fandomhighdorms | Camp Gym; Friday Morning.

Karal was looking at the swords with a great deal of suspicion and more than a little helplessness. "What should I be looking for?" he asked, gingerly picking up one to examine.

"Well, most importantly," Setsuna said, "is finding one that feels right. Technically speaking, there's balance, weight, and things like that to consider, but most of the practise swords are pretty similar and not nearly as diverse or complicated as live steel. Although all of them," she grinned slightly, "are shorter than what I'm used to working with. So just...try a few, see if any of them feel right for you. Or...more right than the others, because if you don't have much sword experience, they could feel awkward regardless..."

"I fall into the awkward category," he said, hefting the sword in his hands, frowning, and returning it to try another. "I have never held a sword in my life." This one felt slightly better, though he doubted he was going to find one which felt comfortable.

"Well, if it will be entirely new for you," she suggested, "make sure you give it a try before deciding. Make a little motion like this." She stepped back and made a sort of swish-and-flick swinging motion, followed by a sharp jab. "If you can do that without it feeling too heavy or, um...well, floppy, I guess, that might be a good one to start with. But remember to keep your arm strong when you do it, or else it'll, um...flop regardless."

He frowned and tried to copy her movement, somewhat clumsily, the sword pulling at his arm. "I think this is too heavy. It feels unwieldy, unbalanced." He put it back and tried another, which felt better, not as heavy and not floppy, presuming he understood that correctly. "I think this one will serve."

Setsuna gave a nod. "Good," she said. "Now..." She took a moment to look at Karal thoughtfully, deciding what might be the best plan of action. "You're...really never even held a sword before?"

"No." He looked up, letting the sword fall - and it felt so strange to hold one - as he considered her. "I have had some training in, in defending myself without weapons. Nothing serious, just in the hopes I would be able to keep myself alive until help came or I could get away. But that is all."

Setsuna nodded a little. "And you'd like to learn more than just that, I take it?"

Before he could answer, Setsuna gave her own practise sword a small twirl in her right hand; as the arc started to decent, she settled herself into a simple preperatory position, knees bent, one leg forward, the sword held with both hands in front of her. "We'll start simple, then. Try finding this position."

Karal studied her closely, eyes widening at the ease with which she moved, then tried to mimic her stance. He was mostly successful; it was not so different from the ones he'd been taught, though he held the sword awkwardly. "I am not sure that I want to, but I think I must. There are no Heralds here, no guards. And I will not let my friends place themselves in danger to save me. I would like," he looked down at the sword, "I would prefer to learn defence, rather than offence, if such a thing is possible."

Everyone wanted to just learn defense; Setsuna sighed, just slightly. "Defense is important, yes, and I can certainly teach you that, but it is important to realize that defense can only get you so far. As I told another of my students, Karal, you can only black someone for so long; chances are, you will meet an enemy that, if you insist on just defending against, you will defend until your arms are too sore to block, and you cannot defend any more, and then you are dead. You are no help to anyone when you are dead."

She was absolutely correct. He knew that. But something inside him protested at the idea of learning to kill another person. Head bowed, he lifted the sword slightly, studying it for what felt like a very long time.

"Very well," he said quietly. "Teach me what you think I should learn." It would be his responsibility to choose how he used it.

Setsuna nodded. "First and foremost, then," she said, "is simply getting used to the feel, especially if it feels awkward, and building the muscles in your arms so that they strengthen to fit swordwork. For this, we can start with a very simple excersize; simple to the point where it might feel silly, but it is important in strength and it can also be meditative. Cleansing. Centring. Simply...lift the sword up, over your head, like this." She executed the action, both hands still on the hilt until the sword was nearly parallel with the ground over her head. "And then bring it down in one sharp, fluid motion, like this."

His training had involved exercises designed to strengthen his arms, but as he did as Setsuna instructed, he could tell he was going to need to do more of them. A lot more.

The sword was heavier held above his head, and it felt odd, but he breathed slowly, deeply, and tried to relax, then brought it down in a sharp, fluid motion. Well, more wobbly than fluid, but it was certainly down, and looked questioningly at Setsuna.

Smiling, she gave him an encouraging nod. "A good start. A lot of people have trouble stopping it mid-way like that. We usually do a repetition of these for half an hour back home, but, for the sake of being new and having a lot to cover, we'll just do about thirty. It seems a little tedious and silly, but it's very good mental and physical conditioning."

