Surprise Activities... (SG)[The Ranch- Attn: Cari]

[TaeaDawn]

The day had been...well... exhausting. There were days at the Ranch that Demus loved his life. There were friendly people around, a good living was made, and he had time to do as he pleased. Other days he remembered that he was breaking his back as a Ranch Hand instead of in his chosen line of employment (except on occasion) and that his life now consisted of the mundane. Not the life he had always wanted to live, that was certain.

 

With that frame of mind, he decided it would be best to go talk to Cari. She was the closest thing he had to a friend nowadays and he enjoyed his time with her. He cleaned up a little and made his way over to her place. When he arrived he was surprised to see her out front with some of the other kids, teaching them. Teaching them to use a quarterstaff. He watched her and there was a beauty to the way she moved with a weapon, a grace that he knew she had but went further than he had previously seen. She saw him and he smiled lightly, waving for her to keep going. He was in no hurry tonight and she was in the middle of something. He took a seat on the ground and watched, waiting for her to finish.

 

[Matalina]

The hour dawned when the children came running to meet her, to learn a weapon. They didn't care to learn the quarterstaff but they would take it. After a pitchfork incident and a very wounded child, their practices went from swords to staffs in a heart beat. Not a child on this ranch was allowed anything sharper than butter knife as punishment for using the training poorly. Aidan and Kate were the exceptions, as in the privacy of their own home there were learning the basics of sword play. Taylor and his buddies from school had started the trouble but they all paid but they were all eager to learn of things.

 

They started every lesson with the flame and the void, Cari didn't offer then any other choices. The Spring from the Warders was dangerous in her opinion, and absense of your emotions yielded a less passionate fighter, fighting just to feel that rush. Then they moved into sparring and new movements. Cari had learned the staff and had only recently be claiming it as her main weapon, but that was only a ruse, her sword was still her baby and she practiced with it every morning as she had for the past 24 years.

 

Demus stood there and watched. He smiled and Cari smiled but he wanted her to continue so she did. The lesson was almost over and the children were getting tired, she could see it in ther motions. "Well done, practice more during the week and you'll be much better and we'll have a good little game next week." Cari enjoyed watching the children play army, it was fun to see the teams fighting each other and learning to fight against multiple opponents. It had to be fun for them or they'd think it was boring, Cari learned that with the ickly trainees she taught years ago.

 

Cari smiled at Demus. "Hello, there. What can I do to help you to day." Cari offered Demus a hand up. She enjoyed his company and was begining to wonder if she enjoyed it a bit too much.

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

"Hello, there. What can I do to help you to day."

 

Demus smiled at Cari made her way over to him. "I was coming over for no real reason but I think I have one now." He said with a laugh as she helped him up off the ground. "You move well with a weapon and it looks like you have a lot of patience. Would you mind a new student?" He asked.

 

He had thought about learning more about the weapons that he carried, but his own skill had always seen him through. He was tired of just skirting by though and never being sure of his abilities. It would be so much easier if he learned more, if he tried to excel instead of just get by.

 

"You can chose the form of repayment." He added with a grin. Which probably meant he was setting himself up for extra chores, but so be it.

 

[Matalina]

Cari smiled at the last comment and wondered if he meant what he said. "I will have to think on it, but it would a pleasure to teach you." Cari wondered what he knew and what he wanted to learn. "I can imagine a person of your career uses a quarterstaff much, I assume you want something a little sharper?"

 

Cari opened the door to her house, and went to her room. Under her bed she pulled out her sword in the bundle of blankets she kept it in and lead Demus downstairs. It wasn't a proper training grounds but it was best to keep the pointy objects from the children around. Cari brushed the wall tapestry on the right wall. She knew what lay beneath and hoped he'd not inquire as to spaces here. She opened the last door to her basement and revealed to her friend a proper training room. It was big enough for two people to spar comfortably.

