Shelby is right! (as usual)
Jul. 30th, 2010 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shelbyrouIt is currently 11:56 Pacific Time on Fri Jul 30 2010.
Currently the moon is in the waning Gibbous (Galliard) Moon phase (72% full).
Around the Lone Boulder
On this cool, cloudy, slightly clammy day, the clearing around the Lone Boulder is not as welcoming as it sometimes seems, and the rock itself hulks forbiddingly near the center. To one side of it, filling up a good third, at least, of the space of the clearing, is...something. Something Chandini, all in black and barefoot as ever, appears to be hard at work at. She has a pile of brush and dead weeds and vines heaped near the clearing's edge, though it is not as large as it evidently used to be because a great deal of it has already been laid out in winding lines on the ground. In fact, once the perspective clicks into place - and it may be easier to see from higher off the ground than one usually gets in lupus - what she has created is a labyrinth. Paths about two feet wide twist and wind and intersect, outlined by narrow heaps of piled leaves, twigs, and dead vines. Periodically she stops to wipe her face on her sleeve and get her bearings, reviewing what she has already laid down before continuing. It seems to be almost done, if only judged by the dwindling stock of materials.
Freedom hangs from a branch at the edge of the clearing, and drops to his feet on the grass, having made his way here (or at least the last visible stage of the journey) through the trees. He pads over towards Chandini, with a wave and call of, "Afternoon, Chandini-rhya!" He adds as he gets closer, "Need any help hauling stuff around? I've done directed work on large sculpture projects before."
Shelby arrives in lupus and vaults the brushpile, shifting back to homid to brush off her clothing and consider first Chandini's work, then the others. She draws closer without saying anything save a quiet, "Namaste, Chandini-rhya, afternoon, Freedom," the bulk of her attention on puzzling out just what the Fury has been up to.
Crossing the treeline at a jog, Kerr makes her way across the clearing and toward Chandini and the project. In one hand is grasped that bow, still sadly lacking its string, the other carries a couple of waterskins. As she nears the Fostern and two Ragabash cubs, the Ahroun cub slows and, once she's beside them, stops with a bowed head and downcast gaze. "Hello, Chandini-rhya, Shelby and Freedom."
Chandini pauses, arms full of forest-floor detritus, and smiles at the cubs. "Namaste. Ek minat." Apparently this means something like 'just a sec,' since she turns and distributes her last armload carefully. Then she leaves the labyrinth, not stepping across the lines she has made but following the twisting path out. "So. Everyone is warm and loose?"
Freedom spreads his arms, and bounces on his heels by way of response. "Pretty much," he says, and throws a grin at all the other cubs. "Or at least, I am."
There's a 'what are you doing here' look from Shelby toward the other girl, but it's no more than casual and otherwise unremarked upon. "About as good as I'm going to get without a hot bath and masseuse," she agrees.
"Yes'm," is Kerr's reply. Shelby's look doesn't go unnoticed, but it doesn't gain much of a response. More of a 'Later' look. Letting out a breath, the Ahroun cub places the bow upon the ground, up close to the boulder and well out of range for being stepped on. Only then does her attention fully return to Chandini.
"Kerr is staying with the Furies, for now," Chandini explains easily. "And since she has no tribal elder forbidding it now, she is joining us for training. I know you will be generous with her. Kerr-behen, there are not so many rules, here. The greatest one is to do what you are told, which I think will not challenge you as much as some, yeah? One of you--" this to Freedom and Shelby "--please tell her what the rule is, if someone makes a mistake and does not do what was asked, and the other tell her why."
Freedom says promptly, "If you do it the wrong way, you go back and do it again, the way you were asked the first time. Because--" He remembers himself, and breaks off there, with a grin towards Shelby as he very nearly demonstrates the principle in action.
"Because we're here to learn to work together, but more importantly, to obey," cuts in Shelby smoothly, though with an arch of an eyebrow at the Fianna. "And obedience takes practice just like anything else."
Kerr looks from Freedom to Shelby in turn, nodding her understanding. "Thank you," she tells each quietly, then after turning her eyes toward the Fostern's feet.
"That is what obedience is, here," Chandini says quietly. "It's about working together and fighting well. There is no punishment, only practice, because my believing is that everyone here wishes to do well, and so anything that is wrong was a mistake. And the reason is not at all about being cubs. Someday, I hope this training may be for more than just cubs, and if it ever is, that rule will not change at all. In a fight, the leader is the one chosen, or accepted, not always the highest of rank, and a leader cannot lead without many things. One of those things is the ability of the rest to obey." She smiles, breaking the solemnity of that explanation. "And so, to demonstrate this, we will have you telling each other what to do, now." Opening her right hand, she holds up a pebble. She tosses it up, catches it between her two hands, and separates them, each closed in a fist. She holds them out to Freedom and Shelby. "Choose."
Freedom leans forward to point at Chandini's left hand. He comments in an undertone to Shelby, amused, "Lots of practice, for some of us."
The Fang snorts quietly, more of an exhalation than anything else. "I suppose we're supposed to choose opposite hands?" she asks rhetorically, and nods to the Fury's right.
Kerr glances toward the two Ragabash at their exchange, curious rather than anything else. For just a moment, while they make their choices, she watches the pair then turns her focus to the Fostern's hands.
Chandini turns her hands over and opens them. The left is empty, the right holds the pebble. Chandini says, "Accha!" and reaches back toward her pocket, from which she fishes a strip of black cloth, which she hands to Shelby. "Over your eyes, yeah?" she says cheerfully. "Come stand here first." With one hand lightly touching Shelby's shoulder, the Fury guides her to the entrance - one of the two entrances, in fact - of the labryinth. "Freedom-bhai, you may move around as you wish, but only outside the edges. "Study it while she gets this secure. Kerr, you also." The labyrinthi is not terribly complicated, though the unevenness of the lines of brush marking the paths makes it harder to see clearly than it would if drawn on paper. There are some false turns one can make, and a several switchbacks.
Freedom nods, and trots off to start moving around the outside of the labyrinth. He looks over a particular heap of brush with deep admiration, and says, "Now this is the first real art I've seen around here in ages." He takes a pen from his pocket, and sketches on the palm of his hand as he walks.
Shelby eyes the blindfold dubiously, and mutters something under her breath which doesn't sound English. Not quite Mother's Tongue either, though it shares some of that language's gutturalness. But it's a quite-pleasant, "Yes, Chandini-rhya," that's audible as she does as instructed, fussing quite a bit with the lie of the band as Chandini helps her to the starting point. "May I make a suggestion, Chandini-rhya?"
Kerr circles toward the oposite side that Freedom had taken, her head lifting enough for her to take in the basic design. She does study it, as much as she can see from where she stands.
"Haan," Chandini says to Shelby, curiously. "Bol. Say it."
"Someone should get some height," the Fang says, waving a hand backwards in the vague area of the boulder. "It'll be easier from up there."
Freedom looks over at the boulder. "A better view, but communication from there involves a lot more shouting," he says.
Kerr looks, for a moment, toward the other three, then drops her gaze to resume studying the layout.
