The next morning before dawn Kitsune was awakened by the sound of wood clanging on an iron pot “WAKE UP KITSUNE!” yelled Mama D, more clanging.
Kitsune jumped up from her pallet beside Mama D’s bed “What the hell is the matter!” she yelled back over the clanging of the pot.
“Time to rise and shine, you said you wanted to be able to protect yourself. I only know one way to accomplish that, military training. From now until you can defeat me in unarmed and armed combat you will be awake before the sun, have 15 minutes to eat, then the rest of the day is training. It won’t be easy and I won’t be easy on you. Like you said it’s a hard world and it’s harder for us women. NOW GET MOVING! Breakfast is served, time is ticking.” Mama D had a wicked smile as she finished.
“Sir yes sir” Kitsune said with an equally wicked smile and a mock salute before she rushed into the kitchen. The food being served was boiled oats, boiled eggs and hearty black bread with coffee. There was honey on the table to be used. True to her word, after fifteen minutes had elapsed Mama D was clanging the pot again.
“Times up soldier, clean those dishes!”
Kitsune jumped to her task. God what have I gotten myself into. I’m going to be a badass though. After cleaning the dishes under Mama D’s critical eye Kitsune was ordered to get dressed. “We have a problem here” Mama D informed Kitsune after she was dressed.
“What problem?”
“You stand out, we cannot be having that. Do you want to be a target?”
“Absolutely not. How can I fix the problem?”
“We have to cover your ears and tail. Suggestions?”
“A cloak covers all of it, but I cannot always wear a cloak. Are head coverings permitted in doors?”
“Good thinking, and I was thinking the same thing. A simple cloth will suffice. What about your tail?”
Kitsune’s brow furrowed in thought “We could tie it to my leg or wrap it about my waist and secure it with a wrap from tip to base.”
“Which do you want to do today?”
“Wrap it will appear to be a fur belt.”
“Get to it!”
Kitsune found some ribbons of cloth and tied her tail to itself. Other than being a bit uncomfortable, it looked pretty good, she thought. Mama D helped with the grey cloth headband, adding an intricate knot for a little flair. “That is a knot used by sailors, I will teach it to you. Now with me we have strength training to do.” Mama D put her through a series of stretches and calisthenic workouts for an hour. Once they were finished the headband was plastered to her scalp and her clothing stuck to her uncomfortably.
“Can you ride a horse?”
“Never have.”
“Beyond time to learn. Follow me and keep up, if I have to turn around and find you there will be extra training.” Mama D hid her coin purse and started for the door. Kitsune was on her heels. Mama D jogged at a steady pace, Kitsune could barely keep up. Her unused muscles protested every step, but she refused to stop. I will be a badass she kept repeating to herself. Ten minutes later they came to the market square that was beginning to fill, now that the sun was up. The jog became a walk due to the crowd. Thank goodness Kitsune thought to herself between much needed breathes. Her legs were wobbly already. It took fifteen minutes to pass through the open market. Once beyond the crowd they were jogging again, Kitsune was gulping air. Mama D kept the same pace the entire way. Ten more grueling minutes later Mama D made it to a stable, Kitsune was less than a minute behind her. “Not bad for your first day, catch your wind while I talk to the stable master.”
Less than ten minutes later Mama D came back with a darkly tanned, short, spindly man “This is Glenn, he runs this stable for the city guard. I was once employed by them and he has agreed to allow us the use of his fine horses for a fee that you will pay.”
“Mama D I don’t have any money.”
Glenn answered “Well then young lady, you will have to tend some horses before and after each ride. ‘Tis important to know the care of your animal, they ain’t unthinking beasts. You treat them right and they will take care of you. Let’s get started on your learnin’.”
“Yes sir!” Kitsune replied in her best soldier voice.
“Got a good one I think this time Deena” Glenn tossed a wink at Mama D.
Kitsune was given all the names and functions of a horses tack, shown how to properly clean a stall, introduced to all the horses, and how to properly saddle a horse. With the primary instruction done. She was ordered to clean all the stalls, one of the stable hands would assist with moving the horses as she cleaned the stalls. The stable hand helping her was a boy of around eight years old, dark haired and dark eyed. “Ello, I’m Trent.” he gave her a warm smile
“Hi, I’m Kitsune. Nice to meet you. Let’s get to work.”
The horses were scared of her at first, but following the stable hands advice to give them a treat to gain their trust Kitsune was able to begin guiding the horses without the stable hands help. The hot sweaty work of cleaning the stalls was not appreciated after a morning of hard exercise, but Kitsune accomplished it as was requested of her. It took the rest of the morning to clean the stalls and tend the horses. Kitsune and the stable hand were rewarded with a lunch of thick sliced beef, hot bread, and hot tea. After finishing the meal the stablemaster escorted Kitsune to the riding carrol. “This un here little lady is what we use for those fresh to the saddle” he pointed, indicating an old, grey mare not swayback, but getting leaner as horses do in old age that was tied to a post in the center of the corral. “Her name is Gertrude, go on and get to know her. Once you feel comfortable with her, put a saddle on her and walk her about the carrol.”
