Daggers At Dusk -- (Zhenquan / Eve)

[Lou]

Dianlinn was surprised when he asked for them to have a spar, but she was never one to turn down a dance of the spears, even if the spears was daggers and they were blunted for training. She offered him a fierce grin for a moment, and nodded her head. “I shall show you where you will be training and where to get the blunted daggers for us to spar with.” She had been surprised that they were to use blunted weapons, but then it made sense as many who came here to learn were not bred for battle. But she could respect them coming here anyway to learn and give service to the Aes Sedai.

They crossed the grounds quickly, and she showed him where the weapons shed was kept. She requested one dagger for herself, and how ever many he wished to have, before taking him to one of the empty sand rings. She made her way inside, laying her actual dagger on the fence, before reaching down and taking a handful of sand which she rubbed between her calloused hands. She then picked up her blunted dagger and waited. “Shall we make it best of three?”

[Eve]

He followed her with curiosity as Danlinn led the way to the weapons storage. When asked, he requested two daggers of a particular size. One was a normal dagger, sharpened on both edges, while the other was a ‘long knife’, slightly curved and blunt on the inner side, sharpened on the other, the blade about 15 inches long from. Of course, both of these practice weapons were blunted, but the way they showed angle would demonstrate the cutting edges.

Taking the weapons, he followed her to the ring. Like her, he carefully placed the weapon to the side and picked up a handful of sand to dust his hands and rid him of any sweat that might have made his grip slick. Then he reached into his pocket and produced a pair of straps. These he wound around his palm, right in the middle where sweat liked to pool. He tied it off on the other side and tucked it, the motion practiced and normal. He would do this at home when he was going to lift and carry his father’s goods, and he had found it worked well for this, too, to strengthen his grip. It didn’t help from getting callouses, but he was used to that, that part of his palm already hard. It covered only the very middle. Then he took up the daggers, feeling their weight and heft in his palms. He held them out, getting used to them, and nodded. “Best two out of three it is, then.” He said, giving Dianlinn a smile that spoke of anticipation of enjoyment.

[Lou]

Dianlinn watched as Zhenquan prepared himself with two daggers, one longer than the other. One dangerously close to a sword for Dianlinn's comfort, but that was his choice and who was she to tell another what they could or could not do. She reached for her buckler, which she kept on the back of her belt, it was not so large to get in the way. She would face him with dagger and buckler, against his dagger and dagger. That seemed like a fair thing to her, and she doubted that Zhenquan would give any argument. She felt the sand remains on the skin of her hands, as she tightened her grip on her dagger, the point facing the other man, and a gleam shining in her green eyes. Dancing the Spears - or daggers - was what this dream was about, and she could hardly wait to do so once again.

She bent her knees slightly, and began to circle the man before her, watching now he moved to compensate her own movements. She moved, her feet crossing only briefly as she decided to try a few test strikes. She moved forward, quick and sure, as she tried his defences on his right hand side. She was pushed back by his blade, and she grinned at the sound of the two meeting. It had begun then, and she took a step back, her footing sure, her eyes on his eyes always, as she waited to see what he would do next.

[Eve]

Zhen let his eyes move over her for a moment, taking in the buckler. It would mean an adjustment of his posture, and he did so after a moment’s consideration, one step moving back a little and out to make his balance more steady. He knew what it felt like to be checked by that small shield, and he did not want to be knocked utterly off his feet. Then he nodded. She began to circle, and he did the same.

From the way he moved, it was clear he had some training, and a little experience. However, as she and he moved around one another his eyes occasionally flickered down to her dagger or her shoulder as if trying to predict what she would do. He always moved his eyes back up instantly though, as if hearing the bellow of some long ago teacher. His footwork, however, seemed solid as he moved from step to step, as light on his feet as he always was. She struck a testing blow, and he caught it with the longer dagger, the right handed dagger, twisting to knock it away, aware that it wasn’t meant to hit home. Then she stepped back, and he followed as he twisted one foot to move slightly to the side of her. He came in then with the shorter dagger, the one on the left. Knee bending, he moved to hit the buckler near the bottom and push it up, attempting to keep her dagger hand on the outside and away from him. At the same time he brought the longer, slightly curved dagger around to go for her ribs behind the small shield.

