Training Day (Er'ani)

[Aftershock]

Cainith was stretching his upper body, pacing the practice field to loosen himself up. Dressed in a sleeveless grey tunic and simple brown cotton slacks, his enormous feet were bare, the better to grip the soft earth in the field. Rollhead sat watching His sprawled on top of Cainith's snatchel and a large jug of water he'd brought, eyes whirling a bored green.

Things had finally settled down a bit after the madness of the earthquake and moving everyone over, and Er'ani had finally approached Cainith to take him up on the offer he had presented long ago to help train the young man in grappling. To be honest, Cainith was a bit taken aback when the albinorider had approached him during chores one day to accept the offer, having long ago figured the boy didn't have the guts. Well, now he'd find out if the kid had it in him to succeed, or whether he'd fold like a dry leaf the moment he started pushing him to learn.

Cainith's pacing slowed as he spotted a figure in the distance, and it soon resolved into the form of Er'ani. Waving the boy over, in case he didn't spot the 7'1" giant alone in the training field, he called out, "Over here, boy. I hope you dressed for freedom of movement like I suggested."

[Rei]

Er’ani came more out of curiosity then anything else. To be honest the teen was terrible at combat. He was far more suited to tactics and books. M’ta had pretty much given up on him like the rest of his teachers at Benden had. The albinorider just didn’t have his heart in actual knife on knife combat. Sure he had been training since he was twelve and knew enough to probably prevent himself from being killed but that was as far as it went. Why he wanted to learn to grapple now he didn’t know. Most people fought with knives right? At the very least it would be something to do. Even if he was a bit nervous about learning from a veritable monster. Cainith was huge. How was he at 5’ 11” and about 145, at best, going to match up to someone who weighed at least four times that and was feet taller? It should be interesting anyway? Really he was more curious about Cainith then anything else.

Snowdrop was sitting on his bare shoulder her talons carefully curved inwards so as not to puncture her bonded’s skin and her tail wrapped snugly around his neck. Er’ani had decided to wear nothing but his under shorts, light cotton pants, and a pair of worn brown moccasins. He had a shirt with him just in case balled up under one arm with his water skin. As he finally caught sight of the training field he raised a hand and waved to the mountainous man that was it’s only occupant and broke into a trot. “Hey Cainith.” He greeted in a rather surprisingly cheerful tone when he got close enough to be heard. “Yep. I think this will work well enough right?” He gestured to his body as he spoke and then nudged Snowdrop with a finger. “Why don’t you go find somewhere else to perch?” He coaxed the rather bulky flit.

With a pleasant chirp to Cainith the green immediately transferred between (as was her norm mode of transportation since her wings were tissue paper thin and prone to tearing) without even opening her wings. Snowdrop emerged on her feet right next to Rollhead with a croon of greeting. Hello there. She greeted the blue pleasantly.

[Aftershock]

Cainith looked down at Er'ani, noting the boy's slim body and uncalloused hands. The kid obviously knew almost nothing about combat of any kind, his skin clear and mostly unscarred. Cainith had his work cut out for him with this young man, that was certain. "Good enough," the man replied shortly to Er'ani's question, stooping near his gear pile to pick up a small chunk of white, chalky rock and tossing it to the boy. "Rub that on your hands, first off. It'll help you maintain your grip better, since your hands look pretty smooth," Cainith said, dusting his own hands off after tossing the stone and walking up to Er'ani's side.

"Watch me, cub, and do what I do. I'm not gonna kill you, but be warned that I'm not gonna go easy on you, either. Part of grappling is learning to be ready for anything and react to the slightest movement in your opponent. Once you've eaten the ground a few times, you'll figure out that avoiding scrapes and bruises is one of the most effective prizes to help a student strive to be better."

Bending his knees and moving his hands out before him, fingers bent slightly, he looked over at Er'ani and said, "This is your most basic grappler's stance. Keeps your center of balance low, and your hands and arms ready to grab. Keep your arms positioned between your chest and your waist, so you can easily go for either an upper or lower body grab as necessary with minimal adjustment." Settling fully into the stance, he watched Er'ani, seeing if the boy copied him and prepared to move and adjust the young man's stance manually if needed.

Rollhead, meanwhile, looked over at Snowdrop as she dropped in beside him, sending, "Yours is blasphemer, but Yours trying to get back into Goddess' good graces. Shows Goddess willing to redeem worst of blasphemers. Yours lucky."