Solo A greybind (training)

[Alexander Faircroft]

8th winter 515AV A clattering of the hard footfalls of plate scattered through the Windmount field. The heavy falls of Alex, clad from head to toe in platemail. He groaned and strained and continued running the length of the field. Lap after lap. Not long until he simply collapsed. Panting heavily, trying not to hurl what meagre breakfast he’d scrounged down his throat back up. “C’mon Alex rise up.” Ser Greyheart was nearby clapping his hands together, willing Alex back to his feet. Alex strained and groaned rolling over in the plate. Pushing his body off of the ground he rose. Slowly but surely. “Well done. You’ve only done half the laps I asked for though so keep running.” Ser Greyheart finished his statement with a small nod of his head in the direction Alex was heading. He groaned and after a short moment of catching his breath he picked up his feet again. The heavy plate weighting down on him, every step pressing down on his form each step heavier than the last. He could feel his weight building as he progressed. Before much longer he heard another set of steps coming up behind him a slow jogging place Ser Greyheart had taken up running alongside him to encourage him. “You’re not alone Alex, we all went through this now c’mon four more laps with me and we’ll call em done for now but we'll continue training.” He smiled and Alex could barely hold himself together giving a weak but meaningful thankful smile back to Ser Greyheart. A half bell passed as Alex struggled around the field with ser Greyheart following closely not starting to tire out quite yet. Eventually they both stopped and Alex doubled over panting heavily the weight of the steel armour constricting his chest. Slow haggard breaths ate away at him. The sheer speed he gulped down air stung his lungs even more than the frigidity of it. The plate cold to the touch sucked the heat out of him meaning even though he swat beneath it he felt frozen yet hot at the same time. “Alex, you’ve a long way to go boy but you’ll get there soon enough. Sit rest. We have much to discuss.“ Alex Stumbled forwards a little and perched atop a smaller wooden crate his patron sat opposite him. “You’ve done well with your base training your stamina still needs work and your sword play could still use practice. These are things that can be worked on in time. But there’s something only you can train, which you seem to have a fairly good one. Your mind. Train it to understand all that it can. Over the next couple of weeks I want you to take one day each week and spend a good portion of it down at the archives. Train the greatest weapon a knight has…His mind.” Alex sank slightly into himself at the mention of praise. His patron was the only knight who ever fully offered Alex praise. “But ser…I’m not that smart. I don’t learn things that well.” Alex’s soft almost whisper like voice came forth once again and was met with his patrons rebuttal. “Alex. You’re a smart kid. You absorb knowledge at a staggering pace. But you never put it to any use. What I want you to do is start applying what you learn to what you do. Everything we learn as knights is interlinked never split it into different things. Apply all you learn to all you do.” Ser Greyheart smiled lightly and clapped him on the back of the armour. “Now we practice your riding that should take some load off of you for a while.” The started heading towards the nearby stables in order to to collect some horses in order to practice.

[Alexander Faircroft]