[Lou]

Dianlinn was pleased to see that he was not a complete notice with his chosen weapons, she could tell that by the way he moved. She could see small mistakes still, but then he probably thought the same of her. When people were trained differently, they usually picked up the bad habits of their teachers. She watched as he eyed her dagger from time to time, but he held her eyes for the most part, like she was holding his. Her testing blow worked well, as she watched the way he defended himself, looking for the weakness she could exploit. Though when he came in at her, she defended herself, though not to the fullest of her abilities. His curved dagger came close, within an inch of her ribs before she moved her buckler to try and knock into his elbow, making his arm moved away as she stepped back.

“Impressive,” she said, a grin on her face. This would have been the happiest he had seen her since their meeting, having a dagger in her hand, and dancing the spears, even though it was only practise. She moved around him again, her eyes on his once again as she tried to look for his weakness. She decided to try for his legs, testing his footwork. She moved in again, this time her dagger fainted left, aiming for his shoulder, before she turned the blade in her hand to a different type of attack, holding the blade in a backward grip. She had her buckler keeping his other blade busy as she crouched a little lower and swept out a leg suddenly, seeing what would happen.

[Eve]

Zhenquan had seen Dianlinn smile when the dogs had gotten used to her, and she had been able to pet and play with them some. This made that smile pale in comparison. In a way, he understood that smile. While it wasn’t his whole world, there was a certain joy to fighting and sparing. The way that your blood sang along with your adrenaline… it was like a beautiful and deadly dance.

He smiled in response, her joy catching. Then she was moving, and he shifted his weight to catch her dagger as it went for his shoulder. The longer dagger, his right hand, came up and out, twisting to catch and push away her smaller one…but it was not there. He realized his error soon after that as his smaller dagger, blocked by that little shield, could not move fast enough. He didn’t even see the leg that came out to catch his ankles. He fell hard, landing on the small of his back. The only thing that ‘saved’ him was working in a marketplace. Sometimes you had to dodge at the last moment. And sometimes you got hit hard enough to go down, especially when one was swinging carpets. He allowed the momentum in his hit to turn into a roll. He flipped his feet over his head, rolling backwards, and came up unsteadily on his feet, daggers still at the ready. “Nice!” he said, his smirk returning. “You have got to show me that one!” He darted forwards as soon as he spoke, striking the buckler hard, trying to rattle it and numb the fingers that held it. He needed to get that thing a little out of the way. After he had done this twice, he shifted his weight, not towards the edge of her shield, but towards the elbow holding it. With the smaller dagger he lashed out, aiming to strike her along the arm, simulating 'wounding' the arm holding that buckler.

[Lou]

Dianlinn had never thought to find a group of people like her own Aiel, but here she knew, she had found some. The Gaidin were as hard as any Clan Chief in the Three-fold Land, and the Gaidar (though she knew they did not use that title now) were as deadly as any of the Far Daris Mai she had heard of in the tales they told around the fires. She was starting to feel at home here, in the Grey Tower, in the Wetlands, and that eased something inside of her, and also worried her, that she would become as weak as many of them here were. But for now she could only focus on her training, until they deemed her worth of protecting an Aes Sedai or an Asha'man.

She caught the smile that Zhenquan had flashed her, and she knew he was going to enjoy this as much as she was. In her opinion, it was what would make him a good Gaidin. They could not look away at danger, and they could not shy away from the flash of steel. She caught his dagger with her buckler, and with a sweep of her leg she watched him fall to the sand. Though he was quick enough to turn the fall into a roll, and she grinned, nodding her head to him as he asked her to show him that move. "I shall do so, soon." She told him, not wanting to stop the dance to show him the manoeuvre now. He used his speed once again, this time striking her buckler, twice, hard enough to rattle her arms and make her bones ache. She knew her using this would be the key to his undoing, it was why he was trying to rid her of it now. She had a brief chance to shake her arm, working the ache out of it, before he was moving again, and this time he was going for her elbow. She knew that she could not move fast enough to stop it, but she also decided to reward her sacrifice with a win.

