“You can always find something to learn from others as long as you keep an open mind.” - Old folk saying.

“Come on, let’s spar a bit,” said Aideen as she effortlessly twirled her staff around with one hand. She stood across a small clearing from Calais, who similarly held his own staff in hand, while Celia watched with obvious interest from the side. “It’s only another hour or so to the next village anyway, so we got time. We’ll be there before dark. No need to worry about injury either, I’ll heal it up.”

“If you say so, Aunt,” replied Calais as he in turn twirled his own staff in his hands to calm himself. His parents had told him about Aideen before, but many of the stories sounded more like myths to him at times, so he had not paid as much attention to them as he should. Now that he faced the person in question in the flesh, he couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous.

“Just fight like you’ve been trained to,” said Aideen relaxedly, still lightly holding her staff with one hand. “No need to worry about me.”

“All right,” said Calais as he shifted his grip to rest at the lower end of his staff and roughly a third of the way up the shaft. He swung the staff in a wide, powerful swing, the force traveling from his feet to his waist, his torso twisting to add more force to the movement, transferred through his arms to the staff. The tip moved with great force towards Aideen, almost faster than the eye could see.

As such, he was quite surprised when Aideen had just casually tilted her own staff – still held in only one hand – and used its tip to intercept his blow, the tip of her staff striking the shaft of his a short distance away from its own tip. The impact was forceful and loud, and while Aideen had not shifted in the slightest, Calais felt the recoil travel down his hands as his staff bounced back, almost as if he had struck a solid wall.

“Again,” said Aideen with a smirk on her face. Calais was obviously either not that good or not particularly interested in learning martial arts, given the level he was at. His blow was well-executed, but it was simple and quite telegraphed. It would have served him well enough against the average unskilled thug, but against anyone who knew what they were doing, it wouldn’t be of much use.

The next strike Calais performed was a more measured one. He shifted his grip so that his hand held the staff nearly by the middle, this time, and while the swing was less powerful, he clearly had more control over it, given that he tried to feint a high strike only to strike low. Naturally, Aideen stopped his blow with ease, twirling her staff lightly in one hand to swat away Calais’ staff.

Normally such a move would have resulted in her staff getting flung out of her hand, but between the speed with which she twirled the staff and its formidable weight, the swing had more than enough force to not only throw back Calais’ attempt of a strike but also to carry on in its path afterwards, allowing Aideen to easily grab the slowed staff once more.

“Hmm… Defend yourself. Let me try a few strikes of my own,” said Aideen after some contemplation. Calais clearly had the basics drilled well into him, but was lacking in actual experience when it comes to fighting. At least he responded quickly to her words and shifted his grip once more, his hands now holding his staff by thirds.

As for Aideen, she twirled her staff in rapid circles around her body, using both arms for the first time. She kept her staff moving for a moment, to further draw attention to their movements, then struck unexpectedly as she suddenly halted the flowing whirls and shifted the staff into a thrust out of nowhere. Calais never had the chance to even react before the tip of Aideen’s staff stopped a mere fingertip away from his face.

“Going to need to work on your reaction speed, there,” commented Aideen as she withdrew her staff and brought it into another circling movement around her. Despite the weight of her staff, she barely expended any energy to make those movements, the weight of the staff itself creating most of the momentum, while her hands merely nudged and guided it. “Also need to work on your sense of distance. I’ll go slower now, so try to catch some of these, at least.”

Aideen went “slower” as she promised, though her idea of slower was still blazing fast for most people. Calais tried to defend himself from her strikes – fortunately Aideen always held back at the last moment, or if not, only struck him lightly – but at best, he managed to block maybe one out of every ten of her strikes.

From those few strikes he did manage to block, he also realized just how much Aideen was easing up on him. Those strikes he blocked had so much force that he nearly lost his grip on his own staff, and it baffled him how she so easily transitioned from such crushing force into what could only be considered a gentle tap at worst with such ease and in such a short distance.

By the time their sparring session ended, Calais had bruises all over – though Aideen did away with them within moments after barely touching him – and realized just how far apart their skill levels were. Aideen did teach him some tips here and there even while they sparred though, and he kept those tips in mind, realizing their value all too well.

Then as they walked towards the village they planned to spend the night in, he asked the question that made Celia struggle hard to keep her laughter contained.

“Aunt Aideen, just out of curiosity, but how do you get your strikes to contain so much force behind them?” he had asked.

“Oh, simple. Here, try holding my staff,” replied Aideen as she handed her staff over to Calais with one hand.

When Calais almost fell over from the weight of the staff despite receiving it with both hands, Celia burst out in laughter on the spot.