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Turn 19

---Turn 19---

"Is anyone else up for a little practice? It's best we keep on our toes with the Goblins around..."

Duncan began stretching his upper arm muscles as he awaited replies from the other people in the room. Loosening the muscles that had carried the keg of powder for so long, his face grimaced slightly, but he obviously felt better when he was finished. Catching Darmon's eye with his, he smiled, and slipped his axe from its loop on his belt.

"Ok, that's settled then. Lets go!"

Duncan lifted Darmon to his feet and the two disappeared back outside.

The two found a clear area to practice alongside the Inn, between the wooden lean-to roof that protected the woodpile from the worst of the weather and the low building next door. Under Duncan's direction, the two stamped out an area three paces across.

"OK," said Duncan, striding out into the centre of the cleared area, "The first thing, I guess, is have you ever used an axe like this before? Or any other weapons for that matter?"

Darmon stretched his shoulders for a moment, then took a few practice swings with the axe. The combination of the new handle, brisk air, and his soft hands made his grip unsure and he nearly lost his grip on the axe with his first swing

"Umm, no, not really." He replied. "One of my father's soldiers tried to teach me how to use a sword but," he hesitated, "but I wasn't very good at it. At the Temple, they tried to teach me how to cut wood with an axe, but I wasn't much good at that, either."

"Hmm, okay... I guess I'll start you off with some basics. First, how are you carrying it? On your belt, in a loop? Drawing the weapon fast enough can mean the difference between life and death in some situations, and you definitely don't want to drop it on your own foot." Duncan continued, po-faced. Darmon nodded slowly.

"Ok, watch this." Duncan took a wide stance and hung his Hand Axe from the leather loop tied to his belt. Taking a deep breath, holding it, and releasing it slowly, he centred himself. Moving quickly and easily, he dropped his right hand to grab the loop, his thumb curling around the rear of the shaft to hold the axe against his fingers. Lifting his arm, he smoothly raised the head to shoulder height. The toe of the handle cleared the loop and he twisted his wrist, pushing his hand forward and down. The axe spun and dropped, the handle sliding through his hand until he tightened his grip on the handle. Darmon was impressed. Duncan stood lightly on the balls of his feet, the axe held out in front of him.

"This allows you to have it ready to attack almost straight away, if you're surprised" he explained, replacing the axe without looking down and doing it again, this time a little bit faster. "Now try the motion, with one hand."

Darmon nodded and fumbled with his robe's rope-belt. Clumsily, he threaded the axe into the loop. Spreading his feet, he took a long breath and tried to centre himself. He dropped his hand to his belt, grabbed, and jerked his hand up, still holding the belt. The belt - tied loosely at the front for comfort- came undone. The axe, now unsupported, fell freely to bounce off of Darmon's foot. It toppled slowly sideways and crashed into the snow, the heavy steel head missing the toes of the other foot by inches. The robe fell open, revealing the mismatched underwear underneath. There was a long pause.

"Okay." Duncan took a long swallow. "That's a good start. You will have to keep practising though." Darmon hurriedly closed his robe with one hand while he scrabbled for the axe and fumbled with the belt. Duncan stepped forward and took the axe. Grateful, the initiate retied his belt and took the axe again. Duncan stepped back once more and drew his axe.

"Ok, next is a bit of fighting. I think almost everyone has chopped wood before, and using these is almost the same, just with one hand." Duncan raised his hand above his head, and brought the axe down fairly sharply, facing slightly away from the direction of Darmon to avoid any possible accident. "Try that, from above your head," he said after showing the motion a few times.

Darmon nodded imperceptibly, obviously unsettled by Duncan's suggestion. Hesitantly, he raised the axe and brought it back down slowly. Duncan smiled encouraging and Darmon smiled gingerly back. The axe went back up, and came down a little faster this time. Still smiling, Duncan made a lifting-and-chopping-down gesture. Darmon nodded, lifted the axe up, and brought it slashing down. He lost his grip at the bottom of the arc and the axe slashed down, burying itself headfirst into the snow just a hand-span from the instep of his right foot. Darmon went very, very white.

---Skip back inside---

Aenarion slowly stood up from his seat, unfolding his body in a deliberate, controlled way. He slowly pushed back his hood so that Amos could see his face. "I thank you for your time, good man." he said. "But I do have some important business to attend to. I hope to see you later." Aenarion smiled imperiously, raised his hood again, walked to the door, and stepped outside.

The dour labourer held the pale initiate's hand over his head and brought it down in a sweeping arc out to the front. The boy looked shaken, and the older man was taking things slowly. They made another couple of slow sweeps, then a couple of faster ones. Seemingly satisfied, the Labourer stepped back.

"Great," said Duncan, smiling and putting his hands on his waist, "Easy right? Now try it with the axe, from the left and right sides. It's a bit similar to a sword really, if you use it in this fashion." Duncan went on to practise his swings into an imaginary target in front of him, attacking from the right and left sides, and sometimes from above his head, occasionally stopping to watch Darmon practise his own swing, encouraging often.

Darmon took it slowly, the weight of the axe making his arm dip.

"Ok, you're looking good. Now, blocking with your axe. The hardest bit, I believe." Darmon made a sickly self-depreciating grin. Going through several blocking positions to demonstrate to Darmon, Duncan explained the safest ways to block attacks with an axe. "Now remember, you don't want to use the handle too much unless necessary, and you don't want to use the edge of the head. Now try what I just showed you."

