Tales of Ancient Rome: Salidia and Lydia Chapter 6

                                              Chapter 6

                                       New Kid on the Block

Andeocene was a calm, relaxed man, who was pleasant and helpful, which was no surprise. Talig liked to laugh. The head bodyguard wasn't just a skilled fighter, he was also a capable, competent, smart man; but he wrapped his abilities in laughter, which made his days more pleasant and made the dangers he faced more bearable. When he assembled his group of bodyguards, he choose men who were the best at what they did. But Rome had hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of the best swords for hire, and when given a choice between two men, Talig choose the man who was easiest to get along with. Only when he got to the end of his selections, the twelfth man, Atus, an outgoing man from Germania, did he choose personality over ability. Talig choose Atus over a mean spirited Greek who was a better swordsman. Overall, Talig's group of men were pleasant and friendly. . To see them together, it was like seeing a squad of contemporary soldiers in their barracks, laughing and joking with each other.

The first time Lydia started to focus on Andeocene was late in the afternoon of her first day with Salidia, when she was moving her few things, her new clothes, a blanket, pillow and her pallet, from the slave quarters to Miridia's room. He saw her struggling with the stiff, hay stuffed bag across the court yard, and said, "Here, let me help you with that." Surprised, Lydia never had a man help her at the farm where she had lived. They had only laughed at her when she struggled with something. The next day when she ran into him, he said, "Here, I have a surprise for you." and he walked to the side of the building, and there was a wool stuffed pallet. "Here, this is much better than that old straw bag you have. The weather's still going to be cold for a while. This will keep you warmer." He didn't ask for anything in return, just smiled at her, tousled her hair, and walked away.

She started to watch him. The men at Salidia's villa were a different kind of man than the men on the farm where she had lived. Andeocene was like that with everybody. When somebody struggle with a load or a task, he'd walk over and help. On the part of the other men, when he walked over to someone, they always welcomed him with big smiles, and put their arms over his shoulder. If a group of men were sitting, they'd all slide over to make room for him, and all say, "Come on, sit down, there's plenty of room," even when there wasn't much room.

During her first practice the next day, when she accompanied Salidia for Salidia's practice session with the men, Talig showed Lydia a way to block and counter strike while she spun to the right, and then change direction to move behind an opponent to attack him from the back a second time. She was having trouble with the change of directions. Her momentum carried her straight back, and she stumbled when she tried to change directions and move to the right.

Andeocene came over when he saw Lydia having problems with the move, and said, "Here, when you come around, you have to lean forward and put all your weight on your right leg, and keep your knee bent, and ready to absorb your stop. Then push off with your left. Keep the left leg close to your body as you turn. It helps if you dip your shoulder down just before you move right. It helps start the movement. Do the strike for the leg then. See," and he demonstrated it for her. Then he showed her a variation to strike for the leg, and move straight back, instead of going to the right. The variation was very easy to do, and fast; and she liked it. And he stayed there and practiced it with her time after time until she got it, and the variation too.

Andeocene continued to watch the girl practice for a while, and noticed that the girl started to picked up the trick of bringing her body into the correct ending positions for each of the separate steps. "That's good, Little One, you picked it up fast," he said to her.

"Here, let me show you something," Andeoscene added. "Talig has his way of being fast. He trains muscles to move quickly. I have my way of being fast. I'll show you," he said to her. "At the end of the second step, your right arm is up in the strike, and you know you want to start dipping your right shoulder down at the start of the fourth step. Be fast by starting to move your right arm down during the third step. Be fast by positioning yourself to be ready for your next move, so when you have to do the next thing, you're already in position."

"Position yourself to be prepared for the next thing you have to do, that's another way to be fast. For this block, it means dropping your shoulder as you come around for the second strike. That means you have think of both your right arms and your left leg during the third step, but that is what practice is for. It is why we drill hour after hour. Practice enough, and you'll get faster by having all your moves integrated with each other," he continued with her.

"See," he said to her, demonstrating. "On the fourth step, if I start to push off my left leg, it naturally helps to push your right arm forward for the second strike, and that starts you off for the fifth step. Everything working to together. That makes you fast, too."

Caius, who was standing around like a fifth wheel, joined the conversation. "Don't let this windbag fill you up with too much to remember all at once, kid." "Ande," he said, turning to Andeocene, "give the girl a break. One thing at a time. Let her learn Tal's stuff first."