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Kitsune walked slowly over to Gertrude, the horse noted her approaching and stood stoically. “Hey Gertrude, I’m here to ride you today. I have a treat for you” Kitsune offered her a small sugar cube, which Gertrude happily ate. After giving Gertrude her treat, Kitsune patted the old mare down talking to her soothingly. “How about a little exercise girl, get those old bones moving about?” Gertrude just looked at Kitsune unblinking. “Guess I would have to be crazy to expect a response.” Kitsune whispered to herself as she untied Gertrude, walking her over to the stables. Kitsune saddled the horse as she was shown all the while Glenn was giving her advice on how to use the reins and how to sit in the saddle while the horse was walking or running. Ten minutes later and with some tips from Glenn she had saddled Gertrude. “I’ll hold her while you mount up.” Glenn offered. Kitsune thanked him as she put her foot in the stirrup and gracefully seated herself in the saddle. Glenn whistled “A natural.” he called to Mama D.
Kitsune spent thirty minutes walking and trotting the horse about the carrol. At first sitting atop an animal and guiding it around was slightly disorientating, it wasn’t like a machine. She could feel the horse's response to her pull on the reins or nudge of her knees. The responses were not immediate, you could tell the horse took fractions of a second to think about what to do and if it wanted to. After thirty minutes of guiding Gertrude, Kitsune began to enjoy riding, but her legs were protesting. She walked Gertrude back to the post “Okay girl, I’m going to hop off and give you a break.” Gertrude just plodded over to the post, standing still as Kitsune swung her leg over and dismounted. Leaving the reins on the saddle, she hooked the lead rope to the hackamore and walked Gertrude in a big circle back to the stable to properly give the horse a cool off and to stretch her sore cramping legs. Outside the stable she took the saddle off, then took her into the stable for a brush down and some feed. “Thank you for today, see you tomorrow.” Kitsune gently scratched Gertrude between the eyes before leaving.
Glenn and Mama D were waiting on Kitsune outside the stable. “Girl you did darn well for your first day. Now later on today I am expecting you to come back and clean the stalls again or you owe me five silver.” he gave her a wink.
“You did well Kitsune, however we have much more to do today. Follow me and keep up.” Mama D took off at a jog. Kitsune sighed and started after, her legs protesting the whole way. Kitsune was glad when they stopped a couple minutes later having arrived at a fenced area with several men in armor sparing with blunted or wooden weapons. “This is the practicing area for the guards, occasionally the lords and merchants son’s come out to show off for their lady’s. Thankfully today I don’t see any. I don’t much care for the whelps, too full of themselves. Let’s go see the head instructor.”
Mama D took them to a tall, muscular woman with a thick, long braid of shiny, dark hair. She had a jagged, old scar on her cheek. Seeing them approaching she glared at Mama D “Look what the tide washed up. What brings your sorry self out her Deena? Want another whoopin?”
Mama D returned the glare “Yidia don’t let that mouth of yours get you a matching scar on the other cheek.”
They locked stares for a few moments, then embraced. “Good to see you Deena. How have you been? It’s been too long since you trained.”
“Good to see you too, I have been well enough. I am enjoying retirement. I’m not here for me today.” She pointed her thumb at Kitsune. “This here is Kitsune. She wants to learn to protect herself and others. I have a feeling she may be a good recruit given a little polish. She certainly has the backbone for the job. I done put her through some strength, running, and riding drills today. We are gonna finish with some weapon instruction. I leave it to you. Maybe after we will have a little go at one another for old times sake.”
Yidia gave Kitsune a critical look over “Hello Kitsune, you seem a bit thin and spindly. We will work on that. What weapons do you want to use?”
“Hello Yidia, I would like to use daggers and small weapons. I do not believe I will ever be as strong as Mama D or yourself.” Kitsune gave her a big smile.
“Not a bad assessment, we will see how you fare. Using two weapons is more difficult than most think. Follow me and let's get you started on some drills.”
Yidia led her to a weapons rack with blunted steel weapons. She grabbed a shortsword from it and handed it to Kitsune. “I know you said daggers, but those are not honorable warrior weapons. Those are backups for special use. I want to start you with the shortsword. A good reliable weapon for most any foe.”
Kitsune took the shortsword and got a feel for its balance remembering Iwoa’s instructions. “I am ready for your lessons.” Kitsune’s voice carried a deadly calm to it.
Yidia nodded to Mama D “She does have backbone.” For the next couple of hours Yidia put Kitsune through a series of drills utilizing different strikes and movements. Kitsune picked up the instructions quickly, they were similar to the teachings from her beloved uncle. While completing the forms she had to choke back tears caused by the resurfaced memories. Yidia, noticing the tears, called a stop to the training. “Something wrong Kitsune?”
Kitsune, glad for the reprieve after a gruelling day so far, wiped the sweat and tears from her face. “All is well, just doing this training reminds me of time spent with an uncle I loved very much. He taught me how to fight some and the use of knives for defense. He passed away years ago.”
