Physical Training (Attn: Melenis)

[Talavin]

Physical training. It was without a doubt the most important thing that a warrior could do. When you boil life down to it's bare minimums, your body is the most important thing. Life is all about how you manipulate your body. Even those who are paralyzed manipulate themselves, the smallest shifting of facial muscles conveys a completely different emotion. A true warrior had to be a master of themselves; before they could master a blade, they had to be able to have an awareness of themselves, and confidence in their abilites. A warrior was nothing without their body. A man can fight without a blade, but without themselves, there is nothing.

 

With these thoughts in mind, Arath spent his days training in the Yards, becoming faster and stronger, more agile and swift. Every waking moment that he didn't spend training with a sword, he spent training his body. His first excersize of the day would be an excersize to train his agillity; he would draw two lines in the dirt, ten paces away from eachother. Afterwords, he would run from one line, to the other, touch the line, run back, touch the line, and repeat. Arath would spend about an hour on the excersize, then he would excersize his lower body, doing hundreds of squats and sit ups. Of course, he didn't neglect his upper body- he would do push-ups and lift weighted bars. Finally he did weapons training, and after that a long run as the sun went down to train his endurance.

 

Most of the other trainees were lazy, prefering to train for a while, then hang out with their friends, getting only half as much done as he did. However, he noticed one woman working as hard as he was. His initial reaction was to laugh and exclaim that a woman could never become a warrior, but he soon remembered his own history. Arath remembered how he was laughed at in Caemlyn by the Guard, and never given a chance. He would truely be a hypocrite if he allowed himself to put down another warrior-in-training without giving her a chance, which was what brought him to her side.

 

"Hello, I'm Arath Talavin. I know that training alone can be ineffective and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to do a friendly race?"

[Jehaine]

To the casual onlooker, Melenis would have been seated against a nearby wall for the past hour with her eyes closed, giving the impression of being asleep. However, given the time and place, that image didn't seem likely, and upon closer inspection she appeared to be meditating, going through several breathing exercises the traditional Warders would recognise as a basic Me'Arearth form to train the mind.

 

"Hello, I'm Arath Talavin. I know that training alone can be ineffective and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to do a friendly race?"

 

She had just switched to some basic stretching exercises to improve her natural agility when someone -- another trainee, by the looks of it -- approached her with the offer to train together. Melenis had seen him before in the Yards, he was one of the few that actually took his training seriously in her eyes. Seeing as the last time she had asked someone to spar her she had ended up with her face in the dirt within a few seconds, she decided to accept his offer. Given Arath's dedication to his training, it would be interesting to see where she'd rank up.

 

- "Very well. What's the course, five laps around the Yards?"

 

Though five laps might not be much compared to her normal training, it was still fairly early in the day, and she didn't want to tire herself out in case her trainers had anything in mind later in the afternoon. Five laps would suffice. She continued her exercises, but focused more on her leg muscles, warming them up for the race that was to come.

[Talavin]

Arath felt a little nervous, he wasn't good at socializing- especially with women. He was afraid that the woman in front of him would be in a bad mood and shoot down his offer, or call him a fool, or both. In fact, now that he thought about it, she had looked like she was resting, and prodding a resting woman was as bad as prodding a resting monster. Luckily for Arath, however, this woman seemed to be in a social mood today, so her responce was a kind, positive one.

 

"Very well. What's the course, five laps around the Yards?"

 

"Hmm," Arath contemplated. It wasn't a hard course, but it was early, and he supposed they could both use the warm up. Five laps around the yard that they were in wouldn't take a very long time, and he might have a new friend at the end of it.

 

"Sure, I'll throw a rock into the air, and when it hits the ground, we'll start. Here, this line here is the start line and the finish line." Arath drew a line in the dirt.

 

Both of the competitors took stance behind the line. "Ok, you ready?" upon seeing her nod her consent, he threw the rock up in the air. It seemed to take a long time in falling, drifting delicately like a leaf in the wind. Arath tensed as it got closer and closer to the ground, until finally it hit with a clunk acompanied by the thunder of two pairs of feet.

[Jehaine]

Given that the course wasn't a long one, Melenis could afford not to hold back in her run, going at full speed all the way. Occasionally glancing at her opponent, she couldn't help but notice the two of them were never far from each other. At times Arath would be in the lead, most notably after the straight sections where raw speed mattered more, and she'd catch up to him in the corners again where agility mattered more.

 

Nevertheless, it was clear from the start that the two of them were evenly matched. Halfway through the third lap, she decided that this would be the moment of truth for Arath... Would he start to slow down after his bursts of speed, or would he be able to keep going at his current rate? Either way, this race was starting to get interesting...

