"Two weeks. I can't imagine sitting still for two weeks." As Fiona takes her stand and prepares for an attack.
"No, get lower. Watch your centre of gravity." Mother Vastra instructs.
"Like this?"
"Do you feel the difference?"
"I feel my legs not happy about the stance."
"That will go away with time." Mother Vastra smiles, "You are out of shape little one."
"What?" Fiona looks to her wife, "Am I out of shape?"
"You are thinner than I would like." Fiona answers with a small smile.
"I need to get stronger, but is that possible?" Fiona focuses on her stance as her thighs start to burn, "I am ready"
Alaya attacks and within seconds Fiona's buttocks have kissed the floor.
She stands up, "What have I done wrong?"
"You stood up seconds before your attack. Go against your instincts to become taller." Mother Vastra turns to her daughter, "Again."
Fiona takes her stance low, "Ready."
Alaya attacks, this time Fiona goes low and she counters the attack almost flipping her wife but stopping short.
"Good job. Why did you hesitate?"
"I won't this time," Fiona gets into her stance and digs in her heels.
"I am coming stronger this time." Alaya smiles her warning.
Alaya attacks, Fiona goes low and springs up to throw her wife behind. Fiona smiles at her achievement to find herself facing the mat as her wife continued the attack.
Fiona sits up and thinks for a moment. Returns to the stance, "I am ready."
Alaya attacks, Fiona flips her wife, spins around, takes two steps backward and gets into a low stance. "Ha!"
Alaya smiles and looks to her Mother.
"Very good, why did you choose to do that?" Inquires Mother Vastra.
"You and Alaya do it all the time. You always moved away from your target after each attack."
"I think you did very well for today. Alaya and I will work on our hand-to-hand combat."
Fiona goes to the corner to get her things. She turns around to face her wife and Mother Vastra. "I need to learn something."
"What is it?" Alaya asks.
Fiona looks to Mother Vastra and her wife, "How can I keep someone from cutting my arms off?"
Mother Vastra quickly responds, "Simply choose not to fight."
"I was hoping for a tactical advantage, since I know the threat." Fiona looks to Mother Vastra with tears in her eyes. "Knowing is an advantage?"
Alaya looks into her wife's eyes. "Are you prepared to do damage to another?"
"I just want to keep my arms and hands. I don't want to hurt anyone. Teach me how."
Mother Vastra, "Come here and bring your cricket bat."
Fiona is seconds in front of Mother Vastra with her cricket bat in hand.
Mother Vastra goes to the wall with various types of weapons, she pulls down a sword. "This is similar to the blade of the current Swiss Guard." She turns around to face Fiona, "Defend yourself."
"Remember your training." Alaya steps back and clenches her hands.
Fiona raises her cricket bat.
Mother Vastra lunges attacks with the blade to the left.
Fiona quickly rotates her bat to defend her right arm, the blade hitting the cricket bat makes a thud sound.
Mother Vastra attacks from the right.
Fiona quickly rotates her bat to defend her left arm, the blade hitting the cricket bat makes a louder crack sound.
Mother Vastra attacks straight down the middle.
Fiona quickly rotates her bat, but it is too late.
Mother Vastra has snipped off a button, flips it into the air, catching it between her teeth.
"My heart, you were aiming for my heart!"
Mother Vastra hands the button to Fiona and proceeds to walk around Fiona. "Your stance is perfect, your timing to protect your arms is undeniably fast. But you see, these enemies will kill you for your cricket bat. Your arms being cut off will be the death of you. It might be better to let them just aim for the heart."
Fiona turns her head to watch Mother Vastra walk around her, "What are my options?"
"There is only one."
"Don't fight?"
"How can you say that? I will fight?"
"To what end?"
"Until they give up."
"They will never give up. I ask you again, to what end?"
Fiona angrily looks into Mother Vastra's eyes, "Until someone is defeated."
"They will defeat you."
"I have been paying attention. I have been in the dark basement learning to defend myself, my family and my future. If I must take up a sword ..." Fiona drops her cricket bat and pulls from the wall a Austrian pallasch sword. As soon as Fiona removes it from its holder the steel blade is too heavy and with a heavy clunk the blade hits the wooden floor. "ça me fait chie," comes from Fiona's mouth.
Alaya giggles and Mother Vastra lets out a hearty laugh.
Fiona ignores the audience, returns the pallasch back on the wall with all her might and steps back to examine her choices closely. Her focus is drawn up. She grabs the ladder and climbs. She lightly removes the sword from it hooks, brings it down to the ground. Once she is on the ground she lays the sword down, unsheathes the sword and stands. "I will fight with this one."
Fiona raises the sword with two hands, just like her cricket bat.
Alaya notices the subtle smiles on her Mother's face.
Mother Vastra lunges attacks with the blade to the left.
Fiona quickly rotates her blade to defend her right arm, the irons clang.
Mother Vastra attacks from the right.
Fiona quickly rotates her blade to defend her left arm, the irons clang.
Mother Vastra attacks straight down the middle.
Fiona quickly rotates her blade stops entry.
