Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ambrose smiled. "Glad to hear it!"

Good! She wasn't afraid of the potential of bruises, and his respect went up a couple of notches.

"Well, as far as what you do - it's based after rapier fighting like you saw in Zorro. But, as it is a sport now, there are restrictions. Primarily..." He picked up the other epee and mask. "Protective measures. Like I said - they don't want lawsuits or anything, so you fight with blunted blades and wear protection. You learn maneuvers - parries, thrusts, ripostes, lunges - much like they would have actually used for rapier duels way back when, though. And with a live blade - one that still has a sharp tip - you would probably be able to do some damage to someone. SO its kind of fun as you can picture yourself as a swashbuckler." He gave a bit of a self-conscious grin.

"But there are more differences. For example, your "arena" is a thin strip called a "piste" - it makes sure you always face your opponent and you can't circle around them. You also always compete one-on-one. And you never use your off-hand." Ambrose took the classic fencing pose, waving his left hand a bit in the air to draw attention to it. "You keep this hand back and out of the way - so you can't use it to block the other person's rapier. That's another difference between modern olympic fencing and actual rapierfighting. They would sometimes have a dagger in that hand, a mailed glove, or even a second rapier."

He gestured back to his blade. "And I practice epee fencing. There are three types: epee, foil, and sabre. Epee is my favorite because it's the style that has the widest area of target - and in that sense is more accurate to actual rapier fighting as there are no areas of the body that are out of bounds. Foil fencing uses a similar blade, but the only valid target areas is the torso. Sabre fencing you can use the whole blade of the sword instead of just the tip, as it is supposed to mimic a real sabre that has an edge, but you can only hit you opponent on the body from the waist-up."

Ambrose's day was certainly looking up - between his decision to stay positive and have hope unless he did infact change again, and being able to not only chat about fencing, but really go off one it with Amaya really put him in his element. Scales and fur was the last thing on his mind.

"So!" He concluded after the basic run down. "Any particular questions?" He grinned.

He nodded with a smile.

"Well, wonderful!" He offered her a hand up.

"Before you ever touch the blade, though, you need to lean some footwork."

He dropped back into the fencing stance to show her, drawing attention to the distance apart and width of his feet, and where he kept his weight on the balls of his feet.

"And of course- if you can think of anyone else who would want to learn, we can get a group going." He thought back to Greer's suggestion about teaching fencing. "We'd have to petition Moreau for some more equipment... but he can afford it." he gave a wry smirk.

In Ambrose's defense, he didn't look twice as she took off her towel. Aside from correcting her stance a little bit.

"That's it. Now put your weight on the balls of your foot - like how you like walking" He smiled. "Don't lift your heel completely off the ground - there we go.."

He had her adjust her stance correctly, then stand normally and drop back into the stance a few times to try to ingrain it in her muscle-memory.

He nodded approvingly. "Staying on the balls of your feet isn't too bad in this, actually - it's where your weight remains during the match regardless. But with movement, sometimes you can move quicker by moving in a heel-to-toe way with your front foot. Your back foot stays mostly on the ball the entire time." Ambrose refused to think about the changing applications of stance with a changing foot or posture. Things weren't going to get any worse.

One Amaya had the stance down, he worked with her a bit on how to move forward and backwards in the stance. Once again, first demonstrating and then guiding her through it, making corrections where she needed, but also metering it out with encouragement. He seemed to be both enthusiastic and patient at the same time.

He kept up the drills for about ten or twenty minutes, finishing with standing across from her and taking up a stance as well.

"Now, when I advance, I want you to retreat - keeping the footwork I just taught you. And when I retreat, you advance. Got it?" He said with a smile, knowing that the interactive part like this would be much more interesting.

He kept things pretty basic at first, one step forward, one step back, two forward, one back, and then started playing with it a bit, advancing more quickly, or about five or six steps in one direction before changing directions, and then just keeping up the movement pretty constantly.

Once again, he was encouraging her, laughing good-naturedly with some of his tricks - making a game out of it with a "gotcha" here and there. Or, when she kept up with him, a "aha - you're too quick for that, huh?"

He reminded her a few times to keep her eyes on his, but overall, he was very supportive. And enjoying himself as well. There were few things that Ambrose could truly just be himself and enjoy himself.

He worked with her for another good ten or fifteen minutes before clapping her on the shoulder with a smile. "I think that's good for today, don't you? You're making some great headway! Keep practicing your footwork and next time we'll go over it again and actually get to the epee." He winked.

And another one on the side of the epees. He mentally grinned imagining a scorecard against Greer. Though she could teach her sabre as well if she liked. They could get a whole competition thing going on maybe.

Ambrose swelled with pride and confidence. "That's awesome, Amaya! I am really looking forward to showing you! I'm glad you're so enthusiastic about it!"

Not only did he have a surrogate little sister, but she liked fencing! He was on cloud nine.

He gave her scales a quick look over - they actually did look pretty neat on her. He wouldn't trade her, given, especially with what little he knew of lizards and snakes versus what he knew and liked about wolves - but it was cute.

"You're off to a great start, too!" And he looked sincere. She was taking the lessons seriously, and was honestly enthusiastic. That was the best combination he could ask for - even in place of natural talent. "And don't hesitate to track me down and demand lessons whenever you want" he winked. "And we should see about getting you a set of gear custom-fit courtesy of Moureau's bank account" He grinned. "I'm sure he will."

"Anyway! I'll see you around, Amaya!" He waved, and set off back towards the village.