Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Dom had heard her move and return to her feet, then the step. The next sound was the soft click of armour and the hiss of motion and he was able to sweep his staff from his right to left, held mostly vertical, to parry what he assumed would be an incoming strike from her right to his left.
He'd miscalculated, which wasn't surprising, as his battle tactic was to either seize the advantage of surprise and win the fight in the first few shots or parry the first shot and counterstrike. He realised he'd never actually had to use more than one motion on an opponent before, and he'd never fought anyone else with another polearm other than the man that taught him. His staff connected with hers, but was coming at the wrong direction to deflect. All he managed to do was push the strike further than it would normally have gone where, instead of the centre of his chest, it struck painfully at his shoulder just beneath the collarbone.
He gasped in sudden pain, grunting and staggering back a couple of steps. He wasn't a seasoned fighter and couldn't shrug blows off like one. He reset himself and huffed out a little pained bark of effort as he swung diagonally down from his left to right, hoping to tap her shoulder or head in retaliation, but his left hand felt tingly and it began to hurt to breathe.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Kiko jerked her head and upper body back. She did not need her eyes to know where he was at this time. The breathing and bark of pain gave her more than enough clues. Plus, she knew what he had done. Her staff had been swept to the right. She felt the skip of the wood as they connected and the smack to his collarbone.
She might be unsure of her feet, but she was sure of her hands. The staff was spun in a quick half circle, her bottom hand bringing it up and over. The collision happened right where she had heard him breathe, the wood bouncing back and vibrating her hand. Kiko tried for a new attack at his knee with the other end, hoping to push him off balance and give her a little more breathing room.
She was starting to get the hang of this, however, the blindfold was excessive, and hot. Sweat was running down her temple and spilling into the corners of her eyes. It didn't matter to her sight, but it was damn annoying. Kiko grit her jaw and ignored it. She was listening for the new gasp of air from him.
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Dom grimaced and grunted again, the block sending a shock up his arm to his aching shoulder. But he knew she was right in front of him and guessed she'd swing the other end of the staff to capitalize on the attack. He wasn't deft or graceful, but he was taller and heavier than her.
Instead of attempting to block the strike he turned his staff to the horizontal, grit his teeth and stepped forward into her hard, shoving with all his might at his own shoulder level. What he was hoping for was to catch her staff or shove at her shoulders to put her on her back. Her incoming strike didn't connect with his knee, but ignoring it meant that it did connect hard with his outer thigh. It wasn't a crippling blow but more pain screamed into his body and he barked out a curse.
He felt himself shaking a little, exertion like this not really part of his usual routine, and in far more pain than he was used to. Ah well, he mused, he came out here to experience new things. And getting the crap kicked out of you by a skilled warrior was something he'd not had happen yet.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Kiko was utterly noiseless. She dragged fresh air in from her nose instead of her mouth and pared everything else back to essential motions. Kiko spent years in a forest; years where she learned everything about stealth. It was that or death. Dominic's grunts of pain would have gotten him mauled where she had once lived.
She couldn't stop the collision. Her jerk back had been automatic, and she was still uncomfortably close, something she quickly found out with his new attack. She did not fight the shove, either, though it might have seemed so. She stumbled back and dropped the staff purposefully. It was time for something different. She knew he would drop low. He had to have heard her or the staff hitting the ground. She had been silent before. She was not planning on staying still now.
Kiko found her footing and slid behind Dominic's shoulder. She was prepared to strike him with the edge of her hand, right where his spine connected to his neck. She could see it in her mind's eye. If done correctly the strike would stun him.
It could kill him, too.
The warning voice crept into her mind to poke holes in her thoughts. That was when she came up short, and ripped the blindfold off her face.
Stop. I concede.
The Bard was not an enemy, and what the hell was she thinking attempting that blind? Kiko stepped back in front of him. The fact that she had managed to get behind him blindfolded was not even remotely satisfying.
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Dom had heard the staff clatter down and was preparing to sweep his staff around low to tag her and take the whole foreward and rear arc. He suspected she might dodge, and was planning to take a gamble on the wide sweep, though his body protested. If he had done he'd have been too slow anyway.
