Rude Awakening (Jade)

by **Ball** on February 12th, 2017, 5:32 am

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

51 Winter 516
Second Bell after Midnight

Ball arrived at the Squire's Dorm just after the second bell of the morning, the reign of Leth was just 2 bells from being halfway over. He had a lesson to give his squire and it wasn't going to be a nice one at all, it only took him a few ticks to get the directions of the room that Jade had moved and there was no pausing as he hammered his little fist against the door, he knew she was most likely to be sleeping yet this was not of his concern. Her training and ability to survive out in the field was his only concern. The enemy won't let you sleep even after a long day, nor shall I... All the time.

When she didn't answer right away he turned to the chaperon that led him to the room and he spoke. “I will be waking her now. Training continues on my schedule.” And with that he turned back to the door and hammered the door harder with his fist before he called louder, “Squire Jade! Come out dressed. Otherwise I am breaking this door.” There was a note of utter seriousness in the Pycon's voice. In the other dorms squires were groaning and some were calling out that the offending voice be quiet as they were sleeping. Ball paid them no heed. He was tired as well, but training was important. Hung from his waist was his rapier, a weapon he had some understanding in but could use more practice with.

One tick... Two tick... Three tick... Ball thought he could hear some stirring and sounds from the other side of the door, but he was not sure if it was his squire or his squire's roommates. It was common knowledge that the squires bunked in rooms of four.

When Jade finally came out Ball nodded to her, “We go to the Grounds. We will be learning together the use of wielding a rapier. I will admit I have some understanding of how to swing it, I am by no means well versed in it and we can both certainly benefit from learning together.” Ball nodded, “We will also be doing more unarmed fighting. Every training session we will be working on that skill. You do not want to be left weaponless and defenseless in the fields of combat. That is death.”

Ball looked at his squire. “Now let's go.”

Credit :

by **Jade Laken** on February 13th, 2017, 2:47 am

Jade flopped over in bed with a sigh after coming back from the bathroom for the fifth time that night. She was sore and exhausted, though her body refused to rest longer than a few hours at a time. It felt like every time she moved, her arms were on fire. Blue orbs were closely hidden behind her heavy eye lids once more. Finally passing out hopefully till her body would awaken at its natural time; the woman's dreamless sleep was once again interrupted. Only this time it was not her bladder or the pain in her body, but her petching patron. The small pycon had slowly become a pain in the drykas' arse. With a sigh, she sat up rubbing her burning eyes. His threat to break down the door caused her roommate to threaten her very being.

“IM COMING DAMN IT!” Jade snarled back.

Getting up the woman tried not to groan at the pain that shot through her legs. Sighing the woman slowly began to put on her armor. A loud yawn escaped the plump lips of the young girl as she brushed her hair out before putting on her chest plate. Next came her rapier strapped to her side, most morning she would have placed it before putting on her upper armor. But her brain was still not fully awake, groaning some the woman kept working trying to get the rope to tie into place. Finally getting tired of fighting with it she just held on to it and grabbed the shield with her other arm. Jade had been confused from the beginning about the purpose of the strange thing. The Knights claimed it was a kind of self defense to knock away enemy weapons. Yet she had never seen one of her own people use the things or just hot metallic armor. Looking at the door hearing the small man dismiss whoever had shown him to the woman's room, she began to wonder if this had truly been a good idea.

“Damn little petching short arse. Always barking orders,” Jade grumbled under her breath.

The Drykas were not a people who took orders well. Or at least the blonde wasn't when she had not been able to rest at all. Walking over to the door, the young girl opened it before stepping out. To say that she did not really care about what he was saying was an understatement. The only thing that stood out was him saying that he did not know much on using the weapon. A confuse look appeared on her face trying to figure out how they were going to learn from each other when she knew nothing and apparently he also did not know much. Walking with her the woman worked on trying to get the soreness in her limbs worked out. She popped her neck several times in both directions. The news of them continuing unarmed training made the woman want to run back to her room and hide from him.

