Tough as a Tree (Solo)

[Talya]

Timestamp: Summer 89, 515 AV Talya had left the city early that morning. She hadn’t intended to go far, just far enough. A safe distance, where she new she would find herself alone with nature and its many animals. A place where she knew she would be able to maintain some level of privacy as she practiced with her blade- it grew tiring to draw the eyes of so many people while you practiced, in part due to your appearance, and in part, because they were warily watching you to ensure that neither you or they ventured to close to one another; as they didn’t want to be cut. As though she had as little control over her weapon as to make a mistake like that- fools. But they could not know the power of her hand in the way that she did, and in many ways, she managed to forgive what was perceived as time continued to ware onward. Talya found herself to be entirely immersed in the Wildlands now. She had passed the portions were the terrain was both rocky and uneven, earlier during the course of her day, when the sun was now rising. Now, it remained uneven, but it was blanketed in a cloth of parched soil, fallen leaves, and pine needles. More trees scattered the earth than anything else- although there were wild flowers here and there and bushes and shrubberies too. The sky itself wasn’t quite so dark now, any more than it was vibrant. For now it had switched to its true day colors, and was filled with its typical pale blue, and a smattering of wispy clouds. The sun was higher now, peeking out over the horizon. Judging from its position, it appeared to be nearing eight in the morning, and Talya was beginning to feel as though she had gone far enough- she wanted to make sure she could get back easily, without getting lost. Without having to spend an extra day out in the untamed wilderness. So Talya meandered over to the side of an aging oak tree, and set her pack down against its side. She then knelt down beside it quickly, retrieved her waterskin, took a few good sips, and then replaced it, before wiping her mouth off with the back of her hand, and getting herself up. She moved away from her pack to the opposite side of the tree, and stopped when she was facing it, standing on a portion of the ground where there were no raised roots. She took a deep breath as she eyed the tree- she appeared to be squaring off with it. She took another deep breath as she shifted her feet from one foot to the other, and then retrieved her dagger from its sheath. She gripped it tightly in her right hand, in the reverse grip position, so that the blade ran against her flesh, and the point of the dagger ended around her elbow. From there, Talya began to slip into her favored starting position. She set her right foot about two feet in front of the left, before turning her left foot slowly to the side. It scraped against the earth, displacing several grains of dirt, as she angled it toward the west. Now, her feet formed a ninety degree angle with one another. From there, she tucked her left hand safely behind her back, and then bent her right arm at the elbow, before raising it in front of her. With the arm cocked, it formed a defensive line that would keep her chest safe from potential attacks and strikes. She still wasn’t quite ready yet she knew, so she bent her lead leg at the knee, and leaned into her right foot a bit, transferring most of her weight onto it, while she turned her body from the waist up to the left side, so that only a small portion of her body was available to be attacked. It was then that she knew that she was ready for whatever was to come- in this case, the commencement of her training.

[Talya]

Talya took another deep breath in through her mouth and out through her nose, before gliding gracefully forward. When she looked as though she were about to slam into the tree, she twisted to the right side, and allowed her right arm to sail out to her side as she spun around. At the last instant, before her blade whacked the tree, she twirled around to the other side, and again, stopped right before she made contact with the tree. It was a short exercise in precision. Again, Talya rotated her right foot around the narrow space between roots, and twirled to the opposite side of the oak, stopping her hand just before the flat of her blade smashed into the network of the diamond shaped pattern. She smiled to herself as she made a half turn, raising her blade toward her head at the center of the tree, holding it at a slight angle to block an attack, before continuing her spin. Again, stopping before her blade made contact, and then whirling back the other way to repeat the exercise with the added block over and over again, until she began to feel dizzy. Talya breathed deeply as she slipped back into her starting position. She wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her left hand, listened to the rapid beating of her heart, before she replaced everything, and thought over what to do during the course of her next exercise. When she decided, she set to work. She decided it was time to draw shapes, so with a flick of her wrist, she turned her blade into the forward position, so that it pointed outward, away from her skin. Then she swept it up and down, in a rather narrow oval. From there, she drew another four ovals, on a slight, diagonal slant toward each of the cardinal direction’s subsets- northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest. They were all about just as wide as one another, and at least three times wider than the first oval. So that in all, the grouping of ovals formed a basic butterfly pattern. With this first one done, Talya drew several more to practice both her precision, and her side slashes. When Talya began to tire of the butterfly, she moved onto another shape. In this case, a jar without a stopper- she began by forming the majority of a long oval lying on its side, but she didn’t complete the majority of the base. Instead, she moved her blade directly downward toward her right hip, from an area near her right shoulder. She cut through the air with ease, as though she were slicing butter. When she got to her hip, she moved across to her opposite side, and then swept the blade back up, toward where her left shoulder would be, if she had been standing perfectly squared off with the tree and not in her traditional starting position. This completed the jar without a stopper. She followed the pattern in the same direction, over and over again, making her blade flow freely and easily; evenly; before changing direction and repeating the process over and over again, until she became bored. From there, Talya decided to move onto easier shapes for a bit. She began by pulling her blade over to her right shoulder, from her right hip. She then drew it across the length of her neck to her left shoulder, and then down to her left hip, then back to the start. She formed a rectangle with ease, and continued to draw it in this direction for a few minutes, before putting everything into reverse. From there, she decided to move onto the next shape. She began by sweeping her blade across her neck from shoulder to shoulder, and then drawing it down to the middle of her chest from the right shoulder, onto the right side. Then she moved back across to the other side, and then back up, forming a square, over and over again in both directions for several minutes, until her hand began to ache. Lastly, she drew circles. They started off small, but gradually, they began to spin outward farther and farther, until she had to scrunch down a little with each one, as it encompassed a large area- greater than the top half of her body.

