Farm Girl learns to Fight (Dove)

[Nivel]

64th day of Fall, 515 AV
Since their expedition in the woods where bandits threatened the lives of the two citizens she was charged with protecting, Nivel felt she should offer them training in combat. Dove seemed like the one most in need since she seemed like the most tenacious of the two. While Nivel liked that about her it also made her vulnerable if she couldn’t back up her claims. The pycon didn’t know where Revali lived but she had a vague understanding of where Dove lived after the farm girl stumbled onto the pycon’s birthday party back in summer. Nivel negotiated her way onto a supply wagon heading to the Outpost and personally delivered the invitation for fighting lessons in the fighting pits. After negotiating a date that worked for both of their hectic schedules and how dove was able to get to Syliras, it seemed like everything was settled.

When the day came, the weather turned out to be enjoyably mellow and pleasant. It was a bit overcast but Syna was still shinning through and the gentle fall breeze made it all the better. They were supposed to meet up at mid day to give Dove time to travel and maybe do some errands in the city if time allowed. This would allow the pycon to do a bit of her own solitary training before she took the role of teacher. Nivel had her shaft of her key shaped pypole in her hand as she leapt from the stone walls surrounding the circular arena. She landed with a well timed tumble that eased her fall. She walked out into the open so she could be spotted more easily and firmly grasped her people in both hands.

She started her training with a few hard thrusts of the pointy end of her tiny weapon as she imagined the areas she was mostly likely to strike in a real fight. If was likely the most she would be able to do was startle an opponent into making a mistake that she could take advantage of. She started to add dodge rolls into the mix by making a quick attack at her invisible opponent and then leaping into a the side and tumbling or even doing cartwheels if the mood stuck her. When she got really into the rhythmic activity she made the daring move of pushing of with all the strength in her legs and hurling herself back ward into a flip. She stumbled a bit but was able to quickly steady herself and lunge forward with her pointy resin key.

She was getting pretty confident and felt it was time to use the pole to gain some altitude. With a running start she struck her pole into the ground and quickly swung her legs forward with as much force as she could muster. She was almost certain she would be soaring but quickly felt the startling impact of the dirt floor on her clay back.

Credit for Boxcode goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Dove Brown]

What with the harvest being delivered to Syliras, and supplies being delivered to both Mithryn and the new outpost site, as well as the extra patrols against bandits, Dove had quite a choice of options to get up to the castle. She avoided the patrols, not wanting to attract more knightly attention than she had to. Though she had lost her fear of Nivel as a knight, she was still wary of others, and besides, she knew the cart drivers better and they knew her. She got herself a lift by dint of offering to help to load and unload the cart contents in exchange for the ride and turned up before dawn to do her agreed share of the work.

By the time she reached the castle and helped to unload, there was only an hour or two left until midday when she was due to meet Nivel. She wound her way down through the Bazaar to replenish her kitchen stores. There was more choice there than in Mithryn's market, but not enough to make it worth the walk unless she was coming for other reasons. Peas, dried fruit, and wheat, cheese, eggs, bread, and oil - her usual staples - came first, and then she counted the coins she had left. She treated herself to a block of beef dripping and a small jar of honey, then hovered at the spice merchant stalls. She looked wistfully at the bright rosehips. She loved rosehip tea, but they were far too expensive for her to afford. Mint tea would have to suffice. The stallholder eyed her farmer's clothing and said, "5 copper mizas."

Dove narrowed her eyes. The usual price in Mithryn was half that. "I'm a farmer, not a fool," she replied. "1 copper miza." She held it up and they haggled some more, finally settling on 3 coppers for the packet of dried mint.

Satisfied by that price, she bought a selection of other herbs and spices from him, picking out the ones that were both cheap and flavourful. She was leaving, her purchases tucked into the pack on her back when she thought of Nivel and stopped to buy a copper's worth of clay as well, in case she ever had to host and feed her friend.

As she wound her way up out of the Bazaar and out to the fighting pits, she moved more warily. Unlike the bazaar, where she had often been before, and food where she knew what she was doing, the pits were new to her. She reached them finally and found where Nivel was. She stopped out of sight in the shadows of the entrance and watched Nivel move confidently about the arena. Dove wasn't sure she'd ever be that good, but she had said she would be here, and breaking your word to the knighthood was not a good idea, even if it was Nivel. Finally she stepped forward into view, eased her backpack down into a corner and shook out her sling. "Nivel? I'm here... Ah, now what? Do I start by showing what I can do with this?"

