[Flashback] Be a Man III (Solo)

[Talya]

Timestamp: Fall 36, 512 AV Talya returned to the clearing that she and the image of Martin had found for their sparring sessions nearly a week before. She found it to be uninhabited, with not a creature in sight. The trees directly surrounding it, seemingly empty as well. The grass, dying what appeared a little faster now, as green flecked with brown as ever, crisp beneath her step. Crunching, as she broke the frozen dew. The sun was high in the sky, and the vast blue sea clear, devoid of clouds, lending the day a hint of warmth that it did not otherwise possess. She wondered where the image of Martin had gotten to, but then, given his track record, wasn't entirely surprised to find that he was late again. Not that it didn't unnerve or irritate her a little bit. After all, if she could manage to show up at their designated meeting grounds for several days in a row on time, then why in the world couldn't he manage? It just didn't make any sense to Talya, who had always made it a point to be punctual. Whatever the case, Talya decided not to waste any more time, and to get started on her own while she waited for the image to arrive. So, she retrieved her dagger from its sheath, and brought it out into the air by her right side. She held it tightly in her right hand, her thumb idly stroking the hilt as she took a deep breath in through the nose, and out through her mouth while deciding how she should begin her training. After a moment, she came to a conclusion, and settled into the starting position she had chosen. She let her left leg slide forward, while the right remained back. She turned her right foot to the right side of the body, and let the left point ahead, so that together they formed a ninety degree angle. Her body she twisted from the waist up, so she presented only her left side to her opponent, making her less of a target. Her left hand she held down at her side, and her right in front of her heart. About six inches from the surface; her right arm bent at the elbow, and held over her chest protectively. The dagger in a forward position. When she had gotten herself situated, Talya took a final breath in through her nose and out through her mouth before swinging her right leg around so that it lined up with her left. With her feet on even ground. As she moved, she allowed her right arm to come out to her right side, so that it seemed an extension of her shoulder, held on a narrowly declining line. As she turned in a half circle, she brought her blade baring arm out and around, so that her dagger would stab at the air to the left of her right hip, in the area she had just been facing. She then stepped again, and completed her turn. She pulled her arm back into her side, and resumed her starting stance, while taking a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. Then, she shuffled forward and punched the air with her left hand, before following up with the right. She pulled back, took another breath, and repeated the process. After the next pairing, Talya straightened herself out a little, and then slashed at the air with her dagger, first toward the left, and then the right, before following an infinity pattern a few times over. Then a figure eight, and then something like a hazy zig-zag, both horizontally and vertically to practice her strokes. She was about to stop and move onto something else, when she thought better of it, and repeated the process several times over by going through the patterns one by one. When she had finished, she took a deep breath in through her nose, and out through her mouth, before determining it best to move onto something else. But what?

[Talya]