A short request from Ser Greyheart and they were furnished with two horses a short while but enough time to learn something. “Alex you remember how to get on one right?” Greyheart inquired. Alex simply nodded and responded with his usual quiet tone. “Yes ser.” Stepping his foot into the stirrup he swung himself over the top of the horse miscalculating the speed of his swing a little he landed with too much force his foot missing the other stirrup eliciting a loud groan from hin and a caught from the point of impact. Ow…Slower next time maybe…Groaning lightly Sebastian couldn’t help but burst out laughing at his younger apprentice. “Well at least you’re up there.” Controlling his laughter and with a deft practice he swung up atop his horse. “Right simple exercises. Up and down the field at a pace you’re comfortable with and we’ll gradually speed up.” Alex nodded groaning loudly for a second or two longer before slipping his foot into the second stirrup and taking the horse to a brisk trot. A less than speedy pace but enough for Alex to get a feel of how to direct the horse and how to ease into motions on the saddle. Tilting the horse left and right through leaning on its back and puling the reigns softly. “Eventually you’re going to have to learn to control your horse with just your legs so you can wield weapons on horseback.” Ser Greyheart then took his hands off the horse’s reigns and began to steer it with just his knees. Taking his horse to a small run whilst Alex simply followed behind with a slow and simple speed. Just getting the feel for riding, this wasn’t his first lesson but it was however his first time in armour. Shifting his weight about to keep his balance was painful. Taking the horse down the field and then with a loud clattering of plate and steel Alex slipped and fell from the horse. Wheezing loudly and coughing he groaned. “Aaaah, this just isn’t my day…” Alex managed to groan out. As Ser Greyheart simply burst into laughter. “Right get back up on the horse and try again. The important thing is that you get back up. No matter what the situation always get back up.” Ser Greyheart even chuckling like he was made a good point. Getting up was the thing that made a knight. And no matter how often Alex had been knocked to the ground he’d get up again. Alex pushed up off the dirt spitting out a couple blades of grass. Grimacing lightly he placed his foot back into the stirrup, and swung himself back over the horse, slower this time to make sure not to bruise his ego any more. Reaffirming his position on the back of the horse he gripped the reigns a little tighter fully ready to have his weight slip again and clamped his thighs against the saddle. Turning the horse lightly this time not such a sharp jolt he managed to keep his balance. “Ser. If I may. I wondered what you were before you became a knight.” Alex’s tone again light and even. Sebastian simply took a short glance to the sky keeping his horse in time with Alex’s own. “Before my time as a knight or even a squire…I was a carpenter. Like my father and his father before him. I found the life to skating down wooden boards and shaping lumber into trinkets for the rich to play around with. Disheartening. A time arrived when people needed help. He knights ofte being unconcerned as much with helping those of the lower standing I took up a sword and did what I could. Chipping in where I could with simple tasks and helping people. I eventually learned how to wield a sword fully. That was the day when I finally became a knight. I went through the rigors of squire-hood as you do now. And at the end I found that people respected me. Even followed my example. And time passed. It’s how I became a sergeant knight. Me. A simple carpenters son, rising to a station such as this. I wasn’t a clever lad but I always knew what was right. And I fought for that. I fought for what I thought and still do think to be justice.” The tale wasn’t anything polished or fancy but Alex could tell it was heartfelt. And as such pondered on it. “Then Ser if I may ask…Why did you take a hunters son like me…Someone bereft of much if any skill?” Ser Greyheart answered Alex with a somewhat stern answer. “Because you have a potential in you that I lacked. It’s taken me a few years to learn all I have and longer still to retain it. You my boy. Everything you learn never escapes that mind of yours. It’s tighter than master locksmiths vault. Yet you have the keys to find whatever is hidden away in there. That is why I took you under my wing. Because with the right polishing and the right shining, one day you could gleam like gold. From what seemed to be simple iron.” The words of his mentor brought a feeling of unworthiness to Alex’s mind. He’s wrong about me…He’s wrong…But gods above I hope he’s right. Pretending to cough and recall the pain from earlier Alex took his fingers to his eyes wiping away any trace of tears before they formed. Even his own father had never praised him as such. Putting him down at every turn he got. “Thank you ser.” Alex spoke his voice now a little closer to breaking than just airy. “It means a lot to hear that. Especially from you.” Alex smiled now a genuine heartfelt smile. Something that he’d long since forgotten how to do. Ser Greyheart simply gave him a half cocked but honest smile as he was want to do. “Right then. C’mon boy we’ve got a lot to cover today. I’ll race you around the park. Ten laps loser buys the first round at the end of the day.” And with that Ser Greyheart whipped his horse’s reigns and hunkered down on the horses back. Alex tried to follow suit but found with the clunky armour it was hard to get quite as low as his patron, as a result his speed suffered. He knew he was going to lose this but somehow he didn't mind.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Staying mounted in the saddle of the horse and charging it around the edges of the field was a challenge. Charging around the field his patron flew. The low position in the saddles straining Alex’s legs as he charged the horse around the course. Gripping the reigns tightly Alex tried again to lean the horse around the corners at speed like his patron did only to find himself met with a sharp rear back from the horse as he did so. Cursing his lack of skill like always he ducked down again confining himself to charge in the straights and ease in the corners. At this moment in time Ser Greyheart had already lapped Alex twice. Trying a new tactic now he instead of leaning on the reigns of the horse decided to instead push his foot into the horses flank attempting to turn him that way. And to his amazement it worked shifting the horse around the corner and keeping up his horses gallop. Yes! An inward cry of success shot through his mind. He now had only to catch up with his patron. Each successive lap his patron had gotten further ahead and now he had only five laps to make up the difference of two. Spurring the horse on Alex managed to shrink the gap to just a lap and a half. Climbing down from the back of the noble beast both he and his patron let the horses get a small amount of rest. “I told you, that you learn quickly.” Ser Greyheart simply smirked and patted Alex on the shoulder again. Alex couldn’t help but feel he was doing his best to make his master proud of him but somehow it wasn’t enough. Even with the kind and supportive words…Alex could still feel a deep-seeded sense of self-doubt crawling back over any positivity that he felt. “Ser…Can I spar against you? I need to practice how to handle a blade and what better time than to ask one such as yourself?” Alex smiled lightly asking his patron for a lesson with the blade was something he never did simply heading off to the training grounds to learn from the weapon masters. Still he felt that learning from someone such as his patron would be a valuable experience. Ser Greyheart mulled over the idea of teaching his squire about combat personally for a short moment. “Alright Alex.” He spoke calmly drawing the longsword he kept at his side…Live and sharp steel. Taking a half step back in the mild surprise Alex calmed himself. This was what he had asked for. Drawing his shield from his back first His patron stabbed his word into the ground strapping on his own shield. Finally after a few ticks of fiddling Alex managed to get his shield on hoisting the blade from his hip. The weight of the blade still unfamiliar in his hands, rolling the blade around his wrist lightly he’d gotten more used to the feel of such a heavy blade. The two sank into battle positions. His patrons low enough to have his shield extended out from him lightly and cresting the tops of his knee caps. His sword readied away from his body and out to the side. As he and Alex circled each other slowly walking a small distance away from the horses. So as not to spook nor harm them. Alex’s own stance kept his shield arm in tight his sword resting lightly atop his shield arm to support the excess weight of having a near four foot blade. After a half chime of sizing each other up Alex broke the standstill first his blade sailing through the air to meet his masters. A silvered ring of steel on steel echoed out through the field. A calm lull settled over the two of them before his patron swung his blade from the meeting to strike his shield with more force than Alex felt possible. Sending him reeling Alex cut back across the distance with a large wide swing. Slow as it was his patron simply chuckled lightly and shifted his shield up to catch it. Not expecting the weight of the weapon to carry through he felt his arm crumple lightly. “You’ve put on some muscle mass with that armour Alex, you used to be much weedier than that.” Shaking his arm out as he spoke Alex simply returned the comment with a smile falling back into form and readying for the next clash of swords.

