It seemed like a year since my father showed me the first moves of the first movement. It wasn't, but it felt like it. The winter snows were getting deeper and it was becoming more and more difficult to practice, but my father told me that I should be able to do those moves any time and any place. If I had a full knowledge of the movements it wouldn't matter if I was blindfolded or in the darkest recesses of the caves. "The movement becomes second nature like breathing", he would say.
My father told me that he was going to give me another evaluation today after I had finished my daily routine. He said he wanted to see me when I was fully tired from the daily chores and practice. I was hoping that this would mean that he was going to give me the next series of moves. It was either that, or he was going to make me keep doing the original moves until I died of repetition.
I went through my daily routine in snow that was waist deep. The best part about that, was that if I slipped, the snow broke my fall. I never got to test that out though. I kept my footing as my father said, "Footing is the most important part boy. If you can't keep your feet under you, you've already lost the fight.". As soon as I finished my last repetition of the move, I went to my father for my evaluation.
I found him exactly where I knew he would be, in the forge. "Are you ready lad? It seems like you are here earlier than I expected you. Did you do all of your work and practice?"
"Yes, papa. I worked as fast as I could."
"Ok, then lad. Follow me."
We walked deeper into the cave where my father had his forge. I had only gone back this deep once before when I was very small. There was a small room about 50 feet inside the cave that my father stored his supply of iron ore. We walked past that room and beyond the extent of my knowledge. It began to get cooler as we went further into the cave. The heat from the forge didn't travel much beyond the ore room. After rounding a corner we began to descend a slope. I began to notice small torches lining the wall. They were already lit and I wondered if this was something my father would do daily.
"Papa, do yo light these torches every day?"
"No my boy, I only do it on special occasions, and today seems special enough to me."
"How much further are we going to go into the cave?"
"Not much further. You are going to need to pay great attention though. This is a hidden room, and you can miss it easily if you don't know what to look for. I want you to be able to eventually find this room in the dark."
That seemed very strange to me. Why would I need to find a room in and old cave in the dark. I started paying very close attention to everything around me, but everything looked the same. It was just rock that was scared by pick axes and an occasional torch in a sconce. We round another corner and I saw something strange. It looked like there was a pillar near one of the walls. My father walked ahead of me, and then disappears behind the pillar. From where I was, I could see no place for him to go, but he just disappeared. I stopped in stunned silence for a moment before I heard him call out, "Come on boy, we haven't all day." I walked to the pillar where I saw him disappear, as I got closer I saw an opening that was hidden by the natural rock. If you looked at it from a distance, it looked as if it was a pillar near a solid wall, but when you got closer, you could see the separation. On the left side of the pillar was the opening. Someone had taken a lot of care to make the rock on the wall, and the rock at the edge of the pillar, look seamless from a distance. It was all an illusion, and a crafty one at that.
I walked behind the pillar into a very large opening. The wall was decorated with swords of all kinds, and pieces of armor, non of it appeared to match, but there was probably enough there to suit two men. That was only a guess though.
"Lay your sword on that table over there." My father pointed to the far wall where a small wooden table sat. It looked sturdy with thick square legs. "You aren't going to need it for this evaluation."
I place my sword on the table and joined my father in the center of the room. I was still in amazement at the swords and armor all over the walls. They weren't beat up old practice swords like the one I was using, they were beautiful and well cared for. They looked like the swords that Galdren had in his market booth. He must have given them to my father in past visits. They had known each other since the Blind War.
"Where did you get these swords papa?"
"That doesn't matter right now. What does matter is how well you can do those first moves. See that sword in the middle that sits lowest on the wall?"
"Yes."
"I want you to go fetch that sword and bring it back over here."
I walked over to the wall and the sword that hung lowest in the middle. I gently grabbed the leather wound handle and lifted it from it's pegs that held it under the guard. The sword felt light, much lighter than it looked like it would. the blade was shined to a point that I could see my own reflection in it. I brought it to my father, point down as he showed me, and handed it to him. He took it and with the lightest flick of his wrist, flipped it in the air so that it made a half rotation and then caught it point up.
