甲辰 002: 處暑 [Throughout September]

[singlemilletgrain]

♪ Ti o o beh lok ho
Ah gung nag gia di tau beh gut o ♪

1: Seeds [Early September]
In a conical hat and durable overalls, she checks her setup, knots the ropes attaching the plow one last time, and gives her docile oxen an affectionate pat between the horns.

"He Sheng. Xiao Man. Let's do a good job today."

As she guides her oxen through the underground fields of Vault, she gazes upwards at the jagged, rocky ceiling of the Vault settlement and briefly contemplates with a faint frown. There was no way that the plants in these fields were getting all the sunlight they needed to grow properly. But she had ideas. For now, she could just be thankful she wouldn't get too sweaty.

Supremely self-unconscious, it isn't long in the day before she is comfortable enough to start idly singing, her clear and vibrant voice ringing out through the vast fields even as she works.

♪ Gut ah gut gut ah gut
gut diu ji bui suan liu go ♪
♪ yi ya he to jin jia cu bi

2: Light [Mid September]
Some weirdos are on 50 foot tall scaffolding doing something to the ceiling of the Vault. Below, two oxen meander around in circles, occasionally lowing in faint concern. The plowed and sown fields are growing miraculously quickly. September was the wrong month to sow wheat altogether, and yet an acre of rapidly growing buds are sprouting up as far as the eye can see.

Currently, Shu is clinging to the roof of the cavern in an enormously precarious situation, her tail wrapped around the scaffolding to keep her secure as she drills something into the rock. A young man near her is holding some blueprints and a whole heap of strange looking materials.

"The real problem is the unpredictability. Our efforts will go to waste if the equipment is damaged by a stray blast. If only we could find a way to protect the above-ground harvesting system... Ah! Tch, I dropped it. Well, let's take a break. Thank you for your time today."

The man gives a curt nod before descending the ladder while Shu sits cross-legged on her giant scaffold in the middle of a field and muses.

3: Harvest [Late September]
There is no possible way this field could already be yielding dividends. And yet it is, and Shu is patiently, single-handedly cutting down her crops that reach higher than her head, still hum-singing her song. The oxen now are familiar sights around Vault as Shu takes a ride on one whenever she needs to get anywhere particularly distant with groceries or other deliveries. They don't help, but they are cute, which is emotional help. This matters significantly more.

Anyone who approaches will be met with a beckoning hand or a distant call, depending on how far away they are.

"Hello! You are the help I advertised for?"

Regardless of the answer, a burlap sack and a sickle are thrust into their hands, because it is clear Shu is not listening. "Start here with me, and I'll show you what to do."

Ti o o, o o... ♪

Comments

[newmemorywhodis]

If it was a difficulty, it's one Link has more than overcome by now. Back in his home of Hyrule, there's no one who comes even close to Link's skill with a blade.

Left handed or otherwise.

For now, though, Link does not draw his weapon. Instead, he takes a moment to walk over to a nearby tree. Bends down to pick up a stray fallen branch. And then gives it a few quick swishes through the air, testing the weight of it. Only then does he come back to face Shu - because he's absolutely not going to test a beginner with a bladed weapon.

"Follow me, and block my strikes," he says, as he starts to move and circle around her. Then, when she seems comfortable enough keeping the shield facing towards him - he strikes forward with the branch.

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu wouldn't necessarily mind, having a considerable amount of experience in combat and enough supernatural durability to shrug off a casual blow from a sword. But she appreciates the care that Link takes in instruction. She has the sense that it is possible he has done this before - perhaps a part of a knight's duties is to see to the trainees.

Her usual tactic in defense was 'stand there and let the blows bounce off her skin.' In this world, with significantly less power, that did not suffice. Consequently, it is a bit of an adjustment. At first, she leans far too heavily into the shield, as if she is deflecting the strike with the entirety of her body weight. When the first strike comes, she seems to try to push it away with the shield instead of simply blocking the blow.

It is not too much of a surprise that she stumbles forward.

[newmemorywhodis]

After the Calamity, there weren't many soldiers left. Link had needed to try and help train the new Hylian army. Not something he'd ever thought he'd end up doing - with Link's taciturn nature, he wasn't usually someone who'd come to mind as a potential teacher - but there hadn't been anyone else.

Shu's a bit different from a green, inexperienced recruit, however. From her he's seeing problems a little different from the ones he usually expects, and he has to reach out to steady her as she stumbles.

