Yet again Corwin had a class to teach.  It seemed they didn't like him leaving last time so suddenly.  Though Corwin doubted Eqwina let them know everything, he was sure they weren't the happiest with either, since they would only assume the Warder was following his Aes Sedai... not the Warder abandoning her because of pride on both sides.

 

But Corwin remember this student, Melenis was in his previous class, so this one at least wouldn't require the getting-to-know-you-phase, which Corwin normally turning into a test of the student's endurance.  The girl had spunk, he remembered that much, and she gave it her all, but Corwin was going to make this hand-to-hand combat training the worst and hardest training she had gone through.  She probably already realized it, but she was going to have to pack quite the punch when someone found she knew what she was doing... if he could get her to be able to take most people out quickly... well that would be all the better.  For now, Corwin waited in the room that was normally used for classes.  But he had moved everything out of the way that they would have room to get their business taken care of.  Though he was probably going to have to train her near his home.  With that in mind, Corwin had filled a few sand-bags...

 

Corwin

Melenis arrived at the classroom, trademark weapon slung across her back. Even now, signing up for remedial classes to compensate a weakness she had discovered in her combat style, she couldn't help but bring the weapon along. Though she fared well in keeping opponents far enough from her to keep them from attacking her, there was still the problem of what to do in case one such opponent did manage to get close. Unable to use her weapon properly at short distances meant she'd be at an even greater disadvantage given that she'd be unable to generate enough angular momentum to effectively strike her opponents. Knocking on the door, she walked into the classroom.

 

- "Tower Guard Melenis Stormgate reporting for remedial teaching, sir."

 

She stopped a few feet away from Corwin, waiting for class to begin. Though she was a Tower Guard, she still hadn't taken to wearing the trademark red cloak, fearing her weapon might end up getting caught in it as both were worn on her back. Maybe she'd ask Corwin about that at the end of class...

 

 

Melenis

Ready and waiting.

Corwin looked at the girl for a few moments and then threw her a couple of smaller sandbags.  He had used similar ones in his training with the sword, and told her to put them on her feet.  It was only 10 pounds, but it would be enough to tire her shortly.  Corwin then told her to try attacking him without her weapon.

 

Things weren't the greatest, but everyone had to learn.  Only about a half hour had passed though.  Ok, follow me.  With that Corwin turned around and went running toward his "home" in the woods.  But he didn't quite go all the way, instead he veered a little left and there was his favorite place to train.  Memories flooded back of Deamon, and no many other students he had trained here.  Turning he saw Melenis trying to keep pace, but the weights didn't help.

 

Now, you need to learn to throw a solid punch.  Corwin slowly began, slowly going over how to make a fist so that she wouldn't break her thumb, then how to throw a solid punch, without throwing her whole body.  After she had learned these, Corwin then had her take her weights from her ankles and put them on her wrist.  You will never remove these until I tell you to.  You are to eat with them on, sleep with them on, and train with them on especially.  Now you may go home when you can punch me.

 

Corwin

Melenis put the training weights on her feet. Though she needed some time to adjust to her altered center of balance, she managed to get the hang of it relatively fast. Though she wouldn't be kicking anyone, she'd be okay as long as she didn't plan on making sudden movements.

 

She tried to fight Corwin, but the results were, much as could be expected, appaling. She barely knew how to hold herself when it came to unarmed combat, her stance quite literally a copy of what she had seen in a bar brawl once or twice, along with moving her hands as if she was performing Hummingbird Kisses the Honeyrose. She knew there was work to be done, but the weights interfered with her evasive movements and she almost ended up tripping over her own feet as a result.

 

More time passed, and Corwin had apparently learned everythig he wished to know about her (lack of) abilities. He ran into the woods, and Melenis followed him, though the added weight of the sandbags was making it hard not to hear her. In terms of stamina however she was fine, and was only a little winded when she arrived at the place.

 

The Warder then showed her how to make a proper fist, and how to throw a punch. Looking at her hands, she practised forming the fist a couple of times before moving on to the actual punching. After a while, Corwin told her to place the weights around her wrists, which she did. There was more adjusting to be done, but this time it wasn't as bad as before as her legs could now compensate in time if she threatened to lose her balance.

 

"You will never remove these until I tell you to.  You are to eat with them on, sleep with them on, and train with them on especially.  Now you may go home when you can punch me."

 

Nodding, Melenis slipped into the stance she had been shown not too long ago, and proceeded to try and beat the crap out of Corwin. Emphasis proved to be on 'try' though, as none of her punches came even close to connecting. Even if she was able to correctly anticipate where Corwin would be dodging towards, the lack of accelleration from the weights meant he would have more than enough time to block her. She had a distinct feeling that should the man ever try, she'd have gotten her backside handed to her by now in terms of openings.