[Talya]

It didn’t take long for Talya to grow tired of this either, at which point she stopped drawing with the point of her blade a moment, to wipe the sweat from her brow. When she was done, she took a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth, and then slipped comfortably back into her starting position. She decided that she liked her current exercise, as it helped with precision and muscle memory, and that she would continue onward with it- but draw a new shape. She didn’t know what just yet, and had to think on it for a moment before deciding. When she had, she drew a circle with her blade. From there, she began to draw triangles coming out of it- each with their points leading outside of the circle, until she had made her way around it entirely, and could then, begin again. She was drawing the sun, she knew, as she repeated the process over and over again, until she became dizzy, and realized that she had to move onto something new. From there, Talya began to draw a great number of things with the point of her blade. She started with fruit. She drew apples and oranges, a pineapple, every manner of berry that she could think of- strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry. She drew a watermelon, and then two, (and soon deemed them the easiest of the lot). She drew grapefruit, and star fruit, and even a peach and a nectarine. From there, she moved onto vegetables- creating carrots and cabbage; radishes and beets. It made her a little hungry, her stomach rumbled, but she ignored it. Training was more important, but all the same, she thought, she should move onto drawing something that wouldn’t incite her appetite- so she drew birds, and cats. A dog and a pig. A boot and a house. By then her arm really ached, so she took a minute long break to catch her breath, while she decided what exercise to work on next, as drawing things with the blade was getting to be both tiring and repetitive. It took Talya a few seconds, but she came to the realization quickly enough that she wanted to begin interacting with the tree again. After all that was part of the reason she had ventured out of the port city of Zeltiva so far. Part of the reason why she had come, and it was standing there. So, she slipped back into her starting position, and took another deep breath, as she flicked her wrist again, and returned the dagger to the reverse hold position. From there, Talya surged forward, toward the tree. When she was within striking distance, she forced her right arm out to her side, so that it ran at a level equal to that of her shoulder. Then, as she inched a little closer, she swept the arm inwards, so that the blade spun out, away from the surface of her skin. The blade cut across in a wide arc, the tip of her blade just scratching the surface of the tree; flicking several bits of wooden dust away from it. She smiled, as she moved the blade back in the opposite direction, so that it followed the same path it had just taken. From there, Talya took another deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth before stepping back, allowing her right arm to fall back into its starting position. Then swiftly she raised it, bringing the entire arm up toward her head to block. Lightly, she pushed against the wrist, knocking the blade a little farther out so it would do a better job of blocking. From there, she swept it over to the left shoulder, again to block, before sliding it across to the right, as though knocking another person’s weapon to the side. After having done so, she surged forward, and swept inward with her blade again. The metal just missing the tree, as she pictured herself cutting across a person’s chest; ruining their clothes and spilling their blood. Then she took a few steps back, and slipped into her starting position again, before raising her blade so that it was level with her neck, to block, and then sliding it back into its previous place.