[Alexander Faircroft]

The pair squared off yet again the smell of the park shifting from fresh grass to the smell of smeared mud. Ser Greyheart’s form had practice and precision. Alex’s however was shaky unfounded. Stepping to the side slowly he lost his balance on a patch of wet grass. Slipping ant falling to one knee his patron capitalized on his squire’s mistake. He brought his sword down on Alex from above. Alex raised his arm just in time to catch the blow against his shield a heavy weight met it and his arm from the wrist backwards went momentarily numb with the shock of the impact. Raising his blade he swung his weight into the wide arcing strike only to find the big wing blocked by a much firmer and harder. His Strike was completely useless against the iron defence of his patron. Alex scrambled back to his feet only just managing to get there.

Finding his feet against the soft and sliding earth was troublesome and As such his better footed patron made him pay for it. Swinging his blade once into the side of Alex’s torso. The other side was then pummelled from a follow up stroke. Almost as if his mentor was masking him finding his footing by striking him. Alex wobbled upon standing the weight of the blows rattling his torso.
“Up my boy, find your footing, fighting on a wet surface can cause you untold problems. Same fighting on a loose surface. If your footing isn’t solid then you aren’t. Now ground your feet. Plant your heels when you strike, when you aren’t rest on the balls of your feet. When you take a blow on your shield it’ll allow you to soften the impact a little.” His patron spoke with a calm and defined tone.
“Sir is that why your defence is so solid?” Alex responded in an inquisitive tone. His mentor smiled as he squared off again. “Yes it is.” His mentor brought the blade across in a hard strike. Alex lifted his shield to intercept just catching the tip of the blow. His arm now shaking behind the shield from the weight of the blow. Looking down his patron had planted his heels granting the swing increased weight. “Also when you strike turn your body into the blows. Twist your waist, don’t just swing your arm wildly.” A stern look of immobility came upon his mentor when Alex nodded. Alex tightened his arm and swung the weight of his frame into the blow holding his arm more solidly the strike crashed with his mentors shield the sound like a hammer on an anvil. His patron grunted and weighed back on his rear leg. “Better. Now firstly do it more often and secondly learn to do it whilst under assault. Your opponent isn’t just going to stand there and let you take the time to wind the strike.” His patron slid his sword back into the scabbard and bid his squire do the same. Alex obeyed the suggestion slipping his bastard sword back into the scabbard.

“Learn well. And learn fast, that way I can add you to my wing sooner rather than later.” His patron laughed lightly clapping Alex on the back of his plate.
“Thank you Ser.” An honest smile fell over him. Ser greyheart then turned away from his squire and noted that the pair of them should call it a day for today. He had further work to do and Alex had training with other instructors.

[Dove Brown]

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Alexander Faircroft

Skills

• Endurance 2
• Socialisation 3
• Riding 2
• Weapon: bastard sword 2
• Weapon: shield 2
• Acrobatics 1

Lores

• The mind: greatest weapon of all
• Always get back up when you fall
• Riding: staying balanced in armor
• Acrobatics: keeping your balance on wet grass
• Keep your weight on your heels
• Bastard sword: twist into the blow

Miscellaneous

• +1 Shield points (patron)
• +4 Shield points (training)

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