You think you're scary? (Hyran)

[Nascha]

Nascha was taken aback at first by the harsh response her question earned. Perhaps there was something tied to that particular move for him as well? She wasn’t sure whether the comment made her relieved or not, though. Knowing that there was little she could have done, especially being so young, helped, but not as much as she’d hoped it would. Of course, all of these thoughts disappeared when she saw Hyran kneel and realized what he was doing.

Oh.

It occurred to Nascha a bit late that it would be somewhat… uncomfortable to do any training with that particular hold. Of course, once Hyran was on his back, she couldn’t just take the cowardly way out. Schooling her expression, she hesitantly climbed on top of the Akalak, knowing that, had she been any less controlled, she would have blushed furiously. Nascha would have minded much less, had Hyran been wearing a shirt. This was unfortunate.

She tentatively placed her hands over his neck, being more careful this time. She was aware that most people were surprised by her weight and, although Hyran could probably handle weights twice her size, she didn’t want to hurt him because he was unprepared. Hence, she tried not to lean forward on her hands, keeping the majority of her body mass on her own legs.

[Hyran]

The Chaktawe kept supporting most of her own bodyweight, and Hyran wondered why, given that he didn’t consider himself the most fragile looking type. He appreciated the gesture nonetheless.

“Alright. From here you can go for the eyes,” he held two fingers a few inches from her face. “Or a strike to the throat again. However, your opponent might simply block your attack with one hand, and continue to choke you against the ground just as vigorously with the other hand. If you do manage to hit your opponent, it will make the following quite a bit easier.”
Hyran reached with his right hand over both of Nascha’s arms and grabbed her wrist, the one to his left, tight. “Now I simultaneously pull with this hand,” he lightly did, “and give a strike against your lower arm with my left.” The palm of his left hand pressed against her arm just barely. “If you can muster up enough strength, you’ll be able to break you opponents hold and pull them to the side using your grip on their arm. Like this.”

His grip on her wrist tightened, the palm of his left hand pressed firmer and he shoved her arm away from his throat, towards his right. He kept pulling though, and at the same time he slightly raised his hips, rolling over to his right to toss the Chaktawe off of him. Nascha ended up laying on her back on the ground and Hyran ended up kneeling between her legs, keeping his hold on her wrist, resulting in what could be a painful twist of her arm if he wished it to be.

One of Hyran’s eyebrows was raised slightly as he looked down on his student. When he’d thrown her off of him he’d noticed she was… quite a bit heavier than he’d expected, considering her height and build.

[Nascha]

Nascha took careful note of what Hyran showed her, realizing more and more that, when she had been held down like that, she had been far too young, small and weak to be able to use any of those moves on her attacker. While it did help, it didn’t make the memory any easier to endure. She appreciated the gentle way the Akalak taught her, but perhaps he was only doing that because, the one time he had gotten rougher, she had not been the best student.

Still, it was extremely uncomfortable for her once she was flipped on her back. Having someone kneeling above her was just too close that other time. At least he didn’t have his hands around her neck. Either way, she was not at ease lying on her back with an Akalak kneeling between her legs, holding her wrist. As politely as she could, Nascha reached up with her free hand and peeled his fingers from her wrist, then sat up slowly, moving so that her legs could be sat on, placing her in an almost kneeling position in front of him.

Then she remembered his raised eyebrow. Had she done something wrong? Had he realized how weird the position was as well? She supposed she had to ask. “Problem?” she looked up at him, allowing a vaguely curious expression to cross her features.

[Hyran]

Ah, of course. Hyran released his grip on Nascha’s wrist when tugging fingers stated her unease. He doubted whether he’d make her practice this move on him. Her discomfort seemed to be of another nature than simple shyness of the close proximity these exercises required, and she had been very specific in asking about this particular attack. Maybe she had memories tied to it, unpleasant ones for sure, and it would be harsh to pressure her into reliving them for the sake of exercise.
However, if that situation would somehow become real for her once again, she needed to be prepared to face it. And he’d be a useless teacher if he allowed her weakness to overrule-

Nascha’s voice tore him away from his thoughts. “Problem?”
“Ah, no.” Hyran’s mind worked to come up with an excuse for spacing out. “It’s just that your weight wasn’t what I had anticipated,” he blurted out rather blunt.

And there it was again, that pang of anger, irritation, when his glare met her questioning eyes. Hyran’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he turned his glance down at the grass. “Okay, let’s see how well you’ve paid attention. Practice that move on me.”

[Nascha]

Nascha opened her mouth to explain her weight, unphased by Hyarn’s bluntness. She had no qualms whatsoever about explaining her unique abilities to people, though she didn’t bring it up unless asked.

Hyran’s narrowed eyes confused Nascha, and stopped her speech before it left her mouth. Had she done something to invoke hostility? She thought back. Perhaps it had been her tone? Interaction with human-like creatures was still a skill that she had yet to master, and for the first time in a while she regretted her incompetence in it.

At his instruction, she recoiled slightly. Though she had made progress by actually confronting the incident in her head, she was not ready to reenact it, least of all with someone who was so much bigger than her, like the other one had been. She could already feel her heart beating faster, and knew that, if she did this, she would not be able to control herself or her facial expression. Certainly, she wouldn’t have enough presence of mind to practice what Hyran had shown her.

On the other hand, she had to face this fear sometime. What better way than in a controlled situation where she could practice a way to get out, even while scared? Chewing slightly on the inside of her cheek, she lay down on the spot of grass that Hyran was looking at, trying to ignore her heart and the thought of what she was doing.

[Hyran]

Nascha didn’t protest, didn’t try to excuse herself out of the situation. Admirable. But when Hyran looked back at her face, her expression was that of a lamb led to slaughter. If the situation were any different, he might have teased her about it, but for now it confirmed his suspicion.
The Cerulean moved carefully when he placed himself over Nascha’s frame, digging his toes in the sand and keeping most of his weight for himself to carry, like she’d done earlier.

