Lilties are one of the more peculiar races of the four. They were small, and their bodies looked man-like enough, though, they had a flower-like appearance. Lilties tended to come to a bulb at their head. Aside from this, their tiny bodies had flower-like markings. Despite their small stature, the Lilties had incredible strength. What six Clavats could lift, one pre-pubescent Lilty could lift with minimal effort. Though, with the incredible strength that the Lilties possesed, there came an attitude, one that some might refer to "tiny-man syndrome." Of the four races, the Lilties were the most violent, and most easily agitated. The Lilties possessed a strong spirit, and an even more powerful fighting spirit. Where Yuke would look for a friendly, diplomatic approach to conflict, the Lilties would take arms, and attempt to strike down all who oppose what they believe is the just way. This is not to say that all that the Lilties could think of was wanton destruction, but to say that the Lilties were more inclined to look to violence than any other race would be true.
Though, Jorti didn't fit the stereotypical image of the Lilty. Yes, he was naturally violent. Yes, he was incredibly strong. What seperated him from the stereotypical Lilty? He was one of the most amazing chefs that I had ever seen. With a spatula in hand, instead of his usual spear, his culinary skill was almost unparalleled. He possessed a degree of patience and keen observation that one would not expect from a being that is supposedly in a constant state of hot-headedness. Again, I'd like to stress that, even though there was once strife between the races, even the Lilties and Clavats, who were two of the biggest opposing forces, could manage to form some of the greatest kinships.
"Are you sure that you want to go through with this?" my friend asked me, gripping his spear with both hands, a bit nervously.
"Well, when it comes down to it, the Zu that is pushed from its nest has to fly, and if it doesn't, then it had better learn how to land." This was an old saying, but a good one. When it came to Yukic knowledge, even the simplest of phrases can be startlingly good ones.
Granted, I had outdone Jorti several times before in duels, I've never before beaten him unarmed. That was the thought behind my actions. If I could defeat a Lilty, just relying on my own strength, then I believed that a Clavat wouldn't be nearly as much of a challenge. The handicap that I had presented Jorti, was meant to cause me to focus on more than just skill alone, and to teach me to rely on my own inner strength.
"Begin!" shouted Nathan, the onlooker, and, overall, the referee of the bout.
I lunged at Jorti, completely catching him off guard. My speed allowed me to get completely close the seven meter gap inbetween the two of us. Jorti, being an excellent staffsman as well as spearsman, used one of the staff techniques that he had mastered, and employed when there was little room to swing a spear around. He pulled his arms up swiftly, and brought the end of the spear, opposite the blade, towards my midsection, hoping to off-balance me, and then bring the spear down.
Luckily, I had already thought of a plan around this. When he brought his hands up, I caught his hands with my own, and began to force his hands down, face to face with my opponent. He appeared shocked that I would try to over-power a Lilty, and began to throw me backwards, using his superior strength.
Again, luckily, this is what I had planned. When he began to force me forwards, I allowed him to, and flipped over on my back-side. From here, using his own momentum, I threw him into the air above me. Shocked, and a little bit impressed, Jorti didn't seem to have any pre-programmed response for this particular situation. I assume that this was because he wasn't used to having an opponent who carried a simple parry to the next level.
Though, and this time, unluckily, Jorti decided to use more staffsmanship. Whilst in midair, he brought the bladed end of his spear down, in the direction of my chest. I reacted quickly, and rolled to the right, barely missing the blade. For the record, though the chain mail that I was wearing would have protected me from any physical injury, had he landed his blow, I would have lost the duel.
Using my powerful legs, which were easily the greatest weapons that I could have equipped myself with, I caught Jorti's spear while it was still at ground-level. I had leverage enough at this moment to completely overwhelm his incredible strength, and, using this leverage, I pulled his spear from him, and, following through with the motion, I flung his spear aside. Seperating him from his spear, I flipped up and stood between him and his weapon.
This was the plan, and the portion that required the most effort and precision. I ran at Jorti, and leapt into the air only a moment before I would have plowed into him. He raised his powerful arms in defense. I planted each foot squarely in his palms, and tried to apply as much pressure as I could to his hands. To this, he locked his fingers around my feet, and began to throw me. Sensing that the moment was right, I bent over, backwards, putting all of my weight into this one motion. This caught Jorti off-guard, and gave me the window of opportunity that I was looking for. I planted my own hands on the ground, and lifted Jorti up, bringing him into the ground behind me. When I felt his grip slacken on my feet, I sprung onto the ground, and brought my opponent up-right.
Though dazed, he said, "Huh... out-powered three times?"
Laughing, I corrected, "I never over-powered you, I just misdirected your own strength. It was once said that 'One's greatest weakness is pride in his greatest strength.' Though, I would say that this situation is a bit paraphrased."
"Winner," Nathan exclaimed, finally, obviously impressed by my display of quick-wit and strategy, "Alexx!"
Jorti and I turned to each other, and bowed. Pride in victory was admirable. Pride in defeat was virtuous.
Shaking Jorti's hand, I said with much enthusiasm, "Thanks for this! It may not seem like much to you, but getting into the habit of misdirecting strength when fighting will become a valuable asset later on!"
