Glug.

"You'd have to ask Tea Lady, and I'm not entirely sure I didn't hallucinate her. So, where to?"

"There's a practice field if you don't mind maybe getting an audience. Wooden weapons too. This way. Tea Lady?"

Ame does not mind free advertising maybe an audience. She follows him to the practice field.

"I couldn't begin to tell you. It's been a very strange day."

"Well, better keep my face out of the thorns! I'm well aware I'm not pro adventurer material. Your type can handle all the dangerous weird stuff."

They get to the practice field. Instead of sparring with her right away or picking up any practice weapons, Arwen has her learn to fall correctly, how to punch correctly, has her hold a stance and nudges her into correctness, and generally tries to fill in street fighting instincts with actual training. His eyes wander appreciatively and his professionalism has a couple of itty bitty cracks, groping a bit after demonstrating a grab, lingering close behind her after correcting her arm position...

They pick up a few spectators, and almost the only reason more of them stare at Ame than Arwen is because she's new - He's not bad looking, very fit, and still shirtless.

Ame is passable at falling correctly, and does know how to throw a punch. Stances are new, though, and give her plenty of opportunities to encourage cracks in Arwen's professionalism. She learns quickly, even before Skills get involved, and is taking the lesson seriously, but she doesn't bother to hold back the little appreciative noises she makes when his hands wander.

She'd also like to encourage the ogling of Arwen in addition to herself, in whatever subtle ways present themselves.

Arwen privately thinks that it's lucky his pants are loose, baggy things.

Anyway, he's happy to repeat inadvertently ogleable motions a few times upon requests and if he realizes any of this, he doesn't comment on it.

He starts doing more intense exercises along with her, repeated lunges and punches and kicks and the like. Some time into this it clicks in the now-distinctive feeling of Skill-up. 

He calls for a break after most of an hour, breathing hard.

"Quick learner! Huff. Weapons, next. Sword and shield?"

She smiles at the compliment, puts her hand on his chest, and heals his fatigue.

"That's actually a good question. I picked up this random sword but I'm not sure what kind of weapon might actually suit me, and that's something I want to figure out as early as possible. What do you think?"

"-Woah, or, no need for a break. Wow. Eh- Broadly, for melee weapons, you've got sword-and-shield, large weapons, knives optionally with shield, and polearms. Sword-and-shield is balanced. Large weapons need strength and hit hard but can leave you vulnerable. Knife users tend to be quick, tricky, and frail. Polearms suffer in one-on-one fighting are great in a group, and you can lean either with-shield or large-weapon with them. If you were going to join our militia I'd tell you to get spear and shield, and maybe archery... But as an adventurer, I'd suggest learning whatever your preference is to use with a shield, and also either large weapons or heavy polearms, for flexibility."

"Hm. I've ever fought with a knife before, and I am quick and possibly sneaky, and 'frail' is probably relative. On the other hand, I just, like the idea of having a shield. On the other other hand, healer. If I'm not by myself would I even be on the front line?"

"You could learn to buff or attack from a distance later. I can't teach you archery - no spare bow - or magic, don't know any worth aught to an adventurer. Very much a weapons specialist, see?" He flexes his arms with a slightly self-deprecating smile.

"I see. Hm. I want to suggest something like a... bladed shield, like a small oval shape with the forward edge sharpened or serrated or something? But I dunno if that's at all practical."

Ame doesn't even know how magic is learned at all, though. "Now I'm curious, what magic do you know?"

"Sounds impractical. Maybe someone out there is using such a thing. I can do, you know, little everyday things. Mending loose threads, sparks for campfires. Holding nails steady."

Ame glances down at her fishnet top, which, on reflection, is as far from 'sturdy' as a piece of clothing could get. "I'd love to learn how to mend loose threads, now that you mention it. That can wait, though. I think knife-and-shield would probably work best for me? I'm probably worst at arms reach, so I should plan on either staying at full range or being so up-close that a weapon I need room to use would be useless."

"Where's that self-reflection coming from? I mean, looking at a mirror must be fun so maybe you were just distracted, but I'm not quite seeing why you're so sure you're worst at arm's reach."

"It's more that, I'm pretty sure at higher levels my healing Skill is going to make, just, tackling the monster and ignoring any damage it does to me while I stab it disproportionately effective. So I should have a weapon that's still just as useful when I'm pinned down as when I'm standing."

