People involved: Darklett and Terrance

Salamandastron: Training Room
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Salamandastron *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
This is the training room for the hares of the long patrol. The walls
seem to have taken a severe beating, more than likely not from stray
arrows missing the archery targets. There are several of said archery
targets lining the west wall, each with small oak stands a good distance
off to hold arrows, hang a bracer, and rest a bow on. The targets are of
simple design: a large, tightly wrapped bale of hay with a coarse paper
target on the front. A wooden mannequin, in no better shape than the
walls, is in the northeastern corner of the room. Besides that, several
wooden practice swords sit in a small pile. On the eastern side of the
room is a small, makeshift wrestling arena consisting of two mattresses
tied together. Then on the southern side of the room is a fitness area,
assembled from several pull-up bars, and a nice padded area to do push up.
Narrow, cylindrical weights (both wooden and metal) are pushed up against
the wall, along with a few straight metal bars for them to be mounted on.
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Thuk, thuk, thuk! Three more knives thrown by Major Darklett Fletchpaw embed themselves in the target. He's been training pretty hard the last couple of days, reasons known to few. In any case, he takes three more knives out, and starts to juggle them, with almost routine effort.

Terrance pokes his head into the room. Rumors had it that the major had been spending a bit of time in here so Terr thought he'd start his search here. Smiling as he spots the major, the recruit walks all the way in and makes way towards him, stoping a little bit back so as not to interrupt the 'juggling.'

Little by little, the knives' arcs keep getting higher and higher, until the major buys himself enough air time (still an impressively small amount) to launch the knives from his paws towards the target, one right after the other, and a third following close, two planting themselves firmly near the bullseye, the third clanking off one of the first three he threw. Looking at the results for only a short while, he reaches down to grab more knives and repeat.

Terrance blinks at the throws and says, "Nice shots sah" to make his presence known.

Darklett's ears perk, and he turns around, letting the knives stay in his belt. "Recruit Terrance! Thank ya." He even offers a little bow after the show. ;) "Come here for somethin', or just training?"

Terrance smiles a bit at the bow and comes to attention and salutes. "Come 'ere for somethin' actually sah. Wanted ta give ya my application ta take tha test fer Recruit First Class."

"Ah?" Darklett, obviously on one of his training highs, raises both ears and brows in interest, hopping up on the table in front of the archery range, holding out his paw for the application. "Think you're ready, then?"

Terrance nods and drops his salute then digs the paper out from a pocket and hands it to the major. "I'd like ta think so sah. Come quite a ways since I first arrived." The application has the two signatures required, one from the unarmed combat instructor and the other from the sling instructor.

"That ya have, Recruit." Darklett holds the parchment between two paws, one on top and one on bottom as he inspects the signatures. "Looks... Good, I guess. I'm new to this whole 'major' thing, you know... Any idea what I do with this application?" Apparently, nobody's told him what he's in charge of. :P

Terrance blinks, "Um. I guess look it ovah ta make sure it's complete and then make arrangements fer tha test sah?" The recruit guesses.

Darklett nods slowly. "...Right, I'll get right on that. It looks complete to me." He reads the first couple lines, and his eyes move down, glancing over the rest. "I'll make sure this gets to the right maj..." Hm. "Oh, wait a second..."

Terrance just stands at attention, trying not to smirk, but his eyes probably give him away anyway. "Much appreciated sah."

Darklett looks up from the application, which he folds up and places in his own pocket. "I'll speak with ya later about the test, when I free up some time. Always good to get a hare one step closer to bein' a fighter!" He nods, sliding off the table.

Terrance smiles and relaxes, "Thank ya sah." He then looks to the daggers in the target, "If'n ya don't mind me askin' sah, I'm wonderin' why you prefer throwin' knives as yer weapon?"

Darklett looks over his shoulder at the target, grinning at his handiwork. "Hm... Well... With enough practice, you can have pretty good range with them. They're a lot deadlier than arrows, and you don't need to worry about stringing, maintaining, or lugging around a bow with you... And in a tight spot, they can be used as melee weapons, too. Not to mention..." He pulls out a knife and idly twirls it around fingers and knuckles. "Good way to kill time."

Terrance smiles and says, "Aye, I guess so sah. But they must be awfully expensive though for the mount'n ta keep makin' more and more."

"Heheh, yeah, probably." Darklett sheathes the knife again, hoisting his body back up on the table. "Because of that, I try to go back and get them whenever I can... If I can grab half of them, then it's not that bad of a loss. Colonel Zoe taught me how to make my own, anyway, so the work's on me if I ever need more." Wink.

Terrance nods and says, "Ah, that sounds like a good deal then." He then hms, "Still tryin' ta figuah out what weapon I'm goin' ta want ta use when I finally get ta be a fully patrol hare."

Darklett's eyes travel from Terrance's footpaws to the tip of his ears. "Well, if you're not sure, I say start with a short sword or a rapier, and see how that works, and just work your way through the details later. While you're still a recruit, unlike me. I've gone through so many different weapons, even as a lieutenant I changed twice. Just find something that you can work with."

Terrance nods and says, "Thanks fer tha suggestion sah. Was rathah hoping I might be able ta find some sort of unique or exotic lookin' weapon along tha beach or something ta use but no luck so far."

"Unique? Exotic lookin'?" Darklett shakes his head with a grin. "No, believe me. You want to get -good- before you start getting fancy with it. Besides, the ones that look the best are usually the worst for actually -fightin',- unless you have the weapon custom made for -you.-"

Terrance bobs his head and looks down, "Aye, I suppose sah. Chap can hope though." Looking back up with a smile he asks, "So what weapon did you start out with sah?"

"Let's see here..." Darklett leans forward onto his knees, and thinks. "Well, I started out with a couple rapiers. I had two of them, and a different set of knives than these. They weren't very good weapons for a Long Patroller... Made by vermin, used by vermin, and all that. They did their job, though. Anyway... After that, I moved on very briefly to a short sword. That was a mistake, I never got a hang of it. When I was promoted to lieutenant, I gave a shot at a saber for about a half of a season, you know. To look more like an officer. But that never worked out, and besides, that's when I got my first set of new, Salamandastron-crafted throwing knives." He pats his belt, where about half of the said knives are missing, down on the other end of the range. He finishes up by taking out the two large daggers in the front of his belt. "Finally, it hit me when I was forced to use throwing knives as paw-to-paw weapons... Why not just use these things?"

Terrance hms and nods at all of that. "Wow. Well I guess ya've wielded quite a few blades then." He then nods again at his last statement, "Why not I guess. Anyway, I have at least another season before I can even get promoted ta tha patrol, assumin' I pass the test for recruit first class now."

Darklett nods. "I have, for sure. Probably never go back, though. These're the best weapons I've ever used." He pats his belt again, and shoves off the table. "The season'll go quick, and I'm sure you'll pass. I watch training and classes sometimes, you look promising enough. And now that your arm isn't gonna be bruised all the time..." He reaches out and pats Terrance right on the upper arm where the bullies used to always hit him. "You're on your way, I'd say. Speaking of being on my way, I have some things to take care of. I'll look over the application a little better, and find you about the test, Recruit."

Terrance smiles, glad at not feeling pain at the pat on the arm and nods, "Well thank ya very much sah. Appreciate tha vote o' confidence. Have a good night sah."

"You too." Darklett gives a quick nod to Terrance, then turns, heading off to gather his knives. Good thing the targets are hay and not anything harder, or else he might have had some trouble. :P Having done that, though, he heads for the exit of the training room, a little jump in his step.