[Frostfawn Hold] Practice [Vanwen, Nanithel]

[Vanwen Frostfawn]

Not much time at all had passed since she'd come to ask him for help. Noting the sun's place in the sky he wondered if it'd decided to hang there, for just awhile, just so the two people holding swords could get to know one another. The colors of twilight were doing interesting things to the coloring in Nan's hair, and he assumed to his as well, not that he could see it. Their footprints were partially covered in from the snow, lighter now than before, leaving them less intelligible than they would have been otherwise. If someone else were to see them, they'd probably wonder why someone would be pacing that way. Van felt an odd sense of pride, watching Nan improve as she performed the steps he'd demonstrated again She was committing to them more now, and he could see power behind them where he didn't before. He hadn't thought of it before, but she had a better body for sword fighting than he did. He was lanky, and too think, probably had a better build for dancing. If a passerby happened upon them, and had to guess who danced and who fought, he couldn't imagine them guessing right. 'It's so funny. If we just... switched interests, no one think anything about it.' Van smiled as he listened to her talking about the advantages of observation. It reminded him a bit of himself, which wasn't surprising. It wasn't hard to find something interesting to watch living with Vantha. People dancing or singing, talking loudly, running round with or chasing after animals. It was amazing such a group of people could be quiet enough to be any good at hunting. Then again, Van supposed, perhaps they just needed to get it out of their system all at once, instead of in small doses. 'I wonder if we've ever watched each other.' Van listened to her speak about her interest in dancing, where and why it started with fascination. There were such similarities with himself, and yet... Van was amazed, as she finished, that she talked for so long without stopping. It was very personal, and he was glad she felt comfortable enough to share it with him. It was the kind of personal information you couldn't get just by watching him. Information people didn't often choose to share with him. "It's so funny..."Van began talking before he realized. "The last thing my mother wanted for me was to pick up a sword and try to use it. She wasn't wrong, either. I was smaller, ganglier than I am even now. I came home covered in bruises when I started out. The look on her face... made me want to stop. I didn't want to make her sad." Van fell silent, losing himself in those memories. The bruises reminded him of Vantha eyes they were so many colors, purples and yellows fading in and out of intensity. They dotted his body like he was a leopard, each one a lesson from a wooden practice sword. Every time Van thought he'd gotten used to the throbbing, he'd get one in a place he'd never had one before. "Every day I came back from practicing she'd cry when she saw me. I'm not even sure if she started to accept it or just got better at hiding it." Van began on a completely new thought, feeling oddly uncomfortable going any further on that topic for the moment. "Even when I was learning I thought I was too lanky. I was embarrassed to practice with other people. They all seemed... stronger. Bigger. Better." Van went over the steps again, talking as he went. It felt a bit to his ears like his speech pattern was matching the rhythm of the steps, like music. "I know better now. Sword fighting is an art, for me. It's dangerous, but so very beautiful. And I could be just as good at it as anyone." Van was bit embarrassed talking like that, but it felt right to him. It felt like Nan could understand where he was coming from. More importantly, he wanted her to understand him.

oocNo problem, definitely understand how that can happen.

[Nanithel]

"I think I know the feeling," Nanithel said when Van finished, very happy over that he had chosen to share something personal of himself too. "But it is also very satisfying when you get as good as the others even if you have the odds against you. Not that anyone remarked anything when I began dancing, except my brother, but he is always make fun of everyone, but now it feels really good to be just as good as the others in my class." Nan thought back on her first dance lessons, just like in sword fighting now, she had been stumbling and failing at the dance moves, but after a lot of practising, encouragement from her family and actually the knowledge of horses that were so big but yet very elegant and graceful she had slowly made progress and eventually caught up with her classmates.

"A persons appearance can also help, especially in a fight I guess, to make the opponent underestimate you and give you an advantage." Nan said, contemplating how much you took for granted just by a persons appearance, and how often people didn't bother to get to know people deeper than that. "It is very interesting to get to know a person and then later you realize how wrong your initial belief about their personalities are so wrong." She said, hoping her sentence made any sense at all.

