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The Salle, Monday Afternoon

Ella’s motions were deliberate as she entered the salle and selected a practice sword .

She’d talked her way away from the snake-creature, but she knew she’d been lucky at that. How bright would a creature have to be to notice the curse and turn her into a puppet? Her experience with her stepsister Hattie suggested it took little intelligence at all. And then, so captured ...

She could be made to spy, or to betray anyone or anything. Any secret she knew, she’d tell at a sentence.

With equally little effort, she could be made to kill, to wound, to fight on the wrong side. She knew she’d try to resist; she also knew how futile her resistance might be.

She could be made to do darker things yet, ones that lurked half-formed in the corners of her imagination.

Given all of that, she’d sat out the weekend’s fighting, terrified she would only hurt as she tried to help. But now it was Monday, and Hades was gone.

She still couldn’t stop someone from taking her with a word; that was at Lucinda’s mercy, and Lucinda was nowhere to be found. But she could make herself harder to take by force. It was a protection not just for herself, but for all around her.

And so she took up the sword.

[OOC: Open!]

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Lord Jaga had given Lion-o a small sword and told him to practice every day with it. Lion-o had pretty much ignored these instructions until over the weekend, when he felt awful about not being able to do much.

So today Lion-o was taking advantage of some free time to check out the salle, only to find someone else was already there. He smiled shyly but kind of hung back for a while, watching.

Ella aimed an equally shy smile at the cat-boy from her class on kings and queens. "I'm new to this," she admitted with a half-laugh. "Do you need space to practice?"

"Not a lot of space," said Lion-o. "I just haven't really tried out my sword yet. I really hadn't seen a need for it before."

"I had Aravis show me a few things last week," Ella said, sword at her side. "But you're right, evil monsters and gods trying to take over make it all much more urgent."

"Though," she added ruefully, "I hope there's no need for it anytime soon."

"Hopefully not, but there are people fighting for their lives on my planet," said Lion-o. "I've been neglecting my duties as their future leader by not practicing."

Ella considered this, then ventured a question. "So why are you here, and not there, if they're in danger?" she queried.

Her tone wasn't harsh, only curious. She knew Char wouldn't be at school if Kyrria was ever attacked.

"My father and the rest of his ruling council felt that I could learn more here," explained Lion-o. "Besides, they don't really need me at home yet. I'm too small to be of any use. My father has a group of strong warriors at his disposal, should they be attacked again."

"And so you can only sit here and worry," Ella nodded. "That must be frustrating. Do you think school's helping, though?"

"I think so," said Lion-o. "The mad kings class made me realize how lucky my father is to have the support of the nobles, and it made me sit down and think about what kind of ruler I want to be."

"That class makes me feel quite lucky to have a king who is not mad at home, and not to be royal myself," Ella said firmly. And no matter that her parents were a knight and his lady, there were rather a lot of those in Kyrria.

"I don't think I should want to rule," she ventured. "It seems like there is always so much pressure."

Not to mention the puppet queen she could so easily be.

"There are times when I want to be a normal kid and not have to worry about the future," said Lion-o. "Still, I can't help looking at my father and thinking how awesome he is at his job. I want to be just like him someday."

Awwwwwwww. Ella had to smile at that.

"It sounds like he's a wonderful ruler," she said. "You must miss your home terribly."

"I wasn't even sure if I wanted to stay at first," said Lion-o. "Everyone seemed so much older than me. It made me really nervous. But people have been really nice. I still miss home sometimes, but I know I can go back anytime I want."

"How old are you?" Ella asked, frowning. "but I know what you mean. I'm 15, but it seems like somehow many people here have had a very different life than I did at home, even when they are nice."

Which was her nice way of saying people at home didn't drink or make their sex lives quite so obvious.

"I'm almost 14," said Lion-o. "My birthday is in a couple weeks!"

"Happy early birthday, then," Ella said. "I'll be 16 after classes start."

She picked up her sword. "Do you want to try to spar? I know I'm not very good, but I think I can manage not to cut off any important parts."

