A Date For Training (Part 2)

by **Kavala** on December 10th, 2013, 10:41 pm

He mistook terror for passion. The Konti was terrified, not by Recoomas, but by the place inside her where she’d bottled up all those experiences that had happened out on the grass with the slavers. She’d never talked about it, not really, nor told a soul about the missing thirty days of her life and her confinement. Kavala had tried to put it all behind her, especially her hatred of men - human men – and the feeling of powerlessness she’d experienced there. The Healer had been a bright beautiful girl untouched by anger or pain. They took that, corrupted it, and stripped her down into something altogether different. She’d came out the other side of her ordeal craving pain to feel alive and feeding off the hate she had inside. It had taken her a long time to heal, but evidently there was still a lot of that wound inside.

Recoomas exposed it neatly and seemed to revel in it. Her pain was in her eyes mingled with terror when her boot connected to his head and then the other one got him. He rolled off neatly, taking both weapons as he did so. Kavala scrambled to her feet as soon as she was free and was backing up slightly, giving him room. The Konti was breathing heavily, and fighting for each breath, trying to calm her nerves and strike a balance beyond the terror. There was no rage in her now, only an encompassing numbness that reminded her of the first time she saw Riverfall, riding into the city perched in front of a stranger, clutching at his unfamiliar saddle.

She felt numb like that again, all but exhausted, Kavala gave her arms a few shakes, trying to get circulation into them. She looked up, intending to call a halt to the whole thing, but she could not find her voice. Her lips parted, wider than they did when she was panting, but still couldn’t form words. But it didn’t matter anyhow. She didn’t think he’d listen. The man smirked, tossed her the weapon, and shifted into a training stance that Kavala thought was defensive. She stared at the blade in her hand, hating it suddenly, remembering a pike instead that had been used on someone. The Healer hadn’t consciously snatched it out of the air. Her head rolled to the side and she met the stares of the crowd that had gathered. What was she doing here? This was their world, not hers…

She wasn’t paying attention when the attack came and Recoomas flipped her almost upside down as he swept her feet out from under her. Going down hard, she dropped her weapon and kept her eyes on the crowd. Kavala tried to find anger, fear, or anything… but the numbness was back. It had happened to her so many times since she was free. In a seasons that had passed, she thought it was gone and that the trauma had been something recovered from. But burying something deep wasn’t the same as healing something, and even she knew that. It was just intellectually surprising to find that what was gone wasn’t really gone, just buried.

Kavala would climb back to her feet and attempt to pick up her weapon if he let her. Her eyes never left the crowd, more wary of them than she was of the man attacking her. It was a given what would happen there. But the crowd was the unknown.

by **Riaris Dovukalis** on December 10th, 2013, 11:44 pm

Recoomas had been shocked by her response to his attack, or the lack of. The Konti went heels over head before she slammed into the mat with a thud. The dark Akalak felt the muscle in his chest twitch as he watched it happen. For a moment he thought he had accidentally killed the woman with his eagerness for combat. She wouldn't look at him, and even as he reached a hand down to help her stand, she moved on her own and got back to her feet.

" Am I going to fast for you? Shall we end this lesson? You don't look so well."

Even as he spoke he could tell that she wasn't paying him any attention. For some reason she kept looking to the crowd of people. Recoomas followed her gaze not once but twice, trying to figure out who she was looking at. Was there someone there she knew, someone that she expected would come and save her? "Keep your eyes on the fight, never turn your attention away from your opponent." Recoomas sounded almost angry as he spoke, gripping his weapon even tighter as he attempted a fake swipe at her to get her attention.

Nothing seemed to get through to her and even though she had the weapon again, she looked to the crowd. This fight was over and whatever had happened in those moment when he had her pinned ended it. Recoomas sighed and settled back into his being and Riaris resurfaced. The lighter Akalak dropped his weapon and stepped forward to check on her. "Kavala, are you alright?" One hand moved to the weapon that she carried and the other lifted to comb fingers through her hair. "Kavala, say something, what is it?"

by **Kavala** on December 11th, 2013, 1:57 am

Kavala flinched when Recoomas faked a swipe at her then quietly turned her head to look at him. “No.” She answered softly, glanced down at her hands, and then back up at him. She seemed to be answering all three of his first questions at once. No he wasn’t moving too fast, no they shouldn’t end it, and no nothing was wrong. Nothing really was wrong, was it? Kavala momentarily had forgotten where they were. But she remembered the Sasaran as she slowly came out of the flashback trama. The numbness was still there, but she knew suddenly where they were and what was going on. Training… Recoomas was training her in a double bladed sword lesson.