Mother Vastra stands up and asks, "Do you know which blade you have chosen?"
Fiona shakes her head no looking down at the sword.
"You have in your hand a double-edged Claymore from around 1510." Mother Vastra comes closer and points Fiona's sword down. Alaya comes and stands by her wife for the lesson. "Notice the uniform style, the sword is set with a wheel pommel capped by a crescent-shaped nut and a guard with straight, forward-sloping arms ending in quatrefoils, and langets running down the centre of the blade from the guard."
"What is it's weight?" Alaya asks as she is still shocked at her wife's handling with ease.
"This particular one is under 2.5 kilograms. Light and easily manipulated." Mother Vastra adds with pride, "You manipulated it quite well to keep me from obtaining another button."
Fiona shakes her head yes as she looks at her shirt missing one button.
Mother Vastra pulls up Fiona chin. "Little one, you have chosen well. The Claymore is famous for being used by William Wallace the First War of Scottish Independence."
Fiona smiles, "Teach me. Please."
"Tomorrow."
Fiona, "Tomorrow." She walks towards the ladder to put the claymore in its original location.
"Fiona, your sword belongs here." Fiona turns around and proudly leans the claymore next to the katanas cabinet. She returns the ladder to its original location. She heads toward the door, "Thank you."
Fiona and Mother Jenny made breakfast together, it feels more and more like home. "Mother Jenny, what would my mother think of me?"
Mother Jenny stops cutting the raw meat, "What made your want to know?"
"Upstairs I carried my first sword. I wonder if I my mother would be proud of me?"
"I believe your mother would understand."
"Thanks you" Fiona remained quiet for the remainder of cooking breakfast.
Once everyone is in the kitchen for breakfast Fiona and Jenny serve. Before Fiona returns the kettle of coffee on the burner she counts the mushrooms, "I see five and expect five when I return. I put five on your plate. If that isn't enough, too bad." She offers a smile to her wife.
Once everyone is settled Mother Jenny speaks up, "Fiona has picked up a weapon?"
Mother Vastra turns to her wife, "She has."
"Did she chose wisely?"
"Not at first. She grabbed the first one in her eye sight. It was too heavy and sank to the floor instantly."
"Oh, I heard that it rattled the kitchen. What was her final choice?
"She took her time, evaluate and examine each one that drew her eye. She did make that climb and retrieved the Claymore."
Jenny smiled. "Fiona, do you know when we bought the Claymore?"
"No."
"When Louisa said you needed to learn to defend yourself."
Fiona froze with her mouth wide open and a mushroom halfway towards the opening. She puts down the mushroom. "Why now?"
"Because you were open. A cricket bat is nothing more than a bat, Weeping Angels excluded, to alter motion. A sword isn't about manipulating motion, it is about fighting and defending yourself and your family."
For the rest of the month, after the sun goes down everyone heads to the upstairs gym to assist in training Fiona.
Alaya likes to attack high, always looking for an advantage with the neck.
Mother Jenny prefers to attack around the waist.
Mother Vastra likes to attack constantly changing her focus.
Fiona think to herself, 'do I have an attack preference?'. "Ouch!" Fiona drops her sword and quickly adds pressure to stop the bleeding.
Alaya runs down stairs for cloth while mother Jenny gets the medical kit off the shelf.
"Let me see the wound." Fiona releases her pressure to Mother Vastra. "You will need stitches," she places Fiona hand back over the wound.
Alaya returns with clean strips of cloth and a cup. She hands the cup to her wife, "Drink this, you deserve it."
Fiona quickly drinks and smiles, "Thank you. How much whiskey do I have left?"
Alaya cleans the wound, "Maybe two servings, possibly less." She watches her wife's face cringe and her eyes tear up. "I am sorry this will hurt."
Fiona nods yes and closes her eyes.
Mother Jenny comes over with her tools. "I need to clean the wound."
Alaya grabs her wife's hand.
Mother Jenny pours alcohol over the wound.
Fiona has a tear running down her cheek and squeezes Alaya's hand.
Mother Jenny neatly stitches the wound, tight and then wraps a bandage.
Mother Vastra bends over to look at Fiona, "You ready to continue?"
Fiona is shocked that she doesn't get a break.
"Little one, if you get hurt in battle ... you will have to fight through the pain. We will not be able to stop the fight to tend wounds." Alaya offers her wife a hand.
Fiona picks up her blade and says softly, "I was thinking. It was my own fault that I was wounded."
"What were you thinking about that had you distracted?" Mother Vastra asked.
"Just wondering if I am a predictable fighter?"
"You swing the same way every time. Change it like you change your cricket bat swings with every bowler."
Fiona nods and readies her sword.
The attacks begin again, this time Fiona pretended everyone was a bowler with different skills.
She pretended Vastra was all speed and bounced on the seam, fast and erratic.
She pretended Jenny was a spinner with a low bounce.
She pretended her wife was throwing high and wide.
Fiona didn't need stitches again,
Each night Alaya kissed the scar tenderly.
It always made Fiona smiled, "Too bad the blade didn't cut my inner thigh."