(1865-09-10) Sparring Away The Fairy Tales
Sparring Away The Fairy Tales
Summary: Sir Henric spars with his squire, Lady Kaicee on the way back north to Four Corners. After the quick lesson, the squire tries to impart wisdom on the knight and together, they banish fairy tales and matters of love.
Date: 1865-09-10
Related: Lots?
NPCs: {$npc}
Players:
Henric  Kaicee  

Moving North in Galenthia, South East of Four Corners
The West
1865-09-10

The Cassomir couldn't wait for a response. It was likely that there were none to spare or otherwise the mustering of such a request would take too long. It wasn't as if they were in a rush either, though, Henric had wanted to return to Letholdus and now had the matter of being honest to his brother to test his resolve. He could run, sure, but he decided he couldn't run any longer. It had to be dealt with. So, he picked up a few House guards from Ironhold instead, a pair, that were ready to ride and quick about it. Henric -was- still a Lord after all, so he could swindle that much out of the House without over stepping his grounds. He'd have to hire some house guards anyway for the manse up in Firen, so he went with a pair he could trust. It filled out their numbers to… six. Not forty. Certainly not what he would've liked, yet it allowed them to move swiftly through the hills and forests.
They were stopped beside a creek and were finishing up their evening meal - dried meats and breads. Henric was by the water, a training blade in his hand, his eyes on Kaicee, to whom he was on the opposite side of the creek from. "Fighting is not just about meeting your opponent in the melee ring. There are elements that will factor into your balance and into your perception. This creek, the water will rush cold up to your waist if you fall in. The rocks, are slippery. And yet," he notes as he steps forward onto the one rock, which wobbles under his foot as if to give a prime example, "You must learn to study your environment, less it defeat you."

For her own part, Kaicee had been silent as well, falling into her Knights pensive mood as he deliberated his own future, she considered her own though hers was several years down the line. His voice jolts her from her silent reverie and she lifes green eyes to rest on his. "I am not certain I will ever meet anyone in the melee ring, Sir Henric," she tells him in a rather serious voice. "I have nothing to prove on a tournament circuit." The advice is heeded though and she nods somewhat seriously. When he hops in evena fter his own advice, she watches and tips her head to the side. "Learn what is safe then?"

"You'll enter the lists, when I think you're ready-" he notes with a casual tone, "-but, it was more that training always seems to happen on an open ground." Clearly the creek wasn't open ground. It wasn't spring run off still, nor was it flooded like earlier in the year, but it was still a fast current, only a step down from a river because it was narrow rather than wide. It was still deep enough to get wet. "Learn what elements can slow you down, can impact your judgement. If you were to slip, you are immediately off balance. If you fall into the water, you cannot move as fast. And balance. Balance is key here if you decide to stay upon the higher ground, in this case," he taps his blade toward the rocks that make a semi-bridge across the creek, some, with the water rushing around, others covered completely, and still others dry with exposed tops. In fact, there's one boulder that seems higher than the others and dry. "Use your wits. Where would you want to go first."

Kaicee lifts her gaze as if to challenge him but she only nods as he cast her personal preference aside, deciding he knew best. His challenge is met with a studying look, but she does not opt for the higher ground, the boulder, the more obvious. Instead, she studies those with just a peeking of rock, looking to see if any rock, even slightly, with the current. Finally, she makes a decision and gestures to it with her own blade. "I would start there. Instead of the high ground. If I took the boulder and someone was pursuing me, I would be an easily and available target." For one.

Henric watches where she points with a nod, "If I were an enemy coming at you, I would likely go for the dry boulder. It offers more security of footing and is higher than the other rocks. However, knowing that, you could be prepared for it and have the initiative on what I was doing." He nods at her, "Tell me why else you would go where you have decided." He hasn't moved, though the rock he was on is starting to shift underneath of him, so water is starting to creep up and around his boot.

"See how it is shielded by the other rocks? The current is slower there, less likely to have washed out under it or around it." Though Kaicee does look back to the larger boulder and she nods. "Yes sir." Agreeing with his assessment. She still does not move to step on it though, just watching him balancing, seeing the water rise. "You could make it from where you are if you want to test it out." But she can only hope it would be a safe choice, it is a guess after all. "Or I could."

"Good," Henric now makes a movement that sinks his foot deeper into the water as he pushes off it and springs to another, "Come…" and then he's pursuing the boulder with the dry surface, just as he said he would, raising his blade as he would as an incoming attacker.