[Talya]

From there, Talya stepped forward with her left foot, so that her body was facing the tree in its entirety. She took another deep breath, and then raised her right hand up, so that it came to a place close to her right ear. Then, she turned her arm a little, until the point of her elbow was directed clearly outward, at the old oak tree. Talya felt her heart hammering in her chest; her breath came and went with its rise and fall. She tried to suck more air into her lungs as she stepped a little farther forward- first with the right foot, and then the left. Her right arm snapped- it crashed downward, like on a hinge. Moving until the elbow was no longer bent, the arm straight. Cutting at the air with ease. She smiled to herself, her dark eyes sparkling as she raised her hand again, and then lowered it, over and over again. Slashing at the same spot, until she was convinced she could see it bursting from the seams. Then, she sidestepped once to the right, and began hacking away at the air again- repeating the process. She moved a step to the right again, same thing. Over and over again she would sidestep around the tree and then slash at the air in the same fashion, until she had made her way all around, back to the beginning. Talya’s throat ached. She gave herself a few moments to swallow her saliva to wet it, but when that didn’t work out well enough for her, she moved over to her bag, took out her waterskin, grabbed a drink, put the container back, and then moved back over to the tree and struck up her starting position once more. She then pulled her left hand away from her back, and lifted it into an uppercut, which ended at a level with her left ear, about a foot in front of her. She then took a step forward toward the tree, and punched out with her right arm, stabbing at the air. Cutting through until her fists matched up with one another, but on opposite sides of her body. From there, she pulled her right arm first, and then the left, tucking it into a balled fist, pocket position. Then she swung it across in a lazy uppercut, before doing the same with her right arm, and then pulling them back. Before following up with a series of rapid fire jabs into the air just in front of her. When her arms began to ache again, Talya pulled back. With a flick of her wrist, Talya switched the blade back into the forward position. She rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, switching her weight from one leg to the other, to ease tension before she settled down again. She tightened her grip upon her blade, and raised it next to the right side of her head- she was holding it as though it were some sort of ice pick. From there, she brought it back down toward her hip, and then back up, so that it came to an end at a level with her collarbone, at the center of her neck, (about a foot in front of her). Then she moved it over to where her left shoulder would have been if she had still been standing squarely with the next slash, so that she formed a sort of zig-zagging pattern. Talya took a deep breath, and then began moving her hand back in the opposite direction- following a similar pattern, although adding a zig and a zag here and there. When she reached the other side, she moved back, but made the zigs and the zags shorter. At the other end, she repeated the process, and began to move her hand back and forth in this way for several minutes. When her hand and arm began to ache all the more, Talya decided that she should practice fighting with her left hand- just in case her right hand was ever injured during the course of a battle, and she still needed to defend herself. So, she gingerly placed the weapon in her left hand, and let her fingers close around it, before stretching the fingers of her right to work out the kinks. When she was done, she slipped into the mirror of her starting position with the dagger held in the reverse position- so that the left arm was held out, and the left foot led the stance. It felt a little odd to her, to be this way, but she knew this was for her own good, so she shook her limbs out, eased out the rest of the tiredness and tension she felt and that she could, and then took a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. Then, she started easily, by guiding her hand upward, toward the space about a foot in front of her head. She held the blade on a diagonal, and blocked an imaginary strike, before stepping back, and returning to her previous position.

[Talya]