In the animal world it was the same too, the most beautiful creature could be deadly and the most boring or ugly could be even more interesting and more approachable, in that aspect humans had a lot in common with animals. Of course, it was not true all the time but according to Nan that fact made it even more intriguing to get to know new people though her shyness often hindered her from just that.

"With practice and determination I think there is little you can do in the world," Nan said after some silence. "I guess it may seem like something an inexperienced person may say but I believe it is often so that those attributes are just as, if not more, important as pure skill and without those you can only get so far." The cold air made Nanithel freeze slightly and to counter it she went through all the steps that Van had shown her this evening and felt good about herself for succeeding, though much of the credit needed to go to Van for helping her though she didn't know how to tell him that, saying things like 'sorry' or 'thank you' had always been hard for Nan, but she didn't know why or what to do to get more spontaneous and outspoken.

[Vanwen Frostfawn]

Van listened to Nan speak with all his attention. He loved her viewpoint on the world, and agreed with her about hard work vs talent, and about making judgments on people. It was an optimism within himself that he both loved and hated. He wanted to believe in it more almost anything in his whole life, but to do so would be to leave himself open to disappointment and hurt. And he wasn't sure he was strong enough for that. Still, her talk had made him glad, which was a lot more than he could have said about himself a short while ago. Van had come outside from pure frustration. Practicing with his sword was meant to be taking his mind off of... well, he couldn't exactly remember the reason he had come outside. He looked over at Nan, feeling a warmth in the cold evening that had nothing to do with his Gnosis mark. It was amazing how good he felt about helping another person learn something. Van had always considered himself a solitary person. Not counting Snowdrift, of course. He knew some people might feel left out sitting by themselves or not being asked to play a game as children, but he'd always preferred it. Now, though, Van felt like he'd be just a little sadder were he in that situation from now on. 'And it's not like she hasn't taught me anything.' There were things he would take from her own way of making the steps that he'd shown her. Van watched her make movements with a surety that he knew he could lack. He needed to put more of himself into his steps, into his strikes or blocks, to his whole life, really. Van wasn't paying attention to the weather any more. He wasn't thinking about the distractions that were bothering him during his own practice. He wasn't focused but found himself undistracted and unattached from all the things he wanted to be. Well, almost everything. Van couldn't help but notice the sun as it drew closer and closer to its resting place. It was colder too, once he'd noticed the first. It seemed as if this realization brought others to his mind. The sounds of animals had changed slightly. Like an orchestra changing out and in instruments, he could imagine certain animals just getting up while others were bedding in for the night. They would part soon. Van wanted to tell her so many things. How much she'd helped him by letting him help her. How much he agreed with what she said. How much he'd like to be her friend. "There's just one more thing I want to show you. For now, at least." Van would share himself with Nan the best way he knew how--through his movements, without words--and hope he would have the courage to commit himself to more later. So he began to show her the ways in which ones body betrayed the movements they were about to make, and the two ways you could avoid telegraphing them: by either remaining perfectly still when not performing a move, or keeping in constant motion so your movements are too fluid to read.

[Nanithel]

The night arrived early in Avanthal as always, details were harder to make out and the prints in the snow were hardly visible even in the faint light still remaining that played with the almost hidden colours in Nanithel and Van's hair. Snow actually had a dual nature, it made it a lot easier to see in the evening as it reflected light so well but it also made it that much harder to see as everything just seemed to mesh together and it was impossible to tell if it was a small hill or a shallow dip in the ground.

In a snow covered landscape nothing ever was what it seemed, like with humans and practically every living creature and the cracks in the ice seemed like a good comparison to all the ways a person could evolve and spread out, to let go of fears to gain something worth the risk or to go out of your way only once to see what may happen. It all served to make people deeper and even more complex but also more satisfied in the end even if the road was hard, either emotionally or physically.