 

Cari closed the door behind her. There was an array of practice equipment lining one wall, and a few scraps of other weapons hanging the opposite wall. She hardly used them, and they were more decoration than anything, but they were all useable.

 

Cari smiled at the memories of making trainees clean the armory from top to bottom, shining and polishing all the weapons. But it was a far off memory, a whole nother life ago. "Which weapon do you choose?"

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

Demus followed Cari and was speechless when he found himself in her basement, full of weapons. He was pretty good with his knives and kept a couple hidden around his place and on his person most of the time, but this was an entirely different thing. Curiosity made him wonder exactly what Cari had been like before she found the Ranch, but part of him knew better than ask. There were lines you didn't cross and as much as he liked her he wasn't about to take a leap over that one.

 

He looked around and then back at her. "Pointy is good." He said with a smile. "I probably know more about the sword than anything else. I used to.." he stopped. Another line he wasn't sure he was willing to cross was spilling anymore of his own history than he might have let slip already. "I knew people who knew a thing or two about which end goes where. Though it might be useful to learn more about knives and a staff sometime too. A walking stick looks less than a weapon and knives are easy enough to hide when a sword isn't an option." He said, looking back at that weapons.

 

[Matalina]

Cari smiled, "All of which I can teach you." Cari had learned more than her share of weapons long ago, and regularly practiced with her sword and her daggers and taught recently with her quarterstaff. The others she could teach, but she wouldn't tell someone they could defend themselves correctly with it. The knowledge was there, but she didn't practice it, she didn't care to.

 

Cari knew Demus' father was a child of the light, but she wouldn't press the issue of his past, she was glad he didn't press hers. It would be hard to explain even with a semi-concrete fake back story. Cari smiled at Demus. "Have you ever heard of ko'di? The Onenness? The Flame and the Void?" At the third statement Demus' nodded. "Can you reach it? I won't say that this is the only way to acheive the true art of the sword, or any other weapon for that matter, but it is the fastest and easiest way I know to attain masterdom of your weapon of choice."

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

Her words flowed over him as he looked at the weapons and then back at her. The last words sunk in and he put his full attention on her.

 

"Have you ever heard of ko'di? The Onenness? The Flame and the Void? Can you reach it?" She asked when he nodded at her words.

 

"I won't say that this is the only way to acheive the true art of the sword, or any other weapon for that matter, but it is the fastest and easiest way I know to attain masterdom of your weapon of choice."

 

Demus shook his head. "I've never been able to acheive it. Never really tried it. I mean, I know what it is, what i've heard about it, but I've never been taught too much about it."

 

Most of the weapons he knew had come from watching others being taught when he was younger. He hadn't been allowed to be a part of the training but on occassion his father had taught him a little and Demus had been a quick study with a good eye for it. All the rest had been his own trial and error. It would be nice to have someone who would actually teach him.

 

"I'd like to learn though." he said quickly.

 

[Matalina]

Cari was glad he wanted to learn it would be alot easier this way than with out, even the children could hold the void for a while, and they were getting stronger everyday. But Cari knew she would enjoy this a little more than she should. Demus was not a child or even a person she thought of as one. A grown man asking to learn after her craft, well one of them.

 

She smiled at Demus and took a seat on the ground in the middle of the room. "Come sit." After Demus had come to sit across from her she put her hands on his knees. "Ko'di is a form of meditation at first, after you master it you can hold it and do anything." Cari smiled before continuing. "Close your eyes. Imagine a flame flickering in your mind. Picture each emotion as a peice of paper and send it to the flame. They burn away leaving nothing but blackness. " Cari's voice changed as she attained the void, a cold emotionless voice that she reserved for her darker deeds. "Nothing but the void will be, if you press it outwards you will be able to feel me, not through touch but threw your mind. And still farther yet to the room around you knowing where everything is with out looking."

 

Cari opened her eyes and watched Demus' reactions. She could tell when he would reach it, and then the fun could begin. "Can you feel it?"