"Just don't shift into lupus and expect me to understand," Shelby says, but shrugs and re-adjusts her blindfold. Again. "I'm ready whenever, Chandini-rhya."
Chandini settles the blindfold over the back of Shelby's head, tugging it more securely into place. "Freedom will decide how it will work best for him. Now. Freedom, you will tell Shelby how to go. Shelby, you will do as he says. Kerr, you will observe, and think what Freedom's instructions would mean to you, if you were in Shelby's place. TK?" She stands back. "Freedom, you are trying to get her toward yeh center. We will go for...oh, a little while. Maybe not as long as it would take to get all the way there. Chalo. Do it."
Freedom glances up from his sketching, and grins. "Okay, Shelby, take, um, three normal-sized steps forward. I need to see how you walk. Keep your hands out, I'll let you know if you're gonna trip over stuff, but that should keep you away from the sides."
Shelby's lips are thin, but she nods and takes the three forward, her arms out as much for balance as to avoid hitting any of the low piles of brush.
"Yes, ma'am," Kerr replies to Chandini and she picks a vantage point that affords her some view of the labyrinth as well as the other two cubs.
Chandini stands back to watch, eyes bright, thumbs tucked into the edges of her front pockets.
Freedom starts talking faster as he gets a highly theoretical grasp on the process. "Okay, so you want five steps forward, then turn to your right, one short step, turn to your right again, and two--no, um, three steps there, and then you'll want to turn your, uh, your left, and take another step, got it?"
Shelby takes the five steps forward before stopping, arms windmilling as she catches her balance. She turns to the right, but then keeps turning toward the Fianna. "No," she snaps sourly, "I didn't. Maybe you'd like to repeat that, in Swahili or something? It wasn't quite unintelligible enough."
Kerr raises up on her toes in an attempt to get a view of where Shelby's feet are through the foliage lines. Her brow furrows slightly, but she doesn't say anything, instead settling down again and looking from one Ragabash to the other.
Freedom chews on the corner of his lip, and tries again. "Okay. Picture your position in this section of the maze as currently being the top left box of a rectangle two boxes wide and eight long. You need to move from your position, One-Eight, to Two-Eight, then down to Two-Five. Stop there and I'll give you the next set."
Chandini's brows rise at this new way of giving instructions and she looks curiously at the Fang cub to see if it will help.
Shelby? Doesn't move. Instead she says, "What?" again in a tone even more frustrated than the first.
Kerr shakes her head slowly. She glances, briefly, toward Chandini in an attempt to glean insight from the Fury's expression. But just as quickly her gaze returns to the other two cubs.
Freedom covers his face with his hands, and takes a deep breath. When he lowers his hands, his face is slightly smudged with ink. He walks out around the edge of the maze, frowning, then hopes over one line marker to go stand in front of the next turn. "Okay," he says. "Walk towards my voice with a hand out. Stop when the hand hits me."
"Nay, bhai," Chandini says. "You must stay outside the bound."
Shelby takes a step forward before Chandini interrupts; at the Fury's words she promptly stops and takes the same step backward. If her lips were pursed any more firmly they could be used to build the Great Pyramid, and her nostrils are flared and white.
Freedom gives a "worth a try" sort of shrug, and hopes back outside again. "Forward three steps," he says, and waits patiently. Aside from rocking back and forth on his heels.
"Three steps," Shelby repeats, and treads the first for the second time. On the second she very nearly hits the line and the third scatters brush while she stumbles, arms flailing. Again there's that foreign-sounding word before she deliberately stops and deliberately straightens, just as deliberately tugging at her jacket to eliminate any chance of wrinkles.
Freedom looks at the maze, and Shelby's expression, and his next look to Chandini is...if not exactly asking for an out, certainly looking to see if a halt's being called any time soon. "Sorry," he says, "I got the angle wrong. Can you turn about ninety degrees to your right?"
Chandini's gaze meets Freedom's with a light curve to the brows, and a small smile.
Shelby breathes in, breathes out, and does as she's told with a brittle little smile.
A small noise, a click of the tongue, and Chandini calls, "Bas. Enough, for now. Behen, you may take the blindfold off. That was not so bad as either of you probably thinks. Now, run, to there and back. All three," she adds, in case Kerr thinks she's being omitted. "In a little, Shelby and Kerr will do this. But in between, we will practice throwing again, yeah? To shed some anger, perhaps. Do not break the maze further in running, yeah?"
Freedom bolts off in the direction indicated, not needing to be told twice for that one. Sans specific instructions to start slow, he's running full-out all the way there, and...most of the way back. By the time he's nearly back to Chandini's there's a definite slowing for fatigue after the sprint.
Shelby doesn't immediately rip off the blindfold, but she doesn't waste much time in removing it either, and even less exiting the maze, stepping smartly--pointedly, even--over the edge. She tosses the blindfold toward the Fury before heading off after Freedom, though not at his hell-bent-for-leather pace, or even at her fastest. As a result she returns to the others well after the Fianna, though at least her temper seems to have improved as a result.
Kerr takes off running as soon as the instructions are given, moving without question or hesitation. She's not as fast as the Fianna, even though she tries to match him stride for stride. The Ahroun cub seems she could run forever, though, her pace never flagging until she slides to a stop beside Chandini.
Chandini puts a hand lightly on Kerr's shoulder, and smiles at the two ragabashes. "And now, throwing." She nods at the pile of stones. "Kerr-behen, you are already an archer. The aim is the same. You must make your arm into your bow, that is all." She makes it sound so simple. There is no stump to be seen today, instead, Chandini moves several paces away, waits for all three to acquire stones, and then says, "At me, yeah?" without seeming to think there is anything noteworthy about this new instruction. She begins a slow, almost leisurely progression of cartwheels.
Freedom picks up a stone, and tosses it in his hand a few times while he's catching his breath from the run. Then he pitches it at Chandini without any hesitation over the propriety of trying to stone his teacher. It's a nice, smooth arc, if not quite as fast as it probably ought to be.
Shelby scoops up a couple of rocks as well, from the smaller size of the range. She shoots a glance over at the other cubs, then presses her lips together at Chandini and pitches at the Ahroun. She has speed, and enthusiasm, but no aim: her rock sails merrily through the air where the Fury was, a second ago.
Kerr gathers a few stones as well, once the other two cubs have theirs, taking her time to test weight and feel. Only then does she rejoin the other two cubs and watches Chandini's movements. After the Shelby and Freedom have made their throws, she throws, her aim sending the first rock to where she perceives the Fostern to be by the time the stone gets there.
Freedom's stone bounces off Chandini's hip without much apparent effect. Shelby's goes further but doesn't hit at all. Kerr's, by design or accident, smacks into the Fury's elbow as she rolls her weight onto her arm, and she collapses with a laugh and a twist. It's not entirely clear how, but she emerges from that on her feet in seconds, still laughing. "Good," she says. "Again." She comes back, still cartwheeling at the same steady pace, the other direction.
Freedom takes up another rock, and this time waits longer before the fling. Timing, estimating where she will be once the rock's passed that whole distance... When he throws, it's with more strength, and if Chandini were a solid disc of metal instead of a homid-shaped person, moving along that route, it might even have been a properly accurate one.
