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| Mountain Training; Roflxoptors and other assorted memery | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 22 2016, 10:56 AM (303 Views) | |
| Tien | Jun 22 2016, 10:56 AM Post #1 |
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Triclops
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Tien was well on his way back up to the porch of the decrepit house when the figure came out of the forest. A bundle moving on two legs that proved to be a woman dressed in bright clothing. He had first seen it out of the corner of his eye; and mindful of bandits he had set down the Paul of water he was carrying, and walked casually toward the house. But he soon recognized the visitor to be alone, likely some hiker moving farther up the mountain. He pretended not to notice her, for safety's sake and because, to his observation the late hour would oblige him to show some level of hospitality. Water, a decent meal, a place to rest as was common in these parts. He reasoned that he might as well retreat back inside. By the look of the woman she was in no shape to walk back the way she came. He soon recognized the familiar appearance of Jingisukan, and he let out a quiet groan of irritation. He disliked anything related to what he did for Syrus finding him up on the secluded mountain. So he stepped up onto the low porch of wooden boards and watched quietly. Jin brought her large burden to the steps. She slipped herself free of a few leather straps and set the bag down, then gave a brief nod. "I want to stay here for a few days." The response wasn't sudden but when it came she remained silent. "You know that's not going to happen Jin." She stared up at him, a gaunt and exhausted face covered in burned scar tissue that made one of her eyes appear to be popping out of her skull. "Have I done you some type of Injustice," She asked. "You owe me much more than what I'm asking for." "Up here I don't owe you or Syrus anything. Nothing done in East City applies here." He replied. She stared silently for a few moments then slowly lifted her bag. She turned on one foot and, retreated back down the road. He reasoned she'd simply find the nearest town or else set up camp in the woods. He didn't know or care just what she wanted from him. But her behavior worried him, not for her but because there was something strange about her. He had an uneasiness about himself now. His reluctance kept him from calling out for her. Soon enough he retrieved the pail of water and began making his way down to the nearby empty stable area. There was no chance she could make it near him without causing noise, but he knew he was being a fool. The woman had upset his evening, and all of a sudden his entire mood had turned sour. He reached the half built stable, walked along the wall in darkness, hearing nothing but ordinary noises. Then something hit the wall beside his head, an explosion of splintered wood following the impact. Tien dropped and rolled, muscles reacting while his mind realized that what came close to grazing his head was a bullet. He reached the stable door, rolled inside on his shoulders and tumbled inside. Kneeling on the straw flooring his own breathing was the only distinguishable disturbance of the night. "Don't make me hurt you!" He shouted out into the distant treeline. "Just let me come in, and this doesn't need to escalate!" Came Jin's voice from among the trees. There was a long silence as neither party spoke or moved. Then he shifted his position on the straw, resting his shoulders against the rough wood of the door and looked through the forest in the pitch black. He cursed to himself, and clenched his hands. He reasoned that he could break a few boards from the back of the stable, get a good view of the house before she had time to move. Though on a moonless night it would be difficult to survey the entire clearing. The thought crossed his mind that Jingisukan was working with bandits, or she might be carrying out a hit. But a crazy woman loose in the night with a gun and revenge on the mind was enough to keep him from sleep. Wc:705 |
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| Tien | Jun 23 2016, 10:35 AM Post #2 |
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Tien changed his position in the clump of straw he had piled up by the stable wall. He rubbed at the ache in his leg as it had been one side or the other through the duration of the night. Sleep came in fits, and the straw flooring prickles caused him to shift tirelessly. The entire stable stank despite how clean he kept the area. In short it was a damp and unsuitable place to spend the night in. He had a section of string strung up across the door frame and tied off on the far side. He kept watch out in several directions, not forgetting the distant slope of the hill from the pasture. He didn't know how many he may have been dealing with, or wether it was truly just the one woman. But a person couldn't live very long by tasking these types of situations lightly. Several years on the mountain had taught him to let go of some suspicions though. To let leaves fall without suspecting an ambush of some kind. Or to listen to voices on the road, and not immediately think of all his past teachings. He had to take things easy when he was away from all the nonsense happening away from the mountain. That was part of the wisdom he obtained on the mountain, how to rest without one eye open, walking to the nearby river without checking over his shoulders. To travel through the woods, and doze in the pastures as he pleased. Now he sat in the dark, hands in lap and straw pricking through his clothes. The cramped area making his limbs ache, every muscle on edge and his stomach uneasy with anxiety. His brain thinking of the land and every noise he detected. Just like old times. Like everything he worked so hard to supress. This woman by doing absolutely nothing, was doing everything just right. Other people had tried coming at him by doing nothing and succeeded in doing just that. But not this time. He waited, and stole glances at the house and the clearing, the forest and the pasture. All three eyes constantly surveying the land. He saw nothing stir out of the ordinary. He suspected trouble to come in the hours just before sunrise, and rubbed his eyes and kept scanning the shadows on all sides of the stable for the tiniest disturbances. What bothered him most was the thought, that if the woman truly intent on destruction, was set fire to the trees and take off back down the road. He had been in worse situations. While the sun began to rise he fought the urge to sleep, trying to think wether there was anything he had overlooked. Anything his foe might do, and what approaches one might take in order to set up an effective ambush. But finally with enough light to show the trees and remove shadows around the stable, he stood. He did not think the woman had left. He felt exposed the entire time he walked up to the house, limping slightly. He walked up to the house, because he wasn't going to run now. He reckoned the type of weapon she had, any firearm was dangerous, but it most likely lacked sufficient force at any range she could fire from in the forest. If there were more with her, they had made no move during the most opportune moment they had in the dark, so he reasoned by now it wasn't a group. Waiting until daylight when they had the dark was a stupid move if they fully intended on killing him. It was most likely just the one woman out in the forest, being a fool and giving him a sore leg. It was one woman who may have been desperate enough to take chances but she would have to get closer. Unless she was already in the house. He stepped up from the side of the porch, walked as close to the door as he dared and suddenly threw it open, before spinning inside. It was completely empty. Nothing had been visibly disturbed. He leaned against the wall and took note of things. Before long he tended to the fire in his small cooking-pit and set a small blaze. In between keeping an eye on the outside, he put water and a little rice into a pot. He aye his breakfast sitting in the doorway so he could keep watch of the entire clearing, especially the stable. Figuring that the scent of cooking smoke would lure the woman out into the open. He had a hope she would be more willing to speak by morning. But she never came. He set aside the bowl he ate from, and though then of what he was going to do next. He thought of where she chose to spend the night, and where she would be now. Watching from the edge of the woods, he thought. There was no way this could go on for days and weeks. She might not have moved last night, but he was sure that she was out there. And he was ignorant on how patient this person was. If she didn't have her way by a certain time, she would only set out to provoke him further until she eventually moved him. So the thing to do, he reasoned, was to go off as if he were leaving then wait in hiding until she either followed or tried the house. Wc: 918 Twc: 1,623 |
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| Tien | Jun 27 2016, 10:40 AM Post #3 |
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There was a place in the brush just uphill that offered a clear view of the house. There was no sign when he reached the spot that Jin might have used it to her advantage. He crouched down in it, remembering the possibilities of bandits. Then he put his back against a convenient tree trunk, and proceeded to wait. The sun rose higher, and the air warmed, bushes humming with insect life. He nodded without meaning to, jerked his head up and fought the urge to sleep while cicadas numbed his mind. He drowsed as he could, not completely asleep, but at least getting some rest. Watching, between nods of his head. And by noon he was hungry, thirsty, and eaten by ants and not a thing had moved other than the birds. Eventually he abandoned his position, all the while watching the edge of the woods. He began thinking of the one place he could not watch was the back of the house, where the woods came closer. He was wary of working behind the house because if he was there he could not see the other side. If he could not see the other side all it would take was a brief run towards the stable, if she was fast enough. Then to get him to come down there, right into an ambush. All she needed was to watch him and see what he guarded to figure out his course of movement. He cooked a plain dinner, ate it sitting in the doorway leading to the porch as the sun was coming down. He wondered wether she had food with her, and how long she could hold out and wether she knew how to forage her own food. But a city dweller wouldn't know the berries and roots, the edibles and the poisons. Would she? The rice went bitter on his tongue when he asked himself that. He kept eating. There was nothing wrong with it. Nothing in his water. He remembered a woman who had died, of poison at the bottom of her china cup. He was thinking back again, back to east city and that whole damn mess. Back to his teachings, the midnight exercises, the traps carefully set for him. He set the dish aside, trying to push all the past away again, while his shoulders slumped, and the sun sank towards the horizon. Change on the mountain was similar to that. Day to night to day, summer to winter to summer again. And one day was similar to the others. Years of cycles that, all together, might have been reduced to a small pattern. He had already given over a day to this interruption of his pattern. That was already too much to spend. Once he had had a lot of days to spend, before the days became one day, every day. He saw that now and was amazed to realize that he had not acquired patience, he had just lost his flexibility. He could watch an ant crawl across the porch without feeling guilt for wasting time. But he could not handle this change in his life. Like an old man. A hermit, a crazed, solitary old man nearing eighty. That idea turned his stomach. He spent the nigh in the stable once more. Like a crazed lunatic. He had his breakfast at the first light of dawn, sitting in the doorway of the house. He thought about shouting to the woods, for Jin. But that idea stuck in his throat. Like two days of rice with no meat. He had very little variations for meals. No preserved fruit as those came later in the season, and he usually kept them for winter. During the summer he depended on the garden mostly. But if this situation continued. There was no sense to his patience. He decided to hunt the woman down and tie her hand and foot if he needed to. If she had been on the edges of the woods she would leave signs. And once he began hunting her, then she would panic and make mistakes. If she was still out there at all. If she was out there she had had a worse night than he had, that was certain. The night air could turn