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Gitana was no master with the needle. She was indeed a poor hand at it, but she had spent many a candle seated alongside her baba and her daj, watching them sew and squinting down at her own pieces as she struggled to do their own work justice. She rethreaded the needle with the green thread and began the laborious task of sewing the talvia together again.
She would not have been able to do it without the guidance of Simza, who corrected her sewing with a gentle voice and reassuring correction here and there. Gradually the threads all came together, green with green, barb with the fabric as she tugged and tucked it into place with loops of threading. She used the green thread to tuck the last barb into place before Simza finally declared her done, objective completed, and took the talvia from her to admire Gitana's handiwork.
"Misto, Tana! Well done. Now I suppose we shall move onto something you really wish to learn, avrah?" She grinned, stood, and motioned Gitana after her. They moved to stand in an area mostly open with few obstacles to disturb their footwork. "Let me see how you wrap it around your waist. Go ahead. I shall wait."
Gitana did as instructed, but when she was about to knot the talvia into place, Simza cried for her to stop. "Atch! That is not how it is done, Tana. You will be a sitting duck if you must try and unknot your talvia as some gaje comes bearing down on you with weapon in hand. Tsk! It is done in a loose half-knot, bor. You fold the talvia like so about your waist and fold this end under this one, pull just a bitti, and leave it like so. It will be much easier to pull free, trust me."
Gitana did as Simza instructed, wrapping the talvia about her waist, tucking one end there, the other under the rest of the talvia, giving it light tug so that it hung snug but loose about her waist. "Like so, Simza?"
"Avrah, well done, Tana," the woman commended her. "But I wager you are eager to see how to wield it, avrah? All right, Tana. You will need to learn how to become quick at unraveling your talvia from about your waist, but first let me show you what is called a stance, or a positioning of our body, when we use the talvia."
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