"I had expected that there would be much repetition, and it does not seem silly," he said, lifting it back above his head. "Is this something I can practice on my own? Will I be allowed to use these without you here?" He was grateful she willing to teach him, but he didn't want to monopolise her time unfairly.

He brought the sword back down again, concentrating so hard on making the movement smooth that he almost hit the floor, but he breathed deeply and raised it again.

There was nothing that Karal had said right there that didn't make her already quite pleased with her new student. "One of the reasons I teach this one right away is because it can be done on your own. And I highly recommend that you do so." Which meant that, as she executed her own repetitions, she kept an eye on his approach, to make sure there weren't any little details she should be correcting that would manifest into bad habits later.

"I will," he promised, then fell silent, trying to find a rhythm to the movement. Breathe in, lift the the sword, breathe out, bring it down. Repeat, repeat, repeat. His arm was starting to burn, and he could feel himself getting shaky, but he was determined to continue until he reached thirty.

Satisfied, and rather impressed, with the steady strokes from her student, Setsuna gave a small nod and concentrated on her own until she reached the mark as well, waiting for Karal to finish his and trying hard not to let herself slip into the natural progression of the more complicated forms she was used to going into after those. Wouldn't do to be a show-off after all.

The strokes were getting less steady, and he bit his lip as he worked through the last of them, then slowly let his sword fall, pointing at the floor. "I am going to need to do this many, many times," he said with a small smile.

Setsuna returned the smile. "I told you they were going to be good for conditionings. Still have enough, do you suppose, to try another one for different muscles?"

"I do," he assured her. "Show me what comes next." He had been lax since he'd arrived, and this was a sharp reminder of why Kerowyn has drummed the idea of regular repetition into him.

Setsuna nodded, shifting the positioning of her feet slightly. "This next one, instead of a repetition of down strikes, will be sideways strikes." She demonstrated her words as she explained: "We'll pull our arm back, like this, but not too far or else you'll throw off your centering. And then we slash, firm and hard, slightly angled, as we swing forward. See? Watch carefully how the wrist repositiongs itself so that the sharp of the blade...which we don't actually have on practise swords, but you get the idea...is what's cutting the enemy.":

Karal grimaced just the slightest at 'cutting the enemy' but he had committed himself to this and, truly, there was no point in learning if he didn't learn it all. "All right," he said, spreading his feet a little further and copying her actions very slowly, trying to get his wrist in the correct position.

As she, too, continued the exersize, she watched Karal carefully to look for things she might need to correct, but he really did seem to be on a really strong start.

He gradually tried to speed up, falling into a rhythm, trying not to let the sword wobble or falter. He was starting to breathe heavier, but he kept it up, too stubborn to stop until he'd done them all.

Setsuna found herself matching her own rhythm to Karal's, partially because it was also good to slow yourself up a little, but also because she didn't want her pace to rush his. As they got to thirty, she quickly threw up her sword a little to toss it into her other hand. "Now the hard part. Doing it on the subordinate hand rather than the dominant. Extremely awkward, especially at first; but it's important to have at least some training with the lesser hand, should you ever lose the dominant."

He blinked at her, startled, then nodded. "I, yes, that makes sense," he said, transferring the sword to his other hand. This was not going to go well at all. It felt strange, and he fiddled and fidgeted, trying to get his grip right.

"The key," Setsuna said, as she tried to ignore the fact that she had no problem with her left hand. Her usual style did involve dual wielding, after all, "is to focus on the same muscles, even if the technique is all over the place. A slice doesn't need to be perfect to be effective."

"No, I guess it wouldn't have to be, if the blade was sharp enough." He closed his eyes briefly and calmed his mind, sending a quick prayer to Vkandis, then opened them and focused on the movement. It was easier now, still clumsy, awkward, but smoother than it was. "Is that better?"

Setsuna gave a small nod. "You're picking up on this wonderfully. You'll have a good strong base, Karal."

He smiled at the praise, and kept going through the movements. His left arm was definitely weaker than his right, and he could feel the pull of muscles not used to this sort of exercise. "I will practice as much as I can."

"Words any teacher loves to hear," Setsuna commented with a grin.

Camp Gym; Friday Morning.

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