Turning back to Lydia, Caius said, "You practice this stuff tomorrow, and if you feel you've got it down, then try something else. Don't rush and force yourself to do stuff before you're ready. Only move on to something new when you're comfortable with the last thing you learned. Don't let that bag of hot air over there stick you with too much to do all at once. Finally, when you feel you are ready for something new and you get bored doing the same thing over and over, come see me. I'll show you something new, too."

He went on, "Not everything is about speed. You have to be agile and nimble, too. There's two ways to be agile. You have to be born with some it, or else you can't do this job; but there's another way: be practiced and ready with a dozen things to do no matter what your opponent does. Be agile by having a bag full of tricks ready to use on your opponent. Be ready to fly into a dozen practiced moves the instant your opponent tries something. Be fast by having dozens of things to do, practicing each one until you can do them without thinking."

"When you're comfortable with these variations, see me. There are three other variations on this one block alone. We'll having you flying around this training ground in no time," Caius finished.

There maybe no better way to pump up a man's ego than letting him strut around as a "know it all." It puffed up the ego of all the men to play the "expert" for the young girl. They would have beat each other over the head for their turn at being a "all knowing expert" for Lydia. And she rewarded them with a best reward possible: a big smile. And because Lydia was a naturally good athlete, the frustration of dealing with a lot of mistakes was avoided, which just encouraged the men to teach her more and more.

Because of the boost to the men's ego's from Lydia's smiles, Lydia had a line of twelve of the best swords in Rome showing her what they knew, each man something different than the other. She was getting a good education, and practice day after day, with possibly the best twelve swords in Rome.

That night after practice, everyone gathered in the atrium, as was their custom, and just chatted. As Salidia's maid, Lydia accompanied Salidia to the gathering for the first time, and she didn't know what to do standing on the edge of the group. She watched Andeocene out of the corner of her eye, trying not to be obvious while remembering her father and uncles who were so nice and good to her. She missed those men from her family so much, and that look of longing must have colored her eyes. Andeocene noticed her glance at him, and motioned her over to him, scrunching over on his seat to make room for her.

To him it was an inconsequential thing; something he would have done for anybody standing while everyone else sat. But to her it was a big deal. It was not a place to sit while people talked; it was the warmth of family that were nice to her that she remembered and missed. It wasn't a seat she looked for; it was people who would be nice to her that she wanted. Andeocene reminded her of her uncles, and he came to symbolize them to her. Shy because the stakes were so high for her, afraid of being rejected for something she wanted so badly, she was too shy to sit on the seat with him; but she went over and sat on ground next to him, leaning back on the empty part of the seat. It was no big deal to him. She reminded him of his younger daughter, Kaylin. Both were spunky, brave girls. He stroked her hair once, as an acknowledgement of her presence, as he would if he were sitting with Kaylin.

To Lydia, this was a big deal. When he stroked her hair, it was like she had found her uncle from long ago. The first time he did it, a tear filled her eye. She was timid about it, and it took some time, but it became her habit to sit next to Andeocene, with her head resting on his leg, him stroking her hair when they gathered at night to talk. One, with the emptiness of missed uncles filled in; the other, with thoughts of a missed daughter, sons, and wife replaced with a substitute for a while.

That second day with Salidia, when Lydia followed Salidia to practice for the first time, Talig had his first chance to talk to the girl on the training grounds. Talig showed Salidia a move that he wanted her to practice until she could do it without thinking, so she was going to be repeating it three hundred times, or five hundred times, or a thousand or whatever it took. Caius got tired of waiting for Talig as he instructed Salidia, and started up some  two on one practice with Andeocene and Rufus. Two on one practice was really just keeping your reflects sharp, and parrying like all Hades.

Talig liked that the young girl was there at practice. There were an even twelve men for practice, and everyone had a partner. When Salidia came, she made thirteen, and someone had to stand around without a partner. The young girl made an even number again, and even if she was too green to offer much use in practice, at least she was somebody to talk to.

That first day at practice when he talked to her for the first time, he was mindful that the girl had some sort of issue with the Goths, some sort of history with them, and he was tactful with her. "Would you like me to show you some things with that," he said, pointing to her dagger, "Some day you might have to defend yourself or your Mistress with it."

Besides, he was standing around the practice ground with nothing else to do.

