(LOG) Uhtred teaching Garnet swordplay

(There's no major plot happenings within the RP, but several people said they wanted to see this, so here it is! Amuse yourselves!)

Garnett felt more than half a fool as she followed Uhtred out to the garden. Whether it was the loose trousers and tunic that she'd had made for her new adventure or simply the fact that she was finally to start learning the skill that seemed so foreign to her, she couldn't say. Cheeks blazed as red as her hair, the length of that confined to a tight serviceable twist on the back of her head. She was, without a doubt, going to make quite the spectacle of herself, already quelling from the odd looks of more than a few servants of her unusual garb. Rather than belted at her hip, she held her sword and the leather in her hands, clutching it tightly, rather certain that they'd not be starting with a live blade. God, she hoped not.

Uhtred Valenti hummed, shirtless and arching his back as he paced quietly to the garden centre. His sword was sheathed in its bland leather, strangely imposing for such a simple blade. Alas, it was not the one he'd be using this time, but it was good to put a little fear into the girl. The blade rested over his shoulders and was balanced by the resting of wrists, making it appear as though the aetheling was carrying water to miners. "You might consider finding a belt to put that on your back," he told her. "It is easier to draw from the back than it is from the hip." He would show her the best way later. In the mean time, he began stomping on the grass to make a ring in the lawn, humming his little dittie still as though he was preparing to cut down a tree.

Garnett's nerves couldn't keep her eyes from roving over her husband's bare torso with an appreciative twist of her lips, though the sight of his scars and taut flesh was more intimidating at the moment. Her gaze darted to his blade as a small shudder coursed through her, the girl managing a small nod. "I'll have one made. Perhaps you could show me what would be most suitable." Strain touched her voice, throat tightening as though it might cut it off. This belt was new, something to free up her hands so she might take the sword with her, the weapon rarely far from her reach save in their chambers for reasons she kept to herself, unsure if even Uhtred knew why though they'd been confirmed to her satisfaction in the executioner's presence. She must have it with her. Silently, she crept to the edge of the grass he was crushing down, jade eyes following his every move.

Uhtred Valenti started to whistle, now, slowly removing the confined sword from the sheath and baring its bright blade to the blossoming spring world. Oh, how good it felt to let that cold metal breathe! But again, its purpose was not to sing this time. He thrust it into the middle of the trampled circle so that it wobbled upright in the air. "You might as well put that thing down, love. The only nicks to be put in it will be from the bones of your enemies." Mildly joking, of course. Uhtred slipped over to the stone bench and plucked two bundles wrapped in cloth. Pommels and handles plainly showed through, but when he unwrapped them it was revealed that there were no real edges to these pieces of metal. They also looked woefully heavy. "First thing we need to do is make your little bird arms not so stick-like." Another happy grin. He seemed to be enjoying himself.

Garnett shot a mild glare at the Prince for his whistling, the sound serving to unnerve the poor girl further though her gaze locked on his sword..or rather on his hands holding it with curious intensity. Nostrils flared as she took a deep breath to settle herself, in truth finding the true intent behind learning to use her weapon far more disturbing than the idea of learning itself. It seemed she'd retreated into silence for she merely slipped over to the bench where he was to carefully place her sword down. Her free hand fluttered to touch the small of his back, Garnett letting the momentary feel of his skin beneath her fingers and his good humour relax her. Her lips twisted into a playful scowl at his words, but she reached out for one of the practice swords with a calculating glance at his arms. As she took hold of it, the weight felt impossible, her eyes widening in alarm.

Uhtred Valenti gave a soft chuckle as she plucked away one of the rods. "Heavy, eh?" He gave his own an experimental lateral spin. The reality, of course, was that it was no heavier than the average war axe, but it was good for her to think the task daunting. "I think you should hold it two-handed." There was just enough space, from what he could guess. Uhtred patiently showed how to triangle the grip, how to wrap the pinky of the top hand slightly over the knuckle of the index finger to the lower. "When you get better, you won't need to," he assured her dismissively. Now he paced back to the ring he had made and turned, putting his real sword between them and patting it. "Now come and touch the pommel." A simple request, and his sweet smile showed nothing but relaxation. "What do you say we picnic after this?"

Garnett nodded, already relying on both hands for she was certain that it would rip her shoulder off if she tried to do anything with just one hand and the beastly thing. Her fingers trembled as he showed her how to hold the thing properly, redness painting her freckled cheeks again. Already, her palms held a faint sheen of sweat but her hands tightened, the girl pausing a long moment to study the grip, releasing it once she had it only to take it up again to make sure she understood. Forcing herself to take another deep breath, she followed him into the ring, brows furrowing faintly at his instructions though she, of course, obeyed. Knuckles whitened as she held the handle of her practice sword in one hand so she could touch Uhtred's, her eyes wandering up to search his face. "Certainly, my love," She mumured quietly, flashing him a small nervous smile.

