Solo [The Bronze Woods] Fighting On Dogback.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

9th Fall, 514

The early rise, so characteristic of Ser Iros, was gone. With the late-fall chills setting in and the days becoming shorter, it seemed silly for them to waste what valuable time they had.. but the knight did not come knocking on the door to rouse the squirrel until it was well into the late morning, approaching midday. By that time the squirrel was well awake, and had turned his attention elsewhere - mostly to some easy morning exercises. Stretches, practicing punches in the air, cleaning and safely storing his weapons. It was almost a surprise when the Akalak came knocking at the door, before he stepped inside and glanced down to the little doll house that was the squirrels home instead of the beds that the other squires used. "Oh, you're here. So, where have you been?" Over the past several days, the squirrel had showed signs of a slipping grasp on the idea of the Akalak showing authority. The last time they'd had a serious confrontation, it'd ended badly for Ser Iros in more ways than one. The man had always said that a knight was only as good as the strength he held - why should the squirrel, therefore, respect the man that could not hold up to his own beliefs about strength?

"You know that's none of your concern. You're still a squire. Speaking of which, grab Xarex and meet me by the Gates in quarter of a bell. We still have training to go through, if you still want to become a knight." The squirrel nodded and roused himself from where he'd been glancing over his Py-Pole, checking it for small nicks and dents down the length of the amber tree-resin shaft. As if on hindsight, the Akalak turned at the door and glanced back to him a second time just as the squirrel was placing it back with the other weapons. "Bring the pole with you, as well. You'll be using that too." That brought the squirrel to a sudden halt - after all, if he was going to be training with his weapons, he'd just ride on the Akalak's horse and leave it at that. If he was practicing riding, then he'd evidently take Xarex and he'd leave his weapons at home. It was either one or the other, he'd never have a need of both.

Twenty chimes later, he found the crimson Akalak with his towering shield and spear hooked onto leather straps at the back of his armour. Both of his hands firmly grasped the reins of his destrier, yet with the lightest flick the horse turned and began a steady trot. The man may have had little talent when it came to his spear, but he was certainly master over horses and other mounts in comparison to the squirrel. If only they were allowed to take horses into the Training Grounds. Perhaps the Akalak would provide more useful in the field of battle if it was so. However, it seemed they wouldn't need the Training Grounds for a bit of combat training. "Come on. It's time you learned how to fight without having to dismount from your dog. It takes far too long and it makes you vulnerable to attack."

Without even waiting, the knight turned his back on the squirrel and began riding straight towards the Bronze Woods along the edge of the Kabrin Road. Of course, the one place that they always seemed to end up using for what training they could not perform while inside the city in either the Pits or in the Training Grounds themselves. It's so boring and monotonous.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Perhaps it was just the fact that he was sick and tired of repeating the same things over and over again. It wasn't even an issue with what was being done - and that was saying something, considering the squirrel had always openly stated how much he really disliked doing anything on the back of his mount. It was just the fact that they did it so often, in so many different ways.. it was so damnably monotonous to be constantly drawn out on the back of Xarex for training. True, he'd never done anything with him while holding a weapon, but that didn't do anything to stem his anger at the situation. He was still being forced out on the back of Xarex yet again. "So, what. Now we have to go out into the forest, we have to go about and fight each-other on the back of our mounts, and we have to keep doing this for the majority of the day until either you lose, get very annoyed and then send me back or until I lose enough that you see it's once again completely pointless and give up."

The outburst either shocked the Akalak into silence, or he was simply not paying attention. His face didn't betray anything, as the squirrel shared several long and awkward moments of silence. Then, everything changed. They'd not come far - the tree-line of the woods was visible but they were hardly out of the sight of any of those that may have been walking along the Kabrin Road. However, with a sudden flash of the reins, the Akalak wheeled around on the back of his mount with one hand while the other reached back, unhooked the spear from its place tightened against his back, and swung it around in one fluid motion in an attempt to catch the squirrel with the razor-sharp tip. Thankfully, the squirrel saw it all and was able to lean hard to the side within just enough time to draw the smaller dog from the path of the spear.

