Waylander (closed for princesssexci)

[Josu_T]

Waylander was glad she was happy. He got all the knives and put them back in place. He then sat and relaxed more. He ate a little and handed her some food as well. After about half an hour he got up again and decided it was time to go. He gathered his things and helped Danyal up. Before starting to walk, he handed her a knife. "While we walk, hold this as if you are going to throw it so you get used to it in your hand."

 

[princesssexci]

"Hold it like I'm going to throw it. Got it!" She said as she did as he directed. She held it in attack form like she was going to throw it at the next person who popped up next to her. So far, the lessons hadn't been as hard as she thought, but she was certain they would get harder as they progressed. "Like this, right?" Danyal asked Waylander trying to make sure she was doing it correctly.

 

[Josu_T]

He turned to start walking and let her get herself ready. She asked if she was holding it right. He glanced back at her. "A little looser grip." That was all he said. She would get it figured out eventually. He started to walk. As he did, he pulled out his crossbow and let his hands do some work cleaning it. He didn't even look at it, he worked on autopilot as his other senses focused on any signs of danger.

 

[princesssexci]

"Looser grip, got it." Danyal said, then quickly she followed Waylander, making sure not to accidently stab him as she kept in pace with him. He wasn't actually all that hard to work with, given the fact that he was apparently a loner or whatever. Danyal watched in amazement as he cleaned the bow without even sparing it a glance, as though it were second nature to him.

"How do you...do that?" She asked almost hesitantly. "I mean, without injuring yourself?"

 

[Josu_T]

Waylander was a little surprised when Danyal suddenly spoke up and asked how he cleaned his crossbow without looking and without hurting himself. He shrugged. "I built it myself and I've had it and used it for years. I always make sure it is clean and unstringed when not needed. If I leave the stings on they get stretched over time. So it is not really dangerous right now. It is not going to fire and hurt me while I clean it. Also, I have done this so often it is something I could probably do in my sleep." He shrugged again and simply continued walking at his normal pace.

 

[princesssexci]

"Oh..." Yes, he was indeed a total loner. It was almost like he'd forgotten that she was by his side. She didn't say anything further but continued following him to wherever he was taking her. During the journey, Danyal had decided that since he was teaching her the ways of defending herself, she would make it her mission to teach him how to open up to people. It was the least she could do.

 

[Josu_T]

Waylander shrugged at her lack of comment. He continued walking and listening for danger. There was a large price on his head and an attack could come from anywhere. Luckily, nothing came at them that day. They walked for a few more hours until the light started to fade. He could easily walk through the night, but he wasn't so sure she could, also, he had to rest some time. He found a nice spot to camp and put everything down and turned and smiled at her. "Ok, that was a good day. How does that knife feel in your hand now? Does it feel natural? Try throwing it at a tree. Aim for a spot and then tell me how close you got to that spot."

 

[princesssexci]

"The knife..umm..." She refrained from saying that it felt like a knife, especially since his expanded some. Did it feel natural? She supposed it felt natural."Uh, not really. Are knives supposed to feel natural?" Danyal asked with a quizzical look. Then she looked at the tree and aimed for the center of it, where sap was dripping.

It hit the tree and Danyal walked over to it, examining it closely. It had missed by 6 inches. "Uh, missed by six inches. " She said.

 

[Josu_T]

She seemed confused by what he said about the knife feeling natural. He laughed a little. She threw the knife and told him how much she had missed by. He sighed. "You just died. You got him in the arm rather than the chest and he was able to close the distance to you can get you with his sword. As for the knife feeling natural, I meant holding it. You need to get used to it being in your hand. After hours of holding it, is it starting to become more like second nature to you? Once it is, you will be much better at throwing it. Now practice throwing a little more while I set up a camp." He left her with her knife an went about setting things up for the night.

 

[princesssexci]

Her head spun with all the information still trying to grasp it and hold onto it. So then it was supposed to feel 'natural' in a sense, only like second nature instead of natural was what he meant, apparently. "Okay, I think I understand." What made things worse was that she would've been dead, had that been a real person she'd thrown the knife at.