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

Send your emotions to the flame. In his mind he envisioned a little slip of paper with each emotion he was feeling written across it. One by one, he let the emotion ago, let it slide into the fire and into oblivion. He didn't feel anything at first, but as the frustration grew, he fed that also. He fed the anger at his own ignorance and his need to succeed. He fed his mistrust and disappointment in others, his need for revenge and his desire for closeness. All the long buried emotions that he had long denied and kept hidden.

 

Suddenly, there was nothingness. Just... awareness. He....felt things but they were away from him, not a part of him. He took a deep breath then opened his eyes to look at Cari. "I do." There was neither amazement in his voice, not the signs of accomplishment, the awareness was all that encompassed him.

 

[Matalina]

Cari smiled. "Now how long can you hold it?" Cari pulled Demus' to his feet slowly. This was not going to be a childs exercise. When they were both standing and it was clear Demus still held the void Cari poked and tickled him, trying to make the void drop. Cari dropped the void, it wasn't like her new persona to stay in it for long. And there was no need for her to stay while teaching. Besides the longer it stayed the darker her personality would get, and she didn't want to scare Demus, just yet. "You must be able to do normal things and maintain the void or the first strike of pain will make it drop and all the benefits you have will be lost."

 

Cari stood behind Demus and blew on his neck then kissed it gently. She wondered what it would take to make the void drop.

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

And that was it. He had managed to get through the movements and listening to her speak. Even the change of voice to that gentle whisper, but the kiss did him in. He hadn't been prepared for that. He turned around, laughing at himself. "Now, I thought payment would be coming after class." He teased.

 

It wasn't her fault he had broken, or rather, it was but it was simply concentration. Demus was good at many things. Concentration was not one of them. This was going to take a lot of work, but he felt the trade off was good. The void, when he had held it, the oneness, it had been a different creature than the life he knew. He felt... bigger there... better. Like a part of something else. It was a feeling he didn't know how to express or explain. Instead, he continued to smile at Cari.

 

"Should I try again?"

 

[Matalina]

Cari smiled at his quip. She still wasn't sure what she'd extract for payment, perhaps having him do a dirty dead for her. It really didn't matter too much, she'd teach him for free, he was a friend after all.

 

Cari let Demus reach the void again and began the same tactics again as it was distracting enough. Physical touch surely sent him over the edge, it was the most distracting. Lust, love, pleasure was a fine line between pain and suffering. Lust was alot more fun than torture, most of the time.

 

When the more benign tactics started to fail Cari went farther to see how much more he could take. Cari danced infront of him and smiled softly before leaning up to kiss him full on the lips, wrapping her arms around his waist and holding him as close as she could to her body. He was stronger than her and she wondered what he would do. But this was more of a test of concentration rather than what would break him. Breaking him wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

Amazingly enough, by the time that Cari was rubbing up against him, Demus was able to concentrate on the void and was able to hold onto it. An interesting exercise, more so because he was certain he would find the whole thing hysterical if he were outside the void where his emotions now lay.

 

"How long do you normally try to hold onto this?" Demus asked. A part of his recognized that his voice was odd, that it didn't sound like him, but another part didn't really care about things like that.

 

[Matalina]

Cari smiled still pressed against his body she answered his question. "In a former life, I held the void constantly. Now I only call upon the void when there is a battle to call, or when my emotions are at a high and they put me at risk for something." Cari looked up innocently at him. "You have done a good job in learning the technique. Are you ready to learn more or move on to other things?"

 

Cari wasn't sure what she wanted his answer to be, either would be nice. She wondered why the sudden attraction to the younger man. Perhaps his friendship was drawing too close to home. A darkfriend and a lover, a man who she didn't have to hide any of her secrets with. She sighed inwardly and again began to wonder about the attraction Demus held for her.

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

New things or continue? Demus had always been one to move forward. His grasp of the void was something he could begint o work on, to expand until he was certain he could do it with any distraction. His current level of concentration was already wearing on him though.