“Oi,” he spotted slight panic, and snapped his fingers lightly in front of her eyes. “Stay focused.”
He waited a moment before he moved on, slowly reaching for her throat. “Remember,” he kept talking, his voice a means of keeping her in the present. “Lift one of your arms over mine, and place it at my wrist.”

Beneath his palms he could feel her heartbeat racing, her muscles trembling and her breath quickening. “Nascha,” he called her name when she didn't react, not wanting to loose her to her memories. “Don’t disappoint me.”

[Nascha]

Nascha could almost feel the more logical side of herself shut down completely as Hyran lowered himself over her. She didn’t feel how he kept most of his weight on his toes, but noticed how much bigger he was than her. A sort of nightmarish flickering was occurring in her mind’s eye, in which she would see Hyran one second and that other attacker the next. Her breathing and pulse quickened. She heard Hyran’s voice as if she were underwater , but found that, when he spoke, the flickering stopped.

She still couldn’t feel anything that was real, only able to pay attention to the way his weight was preventing her from breathing, the way his hands were crushing her neck, starving her body of air. It wasn’t Hyran doing this, but it might as well have been. It felt as if she would be able to push him off with the sheer force of her heart battering against her ribcage, but she knew it was impossible. Everything was impossible. She shook her head, unsure of what she was trying to communicate. That she wanted him to let go and get off of her, that she couldn’t do it, that she was too weak, and too little. Maybe none of those, maybe all of them.

Vaguely, Nascha heard her name being called, followed by an instruction which she couldn’t hear, but the meaning of it still came across. Disappoint? Well, she hadn’t considered that Hyran would have any emotional investment in her training. Who was she to let him down due to her own inadequacies? She had failed others before on a much larger scale than this one, and those had been circumstances beyond her control, mostly. Here was something she could fix.

With a tremendous amount of will, she shakily reached up her arm to slide it over both of Hyran’s, grabbing his wrist and pushing with her other hand, as he had done to her. The technique was dodgy, and probably somewhat feeble, given her state of mind, but she had a feeling that Hyran was letting her win this one, just so that she could practice the motion more than anything.

Suddenly, Nascha found herself kneeling above Hyran, blinking in a surprised manner. Unsteadily, she released her hold on him and rose to her feet, wrapping her arms around herself. Her heart was still pounding, her breath was still loud and uneven, but she felt as though she had beaten something. There was still no way she would be doing that again. “Let’s not do that one again,” she said quietly, sitting down again out of a lack of faith in her legs, and a need to curl up. She hugged her knees to her chest, resting her chin on them.

[Hyran]

She looked positively shocked to find him on his back, and he could see the realization of what she’d accomplished hit her. Still seeming incredibly shaky, like one gust of wind could sweep her off her feet, she sat down, her voice meek when she spoke.

Hyran let his head fall back in the grass, and his shoulders started shaking lightly, very soon though, his whole chest resonated with his laughter. Sure, he understood the seriousness of the situation, and the heavy impact it had on Nascha. But in the end she had managed to do well, and with her staring at him with a dumbfounded expression like that, he couldn’t help himself from laughing out loud.
Still chuckling, he pushed himself up into a sitting position with little effort, leaning back on one arm, showing off his teeth in a white grin. He reached out his free hand, actually daring to pat her on the head in a teasing manner. “Don’t curl up like that, you’re the victor here.”

[Nascha]

Nascha noted Hyran’s laughter with a dry amusement more than anything else. She couldn’t expect him to know she had gone through an emotional journey, and she supposed it must look funny to him. The laughter actually calmed her down a little. Still, the pat on the head was unappreciated. “I only won because you let me,” she mumbled in response, under no illusions that her own strength and skill had won the battle. Slowly, she stood up again, noting with relief that her heart was calming down and her legs were willing to support her again. Her steps getting steadier and steadier, Nascha made her way towards the crow that was asleep on its perch, and probably had been since feeding time.

“Your concern is touching,” she told its sleeping figure wryly, stroking its feathers gently so as not to wake it up. Breathing evenly now, she reached towards the pocket of her cloak that she kept her own food in, producing a small loaf of bread as well as a handful of chopped and dried roots.

“You can have some if you want, “ she informed Hyran, not really caring that they had been training for a short while and she was already eating. After walking through the sea of grass for too long, not knowing how exactly to survive as she had in the dessert, she refused to miss an opportunity to eat. Her ribs were protruding a bit from her torso and her cheeks were more hollow than she liked, meaning she had to eat up. The only reason Nascha offered the food to Hyran was common courtesy.

[Hyran]

Hyran didn't reply to Nascha's mumbled protest. While saying that, it was surely not the exercise he'd aimed on, and she was pretty foolish to think so. Like he hadn't picked up the obvious signs. Of course, he had no real idea about what might have happened, but his suspicions were probably close enough to the truth.

The Cerulean watched the girl rise to her feet and walk towards her little protégé once more. For a moment he wondered what the crow needed this time, but it became evident soon enough that Nascha wasn't going to take care of the bird, but rather of her own stomach.
Hyran huffed. Since when did the student decide that it's time for a break? He would not dare make decisions for someone he hoped to learn from, and he deemed it to be quite disrespectful. He would have mentioned that, weren't it that his own stomach roared aloud at the sight of food. Honestly...

Giving the girl a short nod as a mean of thanks, Hyran stood up to fetch his own backpack. Sitting down again, he revealed a couple pieces of fruit and some dried meat. "You're free to take what you want too." Despite his words forming an invitation, his tone was still a little displeased. He'd decided on one thing already; he'd not go easy on her once this break was over.