"Just block," he says. "Parrying comes later." She'd need the basics, and a better sense of the right timing, down before she could attempt that.

[singlemilletgrain]

"Right."

She dusts herself off as gracefully as possible and takes up the stance one more time, her cool features concealing the embarrassment she feels at her lack of grace. It is an unusual position for her, being vulnerable in front of a human.

This time, she simply holds the shield steady without trying to do anything in particular with it, moving it to track his blows. Her positioning is adequate, although her arm is perhaps a bit too stiff in compensation for what she was doing before.

[newmemorywhodis]

For Link parts, there's no derisive or impatient look as she picks herself up again. He just waits for her to be ready, and then gets right back to work. As far as he's concerned, there's not anything to be embarrassed about.

So he keeps testing her defence. Gives her a quiet murmur of instruction or moves to shift her stance whenever there's something he needs to correct. And then continues on with the training, efficiently and matter of fact.

As she grows more confident, and more comfortable, he'll start to test her more. He'll strike from different angles, or at times she might not quite expect. Nothing beyond her level, nothing that is too far beyond what she could be expected to counter. But enough to keep her progressing, and keep her on her toes.

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu is a relatively quick study. One tended to be, after a great many years of experience. After an initial period of awkward stiffness and clumsy shifting, she begins to grow a bit more confident and assured on her feet. Her fighting style is in accord with the usual demeanor she projects: smooth and elegant, with surety and poise. In time, she begins to keep pace with his strikes, the shield beginning to feel more like an extension of her body than something haphazardly slapped on.

She misses a firm block here and there if the strikes come from a direction too difficult for her to adjust to, but her work is perfectly sufficient for a complete novice. By the end of this level of training, Shu is (not sweating - feranmuts don't sweat. well maybe chong yue did)... glistening with activity.

"...Perhaps you can try a strike or two with a blade? I don't want to develop any bad habits in putting too little strength behind my defensive position."

[newmemorywhodis]

Link pauses. Considers her, and how well she's been doing. Is she at the point where she can handle a real blade?

She is, he decides. So he nods, and puts the tree branch away in his pack. (You never know - it could be useful later!) And then draws his blade.

He gives her a moment to get ready - and then moves forward, giving her a few easy strikes to block. He’s not going to go at her with the more difficult strikes right at the start.

[singlemilletgrain]

She will never quite get used to that mysterious pack of his.

"Hm."

Shu lets out a breath of exertion on the first strike, feeling the heft behind the sword. She has faced much stronger blows, of course, but still, it is an adjustment to feel the adapted strength and durability of her somewhat-more-mortal body. There is a satisfying feeling in having the tool to deflect the strike altogether. A faint smile crosses her face as she successfully blocks that first blow.

From there, she steps and turns, being careful to adjust her position and balance with quick movements of her feet. The shield turns back each of the sword blows until one final sweep from Link strikes at an odd angle and knocks it up over her head.

"Ah!"

[newmemorywhodis]

She'd been doing so well - he'd thought that last strike was one she could catch. He could see as he connected, that her position wasn't quite right - but it was too late for him to pull back the strike.

He does still immediately pull his sword back, keeping it well away from Shu while she's undefended. At the same time, with his free hand - his left - he reaches up, and pushes the shield, tapping it away in mid-air so it won't hit her.

[singlemilletgrain]

"How clumsy of me."

Shu smiles ruefully as she lowers the shield, removing her arm from its straps and rubbing the area where it was awkwardly wrenched by the blow.

"Overconfidence breeds contempt. But you are an excellent trainer, clearly. Is this one of your duties as a knight?"

It seems that there is an unspoken call for a quick break.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link pauses. Steps away to give her space. And then returns his sword to its place on his back.

Break time it is, then.

"...Captain Hoz trains recruits," he says. Which is probably a good thing, because Link - figure of legend, prodigy from a very young age, personal Knight to be Princess - tends to be rather...intimidating. Particularly to new, very green recruits.

"I help sometimes." Mainly by virtue of being the only fully trained Knight around anymore.

[singlemilletgrain]

Her eyes flicker away briefly.

"You are young." Physically, she would judge him to be under 21 - his slightly diminutive height aside, he had the smooth features and hairline of a youth. "Is there something in your world that necessitates someone of your age serving as a knight?"

This is Shu's protectiveness asserting itself again.

[newmemorywhodis]

"I'm 125," Link says, with a completely straight face. And it is, technically accurate. Technically.