The suddenness of his movements surprised Kaicee into action and she hurriedly jumps to her rock once he springs to the larger bounder. Her feet are smaller than his and she lands hopefully in a sure footed manner, blade at the ready so she can swing. And swing she does! Since she was a bit lower, she aims for one of his legs, trying to take him out first swing.

<COMBAT> Kaicee attacks Henric with Waster - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Henric attacks Kaicee with Waster - Serious wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Kaicee has been KO'd!

So as soon as Kaicee lands on her rock, she finds it tottering beneath her feet and she swings her blade before catching her balance. It glances off of him, but only succeeds to throw her more off balance. Trying to counter it, she leans too far one way and forgets to guard herself with her waster, much to her detriment….

Henric had made the boulder that had given him height and stability with his feet, turning the blade fast after he felt her own graze against him. His own, catches her just when her balance has been offset by her swing and those rocks tetter beneath her. He connects and while not hard, it was enough to send her momentum off course and her balance one sided.

That is all it takes. Already she was off balance but maybe she could have saved herself. Only.. the strike comes at an inopportune time and she finds herself falling backwards into the creek, careful not to hurt herself on rocks if she can help it, but she is going down and under all the same. Managing to come to the surface again though she coughs and splutters hair slicked back.

Henric is poised on the stable rock, blade point down, brow lifting as he lets her go for a swim. It was part of the lesson. He remembered smiliar ones himself. He smirks as she comes back to the surface spluttering, changing the blade to his left hand as he offers down his right hand to her, "And what is the lesson here Kaicee?" Asked while he would help pull her up and out of the creek and onto that boulder with him or near enough, at least so she was floundering around in the cold water.

"Yes," Henric offers a smirk, "When the advantage is clear as the higher ground, you'll want to get there first. Don't over think it," he clasps hands with her and heaves her up to get out of the water, "Your strategy was decent. If you estimated me to be quicker than you, you would have no choice in contemplating another tactic, for you would not beat me to the rock and therefore, put yourself at a disadvantage. You could have tried to be slower too, based on the fact that you knew where I was going." He claps his hand on her shoulder, hearing the squelch of material, which brings to him a chuckle, "Now, you should dry off in front of the fire."

He makes so much sense that Kaicee blushes, ducking her head. She should have thought about it, from all angles. "I did over think it." She releases his hand once she is stead on her feet again and she lithely hops over to the side, casting another smile back in his direction. "Thank you, I will remember the next time." It is something the squire commits to memory. "Would you like me to make some food?"

Henric follows her across the rocks, just stepping from one to the next to get to the side of the creek. Only his boot had gotten wet. "Sometimes you'll do that. It happens," he notes, "It is perfectly normal to over think a situation, but in doing so, you give your opponent time to move to where you should have been." He grins, "Instincts and reactions sometimes out play strategy." He nods to the mention of food, "We'll see what we have left."

"I just want to impress you." The words come out before the Kaicee filter can stop them and she gives him a bemused smile at the blurted confession. "You seem such a fearless Knight, I would just like to be like you one day." She flashes him a challenging smile. "Or better." Seating herself near the fire she places the bag with the remainder of the provisions in it. "I guess my instincts aren't exactly, riveting."

"You've already done that," he tells her without fail, "Otherwise you would not be here as my squire." He does put the waster aside and back into their packs, before he settles down beside the fire with Kaicee, shaking his head at her mention of him being fearless. "That is not true," he tells her, "I'm afraid of many things. I just don't allow that fear to interrupt me when I'm in combat. Or at least, I try…" he looks toward the fire and stretches out his legs, rubbing the back of his neck, looking over at Kaicee, "My greatest fear is that I will fail my family. Perhaps, in that, I have unwittingly done so." He shrugs, "Sometimes we play into our fears, for we allow them to conquer us." A beat, "What do you fear…?"

Tilting her head, Kaicee glances over and just gives a nod as he mentions already impressing him enough to be his squire. Her own waster is placed across her legs and she smiles just a touch. "Then you are good at disguising your fears so well, I can detect none of them." Leaning more towards the fire, she mmmms softly at the warmth emanating from there. "I don't fear failing anyone except my uncle and since he is no longer around to even see, I guess I fear.. being alone." She shrugs.

