparring with his axe to be something of a hassle, he supposed the pycon found the prospect absolutely ridiculous. After all, the weapon was so large, Wynn was relatively certain his little limber opponent would have little problem scaling his armor and slitting his throat.

As the laughter continued, Wynn felt his cheeks begin to blush first pink then red until the squirrel eventually wheezed to a manageable handful of chuckles and snorts here and there. Whatever Archailist had seemed like before, after his bought with mirth, his tone and aura had improved immensely. He spoke with more of a bounce, and though Wynn wasn't an expert on the facial movements and meanings of squirrels, the pycon did seem to be smiling, or something close to it. Nodding with relief, Wynn hefted the axe head off of the ground, swinging it upright before restrapping it to his back. The added weight would give him a clear disadvantage when it came to fighting the nimble pycon, but Ser Normit had given him the explicit instruction to carry it around. Wynn figured he might as well get used to fighting with it strapped to his back, as many of the hallways in the castle proper were a bit too narrow to properly wield such a large weapon. Having the sudden epiphany that that was indeed a serious issue, Wynn made a furious mental note to obtain and train in a small weapon for the sake of not being completely useless in cramped spaces.

Archailist seemed to think the sparring would be fun, and Wynn did his best to mirror the opinion in his own smile, though he found himself becoming all the more apprehensive as the other squire's carefree nonchalance began to set in. As the pycon's stick shot up into the air to land stuck in a rock a good distance away, Wynn just stared with wide eyes as he felt his throat tighten some. At the very least, he was glad the pycon wasn't going to be using his weapon. Turning his attention back to Archailist as he spoke, Wynn nodded at his assumption. He'd barely even talked to a pycon, let alone tried to beat one in a sparring match. Shifting about in his armor, Wynn flexed his hands in his gauntlets as he listened to the pycon's advice. The very first lesson Wynn found to be a bit barbaric. Pycons looked much to fragile for any self-respecting man to try to take advantage of it by stomping. Shaking his head in acknowledgement, Wynn found himself a bit confused by the last bit. On his feet? He felt his eyes squint as his brain did its best to make any connections with what that might mean. Perhaps the squirrel already knew how clumsy he was? Doubtful, as Wynn was certain Ser Normit didn't discuss the deficiencies of his squires with other people.

When the pycon shouted ready, Wynn decided to just figure it out along the way. Dropping down into a ready stance - knees bent, hands up to defend against... attacks - Wynn waited for half a tick before remembering Ser Maximus's advice about taking initiative. Of course, without his axe, Wynn felt a bit naked, despite his plate mail. Still, it didn't seem as though his opponent was going to do anything until Wynn did, so he launched himself forward, using his right to step as he brought his left around in a clumsy kick. Punching seemed to be a good way for him to fall over all on his own, as the pycon's height was diminutive enough Wynn would have to stoop to the point of foolishness if he hoped to connect a blow. Kicking seemed to be the best choice, but the armor and axe combined to make standing on one leg not only taxing but a trial to keep his balance to boot. Hoping he moved quickly enough to at least get a little bit of surprise out of the pycon, Wynn braced himself to miss, getting ready to place the left foot down and shuffle backwards, as jumping was out of the question.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He had to admit.. this was turning out to be what he could expect to be quite an interesting fight. He'd gone up against quite a few people with heavy weapons and it never really worked out, but then again, maybe he'd been wrong about Wynn. He certainly wasn't going to give the thing up, even when he'd been given some sound advice not to use it.. he just kept it strapped to his body. The weight was the problem in the first place, didn't he see any of that?

"Erm." And then, as if the awkwardness had not reached its peak yet, the man didn't move. They both remained standing opposite one-another for several long ticks before Wynn finally kicked his mind into gear and... kicked. It was as slow and as clumsy as the squirrel expected from a man with full plate and a giant axe strapped to his back, but it was still somewhat disappointing. He had absolutely no trouble hopping back a step or two to watch the toe of the kick sail by. Yet, it seemed even that was a trial for the man. Things were just looking even worse and worse for him.. but the squirrel could understand. After all, he couldn't even tally up all the different things that were weighing him down physically.. and he wasn't even going to try thinking about emotionally. Fighting a squirrel in all of that gear.. in front of people. In front of respected knights, sergeant knights and weaponmasters. Goodness knew why his patron had given the boy such a burden but the squirrel really couldn't figure it out himself.