Just nevermind the hundred years spent asleep in the Shrine of Resurrection. Is he being more than a little impish by giving this answer? Absolutely. Maybe Shu will sense something of that in his answer, even if it's hard to pick up from his usual blank-faced expressions.

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu looks at him for a few moments with a deadpan expression to match his own.

"..."

Well, she is no stranger to being older than her looks. Though with her connection to the life force of the earth, she has a feeling that Link is not being entirely truthful about his lived experiences. ...(and really he was very short...)

"I suppose the question stands regardless of your age."

[newmemorywhodis]

Not truthful? He's entirely truthful! It just so happens that the truth is...a little deceptive.

Though he couldn't really keep being impish, not when she pressed the point. Thinking of the Calamity was always going to come with pain.

"...There aren't other knights anymore," he says softly.

[singlemilletgrain]

"...Anymore?"

This could be taken a number of ways. If she were less charitable, she might think that this is another jocular answer, and there were no more knights because they were disbanded in a time of lasting peace. But there is something about his manner that suggests this is not the case. The opposite meaning, of course, would suggest...

"I am sorry to hear this."

[newmemorywhodis]

A long, heavy pause. Link had slept for a hundred years, and when he woke up almost everyone he'd known was dead. Not that he remembered that at the time.

It wasn't until later, that he had enough memories to mourn.

He appreciates Shu's acknowledgement. Her concern. But he doesn't really want to talk about the Calamity right now. So he gives a short nod, to show that he heard. And then says, "Want to learn to parry?"

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu has enough emotional intelligence to spare some for a half dozen others. She does not need any further prompting to change the subject - it isn't something that they need to discuss in the here and now. Shu readies her shield once more.

"Of course. Like this?"

Having loosened her grip, she readjusts so that the position of her arm is correct.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link nods - and raises his own shield as well.

"Parrying is about timing. Just before impact, you push back," he says, showing her a slow demonstration - pushing his arm, and therefore the shield, outward against an imaginary enemy. "Do it right, and you rebound your enemies attack against them."

[singlemilletgrain]

If only there were some convenient music playing in the background with cues and quick time inputs... wait, wrong Link. Shu absorbs this lesson and considers it akin to counterattacking at a vulnerable point while the enemy is striking, a tactic with which she has more experience. She carries out the arm maneuver slowly.

"Alright. I'm ready to try."

[newmemorywhodis]

"Watch your opponent," he says, pulling out the tree branch once more. "Learn when they strike."

Though on this point, she's not starting from nothing - after all, she's already seen Link in action, as he tested her defenses. She'll already have some idea of how he moves, of the timing of his actions.

If she remembers real well, she might even manage to parry the first strike he makes with the branch. But she may instead to be cautious - and wait for one of the following instead.

[singlemilletgrain]

There is a bit of hesitancy before Shu attempts this new skill, though it is not hesitancy or lack of confidence in her abilities. Rather, she simply wishes to make sure her form is still correct for blocking before moving on to the next step. The first branch strike thumps off her shield as she takes a step forward, then she steels herself to thrust against the next.

" -- Hah!"

Of course, battle practice demands battle cry practice as well. Shu strikes with the firmness and follow-through expected of a correct parry.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link sees her hesitancy, but he's patient. He doesn't push, or try to make her adjust faster. He just keeps things at a nice, easy pace.

But then she pushes him back, parries just right - and Link is pushed back. He doesn't need to tell her that, in a real battle, this is a moment she could take advantage of - a moment where she could strike.

Shu's smart. Link's sure she already knows. So instead he just gives her a little nod of approval - and keeps going. Now, he starts to push, and ramp up the difficulty a little.

oops that second hesitancy was supposed to say 'insecurity'

[singlemilletgrain]

She does not comment on her success apart from a faint smile crossing her face. She knows as well as anyone that a single correct procedure does not mastery equate. It will be thousands of moments of repetition and years of sustained practice before the skill will be hers.

Still, it is a pleasing thought that this old dog still has some tricks.

Again and again they exchange strikes. Some perfectly timed, some lacking finesse, some just off the mark. A rhythmic patter develops. Battle, as her older brother would say, is a choreography.

[newmemorywhodis]

Thousands of moments of repetition, yes - but you gotta start somewhere. For someone new to this, she's doing pretty well.

The lesson continues on for a while - but eventually Link pulls back, and gives her a nod to say that they're done. This is enough for today - she's made a good start, but at this point she needs to give her new skill a rest before practicing again.