Chapter 15: Sword Dance II

The next morning's routine started out as normal with a run through the forest. This time I entered the meditative state as soon as we started running and monitored the area around me constantly, building up the map-model in my head as we went and checking what I sensed against what I saw. The process was slowly becoming entirely automatic and I found as we ran in various formations that I could shift the mapping to the back burner of my mind. I was slowly integrating this new skill and I started seeing the fruits of it within a few short klicks.

We were running in the arrow-head formation and I rotated to the left point position. I felt as if I was running incredibly fluidly and had to really think about to discover what was different. After a while I realised that I was not crashing through the bush, but rather I seemed to glide through it without interfering with anything. I was running almost silently with very few breaking sticks or branches snapping back into place behind me. I decided that this was a very nice development: fast and silent movement, especially through the bush, was a gem without price in any jungle based combat.

I was shaken from my thoughts by a sudden question in my mind.

"[You hunt?"]

It was S'Alor. I recognised his mental 'taste' instantly. This time, probably because I was not expecting him to be a human, I paid more attention to the subtleties of the query, and the underlying feel that I got was that of feline.

"[No. We practice.]" I replied.

"[Why?]"

I thought about the question before answering. As I turned it over in my mind, S'Alor came into range of my mind-mapping and this time he wasn't hidden from me. I stumbled slightly in shock and then recovered and ran on as I considered the image I had seen and compared it to the image that Finger Roberts had added to his description on the first run we had taken. If I wasn't mistaken, S'Alor was a Smilodean. One of the predator cats that we had been told to watch out for. The ones that ate humans. There had been no hint that the cat might be sentient. I decided I needed to be careful, as I didn't know what I was getting into, but at the same time, the over-whelming sense I got from S'Alor was one of curiosity and even friendliness. Not aggression. There was also a sense of things being very simple in S'Alor's mind. He had even made the point to me the first time he contacted me, pointing out that he thought I was a predator and not prey. it seems he divided the world up into those two camps. In the light of that, I decided to answer him as simply as possible, but to try to ensure that I didn't scare him off.

"[To make sure we learn how to do it properly.]"

"[You are not a cub. Why do you have to learn this?]"

I had to consider my answer carefully.

"[The lessons I learnt as a cub are not the same lessons that I need to learn here. Finger Roberts {image} is acting as our mother while we are acting as 'her' cubs to learn what we need to know.]"

There was a slight pause as S'Alor turned this concept over in his mind.

After a while he asked "[You 'taste' like a hunter. I watched in your mind the memories of 'men-prey' that you hunted before. {puzzlement}]"

"[I was a soldier/hunter before. That must be what you saw. I was thinking of past fights where I had to kill and comparing them to what I can expect to face in the future.]"

"[You are not the same as most of your litter-mates. They 'taste' almost like true cubs. They have not tasted blood; not felt the thrill of claws striking and their prey struggling to get away. Why is this?]"

I was very surprised by this. I thought about it and tried think about it from a cat's perspective.

"[Maybe it is because they have not killed from up close. They might have used a rifle {image} to kill from a long way away.]"

"[True. I do not know about rifles {image} but that 'tastes' similar to what I see in some of their minds. I do see one other. She has also 'tasted' blood. She {image/taste} tastes like a mother though.]"

That was a surprise. The image and mental taste that S'Alor shared with me was definitely of Desrae. I still had not had much of an opportunity to find out her motivation for coming to War World and had assumed that it was simply because of the fringe benefit of regaining lost-youth. I had wondered why someone who had not been a soldier was recruited. I resolved to follow up on that because now I was really curious about her history.

"[I don't know. I will have to ask her.]"

"[I go.]" said S'Alor and he disappeared from my mind and mental mind-map at the same time. As he did so, Finger Rogers called for a breather.

We paused at a stream. Finger Roberts called for the temporary halt, and it took just a gentle reminder that we had to move from our tactical formation (arrow-head) in a dog-leg and then take up our laager positions for all-round defence.

Once we were settled, and Finger Rogers was satisfied with our formation, he asked me "[Cy, what have you been up to?]"

"[What do you mean Finger?]" I wasn't going to volunteer anything until I had had a chance to mull it all over for a while.

"[I can see that there is a huge difference in you. The hair-loss showed me that you have started making progress in the mental control of your body, and I can see that you have already started to apply it to your movement through the bush. What puzzles me though is that I could sense that you were busy communicating with someone during the run and all your comrades weren't, yet there was no-one that I could sense that was within your range.]"