Receipt

Item	Cost	Amount
Animal Fat (dripping)	1 sm	1 lb
Cheese	2 sm	1 lb
Eggs	1 sm	a dozen
Bread	2 cm	1 loaf
Grapeseed oil	3 cm	1 quart
Green peas	2 sm	1 lb
Wheat	1 cm	1 lb
Salt	1 cm	1 oz
Ginger	1 cm	1 oz
Cumin	3 cm	1 oz
Chives	2 cm	1 oz
Mint	3 cm	1 oz
Dill	3 cm	1 oz
Dried currants	1 sm	1 oz
Honey	5 cm	1/2 pint
Clay	1 cm	1 lb
Total	9 sm, 5 cm

[Nivel]

Nivel quickly got up from the dirt ground when she heard Dove’s voice, and dusted herself off. It was a bit embarrassing to be caught by someone you were expected to train, but Nivel resisted mentioning it and did her best to pretend it didn’t happen.
“Well ..I think we should start with some stretches.” Nivel with slight hesitation. She knew it was a practice that Tall Folk squires did regularly but it wasn’t much use to a pycon. “It will increase your flexibility and its a good place to start.”
Nivel paused to think of what her Patron Sera Grey had instructed her to do when they were first training. It seemed so long ago to Nivel but it really wasn’t.
“I’d like you to um..” Nivel paused again before blurting out the first thing that came to mind “Touch your feet!” It was something she had seen so many squires do that it had to be beneficial in some way.
“but don’t push yourself too much…you wouldn’t want your legs to become um..too flexible” Nivel didn’t know if anything she was staying was remotely true but there was always consequences for everything. As a mage she knew this more than anyone.

“Thats good!” Nivel clapped her hands at her pupils compliance “Now..move your upper body side to side..it will help your back.” While Dove was doing Reps Nivel tried to think of other things she could make her young student do. If Dove were to use her sling, she would need to use her arms but Nivel had no idea how a human could stretch them.

“Now flail your arms about like their covered in bees! Bees and Fire!” Since Nivel had run out of ideas she might as well have fun.

“Spin your arms around to blow away the fire breathing Bees!” Nivel commanded with a mischievous giggle as she made the poor girl make a fool of herself. It was good thing for Dove that most of the Warriors were to busy grunting and dodging rusty swords to pay attention, but that probably wouldn’t matter to a teenager.

“Now jump back!” Nivel yelled suddenly “Whew that was close, one of those fire breathing bees just swung an invisible sword at you” The pycon wanted to keep the girl alert. In battle Dove would have to always be aware and listen to instructions carefully. Although, Nivel didn't realize that she might be going about it the wrong way.

__

“Okay now to get serious” Nivel said gruffly. “I want you to do 20 push ups.” Nivel held her arms behind her back and marched closer to her pupil to get a better look at her form.
“don’t let your knees touch the ground, you have to lift your entire body with your arms” Nivel had never done push ups in her short life but she had over heard many Patrons saying this all the time to their squires when they first stated out.
“Oh and face forward not towards the ground”
Seeing that the girl was starting to struggle Nivel began giving her words of encouragement to keep her going.
“Just a little more and you can rest for a bit”

Credit for Boxcode goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Dove Brown]

Dove slipped out of her cloak and folded it on top of her pack, and then began to follow Nivel's instructions. She didn't quite see what this had to do with fighting, but would wait and listen, at least for a while. She bent, reaching for her feet and found if she bent her knees slightly, her fingers brushed the tops of her boots, just as they did when she laced them up each day. That wasn't too hard, she decided, not realising that the bent knees undid the point of that exercise.

Bending sideways and twisting, she felt her neck pop and crackle as the joint moved, but when Nivel asked her to flail at bees, she muttered, "If bees were after me, I'd be running for the nearest pond, not standing still." She moved reluctantly at first, then faster as Nivel chivvied her, finally jumping back. There were other knights in other corners of the pit, and she wasn't about to draw attention by refusing directions from a knight, even if it was Nivel. Nivel seemed determined to draw attention to Dove by making her look ridiculous though, and a dull heat of resentment spread through her face and body.

When she was told to do push ups, she did stop and stare at Nivel. What were push ups? She didn't know, had never done one, hadn't even heard of them before. When Nivel finally explained the position, Dove reluctantly got down on her knees and tried it. Her boots made it hard to get her feet right, and she could feel the ache in her arms and shoulders after about five sloppy attempts. Nivel marched round her, correcting things and encouraging her by turns. Dove gritted her teeth as the pain built. She'd worked harder, she reminded herself. She could carry stones all day, she could load carts, she could haul stubborn horses. She could do this.