Tonight Nanithel had for once opted to do just that, let go of her natural shyness and reserved personality to get to know another person instead of just be the normal wallflower. Not that she didn't like being alone, with the large holds and large families Nan had always felt at peace and satisfied taking some time to herself, spending it alone with a book or with Windy and Ita.

She had to admit she liked it, to open up a bit wasn't so bad after all, it was actually a nice feeling, to share something of yourself instead of freezing everyone out. It was something Nan normally only did with her family, with them she could behave like herself, but with new people it took time to be comfortable, to be just as open and talkative as with her family. But times like this it was worth it, and Nan hoped they could continue building this start and become friends.

Van had also made her see that swordsmanship was more than just defending yourself despite the quite short time that had passed. Before asking him for help Nanithel had only wanted to learn some decent sword skills to be able to at least defend herself or have some skills to back up having a sword with her in contrast to how serious she took dancing and her training with horses. She started to see how using a sword maybe was more than just a weapon and more of an extension of yourself that you had to feel entirely at home with before being a true master, that being able to hold a sword did not guarantee a success.

"There's just one more thing I want to show you. For now, at least." It was the first either of them said in awhile now and it almost felt odd. For her the silence had not felt uncomfortable despite them recently meeting,. Wondering at what he meant Nanithel stood still watching the boy to see what he'd do.

[Vanwen Frostfawn]

Van felt none of the usual awkwardness he felt when he knew he was being watched, at least not anymore. Little as they'd been through together by most standards, he felt something significant had occurred, even if he couldn't put a name to what happened. Friendship, perhaps, though it seemed an insignificant word in his own mind. Twilight was the time of the Vantha people. Eyes and hair were at their most interesting, he thought. The world was caught between two worlds, it seemed. It was a slow transition, one that was easy to miss if you weren't watching it. But when you were, it could make it seem like the whole world was standing still. "Just a little trick I worked on myself. It's basically a variant on a normal stuff. Useful in the snow, or the sand I'd guess." Van made sure he was facing away from Nan before starting. In position, he took a forward step, but hooked his foot like it was a scythe being swung downward. Van dug the moving foot into the snow, and used the top of his boot to send a spray of snow into the air and forward a few feet. Most of it fell quickly, but the loose bits of snow seemed to hang in the air for a moment like stars. Van took a few more steps, sending snowdrifts into the air. He looked drunk, the way the staggering steps made him move as he did them. After the fourth step he followed it up with a downward slash of his longsword, slicing through snow and doing almost nothing to move it. He sheathed his sword again. "It'll give you an opening if you time it right. And if you're fighting someone you know outclasses you... well, hopefully it gets you a chance to run ." Van hadn't shown anyone that move. He wanted to think that he didn't know why he'd shown her, but he knew exactly why. He felt close to her, and he knew that if he found out that something had happened to her, he'd wonder if showing her that would have changed what happened. It was so utterly hypothetical that he felt a bit dumb, but still proud of himself nonetheless. The snow was growing darker in the twilight, and he felt the need to say something else. To defend the extra time taken on this one particular thing. "Not exactly some super secret death blow." But he couldn't come to defend himself. He was sure he could give any number of excuses, but could he tell her the truth? The real reason he showed her that move. The reason he was lingering, even now. Van wasn't sure how to say goodbye.

[Nanithel]

Watching Van move through the steps like a drunk or a severely unbalanced person she saw the usefulness of that move. To blind your opponent was a clever move that was often used but in this way it also confused the enemy with the unpredictable steps. "I think it is a great move, to blind your opponent is a good tactic in many ways." Nan said smiling. "Thank you for showing me that." Trying to really remember how he'd moved so she could train and maybe even use it later on, she realised it took skill to mover through those stumbling steps, it probably was a lot harder than it looked, and to Nan it looked hard, especially to avoid tripping while moving.