He growled at her then and she could hear the anger in his voice. She turned to face him then, slowly responding, coming back to herself. “I understand.” She said, as if there was nothing else to say. When he moved, she automatically brought the weapon up to defend. Taking a step forward, she glanced at the crowd again and felt suddenly the pain in her hip where she’d landed from Recoomas’ hip. It made her limp forward but she didn’t bother to fix it with her gnosis. Pain was better than nothing and she clung to the feeling. Kavala adjusted her stance, shook her head once then twice, and then finally met Recoomas’ eyes. There was anger in them. Kavala noted it almost absently. He was mad. All men got mad. That was how they functioned. Only recently had she learned her brother wasn’t above it all either.

Denial was a hard thing to swallow. It reminded her of a bird trying to swallow a too large stone for its craw. The rough chunk of earth did brutal things going down. Kavala’s denial was just as bad and while Kavala was busy working that recognition of denial down her throat and into her craw, Recoomas was fleeing the scene. She missed the transition, completely. All she saw was the brute coming at her again unexpectedly and so she raised her weapon, ducked low, and was confused when he dropped his weapon and grabbed onto hers. Wasn’t she supposed to run him through with it or something?

The Konti tried to step back but meaty fingers tangled in her hair and caught her up short as she tried to raise the weapon to him and fight. She froze, blinked again, and then released the weapon to him. Res pooled in her now free hand, surging forth unthinking as she cupped her palm down where he couldn’t see it. The blade was stone that formed from the res, summoned by her magic. It wasn’t metal and didn’t have a honed edge, but she’d formed it perfectly in obsidian that had a napped edge to make it razor sharp. Not hearing his words and not even caring what he said, she curled her fist around the blade and brought it slowly up to his throat. She pressed it there, deep so he could feel it, but not deep enough to cut. Then she whispered quietly.

“Let go of me, please.” The words might have been mutter to the onlookers, but they were clear enough where Kavala was standing against Riaris, her hair in his hands. She didn’t know they had switched and she didn’t care. All the Konti wanted was space for a moment. “I’m fine. Just let me go.” She reiterated.

by **Riaris Dovukalis** on December 13th, 2013, 10:33 pm

Riaris had wondered a few times if Kavala was part Akalak, and that reoccurring thought had come again now. She had been happy, excited about the spar, then Recoomas scared her, and now this other woman stood in front of him with a weapon to his neck. Riaris cared about her a lot, but at the time, he hadn't known her enough to say that he could take being threaten so lightly. It wasn't anger in his eyes, but surprise and frustration. Recoomas was a difficult soul and whenever someone met him it was Riaris left to deal with the after math.

It was also the people, the ones looking on with judgment in their eyes. They knew nothing, He had never harmed the fair woman and he never would. Riaris wasn't that kind of man, and his parents had raised him to respect women. Still in this moment, her weapon against his throat and the people all watching it didn't seem to matter. "Alright...fine." he said plainly and took a few steps back from her. The violet male couldn't tell if she just wanted to continue the spar or if she was done with him, for the day or completely.

Suddenly a hand clamped on his shoulder from behind and he quickly spun around, even pushing the hand off. It was a good time for him and Kavala to talk about what ever was going through her mind, but he wasn't in the mood to speak with anyone else. He now faced an Akalak just a bit taller than he was with red skin. The male folded his arms over his huge chest and glared at Riaris. "I think you should get going, you've done enough for today."

Riaris was infuriated, it was just as he thought, the people were blaming him for something that he hadn't done, something that Recoomas had acted upon, and even he had only sparred. "I think you'd better mind your own business, or you'll see exactly what I can do." It was a threat, a serious threat and Riaris was already in the mood to pound his fist into something. "Shove off." Riaris added before turning back to face Kavala.

