Elendor
Hildis spars with a Huskarl
Hildis has a little spar with Ranol in the practice hall.
Sort Date: no date set
Location: Erebor
Description: It's late in the afternoon. The tension between Zinbar and Bundazanul hasn't eased any, but that doesn't stop normal business from progressing. Ranol spends hours each day in the Hall of Dodin, working on his own training as well as with the clan-karls.
Currently, the huskarl is trading blows with another dwarf, both of them weilding padded weapons. Ranol has a short broadsword, while his sparring partner weilds an axe. They pause frequently, stopping to more closely examine a block or parry.
A dwarf stands just inside the doorway adjusting armor, some of it old and battered, having a hand-me-down look to it, some of it frankly new. A wooden sparring shield lays at her feet next to a war hammer. After finishing to adjust her helmet, she looks about her, cheerfulness at finding herself here showing through her carefully neutral expression.
Ranol seems to be working through some kind of disarm manuever with exagerated slowness, pausing at each key point to offer instruction before continuing. The clan-karl he's working with is nodding along. Then they try to the full routine and Ranol's sword flies from his hand, clattering to the floor a few feet away. He laughs and goes to retrieve, offering words of praise. "Good job! You learned it faster than I did! Took me four tries last week when the trainer taught me." As he straightens from bending to retrieve his weapons, his gaze catches sight of Hildis. His attention lingers on her for a moment, surprise on his face. A small smile flashes behind his beard before he turns back to his work.
The din of sparring rises and falls at times deafingly loud as feet shuffle, sword and axe clang and shouts ring out. The clatter of a sword falling to the floor catches her attention and she looks in that direction and recognizes Ranol by his unruly black beard flowing over what looks like new chainmail.She once again goes through the little dance she recognizes as becoming a habit: shifting from foot to foot, turning away and then turning back as though having convinced herself of the cowardice of running. She does not smile.
"It's late.. lets call it a day." Ranol says, wrapping up his training time with the other guard. He pulls his helm from his head, hot and sweaty as usual, but the chain is much heavier than the leather he was accustomed to. He gets worn out more quickly. As the clan-karl leaves, Ranol hangs around and his blue eyes stray to Hildis again, watching her curiously. It seems no more than a passing interest.. his continuing attention to the Barazin dwarf.
Green eyes search the room for a partner, she studiously ignores Ranol but seemingly can't stop herself from taking peeks at him. The dance begins again and she actually stamps a foot to make herself stop from completing it. More dwarves enter and she looks at them to see if any of them arrives without a partner. Everyone is paired.
Hildis scowls at him. "Determined?" she asks, "in what? I seem to be determined to run into you all the time. It is pure accident, sir" she says a smile brightening the frown from her face as she returns his bow.
"Aye, I am determined to not disgrace my clan. That is true. And I am determined to find someone who will show up when they promise. My brother was to meet me."
"Oh.. Uh.. Well, I just meant, in the training. That is all." Ranol flounders for a moment, "I wasn't trying to suggest anything." The huskarl is perhaps a bit tongue-tied because he looks around for a moment, "I'm sorry if I offended you." He lowers his padded sword down to his side.
Her expression softens and she tugs gently at her own beard. "I did not mean to give offence. You give none. Nay. But I would that you could introduce me to someone I could spar with."
Ranol relaxes again and tucks the sword under his arm so that he can scrub his hand through his short-cropped hair a few times. "If you like, I could help until your brother arrives?" He sounds sincere, and that always seems the case with the huskarl. His blue eyes hint at a keener notice of things than his soft manner portrays, but the offer is genuine.
His offer elicits a reddening that begins from the roots of her moustache and that almost begins her dance again. She frowns hard. "Uh, he is not coming, he told me just as I finished dressing myself to come. She looks at her padded hammer and then at him. "It would be...you are very skilled. I have the training that all our clan requires for their children to follow but no more."
"Oh. I see." Ranol answers in response to her explanation of her brother. "I am only as skilled as those that have taught me.." He adds, grinning. "Come over here and you can try your hand." He walks back to the clear area where he was working with his own clansmen, then turns to look at her. "I'm sorry about yesterday, when I left you with Siv. The situation is tense and I didn't want to contribute to it any further."