Casting a look up into the darkening sky Nan took a deep breath of the crisp clear air, now started the part of the day she enjoyed the most probably, to her it was a beautiful time of the day and when twilight moved on to night and the dark sky was freckled with stars and the aurora it was the best. To be awake at the night was a soothing experience when everything seemed to slow down and just enjoy the striking nature of Taldera. It was something special about the night, a mysterious pull that beckoned her to stay awake late and just think or take her tame weasel Ita out in the snow for him to play.

Nanithel looked back at Van again and despite not being very similar on the outside she believed they were more alike then one would think underneath, at least she felt like they could get along without much words at all, despite this short time. She hoped that they could meet again as she had decided to stay in Avanthal until spring despite her earlier plans.

"It's starting to get a bit late maybe it is about time to start heading back," Nan wondered what the hell kinda start to a goodbye that was. "If you want though maybe we could meet up again sometime?" Thankful for her ability to not blush Nan cursed herself and her incredibly bad people skills, hoping he'd understand her awkward attempts anyway.

[Vanwen Frostfawn]

The sounds of the animals being taken care of had not disappeared, but grown much quieter. He couldn't hear footsteps through the snow any more, either. Even the stragglers were heading inside at this point, and he could see why. He was not feeling cold, exactly, but felt an absence of warmth that, while not bothersome physically, reminded him of what it was like to fall asleep with your arm pinned beneath you. He was tempted to shake his head and watch the snow that had accumulated fall to the ground. This brought to mind an image of the sky as some great human presence, simply shaking the snow to the earth, when it had just come from a larger world in which it existed. Van shook his head. He was being silly. As if there was anything more than what they were standing on... Van, at her words, felt a surge of relief that he hadn't expected to be feeling about their parting. While blunt, he appreciated the sentiment behind them, if not necessarily the words. She was the stronger of the two at the moment, and he was grateful. He nodded, not exactly trusting himself to speak at the moment. For the first time, he noticed her observing him outside of the context of swords and teaching. He wondered what she was thinking. It was such a different feeling. Normally, a Vantha had no need to guess such things, as merely asking about such thoughts would provide more information than one wanted to know, and sometimes more than what some outsiders might consider decent. He knew he was using those thoughts to prologue their time together, but they had to stop. Day turned to night. Seasons changed. The world moved on, even when, more than anything, one wished for it to stop, for even a moment. Van smiled brightly, more expression than he usually liked, but it felt genuine to do it. It wasn't rueful, or ironic or insincere. It was just... happy. "You're right. It is a bit late to be outside..." He was going to say 'Alone together', but stopped himself. "I would like that. For us to meet again." Van began walking back towards the hold. He couldn't imagine anything he might say would add to the moment.

[Nanithel]

Shaking off snow that had gathered on her during their talk Nanithel smiled in answer, it was a relief to be accepted, it wasn't often Nanithel had to be the one to act first and she got just as nervous every time. Nan fell into step beside the Vantha boy, and entered another comfortable silence as they headed for the Frostfawn hold. The landscape had gotten very quiet except for the occasional animal or bird sounds, snow falling of a branch or various sounds from the hold, it was Nan's favourite time of the day when everything was peaceful and quiet, according to her it was also now that the aurora was shown from its best side.

For her these bells had been very valuable in many ways, not only a few basics in swordsmanship and to see that the art of swords can be interesting and not only a weapon for defence but also in interactions between people. If only for a short time she had been able to discard some of her indifferent posterior and be more herself, not entirely and maybe not so obvious to an outsiders eyes but she knew it and that was enough. If she got the chance to keep getting to know Van maybe they'd get good enough friends that Nanithel could drop her act entirely. Before long the large complex of the Frostfawn hold became visible past the trees and they would part then but with a silent promise of friendship.

[Mutt]

Vanwen

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Socializing	4
Teaching	4
Sword	3

Lores

• IOpening up to a stranger
  
• Teaching the sword
  
  

Nanithel

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Socializing	4
Sword	4

Lores

• Breaking the Ice
  
• Footwork
  

Notes

Sorry for the delay, any problems, throw me a PM