cold in the mountains even in late summer. And when the dew settled, with rain passing by north, it meant damp blankets and damper clothing. He hoped for a few days of rain, as long as the mist didn't get any worse that it already was. A light haze that still let him see the edges of the clearing. It was more useful to him than her as long as it didn't get worse. He stretched his shoulders, and went back to the porch around the side of the house, to take a few sticks from the woodpile. The more wood he carried at one time, the fewer times he had to turn his attention elsewhere. He gathered an armful and headed back up to the porch The unmistakable hiss of a bullet passed him at hip level. He dropped the wood, dived for the doorway and rolled inside and leaned against the doorframe. There was total silence. He at least had a good idea where she had been standing when she took that shot. A tree in a small thicket on the side of the house. So he wrapped around himself a coil of rope, and he took with him only a canteen as he walked to the edge of the woods. It was dawns full light, and it wasn't difficult to see where she had been. It was a foolish time for her to take the shot, when there was still dew to help him track her. She had made a mistake. A simple, novice mistake. A little overconfidence, to stir things up when it got too quiet. That thought humoresque him greatly.He grinned to himself as he saw the tracks weaving through the brush. No one, even if they knew the land, was going to pass through the woods without a trail, and by the look of things he could determine just how long ago she came through. The trail lead him further away from the house and deeper into the woods. The rising sun was beginning to burn the mist away, the clouds were breaking, and the advantage the woman had was much less by daylight. It was not difficult once he saw her tracks, to find the pattern she had been following. As there were several tells, the trail working along the slope, broken plants, misplaced stones. "Hey!" A voice called down to him from the hills. "All you have to do is teach me a few things. You don't need to worry about anything else." Tien wasn't foolish enough to answer her. Just let her worry, he thought, and quickened his pace along the trail she had left, not cutting across toward the voice. Even though the voice came from across a ravine and off another hill in a place where he could guess where she would be next. If she were smart she might use that to find out where he was, or to lure him off the trail to waste time. "Hey!" Very high in the mountain farther away now. "Haven't I proved myself? I wasn't trying to hit you. If I was you'd be dead by now." He kept moving. She had an idea of where she was going now he suspected. He found another trail, plants flattened, twigs snapped, the obvious boot indents. "Tien?" He didn't answer. She was leading him off from home, he thought then she would run downhill to get back to the house ahead of him. He went downhill going from tree to tree to stop himself gathering too much speed. He heard a noise then, a rustling coming right for him. He crouched low where he was. "You there?"" The voice was extremely close now, just beyond the trees, quick and out of breath. He said nothing. He held his breath, and waited, and heard brush going down the trail away from him. He broke from cover and went onto the trail in pursuit, having a brief sight of a ragged robe among the leaves. He doubled his speed, and she ran all out ahead of him, dodging along the trail, up and over a rock and around a turn as he came close behind. He felt the trip rope against his foot, he heard the spring release. He saw the tree coming at him, did a turn and roll his muscles knew but his mind had forgotten. His body hit the trail with a force that nearly knocked the wind out of him He rolled and got up again, bruised and outraged. "I didn't catch you did I?" The worried voice came down the trail. "You aren't hurt are you?" "No." He replied with gritted teeth. "It wasn't a big tree." He took in a breath and calmed his temper. "It was a good set. I'll give you that. You want me to give you a trial, do you?" "You'll teach me." "I'll give you a chance. With an understanding between us." "What?" "You come into the house, do what you're told. Anything you don't do then you're out." "Then I have your word?"" He took in a deep breath. "Yes, you have my word." He straightened himself , feeling an ache in his bones. "All right. Those are the terms. You do as I say and help out around here, and I'll teach you. And when you've had enough you leave." There was a rustling in the brush further down the path. In a few moments she came around the bend of the path, sweaty and scratched, scarred flesh black as he's ever seen it. But her eyes were lit. He scowled at her, and waved a hand down the trail. "You first." They were back at the cabin by noon. She had shown him where she had hidden her pack. She retrieved the pack, hauled it up onto the ledge where he waited, and taken it on her shoulders. She set her burden on the porch, and looked at him, sweat running down her face. "What's in there?" He asked, pointing at it. "Sleeping bag, clothes, some food-" "Show me," he interrupted. "Quickly." She unpacked on the porch, rummaged out a pile of dirty clothes and blankets, a rag wrapped shape of a rifle. A few bowls, a thin pot, small packets tied neatly with twine. "What are those?" He asked. "Beans, mushrooms, roots and berries." "Show me." He commanded again. She frowned and untied the twine to show him, which turned out to be exactly what she said. He went through the food and it all appeared wholesome. He picked up the firearm, unfolded the cloth from a plain rifle. "Not bad." He said balancing the gun in his hand. "But you won't need it for a while." She eyed him cautiously, and the gun in his hand that he intended to destroy. "First," he said, lifting a corner of a white shirt with the gun. "these need to be washed. You've found the river?" She nodded. "Good." He scrunched his nose and went inside, setting the gun against the wall. "Everything clean before you think of stepping in here. Understood?" Another nod. Wc: 1,906 Twc: 3,529 |
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| Tien | Jun 28 2016, 10:40 AM Post #4 |
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"Tomorrow you'll teach me." Jin stated, now sitting cross legged on the porch in much cleaner clothing. He looked at her, having moved towards the doorway, heard what she said, and knew he was a fool if he didn't, send her away immediately. "You want me to teach you, you'll start the way you've already started. You cook, you clean, and you learn not to question me. After you've got that right, you start exercises, then we talk about weapons. Until then, don't let me catch you carrying anything other than cooking utensils or you're out. Understand me?" "Yes." There may have been a look in her eyes, but he was looking elsewhere. Listening to the wind, and frogs. He stood there a long while, until he got the situation out of his mind. He went inside well after dark, found her in a distant corner of the main room fast asleep and sighed. He proceeded to his own sleeping are, in the only other room of the house, and lay down to think. He was conscious of another human's presence in the cabin that no one entered other than himself. He thought in the dark, that the risks of her were still possible. That the woman was crazed enough to take offense someday, and slip something in his food. A lot easier to deal with than the thought that someone had sent her for him. But he learned long ago that a man had to sleep on worries like that. The body and mind could only go so far on half sleep and one eyed watching. He just shut his eyes and trusted he would wake in time if something were to happen. So far he'd always managed to. Sometimes he reasoned he needed a dog. But none ever came along, and during his reclusive state he refused to go into town. Being a hermit was full of inconveniences, and being too human, as he learned in east city, brought too many risks. He heard Jin stirring and instinctively his third eye focused on her form, though he had been aware of the sunlight creeping into the house for a while now. He watched motionless sly as she got up still fully dressed, and took the water bucket outside. That he approved of. He had shown her where the latrine was. He gave her a little time, in consideration of her modesty. He got up and dressed himself while she was away. She wanted to be an apprentice, and be treated like a boy. But he still had to inconvenience himself for the sake of decency. He made his trip to the latrine, and headed back to the rain barrel to wash as she came up from the woods and the spring, carrying a full bucket of drinking water. He watched her from the corner of the house and ducked back again for a quick rinse under the dripping bucket that hung by the rain barrel. The cold water set his joints to aching and his fingers to turn a slight shade of blue. He dried himself, before marching up to the porch and back inside. He set out a few blankets to dry, while she boiled tea. She didn't look his way, more than a brief glance. He shaved, which was something he didn't always do, and she gave him tea. It was an almost luxurious thing, to have In the morning. He sat on the porch and sipped tea, while she moved about cleaning the house and dishes with a zeal that he found amazing. He could almost get used to this. But he remembered his decision to get her away as soon as possible, and his reasoning for it. When she was finished, and came out to the porch to report for more tasks he spoke. "The garden needs watering." He walked down to the field with her, handed her the bucket and watched. "You know you're planting these to close." She said, and with a frown that add him think again that getting rid of her would be a mistake. "The beans aren't much. You should let me pick the seeds too. You don't have much of a green thumb apparently." But he thought to himself that she would be gone before the week had ended. Wc: 721 Twc: 4,321 |
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| Tien | Jun 30 2016, 09:40 AM Post #5 |
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Tien sat on the porch, watched her work and weed. He took the chance to rework a tear in a blanket, work that eased the aching muscles he had. And when, in late evening she came up to the house sweating her hair sticking to her forehead. "Wash." He instructed. She nodded and went inside for the bucket. "Clean clothes," he said. "And take the water bucket to fill. No need to make two trips." She nodded again, on her way across the porch, went inside and came out again with a change of clothes in the washing bucket, and the empty water bucket in the other hand. She passed him and stood at the foot of the steps. "Shouldn't I be taking my first lesson?" "Are you questioning my methods?" "No, I wasn't." "You were out of breath when you came up here. You don't have the wind to spare. When you do, there's a slope, up through the trees. Run to the top, run down again. Do it every evening before you wash." "All right," she said and set the buckets on the edge of the porch and started off at a jog. He watched her go, watched her figure disappear into the trees. He knew himself how high that hill was and what a climb the top was. He had an idea she would stay that pace for a few minutes, and then alternate between running and walking a little. Then finally take the rest at a walk if she even had the strength left. It would be a while, he figured, until she would be back. He looked to the sky with concern. He had no desire to climb that hill even at a walk searching for Jin lost in the woods. She might not make it to the top but he trusted her to find her way back down again. Eventually. He sat and drowsed on the porch through a gold sunset into the dark until he heard running steps coming down the slope. He saw her returning soaked in sweat, and staggering up to the porch, a pale faced phantom in the dusk. But by then he was on his way inside. He didn't say a thing to her. He walked into the house. He heard her drag off the porch, and he was both hungry and annoyed at the idea of a late meal. But he set aside the newly fixed blanket, and stirred up the coals in the cooking pit. He had water on and rice simmering with squash from the garden before she came trudging in out of the dark with a bucket of wet clothes and another of clean drinking water. "You're late. I expect supper within the hour. Eat." He dipped a bowl into the pot and shoved it towards her, and she took it With a quiet thank you. She staggered out to the porch to sit in the dark, where a breeze made it cooler. "Get us water," he said while fetching his own bowlful. She nodded and stood after a failed attempt and staggered inside. She brought