Goodbye to the Knight✔️

35. One on one combat

"Before you even pick your weapon, you need to understand them, understand their parts." Killian says, "Do you still have the dagger that I gave you a few nights ago?"

"Of course," I have kept the dagger safely sheathed and attached to my belt using some string I have with me. I would never tell anyone, but it has helped keep my fear at bay.

I reach under my cloak and pull it out. Killian steps towards me and holds out a hand in which I place the dagger.

"The first thing a page always learns." He starts walking around me, "is that the dagger is always the last resort when is engaged in one on one combat."

"Because it is the smallest weapon?" I ask.

"Because," He drops his voice, and gently nudges the tip of the dagger's blade against my back "you have to be in the closest proximity to hit your target in the right spot." Even with its sheath on I feel the subtle power behind it and gulp.

"I see."

He places the dagger on the ground then walks back in front of me, "But today, we are going to fight with swords."

My eyes widen, "We are going to fight one another?"

"Do you want to learn or not?"

"I thought you would just show me how to do the moves and I could practise on something not alive."

Killian lets out a soft chuckle, "Chérie, you could not even get close to striking a blow on me,"

I narrow my eyes. "I might."

"Are you worried you will?" He asks, cocking his head.

"No!" I exclaim exasperated that he doesn't understand my worry. I have seen swords in action, they are sharp and dangerous and I am in no position to be wielding one, I'd probably end up hurting myself in the process.

"Calm down, look behind you."

I spin on my heal and see Sage coming, carrying three long wooden sticks. I turn back to Killian and frown, "You were winding me up."

"Of course." He smirks and I groan at my own foolery, of course I wouldn't be starting off with a real sword.

Sage greets us and hands us both a stick, "Ell, Killian."

"Sage," Killian replies nodding, "thank you for bringing us some swords."

"Ready to learn." Sage says excitedly.

"Have you done any fighting before?"

"Not sword fighting, but I have been in a few fights before."

Well, I'm learning things already. I never would have guessed Sage was a fighting type of person, but then again he does carry around a knife at all times.

Killian draws my attention back as I hear him draw out his actual sword.

"As I said to Ell, you need to know the sword before you use it."

Sage nods and Killian continues holding up the sword, "This is the blade and we call the tip of it, the point."

Okay, easy enough to remember that.

"Down here are the quillons." He gestures to the cross section of his sword. "Then we have the handle, and finally at the bottom, the pommel which you should not hold."

"Why not?" I ask curiously.

"The pommel counter balances the sword,"

"Okay."

"Now, copy me on your sticks,"

We pick ours up, and begin following Killian's instructions.

"First, place your dominant hand high up than your lesser one, this allows you better control, ah Sage," He goes over to Sage, "you want to lessen your grip. We aren't holding onto our swords for dear life, instead we want fast, flexible hands that can move easily."

I look down and re-adjust my hands slightly.

"Good, now the key to fighting well, is to relax. You cannot be stiff like a board and wave your arms around wildly, instead you need to be loose, fluid, always moving,"

He then shows us how to correctly hold stand ready for an attack, feet apart, and knees loosely bent.

"What many people don't know about attacking is it's not just randomly swinging you sword with brute strength. It is instead focusing your strength and carefully thrusting or swinging the sword at precise points, for example the weakest parts of your opponent or hitting their sword mid swing."

He demonstrates, by showing us a sequence of precise moves.

"But first, the most important part is to be able to defend yourself, there is no point knowing how to attack if you can't block your enemies when they take a stab at you."

Killian goes on to show us how to block, and that alone is exhausting, before moving onto throwing some of our own attacks. We alternate partners, taking it in turns to watch on the side using it as an opportunity to practise the move alone before testing it on each other.

By the end of our first lesson, both Sage and I are sweating buckets whereas Killian looks only mildly flushed if at all.

"You both did well for your first time."

"I definitely feel more prepared than I did before, though I'm just hoping I never need to use these skills properly." Sage wipes the sweat off his forehead.

"You never know, especially in times like these," Killian says darkly, a shadow flittering across his face making me wonder what he knows, or rather what he has experience.

Sage pulls me up from my collapsed position on the ground. "Come, it's time for us to embrace the soothing waters of the lake and clean off."

I pull away quickly, "It is not appropriate for us to swim together, you should know that Sage!"

He face palms, "Not naked of course, we are all wearing braies are we not?" He looks to Killian and me and I slowly nod.

"Exactly, we can all stay covered, Ell you can stay wearing your under tunic too."

"This is my only set of clothes though, I don't want it getting wet." Though the idea of swimming in the mountain lake tempts me a lot but not as much as a cold night.

"That won't be a problem." Killian says from behind us.

"Oh?"

"The hut keeps some spare clothing in a draw, for visitors in case of bad weather, you can wear those." He explains.

Well, there is nothing holding me back now.

"See you in the water!" Sage exclaims at my receding back as I head towards the cottage in search of the change of clothes.

A/N:

Wow! This chapter was definitely fun to write, I also got to learn a lot about longswords myself! I didn't realise that there is a community of people who do longsword fighting as a sport with tournaments and everything! 

Braies were medieval mens undergarments (underwear) they had a few different designs, ranging from short and resembling boxer-briefs to long and hanging loosely under the knee in billowing mounds of fabric. Women were thought to wear loose fitting dresses known as a 'smock' or 'chemise' but little facts are known for sure.

Also as I said in the beginning of the book Ardonshire is completely fictional and items/culture/traditions/other things will differ at times to what it was really like. I do however try to stick as similarly to facts as I can!

Comment and vote if you enjoyed! 

SouthernAlps over and out...