The beginning of a long process

"Get up runt" Quinara barks nudging me, I open my eyes my vision blurry expecting to see the emerging daylight but it's still in the darkness of night, this was a far earlier start than we had done so far. "Ugh it's so early why are we getting up at this hour" I complain as I blearily wipe sleep from my eyes, "we need to get moving early today if we're gonna make any headway" she states stamping out our campfire. I do wonder what she meant by this I mean we were making headway without being up this early but I knew better than to question Quinara.

We walk through the early hours of the day and Quinara is right we were making great progress, however as we approach a frosted clearing Quinara stops "here looks perfect" she says with an almost excited tone. "Perfect for what?" I ask wondering where this was going, she leads me into the open space and takes off her pack beckoning me to follow suit, "draw your sword" she says once her pack was off her back, "Um why?" I ask nervously "because I'm gonna teach you how to use it" she replies, now I had at least given my sword a few practice swings since leaving Bragar but to say I didn't need teaching would be a lie.

I draw my sword and hold it weakly in my dominant right hand, "ok I'm ready", Quinara shakes her head "no you're not", "what do you mean I've drawn my sword?" Quinara steps to me "you're holding it wrong, use both hands", I look at her Barcus never used both hands and this wasn't a greatsword it was designed for one handed use "but Barcus only ever used one hand to-" "and Barcus is a physically stronger person, you can barely lift that thing with one hand runt. If you use both you'll get more power in your swings and have more control" she explains, sure it wasn't designed to be a two handed sword but Quinara was forgoing rules for practical advice. I take my left hand and grip onto the hilt with my right interlocking my fingers "don't lock your fingers" she instructs, "what why?" I ask, she then grips the tip of my sword with her fingers on the flat edges "imagine your hit with an arrow ok? now pull it out" I look puzzled but obey and as I untangle my interlocked fingers to free up a hand she tugs at my sword wrenching it from my weakened grip. "That's why runt if you need to use your other hand for something you have to loosen your grip. Hold it one hand above the other dominant hand closer to the cross-guard weaker hand lower"

Once my grip on the sword is to her liking Quinara moves to the next critique, "your feet are too close together" she says lightly shoving me over to prove her point. "Stand like this" she says demonstrating a far wider stance, "ok" I say emulating her position, once ready she gives me another light shove and while I do stagger I don't fall. It was such a small thing but not having toppled over made me feel like this could actually work I could be taught to fight.

She teaches me for the next hour, and while I would love to say I was now a proficient swordsman it was very clear I had a lot to learn. But I now knew how to grip my sword, I had sure footing and I even had practiced a few swings. "Well you have a lot to work on but you're not completely hopeless" Quinara says as we finish up, this was as close to a compliment as I was ever going to get from her, "thank you" I say looking at her with awe. "Take some time to catch your breath then we continue south. Every day from now on we'll take an hour if we can to train. I don't think I can turn you into a fighter but I can try runt" she grabs an apple from her pack and bites into it with a crunch, "want one runt?" I take her up on her apple offering and we eat our fruit in silence taking a much needed break before we would head off once more.