#the last day brings pleasant suprirses

[nadana-vhet]

Prompt 30: Splinter

Takes place in the limbo between ARR patch content and Heavensward.

Rating: General Audiences Relationships: N’adana & Haurchefant, N’adana & N’manni 

The cold air of Corethas stung N’adana’s cheeks, but she brushed it aside as the blood began to quicken in her veins. She struck the training dummy in front of her with force, blocking the wooden extensions with her shield as the force of her hit made the rotating dummy spin towards her.

Truthfully, she was getting a bit bored with the thing. Her sword made contact with the wooden armature just-so that it broke and splintered into pieces, causing a loud crack before it broke off and tumbled into the snow that gathered on the ground.

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“Woah, woah! Slow down there, champ – your opponent is going to get in a right blow on you if you don’t guard your front!” N’manni chuckled, grabbing the blunted, wooden blade of N’adana’s sword to stop her from swinging it again. He let it go as soon as she had stopped, and she let the practice sword fall to her side.

The eight-year-old pouted, using her free hand to brush the red hair that stuck to her forehead. “But if I don’t hit them very fast, then how am I supposed to win?”

“With this,” N’manni bopped his sister’s forehead with a gloved hand, “search for weak points, but make sure they can’t find your’s. It’s a balance – a push and pull. Like… when you dance with someone.” He seemed pleased with this analogy, though N’adana was having a hard time wrapping her head around it.

“I don’t think I’m smart enough to fight with my head,” N’adana kicked the dirt beneath her, drawing a line with the tip of her worn, wooden sword, “I can just get really good at hitting things instead!” She picked up the sword again and wacked it against a nearby post, so hard that the wood of her sword splintered and pushed into the palm of her hand.

“Ouch!” N’adana started to tear up, dropping the sword on the ground and putting the dirty palm of her hand in her mouth to suck on.

N’manni quickly rushed over to kneel in front of her, pulling her hand out of her mouth and inspecting the splinter that had lodged into her skin. “We’ll get you home and get you all cleaned up, hm?” He picked up N’adana effortlessly, using his other hand to pick up her sword before adjusting his grip and starting their short walk home. “See what happens when you swing before you think?”

N’adana wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, “I can get hurted.”

“That’s right, you can get hurted. And I won’t let you get hurted, is that right, Adana?”

The little miqo’te nodded quietly, holding her splintered hand to her chest as her brother carried her home.

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“Breaking my training dummies this morn’, I see.” Haurchefant’s cheery voice spoke up from behind her, and despite his lighthearted tone, N’adana’s ears flattened against her head as she turned to face him.

“Sorry,” she muttered, snapping back into reality as she tried to catch her breath, “perhaps they should give you some sturdier training dummies if I’m going to be here for awhile.”

“Here, let me help you,” Haurchefant chuckled, stepping passed her to clean up the splintered pieces of wood that fell to the ground, “that is quite a fine suggestion, N’adana. I shall put it on the list!”

N’adana flushed, “I didn’t mean to put another weight on your shoulders! You’re already doing so much for us-“

Haurchefant shook his head with another joyous, delighted chuckle, “Nonsense, my friend! ‘Tis a splendid idea regardless, so there is no need to fret over it one-“ Haurchefant threw the splintered wood on a nearby pile of firewood, “-moment.”

N’adana chased after him as she tried to assist in cleaning up her mess, but the elezen was having none of it.

“If you are so adamant to make it up to me, my little friend,” he grinned, unsheathing the sword from his belt, “perhaps you will humor me with a spar? Since it seems my training dummies were not suitable enough for you.”

“I suppose I could do as such, Mister Greystone. Go easy on me though, would you?” N’adana mirrored his humored smile, spinning the sword in her hand before positioning herself on the opposite side of the small courtyard of Camp Dragonhead.

“Go easy on you? A bold request indeed, one that I must extend to you in turn.” Haurchefant strapped his shield to his arm.

The two shared a banter that attracted the guards that had been patrolling the camp that morning, eager to see their Lord and the Warrior of Light duke it out on what was otherwise an uneventful day thus far. The two traded tips and stances as they dodged each other’s’ swings and hits, stopping occasionally to show each other a move or correct their opponent’s form.

“You go too fast, Haurchefant. I get so many hits on you because you don’t take the time to think and block.” N’adana suggested as her blunted sword contacted his shoulder. She had been hesitant to offer him advice before, but after one insistent spar almost an entire moon ago, she came to see that the man took her advice in earnest, despite her age.

“I shall take the advice to heart, N’adana. However, may I also suggest that you allow yourself a more open stance?” His sword clattered against her shield, a valiant bulwark against his excited advances.

N’adana grinned, “As a wise warrior once told me – it’s a push and pull, Haurchefant. I adjust myself as per my opponent’s steps.”

N’adana and Haurchefant practiced their swordsmanship for at least a bell and a half until Yaelle came to fetch the man that had been avoiding his duties all morning. She marched him back inside as Haurchefant eagerly quipped about how if he was to run Camp Dragonhead, he must get in some more proper training!

You have a stack of paperwork on your desk, ser.

N’adana snickered quietly to herself as she watched the poor man be hauled off like a child who had wandered away at the park, sheathing her sword into the scabbard at her hip. She wandered off after the eager guards had dispersed, letting her thoughts wander to an unobtainable reality where she could have introduced Manni to her dear new friends.

He would have loved Haurchefant, she thought to herself with a smile.