I grabbed the war bow, from the weapons rack, on the way out of the room, while I was checking that off of my mental list. I would grab a war quiver from where they rested by the door or in the armory. Though, most likely the armory, as I needed to stop there to get a few more useful things.
Entry 7
4 Months Before
Groenplaats
After my morning meditation at Father Sea, Vadoma parted company with me, to stop at her wagon to retrieve a few things.
I went to the armory to pick up supplies. I looked around for the building, which had ‘Armory’ listed on the building in big white letters. If you did not have your own the weapon, which was wanted or were awaiting a replacement weapon from the blacksmith, the armory has more weapons for a person to choose from, which includes axes and the war quivers, who have multiple types arrows in the quiver.
A normal war quiver held: a signal arrow, which whistles as it flies through the air; two fire arrows, which have a basket in the middle of the arrow head to allow a pitch soaked wad to be inserted into the head and lit; ten plate mail piercing arrows; ten chain mail piercing arrows; and ten field tipped arrows. Each group of arrows were to a certain length, with colored shafts, and colored feathering. Your mind knew which arrow was which, based on length and coloration.
There were other arrow head types in the armory, but they were in the hunting quivers, which were lighter and had less arrows, as those arrows are meant to take down an animal, not a human in armor.
As I entered the armory, I looked to Edward behind his desk in the middle of the room. He was the middle aged bald man who ran the armory. He took care of the weapons, while asking for replacements, when weapons or arrows were damaged. He nodded to me, as I returned the nod.
Along the walls of the small building, there hung weapon racks. There are also two isles of standing weapons racks, for the longer pole-arms, pikes, spears, and any other long handled weapon, which would be awkward when hung on the wall. Each weapon class was bunched into categories, to make selection quicker, especially during a time of alarm.
I looked at my mental list before taking a look around. I searched for the ax selection while I honed in on the back left corner, which held the two handed axes. I was not thinking it as a weapon but as a tool to cut wood.
The two handed axes were nestled between to the one handed axes and throwing axes. If it came to an ax fight, I would choose any other weapon at my disposal than an ax. I am not saying they are not a good weapon, as I have watched weapons masters use axes, to deadly effect. I am saying they are not a good weapon for me.
After the walk up to study the axes, I gawked at the selection. Upon the wall I saw: a double sided ax, an ax with a hammer, an ax with a spike, then an ax which looked like a half round shield was attached to the end of it. Like how can you wield that? The list went on with the ax blades and styles varying, to include every configuration which could be imagined, with a few which could never be imagined, yet stood here as proof someone had imagined them into being. Resting on the ground, as it leaned against the wall, there was a simple and elegant woodsman’s ax.
This will do just fine, I had thought to myself. Now to grab a war quiver and a spare bow string.
I turned as I made my way to Edward’s desk. “Hey. How fair you this day?”
“Fair an ye?” Edward responded with his strange accent.
“I am doing well. I have guard duty with one of the Romani. We are going into the mountains, for about a week. I will need a war quiver. If you have a double saddle bag quiver, I would be happy with one of those. I also need a spare string for my bow, in case of a string break.”
From behind me, Vadoma’s familiar voice chirped, “I am the said guarded Romani. I would like a hunters double quiver for horseback, with two replacement strings for my horse bow, may chance allow.” She sat a compact horse bow down on the his desk.
“That was quick, wench. Decided not to bring everything with you?” I glanced over Vadoma’s extra gear.
On her neck and draped over her shoulders hung a heavy Romani cloak of yellow, orange and gray, with piping lining the edges in the same colors. It was one made of heavy wool and hemp, with a half cloak of animal furs sewn to the neck, to add extra protection to the upper body, which gave the cloak more material to keep any rain from penetrating the cloak. The inside of the cloak was of green dyed hemp in the case stealth was needed in a situation. She could turn the cloak around to hide her bright colors. With my knowledge of the style of the cloak, I knew, somewhere in the folds of the cloak’s shoulders, there were two arm slits. This would allow you to have your arms outside of the cloak, if you needed them to be, especially in cold or wet weather.
Her right hand was retreating from setting the bow on the desk, as I took in what was under her cloak. In her left hand, she had a saddle bag, while around her hips was a second weapons belt, which held two small daggers and four throwing axes. My left eyebrow cocked at her weapons, as I have never seen her with any weapon other than a sword.
Her left eyebrow cocked to respond to my eyebrow. “Do you care to retract that statement?”
I instantly quipped back to her, “Yes, wench. Want an extra ax or two?”
We both started laughing, as Edward was done sizing her bow’s string length, before placing two replacement strings by Vadoma’s bow. “An for ye lass, be ye havin a eight and fifty, one hundred pull on that bow yer be holding there?” Edward asked in his heavy accent.
“No Edward. Seven and fifty, fifty pull.”
Edward looked along the floor boards by his desk until he found the one in which he needed, before lifting the plank up by the small hole, which was in the plank. Underneath the plank, there was revealed a drawer with a few boxes in it.
He retrieved a string from one of the boxes, before echoing in his accent, “Aye, seven and fifty, fifty pull. An, a double horse war an double horse hunter, aye?”