Hildis follows him out onto the floor, her eyes darting to the pairs practising together. She looks at him with a movement of surprise then quick denial. "It was not your fault and surely something I would have learned of were you there or no. It was tense or seemed like it to me because Eirdis nearly joined us. Siv seems," she hesitates as she searches for her words, "Siv seems sure of herself."
The words once out of her mouth do not seem right and she gestures helplessly for a moment. "I mean. She has a lot of confidence." She picks up warhammer to cover her confusion and spreads her feet a classic defensive stance.
"Aye. She does. I am unhappy about the entire situation. I .. considered Siv a friend. We all traveled together on the caravan." Ranol doesn't elaborate much beyond that, but after a moment he adds. "Eirdis? You know her?.. " There is a long pause, then an almost wary expression crosses the Huskarl's face. He holds his sword loosely at his side and beckons her forward. "Go ahead, I am ready."
"Nay," she says with puzzlement, "but Siv told me who she was and that she was the source of some rumor or another about Thari and Fraler."
Two handed she holds her stance but begins to swing the hammer in an arc to the right, switching in mid-swing and reversing the arc to fall towards his right shoulder."
Ranol actually seems a bit relieved that Hildis didn't actually talk with Eirdis, but then she's swinging and he immediately brings up his sword. His blue eyes follow the stroke of the weapon and he deftly steps back, deflecting the hammer off of his blade. "Good form." He says simply, then waits for her swing again, keeping his own stance loose. "Thari and Frarin are hoping to marry. The negotiations with her father were taking place when he had to leave to tend to some personal business in the Iron Hills. Siv.. she.. has a way of looking at things that tends to be exagerated or distorted. I do not think she means ill, but that is where some of this trouble has stemmed from."
The frown returns and it is some air of Ranol's when he speaks Eirdis' name that provokes it. She swings again, trying to keep her stance loose but it is faster and perhaps with less control than the first. "So if...I thought perhaps folk were talking about a romance that never was. I did not know. I am happy for Thari." She drops her stance to say, "What made Thari so angry?"
Ranol blocks the second attack easily, but again does not press any counter attack. Perhaps he's allowing her some warm-up time to focus on the spar, or maybe he's just being polite. "It's.. something that I do not think is best discussed in such a public place. My apologies."
"I think I may have warmed up enough," she says in a neutral voice that deflects what he just said. Then she adds, "I am sorry for asking after clan business in public. I do know better.
She whirls in place using the force of the turn to bring the hammer into a what she hopes would be a rib cracking thump on his ribs or right arm.
"I just fear more rumors spreading.. Words travel in this hall." The huskarl tries to say in way of apology, but it trails off as he's forced to react quickly and barely blocks her next attack. Ranol grins, "Good strength!" He says in an encouragment, then steps forward to slap a lazy attack at her shoulder, using the flat of the blade.
Despite the slowness of his attack, Hildis barely gets the hammer haft under the blade to block it. The shock of blow trembles up into her arms and she drops the hammer to try to return a blow quickly. the weight of hammer slows her response. "Word travels whether we will it or not," she replies through gritted teeth.
Ranol doesn't pull his blade back to defend when she blocks it. He keeps his arm outstretched, and when Hildis makes the slow counter-attack the Huskarl deftly sidesteps, twisting and moving in closer inside of her reach instead of away. It almost looks as if he is to hug her, but for the sword he brings up between them, lightly pressed against her beard just below the neck. "Do not be so eager to return an attack that you lose focus of your opponent's weapon." There's a small grin behind his thick, black beard, his blue eyes bright with amusement. He's not mocking her, just enjoying the spar.
[Hildis(#23062)] Her eyes widen and she flushes a deep red. The dance, the now familiar dance begins, the one she has tried so hard to ignore and leave unexplained. But this time she is trapped and those blue eyes of his loom very large, as does the aura of his natural self. She has a stunned look as though he had used the blade flat-handed on her head and she manages to say, "So true," and stamps on his foot.
Ranol is about to draw back and start a new round of trading blows when her foot smashes down on his. "Ah!!" He cries out, more in surprise than lasting pain. the huskarl draws back quickly, favoring that leg for a moment as he shakes his head ruefully while chuckling. "Nice!.. very nice." Then he swings the flat of the blade at her again in a wide, easy to follow arc, a grin still on his face.
[Hildis(#23062)] "I do not mean to be nice to my enemy," she says vehemently.The energy to ward him out, to avoid repeating the little dance whose meaning reddens the flush on her face, translates into the block. The hammer rises, knocks the sword blade to the left and finishes in an arc directed at his right thigh as she steps into him.
