The Grey Tower

It wasn't often that Felessan was called upon to handle evaluations, but occasionally he was asked to do so because the others who normally handled them were away or busy. This time it was because the man was using spears, and there was no one else with a weapon close to his to properly evaluate him. Tall and well built, he was built for turning people onto their asses and creating a solid wall of man. Dark hair was held back by a dark cloth strap, and there were two braids on either side of his face. Hands that looked delicate but were extremely strong as they gripped around the handle of his long spear. In a quiver on his hip sat smaller spears used for throwing and attacking.

Spinning the spear around himself, he looked like a dangerous dancer. Slashing down an imaginary enemy, he twirled the handle around, rotating the spear head around. He heard footsteps approaching him, and ended his spin with that spear at his hip, the tip pointed at the Aiel man in front of him. This must be Terric, the man he was to evaluate. "I see you, Terric. I am Felessan Solonne, and may you find Shade this day." He said, pulling his spear back, and leaning it against his body, while watching the Aiel in front of him. He merely hoped that the greeting wasn't taken as an insult, and taken as an attempt to make him feel welcome.

It had taken some prodding, but he had managed it. Terric finally convinced the armorers to hack off the end of a spear. It had been a regular length Wetlander training spear but now it was a proper spear, all the blunted and padded. He trotted along towards the Evaluation Yards, new spear and buckler in hand. He rounded the corner to find a large Wetlander completing some sort of kata with his spear. The man ended with the spear pointed at Terric’s chest. Had this Wetlander heard him approach? If so, he might be a dangerous man indeed.

"I see you, Terric. I am Felessan Solonne, and may you find Shade this day,” the man said, bringing the spear to rest on his shoulder, sizing Terric up.

Terric nodded to the Wetlander, “I see you, Felessan Solonne, may you also find Shade this day.” The Wetlands were full of shade but the gesture was quite welcome. “So you are my evaluator?” He sized the man up. He was quite large. Terric had seen taller men, but rarely so wide. He stood lighter than one would expect from a man his size. Terric glanced around the yard, wondering what his evaluator had in store for him.

Felessan was relieved that he hadn't taken his greeting as an insult. Sometimes the Aiel were so very touchy about those things, and Felessan couldn't say that he was an expert, but he was at least knowledgeable of the Aiel to some extent. "Aye, I am your evaluator." He replied as he swung his spear up and across his shoulders, resting his arms on either side of it with the spear head pointing towards his right. "We're going to talk a little bit first before I put your through your paces. It's an annoying process warrior to warrior, but it's good for us to know where you stand in your training so that we can help you obtain the best possible warrior status for you here with us." His posture became relaxed, but it wasn't something that should be taken advantage of because he was always ready for a fight.

"I want you to run me through your fighting style, and your postures. That will include your weapon grips and your stances. Once we're through that, we're going to put it to the test, and you'll take me on with my spear. I hope you're ready for a fight, because we're really going to see what you know." Felessan said as he nodded at Terric. "Whenever you're ready, tell me about your fighting style, and show me your stances and grips.

So they wanted to see what he knew. He had hoped they would get straight to practical demonstrations but that wasn’t how these things ever went. Most of what he knew had gone from technical lectures to muscle memory ages ago, but he decided to give it his best shot.

Like any algai’d’siswai, Terric’s resting posture was light on the balls of his feet and showed the hints of a spear or unarmed stance. He stepped back with his right foot, pointing it shallowly to the right, and keeping his knees about shoulder width apart. He bent his knees slightly settling his weight onto his rear leg. He did all of this in exaggerated motions and began to explain in the kind of voice he used when he was teaching Avyra, “The basics of any fighting, armed or unarmed, are stances and footwork. I can take a similar stance with my left side forward if I want, both must be as natural as putting on cadin’sor,” he switched to an identical stance with his right leg forward.

He raised his buckler, strapped to his left arm, “There are two basic ‘attitudes.’ Offensive and defensive. In this stance, with my buckler side back and my spear side forward, this is what we call an offensive attitude. Poking somebody with a spear is rather rude and offensive,” realizing his joke probably wouldn’t be funny to the Wetlander, he continued switched sides, lifting his buckler before him. “This is defensive attitude. I prefer to fight from defensive attitude. This is how my Spear Master taught us years and years ago. He used to say, ‘The best way to avoid a blow is to not be there, and to not be where the enemy thinks you are,’” He said the last part in an imitation of Vishik’s gruff voice. “When you keep your guard up in combat, you are more likely to live long enough to deliver a wounding or killing blow.”

He took the spear in a grip with his thumb towards the butt and held it over his shoulder, blade pointed forward and elbow bent. “This, this is a reverse stabbing grip, it’s my least favorite, it is strong yes, but it is limited. It’s great for fighting shoulder to shoulder or in tight spaces but it lacks reach and versatility.” He flipped the spear so that his thumb pointed along the shaft towards the blade. He lifted it spear into a stabbing position, spear peaking around the buckler. “A regular stabbing grip offers the most flexibility in my experience,” he demonstrated with a forward jab then sidestepped and swung his arm in a motion like a right hook, stabbing inwards. He adjusted the grip so that his spear was lightly in his hand and thrusted rolling his wrist so the strike ended with his hand facing the sky. “The standard stabbing grip can quickly be turned into a thrusting grip, but for what the thrusting grip gains in reach, it loses in strength.” He stepped back, snapping into his preferred defensive middle, “Questions?”