 

After a while, she crouched down, sweating heavily from the exercise. By then, she still hadn't been able to hit Corwin even once, whereas the sandbags around her wrists just felt as if they were getting heavier by the minute. Though she was grateful that he wasn't going easy on her -- not that she'd expect him to -- it made the gap in skill between the two of them all the more apparent.

 

 

Melenis

Still trying to land a punch

Corwin stood there and watched her for a few moments.  Her arms sagging, her chest heaving from being out of breath, and a slouch from the weights on her arms.  But the woman wouldn't be like that when he was done with her.  Wait here.  Corwin walked off to pull parts from his "home" and brought them to Melenis.

 

I told you that you could leave when you can leave.  Well you haven't done that yet.  With that Corwin went to make some stew for the two of them.  Hopefully she was intelligent enough to set up camp on her own.  She was going to need some food to get her through this all though, and if her muscles were gonna grow, she was going to need a whole lot of meat.  Meat was something he absolutely loved, and he was trained it helped to grow.

 

After a while he came back and handed the woman a bowl of the stew.  The hammock needed a bit of work, but otherwise camp looked well.  The woman gave a couple hits, but Corwin wasn't going to let her get off that easy.  A couple easy deflections took care of everything.  After the evening eating, Corwin walked away for his "home" and waited until the morning.

 

The next morning, Corwin started the training off again telling her to try punching him, today would be a full day of it if she couldn't land one with him going easy.

 

Corwin

"Wait here"

 

Melenis waited, simply because it was one of the few things she could still do. Her arms felt as if they threatened to fall off at any second, and she felt as if her lungs weren't managing to pump enough air through them, but by the time Corwin returned her pulse had slowed down to a more healthy rate, and she was having less trouble breathing.

 

As the Warder started to make some stew, she took that as her cue to help set up camp, using the supplies he had went out to get. She had camped before, of course, but doing so here would be easy compared to the couple of days she had spent up in Arafel. Light, what a disaster that had turned out to be...

 

Though the knots weren't as secure as usual due to the muscles in her arms feeling rather sore, she had ended up doing rather well, considering the circumstances. She still didn't feel quite satisfied with the hammock though, the knots looked a little too loose to her liking. The weights, of course, stayed right where they were.

 

- "Master Corwin, could you please assist me with these knots? I still haven't quite gotten over the fatigue yet, and can't tie them as firmly as they should be at the moment."

 

During dinner, she had brought up the one thing she needed him to help her with. Everything else she had managed to improvise by using her feet and body as well, only the hammock had required arm strength she could not muster at the time. Later that night, Corwin left again, and she crawled in her tent not too long afterwards to call it a night. There wasn't much else she could do anyway, and chances were she'd have to get up early tomorrow. Training needed to get done before her shift on the wall that night. Still partially tired after the day's events, she fell into a dreamless sleep.

 

The next day, Corwin arrived only to find the camp cleared already as a sign of her determination that this was the day she'd be allowed to go home. The order to attack him was expected, she had spent the time breaking up camp thinking on how to best anticipate his movements. She suspected he was able to move faster though, like most Warders only broke open their reserves when sparring. Still, this was training, not a spar, and as such she started to try and land a blow on her teacher again.

 

Her punches came faster now, more accurate as her arms had gotten more used to the additional weight. Though actually hitting him would still take more effort than she was able to put in, her improvement over the day before was clear. Corwin was still making easy deflections, but they happened more often now, and Melenis tried to redouble her efforts.

 

Melenis

Smelling victory

Corwin watched the girl, she had more energy and was doing better.  But she needed to improve a whole lot more.  But none of this would come instantly, it was going to hate a long time.  After a solid hour, Corwin let her land a blow, but it was not near what it should be.  But it was time for her to just go through her everyday life now with the weights.  She needed to have the weights strengthen her, but she needed her every day activities to speed her up to what she thought was normal activity, but that was going to be time for more weight.

 

He could see the pride in her face though when the blow landed.  If she had any intelligence, then she would know he wasn't going at the speed of a Blademaster, but it wasn't going to go too hard on her just yet.  Corwin stopped and tried to not destroy the new found self-esteem.  Good, now you need to do better.  You will go through you're days with these on at all times.  I will be observing at different times, but you will need to significantly improve.  When you are ready I will find you.

 

Corwin hoped to see her improve significantly by the next week, but it was going to be longer before the time was ready for more weights.

 

Corwin

Melenis felt such a burst of confidence when her blow landed, she knew it would be clear on her face the second she realised it. Though the blow was more like a graze than anything, the fact remained that she had still managed to touch Corwin with the weights on. Though she knew from the occasional spar between Warders that he was holding back, that didn't change the fact that she was on her way to meeting his expectations.

