In The Beginning by Gail Daley (top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT) 📕

her brow furrowed in concentration as she observed her own hand. She had been bouncing with excitement the entire walk home after I had told her my plan to teach her sword fighting. While she saw it as a fun new adventure, I saw it as a necessity; my mind would be much more at ease while traveling if I knew Lia could defend herself in a dire situation. As I had no idea how the culture of this world viewed women learning to fight, I hadn’t yet informed her parents of my plans. We were currently behind Marten’s barn where he stored most of his empty crates and barrels, far out of view of the main house.

With Lia’s hand firmly gripped on the handle I removed my hand from the opposite end of the blade. The full weight of the weapon made her arm drop, but she recovered quickly. I nodded to her. “Okay, time for your footwork. Hop up and show me your best battle stance.” She slid off the barrel and stretched for a moment before settling into a rigid stance, pointing the tip of the sword out at me at a full arm’s length.

Hiding my amusement, I walked around her to observe. “Not bad for a guess, really. Let’s start from the ground up.” With the tip of my boot I tapped the inside of her heels. “You should spread your feet out more, about shoulder width apart. Seeing as you use your sword in your right hand, you should keep your right foot forward, towards whoever you would be fighting. It’s easier for you to move out with power that way.”

I circled around to her side and pushed gently on her shoulders, causing her to rock forward before she could catch her balance. “Your legs are so stiff, it wouldn’t take more than a light breeze to knock you over!” Lia put on a pitiful pout as she readjusted her footing. “You should have a slight bend to your knees and keep your weight more towards the balls of your feet. It lets you react faster to movement and helps keep you steady.”

I moved to her front, lowering her sword arm substantially. “You’ll want to keep your weapon a bit closer. If it’s too far out, you won’t be able to block an incoming attack as easily. Plus, your power comes from your core muscles as much as your sword arm, so you want to use that leverage as efficiently as possible.” Placing my hands on her shoulders, I rotated her counterclockwise. “You don’t want to face your opponent head on. That gives them the biggest possible target.”

Lia cocked her head. “Where did you learn all of this? I had no idea there was so much that went into just...standing, in a fight.”

“Well, I sort of learned from everything, I guess.” I scratched the back of my head, thinking back to my first few encounters with a sword. “I started out on my own, just doing whatever felt right. Whenever somebody would come through town with a weapon, I’d ask them to practice with me.” The memories gave me a good laugh. “After you get thrown in the dirt enough times, you start to learn a few things about what you’re doing wrong.”

She let out a small giggle. “Does that mean you’re going to throw me into the dirt, too?”

“I guess that depends on how good you are!” In one swift motion I crouched and connected my shin with the back of Lia’s knees, using my own momentum to spin and take a knee to catch her in my arms as she toppled backwards with a sudden yelp. The sword, still in its leather sheath, spun to the ground and landed with a dull thud. “Hmmm. Might happen a few times.”

Lia shoved my chest playfully. “That wasn’t fair! I didn’t even know we were starting!” She stood up and retrieved her weapon, dusting off the leather.

“I’m sorry Lia, I couldn’t help myself.” I chuckled as I got up and patted her on the shoulder. “We won’t be doing any real combat training for a while. You have to learn the basics before we get to fighting, or you’ll make some bad habits that will be hard to break.” Taking a few steps back, I sat down on a crate and watched her. “Do you think you can take that combat stance again?”

She nodded, taking a moment to reposition herself to face me. Initially she fell into a stance much like her original one, but she seemed to go through a mental checklist and one by one corrected the issues I had pointed out to her. “That’s great, Lia! Soon enough, that will feel so natural that you won’t even have to think about it. Now, let’s move on to some simple strikes.”

I ran her through a few cuts and slashes, trying to pick moves that were easy but worked different muscle groups to perform. Once I was satisfied with her demonstration of the cuts, I nodded. “Okay. The rest of your practice for today is to repeat those attacks as many times as you can. Just pick one of them, take your stance, do the full motion like we practiced, retake your stance, and repeat.” I looked off into the distance thoughtfully. “Maybe...fifty of each one?”

Lia’s eyebrows shot up, but she caught herself before she said anything, choosing instead to nod silently. She probably thinks I’m less likely to leave her behind if she does what she’s asked and learns quickly. The thought made me uncomfortable, so I logged it away to bring up later. “Let me know if you have any questions. I’ve got a project to work on in the meantime.”

Leaving Lia to her practice, I scouted the area for a set of like-sized crates. Stacking them two by two, I created a decently sized workbench for my next task. Reaching out, I pulled my sword from its resting place in the basement