Uhtred Valenti waited quietly, letting her approach from behind. She didn't quite respond as he'd intended, but to be a teacher was to adapt to circumstances. So he moved slowly, approaching the circle with a certain sense of calm that abruptly transformed as her foot touched the edge of the circle. Abruptly, he pushed himself forward with stout legs, twisting around and whipping the sword around in a sharp, quick arc that was very carefully designed not to strike her, but whistle dangerously close and perhaps put a bit of fear in her. Would she raise her weapon? Uhtred hoped so. Either way, he'd grin toothily and step back, putting himself on the edge of the circle and making damn certain that she stayed outside of it as well. "Come now! Touch the pommel."

Garnett was looking past the prince at the sword in the center, her mind unfortunately wandering over more philosophical aspects of using a weapon, and his turn surprised her. A shriek sounded from her throat as she jumped back, arms instinctively shooting up to protect her head which sent the blade wobbling over her head, the weight of the rod nearly toppling her, forcing her to stumble back a pace. Even that made her arms and shoulders ache, and she lowered it, trying to hold it upright in front of her as she glared at Uhtred around it, confused for a moment before amusement trickled into her gaze once she realized the game. The heavy blade listed to the side in her unsteady grip, and she tried to sidestep him, playful wary eyes darting between him and her destination.

Uhtred Valenti tried very hard not to laugh. The poor girl, she most certainly had no head for surprise. He would need to teach her to be on guard at all times. Of course, he had no idea how unfortunate that lesson would be. The sword was a different matter. It enforced the fact that a sword was a means to a goal. It also taught her to fight around an object, which would be important against a man with a shield. He stayed still when she began to step aside, but soon enough his front foot was lifting off the ground; used to turn him toward her. He thrust it forward, in her direction, stomping down so that his body was extended and intended to show her the strength of a sword thrust, hurling his arm in her direction and aiming it to the soft underbelly of her belly, curling his lip. If she did not parry, he intended to give her a bit of a bruise there to emphasize her death.

Garnett still struggled to hold the damnable thing, uncertain just how she was to get around Uhtred as it seemed a bit like trying to get around a wall with arms ..and a sword. Reflexes were slow, painfully slow, the girl shrieking again as she lept backward, her blade coming down to smash against his without much more force than the weight of the thing falling. And, fall it did, heavy enough that it overbalanced and ripped right out of her hands, a dull thud on the grass as the bruising blow hit her stomach. Tears welled, but she bit her lip, irritation causing her jaw to set as her hands rubbed at her belly. A small growling noise rumbled through her throat as she glanced from her weapon on the ground to Uhtred, half afraid he would bash her on the head if she went down to grab it.

Uhtred Valenti was pleased when she brought the sword down, at least. The thrust turned into a strike as she dropped the sword, spinning the sword in a lateral circle slipping back to him and then dropping precisely five inches away from Garnett's skull. As if the point hadn't been made. He drew back and grinned at her, ignoring her anger and stepping back around the sword, patting it with a free hand as he rested the rod sword against his shoulder. "Go on, go on." He arched his back, slowly stretching muscles that were remembering what it was to lift a sword with a strange sort of instinctive excitement. It was difficult, indeed, not to crush the poor girl's spirits absolutely. "Come touch the pommel. What would you like for our picnic?"

Garnett squeaked as she ducked away from the sword, arms flying over her head once more. It earned Uhtred another glare, but there was no heat directed toward him, all of her annoyance at her own ineptitude. Childishly, she stuck her tongue out at him when he drew back, crouching with one eye on him in case his permission to get the thing was another trip. Trembling fingers wrapped around the grip of the sword, the placement slow but correct, so long as he didn't come at her again. Rolling her shoulders, she braced her feet more firmly now, eyes darting between him and the sword in the center. Tightening her grip, she held the heavy practice blade at an uncertain angle, the point toward Uhtred. "Hmmm, bear perhaps.." She teased quietly, good humour resuming. He was teaching her after all. Slowly, she crept forward, tension rippling through her muscles.

Uhtred Valenti was having a hard time not laughing at the poor girl, though perhaps he should have. Indeed, he'd laughed so much at Leon that his throat was hoarse with the effort at times. It was good to see this change in Garnett's attitude. Exasperation did well to reconfigure a person's mindset. Come for me, he said through his grin, a small glint in his eye even when he laughed at her teasing. "I'll be happy to go and fetch another," he assured her. Then, abruptly, all humour left his face. "You will die if you do not take this pommel. You will be raped and beaten and your throat will be slit, and you will piss yourself when you die. Don't reach for it. Take it." The whole atmosphere of the lesson had suddenly changed.

