milliways_bar | (no subject)

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So getting a sheep was quicker than getting a gun, but in some ways more annoying. But that's in the past. Now, Karel's here with a sheep, am unharmed but very unhappy sheep at the end of a rope tether, and a bundle wrapped up in a big striped cloth that some here might recognize as an American flag.

He and his sheep wait outside, of course. For Shephard in particular, but he doesn't mind chatting with anyone else he knows.

((Warnings on the links, I guess for, uh, unarmed robbery and the intimidation of gentle mythological creatures?))

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"They had swords", Athelstan tells him. "Axes are their preferred weapon for war, but they use swords also. Each man was allowed two shields, one and a spare if the first broke, but they both cast away their first at the start."

"Why did they throw them away?" There's nothing feigned in his sincere interest now. Axes and swords! "Do you fight like that?"

"To show their faith in their own ability, I think. That they wouldn't have any need of the spare." He shakes his head. "I wasn't raised as they were. I was never taught to fight, until I came here."

"You are learning here? With swords? Axes?" He's not really sure what an axe is, but you fight with it.

"With swords, and sticks and bare hands. All can be useful."

"Sticks? Yeah?" He tries to picture this, thinking of the sort of sticks you can pick up from the ground. The doubt shows in his face. "You tell me?"

"Long sticks, and strong", Athelstan clarifies. "Made for the purpose. I can show you, if you like."

"Yeah. Show me. Um." He rummages in the bundle of cloth he'd brought, and fishes out one of the thin X MEN books, a little battered by its travels. "I can give you this."

"Then it's a trade." He has no idea what he's being offered, but it's clear refusing to take anything would insult Karel's pride. Anyway, he's sure he can find a use for it.

What, Athelstan isn't excited about the adventures of unspecified-to-avoid-potential-weird-canon-puncture-for-anyone early-to-mid-90s X-Men? Well, that's okay, Karel isn't so sure what to make of it either. But the cover has people flying. Or something.

"...But I have to watch the sheep." The sheep, who now seems glumly resigned to her fate. "I tie the rope to something?"

"A tree would work", he suggests. "Or we could put her in the stables until we've finished."

"A tree." He can keep an eye on her, then: there's a tree not far off, thin enough to tie a rope around, but not just a little sapling. He calls over his shoulder as he goes to tie her up, "Show me the right sticks?"

"All right." Asking Bar for them doesn't seem right, this time - Karel won't always be able to rely on her, so he should learn how to choose a stick and shape it to what he needs. "It should be long and stout, but not too heavy. And then we trim off any twigs sticking out."

"I have a knife," he volunteers proudly. It looks an awful lot like a kitchen knife, but it'll probably work on twigs.

"Very good", he says, smiling. "It's sensible to carry a knife, you never know what you might need it for."

"Yeah." You can't carry something like that when you don't have pockets, but Karel's starting to build up a whole list of things he likes to have around when he does have pockets.

He starts looking around for a good branch. The best ones are probably still on trees--or the trunk of a sapling would be strong--but he's not sure his knife is up to that. This is just practice, though.

Definitely just practice.

"You might find exactly the right one already fallen", Athelstan tells him, "but if they lie too long they start to rot. Usually fresh from the tree is better."

Karel nods absently. Yep, he's already on top of that idea. It doesn't take too long to find a tree with a good-looking branch, low enough to grab and break off. A little curved, but it should do for practice. He starts taking off the twigs and leaves.

Meanwhile, Athelstan is finding and preparing his own staff, fishing a boning knife out of his pocket to do the work with.

"Nearly done?" he calls over.

Karel brandishes his almost-ready stick to demonstrate, and then lopes over, cutting off the last few twigs as he goes. "You can't do this every time you need to fight. Too slow."

"No", he agrees. "Only if you know well in advance that you're going to need to. But a good stick can be used again and again until it breaks."

You could walk with a stick--if you were always on two feet. Well, it's still worth learning. Karel swings his branch around two-handed: a kid with a toy sword.

Athelstan watches with a critical eye, taking it seriously - and he's learned quite a bit from Sonya, he's always been a fast learner.

"That's not a bad way to get your force behind it... but maybe not so good for aiming."

Oh, he's just playing. Karel shrugs and drops the point of his weapon. "You show me."

We apologise, Karel. Athelstan's forgotten how to play, it's very sad.

"Like this." He demonstrates a strike with the stick.