"I'm not very good either," said Lion-o with a small smile as he got his own practice sword. "Lord Jaga, my father's closest adviser, once let me look at the sword that is given to our rulers. I couldn't even lift it. It was too heavy."

"I practiced with a wooden sword first," Ella said. "The metal does seem heavy, and I know real swords are larger yet."

She carefully lofted the sword, holding it across her body as Aravis had showed her. "Do we just ... start?" She was trying not to giggle from nerves.

"A wooden sword does sound a lot easier for a beginner," said Lion-o.

He watched Ella and tried to copy the way she held her sword. "I guess so. I don't suppose a real monster would ask before attacking, or whatever it is that monsters do."

Ella only half-knew what she was doing. She took a breath to steady herself, then:

"All right, then," she said, very calmly, and slashed the blunt tip of her sword toward Lion-o's sword arm.

Lion-o's first instinct was to drop his sword and jump out of the way. "Um, right, that's probably not the best possible defense," he said sheepishly.

Ella's response to Lion-o's response was to double over in laughter. "I don't know, it might work if you wanted to make your opponents laugh," she said, when she could talk again. "Though I don't know if monsters have senses of humor.

"I sort of doubt it. Monsters don't seem like the type to see humor," said Lion-o. "Then again, I haven't met many monsters. Let's try that again so I can practice standing my ground and deflecting your attack."

"I've never known an ogre with one," Ella said, hoisting the sword and slashing it through the air in the same offensive move as before. "But I'm hardly experienced with other kinds."

"I haven't come across any ogres," said Lion-o. "We have mutants from the planet Plundarr who attack us a lot. They don't have a sense of humor, but they also don't have a lot of smarts."

This time, he successfully deflected Ella's attack, which made him smile a bit.

She'd been deflected; she stepped back and to the right, sword flashing at Lion-o's chest.

"Ogres are crafty," she told him. "They talk their victims into letting themselves be trapped and eaten."

"Ugly, too," she added.

Lion-o's second deflection attempt was clumsy and he just barely managed to hold onto the sword.

"Yikes! I wouldn't want to run into one," he said. "Though I'd like to see the Thunderkittens take on an ogre. They can be just as tricky."

Ella pulled her sword back for a moment before thrusting it forward again, feeling a little mean as she tried to knock the sword from his grasp. "What's a thunderkitten?"

This time, Lion-o did drop the sword. "That's what we call two of the kids back home," he explained, bending down to retrieve the sword. "Wileykat and his sister Wileykit are twins. They're about 16 and they sit on the ruling council with my father and the other nobles. They're really crafty when it comes to fighting, and that gives them a place with the rest of the warriors."

"You should get them to practice with you when you go home," Ella said, standing and waiting for Lion-o to retrieve his sword. "Your turn to attack?"

"I'll definitely ask them when I go home next time," said Lion-o, holding his sword in front of him and making a slashing motion. "Now, let's see if I can get you to drop your sword."

"You can try," Ella said, eyes flickering with mischief as she gripped the handle of her sword more tightly. She danced to the side slightly, stepping away from Lion-O's blows.

"That's what I'm doing," said Lion-o, just a little bit frustrated. He made another attempt, coming from another angle.

That worked, and Ella's wrist smarted from the strain of keeping the sword aloft. She drew it closer to herself, hoping that would protect the blade.

Unfortunately, it put her off-balance.

Lion-o followed up with a slashing movement, taking advantage of Ella's position change.

The sword hit her upper arm, forcing her further off-balance. She struck out with her own blade, clumsily trying to drive Lion-o back again.

Despite Ella's attempts, Lion-o was able to hold his position. He struck, trying to knock the blade from her hand.

His efforts worked, and the blade fell from Ella's hands, clattering to the floor.

She made a face at it.

"Good match," she said politely. "And, well, we can only get better, right?"

"Right," said Lion-o. "You put up a good fight, though. I thought it was going to take forever to knock that sword out of your hands."

"I felt like it went too fast," Ella said, but she was clearly pleased by the praise. "We should spar again, if you're ever up for it."

[OOC: Niiiiiight!]

"I'll look forward to it," said Lion-o, grinning.

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The Salle, Monday Afternoon

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