As he went to go set up camp, she pulled the knife out of the tree and practiced a few times on throwing it like he had directed. A couple of times, she'd missed and hit a bush instead of the tree but finally the last time she threw the knife she actually hit where she was aiming!

 

[Josu_T]

He heard the noises of the knife as she practiced. He got everything ready and as he heard a final 'thunk' into a tree, he smiled. It was the perfect noise that he should hear. She'd hit her target with that one. Either that, or she missed and hit dead center of a completely different tree. He waited for her to return before handing her some food. He went into the forest a few meters and stood perfectly still. A moemnt later he heard a rustle in a bush and threw a knife, then waited and heard another and threw another knife. Then he heard one up in a tree and saw a bird nest. He threw a knife killing the bird and then climbed the tree and found some eggs in the nest. He brought them down, then collected the two rabbits he'd killed in the bushes. He cleaned his knives and put them away. Then brought the rabbits, bird, and eggs back out of the trees. He quickly skinned and skewered the rabbits, removed feathers from the bird, and had everything ready to cook. His fire was getting nice and hot and he placed the rabbits and bird over it, then got a very small pan from his bag. It was quite useful. For it, he put it over part of the fire and once it was hot, broke the eggs and fried them on it.

 

[princesssexci]

Again, Danyal watched in awe as he threw the knife towards the rabbit then the bird. It was disgusting, yes but it was needed at the same time so Danyal made sure not to grimace, though she'd never seen any animals get killed before. She pulled her knife out of the tree and walked over to the fire as he started making dinner as he handed her some food.

She took a seat and started eating. Danyal decided that now was as good a time as any to get Waylander to stop being so...anti-social. After all, there was alot more to life than just being a killing machine. "So, do you have any family?" She asked in between bites of her food.

 

[Josu_T]

Waylander sat and started eating while the meat cooked. The eggs were donw quickly and he took them off the heat and put them on some clean cloth to cool. Then he handed half of them to Danyal as she asked if he had any family. That caused him to pause for a moment before sitting back down. He leaned against a tree in silence before slowly shaking his head. Meeting the priest, Dardallion, had changed him, but he still couldn't really think of his past, it was too tough. Dakeyras was dead and had been for a long time, there was only Waylander now, but that priest had brought back a little piece of Dakeyras. Yet, still, he could not tell Danyal about it. He shook his head once more and then continued to eat, slowly, in silence.

 

[princesssexci]

Danyal stared at him quizzically. It had almost seemed like he was contemplating the question a bit hard then shook his head, paused, then shook his head again. "I see...and you don't mind being alone?" She knew that she'd asked that before but still, she knew that anyone, warrior or not disliked being alone.

 

[Josu_T]

Waylander did not say anything. He sat there and ate. When the meat looked cooked he leaned over and took it off the fire. He suck the sticks in the ground again away from the fire so the food could cool. He leaned back against the tree and tried his best to ignore any questions from Danyal. He really did not want to go back into his past again. Yet, he didn't realise how much his subconscious wanted to talk about it. It would take only a couple more questions for him to break. Damn that priest. Thankfully he was off in his new abbey teaching some other priests how to fight.

 

[princesssexci]

Danyal stared at him, watching as he blatantly ignored her questions. However she did see the determined look on his face as he continued to ignore her. So he was doing it on purpose. That was okay, she didn't expect him to break down so easily. He was after all, a man and men never shared their feelings, especially not to a woman.

"Alright..." Danyal said slowly, though silently she took the silence as a yes and he just didn't want to admit it, " Do you have a love for anything other than fighting? It doesn't have to necessarily be a woman, just for anything in general. Surely, you must've enjoyed doing something before moving around from place to place."

 

[Josu_T]

Waylander tried to force himself to ignore her, but he just couldn't. Damn Dardallion, damn him and his kindness. He sighed and started to speak. "My name is Dakeyras. I was a farmer. I had a wife, a son, and twin daughters. Raiders killed them. That is when Dakeyras died. I spent more than ninteen years tracking down and killing every single man that was in that raiding party. By the end of it, the last man did not even remember killing my wife. I was, by then, Waylander, the man you see here. I started taking contracts. I ended up taking one to kill the king. I did it. Then the bastard betwrayed me and didn't pay my fee. I accidentally killed his son. Now we are in this war, because of what I did. I met a priest, saved his life. Or blood mixed which, according to him, means a piece of me is in him, and a piece of him is in me. The damn bastard changed me. I feel feelings again. Damn him. Anyway, I am now going into Nadir lands to find the Bronze armour so this nation can survive the war. Is that what you wanted to hear? I hope you're happy. I don't like remembering my past."