out two cups. "Eat," he instructed, when she sat there after staring at the bowl in her hands not seeming to have the strength to lift it. "Do we have food to waste?" She dutifully ate, tiny bite by tiny bite, and did not finish all he gave her. "I'll have the rest tomorrow." She informed him. He shrugged, finished his own and replied, "You can wash that pot before you sleep." She nodded, and got up and took the pot out of the cabin, staggered off the side of the porch and went toward the back where the rain barrel stood. He went inside, and was comfortable in his bed by the time she brought the pot in. She was moving stiffly in the morning, but she stirred out at dawn, while Tien lay motionless and caught a little more rest. When she came back, and began making breakfast he went out for his own bath at the rain barrel, shaved at his leisure, and came back to the porch again to find water. Not one complaint from her, not one objection. Not that she had run that damn hill to the top, he didn't believe that for a moment. But at least she had made a brave try at it. The house was cleaned, the garden was weeded. He watched her carefully that morning as she gave him his breakfast and carefully sat down on the steps of the porch with her own. Damn fool. Probably sore in every muscle. He rubbed the soreness in his own leg, and remembered the incident which injured him. "Slower!" He shouted after her, as she started her evening run up among the trees. Day upon day of running and her time grew shorter, her wind grew better but that headlong attack on the hill told him well enough how far she was going. About a third of the way up, he figured, maybe half. She had no idea how to pace herself. "Slower! You have to hold that pace!" She slowed. He watched her from the porch until she disappeared among the trees, then turned his attention back to the work at hand. Using a hammer, and block for lacings in what would eventually be a good pair of shoes. He had been saving the leather, but Jin couldn't go barefoot around the mountain. He had gotten her pattern, traced it on and cut it in the afternoon. Then came the stitching. The soles were done by the time she showed up again, sweating and coughing, and leaning with her elbows on the porch. "Off," he commanded. "Go wash. You stink." She caught a breath and got up and looked at what he was doing. The work was not at a stage that looked like anything. It was the last time he let her see the boots until he had finished them, on the next day. They had started out plain, but he had thought that a bit of extra stitching would make the top resist stretching. And the pattern might as well go down the instep while he was working. He had never bothered making decorations for his own. They were boots that kept his feet dry which was all he needed. But now he took the time, now that the garden was weeded, the house was clean and everything was orderly. He set the finished boots on her mat the evening he finished, while she was running the hill. She was quiet when she had gone inside, for a long time, when there was usually clattering of pots while she cooked. She came out eventually with the boots in her arms and bowed awkwardly. "Than you, Tien," she said, in a meeker, more nervous voice than he had ever heard her use. "Do they fit?" "Yes. Thank you again." She examined the leather. Which was all the thanks he got, much to his expectations. "Tomorrow," he said eventually, "I'll show you the mountain." She eyed him cautiously, with a dawning excitement in her eyes. "We might do a little hunting." Taking her along with him was one way that he thought of not to leave her unwatched with the house and his belongings. There were still times when he remembered, just as he was falling asleep, that he knew nothing about her, and that she might be a patient enemy. He didn't believe that during broad daylight, but just enough to not leave her in possession of the house for hours at a time. It seemed only prudent to find out what she knew about stalking game, and what traps she could think of. She would have taken that rifle when he took up a sole bow from beside the door. "No. Not unless you want to scare off anything anything within three miles of here." She gave him an offended look, but she left the gun where it was and followed him into the woods. He had piled up brush here and there around the mountain, and that usually brought in rabbits every so often. It was just a matter of walking quietly and never disturbing the shelter, only setting snares around it. Jin moved well enough keeping up with him, and she watched where she put her feet. She made little sound in the brush, dodging branches that might creak against a passing limb. Not a city girl's skill, he realized. Not a city girls way of moving. He remembered the trap she set for him, a skillfully set one. Wc: 1,444 Twc: 5,765 |
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| Tien | Jul 5 2016, 09:42 AM Post #6 |
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Tien stopped finally to let the woods settle, moved up to a rocky slope and sat down. In that idle time he thought to teach her a few simple hand signs such as he had learned in his youth. She repeated them for him, quickly, clearly, signs for actions and directions, and for the various animals that came and went on the hill. Then he taught her one for men. "There are bandits that could visit the area," he informed her. "And now and again people from town come up here for whatever reasons. I'm sure you've seen it. Thugs are different out here. I trust you'll know." He caught a momentary expression as she nodded. Something angry yet patient. "If you see anyone that looks like they don't belong, you don't lead them to the house. You warn me as fast as possible. Understood?" Again a look of intense concentration. "Repeat the signs," he instructed. It was what his teachers had done to him, making him recall after he had stopped expecting it. She gave them back to him and named them aloud, one by one, without a mistake. Quick. Very quick to understand. It was a shame that the woman owned the god given gift that would make an exceptional student of the arts. But it was no use at all to someone like her, to know how to hunt. And he imagined how amused his former mentors would be to see him crouched there in serious conversation with a city dweller. Teaching a woman hunting signs, and he imagined much more what a joke they would make of it if he took to teaching her martial arts skills, or taking her for a hunting partner. But if it kept her content, if in the process of fulfilling his promise to her he taught her to protect herself so he needed not worry so much about her becoming a hostage or guiding some bandit attack back to the cabin. Well, He did not have to worry about approval from his mentors anymore. It was not Crane School he lived in now, and if Tien Shinhan took a woman as his student and if it amused him to teach her to hunt and do difficult work then that was his concern and no one else's. He'd let her anger burn itself out with hard work, and let her grow fond of the mountain. Fools always irked him. Young fools could be forgiven, and principled fools he could even admire. Remembering his youth and his young notions of justice. Such as when he believed Taopapai dead. But the world never gave special graces to motives and principals. No one, made no exceptions for good motives and young people never understood that. They returned near evening with a rabbit the snares had taken. Summer wasn't the time to tasks larger game, the meat would spoil too quickly. Deer passed along the trail but they always let them go. It wasn't season for berries but there were wild greens to pick, and they returned with ingredients for a good dinner. "You see to the rabbit," Tien instructed, putting his bow away. "I'll do the weeding today." And he did, taking more time than he would want to do on days he hunted. A meal was being arranged without him needing to act, and he felt himself at ease with his life. He came up the hill to the smell of cooking, he sat down on the porch as he normally did, and had a bowl of squash and rabbit. Along with Jin's company, while she talked about the woods Nd asked him what else grew around the trails. She named a few plants asking if they grew nearby, and he admitted he did not know the answers. "I didn't bother learning all that when I was younger," he said, "mostly just what plants to avoid, or make use of depending on the situation." "I can do that for you," she offered in between mouthfuls of soup. Implying that he shouldn't send her away. She seemed eager to stay, even considering the work he piled on her. "It's good," he said, tapping the bowl. "Very good. You're a decent cook." Her face darkened, as if that had made her remember something or someone. He thought quickly, searching for something to turn the conversation. Ask her about her family? Hah, no. Her previous masters? None "You did very well today." She nodded. "You've hunted before." A second nod. "Talk." She stared at him puzzled and disturbed. "What?" He asked her, "did someone take you hunting? Who taught you to move like that?" "My brothers." Her jaw tightened. "They're dead now." Damn. There was no way to talk to her without touching something dark. Or maybe there was nothing but that, inside her, around her. He felt the air a little colder. "So far," he said between bites, "I haven't seen any reason to send you away. So far, I don't plan to." "You said you'd show me to make a bow." "I don't remember saying that." She stared at him, slowly chewing. "For one, don't haggle it. If there's any long grain in the wood you'll ruin it by using an axe." She nodded. "I don't know what happens on the roads, but bandits haven't bothered this place in a long time. You don't have to be afraid." "I'm not afraid." "You can't right every wrong in the world, even when it's your own wrong. Take that from me. People have come to me, asking me to come settle some grievance or another. All the stories are sad. But you know I can't help them. Tats the greatest wisdom you can learn on this mountain. Manage your own troubles first. Live peacefully. The sunrise and sunset are more important than the rise and fall of the next villain making a name for himself. That's my whole philosophy. I give it to you." She frowned and stared at her now empty bowl. "You understand me?" he asked her. "I hear you." "I didn't ask if you heard me, I asked if you understood." "Teach me to to fight. Teach me how to use my energy. That's what I want." "There's a lot of things I can teach you. Among them the patience to let go of your self righteous quest for revenge." She scrambled to her feet, disappeared inside and came out with the bucket they used for drinking water, to set it on the porch the way she always did before her evening run. "You can leave that off," he said with a wave of his hand. "No." "I said to leave it off. You've hiked through through the woods and it's dark under those trees. You can run tomorrow." "I said I would run it." "I say you won't." He put his feet down on the ground beside the porch, stood and walked up the three steps. "You also said you'd do as you're told, and you're not running in the dark." He saw the fear in her eyes, and lowered his voice. "You won't last it out." "All you have to do is teach me. I got here on my own and you said yourself I'm good in the woods. I set a trap that you walked into, didn't I? And I've done everything you've set me to do, so you don't have any cause to complain about me. You teach me the way you promised. I'll learn the way I promised." "The way you run the hill?" "The way I run the hill." Come on, don't lie to me. You've never finished that course." "I have!" "You've never seen the top of the hill. You is down when you get winded, you rest til you think it's time and you run down, don't tell me you're going all the way to the top. "Then follow me." He folded his arms and gave her a hard look. "You're trying me." "I'm not a cheat." He gave her a long, long stare. "You maintain that you're going all the way to the top. That you're not waiting it out. That you're not lying to me." "Yes." "Truth for truth. I expected you not to make it half way. Now tell me that you didn't, and I'll call it even and nothing will change. Students have pulled tricks like that since the dawn of time. I've pulled a few myself, but each and every time I was caught. If you lie to me eye to eye and I catch you at it, all agreements are off and I will catch you , understand me?" "I'm not lying!" "Last chance." "I'm not lying." She said through gritted teeth. "Stay off the hill tonight. Get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow you'll need it. Or you'll tell me you've lied. Because if I find out you have, I'm free of anything I ever promised you. That's the end of it." Tien stepped out into the daylight where Jin