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(no subject)

Characters: Samuel Henderson, Golbez
Format: Prosey-type
This log is: closed
Location: Conquest courtyard
Summary: Golbez attempts to teach Sam how to wield a sword. Hopefully the lesson will end with all of his fingers.

Sam had a lot to learn. He was kind of nervous, but he trusted Golbez, so he would take the blows as they came. And he knew they would. So he had detoured through the town and used a few raks to get him something more comfortable to train in. A pair of sweats, with bike shorts under, in case he got warm, and a t-shirt would do.

So he headed over to the courtyard, and found a bench to set a bottle of water and PDA on. He had adjusted pretty smoothly from carrying his cell phone everywhere to carrying the PDA. It was a larger device, but it still fit in his jacket pocket pretty well. So he sat on the back of the bench, his feet on the seat and his butt on the top edge, waiting for Golbez to arrive.

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Golbez arrived on time; he didn't particularly care about his appearance, so he showed up in his kilt and, to help with the cold, the shirt to his school uniform. He looked ridiculous, and still wasn't wearing shoes. He didn't care. He carried a spare bag to keep a bottle of water and a towel in, not having a PDA of his own.

Once he was there, he nodded to Samuel. "Good evening. Let's begin."

He climbed down from his perch, of sorts, and approached Golbez. "Alright. I suppose I should just do this then..." He tugged on his glove, and reached for Golbez's chest to draw his weapon. He wondered what kind of sword it would be. He thought a Highlander-esque claymore would be appropriate.

And it was while he was wondering this, that he stared at the burst of extra light that came as he drew it out. Was that a star?

Golbez's eyes went wide as the pentagram appeared in a flash of light, surrounded by what he now recognized as computer code, the name Lilith in the very center. And then, as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone.

"Curious," he said simply. "This is the first time that has occurred."

"Uh. Did I do something wrong?" He stared at the sword in his hand, then back to the area of Golbez's chest that it had come from. He'd never seen that happen when he'd had his weapon pulled out before.

"I would say that you did something very right, in fact." He reached out to take the sword and looked it over once he had it. "Although I cannot say how it happened. I haven't yet been able to find the pattern behind that symbol's appearance."

Sam was still confused, but he let Golbez take the sword. "Did that say Lilith? She was Adam's second wife, or something like that. I remember reading about it once, but that was middle school, I think." He wondered what would happen next, but he could wait patiently for instructions. He was a very good student, after all. Of things in books, anyway.

"The name is one shared by a family of humanoid monsters in my world, but it otherwise holds no significance to me. I don't know of any Adam."

With a shrug, he handed the sword back. It seemed the same as always. "In any case, we should begin."

"We can swap stories later, I guess," he shrugged. He was curious about what kind of monsters were in Golbez's home world, but that was a discussion for another day.

"Sure, what are we starting with?" He pulled the glove off and put it back in his sweats pocket.

"First, your grip and stance. You stand and hold the weapon like an amateur." He looked around, and finding a fallen tree branch of suitable size, he picked it up to demonstrate the proper posture. "You're right-handed?"

He nodded. "Yeah." He kept his eyes on Golbez's hands. If he ended up sucking at this as much as he expected to, it wouldn't be for lack of effort. He supposed watching all those fantasy movies hadn't taught him as much as he'd thought.

"Then rather than mimicking my position, mirror it," he instructed. He held the branch down low in both hands and adjusted his stance to a defensive one, eying Sam to see how well he could follow along.

He nodded, and tried to be a mirror image of what Golbez was doing. But he probably had his hands switched. After being given a few minutes to absorb some of the other aspects of what Golbez was doing, his position did get better.

So despite his amateur nature, Sam was able to learn quickly. That was good. He'd need to fight at least once by Wednesday, and hopefully, he would win.

Golbez walked Sam through a series of very basic motions -- how to stand, how to thrust, how to parry -- all in a very matter-of-fact tone, never raising his voice or scolding when the doctor didn't quite match up properly.

The not-overbearing approach seemed to have done the trick, because he seemed to pick things up much more quickly as things went on. Until he lost track of his feet and tripped over himself. He fell in a heap, and the sword clattered on the ground. "Argh..." he grumbled in frustration. He started to push himself up again. "Sorry..."

The sword hitting the ground sent a twinge of pain through Golbez, and he flinched. "It goes without saying, but you'll want to be more careful in an actual battle." He moved over to hold out a hand to help Sam up.

"Do you think you've got the basics down?"

He accepted the hand, and bent over to pick up the sword. "Yeah, I don't know what happened there."

"I think so..." He combed his bangs back over the back of his head to try to get them out of his face.

"Then let's leave off here for tonight. We can meet again tomorrow evening."

He still had a lesson to prepare for the week. This teaching job wasn't getting any easier.

He wondered if it was because he'd tripped. "I could go a little longer--unless you have something you need to do, that is." Of course you could keep going, Sam. You wouldn't get tired from just this much.

"I do, actually. It's getting quite late, and I have class in the morning."

He did regret not being able to help Sam more.

He nodded. "Ah, sure. Yeah, I'm sorry. Um..." he reached out toward Golbez's chest, holding the handled. When the handle of the sword came up to Golbez's chest, the weapon disappeared. "I guess that did it."

"I'll see you tomorrow, I guess?" He tried a small nervous smile.

"I'll see you tomorrow. And don't worry so much. You're doing quite well for a beginner." Hesitantly, he clapped one hand down onto Sam's shoulder, then turned to go.

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