 

[princesssexci]

Danyal nearly jumped, almost dropping her plate of food as he started to speak. She actually hadn't expected him to give in so easily. The admission had been shocking to say the least and she really hadn't expected that either. She expected something more like he wasn't happy with his boring life and decided to do something more exciting. When he asked her if she was happy with his answer and how displeased he was with sharing his past, she bit her lip.

"I-I'm sorry, I had no idea..." she said, ducking her head to hide the embarassed blush. It was awkwardly silent now, "It must've been terrible for..." her sentence trailed off, realizing that he must not want to be referred to as who he was before, "It must have been hard for Dakeyras, having to experience that."

She gave him a sweet smile, "But I doubt that if he holds in all that anger, well that can't be good at all."

 

[Josu_T]

He looked up at her from under the hood of his cloak. She started to speak. His eyes narrowed, even more as she started to talk about anger. He glared at her and spoke in a low voice, somewhat of a growl. "You have no idea why I do what I do, so don't even say anything about it." That was all he said. He took the bird and tore it in two, tossing one half and one of the rabbits to her. He didn't care if she caught them or not. he sta back and ate in silence once more.

 

[princesssexci]

Danyal did catch the bird then dropped it on her plate. Perhaps, she had said the wrong thing. She had been known to speak much too freely. She lowered her eyes, before mumbling, "Sorry, I meant no offense." Then just as silent as he, she continued eating forcing herself to cry. Crying showed weakness and she couldn't explain why but she didn't want to show any weakness in front of Dakeyras....Waylander. She silently reminded herself, though when she had said his name it had easily rolled off her tongue.

"I'm not hungry anymore." She said quietly, setting her plate down. "Thank you for the food." Danyal didn't look at him, still feeling bad that she had upset him so. Instead, her gaze was focused on the fire and more so focused on her own life.

 

[Josu_T]

Waylander finished eating and didn't care when Danyal had said she wasn't hungry anymore. When he finished, he got up and cleaned it all up. he packed things away and got ready for the night. He didn't feel like teaching her knife throwing at the moment. His mind was caught in the past. There was a reason he did not like thinking of his past.

 

[princesssexci]

Danyal continued to stare blankly on the fire, hardly noticing when Waylander had gotten up. He hadn't told her that it was time to practice knife throwing again, so she didn't bother asking. It was obvious that he didn't feel like it and she wasn't going to pester him endlessly. She could teach herself how to throw knives.

It couldn't be that hard. He'd already taught her the basics. Slowly, Danyal stood up, picking up the knife and walking back over to the tree where she had been practicing. She had to make it feel like second nature to her, Danyal reminded herself.

She closed her eyes, trying to make herself one with the knife. She pictured the tree that was in front of her, then the target, a moth that was flying around it, and then she threw the knife.

Opening one eye, her eyes widened. She hit the mark! All by herself, without any guidance. She grinned to herself as the moth squirmed beneath the end of the knife. She continued practicing for the rest of the evening.

 

[Josu_T]

Waylander heard everything that Danyal did. She was getting better quite quickly. She had also heard where he was going and had not backed down yet. Maybe she was stronger than he thought. He Lay down and appeared to be asleep, but he was waiting and watching to make sure Danyal slept. It was late, and as always, he intended to get up fairly early and be moving.

 

[princesssexci]

Finally, after practicing for a little while longer, then finally she decided that it was much too late and that she should probably get to bed. She set her knife down next to all the other supplies then laid down and went to sleep. She didn't bother saying good night to Waylander because he seemed to already be asleep.

 

[Josu_T]

When he saw Danyal asleep he smiled and then went to sleep himself. He slept lightly as always. In the morning he woke just before dawn and got out some food for breakfast. He placed some next to Danyal for her when she woke up. He started eating and packing up at the same time to save some time. He wanted to get moving.