The Tales of Greenfar - The Legend of Quel

#8 - Almost 10

The first four years of training for apprentice swordsmen were dedicated to History, Writing and Survival, the latter very much focused on developing discipline, conditioning, the senses and intuition. There was, of course, a lot of contact with swords, but the youngest were forbidden to fight or practice with blades before the age of 10.

Some masters, like Rhano, were very strict and tried to speed up their growth, which led to many tearful visits to Ramira's lap. Other masters, like Zer, took their work seriously, but deep down they knew that they were still children, and time would be an important teacher.

Quel was no different from the others and showed herself to be a gentler and more responsible girl every day, but when she raised a sword, even a wooden one, her eyes would flash with a feral instinct, and she would only stop when her opponent was on the ground.

"...use your heart to establish the movements. I want to see you repeat this sequence of blows to perfection. Until you look like you're dancing with the practice dummy." - Rhano instructed in a technique class.

With their wooden swords, the apprentices began to strike the figures in front of them, each with a different rhythm and sound.

"Without the right support, you'll never land more than two blows, Feara." - and the girl reinforced the position of her legs. "Lower your shoulders, Marcel, you look terrified. The dummy won't fight back." - and the young man changed his posture in fright.

As he passed Quel, Rhano noticed the young woman was executing the sequence with ease and great concentration, increasing her strength and speed with each attempt.

"Quel, there's no need to..." - and the dummy's head flew away with a blow from the girl. Her concentration broke, and she looked embarrassed at the master, who immediately reprimanded her.

"This is a technique class, young lady. Displays of brute strength won't make you any better than anyone else. You will join the meditation group for two hours at the end of the day to understand that pure violence should not raise a sword. You are dismissed."

She tried to argue but had barely stammered out her master's name when he silenced her: "Discipline, Quel. Discipline." And he resumed the exercise with the other students, while the girl left the class with her head down in the direction of the training area.

_

As he finished talking to the last apprentice in his class, Zer noticed someone sitting with his head down at the exit of the arena, nibbling on the pendant of his necklace.

"This habit will break either the necklace or a tooth. You should be in class, shouldn't you?"

Quel raised his head with slightly swollen eyes, the same look he remembered meeting in the middle of the fruit bushes in the forest almost seven years ago.

"I ripped the head off the training dummy during Master Rhano's class."

Zer sat down in front of the girl, maintaining his monk-like posture, and asked: "And why did you do that?"

"I don't know, I didn't mean to, Zer. I was concentrating on the technique, I swear. I was sure my movements were correct and flowed so well! But suddenly the head was going far away, and Master Rhano was standing behind me, looking at me like I was a monster. One moment I was dancing with the dummy, as he asked, and the next I felt awful." - her red eyes filled with tears again.

"And what happened next?"

"He said I was trying to show off to look better than the others, but I didn't mean to! - The girl looked down and said dejectedly, "And dismissed me with two hours of meditation to complete."

Zer took Quel's hands and said: "Master Rhano can be very tough, but he wants to teach you the right way. And a technique class shouldn't have decapitated dummies, don't you think?"

The girl thought for a moment. She knew her tutor was right, but the feeling that the world had stopped as she struck the dummy also seemed right.

"But it was an accident, Zer..."

"Remember that you'll soon be 10 years old and will start training with a blade. Any 'accident' could be much more damaging."

The girl felt a twinge of disappointment and nodded. Until she remembered her punishment.

"I don't want to cause accidents. But two hours of meditation? Two hours? I hate meditating." And she rolled her eyes.

"That's why you need two and not one hour of meditation, young lady. I'm starting to think Master Rhano wasn't so hard on you." - and Zer's laugh brought a smile from Quel.

"I'm going to concentrate hard today so I don't rip the training dummy's head off again." - and feigned a concentrated posture of meditation by making the "ohm" noise with her mouth while her lips formed an ironic beak.

The monk laughed shyly - he knew that way of making fun too well. "So, let's get something to eat before Master Rhano sees this performance and gives you another two hours of meditation."

And they walked together towards the cafeteria, oblivious to the instinct that was beginning to awaken.