You think you're scary? (Hyran)

[Nascha]

Nascha noted the disapproval on Hyran’s features, realizing her mistake immediately. She spent so much time on her own, with no one to care for except her birds, that she often forgot the more complex social conventions. It was not with regret so much as an Ah, of course that she noticed her faux pas. After all, she was hungry and, evidently to was Hyran. Also, she was still smarting from the last exercise they had done.

Mostly to be polite, Nascha placed her food between her and Hyran, knowing that she would not take his food unless he took hers. That was at least a social convention she remembered. Still, she was not fond of the idea of eating fruit that had been in the same vicinity as meat for so long: it would have absorbed some of the flavor. Not pleasant.

Even less pleasant was the displeasure on her teacher’s face and in his voice. Although she did not regret her actions, she definitely didn’t enjoy having made anyone feel less than happy with her. Wanting to make it right, she spoke between chews. “Thank you for agreeing to teach me. It really is appreciated.” She tried to work sincerity in to her voice, but couldn’t be quite sure if she succeeded. What did sincerity sound like, again?

[Hyran]

"Hm." The short sound coming from Hyran's throat told Nascha nothing, but was accompagnied by a little nod.
The Cerulean took a large bite from the piece of fruit in his hand, and looked down at the food between them. They had both expressed their willingness to share, and yet they were reluctant to take what was offered. On top of that, the silence was growing more uncomfortable by the second.
Hyran took another bite, simply chewing it down without much thought. Food was fuel to him, he did not care much for the taste.

It seemed Kahn had also reverted back to his usual silence, but Hyran knew his twin soul was still lurking in the back of his mind, ever watchful of his actions. Specially with someone near.

In the end Hyran didn't eat all that much, despite being quite hungry. He found training with a completely filled stomach to be rather unpleasant, and he was planning on something that required a little more activity.
"If you're done, let's see how fast your reactions are."

[Nascha]

Nascha didn’t mind the silence so much now, knowing that she had at least tried to make things right. She nibbled on her food, finding that she suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore. Well, it was possible that after going for a few days with no food, even a little food would seem like a lot to her. Still she needed energy to continue training properly, and she knew she only just had enough.

At Hyran’s question, she nodded and stood up, quickly transferring the leftover food back in to her cloak pocket for later. “How are you going to manage to teach me faster reactions?” She asked, tilting her head to the side. Nascha assumed that fast reactions were more birth-given gifts than any skill which could be learned.

[Hyran]

To Hyran, the Chaktawe looked ridiculously innocent as she stood there. With those questioning eyes, her head slighly tilted and her hair spilling playfully over her shoulders. Agitated by it, he averted his gaze before he answered.
"Hn," he hummed. "For the most part it's something you can only aquire through constant practise. But there are a few things that can help a beginner improve greatly."

The Cerulean pushed himself up from the ground, rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck for a moment. "Surely you know the basics of blocking?"
If she didn't, he couldn't be bothered to show her. Those moves were simple and instinctive, Nascha would pick up fast enough.

Stepping in, Hyran slowly raised his arm, moving as if he were to deal her a strike in slow motion. It gave her plenty of time to react and defend herself in a proper way.
The Cerulean would gently nudge up the pace, fastening his strikes and shortening the time between them. But all the while he'd keep his hands opened and relaxed. So that if she would prove unable to block him at some point, and he were to hit her, it would do no harm. Except, perhaps, to her self-esteem.

[Nascha]

Blocking? Well, Nascha could do it. She didn’t precisely know how she did it, but she had a feeling that the ability to feel air currents gave her a bit of an advantage. It was as if this extra sense, combined with her sight, made her able to asses and react to a situation slightly faster than a human would. Yes, although she could not fight, she could block.

The pace was easy at first. Nascha batted away or blocked all of the slower hits aimed at her with little effort. As the speed increased, however, she found that concentration was much more necessary, and she only just succeeded in blocking some of the strikes, dodging the ones that she was unable to stop. A small crease was appearing between her eyebrows as she focused more on the report from her fingers. As Hyran went even faster, one or two of the hits managed to get past her and hit her, but she could not worry about those because she was too busy trying to stop the next assault.

At first she didn’t attack back because she knew it didn’t seem her place. He was testing her blocking, not her offense skills. But now, as the hits were coming faster and she was losing patience, she decided to have a go at stopping it. The right moment came just as Hyran’s right hand was heading towards her face. Deftly, she moved her head to the side, stopping his fist with her left hand and using the momentum in her right hand to lightly hit the hollow of his neck. It was not hard enough to do damage or even hurt him, it was just to serve as a reminder that Nascha could have hurt him.

[Hyran]

A row of white teeth became visible as Hyran started grinning widely, his tattoo's transforming his expression into a rather vicious smirk instead.
"I have underestimated you."

Nascha was better than he'd thought, picking up his movements rather quickly. But there had beenmoments she'd become distracted slightly, her moves more sluggish as her eyes switched from his hands to his face and back again.

"Don't actually look at my attack. It will distract your attention from any follow-up movements I might make. In fact, try not to focus your vision at all. Use your pheripheral vision instead. Don't focus, don't think, just let your body react like it wants to. It knows what to do."