"This is going to be your weapon for this evaluation. Did you notice anything about it when you held it?"
"It's very light, much lighter than it looks."
"Keen observation lad. Indeed it is much lighter than it should be. There is a reason for that, but you aren't ready to learn that secret yet. You will be though, one day." With that, my father handed the sword back to me. "I want you to do a few slashes with it before you show me the moves. You need to get accustomed to the weight of that sword. It's going to do many different things than you practice sword would do.
I did understand what he was saying. The practice sword didn't do anything I didn't want it to do. What would this sword do that didn't want it to. I took my first practice slash and found out. I swung my arm with a much greater force than I ever did with the practice sword and nearly sliced through the arm of my tunic. Where my practice sword took much effort and could get away from me with momentum, this sword moved quick, so quick that I had to adjust my strength so as to not fling the sword out of my hand on a slash. The second slash went much better than the first, and the third even better. I was ready to show my father what I could do. "I'm ready papa."
"Very well then, begin whenever you want to."
He took a few steps back from where he already was. I think he was worried that I was going to fling that sword out of my hand on the very first move. It was at that moment that I began to get nervous. I knew the moves, I knew how to move within the moves, but this was going to be the moment that my father told me to keep practicing, or move me on. I had to get this right, and I had to get it right on the first try. I stood as my father showed me with the sword in my right hand with the point down. I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath. I was never going to be any more ready than I was right then. I flipped the sword across my body and took that first step forward. The sword cut the air with a swoosh that I never heard from the bulky practice sword. I lunged forward flicking the point down and straight. I quickly retreated moving the sword in blocking sweeps, and stopped still with the sword point up in front of me.
"Very good boy. I do believe that was perfect. You are ready to move forward. Hand me that sword and go get your practice sword."
I handed him the sword an with a smile on my face retrieved my practice sword from the table. As I was walking back, I saw my father spinning the sword behind his back and then in front of him. It looked a butterfly wing as it whirled through the air in front then in back then in front again. I had never seen anything like it. Was this the next move?
"Are you ready boy?"
"Yes, papa."
"Stand as I taught you. Very good. Now put the sword in you left hand."
I was confused. He wasn't spinning the sword in his left hand. What did the left hand have to do with this.
"Go on boy, put the sword in you left hand."
I sheepishly transferred the sword from right to left.
"Alright now lad. Do the first moves from that side."
"What?" I was now even more confused.
"Do the moves you just showed me from that side. It will be like a mirror, so take you time."
"I don't understand papa. What does that have to do with the next moves of the movement?"
"It has everything to do with the next moves. You have to be able to do each movement from both sides. What would happen if you are in a fight and lose the ability to use your right hand? You wouldn't be able to fight any more. That is why we learn how to do the movements from both sides of our bodies. Once you master the left side, you will learn the next set of moves."
I was thoroughly dejected. I thought I was good enough to move forward. I had been practicing form months now, and all I have to show for it is that I get to do it all over again with my left hand.
"I know this isn't what you expected boy, but this is the way it has to be. This will make you a better swordsman. If you are set on becoming a knight, which I still say that there is no way you can be one, but of you are set on it, this is how you are going to do it. You are going to be able to wield a sword from either hand, and that is something that can really baffle your opponent. Imagine you are in a fight and you suddenly switch hands. Your opponent won't understand what is happening. He won't know how to fight you, and that is an advantage to exploit."
I started to understand the benefits of this approach. I wasn't happy, but I could see how this could be important, so I picked my head up, and started over. I went all the way back to that first day in the woods with my father, and did each move slowly. It felt awkward, but after a few times through, it began to feel more natural. There was the benefit of being able to do this on a hard flat floor instead of a slick forest floor covered in snow. If this is how it was going to be, I was going to get through it by shear determination and show my father that I could not only do it with my left hand, but I would do it in less time than the right, and I would do it better.
My father didn't tell me a routine, so I set my own. I would do it just the same as I had with the right, with one exception, I would continue to do the right side as well. I saw where this was going and I wasn't going to let my right side wain while I worked on my left. I would be ready from both sides when the new moves would come.
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