"Yes," Jorti responded, "I suppose it will be."
This was a talent of Jorti's. With his keen sense of obeservation, he was able to mimic most techniques that he had seen or had used against him, and the present situation with misdirection of strength was no exception. This training exercize was as important to me as it was becoming for him.
Later that day, it was decided that my group of friends and I would be having lunch together. Since we were going to be spending a lot of time with each other when we began to caravan, one could call this a training excercize, one could call this conditioning, but this one would call it a meal.
True to the tradition of the group meals, we would each bring in a particular amount of food, and we would all have a picnic. This was a great way to get to know your friends, as well as have a nice, well-rounded meal. Traveling to the outskirts of town, in the more heavily forested area, where we would have our picnic, I brought with me a jar of my father's grilled striped apple slices. It always amazed me to see Ramsey and my father working together to make this meal. Ramsey would use fire magicite to keep a steady fire below my father's smithing station. They would keep the process up until the striped apple would have the same golden look to it that fine bannock had, and a more delicate taste to it than one may have expected.
I spied the location of the picnic. It wasn't that hard to miss, as a griffin wouldn't have missed it from yards in the air. The flamboyant design of the picnic cloths that lay, strewed across the grass could only mean one thing. Kay was the one in charge of cloths this time, and she was obviously the first here. Granted, she was probably only there for fifteen or so minutes, I wouldn't have been able to do what she had done, given three hours.
Though, I didn't see her around. I set my things down where they seemed as though they should go. Suddenly, I felt a brief motion above me, and I heard a rustling in the foilage above me. Tilting my head up to see the disturbance, I felt a presence behind me.
"For someone who can run as fast as you can," she said, "you sure do walk slowly!"
Kay had appeared behind me. Of everyone and anyone that I knew, she was the only person that was able to penetrate my maai without my noticing. When one becomes skilled in combat, one develops an aura, or maai, that can be compared to a pond. The possessor of the maai is at the center of this pond. Any time that someone is to step near you, or penetrate your maai, it's like they're sending ripples through your pond. From the size and location of the ripples, it's easy to find the source, and, if you're familiar with the ripples, you could guess who was in your pond. Only newborn children and extremely skilled swordsmen were supposed to be able to penetrate your maai without your notice, and these, Kay was not. Granted, she knew staffsmanship better than anyone else that I knew, she certainly wasn't a skilled swordswoman. Her ability to subconciously penetrate my maai without my notice both perplexed and scared me. It wasn't something that was done often, and I had hoped that intense training would cause this to go away, but this only made it seem worse. The harder that I looked for her, the more she seemed to dissapear.
"Hello, Kay," I started, a bit startled by her presence, "though I appreciate your kind words, could you please not sneak up on me like that? I've told you before, when people, which only includes you at the moment, sneak up on me, my heart tends to beat a little bit faster than my legs can move."
"Maybe a little bit of heart and leg racing would do you some good every once in a while?" she said, dismissing, again, her ability.
We were the first two to arrive. Next was Nathan, then Sqzaj, then Jorti. We waited a few more minutes for Skott to arrive, and just as we were about to sit down and eat without him, he arrived, looking more exhausted than sorry.
"I'm sorry," Skott offered as an excuse, "It just didn't seem dark enough to call noon, and I didn't want to seem like I had shown up too early, as we all know how much Kay likes to decorate the place."
"It's not a problem. Don't worry about it," I said. I wasn't about to go and point out that the brightest part of the day was noon, but I believed that Skott knew this, and was just looking for a way not to say that he had spent his day reading, and only now realized that he was supposed to be here.
We unpacked everything, and we got down to the core of the gathering. The food.
I had brought the delicious grilled striped apples, Nathan had brought his mother's incredible gourd potato stew, Kay did the setting up, and a fine job at that, Sqzaj brought his family's star carrot cake, and Skott brought the fruit of the labor of another past-time of his. He had a cow, named Berry. Berry was a good cow, and her milk was some of the richest that I had ever had, so Skott's addition to the picnic was nothing that one would blow their nose at.
Who would blow their nose at an instance? This was one of the sayings that I tried to aviod using. Believe it or not, this is a Clavatan saying. In elder times, when one would sneeze, since sneezing was connotated with sickness, the elders thought that the point of the sneeze was to rid the body of miasma that found its way through the crystal's barrier. If one were to blow their noze at someone or something, it was as though they had fired a burst of miasma. As such, it would make sense for one not to want to be in the line of fire for poisoning. Of course, now we knew that miasma wouldn't get through the barrier, and sickness was from eating bad food, or drinking something wrong that smelled odd, but the saying stuck. I often wonder how language pulls stunts like this, and I often wonder how sayings that had their meanings stripped from them continued to thrive like this. Though, I must say that I now sympathize with the older sayings, because forgetting the meaning of the phrase meant forgetting a part of your own life and social interactions, as well as a piece of your own history.
The meal was incredible. I daresay that meal was one of the finest that I had ever had, and it was made all the better by the company of my good friends. When it was over, we sat under the trees and conversed. What about, I can't remember any more. Though, the conversation must have been stimulating, because as soon as it was done, and our stomachs had time enough to settle, we got to the next best event of the day.