 

He let it go and smiled at Cari. "What sort of new things are you talking about?" He asked.

 

This was certainly not how he had expected to spend part of the day. Of course he had thought he would be in a bad mood a lot longer than he had been. It had just taken seeing Cari and all the kids she was teaching. He hadn't had to talk to her to make him feel better, just to see her there. A friend in the strangest of places.

 

[Matalina]

Cari smiled and let go of Demus' she wasn't sure he got her meaning and it didn't really matter, games were all the more fun if they weren't caught the first time. "We can work more on the void, in less of private manner. Or we can try testing your skill with the sword."

 

It was hard to leave out the other remarks but there were other times and other things to do. "Or we can continue at another time. The choice really is yours, as this is your free time. I did this for a living for so many years, teaching someone older is refreshing."

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

"You did this for years? Teaching?" Demus asked as he watched her. "It fits you really, teaching. You have the patience for it. Good thing too, because I might be helpless with a sword. I'm more of a knife person myself." He said with a grin. It wasn't entirely true. He could hold a sword and had managed to do well so far, but he was certainly no Blademaster. Didn't want to be, truth be told. He just wanted a quiet existence where he could do what he wanted without looking over his shoulder. So far, life at the farm had done that for him.

 

"But I think maybe I should work a bit more on the void before I try to do it with a weapon in hand."

 

[Matalina]

Cari noded, it was his choice after all. Cari rumaged around in her trunk of items, she knew she had some old teaching supplies in there. She made sure that her former occupation, fancloak and her custom made sword and daggers remained hidden. Cari wasn't sure how much she trusted Demus to know her full past. She wondered why she trusted him at all sometimes.

 

In the trunk, Cari found what she was looking for and laid it on the floor before closing the trunk.

 

Cari smiled at Demus and picked up the peices of training next. "Come with me, we'll learn some of the uses of the void while you practice it."

 

Cari lead the way towards the forest beyond the ranch. She wondered if Demus had ever been out there, and wondered if he'd ever found the spot where they were going. The sun shone through the leaves creating a patchwork of shadow and light on the forest floor. Cari lead the way to a safe spot, a rose bush lay with a stone underneath. Cari had left a crude headstone for her former love. Only his name was etched into the rock. Cari moved to a tall tree with large roots and sat with her back against the trunk.

 

"One of the things you will learn to do with the void is sense where things are, it comes in handy in a battle or when you are in an unfamiliar place." Cari put a board with paper down in front of her and some jars of ink. "Obtain the void and map out the details of the area in the finest amount of detail your artistic talent can afford."

 

Cari took a pen and started herself. It had been many years since she had done this, she wondered how well she would do.

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

Demus followed Cari without hesitation. It struck him at some point that he should be wary of anyone trying to lure him off to a secluded location, but then again he doubted Cari would have any trouble if she decided to chop him up into little pieces in the center of the Ranch either. She'd find some way to explain to any Lightfools and the Darkfriends would just take it in stride.

 

So he settled him down on the ground close to Cari and took a deep breath. Concentrating on the void, it came a little easier this time, a little quicker. With it in mind, he took some supplies for himself and settled in for a drawing. He wasn't very good at this sort of thing, but he could try.

 

It was an interesting experience, or at least it would be if he weren't in the void. Looking at everything with the hyper-awareness the void gave was like seeing what you had been missing for most of your life. These things had been there all along, but without the void he might not have seen them. Like he would have heard the bird and seen it with his own eyes, but he would never had seen the tiny nest nestled tightly in the tree branches above it.

 

OOC: Sorry! This was lame but I wanted to answer before going on LOA. Be back in a week! :P

 

[Matalina]

Cari had never truely studied the area, she'd actually not studied alot since coming to the ranch. Sure she practiced every morning and every evening but that wasn't the same as what she was doing now. It had been along time since she'd studied with the void. It was rather refreshing.