Garnett's nose scrunched as she grinned back at him, eyes sparkling. The warmth died with his words though, face blanching. For a long moment, she stared at him, her jaw tightening again as the terrible image gripped her mind. She'd never faced that, of course, but it sparked the same fury that she'd felt when the spirits sought to steal her. Her lips pulled back in a snarl even as she stepped back a pace to give the weapon several experimental swings, determined at the least not to have it fly from her hands again. How the bloody hell was she to get around him? Suddenly, she rushed forward toward his left side, her own sword moving uncertainly to try to protect her head and shoulders. She was going to get hit..she knew she was going to get hit even as she tried to dance around him, rather struck by her utter inability to even think of how to get past him.

Uhtred Valenti watched her take in the information and settled into a loose stance, turning himself so that his sword side faced her, other hand wrapped around his back so that the back of his hand was pressed against his tailbone. He was expecting an attack... indeed, he'd been trying to instruct her to attack without just grabbing her by the throat and shouting: "Hit me, you fool!" So when she ran at him, he decided to show her the folly of this lack of action. It was nothing pretty. He simply raised his faux weapon high over his head and swung at her weapon. He didn't just want to make contact with it, he wanted to send her bloody flying. "Is that what you are going to do?" he asked her, incredulous-sounding and with a snarl in his lip. "Let them swing at you and run around like a chicken with its head cut off?"

Garnett's charge crashed her into the furious blow, and as the Prince wanted, she flew backward through the air, crashing onto her tailbone with an exasperated scream. The landing forced the air from her lungs, and she laid there stunned for an instant, though to her credit, perhaps the only thing to her credit, she managed to cling to her sword, fingers throbbing with the rest of her. Eyes squeezed closed for an instant, her teeth on edge. Even they ached from the strike, Garnett's stomach roiling. Anger coursed through her as she pushed on her elbows. "I don't bloody know what to do!" She hissed through gritted teeth. "I .." Panting stopped her. "I don't even know how to swing it." Nostrils flared as she rolled onto her side, struggling to her feet with a wary angry eye on him.

Uhtred Valenti put his hand upon that nigh unreachable sword, finding himself glad, at least, that she hadn't dropped the damn rod. Panic had momentarily gripped him when she screamed, but he was very careful to keep his face stone-set. "Don't you?" He said it as though she had just admitted that she didn't know which way to put a pair of bloomers on. A slow nod accepted the fact that she didn't know how to swing it. "But you want to, don't you." A slow, deliberate smirk swept over his face, seemingly triumphant. At least she knew what he wanted. "Then do it." The hand left the pommel and he was back in the same stance as before, nodding to her in his way of inspiring action, bouncing lightly on his feet for a moment before centering himself.

Garnett's chest rose and fell as she struggled to catch her breath painfully, arms feeling heavy, her focus on Uhtred entirely. Her head bobbed in as small nod, hair already escaping its twist. "Yes.." She growled at him, eyes narrowing. Small hands too fragile-looking for a sword loosened their grip so it wasn't quite so knuckle-whitening, and with a deep breath, she lunged for him again. This time though, she swung in a wild uncontrolled motion diagonal across her body, aiming at the general target that was Uhtred as she turned to the side to try to slip around him, eyes wide and unblinking. Her whole body tensed in anticipation of whatever blow he would doubtless visit on her.

Uhtred Valenti's eyes flared when she came at him. Everything about his posture looked as a predator prepared to eviscerate a prey who'd just wandered into his lair. His teeth flashed a grin as she came for him, and his body moved as a taut, well-oiled machine. His weapon swept in a sharp sweep in the directly opposite angle that collided with her rod, sending vibrations into his own arm and certainly jarring the hell out of her. He parried, and used the strike to follow through with a push to perhaps throw her back, but he did not follow suit. Instead he nodded and shouted at her: "Again!" He took a step back and fell into his stance again, looking at the line of her collar for tells as to her movement.

Garnett's determination almost failed her at the sight of Uhtred like this, but she was already in motion. As his sword slammed into hers, she swore her wrists and arms would shatter, pain reverberating through her shoulders and skull as she stumbled back. Even her teeth ached, but she shook it off, looking for all the world like a pup who'd just had her ears boxed. Adjusting her grip again, she flashed her teeth at her husband as she flew at him, sword lower this time and thrust forward, aim at least toward something this time...his belly, and swung upward to try to at least meet his blade rather than passively wait to be struck by it....a loud yell accompanying her clumsy charge.

Uhtred Valenti took a deep breath, forcing himself to remember that he was not allowed to give her a crack across the skull. His fingers readjusted their grip and then she was on him, making a thrust, which was good. The point of a weapon often defeated the blade of a weapon. Uhtred slapped the thrust low and turned the blade aside; smoothly, without even the slightest feeling of concussion reverberating through the sword. Then, he showed her an important lesson. The hand that held his weapon suddenly swerved at her, turning the heel end of the faux blade's edge at the girl's face and looking to stop in front of her nose. "The end of the sword is not the only part that can kill," he told her.