Shelby has her next rock already to hand and doesn't even pause before huzzing it at the Fury, trying to aim a little farther along Chandini's path this time.
Kerr takes a longer time to watch the Fury, following her movements with eyes narrowing slightly. She pulls back, then flings the rock more side arm than over the shoulder, once again to where she believes Chandini will be when the stone gets there.
Again, Freedom's throw reaches his target, but again, there's just not enough strength in it to throw Chandini off her stride. This time it hits one of her legs. Kerr's throw smacks hard into Chandini's shoulder as she come upright, visibly jostling the Fury just an inch or two. It's Shelby's throw which is unexpectedly successful this time: it plows straight into Chandini's stomach just as she starts another turn, and knocks her movement entirely off. There's a moment in which she could struggle to return to standing or just let herself fall, and without hesitation she drops, rolls, and is on her feet again, with grass on her hair, rubbing at her shoulder and smiling. "Good." She shifts to glabro for a moment, and her voice slides down almost an octave as she continues. "Good. A little more of that, and we can progress. Freedom, you cannot hit hard, so you must learn to hit where it won't matter: joints, yeah? Take some stones and keep practicing, picking targets among the trees for yourself, yeah? Kerr and Shelby, come with me back to yeh maze." Leading the way, she sinks back to homid again.
Freedom stoops down to pick up more stones for practicing. "Got it, Chandini-rhya," he says, and trots off to follow the instructions. Some tree is about to get rather lightly pummeled.
Already bent for more ammo, when Shelby straightens and sees what she's done she promptly drops the rock and claps her hands happily. "You're all right?" she asks unnecessarily as she falls into step just a little behind the Fostern.
Kerr quickly lays the remaining stone into the pile before slipping off to walk parallel to Shelby. Her eyes have, again, returned to the ground as she moves.
"Haan, zaroor," Chandini says, surprised. "That means, yes, of course. Good, both of you stand there. Now, before we go back to yeh maze, each of you tell me about what we've done so far, and what you think."
"About the maze?" Shelby asks, again unnecessarily. "Well, whoever's giving directions has to give them slowly, so the person walking can follow them." Why no, she isn't looking at Freedom, pointedly or otherwise, but straight at Chandini. "Height really does help with mazes like these; there was a hedge maze back at Sunlit Waters. These walls aren't as big as a hedge, of course, but if you can't see how to direct people then there's really no point in trying."
"I think the maze my be easier," Kerr offers tentatively, "if the person giving directions has to remain on the ground, but if he moves, too." Being in one place gives only a partial view of what you can see, and that view is different from one side to the other." She pauses, a glance bouncing off Shelby then back to the ground. "And also if instructions were given slower. One at a time instead of five directions at once."
"Do you think you could have asked for directions in the way which would have helped you most?" Chandini asks Shelby.
"Oh, easily," the Fang agrees, "Except those weren't my instructions. I was supposed to follow Freedom's directions."
Off at the side of the clearing, there's an occasional THWACK as one of Free's rocks hits a tree.
Kerr lifts her eyes enough to look past Chandini and toward the maze, though from where she stands she sees only a swarth of green debris.
Chandini's brows rise once again. "Behen," she says with amused affection. "You have never hesitated to test the limits of your instructions before. I wonder why you did, this time. Accha. Kerr--" Chandini proffers the blindfold. "Here, to this other spot. Shelby, you know what your role is, I think. You must tell her how to go, and try to take her toward the center. You may not cross the bound of the maze."
Shelby answers primly, "Because in a fight there won't be time for me to say, 'Excuse me, August-rhya, the directions you gave me went by too quickly; could you repeat them please'." That's her story, and she's sticking to it. Nevertheless she tips her chin toward the Ahroun and heads for the boulder, the path giving her an easy trip to the top. "Can you hear me?" she calls down. "I can yell louder, in Glabro."
Kerr takes the blindfold and lifts it over her eyes, hands working to fold a knot behind her head. "Do I need to stay on my feet, or can I go on hands and knees," she asks the Fostern, giving the Fang a wave of acknowledgement.
"I would like you to stay standing if you can," Chandini says, though her eyes are glimmering at Shelby in amusement. The line did not entirely convince her, it seems. To Kerr, she continues, "Balance when you cannot see is harder, and worth practicing." She stands back. "Chalo."
Shelby starts with the same directions Freedom gave her: five steps ahead, but that's where she veers off. "All right, good. Um - just a half-step forward, then turn to your right, and another step forward. --You still with me? Too fast, too slow?"
"Yes'm," Kerr says to Chandini, with a dip of her head. She follows Shelby's instructions moving almost painstakingly slow, then slowing even more as the Ragabash changes directions. She shuffles forward a half step before turing toward the right and taking another step foward. She moves cautiously, arms held out a little for balance and security.
THWOCK. "(ow!)" Free must still be flinging rocks at things. Sometimes rocks bounce.
Shelby nods, not that Kerr can see it, and sends the other girl through the next bit of maze as well. Then it's, "All right, now turn to your left - a little bit too far, there, that's good. Two steps forward." And so on, careful to wait until Kerr's completed (or almost-completed) each direction before adding another.
Kerr seems to gain a little confidence, making it through the first series of instructions. Her pace picks up slightly though her foot placement becomes a little more unsure. She turns, not to the left but to the right before taking the required two steps. Her second step lands, accented by a telltail crunch of branches.
"No, your other...!" is Shelby's too-late correction, and as Kerr goes over the line she grimaces and runs fingers through her hair. "I'm sorry, I was going to fast for you."
Freedom wanders back in from the trees, having used up all the rocks he brought with him. He goes to pick up more, watching the maze-work as he picks up his ammunition.
Kerr pulls back at the crack and turns to correct her mistake. However, what ends up happening is the Ahroun cub turning a circle and then beginning another before tripping herself up over her own feet. She takes a knee amidst more cracking and snapping of branches, head turning toward where she thinks Chandini or Shelby may be.
"Stand up and steady yourself, Kerr," Chandini says steadily, undistressed. "And wait for the next instruction."
"Stop," Shelby calls, then again, louder and with more edge, "STOP. Kerr, you're supposed to stop when we mess up. Wait for me to give you instructions!" Hands clenched into loose fists, she paces the top of the boulder, just barely refraining from running them through her hair again.
Chandini flicks a quick glance at Shelby. It's not reproving. There's a faintly thoughtful quality to it.
Kerr pushes herself backward then carefully stands again, head bowed yet tilted toward the Ragabash. "Sorry, Shelby," she offers, tone regretful for not listening.
Shelby takes a moment to collect herself, then another, deep breaths and all. "We'll just try it again," she finally says, and her tone is such that they all can at least pretend she's calm and smiling. "All right. Take a step forward now, but step high, because you're still in the middle of all that mess."
Kerr takes a step, and then another, with just a couple of near stumbles as she extricates herself from the ruffage. Once out of the mess she'd made, she stops and stands, waiting for the directions to begin again.