The Akalak wasn't about to release the pressure, though. He had the added size as an advantage and he used it to the full - pressing forwards and charging straight for the smaller dog with all the speed he could muster. It was much more than the smaller dog, and the Pycon had to lean hard and veer off to the side just to avoid being trodden to death as the destrier continued to charge for several more feet before the Akalak could rein him in with one paw and draw him back around to face the squirrel. It was all the delay that Arch needed in order to draw his own Py-Pole from its place on his back and steady it with one paw, while the other gripped the reins of Xarex as hard as he thought they could possibly go. He felt like he could crush them to ash, really - the tension running through his body was unbelievable. His patron was a predictable piece of shyke - he'd never hurt his own squire intentionally.

At least, that was what the squirrel had thought before the man had abruptly lashed out at him. Perhaps the squirrel had pushed the man a little too far, made too many bad comments or simply annoyed him to the point that he, a distinguished member of the Order, would consider murder upon the small clay creature. He felt pretty indignant about the whole affair, either way, but there wasn't a chance that he'd be able to speak out about it. He was about the same as the Akalak when it came to to the use of his weapon, but at the same time, he wasn't very used to fighting on the back of his mount and the whole experience put a new perspective to the combat that the squirrel was struggling with.

The Akalak's spear swung around in a wide arc, but the squirrel was barely able to deflect it with both of his paws gripping tightly onto the Py-Pole and lifting it high over his head so that the metal tip was caught and pushed away from both the squirrel and the dog. Unfortunately, with no grip on the reins of the dog, he stumbled for a few moments when he tried to gently squeeze the dog and push him forwards - he had nothing to grasp and hold himself in place, so he jerked back and nearly ended up falling off the back of Xarex. Thankfully he caught the reins again and managed to push forwards just as the man was going in for a second, wider swipe that promised to bring too much weight to be deflected as easily as before. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The man was persistent, the squirrel could give him that. Even while talking in his usual, baritone voice, the man kept swinging the spear and bucking the reins to charge straight for the smaller squirrel atop his dog. He didn't alternate between the two, either - he mixed it up, jumping from one extreme to the next and then performing both at the same time - swiping the spear around in a wide arc during the middle of a charge, forcing the squirrel to swerve dangerously close to the horse in order to avoid the spear. "You want to know what my problem is? Fine, I'll tell you what it is. My problem is the fact that I have tried my best, for damn seasons on end now, to make you into a knight. I've trained you, for bells every day which I could have spent with other squires. I could have spent it doing my knightly duty, I could have spent it training myself in the hopes of a promotion. No, I spent it on you - I took you, out of my own choice and at my own sacrifice, to make you into a knight. And you know what I got, for all my hard work? CONTEMPT."

Suddenly he changed - he reared the horse back with the force that he pulled on the reins, and the squirrel was forced to back off several steps to avoid the legs slamming back down into the dirt. He couldn't run from this situation - the knight was much larger, much faster than his smaller mount. However, perhaps the squirrel could use that to his advantage. He turned and tried to make a break for the tree-line - bad idea. The Akalak could see what was happening and turned the horse with a short jerk, bringing him around and charging forwards with all the force of a boulder launched from a catapult. The squirrel barely had the time to pull the reins hard to the side to avoid the trampling hooves, and as soon as that was done, he found himself struggling to control the controlled sweeps of a spear overhead. His Py-Pole was very flexible and wobbled in the air uneasily, but when it came to deflecting blows it was surprisingly effective. It was still highly elastic after all, and after a little bit of bending it could provide the needed resistance to stop the swings.

"You sit there, every day, and you act like you think I enjoy making you do the things you hate, just because I like making you suffer! Not as though I'm doing what is for your own good, if you ever want to be a knight at all.. as if I don't want you to pass the Knighting Quest that comes at the end of this, because I wouldn't want to have to stop doing the same damn routines every single day that drive me up the wall!" The words were shocking, coming from the Akalak's mouth. He'd never once considered that the Akalak might have found the same things being repeated over and over again monotonous, just as the squirrel did. Perhaps there was more in common between them than the squirrel had ever considered before, but it'd all been lost behind the relationship that was expected of them - that in which the knight was the teacher, who controlled all and understood all.