After she forced out the last one, she let herself lie on the ground for a moment, face buried in the crook of one arm as she recovered, then rolled over onto her side. That put her on a level with Nivel's tiny figure. She waited for the right moment, then reached over and put her hand down on Nivel's tails, trying to pin them to the ground in retaliation. "So what does tormenting me with strange moves have to do with combat?" she asked. "Apart from both wearing me out and making me ache?"

[Nivel]

“Un hand my tails!” Nivel pleaded as she tried to tug them free from the Tall folks grasp. They quickly slipped free causing the pycon to clumsily tumble forward.
“That wasn’t very nice” Nivel retorted as she brushed even more dirt of herself.
“I wasn’t tormenting you, I was attempting to build your strength, endurance and flexibility which are all important in a fight.” The pycon shook her head at the girls naiveté, when it was clear that a few of the things she was teaching were far from orthodox.
“You should practice what I told you as much as possible, and push yourself. As soon as what your doing is easy you need to make it harder.” Nivel paused a bit as she thought of other ways dove could improve. When she watched Dove do the stretches, Nivel noticed that the touching the toes exercise seemed to easy for the young Tall folk.
“When you touched your toes did you feel a stretch at the back of your legs? if you didn’t you should try straightening your legs..I’m not very knowledgeable about human anatomy but I was pretty sure the point of doing that was to feel a stretch.” The pycon worried she was giving her false information but it sounded correct based one what she knew.

“With that out of the way lets start working on punches and kicks, then well work on your technique with the throwing weapon you have.” Nivel walked a distance away to get a better vantage point and to keep herself from falling victim to one of her students kicks.
“Okay now we first need to get into fighting stance, keep your legs shoulder with apart with your toes pointing forward. Like this”
Nivel was probably too tiny to properly give Dove a demonstration but she was going to try anyway. The pycon had her right leg forward and her left leg back, and her knee joints bent slightly. Her posture was straight and her arms were bent at her side with her fist clenched in readiness. After Dove got into position Nivel shifted her position to the side so that she could show how to throw a punch better.
“Now to throw an effective punch you take your arm from it’s current position and twist it forward, Putting your back into it to give it the extra power it needs.” Nivel preformed the action she had just explained as slowly and carefully as she could, she even shifted some of her clay in to the arm so that it was larger and therefore more noticeable.
“If you have trouble seeing my actions I can ask one of those men over there to demonstrate it for you?” Nivel asked out of curtesy while casually gesturing to the gruff bearded men who were aggressively tearing into each other in the distance.

“Now for kicking.” She began again as she got back into her fighting stance. “I’m going to do a side kick, this can be done by pivoting on what ever foot is in front from your fighting stance and twisting your hips so that you launch your back leg into a kick with the bottoms of your foot.” Nivel wasn’t sure she was explaining it well but she turned to the side and did the motions.she swung her back leg forward with her knees bent and then straighten them at the end to launch a kick in the air. Most of Nivel’s techniques were learned from her mother, but she didn’t have very strong legs so Nivel had to learn this from a human on her way to Syliras.

“Okay if you're not too tired I’d like you do get your sling out and try to hit me” Nivel said confidently. The pycon was certain that the girl would have no chance in hitting her, and it would allow her to see Dove’s technique first hand.

Credit for Boxcode goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Dove Brown]

Dove accidentally lifted her hand at the same time as Nivel tugged, and the pycon fell flat. As Nivel scolded her, Dove filed the tactic away for future use. "Fights aren't nice," she replied softly, "especially when there are a lot of people involved. I learned the hard way that you have to use everything you have in a fight." She unconsciously fingered the scar on her jaw as she spoke, and nodded at Nivel's instructions to practice and push herself. That resonated with what she had learned when she first picked up her sling - that only with practice would you improve.

As Nivel went on about punches and kicks, Dove hauled herself back her feet. She looked over at the men and shook her head. "No, no need to involve them. I'll be fine." She shuffled her feet a shoulder width apart, right foot in front and her legs and back straight. She pointed her toes mostly forward, shifting them until she got balanced, and clenched her fists. She twisted as she slowly and sloppily punched forward, first with one hand, then with the other one, imagining a target in front of her.

Kicks were harder. She tried to swivel as Nivel showed her, lost her balance, and sat down in the dirt. Hopping up again and brushing herself down, she tried again. This time she bent her knees and although she wobbled, she didn't fall. She did it a few more times to settle the memory of the movements into her muscles and mind, then got out her sling.

