[Viskyia Crow]

Viskyia found herself once more jogging towards the City Gardens. With these half-brightenings off every fifth one, she was finding the time to actually work on her dagger skills. And, above that, she was beginning to feel a bit more confident about holding the weapon and using it. Though soon, she knew, she’d need to replace her dagger which was beginning to show signs of strain with all the hacking and slashing she’d done to various statuary and shrubbery. Still grinning at the thought of being known as Nexus Prime’s bush killer, she came to her clearing and pulled up short. She took a minute to catch her breath, and thought about what she was going to learn today.

Today’s lesson would be the next one on Grintil’s agenda… the block and parry session. It would take some extra creativity for her to really make this training episode work, but she was up for the challenge.

She let her mind go backwards, to when she was a bit younger and out running in the Grintil’s training yard as the recruits paired off. Grintil was grunting “Keep your blades up and flashing between you and your opponent. Never give youropponent an opportunity to get past it. Your dagger is your first and best line of defense! Daggers up. Face off with your partner!” The dwarf continued with the lesson as a younger Viskyia jogged around the courtyard, in her daily routine of running. “Always push the enemies attack out and away from you. Never draw it in. That’s what they want. Out and away! Always out and away!” He shouted firmly. The recruits were squaring off at each other, daggers flashing, catching blade upon blade, flinging attacks outward and away. “Keep your feet moving! Never settle on your heels. Up on your toes. Dance! Be ready to move any direction you need too. Light! Light on your feet!” He shouted more instructions.

Viskyia didn’t need to know this feet thing, even though she remembered it acutely. She’d had those sorts of lessons grilled into her as Grintil barked at her to run. Up on the balls of her feet and her toes was ingrained in her mind by now, and she danced lightly back and forth across in front of the goat-man statue. In her minds eye, the pan flutes weren’t flutes but a weapon, and the goat-man kept stabbing at her. She caught his arm, thrusting the blade up and away… down and away… away. She was panting hard now, dancing in front of the statue, dagger flashing. In her mind she was glad she’d paid attention to Grintil. She didn’t know his instructions would do her such good in the future. Time for a break. Panting, she sat down on the bench and stretched.