Fighting for axes or pines (weapons training for Carnasch)

[Carnasch]

Entering on the Second Brightening in the First Cycle of the Month Imperos in the Season of Autumn, Era II of the Celestine Mandate, Era XIV Post Fractum.

Carnasch stood looking at his axe for a while, thinking about how he'd gotten it, and how it had served him. It was a lesser role than its former master had given it, chopping wood mostly, rather than decapitaing foes. He'd watched his old friend practice with it, and even gotten something of an informal lesson, but it wasn't enough to qualify him as any sort of fighter.

It looked scary enough to scare away most of the people who bothered him. It was huge, after all, with a four foot haft that was two inches thick, and then attached to one end was a pair of half-moon blades about a foot and a half long from the corners of of each moon.

Removing these thoughts from himself, he moved up towards the tree, and setting himself, he swung the axe heavily into the corner for where the limb and the tree joined. He cut branches almost every night for his simple lean-to shelters, he moved nomatically everyday, and the branches from his previous shelters were to encombersome to take with him, so he needed new every night. He continued to hack at branches in an effort to get enough before night fall.

[Carly Jr'ana]

As Carnash continued to hack away, the noises he made muffled the heavy footsteps of an approaching dwarf. Soon the little lumberjack was upon him, and there was a very sizeable shove with the end of what would turn out to be the end of the dwarves own axe. The colour and type of his clothes made him out as a tree cutter, if the bundle of logs tied to his back weren't proof enough.

"Oi, you're on my turf. Buggroff" was all the dwarf had to say, hefting his axe up menacingly.

[Carnasch]

The shove pushed him away a little bit, and Carnasch turned quickly and with his axe ready, just in case the dwarf meant him harm. When he heard the lumberjacks statement, he laughed and relaxed a little. Still not lowering his axe though, he said, 'I'll be off your land soon enough dwarf, but I shall be sleeping here tonight.' He turned back to the limb he was cutting, and commented, 'And I need these in case it rains, so find another tree.'

He began swinging again, ignoring the dwarf, expecting him to go away. When the dwarf didn't, he continued to ignore him, untill he couldn't stand the dwarf's eyes boring into the back of his head. He stopped again, and looked at the ground at the moment, calming himself for the obvious confrontation ahead. He turned around slowly and quietly asked, 'What do you want?'

[Carly Jr'ana]

The dwarf spun his axe slightly and hefted it fowards, jabbing Carnasch painfully in the ribs. And as the dwarf was lower it certainly hurt more. He pointed at the tree Carn was busy butchering for his makeshift rain shelter.

"This is my bit o' forrest, I got the permit to cut here. You're stealing my profits, and my investments. And haven't ya ever heard of a tent!?"

He spun the axe again and brought the hilt up under Carn's knees, thwacking the tendons that kept the man standing upright and thus sending him crumpling to the ground.

[Carnasch]

Carnasch was more than a little upset at being so easily knocked to his knees, but he considered the dwarf more carefully now. He stood back up, this time holding his axe ready to block anything the dwarf might try later in thier conversation. He smiled grimmly as he faced the dwarf again, and tried another tactic, 'It seems your a bit upset by cutting your trees. Its just one, and you can have the branches back when I'm done. I don't want to fight you, I'm not much use with this axe except for cutting wood.'

[Carly Jr'ana]

The dwarf, still quite ticked at his quota being disturbed by the human glowered all through Carnasch's careful negotiation. The dwarf felt he had a better method however, he feinted to the right with his axe blade, making Carnasch move to block it, but at the last moment slid his hands down the hilt and used the pole end to upend the tree cutter a second time.

"You don't seem to understand, if you cut off all the good branches, it disturbs me future cuttings."

[Carnasch]

Getting up again, the human simple backed out of the little mans reach before he spoke again. He was very unhappy with his predicament, 'What was a few lowsy branchs when there was a whole forest around them?' He watched the dwarf quietly and reconsidered him, he looked like other dwarves, but that didn't really matter. What mattered was that he seemed to use that axe of his, and he had know problem using said force.

Carnasch would have liked to learn from him, to be able to do the same with his axe, but it wasn't likely the dwarf would agree under the cercomstances. He decided the only way to get anything out of this was to gain the dwarfs respect, admittedly, this was not an easy thing to do.

Impulsivily, the human walked up to the dwarf like he was about to speak again, and suddenly pitched his axe at the dwarf's feet. He sprang forward and when the lumberjack tried to dodge, he scooped him up, pinning the axe and the little monsters arms to his sides. Face to face now, with Carnasch being two or three feet taller than the dwarf, the poor fellow was suspended in the air.

Carnasch smiled smugly and said, 'Now master dwarf, let us have a civilized conversation. I'll cut you a deal, you teach me how to use my axe as more than a sharp rock, and I'll either clear off your property, or work for you tommorow to pay you back your time and make up for the branches I might have used.' He smiled again, and set the dwarf back down, stepping out of reach before the irrate person before him could do anything, he looked at him and said, 'Do we have an accord Mr.?...'

[Carly Jr'ana]

Carnasch imagined all these things with a glint in her eye and a Zach Braffeqsue self narrative, however as with most fantasies of the unskilled and wishful it all came to naught. The dwarf had far more bravery then most men twice his size, he simply moved his foot a few inches to the side and allowed the axe to hammer its way into the soft turf beneath him.