"Right," the Fang says once that's taken care of. "You're in a new part of the maze, so we'll just go from here rather than backtrack." She glances at Chandini, to make sure that's acceptable.
Chandini nods.
Kerr nods as well, head still tilted toward Shelby.
"It is," Shelby continues. "So. Turn to your left--your real left," with just a hint of teasing for emphasis, "and it's, um, three steps forward. No, sorry, two steps."
Kerr turns to her left and takes the two steps forward, tripping over an errant bit of wood that had followed her out. The Ahroun cub remains on her feet at least, even picking up the stick and tossing it aside.
"Good," Chandini says. "Very good. Shelby, behen, you learned a lot from doing it first, I think. Come down again, yeah? Kerr, you may take off the blindfold and return.
"We--I mean, Sunlit Waters--has one of these," Shelby repeats with a verbal shrug if not a physical one, and hurries back down the path to the ground, carefully jumping the last few feet. "You're all right?" she asks of Kerr once she's there.
Kerr pulls off the blindfold, squinting at the sudden return of light. She turns and carefully works her way back toward Chandini, returning to the Fury's side once she's removed herself from the maze. "Yeah," she says to the other girl, nodding. "Sorry, I tried to correct my mistake and got turned around. Should've just waited.."
Chandini takes the blindfold back from Kerr, stowing it in a pocket. "Very good," she says again, though this time she seems to mean the brief discussion. "Now. I think it is time we did more sparring, hai na?"
Shelby shrugs at the younger cub, either an apology or acknowledgment, before turning to face Chandini. "Want me to get Freedom?"
Kerr drops her gaze to the ground, a sudden pang of worry streaking through her visage. Yet she nods all the same, confirming an agreement to the Fostern's decisions.
"Nay," Chandini says. "He is busy throwing things." She looks consideringly at Kerr. "Kya voh? What is it?"
"Oh," say Shelby, and, "All right." She looks curiously at Kerr but doesn't add anything.
Kerr shakes her head in response to Chandini's question. "I only sparred a few times. Usually in war form. And... claws kind of hurt.."
"Mm," Chandini says. "Haan, they do. Today, we will not use claws. But we will start by slowly. Shelby-behen, show Kerr about going slowly, yeah?"
"How do you mean, Chandini-rhya," asks Shelby with a wrinkle of her nose. "Do you want me to spar with you, or just show her the form?"
Kerr nods to Chandini, looking relieved enough to grin slightly. She looks toward Shelby as she brings up a question, then to Chandini's feet.
A white wolf pads out of the forest, taking care to make plenty of noise as she approaches. Her ears perk with a mingled surprise and curiousity then she shifts up into her birth form. Shaking out her hair, Zosia comments, "Forgot what day it is. Would you mind if I joined?" This is asked of Chandini though the Silver Fang smiles politely at both cubs once she does.
"Do you think--" Chandini starts, and then turns her head a moment before the white wolf appears. When it transforms into Zosia she nods a greeting, and to Zosia's question she smiles and shakes her head. "Nay, Zosia. You are welcome. Are you knowing Kerr?" And then, to one side of any possible introductions, she returns her attention to Shelby and asks seriously, "Do you think you can teach her by 'just' showing her the form? Or do you need to show her with me first?"
Shelby straightens when her elder appears--not that she was slouching before--and drops Zosia a nod before flashing throat. "I don't know," she continues seriously to Chandini. "I've never tried to teach anyone anything like this before. I wouldn't know where to start."
Kerr lifts her head as Chandini's words pause and follows the Fury's gaze in time to see Zosia appear where the wolf had been. "Hello, Zosia-rhya," she says, eyes averting quickly and throat completely exposed subserviently.
The Silver Fang's acknowledgement of the submissions is quick and wholly unconcious. "Thank you," she says to Chandini, flashing a wider smile to the Ahroun. Then she waits, to see just what is being demonstrated.
"Well, then. This time, we will demonstrate." Chandini moves a few paces away, beckoning Shelby to follow her and then face her. "Kerr-behen, watch and listen, because it will be you soon, yeah? What this is, is sparring made very slow, and very even. Every strike I make, she will block, and then strike in return, all slow, all even. It is much harder to do than it sounds, so I am not making things easy for you, yeah? Only different. Remember that what you can do slowly well, you can learn to do more quickly. But what you can only do quickly badly, there is nowhere to go with. Watch. I will count: ek, doh, ek, doh. One, two. Shelby, when you are ready, begin."
Shelby tugs her jacket into place and moves to face Chandini. "Yes, Chandini-rhya." The Fury might note the lack of hesitation from the Fang, even if she still licks her lips and looks a touch uncertain. Still, once she's in place her game face is on, and throws a punch at the Ahroun's shoulders.
Kerr replies to Chandini with a quick "Yes'm," her head lowering only slightly and attention returning to the elder Ahroun and Ragabash. She watches the two move, eyes tracking the exchange studiously.
Zosia's expression remains fairly even, despite a few twitches of her shoulders from time to time. She tilts her head at the method used, intrigued at the Fury's methods. Her eyes slide over to Shelby then, curiousity returning to her expression.
"Ek," Chandini says, as her hand lifts without haste to deflect the punch. All her movements coming at exactly the same rate, she aims a very obvious and direct punch at Shelby's belly.
There's the wince from Shelby, but even as it appears she's pushing Chandini's blow away with a forearm. Then, on the count, it's her turn to throw a fist at the Fury's middle.
Kerr shuffles to one side for a slightly different angle, trying to glimpse the change of attacks closer to the 'combatants' perspective.
Zosia watches quietly too, her brow furrowing slightly as the exchanges continue.
"Doh," Chandini counts as Shelby's block meets with her strike, and then 'Ek' again as she sideslips the next blow without speeding up and moves inside the cub's guard, sideways, lifting her arm (slowly, measuredly) for a (slow, measured) elbow-strike toward the face.
There's a definite, "Oh crap," look on the Ragabash's face, and her block is a little hasty. It's as her arm meets Chandini's that she seems to remember how to do it, and her pace slows to return to the measured counting. Of course, the strike leaves Chandini open, and Shelby goes for her... armpit?
Kerr edges back to her original spot, hands tucking into her pockets.
The choice by Shelby has Zosia frowning slightly, as if the logic passes over her head.
Chandini's 'Doh' as Shelby speeds up for her block is a little reproving in tone, coming heavily exactly when the block ought to have connected, rather than when it did. She drops her arm to pin Shelby's fist as it makes contact with her armpit, counting, 'Ek,' and then laughing. "Bas," she says. "Enough." She releases Shelby's fist and stands back facing her directly again and nodding before looking at Kerr. "What did you see, behen?"
A flash of alarm crosses the Ragabash's face at finding herself trapped, but it subsides into a grimace of rueful embarrassment when she's released. "Sorry, Chandini-rhya, I got sc-," she glances at Zosia and amends that to, "I was startled." She nods back at the Ahroun before excusing herself to practice katas on the other side of the boulder.
"It's like tag," Kerr answers, gaze find its place upon the ground again. "But no feinting or..." She shrugs to conclude that line of thought. "It's really basic, but that's good. Better to learn slower."
