Spring 81 124
When Sjal came up with her idea of travelling, she didn't consider that the primary means of travel would be on horseback. It made sense in hindsight, but she rarely even used her horse. In fact, she often left it in the care of someone else. This was partly because she wasn't much good at riding it and also because she didn't find herself leaving town all that often.
She sat atop her assigned mount, thankful that it at least had enough training to follow the other horses in the caravan. She got the impression that the horse didn't like her much, though she had no idea why until someone spoke up.
The horse jerked its head to the side in annoyance which prompted someone riding beside her to say, "you're going to make it mad if you keep jerking the reins like that."
"Um, what?" Sjal asked, sincerely. She looked down at the reins but didn't think she'd been doing that. It took her a
"You see… when you're holding the reins, you need to have a gentle, firm grip. Your hands should be closed around the reins with thumbs on top. Try to picture a straight line from your elbow through your wrist to the horse's bit," explained the middle aged woman.
"Avoid clenching too tightly, as this can cause discomfort to the horse and reduce your ability to feel its movements. I can tell that you're young. Maybe you aren't meaning to pull hard but that's what you've been doing."
It all clicked when Sjal realized that she had been using more of her strength, which was quite normal nowadays. A simple movement of her hands could feel like she was tugging on the reins hard, to the horse. "I think I see what you mean. I'll be a little more careful," Sjal said as she focused on preventing her hands from moving too much.
"A roadblock," Sjal questioned as she squinted her eyes. Sure enough, there was something blocking the caravan from moving forwards.
"I suppose there is something wrong. If the way is blocked then it's probably up to us to clear it, given our talents," she said to her friend.
She carefully tugged left on the reins to get the horse to veer to the left a little. It seemed to be a lot more responsive to her movement now that she was being deliberately gentle. She urged it on by scooting forwards in the saddle and squirming her legs – perhaps not the proper way to get it to go, but it got the job done.
What she saw wasn't so much of a physical obstacle blocking the way, but rather a group of armed men who stood on the path. "What's going on here," Sjal asked as she hopped off her horse and walked over.
"As I was telling the caravan master here, there's a toll to proceed," said a short, bearded man. He had an eyepatch and a litany of wicked looking scars that made Sjal feel as though it was best not to get on his bad side.
"'tis an unfortunate consequence of travelling," said the caravan master who withdrew some coins, "but not unexpected. You can mount your horse and we can continue on our way." He eyed Sjal with a look of caution, having the feeling that she had only come up to the front to start trouble. These sorts of fines were built into the fees he charged to be in the caravan – he had little qualm in paying them.
"Are you sure?" asked Sjal who put a hand on the handle of her katana, "I'm fairly certain I can take them on if need be." She gave the bandit an angry look but she fell quite short of convincing him to back down.
"Don't be a fool," urged the caravan master, "look over by those trees. They've got archers just waiting to fire at us. YOU might be safe, but causing a commotion here will cost lives."
"Listen to him, he knows his stuff," said the toll bandit.
Sjal listened to the words of him and also of her cautioning friend then carefully and inclined her head. "I apologize," she said to the bandit, "This is the first time I've made a trip like this. I was… unaware of how these things are handled." She narrowed her eyes at him then went back to her horse.
She said in a low tone to Garen, "I don't know if I could take them, actually. I hadn't noticed the archers and for all I know, there are more of them hiding somewhere." She sighed, then continued, "Now that I think about it, I don't even know how I would deal with a ranged target. I can't expect to be able to charge them down, especially not if there are multiple projectiles being shot at me."
She paused, thinking about her options then said, "I think my best bet would be to try deflecting their bolts and arrows with my sword but I've never tried doing anything like that… it's probably not a good idea to make this my first try. I need some way of attacking them at a distance, though I'm no good with a bow. Perhaps I could use a throwing knife… or a shield?" She groaned as she mounted her horse. She didn't have a knife or shield either which was a fairly annoying realization as well.
As she rejoined the caravan, she wondered if she would be able to take on the bandits even if she had the gear she wanted. Could she throw a knife far enough to kill an archer before they could get a shot off? Would a shield even be any use if she was getting shot from two different directions? She was realizing just how green she was when it came to real life combat scenarios. She had a long way to go.
Garen ended up bringing over some of his gear and offering it to her to try using. "I'll take you up on that later". She knew that it would be too little too late to take on the bandits, but it was a nice gesture. If she practiced, then maybe she would be ready for next time. She felt humiliated that she had all this power but couldn't take them on.
Sjal didn't question where Garen was headed off to when they stopped. She chose to stretch off to the side where she could think to herself and mumble about how she wished she could have wiped those bandits off the face of the planet.
She forced a smile when Garen came to see her. She gazed curiously at the things in his hands. Were those… weapons? "You… you shouldn't have," Sjal said as her eyes widened. She accepted the weaponry, examining each piece. These were probably the best presents she'd received in years.
"I'd love to teach you a thing or two," she said as her expression sank a little, "but now that I think about it, I haven't learned many sword forms in a while… You probably won't get any use out of them." She knelt down and drew the basic movements into the dirt with her finger.
She eyed the weapons she'd set aside and said, "I know it's probably not good payment… but I have been learning more and more so I will work on learning some more during our trip. I'm confident that I'll be able to teach you a useful form eventually. If you want, I can pay you back for these weapons but it'll have to wait until I find employment. I have money but I need it to last me a while."
She picked up a kunai in one hand and a shuriken in the other. She immediately winced when the shuriken nicked her finger. She reflexively dropped it and started sucking on it to stem the blood flow.
"It's sharp, that's for sure," she said after pulling her finger out and waving it in the breeze. Even holding such a weapon was harder than it looked.
She instead turned her attention to the kunai. It was a uniquely shaped weapon, something that could be used in close quarters, but was clearly designed for throwing. Then, she took aim at the tree that Garen was firing at. She took a deep breath, then tossed it.
The weapon flipped several times through the air before coming to a thud, several meters short of her target. The results weren't surprising given her total lack of experience with throwing weaponry, but she had expected it to go a lot further because of her training. She tried again, and again but her bolstered strength didn't seem to have much effect on her performance.
"This is strange," she noted, "maybe how far it goes is more about the speed that I throw it, or rather… the flick of my wrist. Hmm…"
It was partly disappointing because she didn't yet know how to flick faster. Still, she didn't mind practicing. She moved onto the shuriken, tossing them each in turn. None of them went as far as she wanted or even hit a tree.
"I think you may have wasted your money," she told Garen with a laugh, "but I promise to get better." She would wait until he was done shooting then go fetch what she'd thrown. Not long after, the caravan master called for everyone to get going again.