Lydia got all flustered and embarrassed when Talig came over and started to talk to her for the first time. On the one hand, he had been the first person to be nice to her, and there was such a shortage of people in her life who had been nice to her. On the other hand, he terrified her. Muscular, agile, his simplest movements betrayed an athletically coordinated man who made everything look easy to do. He was incredibly fast and skillful when he practiced. On the farm where she lived, where brute force ruled, it was clear he would have dominated every man there; and in that world, the stronger a man was, the more he hurt her. He was the most physically dangerous man she had ever seen, and her instincts told her this man could hurt her worse than any other man she had ever met. She could hardly concentrate as he talked to her, torn between the memory of his niceness and fear of him.

Talig noticed how shy the girl was, and that she wasn't really following what he was saying to her; and he deliberately slowed down what he said to make it real simple for her. He was showing her the simplest block and strike. "First you block like this. That's step one. Then you strike like this. That's step two. Then you bring your leg and arm around like this. That step three. And you strike a second time. That's step four. See! One. Two. Three. Four. Simple! Do you want to try it? I'll pretend to strike at you, and you do the block and counter strike. Alright? Ready? Here we go." He pretended to strike at her, and hoped she would counter with the four steps he had just shown her.

She really wasn't paying attention to him, lost in the welter of thoughts racing through her mind, and it caught her by complete surprise when he feigned a strike at her. First, her face flashed terror, and then immediately shifted to rage, and then...............

"Holy Gods," he thought! She flew at him, both arms swinging, faster than any of the "large shield" men could have done. It was like fast Caius was coming at him. He really had to work hard to stay away from her. He felt like he just stepped on a cat's tail. "Easy! Easy, little one," he laughed, backing up as fast as he could. "Easy, my Little Lion! God's, you're fast. It's just practice. It's just practice," he laughed, running backwards as fast as he could before her onslaught.

It was his retreating and constant laugher that made her realize he hadn't really attacked her. His retreat removed her feeling that he was threatening her; and without the threat of attack, she started to think clearly again; and remember where she was. Then she realized she had acted inappropriately, taking him seriously when he really meant no harm.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to get so mad."

He leaned over to look her level in the face, and with a big smile on his face, he said, "It's alright, Little Lion. No harm done. And you turned my practice session into a real workout, so I owe you a 'Thank You.' Come on, I'll show you again. Just don't bite me." This time, she paid attention. And she picked it up immediately. She only had trouble when he added the fifth step, the change of directions.

"Don't worry about it. First, practice each of the steps separately. You have to be able to do each one clean and complete, or you'll get sloppy and make mistakes when you do it fast. Do One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Each one separate. Train your body to go to each of the five positions. Then we'll worry about getting them all to fit together later. It just comes with practice."

She started to practice the five steps by herself. Salidia was still practicing what he had shown her. Caius, Andeocene and Rufus stopped to laugh at the spectacle of Talig backing across the practice grounds as fast as his legs could carry him under the assault of the little spitfire. Talig went back to his own practice with Caius. Later, when the girl tried to put all the steps together, Talig noticed that she was having trouble with the change of directions. That was the hard part. Everyone had trouble with the change of direction. Then he noticed that Andeocene went over to help her with it. Good Andeocene, he was always ready to help anyone with anything.

That night when they gathered in the Atrium to sit and talk, the girl attended for the first time, and Talig watched her. She was so shy. Good Andeocene made room for her, but she shyly just sat on the ground next to him. Andeocene tried to make her feel welcome. Talig thought, "She's such a contradiction. So shy when you talk to her, yet so tough on the training ground. Like the god Janus, the god with two faces, one side of the girl is the shy little kitchen mouse, and the other side is the ferocious little lion on the training grounds. So fast and quick to learn." He saw what Salidia liked in the girl. He liked her, too. She was just a bundle of changing emotions, first one thing, than another. And talented, better than any novice he remembered seeing. She was already getting smooth with the change of directions, dropping her right shoulder and bringing it forward. In one day! Smooth! Salidia made a good choice in picking the girl.

He leaned over to Salidia, "Your little spitfire is quite a little lion. Fast. I'll spend some time with her. She might turn out to be something quite good." "Little lion," Salidia thought. Talig's opinion mattered a lot to her. When she picked Lydia, it was because of the scowl the girl cast on the Goth, and her amusing personality. She had no idea of the girl's physical abilities. That was a fortuitous turn of events. She looked again at the young girl who (continued)