He sagged immediately as she said she yielded, planting his staff and leaning on it, blowing out a hard and pained breath. The adrenaline began to ebb away and it showed in his voice as he replied
"Stars and stones thank you!" he wheezed, grimacing. "I hurt in my...well...everything..." It had been less than a minute of exertion but it was, as he'd noted, much longer than any of the meagre combat encounters he'd had to endure before. Even in training it hadn't been so. His shoulder ached, his leg ached, he trembled and was sweating.
"So...same time again tomorrow?" he said shakily, laughing through his heavy breathing. "Figure if you clock me enough times I'll get used to it."
Kiko laughed, but it was a harsh sound. There were too many memories clogging her mind for it to be easy. Her grandfather would have never taken Dominic as a student. He would have been considered unfit to hold a weapon due to his handicap. Hell, in past years he might have even been left out to die.
Her lip twisted in a grimace. The Bard was not a fighter, true enough, but he was not helpless and he certainly had learned how to make the most of his abilities.
You want to do this again?
The laughter was a little easier this time around. He'd just got done saying everything hurt and here he was making plans to repeat it.
Tell you what Bard, you get back to this meadow tomorrow and I'll be here.
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Dom laughed, though it became a groan as the shaking got to his shoulder. He hoped, perhaps in vain, that the landlord at the pub had a tin bath or a water butt that he could fill with scalding hot water and soak away the pains. It wasn't just the impact points now but both his arms, wrists, hands. Sparring hurt. Real combat would hurt even more.
"Sounds like a good deal. I only hope I'll be able to repay you." he mused, sweeping his staff around to find his coat and hat, donning them stiffly. He began walking slowly back toward the lane back to town.
"I want to experience as best I can the things that songs and stories get written about. And if I'm some useless cripple then no-one in their right mind is going to take me along adventuring. So I learned how to make the songs and tell the tales, but I got a long way to learn how to survive doing the research." he admitted.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Kiko strode along beside him as far as the lane. The afternoon sun was falling into the horizon and it would not be long before dusk was upon the world, especially not this late in the year. She considered following him back and discarded the idea, she was not in the habit of playing nursemaid and when he spoke she knew her instincts had been correct. Dominic was, as he said, self sufficient.
Useless you are not, Bard. And research? That only takes time, fortitude, and a bit of guts. Seems like you have all of those qualities in spades. And as for payment? You let me worry about that, I never turn down a chance to practice.
Which was true enough. Sometimes she was sorry she had left Exodus for that very reason. There was always someone to spar with while she had worked as a mercenary. Here in Wistvale she did not have the luxury of two dozen fighters on hand to battle.
Tomorrow, Bard. Enjoy your evening.
Kiko left the path and headed over the woods on the opposite side and was soon out of sight.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
He waved a hand in parting at her retreating form as her footsteps just vanished. He walked forward, careful as always, though trying to take notice of every little detail as he went. Even letting his mind revel in the novel pains the bout had caused.
"Neat trick. I wonder how she does it." he wondered out loud as he ambled along the path back toward town. He'd play a couple of numbers before bed, to keep up his bargains, but rest truly was paramount in his mind.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Kiko stuck her nose out of a empty thicket with a hare dangling from her wolfish jaws. She had spent the early hours scouring the area for something to eat. It was very sparse this morning, and several tries had netting her nothing but deepening hunger; until now.
She flopped down on the ground beside the barren bushes and proceeded to tear the animal to bits. She finished it all within minutes, her tail waving back and forth, front paws spread out to either side. And when she was done, she continued to nose at the earth whining and shuffling those same paws back and forth as if searching for more. She certainly did not leave anything for scavengers, not even blood. She had licked it clean.
She gave up looking for more, too. Instead, she sprawled over on her belly, and let the late autumn sunshine warm fur and bones. She had not being still for long when she heard the telltale signs of Dominic striding down the lane. It brought her out of the drowsy half sleep and the wolf shape.
"I see you braved the daylight."