[Talavin]

As the rock hit the ground, the two of them sprinted through the track. Arath was suprised to realize that he didn't have to hold back at all to keep up with the woman beside him. It was actually a little embarising, concidering that he spent most of his time training his speed. Another thing that Arath noticed was that they were very evenly matched; however, they obviously had different strengths and weaknesses; Arath would pull ahead on the strait parts, and his opponent would pull ahead on the corners. He made a mental note to double his agillity excersizes.

 

The first four laps passed without anything eventful, but then on the final lap Arath realized a fatal error: he had made the end line right after a corner. Because there was no way that he could pull ahead on a corner, Arath knew that he had a big problem. Eventually, an idea hit him, and he began gradually slowing down, as if he was tiring out. He had to let her think that he was finished, and then put on a last burst of speed at the last turn and pull ahead. Arath let the finish line get closer, and closer, and closer, until wham! He sprinted as fast as he could, pulling ahead of the other runner.

 

Arath was just about to pass the finish line, victorious, until he saw something out of the corner of his eye. The woman had managed to make up enough ground on the corner that they were neck and neck. Arath could have pulled ahead had there been any more ground, however, there wasn't, and so they passed the end line at the exact same time, without any difference in between them.

 

Arath spoke between light pants: "I think that this one's a tie..."

 

It took him a moment to catch his breath, but when he did, he continued his sentence. "So how about a tie breaker? Not another race, it would end up the same... how about... a sit up competition? See who can do the most? Oh! And I don't think I ever got your name either."

 

 

[Jehaine]

Melenis took a deep breath of air, trying to relax a bit to get the fatigue out before it would get the chance to drain the strength from her muscles. A tie, however inconclusive that might be, did give her the best prospects of measuring her progress, and if it weren't for that race just now she wouldn't have realised she'd need to spend some more time training her speed.

 

As Arath mentioned sit-ups, she figured it would be for the best if they held another contest. After having seen what the two of them were capable of in terms of running speed, perhaps it'd be good to find out where ther strengths -- and, more importantly, weaknesses -- lay as far as their upper bodies were concerned.

 

- "I agree, that would be a good idea. The name's Melenis, by the way. Melenis Stormgate, from Far Madding."

 

She sat down near the finish line they had agreed on, waiting for Arath to do the same. Though it didn't matter to her who won as long as she got a good workout out of it, a small voice of pride managed to sneak in and make sure that Arath wouldn't be getting an easy victory off of her either.

[Talavin]

Melenis Stormgate, huh? It was definately a name that Arath was going to remember. Melenis was not what he imagined when he thought of a woman. She was strong, and more than just physically, in many ways she reminded Arath of himself. She was cool and composed, but at the same time far from cruel, in fact she was quite polite, but Arath had never gotten on her bad side.

 

"Hum, yeah. Except I have a feeling that if we don't put a limit to it, we'll be going on for days. How about this, you sit on that side of the line, and I'll sit on this side. See that shadow over there? The one of the branch? Well eventually it'll be directly over the line, and when that happens we will stop. Then, we'll write the number down behind us so that neither one of us can see it, and stand up to see who won. I'll count us off."

 

Arath and Melenis sat on opposite sides of the line, both ready to start. Arath knew that he could do at least three-hundred sit ups, and couldn't wait to see how well his opponent would do. "Ok, ready... set... go!" With that they were off, and Arath quickly sat up and fell back down as quickly as he could. One. Two. Three. Four. Five...

[Jehaine]

Melenis nodded, looking at the branch as she estimated the time it would take for its shadow to cross the distance. As Arath counted them off, she mentally prepared herself, closing her eyes to stabilise herself in the Void. She was... aware of Arath counting, as she was aware of everything around her, but that was normal, as the Void was proven to enhance the senses.

 

One, two, three...

 

She dropped into the first sit-up at the same time Arath did, focusing on her own movements in order to conserve the energy she knew she'd need. The younger Andoran seemed physically stronger than her, but there was a decent chance she could make it simply for having less weight for her abdomen to move around.

 

...Twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six...

 

No signs of slowing down on either side, it seemed, though that was only logical given that they had just started. Given that Arath had been the one to suggest this, she figured he would be fairly confident in this particular exercise, and to have him start to slow this early on would be a gross miscalcutaion on his behalf. She expected better of him.

 

...One hundred and fifteen, one hundred and sixteen, one hundred and seventeen...

 

The shadow of the branch was creeping closer to the finish now, the wind gently rocking it as if it, too, tried to push the two contestants into making more speed. From outside of the Void was the awareness that her abdominal area was starting to protest, but the Void held firm, for now.