The red skinned Akalak wasn't happy with being threaten and quickly grabbed Riaris' shoulder and spun him back around. "You can't hear fool. I told you to!" Smack. Riaris spun around, his arm lifting as he slammed his fist into the jaw of the male, knocking him flat on the ground. Two other Akalak moved in, trying to grab Riaris and hold him down. The brawny Akalak jerked a foot and kicked one in the stomach and headbutted the other, before they all tumbled to the ground in a wrestling frenzy.

by **Kavala** on December 15th, 2013, 2:49 am

When Riaris or Recoomas - Kavala wasn't sure which - backed off, she dropped the hand with the knife, dismissed the obsidian blade by transferring it into air, and then closing her fist up tight. It was gone just as quickly as it came. It was a basic reimancer's trick for someone that knew geomancy as well as Kavala did, even if it was just on an instinctual level. She blinked when the first man grabbed Riaris (or was it Recoomas?) and spun him around. Kavala stepped way back, blinking, still slightly dazed by what had happened. She was trying to come to terms with what she learned.

And it was hard to do with the rest of the Sasaran closing in on her sparring partner. "Please stop." She said softly, lifting her head and blinking her eyes back into focus. The men were converging on the violet skinned Akalak and were snapping judgements that just weren't true. There were more harsh words exchanged, and Riaris told another one off before he turned back to Kavala and was grabbed. Even as Riaris was spun around, the big male was letting his fist fly and caught the other one in the face hard enough Kavala thought his jaw might break.

Her healing compulsion kicked in almost immediately.

There was something to be said for a Rak'keli's mark juicing up a healer to do some healing. If their mind was cracked or their body not working as it should be, the gnosis flooding them tended to straighten them out so they could carry out Rak'keli's work. And so just like that Kavala was back with it, coherent again, and blinking in a bit of confusion even though she was trying to gain a understanding of what had just happened.

But it was too late. The men were in a fight and it wasn't something a small Konti woman would be smart to wade in. Kavala stared on appalled by what was going on. "Will you guys please stop? I'm fine. This was not what it looked like." She said more firmly. They didn't seem to pay her any attention. Wide-eyed she looked around wondering if there was a bucket of water somewhere she could throw on the lot of them, when another woman - human this time - came up beside her.

"This happens." The woman said calmly, nodding towards the pile of Akalaks beating the tar out of each other. "Best let it run its course. They will have it all straightened up and go out for drinks afterwards. Watch and see." Kavala nodded, stepping back. She grabbed a towel, mopped off her sweaty face, and made sure her wooden weapon was re-racked in its rightful place.

"I hope you're right." Kavala said to the stranger. The woman smiled. "I am, unless they have old grudges from long ago. Are you a raid survivor? I saw what happened and it looked like you had a flashback to some sort of trauma. Thsoe can be very dangerous to you until you deal with them." Kavala nodded, looking at the woman a moment, glancing at her wrist, then back at the pile of men beating on each other.

"Yes. I thought I was a lot better... that I had put my situation behind me. That sort of blindsided me. They won't understand though. I dont' think anyone can that hasn't been in a situation like that." Kavala said, wincing as Riaris delivered a kick to someone's ribs and you could hear bones snapping. Of course, someone else was trying to twist off his head. The Konti had no way of helping other than wading in, and by doing that.

"I'm Kavala." The Konti healer said, introducing herself. The other woman just smiled.

by **Riaris Dovukalis** on December 15th, 2013, 11:28 pm

Riaris tumbled to the ground with one Akalak beneath him and the other on top. They rolled around, and struggled against him and tried to pin him to the mat. He was a strong warrior, but for two Akalak his own size there wasn't much he could do and soon Riaris was face down on the mat. The other Akalak moved in to help and also got tangled in the mess. Reaching back, Riaris slammed his elbow into whoever was closest and tried to roll over.

He had to kick his leg out against the long, bulky trunks of someone and used that to help him roll. The Akalak that had been behind him was now on his back and applying a choke hold on Riaris, who kicked his feet up to knock the other approaching Akalak backwards and into the others standing by. That's when it happened, for whatever the reason the mood changed and Riaris wasn't the villain, but the victim and the Akalak turned on each other.

It was now an all out brawl, a bunch of colorful meat packages scrambling around on the ground in one roaming lump. The mats flew across the room and weapons clanked as they were tossed and kicked aside. While he started out on the bottom of the pile, Riaris was slowly pushing his way back towards the middle. Fist flew, elbows raged and knees jerked while feet stamped. They were sweating, all of them, muscles ripping, and the ones that started with shirts on had lost them somewhere in the pile.

In all of it, the carnage and wildness, delight rose into the eyes of the Akalak and smiles tugged at the corner of their lips. They were having fun.... Riaris was pumped and ready to go all out, the mark of Krysus called for pain and he delivered it again and again. He gave a low grunt from a stiff punch to his gut, and returned the favor with a hook to the blue skinned in his jaw. Racing forward, he slammed into the other male and tackled him to the ground.

