towerofanimus | Training sessions

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Training sessions

Zelda has set up a training area in one of the spacious rooms in the tower Link occupies. She has swept the floors, wiped away the grime fro m the walls. In a nothing special dress and a pair of thick leather tracking boots, she is poised before an array of haphazardly made dummies and stick men. It should be noted that the princess's craftsmanship lies in politics, and not sewing, if the stuffing leaking out of the dummies is any indication.

She holds a straight stick she had found outside her room one morning. She had attempted to sharpen the point with a knife q she had procured from her meals, and was disappointed with the shabby results. She truly is not craftsman.

Her target is to rush the dummies and spear at least one. While magic may be her forte, basic fighting skills would benefit her greatly in this tower. She takes a few ready steps back...holds a breath...then rushes forward, stuck to thrust into the unmarked chest of the first dummy...

She bounces back instead, onto her rear end, stick swinging out of her hands and clattering to the floor. Oww.

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Link had spent most of his time in bed or brooding about his bedroom since the shocks started. Being electrocuted was exhausting, he'd much rather take the sting of cuts and burns than the clammy feeling of his nerves being forever frayed and on edge. He figured if he stayed but, hopefully the shocks would disappear eventually. It had worked far enough to get him rested. After a while he was determined to make his way downstairs to visit a few friends when he heard the the movements of someone in the room near his own. With a curiosity that could challenge any feline, he peeked through the door.

"Princess Zelda!"

The clatter of the sword caught his attention but at the sight of seeing her on the floor, he made a move forward and offered his hand. A look at the cheap dummies and the sword made him realize what she was doing. A little strange to see from a princess, then again, he didn't know what princess's did.

"You need help." And he knew it.

Zelda was a little surprised at Link's appearance, but then, she is right near his room. She takes his offered hand, making a wry face. "You deduced that quickly enough, Hero of Hyrule?"

Without hesitation, he lifted her clean from the ground and bowed his head gently, moving to pick up her makeshift of a sword. He maneuvered it about his wrist, clearly Link was well skilled with a sword and a stick, before moving to the dummies.

"What are you doing?"

Zelda watches Link maneuver, envious of his fluidity and swift sword prowess. "Attempting to not make a fool of myself, but as you can see, that did not go over so well."

Link smiled weakly and made his way to his princess. He offered his hand for her to take.

"I can help. I think I know what your first problem is."

Zelda feels her pride bruised, but sees the offer of assistance as sincere in Link's face. She takes a tiny breath before nodding, summing up that royal pride within her, and putting it aside. She reaches out and takes his hand.

"I trust you to tell me where I have gone wrong."

"First thing's first." He helped her to her feet and took her hand in his, pulling at the glove ends of her finger tips in attempts to pull off her gloves. "These gloves won't give you any grip."

Unfortunately for the princess, she was going to have to rid herself of these gloves for the time being. It was a real shame, he saw, considering how smooth and soft the hands underneath were. Gloves set aside he looked at her hands for a moment, he didn't have any bandages. He wouldn't train her for long, he figured Hyrule wouldn't appreciate their princess being abused.

"Now it won't slip from your hands." He point out, giving her back her make-shift weapon.

Zelda removes her gloves and takes the make-shift weapon, doing as Link instructed with her body movement and hand positioning. She tests her grip on the weapon...and then takes a good swing. This time, the weapon does not fly out of her hands.

"It works!"

Suzaku was completely ignoring any strange sound or touches coming from behind him. He knew no one was there, no one had been there all week but every now and again he could see something out of the corner of his eye, or hear a voice whisper in his ear. He was on the third floor of bedrooms, mainly to see if anyone occupied any of them, which he didn't think they did yet.

He heard a noise and looked through the door to see the woman practicing. Except, she didn't seem to be doing too well.

"Have you ever trained before?" Suzaku didn't mean for it to be rude, he was just curious.

Zelda turns around to look at the newcomer. A little red goes to her cheeks for being discovered in her inability to train properly. "Not with swords, no."

Suzaku nodded and gave a polite nod. "Would you like a training partner, I am out of practice," and with everything that had happened and the voices that seemed to be following him around out of practice in fighting was the last thing he wanted to be. If it meant training someone else to fight who was willing to then it was probably good for everybody. As much as Suzaku wished violence didn't have to be the answer, he couldn't find a peaceful way out of this tower.

"I would be pleased to be have a trainer of any kind in this situation we are in."

Suzaku nodded and walked slowly into the room. "My name is Kururugi Suzaku." He looked at the things in the room, "Did you make all this?"

She nods. "You can tell by the poor craftsmanship can you not."

Suzaku merely shook his head, "They will suffice, I just guessed that the tower was not going to provide us things to practice fighting with."

He looked at the sticks, "So what do you know about sword fighting?"

Zelda watches Suzaku. "I know that you swing a weapon."

"That's a start I guess..." He picked the sticks up and handed one to Zelda.

"Stand like this," he demonstrated a simple stance, his legs apart and knees bent his sword held at his side but ready. He had never actually taught anyone to fight before and he tried to think back to his first training with Toudoh. He had been young though, five or six and lessons had mainly consisted in Toudoh throwing him into the ground until he learnt how to block and dodge.

Somehow he didn't think that method was going to work here.

In the midst of exploring, ascending and descending staircases, and thoroughly coming floors and rooms to absolutely ensure that there was nothing waiting to ambush her, Aqua eventually came across the makeshift training ground.

The young master watched for a moment as the woman gave a valiant attempt at spearing one of the raggedy dummies, and made it quite conspicuous in the process that she was only just beginning to learn how to use a sword. Aqua normally would have approach without hesitance, but all the sudden suspicion that anyone could be an aggressor gave her pause.

Eventually, though, she took a few steps closer to the woman, leaning down a little to look at her. "Are you alright?"

Zelda looks up, sees the woman, and silently questions if this woman is from her world. Then, she sees the lack of elfin ears and knows it is another stranger. "My pride may be hurt, but my body is only bruised."

Aqua offered an understanding smile to the stranger, despite her suspicion. "Send your pride on a little vacation," she advised kindly. "You can only expect so much when you try something new."

With that, she offered a hand out to the brunette to help her up. "My name is Aqua. Maybe I can help?"

Zelda smiles at the sentiment, nodding. "A wise saying. Does it come from a wise woman such as yourself with the weight of great meaning?" She takes Aqua's hand and is helped up. She bends and brushes the dirt from her dress skirt with the backs of her hands. "That would be greatly appreciated."

Aqua chuckles, releasing the woman's hand after she's safely on her feet. "I don't know about wise," she says modestly, "but I do say it from experience." She couldn't even count how many times she had made mistakes when she first awoke to her Keyblade. It was an exercise in humility.

"Your footwork is important," informs the mage with a smile, indicating her armored feet. "If you're not balanced, then you'll fall when you try to attack or dodge."

"I must work on my balance," Zelda nods.

"Everyone has different stances for battle," the mage goes on, stepping outwards to demonstrate hers sans blade. "Since everyone has different fighting styles."

Then she paused and gave a small smile. "Just imagine that you're standing for a reason. You're standing for something-- something, or someone, that you believe in. And you have to stay on your feet and stand up for that something, no matter what it takes."

That was what had helped Aqua, anyways. Perhaps it was a silly thought, but it had gotten her to mastership. "Practicing standing on one foot helps too," she added with good humor.

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Training sessions

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