Currently the moon is in the waning Gibbous (Galliard) Moon phase (72% full).
Around the Lone Boulder
On this cool, cloudy, slightly clammy day, the clearing around the Lone Boulder is not as welcoming as it sometimes seems, and the rock itself hulks forbiddingly near the center. To one side of it, filling up a good third, at least, of the space of the clearing, is...something. Something Chandini, all in black and barefoot as ever, appears to be hard at work at. She has a pile of brush and dead weeds and vines heaped near the clearing's edge, though it is not as large as it evidently used to be because a great deal of it has already been laid out in winding lines on the ground. In fact, once the perspective clicks into place - and it may be easier to see from higher off the ground than one usually gets in lupus - what she has created is a labyrinth. Paths about two feet wide twist and wind and intersect, outlined by narrow heaps of piled leaves, twigs, and dead vines. Periodically she stops to wipe her face on her sleeve and get her bearings, reviewing what she has already laid down before continuing. It seems to be almost done, if only judged by the dwindling stock of materials.
Freedom hangs from a branch at the edge of the clearing, and drops to his feet on the grass, having made his way here (or at least the last visible stage of the journey) through the trees. He pads over towards Chandini, with a wave and call of, "Afternoon, Chandini-rhya!" He adds as he gets closer, "Need any help hauling stuff around? I've done directed work on large sculpture projects before."
Shelby arrives in lupus and vaults the brushpile, shifting back to homid to brush off her clothing and consider first Chandini's work, then the others. She draws closer without saying anything save a quiet, "Namaste, Chandini-rhya, afternoon, Freedom," the bulk of her attention on puzzling out just what the Fury has been up to.
Crossing the treeline at a jog, Kerr makes her way across the clearing and toward Chandini and the project. In one hand is grasped that bow, still sadly lacking its string, the other carries a couple of waterskins. As she nears the Fostern and two Ragabash cubs, the Ahroun cub slows and, once she's beside them, stops with a bowed head and downcast gaze. "Hello, Chandini-rhya, Shelby and Freedom."
Chandini pauses, arms full of forest-floor detritus, and smiles at the cubs. "Namaste. Ek minat." Apparently this means something like 'just a sec,' since she turns and distributes her last armload carefully. Then she leaves the labyrinth, not stepping across the lines she has made but following the twisting path out. "So. Everyone is warm and loose?"
Freedom spreads his arms, and bounces on his heels by way of response. "Pretty much," he says, and throws a grin at all the other cubs. "Or at least, I am."
There's a 'what are you doing here' look from Shelby toward the other girl, but it's no more than casual and otherwise unremarked upon. "About as good as I'm going to get without a hot bath and masseuse," she agrees.
"Yes'm," is Kerr's reply. Shelby's look doesn't go unnoticed, but it doesn't gain much of a response. More of a 'Later' look. Letting out a breath, the Ahroun cub places the bow upon the ground, up close to the boulder and well out of range for being stepped on. Only then does her attention fully return to Chandini.
"Kerr is staying with the Furies, for now," Chandini explains easily. "And since she has no tribal elder forbidding it now, she is joining us for training. I know you will be generous with her. Kerr-behen, there are not so many rules, here. The greatest one is to do what you are told, which I think will not challenge you as much as some, yeah? One of you--" this to Freedom and Shelby "--please tell her what the rule is, if someone makes a mistake and does not do what was asked, and the other tell her why."
Freedom says promptly, "If you do it the wrong way, you go back and do it again, the way you were asked the first time. Because--" He remembers himself, and breaks off there, with a grin towards Shelby as he very nearly demonstrates the principle in action.
"Because we're here to learn to work together, but more importantly, to obey," cuts in Shelby smoothly, though with an arch of an eyebrow at the Fianna. "And obedience takes practice just like anything else."
Kerr looks from Freedom to Shelby in turn, nodding her understanding. "Thank you," she tells each quietly, then after turning her eyes toward the Fostern's feet.
"That is what obedience is, here," Chandini says quietly. "It's about working together and fighting well. There is no punishment, only practice, because my believing is that everyone here wishes to do well, and so anything that is wrong was a mistake. And the reason is not at all about being cubs. Someday, I hope this training may be for more than just cubs, and if it ever is, that rule will not change at all. In a fight, the leader is the one chosen, or accepted, not always the highest of rank, and a leader cannot lead without many things. One of those things is the ability of the rest to obey." She smiles, breaking the solemnity of that explanation. "And so, to demonstrate this, we will have you telling each other what to do, now." Opening her right hand, she holds up a pebble. She tosses it up, catches it between her two hands, and separates them, each closed in a fist. She holds them out to Freedom and Shelby. "Choose."
Freedom leans forward to point at Chandini's left hand. He comments in an undertone to Shelby, amused, "Lots of practice, for some of us."
The Fang snorts quietly, more of an exhalation than anything else. "I suppose we're supposed to choose opposite hands?" she asks rhetorically, and nods to the Fury's right.
Kerr glances toward the two Ragabash at their exchange, curious rather than anything else. For just a moment, while they make their choices, she watches the pair then turns her focus to the Fostern's hands.
Chandini turns her hands over and opens them. The left is empty, the right holds the pebble. Chandini says, "Accha!" and reaches back toward her pocket, from which she fishes a strip of black cloth, which she hands to Shelby. "Over your eyes, yeah?" she says cheerfully. "Come stand here first." With one hand lightly touching Shelby's shoulder, the Fury guides her to the entrance - one of the two entrances, in fact - of the labryinth. "Freedom-bhai, you may move around as you wish, but only outside the edges. "Study it while she gets this secure. Kerr, you also." The labyrinthi is not terribly complicated, though the unevenness of the lines of brush marking the paths makes it harder to see clearly than it would if drawn on paper. There are some false turns one can make, and a several switchbacks.
Freedom nods, and trots off to start moving around the outside of the labyrinth. He looks over a particular heap of brush with deep admiration, and says, "Now this is the first real art I've seen around here in ages." He takes a pen from his pocket, and sketches on the palm of his hand as he walks.
Shelby eyes the blindfold dubiously, and mutters something under her breath which doesn't sound English. Not quite Mother's Tongue either, though it shares some of that language's gutturalness. But it's a quite-pleasant, "Yes, Chandini-rhya," that's audible as she does as instructed, fussing quite a bit with the lie of the band as Chandini helps her to the starting point. "May I make a suggestion, Chandini-rhya?"
Kerr circles toward the oposite side that Freedom had taken, her head lifting enough for her to take in the basic design. She does study it, as much as she can see from where she stands.
"Haan," Chandini says to Shelby, curiously. "Bol. Say it."
"Someone should get some height," the Fang says, waving a hand backwards in the vague area of the boulder. "It'll be easier from up there."
Freedom looks over at the boulder. "A better view, but communication from there involves a lot more shouting," he says.
Kerr looks, for a moment, toward the other three, then drops her gaze to resume studying the layout.