 

Cari put her items down and moved to sit next to Demus, to see how he was doing. It wasn't about the presentation, but about the representation. Cari could see that he was seeing more than his eyes could, and that was the purpose of the exercise.

 

Cari laid her head on Demus' shoulder. "Ready to move on and see where this exercise has led?"

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

Demus had been so engrossed in what he was doing that it took a moment to register Cari's words. There was something about doing this, something about being in the Void, that helped clear his mind of the doubts that had nagged him since his mother's death.

 

He nodded his head at Cari, at her words, then spoke, his voice sounding almost hollow in the Void. "It's strange. I think I could do anything like this, anything at all, and not be upset by it. Is it like that for everyone?" he asked. There was so much he didn't know. The part of him that floated outside the Void understood the gratitude that he had for this woman for helping him the way she was. And a bit of curiosity, more than was healthy really, about her and her past.

 

[Matalina]

Cari smiled. "It is for some people, some people feel it's only useful in battle, I'm not one of those." She had lived in the void for years and knew the feeling Demus was feeling. If it hadn't been for Alex, Cari would probably not be in existance and Matalina would still be at the White Tower under the guise of a Warder to a Brown. But the past was the past and she was now Cari Namere. The thought turned her attentions to the simple rock under the rose bush.

 

She snapped out of her thoughts and turned her attentions back on Demus. Cari reached in her pockets and pulled out a long black sash. It had been used many times for this same reason. She reached around Demus and tied the sash over his eyes.

 

"The void is helpful and can beused in place of sight if you let it." Cari stood up and moved several paces away. "Try to catch me."

 

Cari kept a watch on Demus and would stay a hands breathe away from his reach if he ever got near. Cari assumed the void and felt the forest floor beneath her, the birds in the trees and Demus' in front of her. It was a joy to be in the void for such simple games. It had been a long time.

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

Demus almost lost the Void when Cari pulled out a long black sash. The part of him outside the Void felt amusement, but the rest of him was still solidly connected to the forest around him.

 

"The void is helpful and can beused in place of sight if you let it. Try to catch me."

 

Demus let the blindfold be placed and as Cari's words flowed over him he tried to get his bearings. The exercise of drawing had helped. He was familiar with the terrain now, but it was more than that. He could feel what was there. He held his hands before him in case he made a mistake, but he was confident in the Void. He might not know a lot about it, but Demus had always been a fast learner, in this as in everything else.

 

He began listening to what was happening around him, the sounds of wildlife, of the breeze rustling through the trees, leaves scrambling after it, and there it was. The sound of breathing. He moved to his left and reached out, trying to catch hold of the evasive woman.

 

[Matalina]

Cari watched as Demus weaved his way around. He stumbled a few times, but that was something any first timer would do. But he was learning well, and he was alot quicker than she had hoped. Trainees were always a little leary of touching her. Cari smiled it was her attitude back then she was sure. But Demus had no such qualls, after all they'd spent the night together on at least one occassion, in more than the sleeping manner.

 

Cari's thoughts drifted to the first time they'd met and she'd realized how much Demus had grown even in the few months they'd known each other. She shook her head as Demus brushed her arm. She tip toed and kissed him softly on the lips. "So much for me paying attention."

 

Cari stepped away. "You are doing well. All you need is more practice in the void and then you'll be ready to begin learning as a true warrior. Would you like more help with exercises like this or to try on your own?"

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

"So much for me paying attention."

 

Demus let the Void go then and smiled at her, even if he couldn't see her.

 

"You are doing well. All you need is more practice in the void and then you'll be ready to begin learning as a true warrior. Would you like more help with exercises like this or to try on your own?"

 

"Both." he answered honestly. "I think I can work a lot on my own to concentrate better, to get the Void to come quicker, but it helps to have these exercises you're giving me." He said. "And it helps to have someone to show me the way. Now, can I take this blindfold off, or did you have something else in mind?" he asked with a smile.