Henric snorts a little at her remark about him hiding his fears, "I do not hide anything well, though I feel … better, for the confessions I made. You should do that, too, make sure you are good with the One … when ever you have the opportunity. It will unburden you," or at least, it unburdened him. He seems at peace considering the state he was in when he was riding down from Four Corners. He looks over at her, waiting for some admission of her fears, nodding as it comes out as failing her uncle and turns into being alone. His lips pull up and he shakes his head, "That is doubtful too. You will not be alone. Not unless you want to be. You are an attractive young woman, quite capable, spirited and you are of House Romante. As such, your future looks bright."

"I have done nothing to unburden." Except killing several men. A feat Kaicee still keeps buried as she had mentioned to him before. Turning herself off, the humanity part of her, and just existing. "I am afraid of losing myself. Who I am." The confession is blurted out baldly. "I do not mean alone in that capacity, for.. there has already been speculated interested, though from one unsuitable for me." Of course she does not name names. "So many in my family are already gone. I only wish to lose no one else." Leaning forward, she sets the waster back in the bag before resting her chin on her knees. "I really do not feel attractive." She felt like a drowned rat, truth be told. "Thank you for saying so though." She takes a moment to steal a glance at him. "Do you choose to be alone too, then?"

"I would wish for you it stayed that way," Henric responded easily enough, pitching his knees up and folding his arms across them, listening quietly to the manner of the younger's fears coming out yet further. Losing herself. The confession is heard and he was not a priest to take it, so he had no wise sentiments to suggest that would comfort her or encourage her to remain true to herself. He merely murmured, "Then do what you can to remind yourself of who you are." He looks aside to her, a brow lifting, "Have you never looked in a mirror? You shall be having suitors at your door step as soon as you're knighted." By the time that she's stealing a glance at him, his eyes are otherwise focused on the lick and curl of flames, "I guess I do, if we are speaking of intimacies and romance." Since he was, "I thought it possible once to subscribe to lust and desire, have fun and not regret a moment. Just, move from one willing partner to the next. Until I realized it only hurt those I was with, for they loved in earnest and I could not claim the same in return. The moment when I did, claim to love someone that is, there was nothing in her any longer that shared the same hopes. Her eyes were cold. It had been bothering me, to the point of distraction." He looks up toward the sky, seeking something, then looking back down to the fire, "So yes, I choose to be alone."

"Thank you." The reply for him wishing that for her. Kaicee puts her forehead on her bent knees and closes her eyes. "I try and remind myself all of the time, though who I am is not always who I like to be. I am sometimes too outspoken, too demanding, too.." A smile curves her lips despite her having her head down and eyes closed. "I really wish for no suitors right now. I want to be a Knight, a lancer, and protect my family. Anything further like…" She falls silent and listens to him, crinkling her nose since he seems to be making her point for her. "I am afraid of love. That all encompassing love you speak of. Whether to be the one to feel it or be jilted by it, I would prefer not to feel so badly about myself.." Lifting her head, she opens her eyes. "And now? How do you feel?"

"I guess I just got lost," he admits as his hands clasp together, telling her, "I was trying to be somebody else… so I tried to kill the pain, by, emmersing myself in vices." He shakes his head, "I left myself behind, somewhere along the way… in hopes of trying to make others proud for what I was not." There is peace as he says this emnating from him, some clearness to his senses, "I have to remind myself who I am and who I really want to be. What I became, was not… it." He offers over at her, "So you see, it takes time to come to terms with who you are and who you want to be… and to ignore what everyone else wants you to be." He does pick up a stick from near where he was sitting and stabs it idly into the fire. The last seems to surprise him but he answers, "I know what I've done and how I've felt. I saw how she felt for me.. but, I realize too the world is not always how we see it. I feel as if love needs to stay in fairy tales, where it belongs." He tosses the stick in, "It is better that way."

Every thing he says makes sense to her, for Kaicee had seen his highs and lows during their time together and perhaps picked up on a few of the causes. "I agree. Do not be anyone else.. or even try to be the best." She had told him the words before. "Just be the best Henric Cassomir that you can be and let the rest fall into place beside you. Whatever others think about you is none of your business. Truly. You only need concern yourself with facing the man in the mirror each morning and be the man you can live with that same night when you go to your bed." She stretches and yawns, arms extending over her head, "I think I will skip the meal. Not hungry." And she wasn't. Or she was saving the remainder for him. "Fairy tales are written on pages for a reason, Sir Henric. Where else in our lives can we get a happily ever after but between the pages?"