waited, sitting on the fence. "Alright," Tien said once he was close enough."I'll give you a head start. Down to the far end of the pasture and up again." Jin looked in that direction, the long slope of the shoulder where an old fire had left very few trees, part of the hill clear of woods was overgrown with grass and weeds.he had planted saplings, cut away the stumps and used trimmed trees for railing, extending the pasture each year. Now it was all downward slope before it dropped away suddenly at the end and sides. Jingisukan nodded and set off at a jog toward the railing of the field, ducked under and set out at an easy pace across the pasture beyond. He stepped over to the gate, opened it and brought his hands together while tracking the woman. "Faster!" He yelled after Jin. She quickened her pace, and he let her get a good long start across the field before he extended his arms. He began to collect his ki around his hands, forming a sphere about 3 inches in diameter. He grunted, fought to rein in the energy. He lined his arm up with the girl a distant figure. The sphere escaped his palm, hurtling towards the woman on a predetermined course across the pasture. Faster and faster, the sphere fighting to break loose of his control, the gap between it and Jingisukan less and less. "Faster!" Tien yelled. She didn't look back. She put on a burst of speed , and the sphere decreased the gap still. "It'll do more than knock you flat! Keep ahead of it!" Wether she knew what 'it' was was unknown to him, but it seemed to put some panic in her as her feet moved quicker to carry her. She dodged around one of the few standing trees and Tien adjusted the course to veer around and keep after her. The sphere kept fighting for the bit, struggling to sever the connection Tien established in order to control it as she reached the fence. He fought to turn and cut her off, and Tien went wide while she lit out on the uphill slope of the meadow. Damn, she wasn't even winded yet. He put the sphere at a faster pace, and she took a dodge through a clump of three trees, zigzagging through a small gathering of stumps he hadn't cleared. "All right girl," he muttered to himself, and loosened on the control of the sphere, illuminating brightly as it tore through the stumps, showering her in splintered wood. He expected her to continue her current path, but she sprinted all out towards the stable fence higher up the hill. Damn, she was going to make it. He didn't hold back then, a full tilt uphill to cut in between the woman and the fence at the last moment. She veered off as the sphere all but brushed her and he spun it around and let up again. It dived after her, and she sprinted all out, for the side fence this time, then as he closed the distance, cut across and tried to double back to the stable fence. "No you don't," Tien yelled toward her, and pulled across the field to cut her off a second time, nettled and amazed that there was so much speed left in the girl. She changed direction again for the side, a sudden sprint and dart down the pasture, and he herded her back again. Another sprint toward the uphill, and he cut that off. Jingisukan, drenched in sweat now reeled back as it came close to her shoulder, and darted opposite the direction it was traveling a straight shot to the fence. Tien stretched the sphere out into a full flight cut between her and the fence. She dodged back as it came to a stop. As he followed she turned again, stumbled this time and kept running before dodging back toward the fence. She was stumbling now as he reined circles around her. He didn't expect the final sprint that flung her for the rails. She grabbed the fence, tried to go over it and collapsed on her knees in the dust there, clinging to the rail. She bent helpless for a moment, coughing, gasping after breath, then shook back her sweaty hair and stared sidelong at him, one eye fully exposed, and glaring at him when she wasn't coughing. Silently daring him to say that she lied. And he knew now in his heart that she did not. She had run the damn mountain, beyond any doubt. He hated to be caught in the wrong. And hated that she was worse for everything she wanted. To have asked the impossible and push her as far as he had, twice over, to end up with her in the right and him the villain in the situation. And he had put his word on the outcome. "All right," he said finally after stepping towards her. "I'll teach you as far as you can go. But whenever you fail, you fail, and I'll hear no excuses." She tried to straighten up. She hauled herself up against the railing and hung there. "You'll cramp like hell if you don't cool down slowly. Walk up to the house, I'll put some water on to boil." She nodded just a single twitch of her head. She climbed over the fence and staggered off across the field. He found himself seriously considering that she might make a student after all. She was fast enough to learn far more than he originally thought, and maybe she would listen to good sense along the way. He did not sleep well that night. He kept thinking of his youth, for reasons unknown to him. He thought it was that he was beginning to teach, and teaching required him to remember how he was taught and the things he learned. And the learning of them had been in his youth at Master Shen's hand in the Crane School. Many of those memories would have almost been nostalgic to recall, except he knew what his mentor's plans had come to. Shen had set him, before the finals of the tournament to seek revenge for Taopaipai in his wake. He had tried, earnestly tried, he had sacrificed everything he could in a personal way. He defended the honor of the crane school, he took every step to ensure he remained the star pupil of Master Shen. But no amount of skill could avail against the unwillingness of a student who refused to exact revenge on someone who murdered his caretaker's brother. There was nothing that could have changed how everything turned out, except to wish that Shen had taught his brother more. Indulged him less when he was young, and used a stronger hand to deprecate him from poor choices. This woman Jin came to him like a second chance. Teach her what you know. "Heel here," he said to her, tapping the ground with an oak walking stick. "Toe." He pushed her foot into line, and walked around her, tapping an elbow, a knee, examining her from all sides. "Break," he said next. "Relax." And when she had taken her first breath. "Up your guard." She looked at him, irritated, and he whacked her on the back of her calves. "Up your guard." She moved desperately into position. He whacked her again, quickly on an unaligned toe, a knee, an elbow. Her limbs jerked nervously into a half remembered stance. "Stand there a while, he instructed while moving her carefully into position. "Until your body remembers." And he went to sit in the shade the porch offered. "Turn! Quickly! Quickly!" Tien yelled, and Jingisukan spun into guard position and spun and spun again, flawless in her alignment. She landed on guard and he brought the stick swinging around at her shins. She jumped over it and landed again on her feet, perfect in her posture. He took a tentative swipe at the back of her knees. She jumped, wrong move for that attack. The staff clipped her legs, but she still recovered and landed. "No," he commented, and leaned on his staff with both hands, examining her reach and her balance. Really there had only been one other student which were the locals on Metamor. Dodging out of practices, whining when they took a fall, complaining of sweat and exertion. A line of sweat trickled down Jin's face. She didn't move from her guard. She waited. "There's no more you can learn without a weapon. There's a counter for that move. The sword is part of it, it makes a difference in your balance. He walked up to the house without another word then, took a rag wrapped sword from the corner of the side room and brought it out to where she waited. He drew it and threw the sheath onto the porch. "Break," he instructed, and held out the sword to her hilt first. She came off guard warily. "It's all right," he said. "Take it gently, gently as you can. I'll let you have the weight little by little. Light with the fingers, understand." She nodded, came on guard with her face set and eager, but there was no grabbing at it. She took it exactly the comfortable way. "Right. That's one handed. Second hand now." There was only one comfortable way in that position, and she found it. "Right," he said with a sense of satisfaction. "Perfect." She heard him, gave the slightest nod, but her muscles didn't vary. "This is the weight. This is all the weight. Don't be aware of the sword. The sword is your right arm. Keep your body in position, concentrate on that position. Don't focus on the sword, focus on your center. When you can feel it perfectly, go through your moves." He stepped away. "When you're ready, begin like the breathing, slowly." She stood still for several seconds. When the movement came it was as perfectly centered as the resting position. Each step and turn was exact. "Stop," he said, and she stopped mid turn, in a position she could hold for a long while. He lifted his hand to a point in the air. "Bring your point to my fingers. The steel touched his skin. "Now complete your move slow and keep the point with my fingers as you go." He walked in a half circle with her, until her feet were is base position. "Again," he said, and walked the circle with her. They did this seven more times, slow, stopping now and then, while her eyes never left his. Just the way he taught her. Graceful, and beautiful. Not the eyes or face but the perfect balance, and the attention of her eyes. "When you're ready," he said. "There should be no strain in your arms." He drew back his arm, stepped away and watched her, amazed at the woman who moved like a flawless figure. It was his teaching, he realized. He was capable of creating something like this without the brutality his mentors used on him. He felt twitches in his own muscles, remembering what those movements felt like, when done correctly. Wc: 3,387 Twc: 9,468 |
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| Tien | Jul 7 2016, 09:40 AM Post #7 |
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Triclops
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Tien stopped finally to let the woods settle, moved up to a rocky slope and sat down. In that idle time he thought to teach her a few simple hand signs such as he had learned in his youth. She repeated them for him, quickly, clearly, signs for actions and directions, and for the various animals that came and went on the hill. Then he taught her one for men. "There are bandits that could visit the area," he informed her. "And now and again people from town come up here for whatever reasons. I'm sure you've seen it. Thugs are different out here. I trust you'll know." He caught a momentary expression as she nodded. Something angry yet patient. "If you see anyone that looks like they don't belong, you don't lead them to the house. You warn me as fast as possible. Understood?" Again a look of intense concentration. "Repeat the signs," he instructed. It was what his teachers had done to him, making him recall after he had stopped expecting it. She gave them back to him and named them aloud, one by one, without a mistake. Quick. Very quick to understand. It was a shame that the woman owned the god given gift that would make an exceptional student of the arts. But it was no use at all to someone like her, to know how to hunt. And he imagined how amused his former mentors would be to see him crouched there in serious conversation with a city dweller. Teaching a woman hunting signs, and he imagined much more what a joke they would make of it if he took to teaching her martial arts skills, or taking her for a hunting partner. But if it kept her content, if in the process of fulfilling his promise to her he taught her to protect herself so he needed not worry so much about her becoming a hostage or guiding some bandit attack back to the cabin. Well, He did not have to worry about approval from his mentors anymore. It was not Crane School he lived in now, and if Tien Shinhan took a woman as his student and if it amused him to teach her to hunt and do difficult work then that was his concern and no one else's. He'd let her anger burn itself out with hard work, and let her grow fond of the mountain. Fools always irked him. Young fools could be forgiven, and principled fools he could even admire. Remembering his youth and his young notions of justice. Such as when he believed Taopapai dead. But the world never gave special graces to motives and principals. No one, made no exceptions for good motives and young people never understood that. They returned near evening with a rabbit the snares had taken. Summer wasn't the time to tasks larger game, the meat would spoil