"If you're sure," Dove told Nivel, but the pycon seemed confident enough. Dove looked round at the others using the pit, then directed Nivel to stand in front of a wall, so that unless the bullet went in completely the wrong direction, no one else would be hit by a miss. She flexed her fingers and shook out arms that still ached a little. They didn't feel as bad as the time they cramped and dropped the bullet on her foot, so she continued. She took one of the small lead bullets from the pouch, and tucked it into the pocket of the sling. Winding one of the straps securely through her fingers, she took hold of the other strap and swung the whole thing up and around her head. She had practised that part long enough and hard enough to do it easily, but timing the release so that the bullet went the right way was harder. Her face and shoulders went tight with concentration as she focused, right until the moment she let go of the strap that was only held and the bullet flew forward towards Nivel.

[Nivel]

At first Nivel was a bit dumfounded at Doves sudden retort but quickly the information set in. It seemed that the Dove had been through more than they pycon had realized and was more capable of talking care of herself then Nivel too. “I’m sorry that happened to you but at least it taught you a valuable lesson about combat, You know what it takes to win.” Nivel paused as she arranged the words in her nexus. She paced back forth a bit with her arms held tightly behind her back and her tails swaying behind her. “I know I should be telling you to fight with honour but even I know that doesn’t always work. People are going to underestimate you but let them. You can use their foolishness to your advantage and have the upper hand. I usually do.” Nivel turned her normally emotionless face to Dove and subtly shifted it into a sly knowing grin. It was a difficult maneuver for Nivel but she was certain it come across.
“I use dancing to hide my magical gestures, my opponents are usually too bewildered to stop me.” She chuckled a bit as she thought of her own trickery.

“Okay fair enough” The men seemed nice enough but if dove didn’t want them to join Nivel wasn’t going to push it. The pycon felt in her clay gut that there was something Dove wasn’t telling her but it was best left to hear the information when the girl was ready to share.

“Not bad, but you need to put more force behind your punches and focus on your form. You want clear and precise punches that will knock someone out” Nivel instructed as she once again demonstrated the form.

“Try this move now” The pycon clenched her hand into a makeshift claw and lunged with it like a vicious snake after its prey. “Some times in a fight you need to be ruthless and attack their weak areas. I don’t know many of them on humans but I’ve heard that the side of the torso and between the legs are particularly weak on Tall Folk.” Nivel paused to scratch her clay head before continuing her musings. “I’m not sure why though, It may require further research on the subject.”

“I think you can see now that there are many factors involved in fighting. I’m sure after you’ve found your centre of gravity and become more agile you’ll be able to preform some very impressive kicks.” Nivel paused to get into a low fighting stance “Like this” in a lightning quick action she had spun around and shot a kick up into the sky. She stumbled a bit as she landed and almost fell over but to a novice like Dove it probably wasn’t noticeable.

Nivel stumbled over to the wall Dove had instructed, she felt dizzy after doing her spin kick. To counter this, she did a few spins in different directions to counter the dizziness. Sayana had told her this during her dance lessons and she found it very useful.
Nivel waited Patiently as Dove prepared her shot and let it fly. The rock she threw would have missed but Nivel Tumbled to the side to match its trajectory. It wasn’t a wise decision but Nivel blocked the missile with her arm with a quick swipe of her arm.
“OWW!” Nivel cried as she shook her arm about and hoped about in pain.
“So I wanted to show…you..how..to block. but as you can see it’s much better to dodge…and Evade.”

After Nivel had taken a bit of time to get over the stinging in her hand and let it regain it’s usual shape, she thought of what else she could teach Dove.
“How about you try to shoot me in your sling, I’m usually pretty good at landing so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

OocSorry I took so long

Credit for Boxcode goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Dove Brown]

Dove repeated the punches, copying Nivel carefully. She was more focused on getting it right than in speed for the moment, though she did throw some faster, harder ones in there, pretending she was punching one of the bandits. The fast ones were sloppier than the slow ones, since she didn't have time to be careful. Some of them she aimed as if punching up, some as if punching level, some as if punching down. When she got home, she decided, she would roll her blankets tightly so that they made a roughly human sized target, and practise her punches on that. Punching air was good for getting the movement right, but not so much for knowing how hard to hit. Or how hard you could hit.

She listened to Nivel tell her to let people underestimate her, and how Nivel deceived opponents with dancing. Her own mouth curled into a mischievous grin in response to Nivel's sly smile. "I'll remember that," she said, and meant it. She looked more dubiously at Nivel's suggested claw punch. "I can't change my shape like you can," she pointed out, but she stiffened her fingers and her right arm snapped out to the side like a lunging snake. Years of tossing rocks and broadcasting seed had given her a lot of practice at sideways-moving arms, and a fair amount of muscle. She put it to use now, clearly stronger with her right arm than her left.