Garnett's blade fell low, straining in her hands against his. Her head jerked back as his sword flew toward her face, eyes crossing to stare at the weapon in front of her as she fell back a step. Still staring at it, she nodded, mouth open for ragged breaths. Already she ached, her arms sore from holding the heavy practice sword, unused muscles in her belly and back protesting, but rather than fall back as she had before, she swung the low unattended blade with an impish glint in her eyes, trying now to hit him more than even get to the damnable sword in the middle. The blade swung toward his calf as she turned to the side, trying to circle around him.

Uhtred Valenti started to pull back, nodding and finding himself quite pleased with how it had gone. She would not touch the pommel for some time, but it was good to see that she was at least trying now. He was prepared to call it an evening, thinking that perhaps it was time to have lunch... God, but he was hungry. Yet that little frenzied bastard abruptly swung at him! A bemused expression slipped of his face, and his reaction was more instinctive than anything. He thrust his faux sword into the ground and pressed his heel against the middle of it, creating a natural barrier between the leg and the attack. His hand shifted grip, from up to down in his hand, and now he attacked. The rod wrenched out of the ground and swept a lateral arc that threatened to catch the girl, but abruptly there was air where she had been! Now very peeved, Uhtred found himself spinning, turning his hand horizontal and preparing to backhand her with the weapon.

Garnett grunted as her sword glanced off Uhtred's, even the force of her own blow jarring up through her arms and shoulders, and she instinctively ducked when he yanked the weapon from the ground .. though he was flying for where she had been. The sudden realization that low was safer than high struck her, and she let herself drop further into her crouch, lashing out for his ankles with a rather inelegant strike, the force of which ended up dragging her down to the ground in a sprawl. Scrambling and rolling, the center forgotten, she simply tried to get out of the way of his much heavier body whether nor not her blow struck true..afraid feet, form or sword would fall on her in a brutal fashion.

Uhtred Valenti swung the rod into the air again, but found that he had misjudged. Abruptly, he felt a sharp crack across ankle, and the reaction was instant. He'd faced shield walls more times than he could recall, and all men feared the strike to the leg that would make a man fall, to be absorbed by enemy ranks and slaughtered. A slight "God damn it!" hissed out of clenched teeth and he was hopping on one foot, raising his sword and preparing to bludgeon the girl over the skull. It took a moment to control himself, but his great restraint still resulted in the raised leg coming forward to push the girl. "Bloody git," he snapped, laughing now and hopping backwards to cover the area surrounding the pommel. Alright, you want to play like that?

Garnett's eyes nearly bulged from her head when she actually managed to strike him, afraid for a moment before she dissolved into helpless laughter at the sight of him hopping around on one foot. Still giggling, she let the sword fall from her aching fingers, the weapon landing with a soft thunk on the ground. Weary hands batted like a feline at his foot before she rolled away, pushing onto her knees. Panting, she grinned sheepishly across the ring at him, eyes lifting to his face with bit of worry behind them, although there was certainly a hint of satisfaction in her gaze. "You did tell me to come after you." She remarked, making no effort to go for her weapon again. Indeed, her hands shook so hard she doubted she could lift it anyway, and she groaned as she sunk back on her heels.

Uhtred Valenti scoffed and threw his weapon aside, nodding. "That I did. But you haven't touched the pommel, have you?" He tapped the broadsword lodged in the ground before taking a hold of it and drawing it from its place. "But you did well." A grudging compliment, but playfully delivered and grinning as he wiped the dirt from the shining blade on his trousers. Those fingers lingered on the steel for a time, almost loving in its own right before he slipped it into the sheath. Then, almost by sheer contrast, he threw it carelessly aside and jumped. He landed right in front of Garnett, crouching and setting his hands on his knees. "You did well, wife of mine!" A strangely animal-oriented pet was delivered to the top of her head, and it seemed for a moment like he'd feed her something from his fingers.

Garnett shook her head as her shaking hands caught stray locks of hair to try to confine them behind her ears. "Not yet, but I will..another day!" She shot him a grin, one that twisted into something positively beaming at his praise. Her gaze followed the attention he paid to his sword, but laughter burbled up as he landed in front of her, face tilted up to receive the compliment. Her whole form shook with her giggles at the pet, and she obliged by trying to nip at his fingers before lunging forward to wrap her arms around his neck, almost tackling him as her lips pressed playfully against his for a quick, hard kiss. "Thank you, husband of mine, for the lesson." She crooned in a singsong voice, scooting into his lap so trouser-clad legs could curl around his waist. "And for not taking my head off! Shall we eat?"