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 Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2013 5:27 pm
 Katya stood alone, near as she could tell, in the cliffside clearing, where the breeze was stiff and the mid-afternoon sun was partially obscured by Telrunya city, the massive floating citadel that dominated Telrunya's sky on this part of the island. It was a beautiful place, where the vegetation was a curious mix of colder, high-altitude trees and shrubs that was steadily being replaced by jungle palms, fronds and other tropical plants. When she had first come here, Katya had been rather sad reflecting on the plight of the older trees. Had it not been for the sudden change in circumstances, they would still be flourishing. As for the warmer climate vegetation, it was all good and well that they should have a chance to exist, but there was no simple co-existence here. With very few exceptions, the more competitive tropical plants were pushing out the old trees, plain and simple. The change was gradual, but inexorable, and Katya often wondered if there would be anything of the old forest left in a few years.
This day was different, however. For once the young demon paid no heed to the fresh, blowing wind, nor to the thundering of the nearby waterfall. Her golden eyes focused their intense gaze on a set of crude, home-made targets set upon a number of trees at the edge of the clearing, each sporting a hand-painted bullseye and signs of abuse from previous training sessions. Katya stood some fifty yards from the treeline, her hair tied up so it wouldn't be whipped around by the wind, and she had her bow raised, arrow nocked. After drawing back the bowstring, she exhaled slightly, then held her breath as she loosed the arrow. It flew slightly to the right and looked like it might miss, but it was then caught by the wind and curved back to the left and struck its intended target, just to the right of its bullseye.
Katya let out the rest of her held breath and smiled for a moment, surveying her handywork. With a high-pitched 'Hup!' she ran and leapt forward, tucking her wings flush with her body so she could roll forward into a crouch, advancing around ten yards with the movement and finishing by drawing another arrow from her quiver and standing again. Another deep breath, and her body steadied, allowing her to shoot again. And again. And again. Three shots in five seconds, all of which struck their targets in the centre. More or less. The third shot was outside the red bullseye, but it was still a good shot, and Katya was beaming with satisfaction.
Out here, without anyone to compare herself to, without any pressure but what she placed on herself, she was able to practice to her heart's content without getting stressed. Sure, she might have still lagged behind the others in skill, particularly hand to hand, but her shots were definitely better than ever. With a couple of heavy beats of her wings, she flew the rest of the way to the targets to retrieve her arrows.
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Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:46 pm
 From a vantage point around fifty yards from the young archer, a pair of similar golden eyes peered from the canopy, watching the display. Up in the branches of one of the older trees, a cream and crimson hand pushed some leaves aside for a better view. So, this was what the little one was up to.
It wasn't as if she was spying on her. Alright, so maybe she was. But, Katya had been disappearing from the City at odd intervals for a while, and perhaps the others hadn't noticed, but Lailah had. With time, her curiosity only grew, and finally she decided to act on her suspicions. Noticing the little red demon's exit from their quarters earlier with her bow and no training lesson scheduled for the afternoon, Lailah decided that today she'd find out just what the other Squire had been getting up to as of late.
For as much as the other seemed to dislike their normal sparring sessions, Lailah certainly hadn't been expecting this.
Secret training sessions; who knew? It seemed more and more lately that the little demon was just full of surprises; ever since that ambush in the marsh. Relaxing her tense posture, Lailah shifted to seat herself on the branch she'd made her vantage point, leaning back against the trunk and taking a bite from a red apple in her hand. The crunch may have been loud, but she wasn't concerned with being all that sneaky anymore. She'd seen what she came here to see. Besides, it wasn't like Katya would hear that from this distance anyway. The 'show' continued, the demon throwing acrobatics into her shooting routine, causing Lailah to lift an eyebrow in interest.
Best to use one's strengths, she knew. Katya was far from the most imposing or physical of the Squires. She was rather short compared to the rest of them, hence why Lailah took to simply referring to her as 'the little one' early on. Her wings though seemed over-sized for her frame. The wings of an adult on a teenager. One would think that would actually be a struggle to manage, but Katya did more than manage. She was far more comfortable in the air than any of the other Squires, it was safe to bet. Air combat should be a strength, especially with her use of the short bow, allowing her to keep her distance and fire off rapid shots, as she'd just demonstrated. Her small size meant she was light enough to be extra agile in the air...but couldn't that translate to the ground as well? It never seemed to show in their hand-to-hand training with Grand Master Hania.