"The Ways of the Drykas."

by **Ball** on February 25th, 2017, 5:55 pm

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

Ball looked as the door opened and held his hand up, “Ditch the armor. Also, grab your roommate.” He waved his hand back towards her room and nodded, “Here now. We are burning perfectly useful training time.” Ball was a squire at one time and was lucky enough to have a room to himself, the one time he did have a fellow squire bunk with him the guy came in in the middle of the night... It didn't end well for the new squire When both Jade and her room mate returned Ball looked up at the two.

“Squire Jade... Why don't you assist your fellow squire into her armor and both of you follow me to the training grounds. I am sure your patron will not mind.” Ball spoke as calmly as he could, it was no longer a squire, he was a knight – A teacher and protector of the city. If he had to teach two squires at once, so be it. “And yes I did say we will be learning together. I cannot teach you everything and I cannot know everything. As such, we must learn together. Consider it... An educational experience for the both of us. As for your room mate.” Ball turned his attention to the latter, “You will be learning how to run up and down stairs wearing plate mail until Syna's reign. I will not tolerate disrespect among your fellow squires. You never know when they will be your saving graces in combat. Squire Jade, if you see her fall down, you will pick her up and get her steady.” Ball knew what he had planned was not going to make that task easy.

Combat was not easy though either, not with arrows and swords, stomping feet and spells... All the chaos and confusion of combat made helping your fellow comrades when they fall. “You two will be working together when I am not training you Squire Jade. I will be asking for updates periodically.”

Ball fell silent after that, his thoughts flowing from one idea to another. From one lesson to another. Today he was going to learn with his squire on the use of the rapier, but he was also going to teach her more in the way of unarmed combat.

Credit :

by **Jade Laken** on March 18th, 2017, 7:15 pm

Stunned the woman retreated into her room before the pair left or rather before the small group left. Changing out of her armor the blond looked as her roommate growled and got dressed. Letting out a sigh, she was slowly becoming more and more aware of the possible enemies the young woman would have in the Order itself. Grabbing some leather armor instead of the plate mail that is far to big for the smaller squire. There had to be someway for the woman to bulk up, or she would be absolutely useless. Walking the young dark haired woman beside her continued to grumble under her breath about the small Knight's orders to run the stairs.

Yawning some Jade rubbed her eyes trying to get the burning to go away. Unfortunately that did not seem to help any, but instead made it worse. Confusion once again graced the young woman's face when he spoke of making their companion run up and down the stairs in her metal armor. For the moment however she kept her questions to herself. Somehow the Drykas figured that they would both know soon enough. After walking around in her own metal armor the day before the young girl was happy to not be in the hindering clothing. Boots clicked along side the metal clanging as the group made their way through town and to the arena. Looking around the blond spotted where Dina was staying at the moment. The small child had not been excited to be separated from Jade and Ferrin. After some talking and convincing the little one agreed to go under the understanding that she was not being put back up for adoption. She was going to be taught with all the other kids that belong to the Knights.

Dina had asked the new mother if her cousins would be there, of course the twins she was talking about was not her actual cousins. But they were Garland's two little ones that had become the young girl's new playmates. After entering Ferrin and Jade's home shortly before the young woman had become a squire as well. She had wanted to give the child a normal sense of family and love before making the change. The young woman beside her continued to bitch at Jade where the knight could not hear her about having to go through this.

“I can't believe that they stuck me with the one girl who's patron is insane,” the girl growled while rubbing her eyes and glaring at Jade.

Jade let out a nervous laugh shrugging not sure what she wanted her to do. Finally much to her relief/horror the group reached the arena. At least that meant she would be able to focus on her training instead of the constant hateful looks from her roommate. Walking down to the middle with Ball the blonde watched as her training partner for the day is sent to run the stairs. Jade could still feel the burn in her legs from doing the same thing the day before.