"Just don't shift into lupus and expect me to understand," Shelby says, but shrugs and re-adjusts her blindfold. Again. "I'm ready whenever, Chandini-rhya."
Chandini settles the blindfold over the back of Shelby's head, tugging it more securely into place. "Freedom will decide how it will work best for him. Now. Freedom, you will tell Shelby how to go. Shelby, you will do as he says. Kerr, you will observe, and think what Freedom's instructions would mean to you, if you were in Shelby's place. TK?" She stands back. "Freedom, you are trying to get her toward yeh center. We will go for...oh, a little while. Maybe not as long as it would take to get all the way there. Chalo. Do it."
Freedom glances up from his sketching, and grins. "Okay, Shelby, take, um, three normal-sized steps forward. I need to see how you walk. Keep your hands out, I'll let you know if you're gonna trip over stuff, but that should keep you away from the sides."
Shelby's lips are thin, but she nods and takes the three forward, her arms out as much for balance as to avoid hitting any of the low piles of brush.
"Yes, ma'am," Kerr replies to Chandini and she picks a vantage point that affords her some view of the labyrinth as well as the other two cubs.
Chandini stands back to watch, eyes bright, thumbs tucked into the edges of her front pockets.
Freedom starts talking faster as he gets a highly theoretical grasp on the process. "Okay, so you want five steps forward, then turn to your right, one short step, turn to your right again, and two--no, um, three steps there, and then you'll want to turn your, uh, your left, and take another step, got it?"
Shelby takes the five steps forward before stopping, arms windmilling as she catches her balance. She turns to the right, but then keeps turning toward the Fianna. "No," she snaps sourly, "I didn't. Maybe you'd like to repeat that, in Swahili or something? It wasn't quite unintelligible enough."
Kerr raises up on her toes in an attempt to get a view of where Shelby's feet are through the foliage lines. Her brow furrows slightly, but she doesn't say anything, instead settling down again and looking from one Ragabash to the other.
Freedom chews on the corner of his lip, and tries again. "Okay. Picture your position in this section of the maze as currently being the top left box of a rectangle two boxes wide and eight long. You need to move from your position, One-Eight, to Two-Eight, then down to Two-Five. Stop there and I'll give you the next set."
Chandini's brows rise at this new way of giving instructions and she looks curiously at the Fang cub to see if it will help.
Shelby? Doesn't move. Instead she says, "What?" again in a tone even more frustrated than the first.
Kerr shakes her head slowly. She glances, briefly, toward Chandini in an attempt to glean insight from the Fury's expression. But just as quickly her gaze returns to the other two cubs.
Freedom covers his face with his hands, and takes a deep breath. When he lowers his hands, his face is slightly smudged with ink. He walks out around the edge of the maze, frowning, then hopes over one line marker to go stand in front of the next turn. "Okay," he says. "Walk towards my voice with a hand out. Stop when the hand hits me."
"Nay, bhai," Chandini says. "You must stay outside the bound."
Shelby takes a step forward before Chandini interrupts; at the Fury's words she promptly stops and takes the same step backward. If her lips were pursed any more firmly they could be used to build the Great Pyramid, and her nostrils are flared and white.
Freedom gives a "worth a try" sort of shrug, and hopes back outside again. "Forward three steps," he says, and waits patiently. Aside from rocking back and forth on his heels.
"Three steps," Shelby repeats, and treads the first for the second time. On the second she very nearly hits the line and the third scatters brush while she stumbles, arms flailing. Again there's that foreign-sounding word before she deliberately stops and deliberately straightens, just as deliberately tugging at her jacket to eliminate any chance of wrinkles.
Freedom looks at the maze, and Shelby's expression, and his next look to Chandini is...if not exactly asking for an out, certainly looking to see if a halt's being called any time soon. "Sorry," he says, "I got the angle wrong. Can you turn about ninety degrees to your right?"
Chandini's gaze meets Freedom's with a light curve to the brows, and a small smile.
Shelby breathes in, breathes out, and does as she's told with a brittle little smile.
A small noise, a click of the tongue, and Chandini calls, "Bas. Enough, for now. Behen, you may take the blindfold off. That was not so bad as either of you probably thinks. Now, run, to there and back. All three," she adds, in case Kerr thinks she's being omitted. "In a little, Shelby and Kerr will do this. But in between, we will practice throwing again, yeah? To shed some anger, perhaps. Do not break the maze further in running, yeah?"
Freedom bolts off in the direction indicated, not needing to be told twice for that one. Sans specific instructions to start slow, he's running full-out all the way there, and...most of the way back. By the time he's nearly back to Chandini's there's a definite slowing for fatigue after the sprint.
Shelby doesn't immediately rip off the blindfold, but she doesn't waste much time in removing it either, and even less exiting the maze, stepping smartly--pointedly, even--over the edge. She tosses the blindfold toward the Fury before heading off after Freedom, though not at his hell-bent-for-leather pace, or even at her fastest. As a result she returns to the others well after the Fianna, though at least her temper seems to have improved as a result.
Kerr takes off running as soon as the instructions are given, moving without question or hesitation. She's not as fast as the Fianna, even though she tries to match him stride for stride. The Ahroun cub seems she could run forever, though, her pace never flagging until she slides to a stop beside Chandini.
Chandini puts a hand lightly on Kerr's shoulder, and smiles at the two ragabashes. "And now, throwing." She nods at the pile of stones. "Kerr-behen, you are already an archer. The aim is the same. You must make your arm into your bow, that is all." She makes it sound so simple. There is no stump to be seen today, instead, Chandini moves several paces away, waits for all three to acquire stones, and then says, "At me, yeah?" without seeming to think there is anything noteworthy about this new instruction. She begins a slow, almost leisurely progression of cartwheels.
Freedom picks up a stone, and tosses it in his hand a few times while he's catching his breath from the run. Then he pitches it at Chandini without any hesitation over the propriety of trying to stone his teacher. It's a nice, smooth arc, if not quite as fast as it probably ought to be.
Shelby scoops up a couple of rocks as well, from the smaller size of the range. She shoots a glance over at the other cubs, then presses her lips together at Chandini and pitches at the Ahroun. She has speed, and enthusiasm, but no aim: her rock sails merrily through the air where the Fury was, a second ago.
Kerr gathers a few stones as well, once the other two cubs have theirs, taking her time to test weight and feel. Only then does she rejoin the other two cubs and watches Chandini's movements. After the Shelby and Freedom have made their throws, she throws, her aim sending the first rock to where she perceives the Fostern to be by the time the stone gets there.
Freedom's stone bounces off Chandini's hip without much apparent effect. Shelby's goes further but doesn't hit at all. Kerr's, by design or accident, smacks into the Fury's elbow as she rolls her weight onto her arm, and she collapses with a laugh and a twist. It's not entirely clear how, but she emerges from that on her feet in seconds, still laughing. "Good," she says. "Again." She comes back, still cartwheeling at the same steady pace, the other direction.
Freedom takes up another rock, and this time waits longer before the fling. Timing, estimating where she will be once the rock's passed that whole distance... When he throws, it's with more strength, and if Chandini were a solid disc of metal instead of a homid-shaped person, moving along that route, it might even have been a properly accurate one.