Well, no more mysteries here to solve. Spreading her crimson-tipped wings with a feathery rustle, the angel dropped from the tree branch, landing on the earth in a crouch to soften the impact. She strolled casually across the clearing, enjoying her snack and wondering idly how long it would take the other to notice her presence now that she wasn't trying to be stealthy.
Heh, wonder how close she could get before Katya turned around?
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Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 9:25 pm
The arrows were training shots, so they lacked the barbs designed to hook into an enemy's flesh, yet still the little demon had to yank fairly hard to pull each one from its respective target. She was grabbing her second arrow when she heard a crunch behind her, causing the hair on her neck to stand on end. She bit down her usual nervous squeak and spun on her heel, quickly nocking the arrow she had just retrieved to face whoever- or whatever- had made the noise.
Upon seeing the blood angel, Katya exhaled heavily and lowered the bow, arrow still nocked. "You have GOT to stop doing that to me!" Lailah, despite being taller and almost as brightly coloured as the demon, was remarkably good at remaining hidden, and had never, not even once, failed to sneak up on her. Never mind that even in a direct sparring match, with no sneaking involved, Katya would invariably end up on the floor, with the quick angel barely even breaking a sweat. In recent times however, there had been a slight mellowing in the red demon's apprehension around Lailah. The demon still found her comrade intimidating, but at least they could talk without the odd squeak slipping out, especially since their experience at the swamp. It was almost as though there was some respect growing, even if Lailah did her best to avoid showing it. Always with the sneaking and surprising, the grabbing and the arm punching, usually masked under the pretense that it was some sort of 'toughening up'. Actually, not an unreasonable motive, given their duty should they become knights to actually fight, a glum facet of their aspirations for Katya, but an apparent thrill for Lailah.
The demon regarded the angel up and down, observing the apple in her hand and her overall casual gait. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you're following me, but here I was all comfortable in my secret training place, and now you're here I'm not sure I'll be able to relax so easily next time." She paused, letting more of her tension go, to get back to the calm but focused state she had just been in that let her shoot so accurately. "Well seeing as you didn't ambush me, I'm guessing you're not here to put me in a headlock. And you look pretty chilled out right now-" Unnervingly so, Katya thought, "-so there hasn't been a mission call." She switched the foot she was leaning on, from right to left, appearing to 'chill out' a little herself. "Did you, ah, wish to talk about something?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2013 2:54 pm
"Just wanted to see what our little archer was sneaking away for," Lailah answered calmly, taking another crunching bite of the apple. "Besides, Squires should never get so lax. You should be ever vigilant. You could come under attack by the dark, heathen beasts at any time, in any place! You can't afford to get lazy or sloppy. I figured you needed a reminder of that. And now you never know when I'm going to show up, do you?" She shot the demon a smirk that seemed more fitting for one with a spaded tail. Alright, so she might be trolling.
A little.
She was also 'helping a comrade refrain from getting lazy or inattentive.' Yep, that.
Noting with some amusement that the arrow remained notched, though lowered to the ground, Lailah nodded once towards the weapon. "Never seem to show that much enthusiasm in our official training sessions. Why not?" she questioned, notes of honest curiosity slipping through. She took their training lessons as a chance, not only to challenge herself against her supposed peers, but also to demonstrate to their superiors how much she was learning through her continued improvement. So...why keep that improvement secret or subdued? It didn't make sense to her.
Besides, Lailah had seen her in action in the field twice now. The little one may fall behind on some other aspects of training, but she was good at what she did. That striking display in the swamp had caught her attention initially, then...that business with those suspicious Fae who seemed to know both too much and nothing at all. When the moment had counted, Katya had actually managed to impress her...at least a little...with the intensity and focus she centered on a task.
So, why not show that off to draw attention away from her faults?