The sun was rather intense, especially farther into the meadow.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Dom had managed to wheedle the barkeep into letting him use the water heater to fill a tin bath the previous night. Yes he knew that fire crystals were expensive. Yes he knew they were for paying customers. Yes he was very grateful and understood it was just this once and only because he'd been injured. The barkeep was like the town, tough as old leather, but strangely warm in his own way. He'd let him use the heater again. He'd need it.
"Brave? Ten years ago I mighta thought it brave to come see a lady. But my teenage days are long since gone." He smiled around his words, always with the mild flirtation. He very much liked being liked, and unless a lady prefaced her name with 'Sister' he found it often best to let a little complimentary flirtation seep in. I mean, who didn't like being considered attractive, for whatever reason?
He wore the same clothes he had the day before, in fact not currently owning any other clothes and simply made sure to brush and air them every day, and wash them whenever he could, to avoid having a stench. They'd been washed and worn so many times they were almost shapeless, though they fit him well and allowed him free movement. He shrugged off his coat and hat, placing it upon the coat and stepping away so as not to accidentally tangle himself in it. He'd also left his instrument in the care of the barkeep. He'd called it 'collateral' on the hot water.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Kiko tilted her head. She was not that far past her childhood years, not physically. But, mentally, well that was another story. She had never been what Dominic labeled as a teenager. The years when she might have found boys interesting, or at least compelling she spent hiding from everyone. All of her conquests were made long after she was considered an adult. That is if anyone considered two painful encounters as a conquests.
Kiko's mouth twisted but she did not say anything. Not about that, anyway. She fell into pace beside Dominic, glancing back down the lane. She did not expect anyone to be on the road, this was not a well-used path, but she was never unaware of the the world around her.
"The bravery is not for coming to see me, Bard. It is being willing to take abuse to learn."
Kiko laughed and ducked inside the meadow. She had found the dropped staff from the day before and had propped it up against the tall elm tree earlier.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Taking his time in centering himself, Dom lazily spun his staff in arcs at either side of his body. Oh when he'd woken up just after sunrise his shoulder had not liked him, not one bit. He rolled it to shake out the last of the stiffness, quietly singing as he warmed up. It was an undulating little ditty, warbling from the lowest to the highest points of his vocal range.
It didn't take long for it to be obvious he was doing ALL of his morning warmups. He spun the staff in such a manner that his fingers had to wind and flex to control it, as well as his arms. His breathing came from right in his diaphragm and his vocal chords were being pushed to each limit. He abated in the singing to reply
"Kiko. It's only abuse if it's not asked for. Just promise you won't hurt the hands or the voice. That's my bread and butter right there."
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Kiko uttered a laugh that had nothing of humor in it at Dominic's comment about abuse.
I would argue that point, Bard. Abuse occurs when the person you've entrusted betrays that trust. You could ask me to teach you all I know, and should I; for instance, chose your hands as targets... well, I would be abusing you. I will not, but that is hardly the point. You can still be abused even when you are the one doing the asking.
Kiko handed him a piece of silk. She had tucked it inside her armor before leaving the treehouse, finding the sash way too long for this exercise.
I thought we would try something a little more challenging today. Tie the silk around my eyes and I'm going to walk away from you. I want to see if you can find me. Of course, I'm going to try and find you, too.
In a crowd, an opportunistic thief, bully, or general hooligan will probably try to snatch your belongings figuring you for an easy mark. That is something you've already learned how to defend against, but a battle does not work that way. You should be able to attack, as well.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Dom went through the little ritual of carefully tying the ribbon to her eyes. He was, of course, trusting her word that she'd be properly blinded by it. If she were simply getting her jollies beating on a blind man then so be it. He wasn't out here to be mollycoddled. He surmised she was honest though, from their previous interactions.
Time to concentrate and try and track her motions. The click of armour, the rustle of feet in grass, the flap of fabric in a breeze, anything that might give her away. She seemed like she was light on her feet but she might be completely unused to moving blind. A simple missed rock could trip her enough to give her position away. To aid himself he actually fell back on his training as a singer, taking deep, slow breaths, holding them as long as he could to prevent his breath from whooshing through his nose and mouth. He would need every scrap of acuity he could bring.
He was determined to hear her. He knew that moving would alert her to his presence too. He just had to hope he could guess better. He doubted he was going to win this game.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.