“Careful, cousin,” William said with a grin.“The crowd may think ye’re challenging me, and we both know ye dinna want me to embarrass ye in front of them.”
Eoghan glanced around.Men, women, and children had clustered around the inner bailey, ready to watch and cheer on their favorites.
“Aye, William,” Eoghan quipped.“A challenge then.”
“Picks?”William asked with a raised eyebrow, referring to a fighting game the two men had invented when they were boys.
“Aye, picks,” Eoghan agreed.
As boys, they had practiced against each other before they were able to carry real swords.They had continued the game years after they grasped their first steel blades.
The rules were simple.The challenger picked his first weapon – something that might be readily found close at hand, and then the other had the advantage of picking second, selecting also from nearby objects.Anythingotherthan swords, knives, or real weapons.They could use a sword or knife they had on their person, but only once with a proper weapon.After three attacks, they had to pick a new weapon, and only had to the count of twenty to find it.The first to score three strikes won.In most games, they didn’t pick their knife or sword until the other did as a form of strategy.
Since William was the challenger, he had to pick first.
“You tricked me into challenging you,” William commented as his eyes searched the bailey.
Eoghan grinned, his teeth glinting from under his scruffy, day-old beard.“Aye, ye were always easy to provoke into a challenge.”
Ignoring his sword and knife, William grabbed a wood pitchfork from a haystack near the barns.
Eoghan, conversely, slid his sword out of its leather scabbard and stood at the ready, waiting for William to advance.
An odd choice,William thought.
“You’re using your sword so early in the game?”he asked Eoghan.
“Aye.I wish to score the first point quickly and give the lads something to talk about.”
He’s cocky as ever.
Eoghan stepped in close and swung his sword high.William stabbed the air with the pitchfork, letting Eoghan’s blade sink in deep between two of the three tines.William twisted the pitchfork, attempting to rip the blade from Eoghan’s hand, but Eoghan held tight to the blade and pulled back, managing to keep his sword.
William thrusted the pitchfork at Eoghan, who knocked it away easily enough with a downward swing.William drove at him again, but this time Eoghan jumped to the side and chopped down at the wooden pitchfork, his blade cutting through the wood and leaving William with a four-foot stick.
Ailith might know what to do with such a staff, but William wasn’t going to take the time.
“Looks as if I need a new weapon,” William said as he looked around him.
“Nay, cousin,” Eoghan replied.“By my count, ‘twas only two attacks on your part.Use what ye have and hope I dinna score a point on ye.”
A staff ‘tis.
William swung his stick like a sword, aiming low for Eoghan's right leg.Eoghan jumped over the stick and swung his own sword in a backhand at William's left shoulder, hitting William with the flat of his blade.
“Point!”Eoghan yelled, his arms raised triumphantly as the crowd cheered.
“Aye,” William said as he wiped at his sweaty brow.He noticed that Eoghan’s hairline was damp as well, and not from the fine Highland mist.“The point is yours.‘Twas my third attack.I’ll choose a new weapon now.”
William withdrew his own finely crafted Pictish sword from its scabbard.The weight was familiar and comfortable in his hand, like an extension of his arm.
“Let’s see ye do that again,” William said with a step forward.
Their game was designed to train on two things.First, to use whatever was around them as a weapon – a warrior never knew when he might find himself without a sword – and second, to always be on the attack so the opponent was not on the offense and thus unable to select a new weapon.
Better to be the attacker, and no’ the defender.
With this in mind, William attacked first.He lunged in, swinging his sword down in a high arc and giving Eoghan plenty of time to block his blade.William didn’t pull back when the two blades clashed but continued down and around in a wide circle as he forced Eoghan backward.Once, then again, the two blades made a wide circle.