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Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2013 7:30 pm
Katya's eyes moved shiftily at Lailah's first comment. "Sneaking? Me?" She canted her head slightly, the barest amused grin on the corner of her mouth; the rest of her face carrying an expression of nervousness."Surely if anyone is guilty of sneaking around here, it'd be you, yes?" The red demon shifted uncomfortably, a wave of nervousness washing over her as the blood angel had just told her to be on guard, and she now was- towards Lailah. as a result she had her back to the dark woods behind.
"I might not be able to detect you, but it's not like I come out here unprepared." She raised her bow momentarily for emphasis. "And in this part of the island, home is never very far for me to fly to." With that, Katya turned sideways, so she could watch both Lailah and the woods at the same time.
Unlike her compatriot, Katya had no interest in proving herself to the guardians or to her friends. All she wanted to do was serve the light, and aid the other squires when they needed her. Although she never admitted it to herself much less the others, the scheduled trainings had the added stress of being scrutinised by Master Hania, and the pressure was killing her. She was learning new things, but had reached a block when it came to developing skills she aldready had some familiarity with.
That was half the purpose of coming out on her own. the other half, of ourse, was that it was just plain fun. "I do try my best during training, but every time I flop Master Hania has me running laps. never mind how he loses his temper." The little demon shuddered. "I just find it stressful, really. Out here I can take my time, focus on the finer points of my bow technique and figure it out on my own with nobody watching." She suppressed a wince. "Well almost nobody now, I guess."
Katya nodded at Lailah. "Surely you practice a lot outside class. I just prefer to do it differently."
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Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 4:17 pm
"I'm just better at it than you," Lailah shot back automatically, pointing at the demon with a smirk. Let the little one think she was going to be stalking her now. Maybe it'd keep her on edge; hone her senses and keep her aware of her environment. With a shrug, she dismissed the rest of her defense. "Yeah, well, at least you seem to have thought about your setting."
She crossed her arms over her chest, settling into a relaxed pose to finish her apple. The comment about running laps brought a snicker to her lips and she shot Katya a look. "Maybe you should do better then, if you'd rather run less. Wouldn't be so stressful if you gave Master Hania fewer reasons to yell at you," she said matter-of-factly, as if it were as easy as deciding to 'be better.'
"Course I practice on my own. How else would I be this good?" she counted with a grin. "But, I'm just not secretive about it. I don't mind if others watch," she was starting to boast...the Guardians taught humility, so she corrected herself and began to pull back a bit in talking about herself so highly. She still had flaws, even if she was working hard to rid herself of them.
She seemed to pause and consider something for a moment. "Maybe...you got something there though," she mused. "I mean...if you hold something in reserve, you got something to pull out when the situation looks bad. I mean, hey, hell of a dive you pulled off there in the swamp," she admitted with a shrug. It felt...awkward to compliment another on their skills. She wondered if it showed. She hurried on to cover in case it didn't. "And that business with those weird, bitchy Fae? Ha! Even took your teammates by surprise, I have to admit," she snickered. "Never knew you could shoot two arrows at once."
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Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 4:01 pm
"It is pretty out here." Katya took a moment to look around the cliffside, completely missing the tactical nature of Lailah's observation regarding their surroundings. "Secluded and relaxing, with a nice stiff breeze. The sort of place I wouldn't mind calling home if the Guardian's work did not need doing. Sadly that is not the case." She sighed.
At Lailah's blunt remark concering her performance in training, Katya's ears would have gone red had they not been red already. She wondered just how much effort the angel actually had to put into her training to get as good as she was, and how much of that was simply natural ability. "You say that like it's as simple as pouring one's self an extra glass of water. It's not so easy for some of us." Although slightly annoyed, Katya hid it, mostly out of good manners but also because of her constant hesitation around someone who seemed far more powerful than her. The demon imagined what a mighty and terrifying knight Lailah could become before she went on to comment more on why she kept her private practice sessions, well, private.
"You're not secretive about combat practice because you happen to be pretty good at it. Then there's what I do. The way you move makes me look like a bloated sow who's been into old coconut juice." Katya did not mention that this was a spectacle she had actually witnessed once upon a time. She just left that to the other squire's imagination.
