Staff Meeting.

Writers: Avery, Leigh M-F.
Date Posted: 6th July 2016

Characters: Talwynn, T'shi, A'kua
Description: T'shi tries to communicate with Talwynn, and it doesn't go well.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 6, day 20 of Turn 8

A'kua spun the staff over his left wrist and flicked it into the air,
catching it in his right hand. He had come to really appreciate staffs
as weapons under Talwynn's tutelage. They could do a surprising amount
of damage, and he liked how natural they felt in his hands. Even
though technically he wasn't Tal's weyrling student anymore, their
scrapping hadn't ended, which he was happy about. Tal was a formidable
opponent; she kept A'kua guessing.

He turned to his teacher expectantly. "All set?"

Talwynn watched the way A'kua handled the staff and nodded in
approval. He was getting very good at it. Sparring with him had been
benefiting her as well - it was challenging her to re-learn how to use
her left hands in ways that had been familiar to her in Turns past,
but hadn't been used recently. While it had been sometimes painful, it
had also been invigorating.

She adjusted her hands on her own and settled into a ready stance.
"Good," she confirmed.

A'kua sprang forward at the word, the end of his staff whipping toward
Tal's left shoulder, and from there it was on.

She raised hers to block the incoming strike, then parried it back
towards him. They were close in height and had similar reach, though
his was better than hers due to his superior conditioning. Instead of
staying away, she went in quick and close, trying to sweep his feet
out from under him.

"Whoa!" A'kua shoved the butt of his staff into the ground and jumped
while still grasping it, letting the weapon take the hit. The impact
rocked the staff sideways and he went down, rolling away and spinning
to his feet again. (A lesson learned at the hold: If someone hit the
dirt, they shouldn't stay down for long if possible. Being on the
ground meant vulnerability.) He rushed back in, spinning his staff in
figure eights in front of his torso to drive Talwynn back a few steps,
then suddenly whipped his staff to the side in his left hand while
aiming a punch at Tal's face with his right. Being ambidextrous really
came in handy for tricks like that.

Tal was too quick, however; she smacked his wrist away with the top of
her staff -thank goodness for gloves and wrappings- and delivered a
stinging blow to his left bicep with the bottom, making A'kua reel. A
shot at his head was ducked, though, and he somersaulted to the left,
coming up on his feet again. While Tal's balance was compromised, he
aimed a swipe at her bad leg.

She'd overextended on her attack and she knew it. A'kua's staff went
for her leg and hit it, and she felt herself fall. She threw out her
hands to block it, and her own staff flew out of her grip and spun
across the ground. Meanwhile, she tried to turn the fall into a roll
across the ground, which bumped her shoulder and made her swear.

T'shi was rounding the corner towards this quieter side of the weyr,
lost in a conversation with Iberath when he heard a curse and a thump.
He looked up to see a redhead with a stick and his cousin on the floor
of the bowl.

"Hey! What d'ya think you're doing?" he demanded.

A'kua jumped at the shout, whirling and bringing the staff up in a
guard position diagonally across his torso as he sized up the new
arrival. **Possible threat,** his instincts whispered. "We're just
sparrin'," he said in a tone as wary as his posture.

"Just sparring? That looked pretty rough," the brownrider said.

"It's all right," Talwynn said, pushing herself up with her good hand
and rolling her shoulders as she spoke. "I volunteered to teach him."

T'shi crossed his arms. "So you're letting yourself get beat up.
That's got to do wonders for getting back into the wings."

"I'm old enough to know what I'm doing," the greenrider snapped back.
She winced as she finished getting back up. "Pass me that."

A'kua backed toward the other staff, picking it up and carrying it to
Tal. He didn't expose his back to the newcomer even though he and Tal
seemed to know each other. But maybe that meant the man was concerned,
and not a threat after all?

"Thanks, A'kua," Talwynn said to the weyrling. She took it with her
left hand, wincing as she curled her fingers around it, but keeping
her expression stern as she started talking to her cousin.

"Don't give me that 'a-girl-shouldn't' crap or I will deck you. I know
this probably looks bad to you, Mister
I-grew-up-in-a-small-fishing-cot. Do you think this is a case of
'weyrling-beats-up-on-cripple'? Well, it's not, no matter what you
think," Talwynn said.

"Seriously, Tal-," T'shi started.

"Shut up and listen. I did this all the time before my accident. I
learned this at Dolphin Cove and I got good at it. This was something
I loved. This, and my Craft. If I want to start doing this again, it's
because I want to do it. I get something out of this. And I don't need
you busting in here, trying to save me from A'kua. I. Offered." She
emphasized it with a sharp rap of the staff's butt on the ground.

T'shi pressed his lips together in a line, fighting back the words he
wanted to say. Talwynn was stubborn and determined - he knew if he
kept fighting with her, it wouldn't go anywhere. But he was still
concerned. "Did you get cleared by a Healer to do this? Since your
other practices have been causing you some - "

"Shut up," she said again, not glancing at A'kua freezing to see if
the young man had caught on to what T'shi had revealed.

**I've missed somethin' here,** the redhead thought, tapping his staff
against his right shoulder. This guy made it sound as though Talwynn
was doing something wrong, but her hard work was good for her, wasn't
it? She knew her limits and what was best for her, right? But that
wasn't any of his business, so he pretended he hadn't heard anything.
"I'm guessin' you two are either old friends or related, judgin' by
the way you're bickerin'," he remarked.

"Related, unfortunately," Talwynn grumbled.

"Cousins," T'shi added. "Her father wanted me to keep an eye on her,
so I've been trying."

"Nobody was this protective right after I was injured," she retorted.

T'shi threw his hands up in the air in exasperation, wondering how to
get across to his cousin exactly what was upsetting him about the
situation. "You know why not? Because you were a prickly ball of
_mean_ then. Even in the middle of crippling pain and loss, you were
so hard and so determined you kept people out. You spend all your time
building up walls, Talwynn, and you attack anyone who you think is
threatening them. We can't help you when you push away gentle concern,
so we have to get confrontational about it, because _that's the only
mode you speak_."

}:You could have put that nicer.:{ Iberath chimed in.

**But she wouldn't have listened.** And that was the problem.

"We're done here," Talwynn said, deliberately turning her back on
T'shi and raising her staff again.

"I guess we are," T'shi said. He nodded at A'kua - "Bronzerider," he
said, turning on his heel to walk away.

"I'm sorry you had to hear family drama," Talwynn said to A'kua.

The weyrling shook his head. "That was nothin' compared to how my ma
and her pa would go at it," he said truthfully, and resumed a ready
stance. "What I didn't like was hearin' you call yourself crippled.
You're not."

"I can't do all the things I used to because my body won't let me. I'd
call that accurate," she said.

"But you're not bedridden or unable to walk, and you still win most of
the time when it comes to this. I'd call that better off than people
think." He suddenly dropped to one knee, thrusting the staff at Tal's
gut.

"You didn't see me right after. But you're right. It's better than it
was before," she agreed. Then he went for her, and she snapped into a
block, ready to stop thinking about how her cousin was a jerk.

"That sounds familiar," was all A'kua said before he refocused on their
sparring. Between the two of them, they had gone a long way to get better.

Last updated on the July 6th 2016

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