too quickly. Deer passed along the trail but they always let them go. It wasn't season for berries but there were wild greens to pick, and they returned with ingredients for a good dinner. "You see to the rabbit," Tien instructed, putting his bow away. "I'll do the weeding today." And he did, taking more time than he would want to do on days he hunted. A meal was being arranged without him needing to act, and he felt himself at ease with his life. He came up the hill to the smell of cooking, he sat down on the porch as he normally did, and had a bowl of squash and rabbit. Along with Jin's company, while she talked about the woods Nd asked him what else grew around the trails. She named a few plants asking if they grew nearby, and he admitted he did not know the answers. "I didn't bother learning all that when I was younger," he said, "mostly just what plants to avoid, or make use of depending on the situation." "I can do that for you," she offered in between mouthfuls of soup. Implying that he shouldn't send her away. She seemed eager to stay, even considering the work he piled on her. "It's good," he said, tapping the bowl. "Very good. You're a decent cook." Her face darkened, as if that had made her remember something or someone. He thought quickly, searching for something to turn the conversation. Ask her about her family? Hah, no. Her previous masters? None "You did very well today." She nodded. "You've hunted before." A second nod. "Talk." She stared at him puzzled and disturbed. "What?" He asked her, "did someone take you hunting? Who taught you to move like that?" "My brothers." Her jaw tightened. "They're dead now." Damn. There was no way to talk to her without touching something dark. Or maybe there was nothing but that, inside her, around her. He felt the air a little colder. "So far," he said between bites, "I haven't seen any reason to send you away. So far, I don't plan to." "You said you'd show me to make a bow." "I don't remember saying that." She stared at him, slowly chewing. "For one, don't haggle it. If there's any long grain in the wood you'll ruin it by using an axe." She nodded. "I don't know what happens on the roads, but bandits haven't bothered this place in a long time. You don't have to be afraid." "I'm not afraid." "You can't right every wrong in the world, even when it's your own wrong. Take that from me. People have come to me, asking me to come settle some grievance or another. All the stories are sad. But you know I can't help them. Tats the greatest wisdom you can learn on this mountain. Manage your own troubles first. Live peacefully. The sunrise and sunset are more important than the rise and fall of the next villain making a name for himself. That's my whole philosophy. I give it to you." She frowned and stared at her now empty bowl. "You understand me?" he asked her. "I hear you." "I didn't ask if you heard me, I asked if you understood." "Teach me to to fight. Teach me how to use my energy. That's what I want." "There's a lot of things I can teach you. Among them the patience to let go of your self righteous quest for revenge." She scrambled to her feet, disappeared inside and came out with the bucket they used for drinking water, to set it on the porch the way she always did before her evening run. "You can leave that off," he said with a wave of his hand. "No." "I said to leave it off. You've hiked through through the woods and it's dark under those trees. You can run tomorrow." "I said I would run it." "I say you won't." He put his feet down on the ground beside the porch, stood and walked up the three steps. "You also said you'd do as you're told, and you're not running in the dark." He saw the fear in her eyes, and lowered his voice. "You won't last it out." "All you have to do is teach me. I got here on my own and you said yourself I'm good in the woods. I set a trap that you walked into, didn't I? And I've done everything you've set me to do, so you don't have any cause to complain about me. You teach me the way you promised. I'll learn the way I promised." "The way you run the hill?" "The way I run the hill." Come on, don't lie to me. You've never finished that course." "I have!" "You've never seen the top of the hill. You is down when you get winded, you rest til you think it's time and you run down, don't tell me you're going all the way to the top. "Then follow me." He folded his arms and gave her a hard look. "You're trying me." "I'm not a cheat." He gave her a long, long stare. "You maintain that you're going all the way to the top. That you're not waiting it out. That you're not lying to me." "Yes." "Truth for truth. I expected you not to make it half way. Now tell me that you didn't, and I'll call it even and nothing will change. Students have pulled tricks like that since the dawn of time. I've pulled a few myself, but each and every time I was caught. If you lie to me eye to eye and I catch you at it, all agreements are off and I will catch you , understand me?" "I'm not lying!" "Last chance." "I'm not lying." She said through gritted teeth. "Stay off the hill tonight. Get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow you'll need it. Or you'll tell me you've lied. Because if I find out you have, I'm free of anything I ever promised you. That's the end of it." Tien stepped out into the daylight where Jin waited, sitting on the fence. "Alright," Tien said once he was close enough."I'll give you a head start. Down to the far end of the pasture and up again." Jin looked in that direction, the long slope of the shoulder where an old fire had left very few trees, part of the hill clear of woods was overgrown with grass and weeds.he had planted saplings, cut away the stumps and used trimmed trees for railing, extending the pasture each year. Now it was all downward slope before it dropped away suddenly at the end and sides. Jingisukan nodded and set off at a jog toward the railing of the field, ducked under and set out at an easy pace across the pasture beyond. He stepped over to the gate, opened it and brought his hands together while tracking the woman. "Faster!" He yelled after Jin. She quickened her pace, and he let her get a good long start across the field before he extended his arms. He began to collect his ki around his hands, forming a sphere about 3 inches in diameter. He grunted, fought to rein in the energy. He lined his arm up with the girl a distant figure. The sphere escaped his palm, hurtling towards the woman on a predetermined course across the pasture. Faster and faster, the sphere fighting to break loose of his control, the gap between it and Jingisukan less and less. "Faster!" Tien yelled. She didn't look back. She put on a burst of speed , and the sphere decreased the gap still. "It'll do more than knock you flat! Keep ahead of it!" Wether she knew what 'it' was was unknown to him, but it seemed to put some panic in her as her feet moved quicker to carry her. She dodged around one of the few standing trees and Tien adjusted the course to veer around and keep after her. The sphere kept fighting for the bit, struggling to sever the connection Tien established in order to control it as she reached the fence. He fought to turn and cut her off, and Tien went wide while she lit out on the uphill slope of the meadow. Damn, she wasn't even winded yet. He put the sphere at a faster pace, and she took a dodge through a clump of three trees, zigzagging through a small gathering of stumps he hadn't cleared. "All right girl," he muttered to himself, and loosened on the control of the sphere, illuminating brightly as it tore through the stumps, showering her in splintered wood. He expected her to continue her current path, but she sprinted all out towards the stable fence higher up the hill. Damn, she was going to make it. He didn't hold back then, a full tilt uphill to cut in between the woman and the fence at the last moment. She veered off as the sphere all but brushed her and he spun it around and let up again. It dived after her, and she sprinted all out, for the side fence this time, then as he closed the distance, cut across and tried to double back to the stable fence. "No you don't," Tien yelled toward her, and pulled across the field to cut her off a second time, nettled and amazed that there was so much speed left in the girl. She changed direction again for the side, a sudden sprint and dart down the pasture, and he herded her back again. Another sprint toward the uphill, and he cut that off. Jingisukan, drenched in sweat now reeled back as it came close to her shoulder, and darted opposite the direction it was traveling a straight shot to the fence. Tien stretched the sphere out into a full flight cut between her and the fence. She dodged back as it came to a stop. As he followed she turned again, stumbled this time and kept running before dodging back toward the fence. She was stumbling now as he reined circles around her. He didn't expect the final sprint that flung her for the rails. She grabbed the fence, tried to go over it and collapsed on her knees in the dust there, clinging to the rail. She bent helpless for a moment, coughing, gasping after breath, then shook back her sweaty hair and stared sidelong at him, one eye fully exposed, and glaring at him when she wasn't coughing. Silently daring him to say that she lied. And he knew now in his heart that she did not. She had run the damn mountain, beyond any doubt. He hated to be caught in the wrong. And hated that she was worse for everything she wanted. To have asked the impossible and push her as far as he had, twice over, to end up with her in the right and him the villain in the situation. And he had put his word on the outcome. "All right," he said finally after stepping towards her. "I'll teach you as far as you can go. But whenever you fail, you fail, and I'll hear no excuses." She tried to straighten up. She hauled herself up against the railing and hung there. "You'll cramp like hell if you don't cool down slowly. Walk up to the house, I'll put some water on to boil." She nodded just a single twitch of her head. She climbed over the fence and staggered off across the field. He found himself seriously considering that she might make a student after all. She was fast enough to learn far more than he originally thought, and maybe she would listen to good sense along the way. He did not sleep well that night. He kept thinking of his youth, for reasons unknown to him. He thought it was that he was beginning to teach, and teaching required him to remember how he was taught and the things he learned. And the learning of them had been in his youth at Master Shen's hand in the Crane School. Many of those memories would have almost been nostalgic to recall, except he knew what his mentor's plans had come to. Shen had set him, before the finals of the tournament to seek revenge for Taopaipai in his wake. He had tried, earnestly tried, he had sacrificed everything he could in a personal way. He defended the honor of the crane school, he took every step to ensure he remained the star pupil of Master Shen. But no amount of skill could avail against the unwillingness of a student who refused to exact revenge on someone who murdered his caretaker's brother. There was nothing that could have changed how everything turned out, except to wish that Shen had taught his brother more. Indulged him less when he was young, and used a stronger hand to deprecate him from poor choices. This woman Jin came to him like a second chance. Teach her what you know. "Heel here," he said to her, tapping the ground with an oak walking stick. "Toe." He pushed her foot into line, and walked around her, tapping an elbow, a knee, examining her from all sides. "Break," he said next. "Relax." And when she had taken her first breath. "Up your guard." She looked at him, irritated, and he whacked her on the back of her calves. "Up your guard." She moved desperately into position. He whacked her again, quickly on an unaligned toe, a knee, an elbow. Her limbs jerked nervously into a half remembered stance. "Stand there a while, he instructed while moving her carefully into position. "Until your body remembers." And he went to sit in the shade the porch offered. "Turn! Quickly! Quickly!" Tien yelled, and Jingisukan spun into guard position and spun and spun again, flawless in her alignment. She landed on guard and he brought the stick swinging around at her shins. She jumped over it and landed again on her feet, perfect in her posture. He took a tentative swipe at the back of her knees. She jumped, wrong move for that attack. The staff clipped her legs, but she still recovered and landed. "No," he commented, and leaned on his staff with both hands, examining her reach and her balance. Really there had only been one other student which were the locals on Metamor. Dodging out of practices, whining when they took a fall, complaining of sweat and exertion. A line