Katya did not immediately react to the blood angel's veiled compliment, instead carrying an odd look of puzzlement for a few seconds, before she remembered what Lailah was talking about and realization dawned. "Oh... You mean that time by the cave." The demon fidgeted sheepishly before she offered a real answer. "Truthfully, I ah... I can't. When I took aim from that tree I was bluffing." Katya shrugged as though to say 'But what else was I going to do?'
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Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 2:42 pm
Lailah rolled her eyes at the comment about the 'pretty' scenery. Definitely not what she'd meant. "You're a weird one," she blurted, shaking her head. Of course, it wasn't as if she really got to knew most of the others that closely. 'Weird' simply translated to 'not like me', as it was her primary point of reference. Personally, yeah, Lailah embraced the Guardians' training and the strategic thinking; this one though, seemed wistful, wanting to admire the scenery rather than worrying what foe might be lurking behind the picturesque scene. She just couldn't comprehend it herself.
Weird.
"Maybe not like getting a glass of water, but if you wanna' get better, you decide to get better and you work on it. You practice," she answered bluntly. "Never said it was easy, but you do it anyway. You find your strengths, you identify your weaknesses; then you figure out how to eliminate those weaknesses. Sometimes your strengths can help with that, sometimes you have to find a new way, or just keep doing whatever it is you're bad at until you're not as bad at it anymore." She shrugged, as if this was the simplest concept in the world. "Never said it was easy; a lot of times maybe it's hard. But you can't just keep doing something you're already good at and ignoring the rest. Sometimes, it means doing something you hate and doing it repeatedly, no matter how much you don't want to." For Lailah, this was pretty much how she viewed their Magic and Healing classes. Ugh.
The little demon's revelation, however, took even Lailah by surprise. She only showed it through a silent stare, one eyebrow lifting. "You...were bluffing?" Without a moment's hesitation, she flung the apple core in her hands at the other with a snort, "You sneaky little brat!"
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Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 6:47 pm
"Weird, me?" Katya responded questioningly, her high-pitched voice dropping in tone briefly out of bemusement. Still, she understood that, while united in belief and conviction, the squires were about as diverse a group of Angels and Demons as she had ever seen. She understood and liked some of the others more than Lailah here, but they all had Katya's respect. The angel opposite her might have been far more abrasive than she was comfortable with, but she had learned a while ago to just accept that Lailah was just a little more... intense. And she knew that in a dangerous situation, it was far better to have the stealth specialist on their side than do without.
As much as Katya wanted to believe that the other squire was simply unable to comprehend her limitations, she had to grudgingly admit that some of what she was saying made a fair amount of sense. Katya had never had the illusion that their training would be easy, and she never harbored any hopes to ever be as good as the team's 'combat specialists' as she thought of them, even though specific roles hadn't yet been decided. In addition, she had never baulked at the intense training they were subjected to. The realization dawned that the only reason she did training in secret wasn't because she was having a hard time with it, but because she was afraid others would see she was having a hard time with it. The foolishness of it all caused a rueful smile to cross her lips; after all even Lailah wasn't afraid to show how hard she was trying to pick up the more spiritual aspect of their training. Persistence was certainly the key, and Lailah had it in spades. Perhaps that was why the Guardians willed that the angel follow her around, to teach her persistence. To take her out of her comfort zone. "It might be a stretch to say you have a way with words, Lailah, but you do have a point." Katya said quietly, but still loud enough for her voice to be carried away by the wind. "Perhaps I could do more to embrace our training."
Then as she watched, Lailah reverted to a stunned silence. Something about the raised eyebrow set off a tingle in the red demon's spine, causing her shoulders to reflexively twist and her arms to pull back her bowstring. She saw the apple core fly at her with alarming speed, and despite the swiftness of the angel's throw and the slight flinch and wince on Katya's part, she put one foot back for a more stable base and loosed her arrow in once quick motion, the training shot still lethal enough to the piece of fruit to split it in half, with the two pieces of the core flying by either side of her. She looked left, then right, then lowered her bow slowly with a gulp. "Whoops." An odd response, given what she had just succeeded in doing, but she had always subconsciously thought about dodging first, and this instance fell outside that experience.