I nodded my head as he headed around the desk to the bigger floor planks, along the front of the Armory. He lifted one floor plank, while he pulled out a hunters quiver saddlebag, which he sat up against the wall before replacing the floor plank. He took two steps over before lifting another plank, while he pulled out a war quiver in the same saddlebag style. He secured the plank before he set the quiver by the hunters quiver.
Edward’s accented voice spoke, “Be that all ye be needin, or is er something else I can do for ye?”
“No, Edward. Thank you. We are good. See you in a week,” I responded to him, before the wench started us on another track. I grabbed the seven and fifty string from the desk, before stashing it into a pouch, while Vadoma snagged the two strings, which she hid in a front pouch on her belt.
She retrieved the horse bow before moving to the quivers to take her quiver. I was a step behind her, on purpose mind you, as I wanted another smell of the rose garden, which was in her hair.
“Quit looking at my butt, Relonor!”
◆◆◆
One hour later
Vadoma and I rode into the clearing we used to train, as the stone stood watch over the small clearing. I led my horse to one of the river birches, along the side of the clearing, before tying the reins to the trunk of the tree. Vadoma did the same, while Papa and mother walked from behind another clump of trees, while a blush was on mother’s face.
“Did we interrupt something,” Vadoma asked with no shame to her voice.
I closed my eye while I yelled out, “I am not hearing this!” Realizing when closing my eye did not stop my sight, as the wind showed me the clearing in the whites and blacks of my wind vision, I quipped, “And do not do anything, because I can still see you!”
I knew my mistake as papa asked, “You can still see me?”
I backpedaled as quick at my mouth would allow, “Verdomme, can you, like, not have heard that? Really, it is nothing. Just my imagination going on a walk about again. You know the imagination I have. I am mad as a hatter after all.”
; Papa drew a dagger from his belt before launching it towards me. I pushed off with both feet to roll to the my right side, before coming to rest on my right knee, with my left leg out to stop the rolling motion I had started to avoid the dagger.
“Yes, just your imagination.” Papa replied as he walked to retrieve his dagger, which had not been thrown with as much force as I expected with the motion. It took him only a couple steps to reach the dagger. “Some imagination, which you can see…” Papa was looking at Vadoma, who had serious look on her face. Her head was in a slight shake, which told him to stop with what he was thinking aloud.
Mother, as always, quipped. “Oh imagination. Was it a horse riding wild in a field? Or a monster hiding behind the door? Oh never mind, it is not important. I see someone has their horse packed for a trip. Are you two love birds going away?”
My cheeks heated with the blush I found on my face, at being called a love bird with this wench. I was so not her type. I could not be the person for her. A tear wanted, no, it was much more than want. It begged for my right eye to release a tear. I knew, if I let it have it’s way, I would never be able to stop crying. The yearning I had to be in Vadoma’s arms, to have her lips on mine, to hear her whisper my name into my ear, in her sweet voice, drove me crazy each day.
Papa’s voice interrupted my thoughts, “Sensei, the instruction for today?”
Oh yea. I have to teach someone. How do I do that? I just know how to do it, as it is natural to me. “Okay. First of all, papa, no Sensei stuff. I will teach you, but I do not want to hear that. Second, well.” I drew out the word, “I need to think. First time teaching someone after all.”
Vadoma quipped up, “Two.”
In my confusion, I asked, “What? Two what?”
“Not someone. Two pupils, you silly woman. I would like to learn, may chance allow.” Vadoma looked at me expectantly.
“Chance does allow, but you do not have any armor on, so actual blade play would be out of the question,” I quipped back.
“You alţii with what is required. I have plenty of armor on,” she instantly quipped back to me.
“Um, I saw what you put on this morning, and I can assure you, there is no armor in what you are wearing,” I quickly quipped back to her.
Mother’s right eyebrow cocked, in question, with the words she used, “You know what she is wearing, which means you were getting dressed together, so this means….”
“Mother! It was not like that. She got in late last night before she came to check on me. She fell asleep in my room. Nothing happened!” A hot blush stormed over my cheeks, which was showing much promise of turning my head the color of a ripe tomato.
My unease in the subject was echoed my Vadoma. Her words came off of her tongue fast. “Yea, I am so sorry I fell asleep there. I was just so tired. And, my clothes were on. And, she slept in the quilt. And, I just slept on top of the quilt. And…nothing happened. We are just friends.”
The knife went into my heart at the end of her statement. ‘We are just friends.’ She said it plain as day. There was nothing more I could expect from this woman than…who…holds my heart in her hands. I was so flabbergasted.
Mother’s voice was fast in her reply, “Oh, you two. I was teasing you. I know you two are the best of friends, and I am glad that Relonor has finally found someone to share her weirdness with. If something did happen between you two, I am the last person who would care.”
Papa was glancing around the clearing, with the wanting to not be having this conversation, before affirming this when he caught me watching him. “I did not say a word about it. Do not look at me in that way, Sweets.”
I let out a barking laugh at his sincerity of his being at the wrong place, at the wrong time. I walked over to the stone before sitting down, while thinking aloud. “Well, if I was teaching this form….”