of sweat trickled down Jin's face. She didn't move from her guard. She waited. "There's no more you can learn without a weapon. There's a counter for that move. The sword is part of it, it makes a difference in your balance. He walked up to the house without another word then, took a rag wrapped sword from the corner of the side room and brought it out to where she waited. He drew it and threw the sheath onto the porch. "Break," he instructed, and held out the sword to her hilt first. She came off guard warily. "It's all right," he said. "Take it gently, gently as you can. I'll let you have the weight little by little. Light with the fingers, understand." She nodded, came on guard with her face set and eager, but there was no grabbing at it. She took it exactly the comfortable way. "Right. That's one handed. Second hand now." There was only one comfortable way in that position, and she found it. "Right," he said with a sense of satisfaction. "Perfect." She heard him, gave the slightest nod, but her muscles didn't vary. "This is the weight. This is all the weight. Don't be aware of the sword. The sword is your right arm. Keep your body in position, concentrate on that position. Don't focus on the sword, focus on your center. When you can feel it perfectly, go through your moves." He stepped away. "When you're ready, begin like the breathing, slowly." She stood still for several seconds. When the movement came it was as perfectly centered as the resting position. Each step and turn was exact. "Stop," he said, and she stopped mid turn, in a position she could hold for a long while. He lifted his hand to a point in the air. "Bring your point to my fingers. The steel touched his skin. "Now complete your move slow and keep the point with my fingers as you go." He walked in a half circle with her, until her feet were is base position. "Again," he said, and walked the circle with her. They did this seven more times, slow, stopping now and then, while her eyes never left his. Just the way he taught her. Graceful, and beautiful. Not the eyes or face but the perfect balance, and the attention of her eyes. "When you're ready," he said. "There should be no strain in your arms." He drew back his arm, stepped away and watched her, amazed at the woman who moved like a flawless figure. It was his teaching, he realized. He was capable of creating something like this without the brutality his mentors used on him. He felt twitches in his own muscles, remembering what those movements felt like, when done correctly. Wc: 3,388 Twc: 12,534 |
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| Tien | Jul 11 2016, 09:34 AM Post #8 |
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Triclops
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Tien squatted down deep and straightened slowly, with a sword in hand. It hurt like hell. He was not sure if it would always hurt, until he put himself in action and his muscles warmed. He could learn to live with that, if it set his body straight and gave him back the youth he thought he had lost for good. He saw Jingisukan's eyes follow him, he saw more than respect. A certain apprehension, as she held her own sword in her hands and waited. "Your guard," he said. She immediately lifted her sword. She was no longer a novice now. She knew the patterns. He saw the correctness in her stance and felt the settling in his own muscles as he faced an opponent who meant business. Female she may be, but she tried, she had battered away at that tree and five replacements of the straw matting. Whacking until he heard the tree bark snap under the blows. He discovered strength behind her arm even on upward extensions. Not to take lightly now. A fool would do that. She was fast, and he was years out of practice with the sword. "Take it slowly," he said, beginning the patterns in the slow way that tested balance and form. No relying on momentum and strength to recover a mistake when the body moved light and easy. One had to be right or end up looking like a fool. Jin was no fool. Neither was he. He forgot the pain, for the satisfaction of moving freely. The satisfaction of watching an opponent in motion and feeling the stretch of muscles that still remembered. Breaths puffed and clouded on the wind. Sword passed sword without so much as a whistle. He moved from guard to strike in a slow fashion, and saw a reaction from Jin's side. The right point of balance, no panicking, just a simple move out of his reach. "Close," he said, as his sword passed near her arm. ""Did you know where that one was?" "Yes," she replied, and her next step brought her arm circling around again, easy to avoid. "I'll show you another one," he said, as he turned beneath her line of attack. She didn't defend, and he stopped with no more than a line from his sword to her chest. "Do you see?" "Yes," she replied, holding her position. He broke his and walked behind her, took her by the shoulders and tested her balance, then marked a place in the dirt with his foot. "Here," he said, the walked to her front and took her sword in two fingers. Slowly drawing her to turn. Again he made a mark in the dirt, and he led her in a full circle. The most complicated counter he had yet to show her. He guided her two more times, her feel landing perfectly on the marks. He remembered his fellow students in Shen's tutelage, recalling lessons upon lessons which taught even the slowest to keep balance enough to defend themselves. But there was nothing slow about Jin. When he instructed her it didn't flow off into I don't want to. "Don't think when I instruct you," he had said to her. "When I instruct you, I know, and you don't, so don't think on anything other than what I'm telling you. If there's a mistake, it's my own, and I'll show you." "Don't improvise to cover an attack you don't understand, if we're going slow. Stop as soon as you recognize it, and I'll show you your next move. There's a time to improvise, you'll know when that is." "Again," he said, without guiding her. He took up his own sword, and made the pass with her. "Up!" Tien shouted, and sent the sword sweeping underneath Jin's feet, spun it around in a turn that brought it to her back, lifted to strike as she brought the correct counter back and held, reaching the end of the pattern. "Now what's the next move?" "You'll go low," she answered. "I might not." "It'll be harder to go high from that position." "That's why I might do it. You won't expect it." "It'll be dangerous though." "Not if I'm the best. What will I do?" "Something else. Not something dangerous." He was amused, pleased, but he didn't laugh. He didn't go off guard with her. Those were not the rules in the faster game. "What will it be?" "You could turn back again and make me follow." "What's the advantage?" "It takes attention. It ends where the opponent intends. Intention is the sword." "Again," he said, and took the pattern from the beginning. They were down to shirt and pants. Sweat shined on their faces despite the cold. He pushed her toward the tree that shaded the house. She refused that and tried to gain ground, away from the tree roots. He cleared away, giving her room. There was no pushing her, forcing her into dangerous situations, or making a joke of her. He was honorable with her for pride's sake. But she pressed him. Getting him to back away, she wanted to push him, and he let her, gave her the ground she wanted. She changed pattern on his second step. He made the instinctive move and pulled with a sudden lurch, saw her whirl and turn. "Hold!" She stopped. He saw the blood on her sleeve. His heart pounded in his chest. She seemed only confused. "You're hit, Jin." She looked down at her body while the blood ran from her sword hand, still not seeing it. He took her arm and found the cut while she craned her head over to try and see. Blood soaked the shirt. He grabbed it and whipped it up to her shoulder. It was on the back of her arm, a fingers length, and not deep. "I didn't even feel it." "Idiot." He shook her by the arm. "Never try a stick like that on me again." "Sorry Tien." "It's shallow. That could have ruined you. Do you hear me?" "I hear you." He let her go and retrieved his sword sheath, while she did the same. "Come on inside," he said then. He brought her inside, rolled up the sleeve again and salved the arm and bandaged it. He knew from experience, by then, she was beginning to feel the pain in full. "Does it hurt?" "Yes," she replied. His heartbeat had settled and he was calmer now. He jerked her close by the sleeve of her shirt. "That could have been your arm. Don't ever try to push me." She nodded, and hastily went towards the back of the house. The moment kept coming back to him again, that split second he had to react and realize he had reacted with an attack she did not know how to defend. One that would have at full force, taken her arm clean off. He kept seeing it, feeling sick to his stomach. He kept seeing it again and again. He looked at her from time to time as they ate, because the sight of her whole eased what he saw in his mind. Jin bloody on the ground, crippled even if he had been pulling his strikes. She looked at him in between bites, worried looking, knowing he was thinking about her. He enjoyed teaching her. He looked forward to their sessions, he took joy in doing what he hadn't done in years. It took him back to his boyhood, and the sheer pleasure of skill and excellence. Shen's voice. Taopaipai's. The old courtyard in the school grounds. Faces of fellow students, most of whom were probably dead. "Sorry again," she said finally, after a meal of silence. "I know what I did." "What did you do?" "I thought I'd be clever. I thought I'd find out if what I thought was right. If you learn in patterns because they're in balance with where your feet are, and if you let me back you up then you were going to let me follow right into what you wanted. So I thought I could stop that by changing." He stared at her, frowning, in long silence. "You were thinking." She pressed her lips together and was very still for a moment, then nodded. Tien rested his arm on his knee, and his chin on the arm and stared at her. "Listen to me. You wanted me to teach you. I have, so far. You're extraordinarily good for a beginner. Probably better in form than most who go training in dojos. But that won't save your life, you understand me? I gave you a promise, and look at you now. Have I done badly?" "No." "I've kept my promise, haven't i?" A simple nod of her head. "If there's a mistake it's mine, in hoping you have the sense to quit. I treated you like a novice. If you think you backed me up-" "I knew I didn't." "Right. I should have pushed you into the tree. That's my point. Maybe you're good enough to take a man or two. Maybe you could carve up a few opponents. Most people are shit swordsmen. A real warrior is a different matter. A man twice your weight, a good span on your longest reach, maybe not as agile but don't count on it. Men who spend their lives training isn't a light matter for anyone. Even if you got one on his bad day, his three friends will take offense. Give me your hand." She bit her lip and carefully put her mechanical hand in his. "Now push my hand to the floor." She tried. She made him resist much harder than he expected, but he held, even when she threw her shoulder into it unexpectedly. "Do you think you want to hold me off?" "You said don't engage." "Sometimes you have no choice. Sometimes there are five or six of them and you don't have a choice. Sometimes they come in numbers larger than that, and sometimes there's no room to back up, you have to take room. I've taught you the moves you can do. But there are some you can't." "Try me." "Your opponent doesn't have to be better than you to beat you. He just needs to be stronger, and half as good, and that means someone could knock your head off. That means some dumb Ox can take your entire arm off without even using some cheap sword. That's the way it is in the world. You can't do everything with that sword and you can't avoid everything that comes at you." "I'm not afraid." "You're a fool then! Or a liar." "You swore you'd teach me. If you haven't been teaching me right, you're breaking your word." Her eyes sparked with unexpressed anger. "And you'd be a liar, and everything you said about honor means nothing." Her jaw trembled, and she stared at him in defiance. "Listen to me. If I hit you all out, as can happen, I'll crush your bones. Right across the shoulder. First honest match, your arm is gone. Is that what you want?" "If you teach me so you can hit me that's the way it is, isn't it? You swore an oath, and so did I. And you'll teach me." He gnawed his lip, glaring at her. "You'll teach me the right way. You won't cheat." "I didn't cheat!" "What else is it, if you held back on me?" "You want your bones broken?" "I want you to do what you promised. If you can't teach me