"Maybe you should just try with the axe." He didn't know why, but fighting an opponent in this way just seemed a little.. well, cruel. At first, he'd just taken it for a hearty joke, but now.. when they were on the battlefield.. he was left wondering what he was going to do. Did he really want to fight Wynn.. and Gods knew that there were many ways to go about it. Use the next kick that the boy made to grapple one leg, climb up it to a weak spot around the inner thighs and climb under the plate-mail. Just the day before, fighting with a knight named Sera Isana, he'd used the exact same tactic and gotten her to submit without actually landing a punch or a kick. She'd only been wearing chainmail, so it'd been easy to use as a ladder to climb up. It also meant that if she wanted to, she could land a good few punches and squish him. But the same couldn't be said for plate, no no.. that stuff was made to deflect the hardest punches.

If he got inside.. it'd all be over. All he needed to do was take advantage of one of those slow kicks. Or a slow swing of the axe, if it came around. Still, even thinking about such things made the squirrel uneasy. "Suppose.. yeah." The squire had been sent to the squirrel for a reason. What that reason was, he didn't know.. but he might as well send a good attack Wynn's way and think about things like that later. All he needed was a distraction.. and that wouldn't be too hard.

With a plan in mind, the squirrel set off at the fastest pace he could. Not in a straight line, though - he weaved back and forth in small circles before the man, using every free inch of clay to his advantage - including his tail, constantly flicking left and right to help the squirrel change his direction much faster than usual because of the counter-weight it made out of the tip. His claws also dug into the floor of the Training Grounds, making sure that he had a good grip for every turn, and for the straights that broke up the many sharp turns. And all the while, he kept continuously glancing back to Wynn - just in case he fell for the ploy.

[Wynn Argall]

The squirrel dodged Wynn's attack with little more than a short step backwards, eyeing Wynn with his little clay eyes. He found that reading the face of the other squire was next to impossible, as the pycon was almost exactly like a squirrel in every physical aspect save having no actual fur. The face certainly did move and the eyes darted to and fro, but what exactly the creature was thinking, Wynn had little clue. His training with the man at the fighting pit came to mind, but without being able to get much of a read on the squirrel's physicality, Wynn doubted running scenarios would be as effective had the other squire been more humaniod. Still, as his foot landed upon the ground with a heavy thud before he scooted back to create some distance between them, Wynn figured it was really his only chance of holding his own against the pycon. As he readied himself for a counter-offensive, Archailist suggested Wynn use the axe after all. The voice was something that Wynn could discern the emotion of much better than the face, and he felt a bit embarrassed to hear flecks of disappointment and what could have been pity in the other squire's voice.

He figured he looked quite the fool: full armor, axe strapped to his back, kicking helplessly at a squirrel in the middle of one of the training grounds. Fighting, however, was not intended to be heroic or glamorous. Ser Maximus had told him it was better to win looking a fool than to lose with grace. So, Wynn shook his head, despite his better judgement. The axe would have to wait. The added reach of the weapon wasn't nearly enough of a benefit against the agility of the squirrel. If anything, it had the potential to put Wynn at a disadvantage. Recoiling from kicks was much easier than strikes with his axe, although both were difficult enough Wynn figured he could throw out two, maybe three kicks, in sequence before needing to rest. The axe would have been at most two consecutive strikes before he'd have to draw it back to his shoulder, which would give the squirrel plenty of time to do whatever it was pycons did to attack.

Flexing his legs, Wynn grounded his weight. If the squirrel did attack, Wynn didn't want to be caught off guard by thinking the pycon's punches would have little to no force. Plenty of people had underestimated Wynn's own strength and had lost because of it. He wasn't about to do the same thing to himself. Instead of charging straight at his opponent, Archailist began to dash about the field, weaving and switching directions willy-nilly. Staring at the pycon, Wynn frowned in concentration as he watched the other squire's movements. It didn't appear as though he was doing any of it for any particular reason. If anything, it appeared that the pycon had given himself over to his squirrley tendencies. If it was some advanced tactic, Wynn had never considered it before, and as he watched, he found himself rather agitated. If the pycon wanted to spar, he should do so, and not proceed to dart about in a random manner such as he did.