“And you are, Sweets,” papa said, interrupting the silence my words had trailed off into, while trying to keep the subject on something other than Vadoma and me.
“And I am…I would start with foot work. Your hands mean nothing without the foot work. Your feet need to react without giving them the commands to move. They need to move to the music in your head. You need to move in and out of the combatant zone, as quickly as possible, to keep the smallest of margins between being clear of the combatant zone and not.” The combatant zone is the space of an attack from an attacker. “It is a dance. The physics of it will come later.”
Papa was nodding his head as his eyes were cast in a memory, while he thought aloud. “Yes, that was what your feet looked like when you were fighting. Not one static stance, but a flow of a dance, which evolved as the situation evolved in front of you.”
I thought to my feet, while I nodded my consent. “Yes, a dance. That means for our first lesson, we dance….”
Over the next hour, I watched as they danced with each other, with me instructing Vadoma or papa to lead the dance, to the music of the wind, to the leaves rustling with the life they held, and to the stream which gurgled beyond the trees. Their dance was a mirror dance, in which the leader of the dance moved, while the other followed to counter the movement just taken. It was sloppy at first. In the beginning, I had to make a lot of interruptions, to correct a misstep, or suggest a better step to counter a movement, which was taken.
‘Every dansul morţii has a beginning and an end. To start the dansul morţii, you start from the beginning. Be ready to defend first, before finding your attacker and wait. Find the music of the dansul morţii, and unleash the dansul morţii, upon his first move.’
~Dansatorii al Morţii saying
Entry 8
4 Months Before
West of Groenplaats
Vadoma and I had rode through the forests, which grew among the mountains. I have followed her lead for the last two days, as we rode West from Groenplaats and from my parents.
My guard was on high alert, as we occasionally steered around a cluster of rocks or heavy trees, which did not look safe to me, for ambush reasons mind you, as this is where I would lay in wait to trap someone. I highly doubted a person, or persons, were out here laying in wait for us. However, it was a good exercise for my strategic mind.
The valley in which we rode was wide and clear of trees, as the grasses littered the ground, with flowers peeking out among the greenery of the grass. The grasses came up to the bellies of our horses. From the mountain, in front of us, a stream drained into a lake the size of our entire village, with a beautiful waterfall. Along the ridge on our right, there was a pine tree forest, while along the left of the valley, the rock was laid bare to the wind, as it was free of any growth.
We had been riding to the lake, which Vadoma had pointed out this morning. She said we were a day’s ride from the cave, which she had found with her mother a few years ago. We had planned to stop at the lake to make our camp for the night.
The ride was mostly silent, as I listened for noises. I listened for any noise which would give me notice for anything which was abnormal. The quiet gave the sounds the most chance to reach my ear, to warn me of the danger. With us being this quiet, we had been able to find sun’s fall meal the last two nights.
That is when I heard a noise come from the grasses. It was just above the whispering of the wind on the grasses. I pulled my horse to a halt, while taking my bow in hand. My hand went to the left side of my saddle, to retrieve a plate mail piercing arrow from the quiver, before knocking it to the string. I closed my eyes as I relaxed.
After a few steps of Vadoma’s horse, she noticed I had stopped, before stopping her horse, as she turned in her saddle to look at me. She made no move to her bow or any weapon, while she looked at me with her white and gray face. Her head had a halo of white around it, from the wind hitting the back of her head.
I tilted my head from right to left, as I sought to catch the sound again with my ears. A mouflon, which looks like a sheep, came out of the tall grass to my right. He was an adolescent one, as the horns were
just starting to curl around his head.
The shot would be hard to take, with my bow shot pointed the opposite direction. The two choices which went through my head were to switch my hands, which would take the longest time to do but have a steady shot, or use the horse to turn towards the mouflon, while turning my bow at the same time, which would give me more speed, but take away the stability with the horse’s movements.
Vadoma watched silently as I made my choice. I moved my bow as slow as I could, to my right hand. Once secured in my right hand, I moved my left hand back to the string, while I slowly raised the bow to my side, which brought the bow to shoulder height, as I drew the string taught. I waited for him to turn for a better angle for me. The wind shifted direction, which spooked him. He took off as I released.
The arrow flew from the string, while leaving a white trail of wind, which fell off the feathers at the end of the arrow. My mind saw the shot was off. I reached out to the wind, with my mind, to asked her for a small favor. I needed a nudge to the left, to drive the arrow home. The wind answered as the arrow shattered in the air, while flying off into splinters.
The next thing I knew, I was laying on the ground, while feeling exhausted. Vadoma was next to me, kneeling as she was checking me over. I asked groggily, “What happened?”
“This confirms my thoughts. You have the magik of the People. You reached out with the wind to the arrow, before letting your power loose. The problem is the amount of power you released. You are not supposed to release it all at once, which you did.”
I let my confusion into my voice, “What?”
“Okay. One step at a time. First, I will tell you something, but you must keep it a secret between us. Do I have your word on this?” Vadoma’s face held a very serious expression on it.
Relonor's Journal Page 9