 

...One hundred and fourty nine, one hundred and fifty, one hundred and fifty one...

[Talavin]

Up, down, up, down. It was all a very continous rhythm. It was hypnotic, and Arath could ignore the burning sensation that was beginning to appear in his abbs. He focused only on the rhythmical pattern, and devoted a small bit of brain power to keep track of his count. Every now and then he would glance at the shadow creeping up on them, to see if he needed to speed up for the last stretch. Arath wasn't that exhausted, however, he did more sit-ups on a daily basis- the only problem was the time limit that he had imposed.

 

As the shadow grew dangerously close to the drawn line, Arath sped up his pace, going much faster than before. Now that his rhythm was thrown off, he made sure to focus only on his breathing, and noted briefly that Melenis had also sped up for the final seconds. He did sit-up after sit-up, until finally the shadow covered the line, and they both stopped. Arath panted, not used to doing so many sit-ups in such a short amount of time.

 

"Alright, let's write the number behind our backs." Two-hundred and fifty-seven. Arath felt pride that he had done that many sit-ups; even if he didn't win, he was definately getting a great work out! "Ok, you ready?" With Melenis' consent, they both stood up. To Arath's shock, the exact same number was written behind where the woman had sat. He had to bite back a chuckle at the situation, this was certainly unexpected. "Ok, I don't think that doing regular excersizes will help us at all, why don't we solve this with a good old fashioned brawl, no weapons?" Arath asked while getting into a ready stance.

[Jehaine]

After the shadow had finally reached the branch, Melenis stopped, writing the number of sit ups she had made behind her back. Still wrapped in the Void, she was holding the fatigue at bay, though she could feel it gnawing along the edges, especially after that final burst of speed.

 

As the two of them stood up, Melenis noticed the numbers they had written down were the same. At the mention of a spar however, the dark brown haired girl let go of the Void to check on the condition she was in... and almost stumbled against the nearby wall, clutching her stomach as sweat beaded on her face.

 

- "Just... a minute. Need to... catch my breath..."

 

Light, it felt like she'd been hit in the stomach by a club-wielding Ogier. She knew she had put more strain on her abdominal muscles that she usually did, and in a faster pace as well, but unless she wanted to spend some time in the infirmary from overexerting herself she needed some time to recover.

 

Sitting down again, she took a couple of deep breaths as she wiped the sweat off of her face. She'd definitely want to take Arath on for that spar, but the condition she was in right now would cause her weapon to fly out of her hand at the first blow. Drinking some water from the canteen she had brought, she offered some to Arath as well.

 

After a couple of minutes of resting in the shadow and convincing her heart to stay in her chest, she stood up again, unlimbering the weapon she never went far without and gently placing it against the wall she had been leaning against earlier. She took up a stance mirroring Araths -- though there were small differences, of course -- and waited for him to attack first.

[Talavin]

Arath felt a little glee at seeing that Melenis was in much worse shape than he was, but didn't gloat. The fact that she could keep up with him at all was impresive, considering that women were much less physically capable naturally than men. Arath took the canteen that was very politely offered to him and drank a swig, before giving it back. Arath got into a fighting stance, and saw that Melenis was also ready. The past couple of times, there had been a warning to start, but this time there would be nothing of the sort.

 

Arath rushed forward, throwing a fist at the woman's head, but at the last minute changed and tried to kick her feet out from under her. He did his best to just imagine her as a man, for the idea of fighting a woman was unsettling. He didn't hold back at all though, because he respected Melenis far too much for that. She kept up with him before, and it would be an insult her to hold out on her now- she was not just a woman, she was a warrior.

 

The fight not like a sword fight at all. Sword fights were graceful, like dances, and you always kept your distance in sword fights. Fist fights were different; instead of staying in midrange, like you would with a sword, you had to get in close, inside of your opponent's guard. Fist fights were fast, even faster than blade fights, a single mistake and you had a broken nose. Because of this, Arath absorbed himself in the fight, letting his attention be completely devoted to Melenis.

 

Punch met block, kicks were dodged, holds were broken. It may not have been the same dance that blade fights were, but the fight had its own rhythm, it's own beat. Melenis punched and he blocked, while moving in and down for a punch at her ribs. She brought up her knee in an attempt to bash his face in. Arath shifted so that instead of punching her, he pushed off of her raised knee, and once again they were in the mid range, circling eachother. They came together once again, getting closer and closer until Arath managed to get a clamp on her head. For an instant it was almost like they were preparing for a dance and their genders were reversed. His hands were around her neck, but then he clamped his elbows together so that she couldn't escape the grasp.

