"Get up, mongrel."
The blow struck deep. Nelezavra felt it down in her bones, and her muscles ached and burned. She lifted herself against the wall, easing into a stand, her bare feet digging into the sand of the beach. The children before her were roughly her age, with the exception of the lead boy, an Altmer of about eleven years.
"Don't you ever get tired of this, Gerrick?" Nelezavra asked, trying to hide her sideways glances.
"That's Lor-" the Altmer boy began, raising the thick stick he held in his hands like a staff.
"'Lord' Gerrick, got ya," Nelezavra interrupted. "No thanks, Gerry."
She spit at his shoes, but only a bit of blood came out. She wasn't sure if this made her seem tougher or weaker in their eyes.
Wenne, a Bosmer girl of about eight, readied a rock in her hand.
"How about we end this, everyone?"
The rest of the children, two Dunmer and an Orc, nodded and readied rocks of their own.
Gerrick pushed Wenne against the wall alongside Nelezavra. Nel dodged the girl, not moving enough for the others to suspect that she'd be trying to escape.
"I make the plans," shouted Gerrick to Wenne. The Orc nodded, standing by the boy, but the other two were not so sure.
Still careful, Nel sidled to the end of the wall, where the sand ran high, and grabbed two hand-fulls of the stuff.
Wenne began to shout, and Gerrick raised his stick, the others watched them closely. It was then that Nel began to walk off, trying to look as casual as she could, but she watched closely how their shadows moved in front of her by the light of the sunset.
"Hey!" one of the children shouted. Already Nel was fifteen paces away, and she laughed as they gave chase back to the docks of the city.
Once the ground ahead of her looked even, she began to run backward, and threw the sand at her pursuers.
By the time she reached home, evening was already upon the coastal city. She slipped into the large house as quietly as she could, but discovered Lellynhall was not only home, but still awake. A rare thing, especially lately.
The past five years were relatively kind to Lellynhall. She still had roughly the same look as the day she decided to raise the girl. A look of pride, fierceness and determination, all set on features of about average appearance. When she smiled, which happened a bit more these days, she could even look a bit pretty.
Nel was breathing hard. Now that she'd been caught, she felt no need to hide the fact.
"Fighting again?" Lellynhall asked, not bothering to look up from the book she held in her hands. There was a bit of disappointment in her voice.
"It was Gerrick again. I thought you said you spoke to his mom..." Nel trailed off at the end, trying to make it seem like she was chastising her, rather than asking for an explanation.
"She said she'd talk to him. Doubt she did."
Nel pulled herself up to Lellynhall's chair. She thought how to phrase her next question, but decided nothing fancy in her words would help persuade her mother.
"Lellyn, teach me how to fight."
She actually looked up from her book this time.
"This again?"
"I've been trying to learn on my own..." she pointed to her bruised eye.
"So you started that fight?"
Nel snapped her finger back down to her side.
"...I didn't think he'd call all his friends. We made a deal that it'd be a fair fight."
"I hope you won't make deals like that again," Lellyn shook her head and went back to reading.
Nel sat on the arm of the chair and swayed her legs back and forth.
"...So will you?"
Lellyn sighed, and tossed her book on the living room table. She seemed angry, but Nel always had a hard time telling.
"I'll get you up early," she still sounded angry, but she kissed Nel on the cheek and locked herself up in her room for the night.
This was a whole new kind of early for Nelezavra. The sun had only just started to poke itself up out of the sea on the horizon, and she'd already been busy for what seemed like hours. Lazily, she followed her mother into the woods north of town. Nothing in the forest seemed awake at this hour.
Lellynhall stopped in front of a small, dead tree, which could not have been much more than a sapling in life, and reached into her pack. She pulled out a hatchet and handed it to Nel.
"I though you were going to teach me to sword-fight?" said Nel, taking the hatchet, nearly a full-size axe in her hands.
"I don't trust you with a blade yet, even in practice combat. You'll need a wooden one," Lellyn gestured toward the sapling.