If he had his shield out he would be fine, but he doesn't, and her sudden vehemence takes him by surprise. He tries to dodge back in time, but the heavy armor and forward stance hinder him and the hammer smacks into the fringes of his chain shirt with a soft ringing sound. Ranol throws his left arm out wide to retain his balance, shifting it to his back leg. The the dwarf jumps to the side and tries another simple attack at her back, again putting very little strength behind the swing. If it does get through her defense, he doesn't want to bruise her too badly.
[Hildis(#23062)] "Oooooooahh!" she shouts, fury, surprise and perhaps exasperation in the cry. His blow lands on her left shoulder blade knocking her forward and she grimaces at the bruises to come. She turns bringing her hammer down low in an attempt to knock him from his feet.
While the two are continuing the exchange of blows, a young dwarf, fully armed with a deep blue cloak approaches. "Huskarl!" He calls in an urgent tone to grab for Ranol's attention.
Ranol cuts his blade down quickly to deflect the swinging hammer, then holds up a hand to stall Hildis from any further action as his eyes go to the clan-karl that's arrived.
[Hildis(#23062)] Panting, she takes a few steps backward to give them privacy and leans on her hammer.She gestures for him to go ahead.
Ranol gives her an apologetic smile, then moves over to speak with the dwarf, discussing something in low tones for a few minutes. Finally, Ranol sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. "No.. I'll take care of it." He says in a louder voice, looking back to Hildis. "I'm sorry, I need to go see to something." He pulls the thick cloth padding from around his blade as he walks back towards her. "But.. perhaps we could finish this up another time?" A hopeful expression in his eyes betrays his attempt at a casual tone.
[Hildis(#23062)] "Uh," she says on a quick intake of breath. "I can't imagine that someone of your level would want to train someone as...I mean, you do?"
She looks disappointed, hopeful, indecisive and then the flush returns to full bloom on her face and she nods, "Alright. It will be an honor to train with you Huskarl."
Ranol blinks and looks equally flustered, "Nothing.. official. I can't when I have duties elsewhere, but.. in my free time, I'd be happy to." Is he flushing as well? There's a touch of red to his cheeks. He quickly sheaths his sword and bows, then moves away out of the great sparring hall.
Currently, the huskarl is trading blows with another dwarf, both of them weilding padded weapons. Ranol has a short broadsword, while his sparring partner weilds an axe. They pause frequently, stopping to more closely examine a block or parry.
A dwarf stands just inside the doorway adjusting armor, some of it old and battered, having a hand-me-down look to it, some of it frankly new. A wooden sparring shield lays at her feet next to a war hammer. After finishing to adjust her helmet, she looks about her, cheerfulness at finding herself here showing through her carefully neutral expression.
Ranol seems to be working through some kind of disarm manuever with exagerated slowness, pausing at each key point to offer instruction before continuing. The clan-karl he's working with is nodding along. Then they try to the full routine and Ranol's sword flies from his hand, clattering to the floor a few feet away. He laughs and goes to retrieve, offering words of praise. "Good job! You learned it faster than I did! Took me four tries last week when the trainer taught me." As he straightens from bending to retrieve his weapons, his gaze catches sight of Hildis. His attention lingers on her for a moment, surprise on his face. A small smile flashes behind his beard before he turns back to his work.
The din of sparring rises and falls at times deafingly loud as feet shuffle, sword and axe clang and shouts ring out. The clatter of a sword falling to the floor catches her attention and she looks in that direction and recognizes Ranol by his unruly black beard flowing over what looks like new chainmail.She once again goes through the little dance she recognizes as becoming a habit: shifting from foot to foot, turning away and then turning back as though having convinced herself of the cowardice of running. She does not smile.
"It's late.. lets call it a day." Ranol says, wrapping up his training time with the other guard. He pulls his helm from his head, hot and sweaty as usual, but the chain is much heavier than the leather he was accustomed to. He gets worn out more quickly. As the clan-karl leaves, Ranol hangs around and his blue eyes stray to Hildis again, watching her curiously. It seems no more than a passing interest.. his continuing attention to the Barazin dwarf.