 

Just before he was about to knee her in the stomach, Arath saw Melenis' fist closing in on his stomach from very close range. At the last second he pushed the woman away from him, and they were once again circling each other. Melenis ran at him, trying to punch him in the face. This time, however, he caught the offending limb instead of dodging or blocking, and in return sent his elbow towards her cheek. Unable to pull away or dodge, she managed to catch the elbow with her free hand.

 

"Hm, now what?"

 

Aparently, that wasn't what the woman wanted to hear, so she attacked him with her knee. Because Melenis had one of his arms (and he had one of hers) he couldn't dodge, so Arath raised his leg and winced as her knee hit his leg. It wasn't that bad, because she didn't have enough room to make it as powerful as it could have been. Now they were really in a deadlock; they each had one of the other's arms, and one their legs were tangled. The tension was so thick that it could be cut with a knife. Arath knew the situation that they were in, and knew that Melenis knew it just as well. If one of them lowered their leg, the other would have a free shot. If one of them let go of the other's arm, the other would have a free shot.

 

"We seem to be in a mess, here," Arath stated. Melenis nodded slowly. "Let's call this one another tie and each back off at the count of three?" Another nod. "One, two... three." Both of the trainees let go at the same time, and stumbled backwards. "Alright, I give up, why don't we just call the whole thing a draw for now?" Arath requested, extending his hand towards her.

[Jehaine]

Melenis hesitated a moment or two before nodding in response. Though she had found what was perhaps the ideal training partner for her, she nevertheless couldn't shake the feeling that this had ended up to be a rather disappointing string of ties. Despite that, she was content with the workout she had gotten today.

 

- "Indeed. We should measure our progress more regularly, wouldn't you agree?"

 

Massaging some sore spots on her arms where she had blocked some of Araths punches, she made a mental note to try and get a hot bath later in the evening. Apart from getting rid of the accumulated sweat, a good soak should help her heal the bruises from the times Arath had managed to get past her defenses. She had much to learn, still, but wasn't about to let that hold her back from trying. Quirking an eyebrow, a sudden thought hit her as she slung her own weapon across her shoulder. Turning to the brown haired Andoran, she asked a question.

 

- "Arath, what weapon are you specialising in?"

 

Given their obvious similarities in their respective training schedules, she guessed he'd had to have a weapon similar to hers as well. A quarterstaff perhaps, or another polearm? Either way, it should prove to be interesting how the two of them ranked up to each other in weapon combat... Though judging by the way she was feeling now, that would have to wait for another day.

 

 

Melenis

Pleased with today's training.

[Talavin]

Arath had gotten over his panting, and was apreciating the slight burning of his muscles. It had been a while since he had sparred with another opponent, and the buzz was always welcome. Melenis was a good opponent, and he had enjoyed the challenge, especially because it was friendly. It had been a while, years in fact, that he had fought a friendly fight. And most of the time he came away bruised. Because of this he was glad to hear Melenis' next statement.

 

"Indeed. We should measure our progress more regularly, wouldn't you agree?"

 

"Most definately," Arath agreed.

 

Seeing the woman massage her arms, Arath felt a sliver of pride. Pride in his abilities was not something that Arath had felt often. Of course, he acknowledged that he himself had some bruises around his body, but he had much worse, and fought with much worse. He couldn't wait to fight Melenis with a sword, for he had a feeling that the challenge would be exciting. Another reason he was looking forward to fighting her again was to measure his own abilities. Arath had been training in the Yards for weeks, and he felt like there was no progress. However, sparring with someone near his own skill instead of a teacher showed him that he was not stagnating. Mainly what he had learned in the Yards so far was bladework, and he couldn't wait to test his abilities.

 

"Arath, what weapon are you specialising in?"

 

"Oh, I'm specializing in the Wakizashi," Arath replied. Hearing the chime of the Tower bell, he was distracted and missed the suprised look on Melenis' face. "Oh! That time already? Sorry, I have to go to bladework lessons. Hopefully I'll see you again." With that Arath jogged off in a hurry.

[Jehaine]

A small degree of surprise was visible on Melenis' face as Arath mentioned his preferred weapon of choice. While the training the two of them were basically throwing themselves at wasn't focusing on a certain weapon type like some of the others, it was still a surprise to hear that the Andorman used a weapon that was radically different from hers. She was about to discuss the topic further when the Tower bell rang.

 

Being cut short of what she had wanted to say, she instead simply shrugged as Arath made his way to his lesson. Having a quarterstaff-like weapon, her own lessons wouldn't start until after bladework class had ended, which meant an hour or two of free time until her presence would be required on the Yards again.

 

Turning around, she headed for her room. Time to see about getting that hot bath.