Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 13)

Ky blushed, glancing at the man watching. Did he have to be here? He was making her even more insecure. She didn't like it. And she also didn't like that Captain Bay wasn't acknowledging him. It made her all the more certain that the man was a ghost, and that was just an unpleasant thought.

At least it wasn't Michael.

That thought was enough to remind her why she was doing these lessons to begin with, and get her focus back on Captain Bay rather than the man watching them. She glanced down at her hand and saw that, sure enough, her knuckles were split open and dribbling blood. But it was barely anything.

"I'm fine," she assured him, flexing her hand to be sure that that was true, then nodded. "Just a scrape."

He hesitated. "Let's go for another fifteen minutes and them call it. It doesn't look too bad."

“I’m okay,” she reiterated, embarrassed that he thought she was too weak to continue. Still. An additional fifteen minutes would make this a solid length lesson. So. “…but okay. That sounds good.” She nodded.

"Good." He swung again.

(Wanna skip to the end of the lesson?)

(Good with me!)

Ky blocked it with some difficulty. By the end of the lesson she’d taken a few more blows — though none that actually hurt her — and she was getting slower and progressively worse with each set that passed because of her tiredness. She wasn’t about to admit she was tired or ask to quit. But. Well. She wouldn’t have any arguments whenever he decided to call it.

Finally Bay lowered his sword and sheathed it. "Let's stop there," he said. "You did well for a first lesson; do you have any questions?"

“…I don’t think so.” She shook her head, letting her arm hang next to her, grasping the sword loosely. “…anything specific I should work on before next time?”

"Practice your reaction times and your weight distribution," he told her. "Work with a partner if you can."

“Okay.” She nodded. She didn’t like the idea of having to find a partner. She didn’t like it at all. But she certainly wasn’t going to argue. “…who should I ask?”

"Somebody young," Bay mused. "Someone who's still learning. I can recommend a few young soldiers or some village folk."

"I would appreciate that," Ky said with a nod.

"The soldiers--you might try Violet Creed, Snorri Ofegson, Gamla Ragnarsdottir, or Loris Pawn. And for the village there's Revan Weaver and Egar Loam."

There was no chance she was going to remember all those syllables -- the names from up here were so complicated. She didn't think she'd ever get used to it. Back home she'd had one of the longest names with three syllables -- but it always got shortened to just Ky. Most people had two. And then up here they had names like Ragnarsdottir and Höfuðskífari and all other manners of names she struggled with remembering.

So Violet. Snorri... she needed to get a third one to stick. Pawn?

She'd just have to find one of those three. Maybe Violet or Snorri, since she was sure that that was their names, though she'd already forgotten their surnames.

"Will do." Ky nodded. Hopefully one of them wouldn't seem too terribly scary and she'd be able to spar with them without making a complete fool of herself. She could dream anyhow.

Bay dipped his head. "Best get those knuckles wrapped and cleaned; could get a nasty infection if you aren't careful. I can take the armor and sword back for you."

"Oh, uh, okay -- yessir." She slid the sword between her knees and held it there as she loosened her armor and shrugged it off, then held it out to him. "Thank you."