Green eyes search the room for a partner, she studiously ignores Ranol but seemingly can't stop herself from taking peeks at him. The dance begins again and she actually stamps a foot to make herself stop from completing it. More dwarves enter and she looks at them to see if any of them arrives without a partner. Everyone is paired.
Hildis scowls at him. "Determined?" she asks, "in what? I seem to be determined to run into you all the time. It is pure accident, sir" she says a smile brightening the frown from her face as she returns his bow.
"Aye, I am determined to not disgrace my clan. That is true. And I am determined to find someone who will show up when they promise. My brother was to meet me."
"Oh.. Uh.. Well, I just meant, in the training. That is all." Ranol flounders for a moment, "I wasn't trying to suggest anything." The huskarl is perhaps a bit tongue-tied because he looks around for a moment, "I'm sorry if I offended you." He lowers his padded sword down to his side.
Her expression softens and she tugs gently at her own beard. "I did not mean to give offence. You give none. Nay. But I would that you could introduce me to someone I could spar with."
Ranol relaxes again and tucks the sword under his arm so that he can scrub his hand through his short-cropped hair a few times. "If you like, I could help until your brother arrives?" He sounds sincere, and that always seems the case with the huskarl. His blue eyes hint at a keener notice of things than his soft manner portrays, but the offer is genuine.
His offer elicits a reddening that begins from the roots of her moustache and that almost begins her dance again. She frowns hard. "Uh, he is not coming, he told me just as I finished dressing myself to come. She looks at her padded hammer and then at him. "It would be...you are very skilled. I have the training that all our clan requires for their children to follow but no more."
"Oh. I see." Ranol answers in response to her explanation of her brother. "I am only as skilled as those that have taught me.." He adds, grinning. "Come over here and you can try your hand." He walks back to the clear area where he was working with his own clansmen, then turns to look at her. "I'm sorry about yesterday, when I left you with Siv. The situation is tense and I didn't want to contribute to it any further."
Hildis follows him out onto the floor, her eyes darting to the pairs practising together. She looks at him with a movement of surprise then quick denial. "It was not your fault and surely something I would have learned of were you there or no. It was tense or seemed like it to me because Eirdis nearly joined us. Siv seems," she hesitates as she searches for her words, "Siv seems sure of herself."
The words once out of her mouth do not seem right and she gestures helplessly for a moment. "I mean. She has a lot of confidence." She picks up warhammer to cover her confusion and spreads her feet a classic defensive stance.
"Aye. She does. I am unhappy about the entire situation. I .. considered Siv a friend. We all traveled together on the caravan." Ranol doesn't elaborate much beyond that, but after a moment he adds. "Eirdis? You know her?.. " There is a long pause, then an almost wary expression crosses the Huskarl's face. He holds his sword loosely at his side and beckons her forward. "Go ahead, I am ready."
"Nay," she says with puzzlement, "but Siv told me who she was and that she was the source of some rumor or another about Thari and Fraler."
Two handed she holds her stance but begins to swing the hammer in an arc to the right, switching in mid-swing and reversing the arc to fall towards his right shoulder."
Ranol actually seems a bit relieved that Hildis didn't actually talk with Eirdis, but then she's swinging and he immediately brings up his sword. His blue eyes follow the stroke of the weapon and he deftly steps back, deflecting the hammer off of his blade. "Good form." He says simply, then waits for her swing again, keeping his own stance loose. "Thari and Frarin are hoping to marry. The negotiations with her father were taking place when he had to leave to tend to some personal business in the Iron Hills. Siv.. she.. has a way of looking at things that tends to be exagerated or distorted. I do not think she means ill, but that is where some of this trouble has stemmed from."
The frown returns and it is some air of Ranol's when he speaks Eirdis' name that provokes it. She swings again, trying to keep her stance loose but it is faster and perhaps with less control than the first. "So if...I thought perhaps folk were talking about a romance that never was. I did not know. I am happy for Thari." She drops her stance to say, "What made Thari so angry?"
Ranol blocks the second attack easily, but again does not press any counter attack. Perhaps he's allowing her some warm-up time to focus on the spar, or maybe he's just being polite. "It's.. something that I do not think is best discussed in such a public place. My apologies."
"I think I may have warmed up enough," she says in a neutral voice that deflects what he just said. Then she adds, "I am sorry for asking after clan business in public. I do know better.
She whirls in place using the force of the turn to bring the hammer into a what she hopes would be a rib cracking thump on his ribs or right arm.
