Training
#32 of Dragon Hunter Saga
I walk into the compound and watch as Ecthelon puts the -recruit- through her paces in the training ring. Him winking at me as I walk into the area, and leaning against the rails. "Alright then seeing as you know so much about sparring, lets see how well you can block me with your arming sword." Ecthelon takes five swings in rapid succession at the woman, making sure to turn his blade to the flat side when it hit her.
I wince thinking of the bruises he was giving her, but she really did ask for it. The woman didn't stand a chance at blocking any of the swings Ecthelon dealt to her, however she almost dodged the final one. Doing so made her trip landing on her rump, Ecthelon whacking her on the shoulder with the flat of his blade.
Ecthelon shakes his head, mocking the woman on the ground. "The children fight better than you do, Timothy the pure human in the bunch would have at least stopped one of the hits." The woman on the ground starts crying, Ecthelon pauses and blinks dumbfounded. I shake my head and speak, "you are embarrassing yourself woman. I imagine you are one of those people in the Old World that believed that everyone had to be nice to you because of what ever random reason that you could think of. Is your only experience with fighting on video games?"
The woman still crying nods her head, and I shake my head again and wave Ecthelon out of the ring. I think towards Cassie, {sweety is your mom free at the moment I need her here to deal with her recruit}. After a few minutes Cassie responds, {she's on her way Hunter Gwen}.
I walk away from the training ring and sit on one of the chairs from this morning, waiting for Tammy to show up. It didn't take long for Tammy to blaze into the compound looking angry, she pauses as she hears crying. When she turns and sees the woman in the ring sitting on the ground crying she looks shocked.
I stand up and walk towards her, "yanno; it's funny. All Ecthelon did was try to have her show off her supposed skill to him, by rapidly striking at her five times. He made a point to turn his blade each time at the last moment, she couldn't block even one of them. Then when she stumbles and hits the ground she starts crying like a child."
Tammy shakes her head, "I watched these people when I was a child thinking how spoiled they were. Always getting their way, and making people do what they wanted. It's the same problem Calliope had, thinking they were the most important thing in the world. The problem with thinking that each individual is of the exact same high level importance, is that no one is. The world isn't here to make your life easy, the world doesn't care about you. You have to make the world care by showing the world you are worth existing." She looks at the woman who had now progressed to quiet sobbing, as if she was rethinking her outburst. "The world is filled with things that want to kill you now, you don't survive by crying like a child. Find a job more suited to you, you are never going to become a guard. If you ever wind up 'serving time' you will be working hard, and not doing actual guard work." Tammy turns away from the woman, who had stopped crying and was looking annoyed.
Tammy bows to me, "sorry for wasting the time of your Arms Master; Hunter Gwen. I shall let Samuel know what has happened and that we need to screen people much better than we have been." She then walks out anger in her steps as she left, I turn to the woman in the ring. "Now get your sorry arse out of my compound," the woman stands and gets ready to say something to me. When Starburst lands on the outer wall and looks at her, the woman takes a deep breath then and says. "I will bring up this treatment to my local council person, it is inhumane how I was treated here."
I look up at Starburst who lets out a huff of smoke and lowers his head into the yard, "and woman; what do you think that will do for you?" She gets an angry look on her face, "it's not decent I have rights! You can't beat on me, that is abuse." Ecthelon steps out of the kitchen door and with a angry look on his face waves in the woman's direction. "This Hunter Gwen is why I have issues with humans for the most part. Their belief that they are better than the rest of the world simply because they exist." He got a far away look, "they cause the deaths of people who were worth more than their own lives." He shakes his head and then looks at me, "when you are finished please come into the salle and we will see where I can help you." He then stiffly walks over to the training room and goes inside carefully closing the door. Starburst turns one eye at me, might want to give him a few minutes to collect his thoughts he was restraining his mouth on that for you Gwen. Odd way to word it but if Starburst thinks the elf needed a few minutes then I'll give it to him. Jake took that moment to walk into the compound getting ready to say something when the woman stops him.
"I wish to make a public complaint to the council about the behavior of the Hunter and her people." Jake looks at me a moment and raises an eyebrow, "and what does this complaint contain Miss..?" The woman stands straighter and says, "they were abusive to me. The 'Arms Master' hitting me with his sword, also him and that crazy that follows her around threw knives at me! Knives I tell you." The woman was now red faced and Jake looks at me, and I shrug my shoulders. "Technically what she has said is correct Jake, though; to get the full story should she wish to carry this as far as she wants it to. You should ask around to the guards that came to watch Ecthelon and Shadow spar this morning. Find out what they saw happen, and present that to the council."
Jake smiles, I had a feeling he knew a little about what happened this morning; or at least who he could talk with. Jake looks at the woman with a smile, "certainly Miss. Just stop by my office in about an hour to fill out the official paperwork, and in a month when the next council session happens we can bring this up." The woman gets a happy look on her face and marches out, Jake shaking his head after she leaves.
"She does know that if you let it happen it is most likely the correct action, right?" Jake asks, Starburst huffs out another puff of smoke and I chuckle. " I figure that by the time we finish with her trash in front of the court people will rethink bringing up bogus charges to the council. Is there something you stopped by for Jake?" I ask politely then, he nods his head swiftly; "oh yes! A number of the shop keepers are concerned about the increased bandit attempts on the city. They would like it if you would at least discuss the possibilities if they breached the city walls with the guard captains."
Starburst eyes Jake, "they do realize the point of having guard captains is for them to be solely in charge of such things; yes?" Jake chuckles in response, "no I doubt that the general people understand that at all. They still think that you are suppose to be in charge and the head of the military even if you can't harm humans."
