Trading fists[valan]

[Conrad]

27th of spring 511 Conrad creaked his fingers as he stood in front of the wooden pole driven in the ground, most of the hard wooden surface hidden underneath the rope that was wrapped around it, to at least give a small bit of protection to the poor sod that was using the dummy stand in to train how to fight with his bare fists. Almost immediately a small treacherous part of his own thought'sbegan to list a few way's how he could use his morphing magic to protect his own knuckles from harm. Conrad actually was beginning to take a grip on his djed before he realized that if he began to use morphing for small things like he was beginning to play with fire. And he didn't like that thought one bit. Shrugging those thoughts away he focused back on the pole, Lashing out with a rather sloppy punch, makking a dull thud as it hit, following with a punch of his other hand. As he continued practicing his punches, sometimes throwing in a kick for good measure, and slowly began picking up the pace till he was at a comfortable pace for him.

[Valan]

A sharp twang filled the air, as did a sudden woosh that came afterwards. A small wooden dummy, who for the moment seemed to smile as though taunting his unseen opponent, was suddenly hit in the head by a arrow, driving him back a few feet and to the ground. From across the training grounds a young man approached, a bow in his hand and a smile on his face. In a fluid motion, he approached the dummy and began examining it.

It wasn't the best arrow shot he'd ever made, by Valan was proud that after a month of not practicing, he was still competent enough to make such a shot. Of course, there had been that moment when he entered the training grounds and accidentally fired an arrow into the sky, but hey, he was no longer doing that anymore, now was he? He couldn't find the rogue arrow, unfortunately, but this latest shot made up for that.

Valan began pulling the arrow out of the dummy, swearing under his breath as it proved particularly tenacious, as though the arrow was making an active effort to remain within the dummy's cheek. Finally, with a grunt, Valan pulled the arrow out and sat back on his haunches, huffing slightly. Well, there was his next thing to work on, right? Get back into shape. Funny, you would have though trekking across the Sea of Grass would take care of that.

Turning his head slightly as he recovered, Valan examined the training grounds. As he expected, a lot of people were, well, training- including one man currently battering a wooden pole near him. There was something off about him- something strange. Valan didn't know what it was, but, in any case, he approached the man and asked,

"Good day, stranger. You need any help, there?"

[Conrad]

When a stranger called out to conrad in the middle of his training he let one last punch fly, ramming it against the pole, before turning around to face whoever that just interupted his training time. “Good day to you to. But I don't really need any help,” conrad replied in his friendly tone of voice suddenly feeling a few drops of something wet sliding down his hands. As he took a look at what it was he saw a small amount of blood dripping from a few cuts rips in his skin, most likely from hitting the hard pole. Letting out a sigh as he reached into the rucksack hanging from his waist and pulling out a small roll of bandages. “Why are you actually asking though?” Conrad continued to ask as he was wrapping up his hands making sure that the wounds wouldn't get any worse or didn't get infected of the sort. “Do you need a sparring spartner that you can beat?” Conrad laughed a bit at his own joke before waiting for the man's answer.

[Valan]

Valan raised an eyebrow at this, responding,

"It's an ice-breaker, my friend. I meant nothing by it...And, I don't know if I can beat you, my friend! I'm not a sparrer, myself...but I never back down from a challenge!" Valan smiled and placed his bow and his arrow back in his quiver. If the man wanted to throw down, Valan could oblige.

[Conrad]

Conrad let out a small smile when the man accepted his challenge. “Well sure I wouldn't mind having a short spar, you can't learn everything from just beating up a pole driven in the ground. And I don't doubt most people here can beat me, I'm only a novice in fighting.” He gave a wide smile as he finished up wrapping his hands with bandages and flexed his hands, seeing if the movement of his hands was hindered. “So how good are you in fighting hand to hand?” Conrad asked with a bit of curiosity in his voice.

[Valan]

Valan shrugged. "Not that good, I suppose. I fought with my brothers when I was young like everyone else, but beyond that..." Valan smiled and moved over to the side of the training pavilion, grabbing a roll of cloth to wrap his hands with.

"So, any special rules for this spar? No eye-hooks or crotch shots, I presume..." Valan said, as he wrapped his knuckles.