"I lost who Henric Cassomir is," he admits, as he looks up at the sky again, "Though … the priest helped me remember the better part of who he was," he offers a soft noise from his nose, keeping his eyes trained up at the heavens, as if to look for something, signs or simply the stars that were coming out now. "I broke the last mirror I had," he tells her, the only one he told about that mess, "Because I did not like who was staring back. I tried to accept him, but, it has brought me nothing but misery since." He shakes his head, "Funny what envy can do to a person. That is why, it is a higher sin, but, I can find redemption of it. I no longer want to be him." Him, whose him. He explains, "My brother." He looks over at Kaicee, "I always wanted to be like that. A great champion, who would be written down upon the page of history books. A man who could walk up to Kings and Queens and shake their hands, be treated like an equal." His lips thin, "It's not me. I could never be like that. I can only be who I am. And this is a great lesson for you to hear out, though I half suspect you already know it." He catches her yawning and blinks at his own rambling, "Someone told me once, I talk to much. I'm beginning to believe him. I am boring you." He shrugs, at the last, "Right. Such things don't exist." Finally turning to her, "Get some sleep squire. We have a long day ahead of us."

Gently, Kaicee nudges his shoulder with her own and turns a smile towards him. "You do not bore me. You work me to death and force me into baths when I already had one two months ago." Giggling, a mood lightening joke since she had them very regularly, she is only teasing him. "If I sneeze, I blame you too, slave driver." Yes, certainly doing what she always does when moods get so serious. She makes jokes. Easier to hide that way. Possibly why she was always joking around with Kylier. Leaning back on her elbows, she looks up at the same night sky, considering his more serious words. "You are a great champion." Suddenly her words are serious, all amusement gone. "You have succeeded. You have won. People will remember and your name will be penned into books. You have achieved your goal. Now, you need to let the past go and set a new goal that is not impossible to obtain. When you reach it, do the same again, let it go and go for the next. It is all we have in our lives. Steps we take to better ourself. Our goals change with time, but it is those that also make us feel…. useful. And alive."

Henric glances over at her when she nudges against him, brows lifting, "Well, you were starting to smell." He does try to jest along with her, though it is a feeble attempt, considering the seriousness of him opening up right now, "Make sure you change. You packed a change of clothes I hope?" Asked in a tone that suggests she better have and he might get upset if she didn't think to do as much. He shrugs, "It doesn't matter," he tells her, "What really does it matter if a name is written in a book? Somewhere along the way, history will become dust, someone may remember it, but chances are they won't or otherwise it'll become another fairy tale… more lies to fill the heads of sleeping children." He fishes through his bag and pulls out a book, a small version, tales of the West. There locked within the book where the many fairy tales spread over the known west land. It was old and beaten up, as if he had carried it with him all over the place. Perhaps he had. He shows it to her, it even has the title in faded gold, woven on the cover. He looks at it and tosses it into the fire. A part of him gone and dispelled as the book started to catch on fire and all those lovely stories withered in smoke and flame. To her lecture, he simply shrugs, "For now, getting back to Four Corners is my goal. One day at a time."

"I brought a change of clothes." Brows lifting at the tone as he seems to be irate with her before she can even answer. Instead of getting angry, she looks amused though it is likely remnants of his weak attempt at humor she had found charming. A shoulder lifts in a sudden shrug. "Who cares if anyone remembers. It was a goal you set. You achieved it, do not be upset that it did not answer every life question. It is why you set a new one." She watches him with the book, expecting him to turn the page and offer her an excerpt. When he throws it to the fire, Kaicee is already diving for it, dragging it out and throwing some of the dirt on it to put the flames out. She blows on her hand that had touched the flame in her rescue. "Might I have it?" There is a hopeful look in her eyes and she does not explain herself.

He does seem surprised when she dives toward the fire to retreive the book, trying to prevent her from doing it. He was trying to kill his past, but she rescues it. Though rather than getting upset at it, he shrugs his shoulders and rises from where he was standing, "I don't care what you do with it." A look down at her, "I'm going to the tents. Brendan is on first watch. You're on fourth." Out of six, that gives her a shift right in the smack dab middle of the night. Squire's, they often got the worst of it. "Don't stay up too late…" and he's grabbing up his pack, shouldering it, as he walks toward his tent.

After rescuing the little book, Kaicee lifts it and blows off the sand, gently. She gently enfolds it into her dainty little handkerchief her mother made her carry and then she slips it into a safe pocket on her pack. "Goodnight, Sir Henric. I will be awake to take care of the shift when the time comes." And she will be, but for now, she moves towards her own tent to change and to sleep. Long night indeed.

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