 

She nodded at the mention of the weights, testing her arms again. Though Corwin said to keep the weighted bags on at all times, there would be small exceptions for when she'd need to change clothes and bathe, but aside from those she'd keep the weights on at all times. As she left, she mentally went through her training routine, exchanging her evening set of laps for a weapons training session. Before anything, she needed to retain her accuracy with her weapon, and in order to do that she'd need to find out just how much those weights would get in the way of it.

 

One week later, she returned to the place where she had first recieved training, looking to see if Corwin had arrived yet. He probably had, and knowing the man he'd be watching her. Though she had managed to spot him only on a couple of rare occasions during the past week, the sheer fact that she didn't spot him in the Yards told her enough about her teacher's skill in stealth. He'd said he'd be watching her, and she didn't know Warders to go back on their word after all. If they said they did, they did, end of story. Taking a deep breath, she looked about again, seeing if she could spot Corwin in one of the tickets some distance away from where she was standing.

 

 

Melenis

Back for lesson two

Corwin walked out and saw the sand bags secured where they should be.  That's good, he didn't want to have to be mean, figuring out a way to keep those bags on permanently... or until the training was done, would be a bit difficult.  Corwin had a rock in his left arm he wiped toward the girl's head.  She got her hands up in time to deflect it.  Good, that means she really had improved in speed.  Corwin kept walking and asked her to go through the forms with her polearm.

 

The girl wasn't too bad, obviously the sand bags were having their effect.  She wasn't as fast as she should be though, but it was enough to increase the weight some.  Corwin pulled out some 13 pound sand bags and threw them to her feet.  Turning around, Corwin walked off and called back see you in a week.

 

Corwin

The additional training sessions she had fit into her schedule had paid off, as Corwin asked her to show her forms while wearing the weights. Had he asked the first day, or even the second, she would have had some trouble to adjust, but a week of training had been more than enough for anything more than a slight loss in speed to remain. She tried to do some of the newer forms Kynwric had taught her a few days ago, and even though there were some errors, those could be chalked off to inexperience rather than actually being bothered by the weights on her wrists.

 

Picking up the slightly larger bags of sand Corwin had tossed at her feet, she noticed they were a bit heavier as well, though not by much. Removing the old ones, she placed them on the ground where the new ones had been before fastening the new weights around her wrists. Giving Corwin a respectful bow, she turned around as well, heading back in the direction of the Yards.

 

Unless she missed her guess, the purpose of training was to have her get used to increasingly heavier weights to improve her stamina, she had seen a trainee do the same with his boots trying to increase his running speed. If that were indeed the case, then next week there would be another test of speed, and she decided to stick with the altered training schedule she had been following for the past week.

 

One week later, she arrived at the clearing again. Somewhere outside of the Void, the thought floated whether today would bring another increase in weight, more sparring, or something else. Whatever it was, she was perfectly aware Corwin was in charge of this class, not her, and as such deciding on the training itself would be entirely up to him. As long as she learned something from it in the end, it didn't matter to her in what way class was run, nor should it matter.

 

There was, however, a small problem she had to deal with today, which would coincidentally be the reason she had wrapped herself in the Void. Oh, it was nothing that would be affecting her training -- she hoped -- but it was nothing she hadn't had to deal with before either. Even then, she couldn't help but wonder how long training was going to last, and shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she waited for Corwin to arrive.

 

 

Melenis

Will get over it

Corwin had been watching the girl through the week.  She was almost up to a normal speed, but she needed to be better.  When she came, Corwin just gave her short instructions again.  I will find you when you are ready for more.  Train for unarmed combat.  I wont find you until you can actually stand a chance against me in combat.  This was something that would take some time, one day she would reach the be where she needed, but patience would be needed.

 

OOC: Corwin is probably gonna pull her in like a months time, or after she wonders if he is even paying attention anymore

Melenis nodded, going back to the Yards to continue along her regular training schedule. She had gotten more used to the weights on her arms now, and could spar without a noticeable loss in speed, though her stamina still suffered slightly from swinging around more weight than normal. But that, she figured, would be something she just had to deal with, since the only real trouble it gave was not being able to compare her lap times running around the Yards.

 

A week passed, and no sign of Corwin. Melenis didn't see it as a source of concern though, he had said he'd pick her up when she was ready. Besides, she wasn't his only student, so even if she was ready he could be helping someone else at the moment. Another week passed, and she still kept the weights on as she trained. The third week, she started to become a bit doubtful. Maybe Corwin was away with his Aes Sedai? No, she had spotted him in the Yards on occasion, but he had given no sign that he'd be approaching her anytime soon.

 

However, during one of the sparring matches that were a part of her training, one of the sandbags had been struck by the business end of her opponents weapon, and the aready worn cloth had torn, spilling the sand out over the ground. She finished the spar, heading out to find something she could replace it with. Not being able to find something, she simply put sand in a small purse and tied it around her wrist. It may not have been the best solution, and she had the feeling she had gotten the weight slightly off, but it was still better than nothing.