All these thoughts were making it more difficult to concentrate on what was really important for the moment - which was, funnily enough, escaping the clutches of the Akalak as he yet again swung his spear around in a short arc that threatened to skewer the poor Pycon and his mount as well, if not for a horizontal turn that struck the shaft of the spear just above the head and sent the thing rolling off to the side and around them. Then, taking the moment for what it was worth, he turned the dog around and spun him right underneath the horse for the few moments it stood still to bring it straight out from under the opposite side, in a full sprint for the Bronze Woods treeline.

It was incredibly risky. If he made one mistake, it could all fall flat - if the Akalak managed to close the gap and gain the distance before the squirrel could reach the edges of the forest, he'd be run down and trampled underneath the bulk. However, his ploy worked for just long enough. The Akalak had a few moments where he tried to tilt his head down the opposite end of the horse, where he'd apparently disappeared, before he managed to see where the squirrel had disappeared off to, and quickly turned his horse to follow behind. What was an exceptional lead for the squirrel soon became nothing at all as the horse charged with a full sprint, broken just before it would have caught the squirrel and his dog. He managed to round a tree trunk, and the knight had to fall to a screeching halt to avoid slamming face-first into it. The squirrel took the moment of opportunity to slip deeper into the forest, taking refuge between the tighter sections of forest in order to avoid being caught out and cornered.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

His respite would be very brief indeed however. The knight wasn't intent on letting the poor squirrel escape his grasp, and instead used the spear to push into the hard-to-reach areas that the horse could not. It was still long enough to reach into the tight areas, and could slam straight down for the ground with enough force to snap most of the narrow branches that hung overhead - scattering them around the ground in the process and providing yet more obstacles for the squirrel to hop over in his rushed escape with his own Py-Pole in tow. It was much harder than he'd ever considered before, trying to guide the dog with only one paw to take hold of the reins instead of both. The Pole jolted and swayed in his free paw and no matter how tight he kept it to his side, it kept getting tangled in whatever it was that he was running past; the Akalak was constantly gaining on him, only kept at bay by the occasional tree trunk that sprung up and forced him to take a minor detour. If anything, it was the undergrowth that really kept him alive.

"You always want to fight, Arch! You always want a damnable fair fight, well now you've got one! Mount to mount, pole to spear, why don't you turn around and face me like a man and not a piece of clay?" The words stung deep, but he kept pushing without a backwards glance as he struggled to guide the dog between the trees, weaving him back and forth around whatever cover he could find to lose the line of sight for just one moment, an instant - then, he found it. Bushes - rows upon rows of them, browning leaves softening on the stems and tumbling to the ground. He immediately veered right with enough force to nearly throw himself from the saddle, and get his Pole caught for just a moment between two of the larger trunks. It bent and stretched, and the thing nearly swung itself from his paws altogether.

"No, no no NO!" He gave it a sharp tug and it came free with a heavy twang, leaving the thing shaking violently in his paw for the brief moments it took to jolt the dog into a sprint. Once he was underneath the thicker undergrowth of the branches, though, it was all the cover he needed. The Akalak followed swiftly behind the squirrel, of course, by shattering through the bushes and sending up a flurry of leaves and branches as he did so. However, it was in this moment that the squirrel quickly turned and hid himself behind a small cluster of trees to hide himself while the Akalak stormed past and kept going through the masses. Hopefully he'd be distracted for long enough for the squirrel to be able to make it back to the city. This was the one thing on his mind any more.

The Akalak was stupid, but not stupid enough to try and kill him while he was surrounded by fellow knights and his superiors. That meant that if Arch could make it back to the gates before the Akalak could make it back around the thick undergrowth, around the trees and across the straight, then the squirrel could return to what he wanted to do - not this death trap. Everything he said before, he took it all back now. He wouldn't have minded if it was simple monotonous stuff like everything else they'd done before.. as long as his patron wasn't out to trample him to death beneath very large horses that could probably kill him if they managed to get atop him. He wanted out now.. he wasn't interested in trying to outsmart the Akalak beyond what was absolutely necessary to escape him, and he sure as shyke wasn't interested in confronting him and trying to beat him down like the other times. This wasn't a man that was at the brink of his sanity, this was a man that had lost it completely if he was interested in openly riding down the poor squirrel in the middle of the forest.

