A Katarina Vacation Arc

The sun was just starting to shine through the clouds on the horizon, the crow was… well, if you didn't listen too closely you could pretend it was singing, and Katarina Claes, in lieu of tending to her crops– since she was on vacation to see her relatives– was doing morning sword practice. She'd found a nice, level balcony that caught the morning breeze and was enjoying the feel of the wind on her as she swing her old wooden sword.

Her old swordmaster had told her and Keith that a lot of student found drills hard, warned them it was brainless, mind-numbing repletion that would tax their will and make them want to quit more than the pain of sore muscles and callused hands, but honestly, Katarina had never seen what the big deal was. She could keep this up for hours without any problem. It was like mashing the button to make the dialogue that probably wasn't important skip on past, right?

She was just starting her first set when the door behind her opened again, and she heard someone pause at the doorway.

"O-oh!" she heard cousin Matthew's voice say. "G-good morning, cousin Katarina. I didn't know you practiced the sword!"

"Good morning, cousin Mashu!" Katarina said cheerfully, even as she made sure to keep her breathing even.

Cousin Matthew blushed. "Ah, who told you that? They promised they wouldn't use my nickname anymore after I became a knight! They promised!"

"Eh? What nickname?" Katarina said.

"Mashu!" cousin Matthew said, almost tearful. "I was only a little girl, I couldn't pronounce it very well! Who told you?"

"Ah, no one told me," Katarina said. "I just thought it would be a cute nickname..."

"P-PLEASE NEVER USE IT EVER AGAIN!" cousin Matthew wailed.

"Er, all right, sorry," Katarina said. She thought of how to salvage this conversation. "Nice day, isn't it? I'm so glad it's not raining again!"

Right on cue, rain started to fall.

"Okay, that's my fault, I shouldn't have brought it up!"

Fortunately, Katarina managed to run inside before she got too soaked. Behind her, the rain became a downpour, the kind where everything turned gray and the rain became as thick as fog and adults said that the demon king of the storm and his beasts would take the Dark Souls of naughty little children who ventured outside.

"Well, there goes practicing outside," Katarina sighed. She hadn't even managed to work up even a little a sweat! "And I'd thought it had finally stopped raining!"

"Um, if you still want to do sword drills, we can use the ballroom," cousin Matthew said hesitantly. Despite her shy, plain girl dialogue tics, she had a gentle, welcoming smile. She was probably one of those 'subdued at first but really enthusiastic once you get to know her' types. Definitely main heroine material, with the kind of smile you want to protect. Probably had a lot of dirty doujins about her after this DLC comes out.

Well, not Katarina's problem, that was for Maria to deal with whenever she finally got to the plot!

"Really? That would be great!" Katarina exclaimed. "I haven't had any time to practice for weeks! Mother always made us leave early, so this is the first time I've been able to do any drills."

"Ah, then follow me," cousin Matthew said, pointing. "It's this way, and we can keep each other company."

"Ooh, that'll be nice!" Katarina said. "Er, can I ask you something?"

"O-of course, cousin."

"Why are you carrying around a table with the legs cut off?"

"T-this isn't a table, it's my practice greatshield! Uncle Henry said I wasn't allowed to use my real shield for practice since it would damage the floors, so I had a wooden shield made. The bottom part has a pine strip on it for where it meets the floor."

"Ooh, I've never sparred with anyone who used only a shield before. It's usually someone with swords."

"Oh! There are some people who fight using only shields. Sometimes they even wield two shields at the same time, though you need special shields that can lock together in front to do that effectively. With a shield, you don't have to worry about arrows and most weapons, because you're protected even when you're hitting someone!"

"Ooh, that's smart! Come on, let's do some drills to warm up so we'll be in good shape to spar!"

"Okay! I'm looking forward to it cousin!"

With big smiles, they started on their morning drills, Katarina picking up where she left off while Matthew… well, did big shield things. Katarina watched her cousin as her body did its sword repetitions automatically. It looked… well, it looked mostly like her cousin was swinging a table around. She did a lot of sweeping swings with was probably meant to knock people's feet out from under them. Then she sort of pushed the whole shield in front of her, which would probably hurt a lot and knock someone down if it connected.