I wave my hand, "I'll set up a conversation with Tammy and Samuel; will that suffice?" Jake nods his head and shuffles a few papers in his hands around, looking them over. "Yes Hunter, that should ease their concerns at least." He puts one of his papers on the top of the pile looking it over twice then looking up at me, with a serious look on his face. "Now listen, I'd rather you spent a good portion of your time learning fighting skills Hunter. It will probably take a few years to get the people to understand that you have a job, and it's not running the city."
He then turns and leaves muttering something about numbers under his breath, Starburst chuckles. "I think he wound up in a job he prefers Gwen, I doubt he would have done well as a leader long term. Though giving him a job where he can keep his nose in the goings on of the city letting him give advise where he sees fit is exactly what it seems he is best at." I nod my head in agreement, he did seem to be thriving well in the job he has. I guess he handles bureaucracy well. Starburst peers at the salle, "I think he's calmed down enough Gwen. Though I would not comment on anything broken in there, from what I know of him he is very proud of how he can keep his calm in any situation."
Starburst shakes his head, "when that woman acted like a child it brought out something in his mind that troubles him. Maybe one day he will tell you what it is,' he tilts his head thinking. "I will go and pester Tammy and Samuel about talking with you," he tilts his head the other way. "Maybe you and Ecthelon should have dinner with the two of them to discuss it? Ariawyn has some rooms that would suffice for meetings with meals. Do you think that will work for you?" I nod my head and he starts hopping rooftops, I was glad the dwarves had planned ahead for the possibility for something large to land on them.
I slowly walk into the training salle, not knowing what to expect. When I get inside I notice that one of the iron wood training dummies was now a pile of wrecked wood. Thankfully the large mirrors were untouched, if he had broken them; it would have been pricey to replace if made by human hands. Not sure how expensive they would be made by some other species.
Ecthelon was standing in the corner, I could see in the mirrors his eyes were closed and he was attempting to breathe slowly. It bothered me deep inside that he appeared so wounded, and I wondered what could have caused the inner pain he was suffering from.
After a brief moment he, eyes still closed; points to a table along the back wall. I walk over to it and there was a falchion sitting on the table in the approximate shape mine was in. I hear Ecthelon's voice behind me, calmer than I have heard it before. "That Hunter is about equal weight to your sword, so it should suffice for training you in it's use."
Ecthelon holds out a matching sword, "you will be mirroring my moves today after I see how you grip the sword." I pick it up and hold it with both of my hands, Ecthelon walks over and looks at how I am holding it and adjusted my grip slightly and moves a couple of my fingers. Oddly it made it easier to hold the sword verses how I had been holding it.
He then stands in the middle of the room after locking the door, and proceeds to swing the sword in a pattern. He then turns around and says, "now I know you probably saw the whole pattern; but I am going to slow it down and show it again. Then I want you to do it," he then turns around and repeats the pattern slower. Now I had seen the pattern originally, but now I see a few tiny motions I had not noticed previously. After he turns around and waits, I think a moment on the pattern and then I step into the center of the room and copy the pattern he performed.
He nods his head at me in the mirrors, "good; again and faster." I repeat it moving faster this time, he nods again. "Alright keep repeating it until I say otherwise and try to speed it up as you feel capable. As a Hunter you should be able to do this much faster than I can at my top speed." I then continue performing the pattern he showed me.
He walks around me watching me as I do the pattern, correcting my posture as I continue. He speaks while doing this, "weapons work is a lot of memorization of patterns. You had to learn to fight on the fly, so the best way to fix your issues is to get your body to learn the motions. Once memorized your natural ability will show you which is best to use when." I keep repeating the pattern almost falling into a trance from the repetitive motions.
I can feel my, for lack of a better term; 'other sense' travel outwards from me. I can feel my mind traversing over the land and water surrounding the city, sensing nothing wrong. My mind knowing the limit of where the city exists could feel a subtle change once my mind traveled beyond the territory of the city. I could feel a sense of wrongness in the air of the world past the city's territory. It almost felt slimy, and I felt myself rush back to my body which was now lying on the ground of the salle with Ecthelon looking down worriedly at me.
I feel Cheshire enter my mind, {let him know you are alright Gwen; I shall be there in a moment to explain}. I smile at Ecthelon, "I'm alright; Cheshire said he was coming to explain what happened." Ecthelon nods his head and still helps me up carefully as if I might break. The window opens and Cheshire flies in and lands on the edge of the training area. He looks at me a moment as if I were under a microscope making me feel self conscious, then speaks.
"Well, Gwen; it seems you have one of the rarer talents among Hunters. This ability lets you send out your mind to 'hunt' for those with evil intent, and it can tell you how bad an area you are about to enter is." He gives me a hard look, "this ability Merlin feared. He was scared one of your kind would use it to create major evil in the world. This is why he cursed your kind Gwen, only one percent of one percent have the possibility of this ability." I shook my head, "I have utterly no desire to do anything evil. Outside the 'territory' for the city the world felt slimy, if that is how evil feels why would I want any part of it?"
Cheshire stand up and walks over to the destroyed dummy and sits on the largest piece as if it was meant to be used just for that. Ecthelon speaks, "because like most humans he feared that which he could not hope to understand." He turns to me an odd look on his face, something akin to amazement; and adoration? He continues, "I knew someone long ago with your talent. He was not treated well for it, and was considered a villain in history due to his desire to ensure that all species could survive, not just humans."
I turn to look at him wide eyed, "you did? Are they still alive and who is/was it?" Cheshire frowns as Ecthelon speaks, "no; he is dead. The first born son of Arthur Pendragon, Mordred."