Yidia nodded “That would explain why you picked up the forms so quickly. You can place the weapon back on the rack and have a seat. Deena and I will have a match so you can see how true warriors fight. Ready Deena?”
Mama D already had a padded mace and shield at hand “Just waiting on you to quit blabbing and get your weapon ready.”
Yidia grabbed a spear and shield and squared up with Mama D. Yidia did a quick stab that Mama D blocked with her shield. “Don’t think I’m gonna go easy on you Deena just because you’re old.” Mama D circled waiting for the next strike, Yidia quickly stabbed forward again, but turned her wrist pushing the point wide as Mama D started to raise her shield, Yidia rotated her hips back and pushed her arm down causing the point to circle down arcing at Mama D’s legs.
Mama D saw the feint for what it was, she hopped over the strike to her legs closing the distance to Yidia, using her momentum she sent her mace on course for Yidia’s head. Yidia blocked the strike with her shield. Her shoulder receiving the brunt of the force began to tingle as numbness set in. “And don't ya think that just because you’re teaching my disciple that I won’t ring your bell.” Mama D yelled as she struck the shield.
Mama D pressed her advantage being inside the spears range she sent blow after blow crashing on Yidia’s shield. Yidia accepted the blows while constantly trying to create distance, she couldn’t feel her left arm. As Yidia stepped back she felt her balance go and started to stumble, Mama D seeing the stumble slammed her shield in Yidia’s. However there wasn’t any resistance behind the shield and the forceful blow had Mama D hopping to keep her balance. Yidia when she felt her stumble coming tossed her shield towards Mama D and did a back roll, she came to her feet with a two hand grip on her spear. She began twirling it like a staff advancing on Mama D. Mama D caught off balance barely got her shield up to block the rapid strikes of the spear. Knowing she couldn’t out maneuver Yidia, Mama D barreled forward into her, jamming the spear as it struck. Yidia, expecting the rush, allowed her arms to collapse on the shield so she could press off. Doing so she delivered a heavy kick to the bottom of the shield, forcing Mama D’s momentum down. As Yidia landed she stabbed her spear forward using all of her reach. Mama D accepted the kick and change of momentum to dive into a roll over her shield swinging her mace out wide as she came up, it caught the spear thrust sending it wide of her, she raised her shield to swat the spear up before Yidia could pull the thrust back. Mama D lunged under the rising spear, changing her grip on her mace to just under the padded head, she punched a hard straight right into Yidia center knocking the wind from her. Yidia hopped back leaning her spear as she caught her breath back. “You win this round Deena.”
Mama D patted Yidia on the back. “You almost had me with that shield decoy. Same time tomorrow?”
Yidia smiled, “I’ll be here.”
“Time to go. Kitsune you have stalls to clean or tac to tend.” Mama D called to her
Kitsune, not wasting any time, started to jog immediately back to the stables forcing Mama D to catch up. At the stable Glenn set Kitsune to work cleaning the stalls and feeding the horses. This took much less time than it had in the morning, once she finished Glenn showed her how to clean and maintain the tac. By now the sun had dropped considerably. Mama D had to intervene on Kitsune’s cleaning. “Glenn, we gotta get back and start making our dinner or this one will have nothing to eat tonight.”
“We can’t be having this pupil starving, no ma’am. Alright girl get on outta here.”
Kitsune and Mama D jogged to the market where Mama D purchased some sausage links and vegetables for their dinner. Making Kitsune carry the sack with the food, they jogged home. Once home Mama D questioned Kitsune on her ability to cook. Kitsune assured her she wouldn’t burn the house down. Trusting Kitsune Mama D took her buckets to get more water from the nearest well. When she returned Kitsune had the sausage and vegetable chopped up and frying.
“Goodness Kitsune, that smells wonderful! Have you ever made biscuits?”
“I have not, are we making some tonight?”
“Oh no sugah, we would be up much too late. In the morning I’ll wake you and you can help me. It will be a more pleasant wake up than this morning I assure you. Take that water and get a cold bath in the tub out back. The cool water will be good for your muscles.”
“What about someone seeing me?”
“The fence will keep anyone from seeing you.”
Kitsune took the buckets that Mama D had brought and carried them out the front door to behind the house where an area just big enough for her to set the buckets down and have walking space around a copper tub was fenced off with eight foot tall wood posts. The water was shockingly cold, she used soap and a sponge that was inside the tub to scrub clean the day’s grime and sweat. When she returned inside after bathing and draining the water, Mama D had their food on plates and a metal bucket of water heating on the stove.
“What’s the hot water for?” Kitsune asked.
“My washing sugah. These old bones don’t do well with cold plunges.”
“A warm bath sounds amazing!” Kitsune shouted.
“We will see about tomorrow you gettin’ one. You gotta carry the buckets though.”
“Maybe it can wait until I get used to this rigorous schedule you have me on.” Kitsune and Mama D shared a laugh. Then they sat down to a meal. After cleaning the items used for the food Kitsune fell onto her pallet and was out.