 

Finally, a week after the incident with one of the weights and a month after her last meeting with Corwin, she saw the Warder motion for her to approach. Feeling somewhat relieved, she walked over to him, showing him the weights around her wrists. Though she didn't know what he'd have to say about the replacement, the original one had simply been damaged beyond repair, and she believed she acted correctly given the circumstances.

 

 

Melenis

Still training

Corwin watched the girl over the weeks.  She needed to get better, if she wanted to fight unarmed, she needed to have speed, to be quicker then that one with the sword.  After all, she would lack the reach.  While she was a bit away, Corwin called out drop the weights.  She deserved to see how much better she was, but she wasn't going to get much time to be proud.  Once she got close enough, he launched into this attack.  All she had to do was land a punch on him, but he was going to not hold back this time.  After a couple hits to her head, she realized what was going on though.  Corwin backed off to go on the defensive and see what she had.

 

Corwin

At Corwin's order, Melenis unfastened the weights, dropping them on the ground at the Warders feet in case he wanted to examine them. However, as soon as she did, Corwin charged at her, raining blows on her that she was only partially able to deflect. Surprise made way for realisation, then determination. After a couple of blows to the head -- and more than a few on her body -- Corwin backed off a bit, waiting on her to come.

 

Now with the time to think and assess the situation again, there were a couple of things Melenis had noticed. First off, she no longer wore the weights her body had gotten used to having, and the resulting increase in arm speed had blocked a number of blows she wouldn't have been able to stop a month or two ago. Second, despite having the upper hand, Corwin was now on the defensive. Thus, she concluded this was round two of the first training, where she'd need to land a blow on him.

 

Though she suspected Corwin was still pulling his punches even if he no longer held back in terms of speed, she could feel every bruise, and embraced the Void. With the hurt now a dull throb on the background, she took a deep breath before attacking Corwin, the calmness of the Void aiding her enhanced speed. Had it been his plan to motivate her to punch him in the face, he would have been successful.

 

 

Melenis

Up for round two!

As they went through and fought, Melenis was finally able to hit him, must more solid than last time.  But that didn't matter this time. Once completed, Corwin went through and taught her various simple punches again, and went on to teach her defense.  Corwin then told her to come back every day for the next couple months.  Each day they would spar and some days Corwin just had her defend until she was unconscious. But she was learning, it seemed like every day training in this was helping her pick it up faster, but Corwin wasn't going to let her get away with being slack.

 

Corwin

 

OOC: I thought you would be a better judge of how quickly she would progress

After a couple of minutes, Melenis managed to land a good blow to the torso, much to her relief. Her face hurt from the blows Corwin had managed to land on it, and every time she moved she was more than aware of the bruises on the rest of her body. Still, during a few minutes pause to help her recover again she asessed her progress, and noticed there was a definite improvement in her fighting skill without a weapon.

 

Corwin seemed content as well, proof of which being he went on to teach her some more punches, along with ways to block and sidestep attacks. Though she had gotten a bit stronger thanks to the sandbag training -- she even considered implementing it into her regular training schedule -- her body still couldn't take blows that well, and the punches Corwin told her to block were breaking through her defenses more often than not. Even the ones she blocked ended up unbalancing her from the sheer strength behind them.

 

Still, she was determined to get better. This was a weakness in her defense, and left unchecked it would become a liability in her defenses. If that meant getting beaten up on a daily basis, so be it, but as long as there was room for improvement she wasn't intending to give up anytime soon. Now if she could just get her body to agree with her... Picking herself up from the ground for what seemed like the hundreth time that day, a strong punch in the gut made her fall down again. Reluctantly, she raised her hand to signal she had had enough. Her ribs hurt, unless she missed her guess she had bruised two or three of them, and her arms felt like lead. In contrast, Corwin seemed perfectly fine, the few blows she had managed to land having little to no effect on the Warder.

 

Visits to the infirmary were frequent during those days, most of them to heal broken bones. She had a feeling she was stretching the Yellows' patience, but after she had explained to them that this was part of her training rather than carelessness on her behalf they had been accepting. She hadn't blamed Corwin for them, of course, but she had to improve if she were to make a good Warder. Corwin wasn't giving her slack, but she wasn't about to ask him to either. She did however spent a couple of free days helping out in the Infirmary to compensate for the exra work she was causing them.

 

Over time, the amount (and severity) of her injuries lessened gradually. While the glass chin had never really gone away, and her ability to block punches and the occasional kick still suffered from a lack of physical strength due to her light build, she did however become more proficient in dodging and evading the blows. She still got hit, and it'd have been folly to think she was even close to Corwin's level of skill, but at least she had no reason to be ashamed either. She felt amusement drift outside of the Void: Jasine was in for a surprise the next time he'd take a hit to step past her defenses...

 

 

Melenis

Getting better