"The Ways of the Drykas."

by **Ball** on March 23rd, 2017, 12:08 am

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

Ball listened to the two girls, one was quiet but the other was putting up quite a complaint. As they reached the grounds Ball whirled on the two and looked at Jade, “Go grab a rapier from the rack and wait for me.” That was when Ball turned his attention to her roommate, “Insane? You want to see insane?” the Pycon knight growled, “You do not know insane. Now run. Do not stop until I say so.” Ball watched as the girl started running, her movements were stunted by the armor she wore. It was no simple task for the squire that Ball knew, the knights he trained under were always whining about the armor not being light but they got use to it. He turned back to his squire.

“Good choice. Now are you left handed or right handed? This is important to know as we will be teaching you to fight with both hands. You must be able to fight in all circumstances. Light, dark, taller than your, smaller than you, blind, full sight, half covered. Armored, unarmored. A variety of weapons, unarmed. You will face opponents that are more trained than you, you will also face others that are not as trained. You will learn to fight, to survive. If not for yourself, for your daughter. Especially your daughter.” Ball nodded as he finished talking, it wasn't necessary to bring up her daughter – but Ball felt it was important to remind her of a valid reason to keep going. To never quit. Removing his rapier the Pycon placed it beside the rack away from harm's way.

“Today you will learn how to strike someone that is far smaller than you and unarmed. If you can hit a small moving target you will have a better chance of hitting a target that is your height, or close to it.” The knight smiled, it was nearing a grin truth be told, Ball held his hands up and motioned towards her, “These weapons are blunted, in the case of the rapier they are tipped in wood or rubber I forget which, under no circumstances do I want you to remove that tip. Understand?” He took a brief tick to watch Jade's roommate struggling to run the rampart ledge, it was clear even from his position that she was struggling. Two laps ought to teach her. He thought before turning his attention back to Jade.

Credit :

by **Jade Laken** on August 8th, 2017, 6:48 pm

Looking to the racks for a moment, she spotted which the rapier was on before walking over to it. Instantly her right hand reached up and drew the weapon. Clanking caused the woman to turn and see her room mate running already. Wincing the girl rubbed the back of her legs feeling the burn in them still. Everything in her hurt like there was no tomorrow. Her body told her to give up, but the sheer hardheadedness of the Drykas would not allow her to. To look like a failure was even worse than dying to the people of the Sea of Grass. Grabbing the hilt with her right hand the girl took up her stance from the day before once more. Putting her left leg out before her the woman leaned back on to her right leg.

Raising the blade the blonde looked to the tip not able to see much in the darkness of the early morning. No matter what though the girl knew to trust her patron. He had handled the weapons provided by the Order for many years. Taking a few test swipes to get her arm used to the added weight the woman did a lunge and almost fell over not used to keeping her back leg in the same position. She would fight like a mad man; if she ever felt cornered. Fighting was actually how the woman had met her patron just earlier within the season. Though that felt like long ago after the rough training of the day before. Shaking her head the woman turned to face her mentor wondering if they would be doing anything with the dummies off to the side or not.

Jerking around, the woman's heart hammered in her chest as her roommate hit the ground. Walking over before they started; she reached down to help her up only for the girl to slap her hand away. Pulling back Jade watched as the girl stood and began running her laps once more. Slightly confused on what to do after clearly being ignored and thrown to the side all at once, the young squire turned back to Ball waiting for his instruction. Staying silent the girl walked back over to the Pycon before taking up her starting stance again, only for her limbs to instantly start shaking from being in that same position only hours before. Much to the Drykas' displeasure the woman was sure that it would take many moons for the shaking to completely stop. Taking a deep breath, the girl closed her eyes and forced strength and determination into her limbs. She did not wish to look weak before her trainer. Slowly her eyes opened once more shining with the fire of her people behind her.

“Ready when you are,” Jade stated in a much stronger voice than she had expected to come out.

"The Ways of the Drykas."

Closed Rude Awakening (Jade)