He didn't have a lot of stealth to his name, but he didn't need that much either way. Ser Iros was trampling through those bushes like an utter monster of a man, and the squirrel had more to be worried about when the man finally realized that there wasn't a squirrel hidden amongst the mass of fallen leaves and mulch than he was about the man hearing the tiny pitter-patter of paws amongst the earthquake he caused whenever he stepped. He weaved himself between the trees as little as possible but they became more dense the farther he went towards the very edges of the tree-line - there was more competition for space out on the lesser reaches, he didn't really know why.

That was the easy part, however. The hard part came now, when he was faced with a home stretch of completely bare ground past the treeline. Here, there was nothing stopping the Akalak from running the squirrel straight down into the mud. There were no trees to slow him down, nothing. The only thing that Arch could hope for, would be that the Akalak had tied himself up long enough that the squirrels last burst for freedom would be worth it. He couldn't hear stomping any more.. it was a bad sign indeed. Yet, he knew he needed to take a leap of faith, in the eyes of Yahal. So, he did. He bucked Xarex forwards into a sprint, ready to run him for the time of his life...

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

... When he was stopped in his tracks by the hulking mass of an Akalak sprinting out into the path before him and standing there, prepared, with the spear lowered and the tip rearing up to slice him into two neat pieces. He nearly lost control and completely fell off Xarex - as it was, he had to force the dogs head down with one strong paw while rolling to the side off the saddle while it was nearly cleaved in two by the skimming touch of the spear-head. The squirrel still held to the reins with one paw, keeping the dogs head low, while one foot remained in the stirrup. The other paw was flailing free, since his pole had been dropped in shock. He used his tail to loop around the stick and redeliver it to his paw while he righted himself and immediately turned the dog left. He needed to get around the man, stop him from blocking off the path.. but the Akalak had better control, and almost made a show of how casually he tugged on the reins and drew the horse back a few steps to block the path.

"You're not going that way, Arch.." he muttered darkly, before rearing the spear and stabbing it straight down into the dirt. This time, Arch wasn't intent on moving out of the way, and instead used his tail to loop around the length of the reins to keep them held tightly in place while both of his paws gripped the Py-Pole and parried the shaft of the spear just behind the head - drawing it out to the side with all the force that he could muster. It wasn't much at all, but at least it was something to keep the man occupied for precious ticks. Immediately after the first attack had been deflected, the second one came around and swung straight for the side of the dog. This time, he really did need to move aside.. but the attack swiftly followed with a horizontal strike swinging around after the dog.

Arch was forced to switch positions. It was such a dangerous maneuver.. but it was absolutely necessary, since he could hardly cross himself over in such a way. The Akalak likely knew this just as well as the squirrel did, and this was why he did it. With Arch's tail manning the reins and his paws holding the pole, he couldn't block from behind.. he needed to give his tail the pole, and use his paws to take hold of the reins. For an instant, he released the reins with his tail and felt himself gripping with nothing but his knees - it was incredibly surreal, almost as if he wasn't riding anything at all. Then reality hit back, hard, as a jolt nearly sent him tumbling from his saddle. His arms flailed for control, and in that moment he lost what little control he was supposedly holding over the situation. The tip of the spear was gaining fast, threatening to impale the Pycon on its spiky head.

He took a chancy movement and spun his upper body around a full half-circle - more than any human could, unless they wished to break their spine into two pieces - to block the spear inches before it likely would have cleaved him in two. His tail, at the same moment, moved with him to replace the point at the reins and hold them steady for support while he pushed the spear off to the side. He knew what was coming - the Akalak likely intended to slam the length straight through him, after the long swing. He was wrong - the moment the squirrel pushed it off to one side, it came back from that same side and tried the same attack. Over and over, he brought it back to try and slam into the squirrels side, and every time the squirrel repeated the same motion. He gripped the Py-Pole tightly with both paws spread as far as possible, hit the head or the point just behind it, and used this grip to push the spear aside before it could stab down into his stomach or face.

