[Viskyia Crow]

TS: 50th Brightening of Kelendryas, Winter, Era XIII (pf)


Viskyia stood in the seclusion of the City Garden on the fringe between the tame well-groomed portion and the wilder half. A stone bench rested to one side, overlooking a small section of glimmering stream. Viskyia had picked this area because the path was dead-end here, and she’d hardly ever seen anyone around. She glanced down, unsheathed her dagger, and stood looking at it. Memories flooded her.

Viskyia sat at her little workstation which had a small window overlooking Grintil’s training courtyard in her Grandmother Meg’s section of the House. The dwarven bodyguard was drilling new recruits which were, if found good enough slated to join Meg’s personal guard. He was instructing them on the first of many weapons Grintil would teach them to use to defend the elven noblewoman. His voice rang clear and true throughout the courtyard and rose up to echo through Viskyia’s workshop. She listened intently as she worked; curious as to why knowing how to fight with a dagger was so important. Grintil bellowed out "A dagger is often disregarded as a weapon. It’s not as impressive as a sword, and it demands that its wielder get into close range to use it effectively. Because of this, it is both dismissed easily and overlooked often in its usage. That doesn’t mean it isn’t important. It’s a very easy weapon to conceal. It’s also a very easy weapon for a woman or lighter fighter to wield without any trouble whatsoever. For this reason alone, we are teaching you dagger. You will learn how to hold, throw, defend with, and against. I suggest you pay close attention. When this training session is over, you will have all the basics you need to both recognize when a person has a dagger concealed, defend against when a dagger is drawn, thrown and you will be able to use a dagger as both a primary and support weapon alongside your regular swords." She remembered intently as he explained which part was the blade, the hilt, and the crosspiece.

Viskyia attention snapped back to the present and looked around. Would anyone bother her here? She doubted it. She looked carefully at the weapon in her hand. Viskyia was grateful she had Grintil’s bellowing voice in her memory. Although, as a skilled slave she was never allowed to formally attend his classes, she’d listened in on them by sheer accident repeatedly. Now hopefully his words would teach her well. It was long past time Viskyia got around to practicing her dagger and teaching herself how to defend her person with it. So many things were counting on it: her own personal safety, the safety of the shop when she was alone at night in it, and her self confidence. She wrapped her fingers around the dagger, reminded herself of what the parts were called, felt its weight in her hand, and remembered the first few words Grintil had said about the dagger.

“Now the key point in understanding the dagger and mastering it is to know exactly how to hold it. A dagger is held in a very specific manner. If you hold it incorrectly, you open yourself up to loosing your grip, becoming disarmed, or having your wrist broken inadvertently. The second thing you need to recognize is that the dagger you used must be balanced to your grip alone. If it’s cheaply made or balanced improperly, its worse than being unarmed completely.”

Viskyia frowned. Her dagger WAS cheap. She needed to get one she could use that was more designed for her hand and better balanced. She’d see to the task immediately. Grintil’s voice continued in her memory, and she listened intently, adjusting her fingers on the dagger as his remembered instructions to the recruits dictated.

“Hold the dagger only by the first two fingers and thumb. And I do mean only. The key to a good grip is a firm loose hold that allows the blade to act as an extension of your hand. Your last two fingers should be lose and touch the hilt only lightly. The blade should point into the air, with it's hilt just above the thumb and forefinger, but not touching. You need to have room to flex the blade with your wrist without dragging on y our fingers. When held properly, a bend of the wrist can point bladeup for slashing and thrusting, or down for stabbing.”

Viskyia practiced this a while. She decided she needed to get the grip of the dagger just right, and learn by repetition alone that the dagger should come into her grip properly each and every time. She decided it was best to do this from the sheath at her belt so that when she grabbed it, it came into her hand properly each and every time. She decided if she waited to adjust her grip while it was in her hand, she’d loose valuable time that she could be using to defend herself.

Not only did she practice with her right hand, but she also switched the sheath to her right side and practiced with her left hand. She knew Grintil pushed his guards harder into the training, not stopping until they had the basics and practiced it as a group of skills. She didn’t operate this way well. Viskyia’s strengths lay in breaking steps down and following through with them in pieces before putting the whole together. She did this with her dagger training as well.

When she was getting fairly confident with it, she started laying the dagger down on the ground, on a rock, up in a tree, and practiced grabbing it from there repeatedly, working with each hand individually until she could just brush her fingers against some odd part of the dagger and have it spun and fitted into her hand properly.

By the time she was done, her back ached, her arms were sore, and she was good and ready to quit for the evening. She frowned because she hadn’t progressed past how to hold the dagger, but at least, she thought, she felt confident with actually holding one without cutting someone or something inadvertently.