Hyran picked up their exercise again, throwing punches at the Chaktawe a little faster and leaving some openings for her to try and attack him too. Sparring like this was in his opinion one of the best ways to improve one's skill. Simpel, practical, motorical. And he'd tire her out with it untill she couldn't walk straight anymore.

[Nascha]

At Hyran’s comment, Nascha actually smiled. “That happens,” she answered with a smirk.

She was slightly disappointed as he continued his attack, since she was already feeling her arms beginning to tire. Although Nascha was strong, she still had to build up that sort of strength after having spent so much time in a weakened, pure survival state. Still, she ignored the fatigue as best as she could, finding that she barely had time to concentrate on it anyway with Hyran’s attack increasing in intensity.

His advice was good. Nascha found that, the less she watched his hands, the easier it was for her to focus on the feeling of the air around them and subsequently make better decisions about blocking and dodging. She did notice that he was leaving gaps for her to retaliate with, and she occasionally hit out at his stomach or chin, keeping her touches light. Some of his strikes hit her as well, but she kept the maximum amount of pain at bay by quickly tightening the muscles of the area when it was obvious that tiw ould be hit. This was taking her toll on her, though. She needed a break, even if it was just for a few moments. Nascha began looking for the unintentional holes in his attack.

The spot just below his sternum was, despite being so centered, something of an obvious target, especially since he had just eaten. A well-placed hit there could cause quite a bit of discomfort. Not only that, but given the height difference, that spot was practically right at eye level for Nascha. Calculating the right moment, she ducked under his fist and jabbed two fingers towards the soft flesh slightly harder than was strictly necessary.

[Hyran]

Hyran saw it coming just in time, eyes squinting slightly when calculating his counter move. Stepping back with one foot allowed him a little more space to turn his torso, twisting away from Nascha's path of attack. At the same time he retreated his arm, pulling it down and locking his fingers around Nascha's wrist in an iron grip. Using her forward momentum and his grip on her wrist, he roughly pulled her off balance, kicking her feet from under her and throwing her down on the ground with little effort, and even less care.

Despite his quick reaction, Nascha had actually managed to reach him, and his skin burned where her fingers had lightly scraped it. Hyran looked down at the girl with obvious discontent showing on his face.
"I'm not stupid enough to make the same mistake twice." His comment was snarky, and he didn't bother come up with some sort of apology for the rough and ungracefull way in which he'd put her on her place. "You were supposed to focus on improving your defense. Keep to that, because it's obviously lacking."

His twin soul's unease with the situation had grown strong enough for Hyran to notice, and it made the Cerulean smirk in a rather unpleasant way. It was always quite amusing to get Kahn so worked up, quite satisfying.


[OOC note: sorry, but I think with a skill point difference of 16 XP, Hyran woud definitely be able to evade that. So I didn't make it a full hit]

[Nascha]

Being thrown to the ground was a big blur for Nascha. One moment her fingers were just brushing their target, and the next she was lying on the ground, noting the particular pain on her knee. She’d probably scraped it. Although her attack hadn’t quite gone as plan, her goal had still been achieved. The movement was over for a brief period and she was able to give her body a few moments of much-needed rest.

Hyran’s words barely stung. Nascha figured that he was a little unsettled at how she had managed to get past his defenses where he hadn’t wanted her to. She turned over so that she could sit and inspected her knee. It was a little scraped, with a minimal amount of blood escaping the wound. It would heal quickly enough without her doing anything to it, she decided, standing up and wiping her hair out of her face.

She glanced up at Hyran’s face to see him smirking in a somewhat disturbing manner. She couldn’t see why, though. He had been more displeased with her than anything else, even after he’d thrown her down somewhat roughly. “What are you smiling about?” She asked, not particularly rudely, as she wasn’t too disgruntled by his throw. It was more sheer curiosity than anything else.

[Hyran]

Hyran fixed his gaze back on Nascha, who seemed to be sort of oblivious to his disgruntled behaviour, or had chosen to ignore it alltogether. His smirk dropped immediately. “No need for you to know.”
He had been holding back, keeping himself close to her level so that they could spar reasonably. He’d planned on making it nessecary for her to adjust every once in a while to a little higher speed, more advanced strikes and moves, pushing her to adapt and improve herself.
But if Nascha kept challenging him like just now, he wouldn’t hesitate to roughly put her back on her place once again.

He motioned her to get back on her feet and resumed training without saying another word. The Ceruleans movements now lacked the gentleness he´d tried to maintain before. His strikes were cleaner, practised, strong.

As they continued, his vexation with her person didn´t fade away the slightest. In fact, as more and more time passed, it grew worse instead. And seemingly without a reason.
It were her hands, perhaps. The way they reached to strike or block his advances, with such delicately shaped wrist and fingers. Or her face, expression guarded, but to him still annoyingly naive. Maybe her hair, dancing playfully behind her, a second late in catching up with her movements. Or perhaps her smell. No, definately her smell. Every time they came close it touched his senses, fueling a bitter flame of anger, rage, something old, something hidden.

Hyran’s eyes shaded darker, his mouth formed a single stripe. And somewhere in the back of their shared mind, Kahn stirred.