Book 2, Chapter 4: Day Two: Hard Pace

Today was going to be hard. I’d ordered the march to extend to fourteen hours. I was considering sixteen but was worried something would break. Fourteen was long, so we took breaks every three hours and a bit. It was long, but not rushed. The wagons kept us moving slowly. It wasn’t just rumbling along, it was that this road wasn’t paved or even hard packed and graveled. The soldiers therefore had to remove obstacles like stones and brush, fill in potholes and we had to slow and stop frequently, despite having multiple forward units clearing and remaking the road. They ended up jump frogging each other to keep us moving.

My only consolation was that the army across the river faced similar terrain. They were probably faster, and I had a gut feeling they’d beat us to the bridge, but I hoped our longer hours were paying off. No way to tell in the absence of satellites.

I decided that, since there was little to do but keep moving forward, I should use the time to train in weapons and riding. Riding was the obvious choice, but I figured at the least, I could walk along the caravan swinging a sword or thrusting a spear. And so I did.

“You’re walking wrong, picking up your feet.”

“Well, it’s really difficult shuffling at this pace.”

“You’re going to build bad habits.”

I sighed, “Ok, ok, back to shuffling.” Morry’d explained that the most stable walk was to slide your feet along the ground as you attack or defend. Not directly toward the opponent, but at a forty-five-degree angle. Picking them up, like normal walking, produced greater instability. It was just that I couldn’t slide fast enough to keep up with the march. Slide, slide, attack, attack, run to catch up, repeat.

“Hey, what do you do when the ground is uneven?”

“Adjust.”

“Like, regular walking?”

“Sure.”

I glared at him for a bit, then went back to it.

I felt tireless in this young body, and stronger than my previous one. It wasn’t just me. Everyone seemed stronger than people back home. They walked more quickly, could carry heavier objects with ease, and had a higher pain tolerance as I learned from the hospital. Point for the game scenario?

Possibly. Still, it could be their hard lives that produced this greater strength. This life wasn’t as easy as my previous one. Well, for everyone but the nobles. We had our meals cooked, we were protected, we didn’t have to farm our own food. Everyone else had difficult lives punctuated, it seemed, by war.

Later, I switched to practicing with the spear. Thrust, slide, thrust, slide. Switch to the other arm, repeat. And when that got boring, I twirled it, pretending I was a ninja.

“What are you doing?”

“Martial arts!”

“That’ll get you killed.”

Feeling particularly brazen, I said, “Not so, old man! My naisho-ryu twirls can defend against any attack!”

“Your what?”

“Secret-dragon twirls!”

He got down from his horse, tied it to the wagon. “Alright, try your twirling staff trick.”

“I mean, I’m not very good at it. I’ve seen it done though.”

“Come on, twirl and attack me.”

“Ok!” I twirled it around my hands, imaging to then smash him with it, but he simply walked toward me and grabbed the stick out of my hands. “Oh,” I said.

“Yeah, oh. Try again if you like.”

This time I twirled the spear, passing it behind my back to hit him with it on the other side and he just grabbed the front of my armor, pulling me toward him and the staff weakly hit his right side. “Uh, ok, so this doesn’t work.”

“No. Stabbing, stick with stabbing. Later, I’ll teach you how to block.”

“You can block with a spear?”

“Oh yes. Much more effectively than with a sword. I don’t know why you insist on playing with that sword.”

“Well, I like swords. Second, I’m more likely to be in close combat inside a building than outside. You know, because I’ll be either fighting an assassin or defending myself in a castle and third-”

“Third is you think swords are romantic.”

“No I don’t!”

“Yes, you do, Princess.”

“Listen,” I said, feeling the beginnings of a blush, “I’m going to, I’m gonna, just you be quiet.” Stab, stab, thrust! I returned to training with my spear.

“Besides, you’re still swinging that sword like an axe.”

“I’m spear training, Morry. Your instruction is an hour old.”

“It’s also an hour early if you train with swords later today.”

“I’ll show you sword training!” I set the spear back on the wagon, drew my sword and swung it like an axe over and over.

“You appear to have a very long axe, Princess. Look, have you ever cut vegetables, meat?”

“Yes, of course.” Not in this body, but certainly in the other.

“How far would you get smashing a knife into meat?”

I was a touch grumpy, so said, “Depends on how sharp the knife was.” Then stopped and looked at him as I walked alongside the wagon, “Ok, not far. You have to slice the blade for best results.”

“Make the same motion. Draw the blade ever so slightly with your cut. Don’t smash with it.”

I tried that motion, but it just seemed so wrong. Slide, slice, slide, smash. How do you slightly slice as you’re smashing the blade into an opponent?

“Princess Cayce, the axe-wielding barbarian!” Morry said, “We should really just give you an axe.”

“You know, maybe that’s not a bad idea. I could carry two hand axes and-”

“Twirling small axes isn’t going to help you in combat.” His face looked grim.

I paused and looked at him, “Well, how long did it take you to learn sword fighting?”

He looked off into the distance, not answering. “Let’s . . . forget slicing for now. Practice your stabbing like I showed you. Thrust with your whole body, not just your arms.”

I dropped into a fighting stance, sword level in front of me. Then, stepping forward, pushing the sword with my arms and a step into an imaginary enemy.

“Again, but this time, slide forward. Slide, don’t step your feet.”

“Right! Right. Ok.” I resumed training, his gaze focused somewhere off into the hilltops. Point for reality, I guess. I was not instantly transformed into a master swordswoman. The basic motions themselves seemed difficult. The problem was, I only had about a week before we encountered the Ketzillian army and, if we survive that, the tyrant cousin. I was going to have to come up with something other than combat to get me through this.