any better than that, it's your fault, isn't it?" He said nothing for a long time. Finally he passed out of the mood to say anything, and went to his bed. She had gathered up the dishes and she was putting herself to her mat. She didn't look his way. Tucked under quilts with her back to him and pulled them over her head. So he sat down in the dark, and tried not to think about anything. Jin, the sword that almost crippled her, or anything else. He kept seeing that moment behind his eyelids. The first man he had ever killed. He saw a great many after that, and the wreckage he had left of men. Good men maimed and screaming in the dirt. "How's the arm?" He asked her during breakfast. "It's fine Tien." A minute passed in silence after that. "I can still do my lessons today," she said eventually. "I'm not stiff. There's nothing wrong with me. You mostly missed." "I laid myself open pulling back. I risked my neck stopping, let's get that right." "I wouldn't have hit you." "Then what the hell do you think you're holding a sword for?" Jin had her mouth open, and she shut it fast. "All right," he said, eyeing her. "You want me to teach you how I was taught, you've asked for it. The clothing nearly hung clean off her body. "It's heavy." She said, swaying as Tien tightened it with twine around her waist and legs, because it had to overlap to fit. "That's the point," he said, while finishing. "You want me to teach you. Running the hill won't do you much more good." He circled her once, before giving her one hard shove to the chest. Her reaction was immediate, though slowed and restricted by the weighted clothing. Her arms struggled to rise more than an inch in front of her, and she soon toppled over in comedic fashion. "Up," Tien said, without concern present in his voice. The woman gave one mighty heave, and rolled onto her back. The next two minutes he spent watching her rise to her feet. Once she was upright, Tien took hold of both her arms and raised them at an angle. "Hold that," he instructed, while he adjusted her legs to squat shoulder width apart. Immediately he saw the effects of the clothing begin to take hold of her. She held the position for a few short moments before her arms began to droop. Her legs trembled, and a deep shade of red was beginning to creep along the unburied portion of her face. He raised her arms again, stepped back, and went to sit on the porch. "How long do I have to hold this?" She asked, strain apparent in her voice. "Is there somewhere you need to be?" He asked, in a clear attempt at taunting her. "Until nightfall will do just fine. You've got a long way to go, girl." It was more boiled rags that night. "Do you want to quit?" He asked her. She turned a dark and accusing eye on him, face down on her mat while he was putting compresses on the back of her knees. "No," she replied. ""It'll only get heavier from here on out ." Soft thuds echoed through the pasture as Tien followed closely behind Jin, watching silently as she marched towards the wooden fencing. The intervals between each step received a swift whack to the back of the knees from the wooden sword, Tien clenched in his hands. She was improving at a rate much faster than he had expected, and often times she surprised him by putting on an extra burst of effort when he thought her to be at her limit. The days passed and she gradually progressed from standing in place, to walking the pasture, to jogging that damn hill in all the clothing. He tested her resolve drone time to time, a few taunts, a blow that swept her off her feet when she least expected it. She picked herself up each time, and said in some variation or the other. "I'm not quitting." And that was the way the next week was spent. From day to day when they trained, and she dutifully went about her chores. And every time she returned from her run in the dead of night, he knew that once again he had been in the wrong. They practiced with arms now that she was mobile in the weighted clothing. They practiced on the porch and up and down the steps. With recent rain lying in the shallow areas and only the high part of the yard dry it was the area by the old tree again, breath clouding, and mud up to their knees. You don't always get good footing, he had said. You choose your ground when you can. Sometimes you can't. Jin went down on a wet patch of grass, messily. He followed up with the sword to make the point, jumped back as she took a swipe for his legs and rolled and came up again He brought his arm sweeping around to catch her shoulder, if she had not spun under and offered him a two handed thrust. "Break. That was a sloppy defense." "I'm alive," she said. "You've bound your point skewering me. What are you going to do with the man at your back?" "There's no one at my back!" "Don't give me any cheek, girl." "It worked," she panted. "Do you want me to teach you or do you want to argue with me?" She drew a quieter breath and wiped her face. She gasped another breath and took up her stance again. "Slower now. Don't improvise. You understand?" She nodded. "I understand. Can you show me how to do that?" "You fell. Don't clown when you fall." He began a slow pattern with beginning moves. "It teaches you bad habits." "I wasn't clowning. What am ogling to do when something happens you didn't teach me?" "You're talking about leaving. You're not ready yet. You're not near ready." He saw the grown, and watched her face, watched the smothered anger in the set of her mouth. Pattern after pattern after pattern. While the impatience smoldered. He saw it in her. "Haste kills, girl. Remember that. You have a great deal too much of it for your own good. Break." They finished the patterned move. "Are you going to show me?" "I'll show you," he said calmly. He walked towards the tree and squared off with her, waiting. "Choose your attack." She lifted her blade, careful movements now with the bare steel. "Don't be cutting my feet off." She began a a careful pace, strikes and turned. He evaded, struck, evaded, struck. He chose his moment, chose his spot, shifted his weight to the left and went down hard, took the impact and used the force to rock himself up to a knee and to his feet with all his old speed. She jumped back, spun and came in again, and he pulled his attack short. "Alright. Now you." There was a look of desperation on her face. "Long day?" He taunted her. "Use the force of your fall, if you fall don't bother fighting it. Fall. Curl up onto the right shoulder. Come up fast onto the right knee." Wc: 3,180 Twc: 15,714 |
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| Tien | Jul 13 2016, 09:43 AM Post #9 |
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Triclops
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She took her fall. She came most of the way up and swiped at him. He stepped back, and missed the reach of her attack. "You missed." He said, as she scrambled up to her feet. She went down again, and laid there panting under the weight of the clothing. "That's enough." "I can do it." "I said, that's enough." He walked over and picked up his sheath, sheathed the sword and stepped toward the porch. "Put that inside." It was a quiet meal that night, and he wanted like hell to put a compress over his leg, but he didn't want her to know that move caught him. He went to bed without a word, and worked to find a position where his leg didn't ache. It was all worth it, if it put some fear into her. She would go on trying it. Bruising herself and straining her knees. "Your guard," he instructed. Her sword came up. He kept the exercises slow, balance and precision. The wind stayed warm until evening. The sky over the mountain was grey and evident of rain. She kept hurrying the patterns. His knee ached from the previous day. He had no wish to go over that exercise again. She kept the pace he set for at least three passes, and then he took it faster. Pattern after pattern with multiple variations. She threw herself suddenly into a fall then, and came up with a different line. He skipped back and swung the sword in and checked hers. As he did her sword arm came back, out of line, shock on her face. He felt the sting of acut on his leg, across the side of his thigh. "Dammit!" He yelled at her as she got up. He looked at the wound. It could have been worse had it been a longer sword. He could be missing a limb and not even feel it. The cut was shallow thankfully. "So you drew blood. Congratulations. I'd have cut your head off, girl." She said nothing in response. "You don't believe me?" "I believe you," she echoed back, faintly. He fingered the cut, which was running blood, and glared at her. He walked over and picked up his sheath. "I'll get something for it," she offered. "It's nothing." "It's bleeding." "Let it be." He rammed the sword into the sheath with shaking hands and gave her a direct look. Rain began spattering around them again. "I gave you an order. You defied me. Now you're proud of yourself. You pulled a surprise, and now you think you're ready for your enemies." "I didn't mean to." "You're an arrogant little-. I'm not crying foul. I still have my leg. Better men have tried. I pulled everything I've ever done with you. I pulled it just then, which is why you still have your head, and why I'm the one bleeding. It takes something to think through what I know and what you don't, and to keep pulling back. I can see I was wrong. I enjoyed teaching you. I told you, you were good. But the first man you go up against is going to take your head off. I told you that from the start, and you didn't want to listen." "I made a mistake thinking you'd come to your senses. I made another when I didn't pace teaching you what you could. Now you think you're good. Now you think you're a match for men who've fought their entire lives. You're not. You leave here the way you are and you're dead, for nothing, dead the first time you try yourself in a real fight." "That's not what you said," she spoke up. "I'm telling you to use your good sense and give up whatever crazy idea you've got planned. There's nothing to be gained down there. Kill whoever you like and there's more maggots to take his place. There's nothing you can do. You'll only come to a bad end and an early one." ""You gave me your word." "I gave you my word. I also put a condition on it. When you've failed, and you've failed, all the agreements are off." "I haven't failed." He drew a deep breath, looking at her, his student staring back at him. He drew the sword from the sheath again. "I wasn't fighting before. I was teaching. You're about to learn the difference. Up your guard." She shook her head. "No." "Your guard." "I can't hit you! You don't have any armor!" "You think that'll protect you. Not from a proper strike. And I don't need it against a beginner." She threw the sword away. "Are you quitting?" He asked her. "Is the agreement off?" "No." He sheathed the sword and picked up the stick he left on the porch. "That's another advantage. Pick up the sword or you've quit." She bent and gathered her weapon again. The rain spatter became a sudden downpour. He came on guard, and she followed suit. He let her settle. He gave her that grace, while the rain turned the ground into mud. Her face was pale, her mouth in a thin line. "All right," he said starting a slow movement. "I can't hit you." "You can try. You want to trade weapons?" "No." She broke her guard and started to turn. He attacked, and she evaded him with a wild off balance spin and recovered. Wild eyes and vigilant. He attacked again, and again and brought the stick through her guard, clipped her leg, clipped her arm and evaded a desperate return attack. He spun under and brought the stick around hard into her side. She fell, rolled half up and he hit her again, two handed. The sword left her hand and he struck again. She made a grab for the hilt and he knocked it from her hand when she brought it up. She rolled after it and he let her get most of the way up before he knocked her flying, skidding face down in the mud. She didn't move after that. He stood there with his leg aching from his knee up to his spine and his heart beating with apprehension until she stirred, moved her hands and got her arms under her. "That is what you could expect," he said. "You'd be dead. No excuses. No exceptions. The world won't pity you. I won't let you walk out of here thinking you can take anyone you like in a fight. You're not strong enough. That's the end of it." He threw the stick down. He walked past her in the rain, left there to come to terms on her own, walked up to the porch and went inside. Finding the pain in his leg and thigh as he clumped the steps. His boot was soaked with blood, and he found as he rolled up his pants leg that he was shaking. Jin was probably going to heave up her stomach between crying and cursing his name. But he hadn't broken any bones he had hit her nowhere that could cripple her. He that