| A Knight and His Squire |
| Summary: | Merrick and Yakim spend some time drilling, then discuss plans for the future. |
| Date: | 02/Mar/2013 |
| Related Logs: | None |
| Players: |
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| Outskirts, Stonrbridge |
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| The trails are worn and well tended here and the fields on either side are lush and full of wildflowers amidst the lightly scattered trees of the central Cape of Eagles. A few packed dirt trails converge with the main road from outlying hamlets around Stonebridge. |
| Sat Mar 02, 290 |
It's a warm afternoon, but at least it's dry and there's a reasonable breeze. There's sod all traffic about on the road but some of what there is is paused to watch a spot of impormtu training between a knight and his squire. Merrick's horse is tied to one of the scattered trees and the knight himself has just set up a could of empty barrels in the middle of one of the dirt trails. Then, turning to his squire he instructs, "right, on your 'orse lad. Back it up 'undred yards or so and then come at it full pelt. Get the point of that spear right here." That said he taps the centre of the top barrel and then steps back to a safer distance.
Nodding a little as he hears that, Yakim moves to get onto his horse, and readying the spear now. "Right there?" he asks, pointing to a spot on that barrel, before he starts moving the horse out those hundred yards or so as indicated. Smiling a little as he does.
"Aye lad," Merrick replies as stops about twenty yards away, "pretend it's an ironborn scum and that's the middle of 'is fucking chest. Nail that bastard hard." Crossing his arms over his chest he glances between squire and target a few times then adds, "ride through an' all. Go at it as if you're aiming for something five foot behind."
<FS3> Yakim rolls Animal Handling: Good Success.
<FS3> Yakim rolls Spears: Good Success.
Yakim finishes backing up the horse, before he sends the animal charging forward, towards the barrels as he readies the spear now. Taking careful aim as he does. Looking rather concentrated for the moment. He manages to hit the barrel rather solidly, and keeps on riding past it for a short distance, before he turns, offering a grin in Merrick's direction. "Like that, Ser?" he asks, a bit lightly.
Merrick offers his squire a big, shit-eating grin and rubs his hands together before moving back to reset the barrels once more. "Aye my son, exactly like that. Good lad." It's a matter of moments before the target is reset and he's backing away to a safe distance once more, "right. Let's make sure it wasn't just a fluke, then we can see about making it more interesting."
<FS3> Yakim rolls Animal Handling: Great Success.
<FS3> Yakim rolls Spears: Good Success.
Moving to the same distance as he was at before, Yakim moves the animal forward again, rather quickly now. And once more aiming the lance for the barrel, he smashes it down once more. "Quite nice," he remarks, a bit lightly, looking towards Merrick once more.
Merrick nods approvingly, seems the lad has been paying attention after all. Who've know? "Nicely done, just remember to keep practicing that in your free time, don't want to let it go in one ear and out the other." That said he rights the barrels again before moving to get his own spear which he'd left lying on the ground a short way off. Moving back towards the target he states "now lets see how that beast of yours reacts when there's sharp metal waves at it. Do the same again and I'll see if I can put it off." Standing to the side of the barrel so he can step backwards out of the way of the charging horse he points the spear towards his squire, "off you go then."
Yakim nods as he hears that, hurrying to get the horse in position again now, he offers a bit of a grin as the horse and rider is ready. "Ready whenever you are, Old Man," he calls out.
"Get on with it you little gobshite," Merrick calls back, an amused grin on his face. He's obviously enjoying the day's activities. For this pass though he holds his spear upside down, so if it all goes tits-up the worst the horse will get is a bruise, rather than it being impaled by the sharp end. "Come on then, I'm not doing this for the good of my health you know!"
<FS3> Yakim rolls Animal Handling: Success.
<FS3> Yakim rolls Spears: Failure.
Thundering forward on his horse once more, although with less control of the animal now, Yakim once more aims the spear for the barrel, heading forward, while glancing to Merrick every now and then to see how the man will react.
Merrick watches Yakim, and importantly, Yakim's horse as they thunder closer, waving the spear in his hands in a mildly aggressive way as the beast approaches. He's not sure which of the pair he put off, but as the squire's spear fails to find it's mark he offers an encouraging, "nice try lad. Now do it again." Moving round to keep him on the side of the barrel that is away from where the horse will pass he rests his stance and waits for the next pass.
Yakim mutters a little as he doesn't succeed, moving over to the right distance again, once more hurrying to bring the horse forward again. Once more trying to hit the barrel now.
<FS3> Yakim rolls Animal Handling: Success.
<FS3> Yakim rolls Spears: Good Success.
Merrick settles himself into a ready stance as Yakim charges towards him one more. Still aiming the blunt end of the spear at the horse he does his best to mkae it as threatening as possibly, knowing that the beast has not been ridden in real battle before and wanting to test it's metal now, in this (relatively) safe environment.
The horse seems to be hesitating a little bit, but Yakim still manages to get his spear through to knock over the barrels now. Looking to Merrick as he gets the horse to stop.
Merrick slams the point of his spear into the ground so the weapon remains upright as he goes to reset that barrels again. Turning to Yakim he then shrugs, "you want another go at that or are you happy for now? The beast'll need some more work on facing up to threats but that'll come with time. I reckon we have another hour or so before the light starts to fail us."
"I think it's fine for today," Yakim replies, before he offers a bit of a grin, "Wouldn't want an old man such as you to stand outside for too long and get a chill, right?" It's spoken quite lightly, of course.
"Chill? With this sun?" Merrick laughs, "besides, you're the skinny giy, you'll get chill long before I do." Pushing the barrels back over so they should be able to lie undisturbed until needed again he pulls his spear back out of the ground and walks back towards his own horse. "Right, since you're already mounted, get your arse back to the inn and start seeing to the horses while I go get us something for dinner and have a nosey round, see if anything new is happening. I'll be wanting to find some nob to start forking over cash shortly, so keep your ears open as well. All this talk of marching Tully's has to have got someone shitting themselves."
Yakim nods a little bit as he hears that. "I'll see what I can do, Ser," he replies, offering a bit of a smile now. "And yes, it would be good to get some more cash, and perhaps going somewhere else?" he offers, after a few moments of pause.
"Maybe aye," Merrick agrees with a nod, "all the rich fucks seem to be leaving here, or have left already. Keep your ears open though, there's loads of places around here that might want a couple of extra swords with all this uncertainty around, we've just go to make sure we don't go chasing those that don't"
Yakim smiles, nodding a little bit. "Will do," he offers, waiting for a few moments now, to get ready to head back to the stables. "How did you like the town here, Ser?" Sounding a bit curious now.
"It's a shit hole," Merrick replies with a faintly amused grin, "but then that was to be expected, most places are. Got good ale and clean whores though, got to say that for it." He shrugs then, it's much like many other trade towns his been to or through of late.
Yakim smiles, with a bit of a shrug now. "Sounds familiar," he remarks, before he chuckles a little. "Aren't most places shit holes to you?" he adds.
"Pretty much," Merrick confirms as he finally gets round to mounting his horse and starting to move it back towards town. "Some more than others mind, but yeah, most of 'em are. Why, you taken a shine to the place or summ't?"
"Not really. Met some interesting people, but most of them were from out of town," Yakim replies, as he moves to follow his knight back towards town. "Just curious, really."