Shelby has her next rock already to hand and doesn't even pause before huzzing it at the Fury, trying to aim a little farther along Chandini's path this time.
Kerr takes a longer time to watch the Fury, following her movements with eyes narrowing slightly. She pulls back, then flings the rock more side arm than over the shoulder, once again to where she believes Chandini will be when the stone gets there.
Again, Freedom's throw reaches his target, but again, there's just not enough strength in it to throw Chandini off her stride. This time it hits one of her legs. Kerr's throw smacks hard into Chandini's shoulder as she come upright, visibly jostling the Fury just an inch or two. It's Shelby's throw which is unexpectedly successful this time: it plows straight into Chandini's stomach just as she starts another turn, and knocks her movement entirely off. There's a moment in which she could struggle to return to standing or just let herself fall, and without hesitation she drops, rolls, and is on her feet again, with grass on her hair, rubbing at her shoulder and smiling. "Good." She shifts to glabro for a moment, and her voice slides down almost an octave as she continues. "Good. A little more of that, and we can progress. Freedom, you cannot hit hard, so you must learn to hit where it won't matter: joints, yeah? Take some stones and keep practicing, picking targets among the trees for yourself, yeah? Kerr and Shelby, come with me back to yeh maze." Leading the way, she sinks back to homid again.
Freedom stoops down to pick up more stones for practicing. "Got it, Chandini-rhya," he says, and trots off to follow the instructions. Some tree is about to get rather lightly pummeled.
Already bent for more ammo, when Shelby straightens and sees what she's done she promptly drops the rock and claps her hands happily. "You're all right?" she asks unnecessarily as she falls into step just a little behind the Fostern.
Kerr quickly lays the remaining stone into the pile before slipping off to walk parallel to Shelby. Her eyes have, again, returned to the ground as she moves.
"Haan, zaroor," Chandini says, surprised. "That means, yes, of course. Good, both of you stand there. Now, before we go back to yeh maze, each of you tell me about what we've done so far, and what you think."
"About the maze?" Shelby asks, again unnecessarily. "Well, whoever's giving directions has to give them slowly, so the person walking can follow them." Why no, she isn't looking at Freedom, pointedly or otherwise, but straight at Chandini. "Height really does help with mazes like these; there was a hedge maze back at Sunlit Waters. These walls aren't as big as a hedge, of course, but if you can't see how to direct people then there's really no point in trying."
"I think the maze my be easier," Kerr offers tentatively, "if the person giving directions has to remain on the ground, but if he moves, too." Being in one place gives only a partial view of what you can see, and that view is different from one side to the other." She pauses, a glance bouncing off Shelby then back to the ground. "And also if instructions were given slower. One at a time instead of five directions at once."
"Do you think you could have asked for directions in the way which would have helped you most?" Chandini asks Shelby.
"Oh, easily," the Fang agrees, "Except those weren't my instructions. I was supposed to follow Freedom's directions."
Off at the side of the clearing, there's an occasional THWACK as one of Free's rocks hits a tree.
Kerr lifts her eyes enough to look past Chandini and toward the maze, though from where she stands she sees only a swarth of green debris.
Chandini's brows rise once again. "Behen," she says with amused affection. "You have never hesitated to test the limits of your instructions before. I wonder why you did, this time. Accha. Kerr--" Chandini proffers the blindfold. "Here, to this other spot. Shelby, you know what your role is, I think. You must tell her how to go, and try to take her toward the center. You may not cross the bound of the maze."
Shelby answers primly, "Because in a fight there won't be time for me to say, 'Excuse me, August-rhya, the directions you gave me went by too quickly; could you repeat them please'." That's her story, and she's sticking to it. Nevertheless she tips her chin toward the Ahroun and heads for the boulder, the path giving her an easy trip to the top. "Can you hear me?" she calls down. "I can yell louder, in Glabro."
Kerr takes the blindfold and lifts it over her eyes, hands working to fold a knot behind her head. "Do I need to stay on my feet, or can I go on hands and knees," she asks the Fostern, giving the Fang a wave of acknowledgement.
"I would like you to stay standing if you can," Chandini says, though her eyes are glimmering at Shelby in amusement. The line did not entirely convince her, it seems. To Kerr, she continues, "Balance when you cannot see is harder, and worth practicing." She stands back. "Chalo."
Shelby starts with the same directions Freedom gave her: five steps ahead, but that's where she veers off. "All right, good. Um - just a half-step forward, then turn to your right, and another step forward. --You still with me? Too fast, too slow?"
"Yes'm," Kerr says to Chandini, with a dip of her head. She follows Shelby's instructions moving almost painstakingly slow, then slowing even more as the Ragabash changes directions. She shuffles forward a half step before turing toward the right and taking another step foward. She moves cautiously, arms held out a little for balance and security.
THWOCK. "(ow!)" Free must still be flinging rocks at things. Sometimes rocks bounce.
Shelby nods, not that Kerr can see it, and sends the other girl through the next bit of maze as well. Then it's, "All right, now turn to your left - a little bit too far, there, that's good. Two steps forward." And so on, careful to wait until Kerr's completed (or almost-completed) each direction before adding another.
Kerr seems to gain a little confidence, making it through the first series of instructions. Her pace picks up slightly though her foot placement becomes a little more unsure. She turns, not to the left but to the right before taking the required two steps. Her second step lands, accented by a telltail crunch of branches.
"No, your other...!" is Shelby's too-late correction, and as Kerr goes over the line she grimaces and runs fingers through her hair. "I'm sorry, I was going to fast for you."
Freedom wanders back in from the trees, having used up all the rocks he brought with him. He goes to pick up more, watching the maze-work as he picks up his ammunition.
Kerr pulls back at the crack and turns to correct her mistake. However, what ends up happening is the Ahroun cub turning a circle and then beginning another before tripping herself up over her own feet. She takes a knee amidst more cracking and snapping of branches, head turning toward where she thinks Chandini or Shelby may be.
"Stand up and steady yourself, Kerr," Chandini says steadily, undistressed. "And wait for the next instruction."
"Stop," Shelby calls, then again, louder and with more edge, "STOP. Kerr, you're supposed to stop when we mess up. Wait for me to give you instructions!" Hands clenched into loose fists, she paces the top of the boulder, just barely refraining from running them through her hair again.
Chandini flicks a quick glance at Shelby. It's not reproving. There's a faintly thoughtful quality to it.
Kerr pushes herself backward then carefully stands again, head bowed yet tilted toward the Ragabash. "Sorry, Shelby," she offers, tone regretful for not listening.
Shelby takes a moment to collect herself, then another, deep breaths and all. "We'll just try it again," she finally says, and her tone is such that they all can at least pretend she's calm and smiling. "All right. Take a step forward now, but step high, because you're still in the middle of all that mess."
Kerr takes a step, and then another, with just a couple of near stumbles as she extricates herself from the ruffage. Once out of the mess she'd made, she stops and stands, waiting for the directions to begin again.