Deciding there wasn't much else he could do other than wait, Wynn charged forward. Without much of a plan in mind, Wynn simply focused his attention on the darting figure, pushing his legs into the ground with the strength he'd gained from all his years of training. As he moved, he readied himself for another kick, but was stopped short as his boot slipped over a rock. The momentum carried Wynn up into the air, his arms shooting out before him as if he were diving into the ocean. In what felt like an incredibly slow arc, Wynn came crashing down into the dirt in front of him, his body rattling around in his armor like loose meat in a nutshell.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Arch's training had reached the point where it was becoming a little bit silly, really, for him to be fighting with others in this way. Most of the knights wore heavy armour, used heavy weapons.. and none of them ever suspected they would be fighting a squirrel. All the squires were too slow and too clumsy - all the knights simply weren't ready for it. All the knights didn't take him seriously, up until the moment that he got a good kick in the sides of their ankles.. or a good kick in the crotch. Even his own patron was beginning to struggle.. mostly because he was a behemoth of strength that would have been able to reduce any human squire stood before him to dust if he talked out of line. But being a squirrel... it became a little bit harder. The man had plenty of experience in his weapons, but his weapons were either far too ineffective or simply too small against a tiny opponent. A spear.. and a Lakan. Talk about poor planning, or what.

In fact, the squirrel had a perfect view of what happened right in front of him. Clumsy, inefficient kicks and stomping that the squirrel found quite easy to maneuver around. A hop left, a hop right.. a spin around. It all came together in the end. And when the squirrel had put together a serious plan.. to sneak under the armour that the squire wore, by distracting him before making an opportunity out of his next kick.. the squire didn't even need any help from the squirrel in his downfall. It all came out of itself. He knew that the knight was extremely clumsy thanks to the heavy weights strapped to practically every inch of his body, and another exceedingly heavy one to the middle of his back, but... the fact that the squire managed to topple all by himself, without any aid from his opponent, just made the squirrel sigh and press two fingers to the bridge of his nose. Perhaps he just needed to start teaching the humans and the Akalaks, in the importance of speed and agility. Goodness knew what would ever happen if the knights actually came across an opponent of a Pycon body. Goodness help them all, he'd say. If the entire city could be dragged down by a little man made out of clay, then it deserved to fall.

Still, it was his duty to try and make sure no serious harm came to his fellow squires. Diligently, he hopped straight onto the chest of the plate-mail encased Wynn and stared down at his face, with a bit of worry showing. "Hey, you alright? That was quite a fall you took there." This was still a training ground, and a few of the other knights and squires about the place were giving them awkward looks. He didn't want to have to answer for serious injury of a squire.. he'd not even touched the man; he'd fallen down on his own! Not that anyone else in the area had likely seen that. Now he just looked like a rabid squirrel sat on a squires chest, looking down at his face and with a pair of rather sharply-clawed paws very close to his throat. "You able to get up, Wynn?" Hopefully the massive axe strapped to his back wouldn't pin him down. Otherwise.. well, the squirrel would have to call for help. It wasn't like a clay creature could lift such weight.

[Marrick Corvis]

XP Award FA LA LA!!! Name:Wynn XP Award: +5 observation [*}Unarmed Combat +1[/list] Lore: Archailist... He's a Squirrel Archailist the Gruff Pypoles: Pycon Weaponry [*}Small weapons for small spaces[/list] Notes: If your still out there Wynn, good thread. I really would have loved to see this one play out. Otherwise great thread and I hope you come back to it soon! Don't be daunted! +1 Shield Point Name:Archailist XP Award: Observation +4 Unarmed combat +1 Teaching +1 Lore: The Scales of Combat: Weight and Balance Pypole Acoustics: Dig that sound Wynn the Clumsy Notes: Archailist, keep being awesome. +1 Shield Point Genral Notes Sad to see a thread with so much RP potential fall by the wayside. Especially with two writers with so much skill at the craft!