"Ah. Definitely knives or short sword, then. Some other holdout weapons wouldn't be a bad idea. I can sort of see the appeal of never using armor if you're expecting to level that hard... Reckless. I still say there's merits to flexibility, though. And I don't have delving knives spare for you to borrow, you're going to have to use that cheap blade. Maybe clean and sharpen it first."

He does a quick stretch and goes to fetch 'practice' knives from the racks at the edge of the training field.

Ame decides to try all of the combinations of sword, shield, and knife, including sword and knife without shield, just to see how each feels. Arwen is a good teacher, and none of the three configurations feel particularly awkward when they move on to sparring.

Once she gets her first Skill level(s) she tries mixing in Unarmed. Her body is still getting slowly stronger and more responsive from intermittent but on-going mental effort with her Unique Skill, and she feels wonderfully light on her feet as she trades blows with him.

The one-two drop-kick into a spinning backflip is mostly just for fun, and she doesn't exactly stick the landing.

She's advancing at a frankly kind of insane pace, and Arwen is happy to train for a long time, forgetting about how time is passing as long as she keeps restoring him.

She gets the Skills, but it's becoming clear that her capacity to refresh herself is not infinite. A sort of bone-deep tiredness is starting to creep up, she's not moving as quickly as she could anymore. Also, the sun is low to the horizon. And she's hungry and thirsty.

Well that figures. She really hopes that at higher levels she'll be able to bootstrap herself to healing her own brain and achieve infinite stamina, but for now it makes sense that a Skill that lets her mind rule her body isn't going to let her ignore mental fatigue.

She restores them both one last time and hands over the training weapons with a grin.

He puts the training weapons up. "I think we both need a meal and a bath, much as I almost want to grab you here and now from all the great views I got. Also, that Skill has wonderful implications for... Training." He smirks.

"I know right."

Ame slips in close, and indulges herself by licking from his chest up to his neck. The salty burn on her tongue is an erotic thrill even if the taste itself is worth forgetting, and she wants to see his reaction. Her hand glides over the front of his crotch and rubs, just once.

"Lead the way."

He doesn't seem to know how to react, except in an involuntary shiver.

"Of course, fair adventuress."

The bath he has in mind is next to a bedroom at one end the Fairsol clanhall, so he endures crass comments about 'practicing swordplay' from a variety of hecklers in the rooms they pass (one of whom teases him about finishing her shed some time this week), and grabs two hunks of bread on the way in. The bathroom looks clean and the taps are recognizable - the tub is sized for one. He gestures Ame in.

"Since you've nothing clean to change into, perhaps I could go wash- Well, it seems like you might not mind doing that yourself but I don't want to presume too much."

"I think you mean foreplay!" Ame calls back at the one loud heckler.

When a woman mentions a shed, Ame remembers that Arwen was building a shed and pauses briefly to promise to owe her a favor to make up for the delay.

Aw, the tubs not big enough to share. Too bad.

"It's fine," Ame tells Arwen, stripping out of her barely-clothes. "I can just put it all in the tub for a minute. One of the advantages of wearing stuff with very little fabric is that my clothes have very little fabric. Makes it easy to wash them on the go, and they dry really fast."

Indeed, she drops the fishnet shirt, nonporous skirt, and matching fishnet panties and socks into the tub instead of getting in herself, then bends over to work the taps, wiggling her nude hips at him.

The pun she attempted..... Does not work at all. It causes confusion instead of amusement.

This might the first time she's noticed that she's not actually speaking English if she hasn't caught something strange about a few of the idioms people use up until now. Whatever is translating for her, it's mostly very smooth, but it appears to have trouble with puns.

"Too bad it's not bigger, I'd love to hop in with you. Instant hot and cold water is already pricey - double-sized tubs for every bathroom is beyond us. Guess I'll just have to watch the beautiful view 'till my turn, eh?"

(Tea Lady told her she wouldn't be speaking English, she just forgot for a moment, and is ignoring the fallen pun, thank you, maybe they just misheard it, she's still smiling like it was funny.)

Ame grins at him over her shoulder, then gets to washing her clothes. If he just wants to look for now that might make sense but she is bent over and fully exposed and visibly aroused, right in front of him, and... moving, rolling her hips in a very suggestive way, that could almost seem unconscious if you didn't know her.