With all the racket going on it was only a matter of time before Mizra Aqdas reappeared to see what the problem was. The Akalak had stepped out for a meal and returned to a free for all. He stood in the doorway looking on in surprise. His dojo was a mess and it was time to call the nonsense to an end.

"All of you settle down, now."

by **Kavala** on December 16th, 2013, 10:32 am

Kavala quietly stood with the other woman as the men fought. At first she was concerned, but the other woman was right. The men appeared to be having fun even as they were apparently testing their mettle against one another. With all the punches thrown and damage done, her healing compulsion was kicking in hard. It helped clear the last of the flashback trauma from her mind, finishing the job the woman's calm words had started. And when Mizra Aqdas walked in and broke up the brawl with a simple statement, Kavala grabbed some towels and quietly started working the fringes of the crowd that was breaking up.

She soothed bruising, healed one broken arm, had three different sets of ribs knitting nicely - one of which she was sure Riaris had caused - and had passed out enough towels for sweaty faces and to staunch blood that the sasaran owner would have to restock with fresh laundered ones almost immediately.

The Konti staunchly avoided Riaris/Recoomas, not sure what to say to him and not sure how to apologize. She knew she needed too. But when the last brawler was seen too and all that was left was him, she found herself face to face with him. Instead of saying anything at all, she simply offered him a towel. It was the last she had in her hands from the large pile she started out with.

by **Riaris Dovukalis** on December 27th, 2013, 7:27 am

Mizra Aqdas wasn't sure what to make of the crowd and the moment that he spoke up everyone got up and separated. They might have went back to their own spar or even left if not for the quicksilver Konti who launched herself into action to heal them all. Riaris was relieved that she didn't pick him first, it meant that out of them all, he was the least injured. For an Akalak that was a fact to be proud of and it showed the growth that he was making in his training.

A few of the men, those that had chosen sides taped each other on the shoulder and nodded their respect. This also seemed to happen amongst those that were put against each other. The men would ask Kavala how she was when she approached them, for a short time, they had forgotten what started the brawl until the woman reappeared into the center of the room.

Finally, she made her way to Riaris and he took the towel that she handed him and dried himself off. "Are you alright. Things here can get a little out of hand at times. Did we scare you?" he asked, still wiping the sweat and blood from his arms, chest, and fist. Someone in the group must have broken their nose to cause that amount of blood to leak out without it being fatal. "So, I think we've had our fun here. Should we return to your home? I'm sure your sons would like to know how you fared against an Akalak. Feel free to tell him that you won."

Riaris smiled to her and slowly lifted his arms in a hugging gesture, if she wouldn't recoil, he would wrap his arms around the lovely blonde and kiss her cheeks. He wasn't completely sure what had gone wrong, but he hoped that she would forgive him later.

by **Kavala** on December 27th, 2013, 4:25 pm

Kavala stood before him, and nodded, listening to what he said. The Sasaran had all but cleared out and sparring matches were resuming as per its normal daily routine. Kavala was amazed at home quickly the brawl started and how quickly it broke up. And no one seemed angry or upset over it. The men had, in fact, looked as if they were having fun. Kavala glanced back at her new friend, who was now busy mopping up a big puddle of blood under the supervision of a laughing Akalak who seemed to be teasing her. She was giving back as much as she was getting though, so Kavala wasn't worried the woman resented helping out. Kavala probably should have done more as well, with the impromptu brawl being her fault.

"No, you Akalaks don't scare me. Only Recoomas. But he does so deliberately. I'm starting to see that more and more now. And yes... heading home sounds like a good idea. I have a million things to do this morning that I put on hold to take this trip and spar. It was worth it though... I'm a lot more limber than I would normally have been and I learned a bit about a new weapon. Did you have things to do or are you coming back with me? I won't lie to Tasi. Recoomas definitely won." Kavala said, moving away to fetch her cloak and say a brief goodbye to her new friend. When she returned, she accepted Riaris's hug and stood on the tips of her toes to brush a kiss across his cheek.

"Thank you for the invite." She added, smiling, then heading with him towards the door.

by **Magpie** on February 11th, 2014, 3:21 pm

e

Kavala :

Riaris :

Notes :

If you have any questions or concerns about what was awarded, please don't hesitate to PM me.
e

Closed A Date For Training (Part 2)