But still Carnasch came at him, and the dwarf's heavily muscled arm rose, axe in hand, blades pointed vertically so that the human trespasser ran his head smack into it and came down with a heavy thud, sliding through the undergrowth till he came to a stop. In his half delirious state, he probably muttered something. But when he'd come to a minute or so later the dwarf was sitting wittling at one of the pieces of wood Carnasch had loped off the tree.
"Here be my deal, human, I'll show you how to use an axe. And you buy a ruddy tent for yerself and stop stealing peoples wood. Trees are sacred, you know?" As if to make his point less clear, he spat a gob of tobacco on the tree root beside him.

[Carnasch]

(OOC: How did i guess you wouldnt just let me do it? Lol)

Carnasch's head felt like it was about to split in to. Or maybe fall off, he wasn't sure. He lay on his back in the soft turf for a minute, until most of the trees had stopped moving and werent doubled anymore. He rolled over again and started to get up, but the trees started splitting again, so he stayed on his knees for a while. He was still taller than the dwarf that had felled him yet again.

This is when he heard the dwarf's preposal, it didn't all make sence at first, and the words felt like they were hard rocks bouncing inside his head, but eventually he made enough sence to agree to the dwarf's terms. He didn't know where he could get a tent, or when he would but if that was all the dwarf asked, he could do it.

He mumbled something in agreeance, and stood up fully. He went and retrieved his axe from the loam, it was behind him now, he wasnt sure how. He still faced the dwarf, and he raised the axe to show he was ready. His feet were spread, slightly further than shoulder width, and set evenly, with his wieght on the balls of his feet and his knees bent. Aside from that, he probly didn't have anything right, and looked a bit goofy.

[Carly Jr'ana]

The dwarf shook his head at the vagarans clumsy attempt at a battle stance, using the butt end of his axe to push the man's feet around until they were the right length from each other. "If you mean to attack on the move, you'll want to sit yer feet close together, however one of the advantages of an axe is you don't have to move at all. Then you sit you feet further apart, like ye are now."

The dwarf moved off a bit and demonstrated the stance, swinging his axe around a bit he shifted his feet to move further in one direction or the other. His wide stance allowed him a wider reach without losing his balance, all in all his reach almost took up a 8 foot wide circle as he swished his heavy axe blade through the air. With a little flurry of spins he stuck the axe in the ground and looked at Canrash. "Now you try it, take a firm grip on the axe. Throw it's weight around, we'll work on how to swing it once you get the foot work correct."

[Ssarsss]

Sorry ignore this, its my other pc, and I forgot to switch them before I replied.

[Carnasch]

Carnasch was still a bit dizzy from being knocked out, but he wasn't about to let the dwarf know it. He watched the dwarf's feet intently, almost completely ignoring the swinging axe in his hands.

He started to mimic the dwarf mentally and then phisically before he'd even been told to. He didn't swing his axe at first, because the dwarf had said that would be the next step. He started his feet slowly, and grew faster as he grew more confident and the movements became easier.

He shuffled around like the dwarf had, still holding his axe in front of him, until the dwarf instructed him otherwise.

[Carly Jr'ana]

The dwarf nodded, leaning on his axe hilt as he watched, passing words of encouragement and criticism to the Vagaran as he practised his foot work. "Good, good! Try te spin on the balls of your feet, or ye toes when ya move. Push up a little, then drop down. Gives ye the great movement. Keep yer legs bent!"

He nodded, letting Carnasch practice until he had sufficient ability not to get himself hurt too terribly with the axe. "Ye canna stop now, itsa fine for the moment. An axe is heavy though, very heavy, and hard to pull out of a mans skull, or chest. Ye look strong, but I want ye to swing into that yonder dead tree as hard as ye can, and then try to get yer blade out. Learn this lesson well boy."

[Carnasch]

Carnasch stopped when he was told, and took the critisism and compliments with a level head and let neither get to his head. When the dwarf told him to slam his axe into the tree as hard as he could, he knew what he was getting at. He would have a hard time getting it out, let alone being able to defend himself when he tried.

He did it anyway, remembering his foot work and to keep good form, he swung his axe horisontaly to the ground with all his might. His muscles bunched and pulled and the axe whistled through the air and hit the tree with a thud and a crack. The large pine shivered and trembled as the blade dug into its bark, almost up to the haft.

Carnasch let go of it and stepped back, so the dwarf could see it, and make any comments if he wanted. If he didn't, or when he stopped speaking, Carnasch moved back to the haft and tried tugging his axe free. It took him a couple of tries, but it finally came free with another grinding crunch. Huffing slightly from the effort he turned back to the dwarf for his next instruction.

[Carly Jr'ana]

The dwarf watched with a smirk as the human pulled and strained at the axe, finally with a great deal of effort he tugged it free. "Ye'd be dead by now if it weren't just one on one, or ye accidentally hit a tree." He walked to the tree and hefted his axe up in the air, swishing it through the air downwards, quickly shifting its momentum so it came in sideways to take a hunk out of the tree and lay imbedded. In one smooth motion it tore the axe free and spun it around his head to ward off 'invisible' foes.

"By coming in from the side, you get better use of ye shoulders when taking the blade out. Try a few dozen goes at the tree, try felling it as fast as ye can."

Having said that, the dwarf then moved off to get out of axe, and tree's, way.