One Week Later
The doors to the indoor training grounds swung open as I pushed on them. Beside me walked lieutenant Bell. We stepped into the training grounds, and I walked over to the weapon racks, Bell following in suit. I glanced over the huge selection of weapons and tools before me, and eventually gravitated over to the section that held the swords. The weapon racks were double sided, and I slowly walked around them as I reflected on my choices. There were so many! Swords and spears, some of which I couldn't even begin to name for you. I could place a few names, but that's it, just a few. I looked back to the spear section.
...halberd. That's a halberd... I think...
"You know, you can feel free to make your choice sometime this year Daniel," Bell called out to me. I looked back to him, and stuck my tongue out, returning to my browsing.
After the princess had seen what kind of purchases we had made for ourselves, specifically Austin, she had given us the proper allowance to observe and even practice with a few select types of weapons. This allotment, however, was not given lightly. A, it had come after Austin and I had made a special request to use the training grounds more regularly. B, we were to be under strict watch the whole time we were here. Bell had been selected to watch over me, as Austin had been taken away for another evaluation today. C, if anything, and I mean anything negative was reported back to the princesses, then our privilege would be immediately revoked, and we would not be given a second chance. Kind of intimidating when you think about it. It almost made me want to just look at the weapons, and not touch them for fear of losing this opportunity. Of course, I was here for a reason, and this was not an option.
I fixed my gaze on one of the smaller swords on the racks, tilting my head as I looked at it. It was a simple piece of weaponry, being around two and a half feet long, with a straight blade. I had a general knowledge of what the parts of a sword were called from one of the books I had read for an assignment back in school. Regardless, the... hilt of the blade was wrapped in leather for a better grip, and it had a small, round pommel on the end of it. The blade came to a straight point, and was double edged, with a fuller running the whole length of the blade, save for the tip. The blade had a cross guard connecting the blade and the hilt. I reached out for the blade, and took it from the rack it was in. Lifting it, I found it to be surprisingly light compared to what I had expected.
"That's probably the simplest blade from the entire selection, which is good for you. Do you want to use that one?" Bell asked me. I stepped back from the weapon racks, and swung the blade in front of me a few times. It still felt quite light, to my surprise, and delight.
"Uh, yeah. This one seems pretty solid, but it's light. Really light! What's it made out of," I asked him.
"That much I don't know. I would normally say steel, but if you say it's that light..." he said, taking the sword in his magical grasp. Oh... Bell is a unicorn... I forgot to say that. While I'm at it, Glass is also a unicorn.
Wait, aren't most royal guards unicorns? How else would they be able to...
"Hm, you're right. This blade is quite light, even from what I've seen around here," Bell told me after swinging the blade twice. He rotated the blade in his magic, observing the entirety of it. I briefly thought back to my book on conjuration, and watched with slight envy. He handed the blade back to me, raising an eyebrow.
"If I had to wager a guess? Maybe it had a magical enchantment on the blade that keeps it light? I can't feel anything, so if that's the case, it must be a damn good spell. Other than that, I don't know," he told me. Eventually, we dismissed the thought, and I made my final selection.
Bell and I made our way over to the center of the room, standing around ten feet apart. I had the sword in my right had, my left free. I briefly glanced over to the shields on one of the racks.
"Alright, now what do you know about the weapon you are holding?" he asked me.
"...it's light?" I half said, half asked.
"No, I just told you!" he exclaimed. I blinked.
"...it's... I'm holding it?" I asked. Bell stared at me.
"It's a weapon!" I yelled.
"Precisely, that's exactly what it is. A weapon, nothing more, nothing less. That sword was designed to kill, and it'll do that more than easily. You have to know what you are holding backwards and upside down, or you could easily kill yourself just as easily as someone else," he told me. I gripped the hilt of the sword just a little bit tighter.
"You swing the wrong way, you kill a friend. You swing the other way, the blade goes through your face. Do you want that?" Bell asked in an aggressive tone.
"Nope, definitely not," I responded. Bell seemed to stop for a few seconds, before walking over to another one of the weapon racks. He came back a few seconds later, clutching a wooden sword in his grasp. He took the sword I was holding, and replaced it with the wooden sword.
