An Airan's Quest

Chapter 5: Sword Fighting Lessons

Evanity's POV

Tarah led me and Tristan away from the lake and into a forest filled with densely packed trees towering high above us and with different kinds of vegetation like shrubs, bushes and also with forest animals.

As we passed a tree trunk hole, a squirrel popped out from it nibbling on a nut and I took a step back in surprise and watched as it stared back at me with its huge dark eyes before it scampered back into its hole.

"Vann? Are you coming or not?" Tarah called out just a few feet away from me.

I wasn't even aware that Tarah and Tristan were already ahead of me since I was too busy looking at the squirrel to notice. I hurry towards them and we resumed walking towards a deeper part of the forest where the trees have a denser canopy which partially blocked the light from the other lower growing plants.

Tarah and Tristan stopped in their tracks and I did the same. I surveyed my surroundings curiously and noted that we had reached the place where the huge trees are spaced much farther apart than awhile ago but still there's hardly any light that can penetrate the ground because of the massive sizes of their leaves.

I looked up and stared at one of the gaps between the branches of two enormous trees and saw mountains looming ahead of us. "That's where we're heading to," I tell Tarah pointing a finger at it. "And after we climb those mountains we'll reach the Western Airan Pass."

Tarah nodded and smiled at me. "We'll just camp out here tonight so that by tomorrow morning we'll hike up on the mountains."

"That sounds great," I said returning her smile. I unsheathed Tarah's rapier and gaze at it fixedly still unable to believe that I'm holding such a dangerous weapon which could either defend me or kill me. I ran a finger over its smooth flat edge admiring its shiny blade and golden hilt. I haven't noticed it before but now I saw a tiny, globule-shaped diamond imprinted on the hilt and when I turned it over there was also a faint black outline, which if I wasn't mistaken looked just like Tarah's lightning. But before I could question her further about it, Tarah turned to me looking excited. "So, are you ready to start your lessons?"

I took a deep breath to ease up my own excitement and nervousness. "I'm ready."

~~~*~~~

"There are things that you should remember during a sword fight," Tarah starts off by engaging me on a small discussion. "First of all, you should relax. You must make an effort to always stay calm, keep your muscles loose, and regulate your breathing. If you are tight muscled, then you cannot act with speed, which can be fatal during a combat."

I nodded my head to show her that I'm listening. Relax. Right, I can do that. It's perfectly simple and ordinary. I breathe in then exhaled slowly feeling my muscles loosening up in the process.

"Next is balance," she went on pacing in front of me while Tristan stood at the side acting as our watcher in case any Cabrians might dare to come near us. "Always keep your balance so that you can strike or parry without being hit by your opponent." She stopped short from her pacing then stood in front of me her back facing me and said, "Do the same thing that I'm doing."

She kept her feet spread apart from each other, arched her back keeping her posture straight then turned around to face me and watched as I imitated her.

"Try this," she said then changed her position from one place to the other by sliding her feet on the ground and side-hopped away from me. After I followed her movements, she nodded approvingly and said, "Doing that will increase your balance instead of lifting your feet and stepping. Also, your footing and proper foot placement is the key for balance. The more the sole of your foot touches the ground the more grounded you are giving you greater strength in your attacks.