Thursday Afternoon: The Salle

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter got to the salle a good bit before he and K had agreed to meet in order to get some training of his own in.

He examined Rhindon closely after pulling it out of the weapons locker and noted that he ought to bring down his leather cleaning supplies for the scabbard and leatherwork.   But that wasn't today.  Today he concentrated on footwork and worked more and more complicated chains of steps together until he was mostly satisfied with them.

Comments

[kawalsky.livejournal.com]

Kawalsky arrived a short time later, dressed in a t-shirt and long pants. He stood off to the side, waiting until Peter was done with his moves.

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter didn't even notice K under he came to the end of a form. He pushed the hair out of his eyes with a sheepish grin. "I'm sorry. I was a bit caught up. How goes it?"

[kawalsky.livejournal.com]

"Not bad. You're good. Light on your feet. Do much swordfighting in...wherever it is? Or mostly just official competitions?"

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Peter replied. "And yes, unfortunately. Bandits and pirates mostly in the past few years. Before that we were fighting against the previous Queen."

[kawalsky.livejournal.com]

"You don't seem like the regular coup type, so I'm guessing the old Queen wasn't the nicest gal around."

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"Is there a regular coup type?" Peter asked, amused as he found practice swords of the right length for Kawalsky. "She wasn't particularly, no. And the rebellion was already forming when we arrived. She's put a spell on the land. It was always winter, never Christmas. Always frozen and cold, never the hope of spring."

[kawalsky.livejournal.com]

"Never Christmas, always winter. I like snow as much as the next guy, but that's a little over the top. But actually, there is a regular coup type. Military leader who thinks too much of himself. Usually has a hat fetish."

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"She was crazy," Peter said with feeling. He grinned. "I suppose I qualify for the military leader part. And my little brother would tell you I think too much of myself. But hats? Never wear them."

He handed an unbalanced practice sword to Kawalsky. "You've never used a sword at all?"

[kawalsky.livejournal.com]

He hefted the sword in his hand. "Not in a serious fight. I've messed around before though."

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter nodded. "Do you feel how the weight is off in that blade?" He offered the other sword in its stead. "This one should feel better."

[kawalsky.livejournal.com]

Charlie exchanged swords and hefted it again. "Yeah, the other one is off. I can kinda feel it."

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"You'll be able to feel it more as you work with swords, but it's important to be aware. Some of the practice swords are rubbish, and - like anything else - you don't want to train with something that will throw your fighting off." Still unable to treat a awful practice sword without care, Peter hung the offending one back on the rack.

[kawalsky.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, my fighting'll be unbalanced enough as it is," he grinned.

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter laughed. "Practice is a wonderful thing."

He grabbed another practice blade and dropped into a guard stance. "This is your basic guard. Balance-wise, it's pretty close to an unarmed ready stance."

[kawalsky.livejournal.com]

Charlie nodded and copied the position fairly close. "Like this?"

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"Looks good," Peter said. "You might want to put a little bit more weight on your left foot there. Like unarmed combat, you want to be able to move in any direction at once."

He demonstrated first a simple strike, then a parry.

[kawalsky.livejournal.com]

Kawalsky obeyed, watched, then tried to mimic the movement. He probably looked as clumsy as he felt.

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"Not bad," Peter said. "Try it again through the full movement." He grinned. "This is going to be one of those things where you have to do a move a thousand times before it feels right."

[kawalsky.livejournal.com]

He nodded, and concentrated. Strike, parry. Then he repositioned himself and did it again. Strike, parry. Then again, this time with more force. Strike, parry.

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Noticing the extra force, Peter grinned. "Exactly. Keep the movement slow enough to feel the full range." He glanced at Kawalsky measuringly. "Just two moves, but do you want to try them half speed against another blade?"

[kawalsky.livejournal.com]

Kawalsky was eager to learn. "Yep, let's do it."

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter positioned himself opposite K. "Ready?" He nodded and attacked K at half-speed forcing the parry.

[kawalsky.livejournal.com]

Kawalsky nodded, then did his best to parry.

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

The blades tapped gently together. "Good. Now you."

[kawalsky.livejournal.com]

Kawalsky was a little overenthusiastic and made his first move, but his balance was off.