From there, Talya tried out one of her favorite moves, which she thought may be easier, since she seemed to practice it the most often anyway. She surged forward, stepping with her right foot first, and then following up with her left. As she moved, she guided her left arm out to the western portion of her body, so that it appeared an extension of the line of her shoulder. When she was within striking distance of the tree, she swung her arm inward, so that it followed a crescent shaped pattern toward her chest, and then farther across to the eastern end of her body, and then a bit beyond. The point of her blade met with the bark again, and shaved off a little bit. Flecks of wood falling to the forest floor as she shifted her weight onto the foot that had fallen behind- in this case, her right foot, lurching her body in that direction a little, creating a bit more space between herself and the old oak tree. Talya then followed the arc she had just taken, back in the opposite direction toward the start. The whole thing had felt a little awkward to her, so she tried it again, and then again, until it began to feel a little bit better, but still not great. But what was she do? Things like this just took a great deal of time and practice, and likely wouldn’t improve for a bit. Talya tried not to let this dismay her as she settled back into the mirror of her starting position, with the left in the lead. She listened to the beating of her heart drum out a tune for her to move by for a few seconds, before she slid her left leg even farther forward, drawing out the space between each of her feet. She then leaned farther into her left foot, applying more weight and pressure to it as she let her right foot sink into the ground as well, although she tried to keep it as light as possible, as her left foot continued to skid and skid as far as she could stretch it. She now found herself in a lunge, and the muscles in her legs were beginning to ache as she jabbed her left hand forward, and cut at the air with her blade to finish things before drawing herself back up, and slipping back into the mirror of her start. She then took a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth before trying the lunge again. She let her left foot slide forward again, across the earth in a swift, fluid motion, and then as she moved, jabbed forward at the space directly ahead of her with her left hand, letting the blade turn out a little, to cut ahead, before punching outward with the right hand and drawing herself back. As Talya collected herself, she lowered her left hand toward the space a few inches above her right hip. She pushed against her wrist, nudging the dagger a little farther forward. The blade inched outward, and she imagined herself blocking an attack from her opponent; hearing the clang of metal as it met with more metal. From there, she raised her blade, so that it stayed on the same side of her body, but came to be more level with her shoulder. She then pushed it outward a few inches more from her body, as though bringing it up against a blade again, and creating a little space. From there, she brought the dagger directly across to her opposing shoulder, as though blocking an attack again, before she cut downward toward her hip, and then up and across toward her right ear, and then directly across on a horizontal line, to the other side. Then back across to the opposite shoulder, and then back one more time for good measure. From there, Talya decided that not only was she beginning to feel both a little tired and lazy, but she was realizing that the precision she had had with her blade when her right hand wielded it, was seriously lacking with her left. So she moved onto her drawing exercises again, to help work with that. She turned, so that her body stood facing the tree in its entirety, and switched the blade from the reverse to the forward position. Then, she moved her blade from its starting position on the left side of her body, and from her left shoulder, she swept the blade down to her left hip, then across to the right hip, and up to the right shoulder from there, and then back to the start. She then moved around in the opposite direction to form her next rectangle, and then she moved back to doing it in the other direction- the one she had the first time, for several minutes, until her hand grew stiff and she had to stretch it out before moving onto the next shape. This time- drawing small circles with the point of her blade, that only seemed to get smaller and smaller as her hand continued to tire itself out alongside her arm.

[Talya]

Talya breathed unevenly. Just a bit more pushing, she thought. Just a bit more, a few more exercises, a few more minutes, and she could get a drink and be done for the day. It looked like it was nearing noon now- almost time for lunch. So maybe she would drink, eat, and be merry as she took the time to rest, and then returned to the city long before the sun began to set, and it began to get darker and darker out. Yes, that is it, that is what she would do, she knew, as she continued drawing circles, this time, forcing them to draw outward so that they grew a little bigger with each repetition. When they got to big, and she had to begin to move her legs into half crouches with each rotation, she began to move her arm inward, so that the circles got increasingly smaller each time she moved. Over and over and over again. When she got bored of that, Talya decided to move onto drawing different kinds of shapes again. Talya started with something simple- the head of a bird. She drew a circle, with a triangle attached to its right face, its point turned out, to the right side; the base resting evenly against the circle itself. She then stabbed the air once toward the center of the circle, but a little off to the right side, to form an eye. Then she did this again and again, moving the beak around here and there, so she could feel the movement in and out of different angles. Then, she switched to drawing the beak on the opposite end of the circle- the left, and the eye as well. When she felt as though she had mastered that, she moved onto drawing other things- a bear face, a cat face, a dog face, the sun. An orange, an apple, a pear, a banana, a star fruit. Until she had gotten everything down to the best of her ability given the amount of time she had to work with. Talya’s stomach rumbled; she was beginning to get pretty darn hungry. She decided she would draw a few more things with the point of her blade, then sheathe it, and be done with her practice for the day. She began by taking a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth before drawing the next of her shapes- a sloppy frog, which proved to be way to difficult, so she moved onto something a bit simpler, and drew a wine glass. Then, she drew a marshmallow, then a cube, and then a few undulating waves of the sea. When she was done with that, Talya drew butterflies, and then dragonflies, (which weren’t all that different), and a few flies. Then there were the bees, the trees, and the bushes. By the time she was done with this, it was about a half hour after noon. The Ethaefal felt rather pooped, and took a deep breath to catch it, (or at least some of it), as she sheathed her blade and wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her right hand. She then flicked what she had gathered onto the forest floor. Then she went to reward herself with both food and drink, and was rather merry.

[Baelin Holt]

Talya :

Skills:

Lores:

Comments: Hi there! It looks like your character has been retired. If you come back from retirement (or if I'm becoming colorblind, which is a possibility, and you're not retired at all) please do shoot me a PM and I’ll give you your grade.