he hadn't, and the thinking she had to do took time. He got down the pot of rags and bandaged his leg while the fire started, figuring she was going to need the rags as well when she came in. Thunder cracked and the rain battered against the roof. He limped to the door and opened it. She was gone from where he had left her. She wS out in the rain, battering against the tree with great clumsy strokes, left and right, staggering as she swung. "Jin!" He wasn't sure she heard him in the rain, in her state of mind. He swore and stepped out onto the porch. She kept swinging away, completely soaked to the bone. He went out after her, across the yard. As he approached she turned around, sword in both hands. He stopped, seeing the anger and shame in her face. She threw down the sword, in the mud, and with her hands and teeth began to strip off the bindings of the weighted clothing. He didn't move. Only stood and watched as she threw it down into the mud. She treated his gear like that, but he didn't say anything. She took off the extra padding from her arms, and contained removing every bit of protection. He understood then as she snatched up her training sword. She lunged at him, and he dodged back, and to the side. She didn't give him any room, or moment to regroup. He remembered his own sword lying in the mud, and threw himself into a slide and grabbed it. He cut at her legs, and she cleared the sweep. He hurled himself up, and attacked for her sword, trying not to hit her directly. She clipped his arm as he moved. "All right," he said, and motioned for her with his free hand. She tried his position and guard, then an attack that startled him into a defense and a quick flurry of swipes that were without contact. She lunged and he ducked before, shoving her with all his force. She went down hard, and skidded in the mud. She was on her knees before he slammed her down again with a restrained kick. She went motionless again. He stared silently before noticing her heaving became irregular. Interrupted by violent shaking. Though the rain made her completely in audible, Tien knew she was sobbing. He stalked off, gathered up the equipment and took it up to the cabin, in the porch before he looked back and saw her where she had fallen. Tucked up, a small ump outlined by the lightning flashes. He dumped everything and staggered back, grabbed her by the arms and hauled her up. He hauled her along, stumbling and slipping in the mud. A stabbing pain was in his leg but he made it into the house and set her beside the fire. He gave her a quilt and she snatched it around herself. She averted her eyes from him, sitting with her back to the fire. Wc: 3,174 Twc: 18,888 |
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| Tien | Jul 18 2016, 09:54 AM Post #10 |
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Triclops
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"I haven't quit," she said in a hoarse, tired voice, and sent a chill through him. "I beat you," he responded, "with an attack you didn't know. I've been doing this all my life. There'll always be one you don't know. And I could have hit you with several. People won't always bother fighting you fair. That's the truth, never mind what you want. I don't want to see you end up dead for nothing. You're good. Possibly the most gifted student I've ever seen, including myself. But skill isn't everything in the world. You pushed me, and you were ready to push everything else. You weren't going to see clearly until I pushed back." She turned her head halfway and looked at him with her exposed eye. "I haven't quit. So what did you prove? That you can beat me. That's no news. That I was sorry I made a mistake? That I made one when I hit you?" Her voice died out with a croak. She turned towards the fire, clutching the quilt to herself, himself sitting drenched in rain. But she stared off ahead of her with her chin trembling and the tears running down beside her mouth. "You didn't believe I could hit you. I knew I could. You saw it wrong." "There's truth to that, though not all of it. My leg caught. I strained it, it went stiff on me. Luck won't always be in your favor." "If you stop now I'll go with what I know." "You'll get yourself killed." "Maybe I will," her voice broke again, her face white in the flickering firelight. "But I actually keep my promises." That stung him. He stared at her a long time, and when he spoke his own voice came close to breaking. "We'll talk about it. Tomorrow, not right now. I'll get the rags." She shook her head, and rose to her feet limping awkwardly. She moved to her mat silently. Tien stood, and put the remaining rags to heat in the pot. She made no noise when he pressed the compresses to her back. He rested a hand on her shoulder, gave her a pat if only to annoy her. She was moving moderately well in the morning. He was the one limping, and he sat carefully with his breakfast. They ate inside, considering the damp porch. The padded clothes was a soaked mess. It would take work to recover it from its ruined heap on the porch. He had wrung out and washed their muddy clothes before she woke, and set them to dry near the hearth. He had made breakfast as well. He didn't ask anything of her that morning. He gave no orders. When he asked himself why, he recollected he had tried her too far and done something cruel, pushing her to a desperate self defense. No one of his skill should use his arts all out against a student. That was why his instincts laid him open to a cut leg. He could have taken her weapon away, and should have. If it were anyone else he would have. He would never felt that moment of stress. He wouldn't have taken any steps back. She didn't say a word that morning, only dressed and sat in a lump on the floor, distant from the fire and him as well. The food brought at least a little interest when he gave it to her. She at least ate with an appetite. "I said we would talk," he said after a while. She did not look up, or stop eating. "I tried to tell you with words. You wouldn't hear words. You wouldn't believe me. You insist on being a man. Then take a beating like one, take my advice like one, and listen when I tell you don't have the skill, or strength yet." A long silence. She took another bite and never looked at him. "I want you to stay here," he said. "Nothing will change. I'll go on teaching you. I'll teach you everything I can. But give up whatever notion of revenge you have. It's not going to buy you anything but grief. Someday you may surpass me. For now it's almost like having a daughter to teach." She looked up at him the way a dog might, glancing up from its meal. "This is awkward for me as well. I'm not doing this with great ease." That got him nothing but the stare. "Do I deserve to be hated?" He asked her.. "You came to my mountain, you disturbed my peace, you demanded this, you demanded that, you insisted on everything I gave you. All of which I granted in time. And now I deserve this?" There was a little tightening of her mouth. A blink. "Or are you sulking because you lost. That's not behavior I'll tolerate. Are we changing the rules today?" Her mouth trembled. Here eyes flashed. "You caught me with a damn trick. I didn't lose. You cheated." "We're not talking about games, here." She held up her hand asking for silence. So he went quiet and waited. And after a moment. "Are you going to interrupt me?" "No." She stared at the floor, her hands on her knees. "You cheated to beat me. I didn't expect that from my teacher. I should have, you're right, and I won't forget it, Tien. I wouldn't have trusted anyone else. Now there isn't anybody. Her chin shook and she raised her hand, insisting on his silence until she regained her calm. "I told you my bargain. I'll cook and I'll clean. I'll stay as long as it takes. I haven't quit. You'll teach me and you won't cheat me." "I didn't cheat." "Are you going to keep your word?" she asked. "I have kept my word." "Are you going to?" "Yes." "Are you going to cheat me this time?" "Listen," he said after a moment. "There was a boy when I was in training. His name was Li, and his family had enemies. One day he attacked their house. The guards killed him. That's the end of the story. He never grew up, and he never got smarter. His enemies are rich and his family lost a son." "Mine's dead," she replied. "Then at least think of your teacher and don't disgrace me with stupidity. Someone is responsible for you. And I couldn't teach you anything as long as you knew everything. You've lost sense of balance, here," He tapped his chest. "And everything's gone. Your courage is all because you don't mind dying. But you're likely to end up only dead, having done nothing you set out to do." She scowled at him. "Let me tell you something," he said then in a low voice. "You want to know another thing I've learned is that the sword is not the highest skill." For a moment he was back in training. It was his mentors voice. "It's a shadow of that skill. The substance is in yourself. The sword isn't the weapon. You are. I can teach you the higher skill, but I can't say it's going to be easy or make sense." "Fine." "Don't give me that. I've been patient. You ask me to teach you, and this is part of it. Go clean up, we'll begin soon." She nodded, with her mouth in a thin line. She went without protest to begin cleaning the mess they had made of the house. He was afraid she might change her mind, afraid she might leave in the dead of night. She could decide she knew enough and head out, armed with her crazy notions. She upset his stomach and disturbed his sleep. He lay still that night, staring up at the roof with his heart pounding, remembering what hate felt like. When he wasn't doing that he was reliving the moment he had backed up from a crazy woman armed with a sword. He hoped to teach her to rethink her notions and give up on her idea of personal revenge. He also had to maintain his own sense of balance, and not relive the past. There was too much anger there, and it disturbed him that he had disposed of less of it than he thought. Tien placed his hands on Jin's shoulders lining her up with an old tree in the field. "It's simple if you pay attention and don't fool around," he said, giving her legs a minor adjustment. "Focus on your breathing for now. The rest will come in time." She held the stance perfectly. Arms akimbo, parallel each other ahead of her chest. She drew in deep inhales through her nose, completely motionless in every way unless directed by him. "There aren't any motions required for this. Just reflect inwards and focus on an outward movement. Push everything out in the direction your facing." At those words, she began visibly straining herself. Her face tightened, and soon enough her entire body began to shake almost violently where she stood. Immediately, he began to see a faint illumination manifesting itself just in the center of her palm. She inhaled and the illumination evolved into a small, pathetic mass of ki, pulsing and flickering. A smile formed on her face as she looked toward Tien, ensuring that they were both witness to her creation. He simply nodded, and pointed to the distant tree. She stumbled backwards as a thin trail of light travelled a few feet and flickered before fading anticlimactically. "Again." She managed to get it farther this time. "Again." With real force she all but nearly toppled the tree over. Her eyes shone with hope. Hope that turned his stomach. The seconds ticked as Tien watched silently. There was a sudden series of small explosions one after the other. Jin stood, arm outstretched feeling the gusts of wind that came up the field. Center of the target each shot. By the time the seventh ki blast found its mark in the straw dummy a few yard off, it was no more than just a wooden post with only a fraction of the initial straw left on it. She had made herself a decent shot, under his close direction. They spent a few nights with stories, tales he'd heard from his mentors. Tournaments he had entered, his fight with the sayains who landed on Earth, leaving out the many grim demises that came with it. He was glad to tell these stories to someone whose eyes flickered with interest as he spoke, and who was able to identify tactics he had used. "Did you have any family watching at the tournaments?" She asked him once he recalled the 23rd world martial arts tournament. "Brothers or anything?" He sighed and leaned his elbow on his knee, his hand behind his neck. "Not that I know of. I can't remember much about any family I have. At the least I can remember my mother, sometimes. What about yours?" She gave a strange breath that may have been a laugh. She didn't look up from her hands as she spoke. "I had a mother. A few brothers. Gone for a long time." She shrugged. Difficult as always getting anything from her. Wc: 1.984 Twc: 20,872 |
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4:36 AM Jul 11