Log file from elendor.

11/7/98 12:17:40 AM

Training Hall of the Tirith Eryn

This is the Training Hall of Tirith Eryn. As you look around you notice the walls are made of an organic mesh of living trees and shrubs--and the ceiling consists of the wide-spreading branches of those trees. There is a rope path leading to the canopy above which serves as a watch station over the forest edge. Here is where veterans and young elves alike learn beside the Cutulthrim Master Archers and the skilled Echtorthrim Spear Bearers. Every aspect of training is tended to from polishing and oiling the bow to hitting a finger-width target from fifty paces away.

Grey Squirrel comes down from the tree.A fuzzy grey rodent, its long bushy tail is a grey almost faded to white. It has unusually intelligent eyes for one of its kind; they large grey orbs set in its head seem almost to reflect inward with thought. It hops around randomly most of the time, occasionally pausing to inspect a nut or shiny object, even more occasionally, it will stop to inspect an elf.

Grey Squirrel scurries down the trunk of the tree in corkscrew fashion at a pace that boggles the mind, or would at least make someone with mild inner-ear problems quite dizzy. As it nears the bottom of the tree, it pauses, and takes a moment to get a good look at its surroundings with its big grey eyes.

Grey Squirrel jumps off the trunk of the tree, and begins bounding across the lawn. It pauses a moment as it sees armed elves involved in various forms of target practice and martial arts, and lowers its tail and center of gravity a moment in mild fear. The fear passes, though, and bounds about again, as its eyes see a shiny object in the distance.

Khillaure jumps in suprise as a creature scampers beneath her feet, barely catching herself in time before she steps on the long trailing tail of a cute and fuzzy squirrel. She heaves a great sigh and looks around to see if anyone is bothering to try and remove the animal from the dangers of the training hall.

Daedalus smiles faintly at he commotion as he enters the training hall. He looks around and catches sight of Khillaure. He approaches her slowly, wary of any flying rodents.

Grey Squirrel takes the object, a small and smooth marble stone, into its forepaws. It delicatly raises it to its mouth, and tastes the end of it. In apparent dislike of the taste, it wrestles the stone to the ground, rolling right into Khillaure's suede boot in the process.

Peering down at the small animal, a smile tugs at the corners of Khillaure's mouth and she reaches down to touch it's furry little head. She fumbles in a small pouch at her waist and brings out a bit of dried fruit, deftly handing it to the squirrel, her other hand gently smoothing the fur between it's ears.

Daedalus's smile widens as he sees her reaction to the squirrel. He feels a song rise within him, but (thankfully) he supresses it and takes a step forward. He speaks softly. "Pardon me... but I wish to train."

Grey Squirrel's head snaps upward, its body contorting slightly to one side as the elf surprises it by touching it. It stares a moment, its body posture begging to know why the elf would dare to interrupt it? Of course, being as squirrels are, it doesn't wait to discover the answer to its bit of curiosity, and instead glances about for its adversary, the stone, but its search is cut short, as it suddenly finds food within inches from its mouth. It gently grabs it between its teeth, and turns to regard Daedalus as he speaks.

Grey Squirrel leans back, and takes its new object, the bit of dried fruit, between its forepaws and gnaws all around the objects surface.

Khillaure moves the small stone which has become lodged under her foot in the squirrels silent struggle in another attempt at friendship(?), then slowly straightens so as not to startle it. Unfortunately, she is not so lucky as the quiet approach of Daedalus causes her to jump again, "Well, hello Daedalus. I was wondering when I would see you here again. I am pleased that you decided to return, as I feared that our last session would drive you away."

Daedalus smiles widely, and rubs the phantom pains in his rear. "No, it did not." He looks with wide eyes at the floor. "Though I do not know how many more sessions like that my body can take..."

Grey Squirrel turns its head again as Food Giving Elf speaks, and seems to pay attention to her words. And then, as if she had imparted wisdom on it, it sinks back onto all fours, and paws at the stone thoughtfully, now that it has suddenly reappeared.

Khillaure grins as she thinks back to the last time she saw the young elf and the hard lesson that he learned on that day, "Ahh, yes. Well, I promise that this time I try to go a bit easier on you, though I've found that lessons are best remembered when you test your limits." She glances down at the grey ball of fuzz and smiles tenderly, reaching back into her pouch to produce another bit of fruit to replace the one that was so hungrily devoured just a moment ago. She crouches down to give it over, the hand holding said food moving slowly moving toward her as she tries to lure the squirrel ever closer.

Daedalus is relieved and laughs freely. "Then I am happy, Miss." He too turns his eyes to the squirrel and begins to make a soft clucking noise with his mouth.

Grey Squirrel ditches the stone again as more food approaches. It takes this new bit of fruit as it did the last one, but this time, it bounds back towards the tree, but pauses several feet from it. It begins scratching at the tender earth, and drops the bit of fruit into a depression which it makes. It then scratches dirt overtop of the depression, and goes to pains to tamp down the replacement dirt before pausing, and looking back at Food Giving Elf again from afar. Its glance doesn't last long, as its attention is soon drawn by the coarse clucking of the other elf. It hops tentativly towards this new elf, stopping a few feet from Daedalus's feet.