"Don't they sell those at Hirrus' place...?" Nel complained, rubbing her eyes.
"You'll appreciate this one much more. Now get chopping."
Nel sighed and took the hatchet to the tree. After about twenty minutes of work, she paused to catch her breath.
"I should have asked you to teach me how to fist-fight," she panted.
"We'll do that too. Now come on, it's nearly down, give it a good push."
Doing just that, the small tree fell to the ground, and Lellyn pulled out a length of rope, tying it to the fallen tree's lower branches. She turned the rope over to Nel.
"Now we go back."
Nel sighed and took the rope in hand.
The sun had gained its footing in the sky by the time Nel and her mother made it back to the city wall. The guards up on the battlements could hardly help but chuckle at the sight.
Lellyn took out the hatchet once more, along with her small, white-bound book.
"Remove the branches now."
Another sigh marked Nel's compliance. Once that was done, she was instructed to cut the trunk down the middle, and then the two parts in half. It was long, grueling work, but she finally felt like she was making progress. Once the two halves had been properly thinned, her mother handed her a fair-sized knife to carve them into the appropriate shape. Two or so hours of work passed, and Nel had herself two passable wooden swords. She held them in her hands, clearly impressed with herself. Lellyn made a few finishing touches, mostly to the grips, giving them pommels and small guards, and wrapped the grips in leather.
"Do we get to practice now?" asked Nel, thrilled at the new "sword" she held in her hand.
"Yes."
Once home, Nel and Lellyn sparred in the small yard to the back of the house. Lellyn let the girl take the offensive first, letting her strike as much as she wanted, and promising her a reward if she could land a blow on her. Naturally, Nel never so much as grazed her mother, and begged for a break after forty-five minutes of hacking away.
A new maid, a young Breton woman named Alouette, had replaced Peregrina a year back, and now served the two a massive lunch. Nel tried to finish as quickly as possible, eager to get back to practicing.
"What are we going to be doing next?" she asked.
"You'll have to defend," Lellyn smiled.
Nel laughed and set to eating even faster.
"My aren't you two having fun!" Alouette shouted a few seconds after the exchange, causing Nel to choke on her food in surprise. The young woman came at a cheap rate, but she seemed decidedly "off" to Lellyn. She was trustworthy, but more than a little scatter-brained.
After the meal, the two practiced till sundown, and topped it all off with an equally massive dinner. Alouette seemed a good cook, at the very least.
"So when do I learn certain moves?" Nel asked, taking her meal a little more slowly this time.
"Moves?" Lellyn smiled and nodded her head.
"Yeah, all you've been doing is showing me some form."
"That's all there really is to it. If you have the right form, and you know how to deal with someone attacking you, and you know how to attack, then you'll be fine."
"Oh..." Nel held her head in her hand while she shoveled another fork-full of noodles into her mouth.
"Of course, all we've been doing so far is sword to sword. There's a lot more to learn. I'll teach you how to fight and defend against shields, spears, staves, axes, maces, hammers, arrows, halberds and all the rest in good time."
"...What about magic?" the girl asked after a moment of thinking about what styles she'd need to combat these things.
"Fighting mages is a bit different. I'll teach you that as well, if you'd like."
Nel shook her head.
"No, I mean, what if I want to do magic when I fight?"
Lellyn laughed, and shook her head.
"You don't seem to care about those expensive lessons old Yeomsley gives you."
"Ugh!" Nel didn't care to think about her tutor, and shuddered at the name. "He's never taught me any spells, he just goes on about how it works."
"Do better in his lessons, and stop playing your little tricks on him, and I'll get him to teach you a spell or two."
Nel's eyes lit up.
"Really?"
"If you promise me you'll behave."
The girl clasped her hands in front of her.
"Even Destruction?"
"Maybe. Prove to me that you'll be responsible, and I just might allow it."
Out went her small hand, and Lellynhall took it in hers.
"Deal."