The Akalak kept his horse moving through it all, winding a careful circle in an attempt to catch the squirrel out as he could no longer reach around to keep the position. However, with a gentle tug of the reins in the same direction, he managed to just about keep Xarex slowly trotting in a circle to keep the same distance between them as well as the same direction. However, the Akalak had the advantage of offense and he knew it - his horse was facing the same way as he was, while Arch was technically sitting on his own mount backwards and still trying to control it. Soon enough, he was being guided back towards the woods - back away from the city, his one moment of potential escape. Arch wasn't going to lose his advantage.. his one hope!

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He waited for the next strike to come, and shifted the position of his Pole. He let his paws slip down towards the butt and swung upwards, pushing the next swing straight over his head and far off to the side. In the moment of off-balance that the Akalak had, he spun on the horse and swung the pole around so that his tail gripped it at the same moment as his paws released and took hold of the reins. A quick swap between the two, and he was able to take full control and wheel himself around to dart straight around the side of the Akalak. In his moment of quick advance, he'd lost his edge and his concentration on the field - now it'd cost him dearly. More than he even knew at that moment, because as he turned around to make short work of the fleeing squirrel, he found nothing. Instead of running past the Akalak to make a final break for the gates of the city, he'd broken into a quick sprint to make a loop around the Akalak and his mount.

The tip of his pole came down and stabbed straight into the dirt, bending under the pressure that the squirrel put when he slipped both feet out of the stirrups and slid himself from the saddle entirely. A quick bounce, a touch of his toes to the floor was all he got before the weight of his 23-pound clay body was overriden by the tension in the pole. It catapulted the squirrel up and over the horse, right over the Akalak's lap. There wasn't enough momentum there to take him all the way over, but there was certainly enough to get him up onto the horse - where, in the brief moment of surprise, the squirrel was able to hop down, slam both of his feet straight into the Akalak's wrist with enough force to make him drop the spear altogether, before turning and dropping down the opposite side of the horse. As he passed down along the leather straps that held the saddle to the horse, he found the edge of one and gripped it tightly with his paws and used it to bring himself down and around in a swing that went underneath the horse and back to his own mount, Xarex, waiting patiently at the same point.

He landed a few inches from the dog and had just enough time to reach down, pick up his Py-pole, and remount the dog in the several ticks of utter shock and surprise on the Akalak's face where he simply sat in place, before the squirrel reeled his dog and brought him back to a sprint towards the city gates. This time, nothing stopped him. The Akalak didn't chase him, didn't try to stop him.. didn't try to kill him, nothing. When the Pycon eventually reached the gates and turned back, the man had dismounted to pick up his fallen spear. He didn't remount his horse, but took it by the halter and slowly led it back towards the gates. He still wore that strange look of surprise on his face, for whatever reason the squirrel couldn't even begin to understand. "You want to tell me what that was exactly?" he offered with a less-than-amused expression boring deep holes into the man.

He didn't even seem to register any of it. "Oh, I suppose it was many things, although I think I should be asking you, rather than you asking me." He soon saw that the squirrel wasn't following him at all. "Oh, it was just a training exercise." Now, why did Arch not believe that for one second...

[Katelyn Marks]

Due Rewards

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”

― Philip Pullman

Archailist

Skill	EXP
Observation	+5
Riding: Dog	+5
Socialization	+4
Weapon: Py-Pole	+4
Tactics	+3
Acrobatics	+2
Unarmed Combat: Pyken	+1
Escape Artist	+1
Subterfuge	+1

Lores

➢ Riding: Unfavored Discipline
➢ Riding: Fighting on Dogback
➢ Riding: Steering with One Paw
➢ Riding: Riding Backwards
➢ Ser Iros: Fed Up
➢ Punishment from Ser Iros
➢ Fear in Combat

Shield Points: +1 for patron, +5 for training

Comments

Note :

I really enjoyed this thread Arch. Seeing how your Patron finally just had enough, and how upset he was that the two couldn't seem to meet in the middle. I was able to award you quite a bit, so good work! Remind me to stay away from Ser Iros.

If you have any concerns about your grade please feel free to send me a message.