Darmon nodded and practised the blocks, holding the axe vertical and pushing the handle out forwards, or lifting and turning his wrist so the axe pivoted about its centre of mass and the handle went horizontal.

Duncan watched and smiled as Darmon went through the motions, nodding all of the time. "Very good. Now we will do them together, starting with the attacks, going through everything I taught you. Slowly first, then speeding up. Got that?"

Darmon nodded gingerly. The other smiled encouragingly.

Duncan began to slowly move through the motions, looking sideways occasionally to watch Darmon. After everything had been revised, he went through all of it again, this time faster, gradually speeding up.

Aenarion watched Duncan and Darmon spar for a little while. After ten minutes, he turned on his heel and surveyed the Square. Tracks of footprints criss-crossed the Square. Some lead to the various roadways leaving the Square but most leaving the Inn lead to the walls. The second most well trodden path connected the Inn to a squat two-storey building on the northern edge of the square. Smiling slightly, Aenarion headed to the Stores to get some thicker clothing.

---Skip to Rodger and Xavier in the Stores---

Rodger stood, arms folded, as he took stock of the pile of tatty clothing. The heavy front door cracked open again and Xavier poked his head back into the room.

"I forgot to tell you:" He yelled cheerfully, "he's with me, so you can add his expenses to the tab. I'll bring the others over later." The door swung closed again, stopping silently against the door jam. Rodger brightened. Magden frowned, then smiled - his lips pressed flat together and his eyes shining.

The door swung open again and the Elf walked in. Magden beamed at him. "Good afternoon sir, what can I do for you?"

---Skip to the Inn---

The heavy wooden door pushed open and Vertan walked stiffly in. His long cloak was wet-dark for the first half-dozen spans above the bottom hem and in a score of other places. His helmet had a long scratch along the port side where a goblin arrow had scored it. He stomped across the floor to the bar and collapsed onto a stool. He was too tired to remove the helmet. Without saying anything, Martha got up and drew him a cup of ale. He drank it gratefully. Thoughtfully, she lent over and took hold of the helmet. Too exhausted to help, Vertan inclined his head towards her and she lifted the helmet off, sitting it on the bar next to him.

Amos looked concerned. "You get any sleep last night?" Vertan didn't look at him.

"No, and I'm not likely to get any today, either. They tested the North East side. A hail of arrows pinned the guards down while the Goblins rushed to the wall, about two hours before dawn." He smiled weakly and waved feebly towards the helmet. "The arrows stopped when the Goblins reached the wall. Big Hel got there first and damned near tore the first one in half with his bare hands. He threw the corpse back over the wall. They were all over us, a dozen at least coming from both sides along the wall. We killed a couple and the rest jumped back over the wall and ran, knowing that we didn't dare follow." Amos looked shocked.

"They never reach the wall!" Vertan shrugged, a barely noticeable movement of armoured shoulders.

"They seem to be better organised this year, and I think that there are more of them too. There must have been at least a half-dozen archers to put that many arrows in the air, maybe more." Martha pulled another cup of ale and put it into his hand. "I had the men search the bodies before dragging them off for burial. One of the bodies had a star tattooed on one breast. An eight pointed star." Amos and the others made the sign of the hammer. "There was another body, a dozen paces along the wall. Some Goblin had tried to climb the wall and died, still draped over the stones. Its throat was ripped out, it's spine was broken, and there were jagged tears, like claw marks the length of its body. We could see green blood, even through the Goblin's furs and leather armour. I don't know what killed it, but that damn Goblin didn't have a chance. Not a chance." He took another swig and put the cup down. "I spoke to the Factor before I came here. He's bringing Hortion and a couple of others here, to Urkan, for Council." He looked sideways at the adventures. "I'd make myself scarce if I were you, in case he thinks you're mercenaries. He treats us Guards poorly enough." Folding his arms on the counter, Vertan rested his head on his mailed arms and fell instantly asleep.

---Time passes---

The lanky Factor pushed the door open and led a Dwarf with a full beard of dark-brown hair and a white-haired man in stained and stinking priest's robes into the room. "Gentlemen, ladies." He nodded to Martha and ordered three ales. She nodded and started pulling the drinks. The Dwarf nodded to Amos.

"Amos." Amos nodded back.

"Hortion. How's the pit?" The Dwarf glowered.

"Not good. Grundi only knows what we found down the bottom of Pit 13."

"Oh?"

"One of my boys found broke through into a crevice, followed it through to a cavern. Granite slabs on floor and walls, it's not been done proper, looks like Humans or worse. Looks like altar stones in the middle, five inscribed pillars, in a circle around a big flat bloodstained rock. There are runes everywhere, on the walls, on the floor, everywhere, except for that rock. There's just one rune on there, and it's a bat in a cloud. A big, evil looking bat." The Dwarf shook his head. "I don't like it, but I don't know what to do about it." Amos nodded towards the Alchemist.

"He got any ideas?" Hortion shook his head.

"He reckons that some are magical, but he doesn't know what they mean. He says he doesn't read Arcane, the stupid fume-sniffer."

Lucrezia pushed past them to go wake Urkan. Magden pushed the front door open and walked in. Snow was dusted across the thick fur on his feet. He ordered hot soup, rolls, and a pie from Magden before pulling a chair over to sit beside the Factor.

---End Turn--

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