She winced as the bullet hit Nivel's arm and her friend hopped around in pain. "Are you ok?" she asked, trotting over to pick up the bullet and check on her friend. She looked worried when Nivel suggested she try to throw her from the sling. "If you're sure," she said slowly. "I don't want you to get hurt." She showed her one of the oval bullets she usually used, about one and a half inches long and three-quarters of an inch wide. "You're a bit bigger than these. Maybe if you curled up?" She looked round and spotted an archery target made of tightly packed straw. That had to be softer than the stone walls didn't it? She waited for Nivel to be settled in the sling pocket, then swung it up even more carefully than usual. A more expert or experienced slinger would have known that as well as around the head, slings could be swung in a circle by the slinger's side, with more accurate results, but Dove was purely self-trained and she stuck to what she knew. Twice around her head, while she took very careful aim, then she let go on the third circuit and held her breath as Nivel soared towards the target.

[Nivel]

“I’m fine” Nivel dismissed the girls concerns as she tried to shake the stinging away. “I’m a warrior, it takes a lot to get me down.” The mangled arm slowly popped back into its original form and for the most part the pain diminished with it. A bit of numbness would be all she would have to worry about for the time being.

Nivel listened to Dove suggestion and strained her body to condense into a smaller dense ball. Every part of her wanted to push back into it’s regular form but she had to hold it together until she was in the air. In this form the pycon was probably a touch heavier than the girl would have imagined but that was part of the training. The additional weight would contribute to Doves strength building as well as allow Nivel to get a real feel for her student’s technique. Although, if Nivel were more honest with herself she would admit that the main reason was because she wanted to fly. Feeling the rush of soaring through the air like an eagle or a giant bat was something the pycon always sought out.

The weight of gravity forcefully pushed Nivel down as she was flung around in the sling. Fluttery sensations filled Nivel’s nexus and fed her growing excitement. Before Nivel knew it she was being thrown through the sky and her body shot back to normal. She quickly thrusted her upper half forward and into a midair summersault before crashing to the ground about an inch short the hay target. Nivel landed with some semblance of grace with her feet taking most of the impact but stumbled in fell not long after. The pycon picked herself up and rubbed her legs which throbbed a bit after the impact.

“That was fun!” Nivel happily proclaimed as she ran back to Dove. “You didn’t really get me to your target but I’m sure you’ll be better at throwing regular bullets after throwing something as heavy as me.”

“You should try to throw me again, you were so close to the target. I’m sure If you do it again you’ll get me there” The pycon instructed as she ran beside Dove. “This time you should try throwing from the side instead of over your head, Just as an added challenge.”

OocSorry for the short post, the next one will be better

Credit for Boxcode goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Dove Brown]

Dove breathed again when Nivel landed safely, though the pycon hadn't quite reached the target. Nivel certainly seemed to think it was fun and dismissed Dove's concerns. When she suggested doing it again from the side, it took Dove a few moments to work out what she meant.

"Oh! When you say from the side, do you mean like this?" She swung the empty sling in a vertical circle at her side to demonstrate. She hadn't done it that way before, and the first time round, it hit the ground at the bottom of the loop. Dove was rather glad her sling was empty at that point, rather than loaded with Nivel. Nivel might be able to curl up surprisingly small, but Dove didn't want to hit her hard on the ground. She tried again, raising her arm a bit higher, and got the swing length right that time. Though given the way the loaded sling had hurt when it had hit her when she was first learning, a sideways swing might be a way to make it a more close-up weapon too. "I haven't done it that way before," she admitted, "but I'll give it a try. That's part of what I'm here for isn't it?"

She took a long slow breath, calming herself, and waited until Nivel was securely in the sling before she turned to face the target, swung her sling twice round vertically for momentum and let go as it reached the top of the loop. At once she saw how much easier it was to aim this way. You could aim with your entire body, not time the loop and hope you released at just the right moment. She grinned with delight at the discovery and tried the close-up swing-attack thought with a bullet in there instead of the living Nivel. Yes, she could bring the sling down quite hard and hit the ground, but then the bullet bounced out. The empty sling wasn't going to do much. She considered the matter thoughtfully, fingering the hairtie on her usual braid. Maybe she could tie the bullet in place somehow? She didn't want to knot the sling itself, she needed it smooth to work, and she needed to be able to undo the melee-ification quickly if she needed to.