"I just fear more rumors spreading.. Words travel in this hall." The huskarl tries to say in way of apology, but it trails off as he's forced to react quickly and barely blocks her next attack. Ranol grins, "Good strength!" He says in an encouragment, then steps forward to slap a lazy attack at her shoulder, using the flat of the blade.
Despite the slowness of his attack, Hildis barely gets the hammer haft under the blade to block it. The shock of blow trembles up into her arms and she drops the hammer to try to return a blow quickly. the weight of hammer slows her response. "Word travels whether we will it or not," she replies through gritted teeth.
Ranol doesn't pull his blade back to defend when she blocks it. He keeps his arm outstretched, and when Hildis makes the slow counter-attack the Huskarl deftly sidesteps, twisting and moving in closer inside of her reach instead of away. It almost looks as if he is to hug her, but for the sword he brings up between them, lightly pressed against her beard just below the neck. "Do not be so eager to return an attack that you lose focus of your opponent's weapon." There's a small grin behind his thick, black beard, his blue eyes bright with amusement. He's not mocking her, just enjoying the spar.
[Hildis(#23062)] Her eyes widen and she flushes a deep red. The dance, the now familiar dance begins, the one she has tried so hard to ignore and leave unexplained. But this time she is trapped and those blue eyes of his loom very large, as does the aura of his natural self. She has a stunned look as though he had used the blade flat-handed on her head and she manages to say, "So true," and stamps on his foot.
Ranol is about to draw back and start a new round of trading blows when her foot smashes down on his. "Ah!!" He cries out, more in surprise than lasting pain. the huskarl draws back quickly, favoring that leg for a moment as he shakes his head ruefully while chuckling. "Nice!.. very nice." Then he swings the flat of the blade at her again in a wide, easy to follow arc, a grin still on his face.
[Hildis(#23062)] "I do not mean to be nice to my enemy," she says vehemently.The energy to ward him out, to avoid repeating the little dance whose meaning reddens the flush on her face, translates into the block. The hammer rises, knocks the sword blade to the left and finishes in an arc directed at his right thigh as she steps into him.
If he had his shield out he would be fine, but he doesn't, and her sudden vehemence takes him by surprise. He tries to dodge back in time, but the heavy armor and forward stance hinder him and the hammer smacks into the fringes of his chain shirt with a soft ringing sound. Ranol throws his left arm out wide to retain his balance, shifting it to his back leg. The the dwarf jumps to the side and tries another simple attack at her back, again putting very little strength behind the swing. If it does get through her defense, he doesn't want to bruise her too badly.
[Hildis(#23062)] "Oooooooahh!" she shouts, fury, surprise and perhaps exasperation in the cry. His blow lands on her left shoulder blade knocking her forward and she grimaces at the bruises to come. She turns bringing her hammer down low in an attempt to knock him from his feet.
While the two are continuing the exchange of blows, a young dwarf, fully armed with a deep blue cloak approaches. "Huskarl!" He calls in an urgent tone to grab for Ranol's attention.
Ranol cuts his blade down quickly to deflect the swinging hammer, then holds up a hand to stall Hildis from any further action as his eyes go to the clan-karl that's arrived.
[Hildis(#23062)] Panting, she takes a few steps backward to give them privacy and leans on her hammer.She gestures for him to go ahead.
Ranol gives her an apologetic smile, then moves over to speak with the dwarf, discussing something in low tones for a few minutes. Finally, Ranol sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. "No.. I'll take care of it." He says in a louder voice, looking back to Hildis. "I'm sorry, I need to go see to something." He pulls the thick cloth padding from around his blade as he walks back towards her. "But.. perhaps we could finish this up another time?" A hopeful expression in his eyes betrays his attempt at a casual tone.
[Hildis(#23062)] "Uh," she says on a quick intake of breath. "I can't imagine that someone of your level would want to train someone as...I mean, you do?"
She looks disappointed, hopeful, indecisive and then the flush returns to full bloom on her face and she nods, "Alright. It will be an honor to train with you Huskarl."
Ranol blinks and looks equally flustered, "Nothing.. official. I can't when I have duties elsewhere, but.. in my free time, I'd be happy to." Is he flushing as well? There's a touch of red to his cheeks. He quickly sheaths his sword and bows, then moves away out of the great sparring hall.
Players: Hildis, Ranol
Located in: Erebor