That and her training arrow had flown past Lailah, to be lost in the woods behind her somewhere.
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Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2013 8:30 pm
Instinct and training kicked in simultaneously, the bloody angel dropping towards the ground, her arms raising defensively. Her blades were held in a reverse defensive grip along her forearms, the weapons having been drawn in a single smooth movement as she dropped. The arrow sailed by over Lailah's head, the two halves of the apple core dropping to the ground and bouncing away to either side.
Lailah narrowed her eyes at the now sheepish-looking demon. That...had not been what she'd expected. She'd expected her to squeak and dodge the fruit, or at least likely get hit by it if she'd been too slow, not that it would cause her much damage. It hadn't been an action intended to cause harm, afterall. If anything, one might have mistaken it for Lailah being playful.
Instead, she was focused intently on Katya now. Though they shared the same golden eyes, Lailah's always seemed to hold an edge that the demon's did not. Now...they also appeared thoughtful. After a tense moment, she started to straighten, slowly lowering her blades from their defensive position.
"That was no bloated sow, with or without old coconut juice," she commented finally in an even tone. Then, the ghost of a smirk touched her lips. Maybe there was hope for the kid after all. There must be some spirit in there somewhere.
She just needed someone to show her how to draw it out and use it.
Or force her to do it.
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:16 pm
Between the two squires, a rather uncomfortable tension had descended after Katya loosed her arrow. She eyed Lailah's drawn blades nervously, making a conscious decision to keep her hands on her bow, and not draw another arrow from her quiver, for fear of antagonizing her deadly comrade further. When Lailah finally spoke, Katya responded immediately, out of habit, without really pondering The blood angel's words.
"I didn't mean to! Wait, what?" The red demon lowered her bow and tilted her head, a measure of confusion working its way onto her expression. Was that- was that almost half of a compliment from her comrade? Katya didn't get much by the way of compliments from anyone except Dante, much less Lailah, Lady Stabhappy herself. The demon gulped. She didn't know whether the be happy that Lailah didn't see her as a bloated sow, or worried that this conversation might end up heading to a place she didn't want it to go.
"Well, I might have been exaggerating a bit." Katya grinned, the corner of her mouth twitching upwards out of anxiety. "But you know, I probably need to get that arrow before I completely forget where it landed." She hooked her bow into a little latch at the back of her belt, walking towards the woods behind Lailah where she thought the arrow went- although she stayed a good yard off to the side away from the angel when she walked past, picking up a small, strange, cloth target that was ringed by particularly buoyant wood and was oddly, completely soaking wet.
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Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:26 am
The idea had been planted in her mind and there was no letting it go. She wondered just how the little one might react if truly pushed. Lailah's eyes glittered, noting Katya's reactions to her comment. "A bit? You shouldn't sell yourself so short." A brief pause, fighting a smirk at the choice of words before continuing. "You pull something off like that, you play it off as if that's what you meant to do. That's what you should do. That should be your natural reaction, kid."
She tensed subtly as the other Squire started to slip away. With some amusement, she noted the wide berth Katya tried to keep between them, but it wasn't really wide enough. Lailah prepared to spring...then hesitated and halted when Katya picked up the dripping object. Puzzlement clouded her expression and she dropped the earlier thought she'd had instead for this new mystery. "What the heck is that?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 9:47 am
Katya almost skittered sideways when she sensed the taller angel seemed to tense as though ready to strike, so she was slightly off balance and a little unprepared for the rather benign question that came. She first turned around, wondering if Lailah had spotted something coming out of the woods, of from the sky, before realizing that she'd been referring to the object in her hand. "What? Oh this..." The red demon held up her makeshift target. "I just use it to train myself. Its a target that helps me shoot moving objects. It floats, see..."
Katya's eyes momentarily lit up, as though enthusiastic about something. "Let me just get airborne, I'll show you." She spread her large wings and flapped up, the powerful movement kicking up a little burst of air immediately around her, then she flew along the treeline, over to where the rushing river left the forest and flowed into the clearing. She flew back and forth, looking down at the river, before she cast the floating target into it. The cloth covered wood picked up speed as it went with the water, bouncing off the odd stone that blocked its path. Overhead, the demon swung left, then right, spinning inverted then performing an upside-down half-loop*, nocking, drawing and shooting an arrow before she had even pulled level.