Felessan watched carefully of the Aiel in front of him as he went through the motions. Everything seemed up to par, at least for his knowledge of the Aiel Spear and Shield. But it was explained well, so that if he didn't know then at least he would have been well informed. The Gaidan looked blank at the Aiel, before his mind made a very dirty connection to what he said. Felessan gave a hard snort and grinned as he watched Terric go through the rest of his stances, and all the grips. The Gaidan nodded in approval. "Good. That's good." He said as he grinned at the other man. "Now, if you will, please stretch to be ready for our spar and understand that I may add in more opponents as we progress to really test you." Felessan said, as he also stretched out to make this as fair as possible.

Once he was limber, he bounced back and forth on his feet, as he spun his long handled spear around his body. Snapping his feet together, he bowed to his opponent waiting to see the same courtesy before he swung his long spear out and rested the tip against the dirt. He was in a deceptively open stance, one that was the easiest to defend from. The Gaidan was semi crouched, as he held his hand forward, gesturing for the Aiel to come at him. It didn't matter how Terric would approach at this point. With Low guard in this manner, it was nearly impossible to catch him unaware to get a good hit in on him. All attacks were easily blocked.

Terric began a kata meant to stretch the muscles and warm up, the moves each had their own purpose but together did not have a place on a battle field. As Vishik had told him, kata’s were for practicing footwork and stances, not actual warfare. As he brought his kata to an end, his mind felt more alert and body eager for movement and action. Since his sparing match with Danos al’Sheen, he had been working on assuming the Void. He shoved any nerves, any excitement, pride or anything else into the flame and pulled the Void around him like a veil.

He joined Felessan Solonne in the middle of the practice yard. He stood at a low ready and Terric met him with his customary defensive mid. He rushed forward with a series of stabs aimed at his chest and gut. The big Wetlander managed to bat them all away. Admiration drifted across the surface of the void. He let himself act from within the Void and as Felessan Solonne reset his stance, Terric sidestepped to his right and around the man. Now on his opponent’s left side, he stabbed in a roundhouse motion at the instructor’s back, keeping his buckler ready to ward off any retaliation.

Felessan was able to block all the attacks coming at him with a grin on his face. It was good to see that this was a great and aggressive start. Wielding his ashandarei he spun it around his body as he brought the weapon around to the other side of himself, crashing his blade against the spear to knock it away. He shoved forward with his spear handle and danced back. There was a chance that his spear handle would smash into Terric's face, but he doubted it. The man was quick, so he should be able to handle this and dodge the attack. But on the chance that it hit, Felessan was going to be able to hit Terric around the chin and mouth area.

The Gaidan held his weapon with her left hand near his hip gripping his spear tightly while his right hand held the spear out in front of him and was a looser grip. He jabbed forward near the face and swung down from the right shoulder towards the left hip, a move easily blocked by the buckler on his hand. If it was blocked appropriately, he was going to use the fight back momentum to swing around the other way and come from the left ankle up towards the right hip.

Terric snarled as his spear was batted aside. Ducking past a follow up strike from the haft, he pushed that frustration into the Flame. This wasn’t the time for pride or anger.

He dodged back from a thrust and deflected a slash on his buckler. Options spilled out in front of him. In the Void they all seemed clear. One thought rang truer than the others, This was the time for audacity and unpredictability.

As he parried the downward slash with his buckler he let the shaft slide down his arm. He stepped out from under it, twisting his left hand to wrap over the spear so he could grip the haft. With a violent yank back and down, he did his best to pull the spearman off balance, he stepped forward on his right foot and thrust towards the man’s broad chest.

He felt triumph well up but he fed it to the Flame. Instead, withdrew his spear and stabbed again, hand still gripping the ashandarei’s haft like a vice. In the Void, he knew he couldn’t let his guard down and that he had to be ready for a counter attack from this wily old soldier.

I won’t be able to rely on tricks forever, he thought from within the Void.

He saw a brief flare of emotion before it was enveloped in the Void again. Felessan wasn't one who told people to use the Void, because he preferred to fight with his emotions because it make things more unpredictable and lethal. He fought with his emotions because that was what worked for him. But he also knew and recognized that the Void worked for others. The Gaidan's lips spread in a grin as his eyes took in what was happening. With a grip on the spear from the Aiel in a move that impressed him, he was pulled forward and slightly off balance as he tried to regain control of the situation.

His left hand left his spear as he batted the spear that was thrusted at him, but wasn't able to get a hold of it at this point. But the spear was thrusted at him again, and he was able to grab a hold of it this time. "Well played Terric. Now, can you keep up?" He asked with a wide grin as he allowed his body to crumple down, pulling Terric with him. Once his ass hit the ground, his feet went up, and planted on Terric's stomach. Felessan's momentum carried Terric over his body and onto his back, both of them not letting go of each other spears. This started a tugging match as both tried to obtain their spear back from the other, and Felessan couldn't help the laughter that bubbled from his lips while he tried to get his ashandarei back from Terric. In the moment he knew that if he had walked in on this, he would have been killing himself laughing.

His flicker of triumph was cut short when the other man grabbed his spear and let himself collapse. He saw the man’s boots rushing towards his gut but he refused to let go of either spear to move. He braced for the impact and was lifted off the ground. Well played, Wetlander, He thought as he was carried through the air. He tucked his chin and kept his body as flat as possible when he landed. He looked up to realize neither of them had let go of the other’s spear. The absurdity of the moment shattered the Void. He let out a deep laugh and was surprised to hear similar from his opponent.

The fight wasn’t over yet, he rolled to the left crossing their spears with his on top. As he climbed to his knees, he noticed other men carrying practice weapons waiting nearby. He got his feet under him and growled, “Just let go!” He aimed a kick at the hand holding his spear. His position wasn’t exactly stable so he let himself fall back onto his bottom. As he continued trying to kick the man’s hand free, he realized he had never been in a less dignified fight in his life.