She waited until he committed to striking her elbow, and then moved her own dagger viper quick, and struck his wrist, of the hand that held the dagger that was now coming down hard on her elbow. The flat of her blade slapped his wrist, simulating a wound that would also put the limb out of commission. They would be down to one each.

[Eve]

Zhenquan nodded at this. He did not wish to stop now to learn a new trick, either. His body stretched in battle, and he felt the roar of it in his veins. He hadn’t really felt like this at home, in training. On the road he had rarely had to truly defend himself, but since coming here…he was starting to catch the ‘bug’ when it came to this. It was like a dance, but one that didn’t only require his body to be fully honed, it punished you if it was not. A mistake could, and maybe even would, cost you your life at the wrong time. He had to be perfect, and to achieve perfection he had to practice. Like this.

He felt a thrill of triumph as he ‘wounded’ her arm enough that she would lose her buckler, but even as he did he felt the sting of her dagger upon his wrist. “Light,” He mumbled to himself, low and under his breath with annoyance. He took three steps back, holding up his hand to signal a halt in the fight, as would be appropriate when this happened. As he had been taught, he placed the dulled dagger outside the ring. He thought for a moment and then, on a whim, pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and bound his hand. He had ‘lost’ it at the wrist, and she at the elbow. That meant he needed to handicap himself to remember it. That done, he came back to the middle of the ring to face her, his only dagger, the longer of the two, held in his right hand now.

[Lou]

Dianlinn found she was enjoying Zhenquan's fighting style. It was not the same as she was used to, and she had to wonder if it was a style unique to that of Shara. She would have to ask him once the match was over, if he wished to speak of his homeland that was. She knew those who traded at the walls did not like to, they simply bartered and nothing else. If you asked questions they ignored them. So the Aiel had come to respect their privacy, and did not ask a question though they also did not answer any that were asked of them either. It was why they had been continually allowed back again and again she guessed.

Dianlinn stood back as Zhenquan held up his blades, wishing for a moment to pause. She watched as he threw his extra knife out of the ring, and then bound his hand so he could not use it. She simply held her arm behind her back, her fingers looped into the belt loop at her waist. She would not use the appendage, on her honour. Once they were face to face once again, she nodded her head to him in a small bow of a salute, and then took up her stance though this time her stance was more offensive, and she straight away broke into an attack, her body moving in a different way now, to accommodate the difference in balance due to her arm.

With once of his arms taken out, she decided to go for one of his legs. She had watched to see which he favoured, and she aimed for that, though she fainted for his stomach in a slashing motion across and down. The last moment she turned the dagger and moved it to touch his thigh, as if she would plunge the dagger into his leg though it truly would be a light tap.

[Eve]

With the cloth wrapped around his hand, that meant he would not attempt to grapple with it. However, he had hit her at the wrist, which meant that, if desperately needed, the arm was still good. He hoped that would give him some sort of advantage. He returned her nod and regained his stance, holding the longer blade before him in a more open stance. For this he would need speed instead of style, and he would need to be much more mobile. Thankfully, he had been taught what to do when one of his blades was taken from him, and he was happy that it was the smaller of the two he had lost. Working with the smaller blade was much harder.

Slowly, he started to move, watching her very carefully as they relearned each other’s balance and motions. He moved swiftly from foot to foot, one crossing behind himself and never long to hold still. It was required when you had only one dagger. When she came in, he lurched backwards, dancing two steps and weaving. He was not expecting her feint, however, and when she moved her blade towards his stomach, he moved to block. That gave him enough time to step back a half step and the strike, instead of finding it’s way home in his thigh, sliced down and across his knee. “Mother’s milk,” he cursed lowly beneath his breath. One arm taken out and the opposite leg wounded at such an important place…. He stepped back and held up both arms. “Call.” He said. “I could fight on with a limp, but you would finish me off quickly.” He grinned at her, seeming to have greatly enjoyed this. “You win, my friend. You win.”