"[Finger, I was talking to someone. He calls himself S'Alor.]" I deliberately kept the taste/image out of the communication. For some reason I didn't think it was right to share the fact that S'Alor was a Smilodean with Finger Roberts until or unless he specifically asked me what he was.

"[I find it strange that I cannot sense him. We will discuss this later.]"

We moved out again after a short rest, and eventually returned to our camp.

After lunch, Finger Roberts started us on practicing the sword forms again. There was no connection between the forms and I found it very difficult to adjust to doing each movement separately. I had discovered the "Sword Dance" the evening before, and I wondered why we weren't taught anything like that. I decided to take the bull by the horns and ask.

"Finger, please could you tell me why we practice each of the sword forms as a single exercise?"

"What do you mean Cy?"

"Well, I was practicing on my own yesterday, and I sort of joined them all together into a series of movements, almost as if I was doing a mock fight. I haven't studied martial arts at all, but I tried to do something similar to the katas that I have read about."

"Why don't you show us what you mean?"

"OK."

I spent a few seconds getting myself into the meditative state that I had discovered and started the Sword Dance. As before, I started fairly slowly, then rapidly speeded up until I was going full-blast. After a few minutes, I heard a mental enquiry from Finger Roberts, "[Cy, stop please. Let's talk about this.]"

I came out of the mental state and stopped. I gave Finger Roberts an enquiring look.

"Where did you learn to do this Cy?" Finger Roberts asked.

I started out just putting the forms together Finger, then I started imagining a series of enemies and used the forms to practice fighting them. I have started calling it a Sword Dance." I answered him.

"Mmm this is something that I haven't seen before with these weapons. I have had some comrades who have had previous training in Kendo and other martial arts who performed something similar, but I never thought I would see anything like this with our weapons. Do you think that you could teach this to others?"

"I am not sure Finger. I would be happy to try though."

"OK. It is actually very early in your training, so I am a little concerned that you start to do things that turn out to be inappropriate to our fighting style. Let's discuss some additional things and then we can see whether we can apply your Sword Dance to it. Colourful phrase by the way."

"Thanks Finger."

"Alright, we haven't started working with the parry dagger yet. Those of you who have studied military history will realise that our choice and combination of weapons and tactics might seem a little strange. We are configured essentially as shock infantry, very similar to the Roman Legions, and yet we have no shields. The use of the parry dagger is also not a normal addition to this configuration. We have been concentrating so far on individual weapons and have barely scratched the surface of the way that you will co-operate as a unit in the battle-line. Most of you have grasped the essentials of the use of the short-sword, and with more drilling in it's use, you will soon be competent. We rely on mental 'shields' to protect us from projectile weapons, but personal shields or bucklers were normally used in the line for individual protection as well as for a weapon to knock your opponent off balance. We introduced the parry dagger for a specific reason. In the first place, the parry-dagger is essentially a short-sword in it's own right, as it is just over half the length of the sword, so you will find that it is particularly useful when you are up close in the line-of-battle, and in a general meleé it becomes a second sword. When you become competent in it's use, you will be able to catch an opponent's sword in the grooves on the back and use that to slow your opponent down, or even, to break his sword. Remember that you, and your opponents, have reflexes and abilities which far outstrip those of the original users of these weapons and tactics, and this makes a big difference to the way that the fighting plays out. Each person in the finger, and in the line, is usually individually extremely skilled. We are not talking about two lines of brutes bashing at each other with pokers. We are also not like the Roman Legion confronting the Picts where the skill and weaponry on the two sides is completely different. We are often very closely matched in abilities and weapons, and we tend to use pretty similar tactics.

"Some people have tried to use other weapons such as maces or axes and we have taught them the error of that pretty quickly. Those weapons are just to unwieldy in the tight confines of the line-of-battle, especially when you consider the ability of the finger to work so closely together, and the space needed to wield them is just not available which slows them down and makes them vulnerable to the sword. In a traditional meleé they would be very effective weapons against soldiers without shields, but remember that even in a meleé, you will fight as a finger, not as individuals. Think of it as the old infantry square. On the breakdown of the line, each finger becomes a fighting unit in it's own right, so you never lose the benefits of fighting with your war brothers.