"In the long run, this is a lot safer. I'd rather be smacked with a plank of wood then have my neck cleaved off," he told me. I felt the wooden sword in my hand. The blade was thin, but not sharp, and externally almost was identical to the blade I was just holding. Bell put the sword back in its holster on its rack, and continued.
"For this, the same rules I just explained still apply. You still have to treat that as a weapon, why?" he asked.
"Because it is a weapon," I told him.
"Right. Now that we have that covered at least partially, we can begin. I want you to show me your best combat stance. I looked down at my sword, and sighed. I spread my legs, to what felt natural, bending them slightly. But I was at a loss as to what to do with my arms.
"What do I do with my arms?" I asked. Bell moved over to me.
"You are right handed, yes? Always keep your blade in front of you to deny any quick frontal attacks. Keep you hands slightly apart, and always keep both hands on the hilt for now. Put your non-dominant leg in front of you, so you can spring off of your good leg if you have to. Bend you knees slightly, slightly! There, now hold that pose," he told me. Bell walked around me, evaluating my stance.
"Is this good?" I asked.
"Get a little bit lower. The lower you can be comfortably, the better balance you will have. Overall, this probably look quite silly, but first steps are first steps. Bell nodded.
"That's not bad. Now remember this pose, and keep it fresh in your memory. There are many, many poses that I can teach you, but for now we'll just move on," he told me.
"Hey, no offense, but shouldn't I have, like... a human teaching me?" I thought aloud.
"Son, I've been training guards here for seven years, now, and that includes ponies, AND humans. I think I can help you out a bit," he told me. "Straighten your shoulders!" he told me. I kept low, but straightened my shoulders as much as I could. I then realized how steady this pose was. By being this low, my center of gravity was also low, which would make it hard to offset me.
"Good. This is the most basic pose for frontal combat. It allows you to be steady, to keep concentration, as well as keeping the ability to move quickly should you have to," he told me. I stood up, back to normal.
"Alright, now, we can move on to basic handling. He took the blade from me, and swung it in a large arc horizontal in front of him, left to right.
"This is called a right cross slash. It is exactly as the name implies, a right, crossing slash," he instructed me. He gave the sword back to me. "Now, show me what I just taught you,"
I raised the blade, and gave a quick swing, trying to keep my arm slightly bent as I did.
"No, you can't do that. You kept your arm straight, but you used your body for momentum. If you do that in a real battle, one good push after you do that is all it takes to throw you completely off balance. If that happens, you're done for. Try again, but this time, use nothing but your arm. Normally, it's okay for you to do what you did, but for now, let's try to do things the classic way, the right way," he explained to me.
I readied the blade again, and gave another swing. This time however, I kept my shoulder out of the equation, using just my arm to propel the blade. The slash was not as quick, but I could immediately notice the improvement in precision as I swung. My shoulder was not there to offset what my arm was doing, and the whole swing just felt more... accurate.
"Do you notice how you are not swinging so far behind you now? That's called back-swing, and if you let too much of it out, you leave your entire front open for attack. Sometimes, all it takes is a quarter of a second for you opponent to run you through," he told me. I processed this information, taking in how precise I needed to be if i wanted this to work.
We practiced this swing for the next thirty to forty minutes, eventually transitioning to a left cross swing, for another half hour. Once Bell was sure that I had those two swings down, he introduced me to blocking, but said that we'd have to cover that in another lesson, as he had to go and take up a post for patrol duty. We said our farewells, and then I was left alone to my thoughts, wandering the halls of the castle. I thought about the swings that I had memorized, the pose, and to things like Austin, home, and so many other things. Realistically, everything that was happening right now was happening incredibly fast, and at the same time, incredibly slowly.
I eventually found my way back to my room, where I went to my dresser, and opened it up. I reached in, and pulled out my copy of Magic and Conjuration, sitting down at my desk. I opened it, and flipped to the page I had marked.
"Chapter two, basic conjuration" I read aloud.
Maybe there was hope for magic yet.