Talya slipped deeply into thought for several moments, until she came up with an idea. She began by returning to her more typical starting position, and took a deep breath in through her mouth, and out through her nose. When she was done, she brought her right arm up, raising her hand over her lead shoulder, which she swiped diagonally across her body toward her left hip. She then stepped forward with her left foot, bringing it ahead of her right; maintaining the same distance that had been there before, during her starting stance. She then drew her dagger up to her left shoulder, which now led her body, before sweeping it back down on a steep decline toward her right hip. Another breath, and she swept her blade back up in the air, on a vertical line, which ended with the weapon becoming level with her shoulders. Talya stepped forward again, as she twirled her dagger between her fingers. Rotating it with a flick of the wrist over and over again so that it spun at a dizzying speed as she crept forward, and guided her arm slowly up and down. Up and down, up and down, between her shoulders, and the space a few inches above her belly button. After a few minutes of getting the blood flowing into her fingers at a faster rate, she halted the blade as it fell back into a reverse grip position. She stepped forward with her right foot again, and let the left shuffle along behind as she swung her right arm out to her side, and then swept it inward, across to her other shoulder in a wide arc. She leaned into her attack, and took a deep breath when the blade could go no further, and then moved it back along its path in the opposite direction, before pushing her right foot out farther. Bending her leg more at the knee, and leaning into it so that the majority of her weight and pressure was applied to the lead appendage. She pulled her arm in a little in the same moment of movement, so that it ran horizontally from her right shoulder, out ahead of her. She then pushed it a little farther, extending the limb as far as it would go, thus, completing her lunge. Talya took a deep breath, in through her nose, and out through her mouth. From there, she raised her right foot partially off the ground, so that only the toes touched the grass. She then drew her foot back a few inches, before drawing her right arm into her chest, and tucking it against her side in the pocket position. She took another breath, before thrusting her left hand directly ahead of her, her fingers balled into a tight fist as she punched the air, and then retracted her limb, before punching outward with her right side, then the left again when it fell back into pocket. Then one more time on the left, and one more on the right, before tucking her left hand behind her back again, and setting her right diagonally across her chest in a defensive position. From there, she pushed it outward slightly, as though performing an awkward backward bash with the length of her arm, before pulling it over to her side, cutting the air outward, toward the space about a foot above her right hip. She took another deep breath, before allowing the blade to twist, and slicing the air upward toward her right shoulder again, before sweeping it directly across, as though slashing an opponent's collarbone area. The Ethaefal then took another deep breath, and began to wonder where the heck the image had gotten to.

[Talya]

Talya reeled herself in, and sank back into her starting position. She took another deep breath, before swinging her right foot back around, so that it wound up behind her left foot, spaced about eight inches apart. As she did so, she swung her right arm around in tune with the movement, and slashed at the air again. She breathed again, before swinging her arm back from whence it had came, and shuffling her right foot in half an inch, before straightening her right arm and sweeping it high over her head. She then brought her hand down repeatedly, in a straightforward, hack and slash type motion. She swept her arm up and down, making a path from her right shoulder to her left, before heading back again, and simply hacking repeatedly at the center, until her arm began to grow tired. She allowed the dull ache to fill the length of her limb, before she pulled her arm back, and slid her left leg forward, before slashing diagonally across the air again to her left hip. From there, Talya stepped out with the right foot, slashed at the air to her side, and then began twirling. She spun wildly, while holding her right arm out, and the left as well, as far as they would go. They seemed extensions of her shoulders, that pushed through the air with ease. Her hair lifting off her shoulders as she picked up speed. Swirling as wildly as the folds of her dress, which simply added to her whirling dervish. A few minutes later, she stopped short, and let the world spin out all around her, as she caught her breath, and then hacked wildly at the air before her. First from left to right, and then up and down, before drawing the infinity symbol in the air with the point of her blade. She paused a moment, then slashed in the space before her right shoulder, then swung around to the left again, before pushing her hand farther out, away from her, so that the blade came out of its tuck and slashed the air wildly, before she reeled it back to her opposite shoulder, and gasped for breath. Before Talya took a moment to look around, and wonder just where the image had gotten to, as he still hadn't shown up. Maybe something had happened to him, maybe his personal ferry had sunk on the way over, and he was dead at the bottom of the lake. This seemed unlikely, just as the notion that the image had forgotten, as the image remembered on all the previous days they had met. Maybe, he was to sick to come, or maybe he was in to much pain from the injuries she had inflicted upon him. Maybe she had wounded his pride to much with them. Maybe he was to tired and sore from their previous training sessions, and had overslept, and thus, not shown his face. Whatever the case, the image hadn't appeared, and Talya thought that he wouldn't simply show up all of a sudden, so now that she was tired, it would be best to head home. She wouldn't come tomorrow, although a part of her would wonder awhile about it. But in the end, it wasn't really important, and it would be forgotten. With that thought, Talya sheathed her blade, and began to head back into Ravok; to her home. She didn't notice the pair of pale eyes that followed her the whole way.