"Right," the Fang says once that's taken care of. "You're in a new part of the maze, so we'll just go from here rather than backtrack." She glances at Chandini, to make sure that's acceptable.
Chandini nods.
Kerr nods as well, head still tilted toward Shelby.
"It is," Shelby continues. "So. Turn to your left--your real left," with just a hint of teasing for emphasis, "and it's, um, three steps forward. No, sorry, two steps."
Kerr turns to her left and takes the two steps forward, tripping over an errant bit of wood that had followed her out. The Ahroun cub remains on her feet at least, even picking up the stick and tossing it aside.
"Good," Chandini says. "Very good. Shelby, behen, you learned a lot from doing it first, I think. Come down again, yeah? Kerr, you may take off the blindfold and return.
"We--I mean, Sunlit Waters--has one of these," Shelby repeats with a verbal shrug if not a physical one, and hurries back down the path to the ground, carefully jumping the last few feet. "You're all right?" she asks of Kerr once she's there.
Kerr pulls off the blindfold, squinting at the sudden return of light. She turns and carefully works her way back toward Chandini, returning to the Fury's side once she's removed herself from the maze. "Yeah," she says to the other girl, nodding. "Sorry, I tried to correct my mistake and got turned around. Should've just waited.."
Chandini takes the blindfold back from Kerr, stowing it in a pocket. "Very good," she says again, though this time she seems to mean the brief discussion. "Now. I think it is time we did more sparring, hai na?"
Shelby shrugs at the younger cub, either an apology or acknowledgment, before turning to face Chandini. "Want me to get Freedom?"
Kerr drops her gaze to the ground, a sudden pang of worry streaking through her visage. Yet she nods all the same, confirming an agreement to the Fostern's decisions.
"Nay," Chandini says. "He is busy throwing things." She looks consideringly at Kerr. "Kya voh? What is it?"
"Oh," say Shelby, and, "All right." She looks curiously at Kerr but doesn't add anything.
Kerr shakes her head in response to Chandini's question. "I only sparred a few times. Usually in war form. And... claws kind of hurt.."
"Mm," Chandini says. "Haan, they do. Today, we will not use claws. But we will start by slowly. Shelby-behen, show Kerr about going slowly, yeah?"
"How do you mean, Chandini-rhya," asks Shelby with a wrinkle of her nose. "Do you want me to spar with you, or just show her the form?"
Kerr nods to Chandini, looking relieved enough to grin slightly. She looks toward Shelby as she brings up a question, then to Chandini's feet.
A white wolf pads out of the forest, taking care to make plenty of noise as she approaches. Her ears perk with a mingled surprise and curiousity then she shifts up into her birth form. Shaking out her hair, Zosia comments, "Forgot what day it is. Would you mind if I joined?" This is asked of Chandini though the Silver Fang smiles politely at both cubs once she does.
"Do you think--" Chandini starts, and then turns her head a moment before the white wolf appears. When it transforms into Zosia she nods a greeting, and to Zosia's question she smiles and shakes her head. "Nay, Zosia. You are welcome. Are you knowing Kerr?" And then, to one side of any possible introductions, she returns her attention to Shelby and asks seriously, "Do you think you can teach her by 'just' showing her the form? Or do you need to show her with me first?"
Shelby straightens when her elder appears--not that she was slouching before--and drops Zosia a nod before flashing throat. "I don't know," she continues seriously to Chandini. "I've never tried to teach anyone anything like this before. I wouldn't know where to start."
Kerr lifts her head as Chandini's words pause and follows the Fury's gaze in time to see Zosia appear where the wolf had been. "Hello, Zosia-rhya," she says, eyes averting quickly and throat completely exposed subserviently.
The Silver Fang's acknowledgement of the submissions is quick and wholly unconcious. "Thank you," she says to Chandini, flashing a wider smile to the Ahroun. Then she waits, to see just what is being demonstrated.
"Well, then. This time, we will demonstrate." Chandini moves a few paces away, beckoning Shelby to follow her and then face her. "Kerr-behen, watch and listen, because it will be you soon, yeah? What this is, is sparring made very slow, and very even. Every strike I make, she will block, and then strike in return, all slow, all even. It is much harder to do than it sounds, so I am not making things easy for you, yeah? Only different. Remember that what you can do slowly well, you can learn to do more quickly. But what you can only do quickly badly, there is nowhere to go with. Watch. I will count: ek, doh, ek, doh. One, two. Shelby, when you are ready, begin."
Shelby tugs her jacket into place and moves to face Chandini. "Yes, Chandini-rhya." The Fury might note the lack of hesitation from the Fang, even if she still licks her lips and looks a touch uncertain. Still, once she's in place her game face is on, and throws a punch at the Ahroun's shoulders.
Kerr replies to Chandini with a quick "Yes'm," her head lowering only slightly and attention returning to the elder Ahroun and Ragabash. She watches the two move, eyes tracking the exchange studiously.
Zosia's expression remains fairly even, despite a few twitches of her shoulders from time to time. She tilts her head at the method used, intrigued at the Fury's methods. Her eyes slide over to Shelby then, curiousity returning to her expression.
"Ek," Chandini says, as her hand lifts without haste to deflect the punch. All her movements coming at exactly the same rate, she aims a very obvious and direct punch at Shelby's belly.
There's the wince from Shelby, but even as it appears she's pushing Chandini's blow away with a forearm. Then, on the count, it's her turn to throw a fist at the Fury's middle.
Kerr shuffles to one side for a slightly different angle, trying to glimpse the change of attacks closer to the 'combatants' perspective.
Zosia watches quietly too, her brow furrowing slightly as the exchanges continue.
"Doh," Chandini counts as Shelby's block meets with her strike, and then 'Ek' again as she sideslips the next blow without speeding up and moves inside the cub's guard, sideways, lifting her arm (slowly, measuredly) for a (slow, measured) elbow-strike toward the face.
There's a definite, "Oh crap," look on the Ragabash's face, and her block is a little hasty. It's as her arm meets Chandini's that she seems to remember how to do it, and her pace slows to return to the measured counting. Of course, the strike leaves Chandini open, and Shelby goes for her... armpit?
Kerr edges back to her original spot, hands tucking into her pockets.
The choice by Shelby has Zosia frowning slightly, as if the logic passes over her head.
Chandini's 'Doh' as Shelby speeds up for her block is a little reproving in tone, coming heavily exactly when the block ought to have connected, rather than when it did. She drops her arm to pin Shelby's fist as it makes contact with her armpit, counting, 'Ek,' and then laughing. "Bas," she says. "Enough." She releases Shelby's fist and stands back facing her directly again and nodding before looking at Kerr. "What did you see, behen?"
A flash of alarm crosses the Ragabash's face at finding herself trapped, but it subsides into a grimace of rueful embarrassment when she's released. "Sorry, Chandini-rhya, I got sc-," she glances at Zosia and amends that to, "I was startled." She nods back at the Ahroun before excusing herself to practice katas on the other side of the boulder.
"It's like tag," Kerr answers, gaze find its place upon the ground again. "But no feinting or..." She shrugs to conclude that line of thought. "It's really basic, but that's good. Better to learn slower."