The target continued to float downriver, toward a small waterfall that ran off the cliff the clearing was perched on. The wood target bounced on the submerged lip of the falls, before starting to tumble down. Katya had by now swung around again, and was doing another half loop over the edge of the cliff, moving far faster than the target so that a split second later, she was underneath it. She rolled inverted again, facing the target silhouetted against the sky, wings spread wide, and bow drawn once more. The arrow was loosed, and then Katya peeled away from the cliffside as her target splashed into the pool below, remaining submerged for some seconds before bobbing up, her two arrows poking out of it. Then, like an eagle hunting fish, Katya swooped down, plucked the target from the water and flapped her way back up to the cliff edge.
Upon landing a few yards from Lailah, the red demon tried to avoid smiling too much. She might have been rubbish compared to the other squires in sparring classes, but this she did well. She brushed some hair that had escaped her ponytail from her face. Although not out of breath, she was puffing a little as she spoke. "See? Moving target."
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Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 11:14 pm
Shielding her face as the little demon's take-off stirred up a small cloud of dust, Lailah decided to allow this diversion before continuing with her earlier line of thought. Could even be entertaining. She rolled her shoulders to limber up, yawned and stretched before the show began.
Whatever it was she'd been expecting, it was not the demonstration that she'd just seen. Before Katya returned to land, Lailah managed to pick up her jaw and conceal the shock she'd felt watching the display. None of the other Squires spent such time on aerial maneuvers, not that she was aware of. To combine acrobatic work like that with accurate archery was nothing short of astounding. Especially if this was all based on her own private training, and separate from the exercises that she did with the other Squires.
Of course, that was no excuse to be slacking elsewhere.
She was calmly watching as Katya landed some distance from her, arms crossed over her chest. "Alright, I get it now. Not bad. Long as you stay up in the air, of course. But what happens when you lose that advantage? Or your bowstring breaks? What happens when you've got no weapon, you're grounded, and the enemy is in close quarters?" As she talked, she had started walking casually, hands clasped behind her back, circling around the smaller demon. She gauged the distance carefully... "What do you do then? Give up, cause you've lost your advantage? That's no attitude for a Knight of the Guardians. You should have all you need in yourself." Slipping just behind Katya, out of her line of sight, the angel dropped suddenly, aiming a sweeping kick for her companion's feet. "Show me what you do."
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Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2014 11:03 am
Whether or not it was true, Katya had convinced herself that any form of close combat was an emergency measure to be taken if her usual fighting method was unavailable- and she'd focused her personal training on making sure that she had a good bow, and an exceptional ability to fly and avoid that kind of trouble. The angel had a point, however; she was easily the weakest in the class of squires at hand-to-hand combat, and, as she was about to find out, sometimes a fistfight could sneak up on anyone.
As Lailah began to walk towards her, the demon began to feel a twinge of unease in her gut. That casual, almost cavalier stride, coupled with the troubling questions she was asking, created an air of menace around the angel that wasn't lost on Katya. She took a half step back as her taller comrade walked behind her, trying to keep her in view.
Too late- her legs were suddenly in front of her, and as she fell backwards she flailed her arms and wings, watching her own feet rising up with the earth falling away. A split second later, Katya landed on her rear- the only other generously proportioned part of her body other than her wings. She threw an arm behind her so she didn't drop past her seated position, just managing to raise her leathery wing out of the way. She caught the impact along the length of her forearm to prevent breaking her wrist- she remembered that much from basic training- but her awkwardly positioned wings prevented a roll-away that should have followed.
Even though the demon been mentally preparing for the possibility, she was simply unable to react quickly enough to Lailah's attack. Too fast! Her strange floating target and her bow had both been scattered in the fall, landing either side of her. "Why would you do that?!" Katya sounded genuinely hurt. It wasn't the first time that Lailah had ambushed her so, but this would be the first time outside the castle, and in her secret training ground no less. She didn't get straight up, but her wings were now flared out and raised, as though she was about to flap herself off the ground and fly away.
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