Wet shirt contest
Novice Sadrok Rachin, Written by CJ
Posted on Wed, Aug 25, 2010 00:47 am
He woke early in the morning, excited to get to the day’s lessons. For the first time – and probably the last, with his luck – all of his lessons would have practical applications today. He wouldn’t have to suffer through boring lectures for hours on end. Once his regular morning routine was done, he set off to breakfast and his morning classes, but it was the Water lesson with Yasmene Sedai and Asha’man Daine that had him excited the most. He didn’t know what they were going to be doing, but they’d been instructed to meet in the Training Grounds, so he felt it was safe for him to rule out any lecture there. His day blew by quickly, and before long he was standing in the designated training yard, listening to Yasmene Sedai’s explanation of today’s lesson. He’d never played this dodgeball game before, but then he’d spent most of his youth yearning to become a Blademaster.
Sadrok studied the Asha’man’s weaves carefully, and while the others in their group were talking tactics, he spent the time practicing the weaves. He was not strong with Water, in fact he was probably having more trouble than any of the other male novices with it, and even a few of the females. So instead of wasting time talking, he worked on getting the weave to look just the way the Asha’man Daine’s weaves had looked, then repeated it until he could do so quickly. By the time the first ball was thrown to them, he felt he was ready – it was much simpler than the fish he’d constructed before in the previous part of the lesson, and with all the time he’d had to practice since then he was getting better at his control over the threads of Water.
As the first ball was being tossed in among them, Sadrok kept to the rear and mostly out of the way. He figured the other team would try to aim for him because of the trouble he’d had before – and when they picked Willim off, this only confirmed his belief. When the next girl was picked off, Sadrok moved up into the front with a few of the others who had mostly been having an easy time in the class, to his way of thinking. this brought a few surprised looks from his teammates, and a few frowns. He wanted to prove to himself that he could do this, and he still had not released the Source since he’d been practicing the weaves a few moments ago.
As Yasmene tossed the next ball straight at him, he wove together his net quickly to catch it. The look of surprise on his teammates faces was well worth the risk, and a moment later he threw the ball into the opposing team, aiming for the girl who had just taken out one of his teammates. She, too, caught the ball, but threw it elsewhere. Watching, he noticed that most of the other team definitely seemed to be trying to pick off the weaker members of his own. Two could play at that game..
He intentionally left himself looking open to draw the ball to him, wove his net as the ball sailed through the air – and a second net of Air behind the first. As soon as he caught the ball of water, he deflected it into the nearest member of the opposing team, catching them full in the chest. A pity it wasn’t the girl, though.
In reply to Battle Royale![show]/[hide]
As they split into the two separate groups, one of the old male Novices immediately took charge. “All right, I spent a little time in the army and tactics will be the same as being in battle. So here’s what we need to do—“
“Wait a minute, who died and made you general of our group?” A female’s voice broke in. “I grew up in Saldaea and my father taught me how to fight Trollocs, I can devise a strategy as well as you.”
Medaea listened impatiently while everyone clamored for who got to make the strategy until a smaller Novice finally broke in. “If we keep arguing, we won’t have a plan! Keep your eyes for those who seem to be struggling, aim at them first. I saw that Novice Wilim could barely get his water ball formed the other day, aim for him first.” Other began piping up on who seemed stronger in lessons and which were weaker until there was a clear idea of who needed to be picked off first. “Now,” the girl continued, “Once we get to the stronger ones, we’ll need to be quick and attack them before they’re able to deflect or catch the water ball. Who feels comfortable throwing fast and quick?”
Medaea spoke up, along with three others in their group—she worried that they kept talking about offense and nothing about defense. Perhaps it was every man (or woman) for himself in the end. And based on some of the comments, most seemed to feel a good defense was a great offense. It seemed they had only spoken for a few short moments when the Aes Sedai called time and they faced off against an equal number of Novices. The first toss seemed to catch the other team off guard, but after the boy bobbled the globe a moment, he took a stance and let it fly toward the girl next to Medaea. She screeched and dove out of the way, nearly onto Medaea as the globe smashed into the ground, darkening it with water.
The next water ball flew toward their side but further from Medaea, the Novice who had originally claimed battle tactic prowess caught the ball and tossed it. She gritted her teeth as it was tossed to someone they had determined to be one of the stronger players and embraced saidar, weaving the net of Water around her hands and threading it lightly with Air between them. It had to be done quickly so she couldn’t even know for sure that she’d duplicated the Aes Sedai’s weaves properly until it was her time to catch the ball. She didn’t like not knowing.
The ball came back again and it was caught deftly by one of the girls who gave a little twirl with her catch and speed-pitched it toward Willim. As anticipated, the Novice flung up his hands but it passed right through them and splattered him in the face. The girl gave a whoop of victory but it didn’t last long. Already another ball was tossed back into the fray, the other team getting their chance. She knew that it was going to speed toward her as soon as the she saw the glint in the male Novice’s eye. Her heart sped up as the ball raced to her and she extended her arms out, the connecting with her net. It worked, Light help her but she got lucky.
One of the targets they had selected was right in front of her, and she smiled, bouncing the ball slightly in her protected hands. The girl’s eyes went wide and Medaea saw saidar spring up around her as she hastily began to weave threads of Water and Air together into the net around her hands. As she stepped back to make the throw, Medaea swiveled at the last moment and whipped the ball of water to another girl who hadn’t even embraced yet. Too late, Medaea thought as she saw the glow come up around the girl and she became suddenly drenched as the water ball smashed into her chest.
There seemed to a be a pleased smile on Yasmene Sedai’s face as she watched the battle go on between them. Medaea knew it was only a matter of time before she too would be out, but Light help her, she was going to hold on as long as she could.
OOC: I have no objection to anyone writing Medaea eventually getting hit with a waterball and getting thrown out! =)
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Replies to Wet shirt contest
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