They both worked out for an hour, and Katarina could feel her muscles burn in a familiar way, like she'd done a good morning of farming. They then both did rolling exercises, rolling back and forth across the ballroom floor both with and without their practice weapons. Katarina was impressed Matthew was able to roll at all with a shield that big!

Finally, with the rain providing their OST and the occasional flash of lighting coming in for dramatic effect, the two cousins faced each other, practice weapons in hand.

…

"Um, aren't you going to make a move?"

"Ah, no, you can go first Katarina."

"No, it's fine, it's your house, you can go first."

"No, really, you can go first…"

""…""

"Um, cousin Katarina… do you use a defensive style?"

"Yup! Even my friend Lady Maria has trouble getting through my defense! And I've sort of never fought someone with a shield that big before, so I don't know where to start…"

"Ah. I'm still not very good at being aggressive with my shield. I need to wait for people to come to me," cousin Matthew said. "Ah, don't get me wrong! I know how to attack, it's just that… um, I'm not very good at it yet?"

"Hm… Well, this IS supposed to be practice, after all, so why not give it a try?" Katarina suggested. While she didn't usually like it when people attacked her, if it was to help her cousin, she'd be willing to face it. "Come on, attack me!"

"Um, okay, if you say so…"

With that, Matthew held her big wooden shield that still looked like a table with the legs cut off in front of her and charged at Katarina. In response, Katarina raised her sword next to her head and got ready to sweep it up to knock Matthew's shiled out of the way, just like she'd been taught.

That line of thought stopped when Matthew started spinning, sweeping her shield around her, and Katarina had to roll out of the way under the wildly spinning shield…

The family was sitting down for breakfast when the doors to the dining room slammed open.

"FATHER! IT HAPPENED AGAIN!" Matthew cried, carrying Katarina princess-style in her arms. "HELP!"

"Really, I'm all right, it's just a flesh wound," Katarina tried to reassure her.

"I did it again!" Matthew wailed, completely ignoring her. "Now cousin Katarina will never be a bride!"

Katarina perked up. "Oh, um… ow?"

"SEE, SEE? YOU'RE HURT AFTER ALL!" Matthew wailed.

Katarina's uncle Saloman stood up, wiping his mouth with a napkin before heading towards where his upset daughter was still carrying her cousin. "Okay, let me see," he said gently. "Katarina, I might need to look under your skirt, so–"

"Oh, okay," Katarina said, and helpfully pulled her skirts all the way up to show her legs.

At the table, Katarina's mother's face dropped into her hands, while cousin Olga gasped and cried out, "S-scandalous!"

Why was Aunt Leona laughing like that?

It turned out that Uncle Saloman was a doctor, and knew all the non-magic parts of the Medicinal Magic course and then some. Apparently, he'd been the one who'd told Aunt Leona about the new blood-typing research Maria had helped do. After examining her leg, which had taken a glancing blow to Matthew's practice shield, he declared it just a bruise and prescribed ice and some grass jelly for it. Really, if Katarina hadn't slipped and fell because she'd suddenly run out of stamina in the middle of a roll after it had happened, her cousin probably wouldn't have overreacted like this.

A tearful Matthew declared, on her honor as a knight, that she'd nurse Katarina back to health.

Katarina immediately stepped on that, doing some rolls to demonstrate she was all right and didn't need to be nursed back to health, look, really, she was fine! Hah, no one could say Katarina Claes hadn't learned her lesson. She knew better than to let someone do something for her now to make up for accidentally injuring her! That way lies being engaged to black-hearted princes and getting cut down when they fell in love with the heroine!

After all, cousin Matthew was definitely a yuri route, so it was a distinct possibility! Best to nip that in the bud here and now!

Still, Katarina agreed to let cousin Matthew help her get around and help put ice on her leg to ge the swelling down, which she did with great enthusiasm, running down to the manor's cold room to get ice for her and generally waiting on her hand and foot after breakfast.

Fortunately, they had a lot to talk about. It turned out cousin Matthew was also a big fan of the Nightfall books, and they passed a pleasant morning waiting for the ice and grass jelly to take effect by talking about their favorite pendant theories before the latest book's shocking reveal of what it really did…