The Grey Tower

It had been nearly a week since Terric had last talked to Avyra. He’d seen her a few times in passing but she seemed to always duck away if he greeted her. Was she avoiding him? He wasn’t sure what he’d done. He thought over their last meeting on his way to a dreadful “History of the Grey Tower” class. It was all names and dates, but he had to pass it if he wanted to become a Ji’alantin. He noted his friend Gaval Hanania lounging against the wall slightly apart form the gaggle of students waiting for the last class to get out.

“Well met, Terric,” the Saldaean said with a wave.

“I see you, Gaval Hanania,” Terric said joining him against his wall, “And I’ve come to a conclusion. Wetlanders are odd.”

“Uh, you know I’m a Wetlander, right?”

“You’re a Borderlander that’s different. The Trollic raids keep your heads screwed on straight.”

“I’ll assume that was a compliment. What’s got your goat frined?”

“Why does everybody assume goats,” he muttered. He rubbed an old scar on his neck, “No not goats. My friend, she’s been avoiding me recently. Not sure why.”

“Stop making things up Terric, I know you doin’t have friends. If you did, you wouldn’t hang around me.”

“This is serious,” he ran his fingers through is hair in frustration, “I hope I didn’t offend her.” He caught a flash of white at about elbow height and looked to see Avyra hurrying down the hall, using a taller Novice as cover. “I see you, Avyra,” he said, raising his hand in greeting. He immediately kicked himself. If she was hiding from him, then that would have sounded like he was reminding her of her shame.

How was he supposed to go about this without shaming her? He wished Wetlanders weren’t so touchy. He couldn’t just accuse her of avoiding him could he? He did want know what was wrong.

He looked down at her, “You stopped coming to our training sessions. Is everything ok?” He had stopped by the training yards on his free period each day since. Without a student to train, he had used the time to practice with his spear.

Avyra still looked embarrassed and slightly nervous. He continued awkwardly, “If you don’t want to train anymore, just tell me. I know the head lock was a little intense but you don’t have to avoid me.” Oops, he’d said it. He’d accused her of avoiding him. He hadn’t to put that out there so soon. Trying to mask his awkwardness, he glanced at Gaval Hanania, hoping for a way out, but none came. The Saldaean gave him an I don’t even know how to help you kind of look and tried to listen in on the conversation without appearing to. Terric sighed internally, the man wasn’t ever any help. Why did he take him anywhere?

Terrc, let himself be lead away by the arm. He looked over his shoulder to see his friend smirking from behind his mustache.

When they were out of earshot, Avyra explained that she was embarrassed because she had admitted to liking being carried by him. Surprisingly enough, he did like carrying her as well. Would telling her relieve her embarrassment or make it worse? When she apologized for avoiding him, “You have no toh, I actually like—“

He was cut off when Gaval Hanania called out to him, “Hurry up, Terric, class is about to start.”

Terric made his goodbyes and began to walk down the hallway, He turned and called over his shoulder. If you want to keep training, let’s keep meeting at our usual time and place.” He stopped walking and turned to face her, “I really hope you want to.” He cleared his throat glancing around awkwardly, “May, you find water and shade today.” Then he hurried on to class wishing he knew how to handle these situations better.

“I see you, Avyra,” Terric called cheerfully. It really was good to be back at their training. As she approached, he stooped to pick up a pair of batons padded with wool and wrapped in leather. He tossed one up and caught it. These would do fine for today’s lesson. “Get stretched out, and we can get ready to begin our lesson for today.”

Even though he’d stretched already, he joined her in her stretches. He’d always believed there was no such thing as too much stretching. They stood and reached for the sky and bent to touch their toes. Stretched their arms by reaching across their bodies and their legs with deep lunges and partial splits. They even stretched their writs by bending the other person’s hands back. Terric knew he was being unusually thorough with their stretches but this was going to be the closest to full contact they had come in their months of sparing.

He picked up the batons and pointed one at her. “I hope you’ve been practicing the Void, and your stances. Because today, I’m going to teach you how to block and how to dodge.”

His friend eyed the batons nervously, “I figured it would be a bit safer to practice with these. They’re padded so trainees can hit each other with them all day with minimal injuries. I’ll do my best not to actually hit you though. If you don’t get your block up in time, stop short.”

“Don’t assume one of your stances yet. I want you to stand somewhat casually. But remember, even when you’re casual, your body should be ready to respond to attacks.” As he talked he casually twirled on of the battons. As he walked, he dragged his foot through the sand, making a circle around her, about seven feet from her at any side. Terric placed himself so they were standing a bit over a yard apart. “You see that circle? Anybody within that circle can reach you in about a second flat. That doesn’t mean not to let people in close, just to be aware of people and their intentions when they enter the circle. If the fight hasn’t begun, your first step is to try to make space between yourself and your opponent. While you are doing this, try to find a way to avoid the fight. Talk him down, look for an escape route, whatever. That leads us to step three. Well really step one half. You want to be aware of your surroundings. That way you know you’re not being backed into a wall or that he doesn’t have friends behind you. Sometimes, no matter what you do, the other guy still wants to hit you. You need to learn to read him. There are two schools of thought on this. First is to watch the hips, because they give good clues about where the body is headed. The second is to watch the eyes. I prefer watching the eyes when I can. You can see your opponent’s entire body and you get all sorts of context clues such as what emotions he’s projecting and what he’s looking at.” He forced a thought to the for front, I’m going to hit her with my baton. He did his best to let that thought show on his face and focused on her left shoulder. “When my attack comes, I want you to side step and assume a stance. I don’t want you to counter attack yet but I want you to be prepared too.” With that he swung one of his batons in an exaggerated downward arc at her shoulder. To him, the swing was excruciatingly slow and he was prepared to stop short if he had to.