Btharna yawned and repositioned himself, allowing the early morning round heat to touch more of his sword-shattering scales and to shake the morning-droplet-water forming on his cold white body. Why these two-legged creatures got up at such unholy hours to train was beyond him but since his Queen-of-his-being was the one ordered to get up at the unholy hour by not-so-round-ear Master Eragon to train with the pointy-eared Alanna, it was his duty to join them. His eyes threatened to close under the new conditions he positioned himself and would've closed them if he had grown up in a perfect world… But he hadn't, so he kept one eye open as he watched Thalia shift from one battle sword position to the next.
"Good Thalia!" prompted the not-so-human, "Now plant your feet more firmly on the ground when you thrust to give it more power!"
Thalia nodded, shifted her position and completed the poking the imaginary-air-enemy along with Alanna, salty-droplet-water starting to form on her brow.
"Good morning Btharna!" the voice of two-legged-mother-of-everyone Keira reached him before her legs came into his view. "Strange to see you up at this hour, are you watching over Thalia or are you interested in learning sword positions?"
He nodded, reaching out his mind-thought-voice towards her. Despite his first impression of her, Btharna loved Keira in a way that he couldn't explain with words. She let him in when many shied away from his accidental mind barb that he had thought he had to use to be heard.
As he entered her mind, he hummed with pleasure as her warm and friendly mind melody wrapped around him like a hug, Why would I need to learn the sword when I was born with swords on my paws?
I guess that is true, Keira motioned with her hands, silently asking if she could sit on the this-time-soft-ground next to him and did so when receiving his nod, I guess making a sword your size would be hard to do anyway.
I also see no point to what they are doing with their weapons right now, just poking at the air when they could be fighting each other. It just seems silly and a waste of time for Alanna.
Keira laughed, That's what I thought when I first did it with Xavier but, as Master Eragon explained, it's counterproductive to face each other while first learning basic thrusts but it's always nice to have a friend to do it with. He always does sword practice in groups of two, I guess to promote companionship? Xavier and I are decent friends right now, though he and Kamaria are now almost inseparable whenever they're not training.
They don't train together then?
Heaven forbid they train together! I think Master Eragon would go crazy if they were together with him! We're still paired up in the original four we were paired with, Kamaria came to Breoal Abr Shur'tugal four years later with Alanna, Evander, and Dwalic.
Btharna looked at her quizzically, If Master Eragon keeps everyone in their original pairings, why isn't Thalia with Galahad today? Aren't they our partners?
"Hmmmmm…." The white dragon felt the subtle vibration from Keira as his thought puzzled her, I honestly have no idea. From the pattern, Galahad should be Thalia's partner since he's the only one who doesn't have a study partner since he came to us by himself.
Just like Thalia and I?
Yep. Galahad's situation was never explained to us when he came but I suppose it was because he was so young when he became a Rider that the Elves didn't know what to do with him. Why not ask Master Eragon? I'm sure he wouldn't mind, it seems like they're taking a quick break.
Btharna looked back at the training session and sure enough, Thalia and Alanna were sitting down and gathering the morning-water-droplets from around them through while Master Eragon pulled out three cups for them to put it in. The dragon hesitated, he didn't normally use his mind-thought-voice on anyone else except for Keira and the occasional inclusive conversation with Aeliana but with Keira's prompting, he extended his mind-thought-voice and slowly pressed against Master Eragon's shield.
Btharna-finiarel, Master Eragon's mind was like entering a storage-paper-flammable-book library that vibrated with deep melodic notes, It's been a while since you've entered my mind, what's going on?
Master Eragon-elda, why has Thalia's training partner changed from Galahad to Alanna? Keira-vora said that you normally keep everyone with their original partners.
Yes, that is the typical way I like to keep my students, but Thalia is clearly older than Galahad by a few years and in the art of combat, it's better to train them with the someone closer to their height for the basics and Alanna agreed to take on that role.
But they're just poking at the air with flimsy swords.
This is Thalia's third session with a sabre, so we've been going through basic thrusts and foot placement before actual combat. It's also pretty early in the morning, so I wanted to let them wake up and warm up a bit so we can avoid clenched muscles. The point of this sword method is to work on Thalia's foot placement since she tends to become easily off balanced due to lack of proper body placement. They're going to take the moves I just had them practice and use it on themselves once they've rested a bit.
The dragon thanked him and retreated to his own head. Just as he did so, Master Eragon requested for the two two-legged females to begin to spar. Queen-of-his-being Thalia and pointy-eared Alanna faced each other and bowed, though neither took their eyes away from the other.
"Begin!" Shouted Master Eragon and the two began the slow dance of anticipation, each preparing oneself to either attack or defend accordingly.
As much as Btharna hated the activities that he couldn't do with Thalia, it was amazing to see the subtle transformation that came over her in the heat of combat that she had developed over their months at Breoal Abr Shur'tugal. Her face loses its unreadable look and is replaced by intense focus that would be either followed up by pleasure as she wins a fight or disappointment if she lost. Btharna wondered if that was just a coincidence or if Galahad's expressive body language had made an impression on his queen.
He felt the gentle touch of Keira's mind-thought-voice on his barriers and let them down so she could enter.
Thalia seems happier when she's fighting, she commented, surprising Btharna on her attentiveness, see how she smiles slightly whenever she catches Alanna off guard?
I was just thinking that myself, admitted the dragon, Do you think Galahad's expressive presence have anything to do with this?
Maybe… He is a very energetic fourteen-year-old, I find that I sometimes pick up his expressions because I find them fun—Ooh! That was a good thrust by Alanna!
Btharna turned his attention back to the sparring match. Because Alanna was one of the pointy-eared Elves, she had the upper hand in the combat with her quick movements though Thalia's feints were expertly achieved whenever she had a moment from defending. A bright flash drew his eyes to the amulet that she always wore around her neck. Because of the movements she had to accomplish, the amulet bounced up and down on its old leather strap, making it a distraction to the onlookers.
Just as he was going to make a comment about it, however, Btharna watch as Alanna's sabre flicked into view and caught on the leather strap, causing it to halt for a second before continuing its upward motion, breaking the strap in half.
Btharna roared in agony while the other people present clutched their heads in agony as mental barbs attacked their minds, making it impossible for them to do anything else but fall to the ground under the strength of the attack. The mental attack seemed to last forever as Btharna coward beneath his barriers, glad that Keira had taught him the basics of how to mentally protect himself. Finally, the attack ended and Btharna looked up. Thalia stood all along in the middle of the clearing, at her feet were Alanna and Master Eragon, still clutching their heads from the mental attack. Her red eyes were huge as she stared at him, though he didn't think she was seeing anything since she didn't register the look of pain in his eyes. Her body shook with fear.
He got up, wanting to get close to her but before he could take a step towards her, Thalia collapsed, joining Master Eragon and Alanna on the ground.