Daedalus continues the clucking noise and bends down slowly. He extends a hand slowly towards the squirrel, wishing to pet it.

Grey Squirrel, already spoiled by Food Giving Elf's kind gestures, chitters a loud objection as it sees Daedalus's outstretched hand contains no food. It bounds several paces away, where it idly gazes down at an interesting looking seed before glancing up at the male elf.

Khillaure sighs as her offerings of food are forsaken for the verbal variety and the squirrel decides that she is of no interest anymore. Turning her full attention to the elf, she begins to unsheath the dagger strapped to her thigh and pauses to try and find another for Daedalus's use. Finding none close by, she turns and walks to a small pile of discarded weapons and begins to pick through the jumbled mess, her efforts obviously in vain as a small crease appears on her forhead, "You don't by any chance have a weapon with you? I don't seem to be able to find an extra, and trying to train you with only one dagger is rather pointless."

Daedalus laughs loudly. "So you will have me chase you all round this room, eh?" He moves forward, mumbling to himself, "You're worse than an elven maiden." He turns towards Khillaure, and frowns thoughtfully. "No, I am sorry, I do not."

Grey Squirrel gnaws at its interesting seed with interest, and stares at the second elf as it speaks. It still sees no offer of food, and gives up on the creature, bouncing back towards Food Giving Elf. Or at least it heads back towards where that elf was, and pauses in confusion, up towards where the elf's knee would have been, and where its lower appendages came in contact with the ground. Not finding the elf where it was, it turns away... and finds its stone again!

Khillaure arches an eyebrow at the elven maiden comment and wonders if she should say something, but decides to let the training do the talking for her. She grins at the thought....... (hehehe), but the smile is quickly replaced by a scowel as she realizes that the opportunity will be missed if she can't find another dagger, so she redoubles her efforts and looks more fervently. With a small cry of triumph, she wrestles a weapon away from one of the other elves standing nearby and, with an apologetic glance to the startled elf, she returns with her prize, almost tripping over the preoccupied squirrel. "I suppose that we can start your lesson now, Daedalus. I hope that you are ready."

Daedalus nods. "Indeed I am." A smile is upon his face from her sudden handling of the dagger problem.

Grey Squirrel plays with its stone for awhile, until it hears a distant chittering of another one of its kind. It glances about, and spies a cute member of the opposite sex. It darts toward the other, and the chase is on! Soon, though, the chase puts the squirrel out of sight, and has no chance of further interaction with the bipeds.

Grey Squirrel clambers up the rope bridge.

Grey Squirrel has left.

Khillaure hands the dagger over and tries to decide how to begin.... Why not back at the beginning to see the progress that Daedalus has hopefully made, if he has in fact been practicing as ordered.She walks over to stand next to him to get the best view of his fighting stance and handling of the weapon, "So, let me see you demonstrate the moves I taught you last time." She is momentarily distracted by the fevered activity of the horney little creature as it scampers about the room in hopes of catching the terrified female that has made the mistake of wandering too near.

Daedalus laughs loudly at the two squirrels, and then returns his attention to Khillaure. He holds the dagger clumsily. He makes a thrust with it that is not quite as bad as his previous times, but it still can use much improvement. He frowns at himself, "Forgive me, I have not practiced nearly enough."

The sun sets over Mirkwood and the stars paint the forest in silvers.

Khillaure looks on with a slightly disapproving look, but nods as you seem to have the basic idea, just not the familiarity she was hoping for. "Well, at least I know now where we should begin. I hope that you relize that all the training in the world can't help you if you don't utilize your skill as much as possible. And there is really no reason not to, you can come here anytime and spar with any number of the Tirith." She takes your wrist in her hand and moves your hand slightly so that the dagger is at least straight as you thrust again, "Move your feet a little further apart, when you stand like that, you are completely off balance." She jerks slightly on your arm to demonstrate how awkward your stance is.

Daedalus is thrown abit off balance, and he stumbles back a few steps. He quickly recovers himself and takes up a wider stance. "Like this?" he askes with a grin on his face.

Khillaure nods as you move your feet to about shoulder's width apart, "Exactly. Now, when you thrust forward, you want to shift your weight slightly to the side that you are attacking, like this." She steps back and makes a quick stabbing motion with her weapon, her right foot moving forward slightly as she demonstrates the technique. She repeats the move a couple of times and looks to you to follow suit.

Daedalus follows her motions, improving with each thrust. He continues through four movements, but on the fifth he leans much too far forward and tumbles to the ground.

Khillaure tries to hide the fact that she is giggling, but fails miserably and lets out a guffaw, "It seems that I have been worried about your technique when I should have been worried about your dexterity. But that, too, will come in time with more practice." She reaches out her hand to help you to your feet, a smile still playing on her lips, "I think that this is where we should stop, however, I want you to continue practicing this move a few more times before you leave. Take your time, don't be so eager to get it right off the bat or you will be sorely dissappointed. I hope that you will also take my advice and come in here a few times over the next week to do more practicing." She levels her gaze at you and twists her mouth slightly, "Or else all that I teach you is pointless."

Daedalus takes her hand and rises. "Suprisingly like the ending of the last session..." He smiles at her. "Thank you, ever so much."

Khillaure grins, "Anytime, Daedalus. Just come and find me the next time you are ready."