Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 13:57:56 -0600 Reply-To: Samantha Anne Copeland Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Samantha Anne Copeland Subject: Daddy's Little Girl part 12/21 Daddy's Little Girl Samantha Copeland copelasa@vuse.vanderbilt.edu ******Part 12****** To make her a little more comfortable, Mac talked her through a few basic drills, ones that she had probably seen before, but none the less, something to be practiced. "O.K. this is what you're going to do. Extend to attack, when I move to parry, disengage and move to hit. Now I'm probably going to take a step or two back, so you may have to lunge to hit. Did you get that?" "Yeah." "O.K. then, let's try that then." They saluted, donned their masks, and assumed en garde. They drilled for a few minutes, then Mac changed the drill. They drilled that one for a little while, with Chris as the attacker. For a slight change, Mac changed their roles. Chris switched to a defensive mode and Mac to an offensive one. They ran the drills over with the reversed roles. They stopped when Chris reached a tolerable proficency with the sequence. "O.K., Now I'm going to add something to the first drill. You're going to take the defensive position but this time you are going to pick up the blade and while closing distance, deflect my blade, and make the hit. Got it?" "Yeah." They ran this drill a few times, then took a short break before actually bouting. They shared a bottle of water that Mac had left in the office earlier. After they rested a little, they went back out to the main room. "Why don't you show me what you know?" "Go easy on me." "I'll give you no quarter." "O.K., it was worth a shot though." They saluted, put on their masks, and assumed en garde. Mac made the first attack. She swept it aside, closed distance, and hit him in the knee. The next time however, he disengaged the blade, and hit her in the arm. They exchanged attack for a few minutes before Chris noticed that he was leaving his hand exposed, definitely not a smart move in competitive epee. She hit him a couple of times on the hand, after all why let a good target go to waste? Mac was grateful that he had retired his _old_ glove for this new one which was padded on the back of the hand. After the next hand hit, he stopped the bout. "Chris, I know that in epee, the hand is a valid target, but in reality it doesn't help a whole lot. You've fenced foil, haven't you?" "Yeah. Don't tell me we're going to switch to foil rules. I hate right of way!" She groaned, showing her distaste for foil. "No I'm not switching over to foil rules, but you might want to keep foil target area in mind when choosing a target. It'll give you a more realistic idea of good target." "O.K." They bouted for a short while longer, then broke off from fatigue. "You're pretty good, but you're going to have to stop being afraid to attack. If you would be a little more aggressive, and stop hesitating, you wouldn't get hit so much. There were a few places there where you almost got the touch, but you didn't because you hesitated." "I know... My fencing coach tells me the same thing. Though I think part of the problem is that I have never fenced in my sandals." She pointed her right foot in front of herself. On her foot was a hiking sock and a Birkenstock sandal, one with a heel strap fortunately. If it hadn't been for the strap, both of the shoes would have likely been kicked off over the course of the lesson. "Yeah, that would do it. You have to be able to effectively fight in whatever you happen to be wearing if you want to get out of it alive. You never know when you might run into someone, which is another reason why I decided on our using the minimum gear." "Good reason." "Well that's enough of that. Let's go upstairs and get cleaned up." "O.K." They got into the elevator and rode back upstairs, stopping off on the floor that they had gotten the epees from. Mac put their weapons away, this time putting both epees onto the weapon rack. He then moved over to a chest and opened it, resting inside were a number of swords. He began off handedly, "I think it might be a good idea if got the real thing. You're big enough and probably strong enough to use a rapier, which from your epee work, your style seems to lean toward. However a two handed weapon will allow you to put more power into your moves, leveling the playing field a bit." Mac looked over the swords, there were only three two handed weapons, all of which were katanas. Chris stood nervously a few steps away, not knowing just what to expect next. He lifted each katana, looking at the maker's mark to select the best one. He selected one with a carved ivory handle, one of the few he had run across made by the same smith as his own trusted katana. This one had carvings of goldfish swimming around the handle, the tsuba was a sort of flower shape, solid with blooming lotus engraved on it. He took it out and turned to where Chris was waiting. "Here," he handed it to her, "live with it, make it part of you. It might be the only friend you'll have." She looked at it,let her jaw drop, then swallowed. She thought it was interesting that there were goldfish on the handle. She had a pond full of them at home in her backyard. The katana truly was a work of art, she'd seen a few in museums, but not like this. "Thank you... It's beautiful, it's a work of art!" "You're welcome. But don't forget, that it's also a weapon, one that's meant to be used. Now let's go upstairs." They got onto the elevator. Chris was carrying the katana as her friend Ben had shown her, concave down with her left hand a few inches behind the guard. Mac noticed, * I wonder where she picked that up from? * Within moments they were back to the loft. She went to the couch to sit down, setting the katana down carefully onto the coffee table. "Where did you learn to carry a katana," Mac inquired. "A friend of mine, Ben, was asked to do a fencing demo a few weeks back. He got someone to do some rapier and dagger and I played guinea pig for a little Japanese swordwork. He showed me a few moves, but there wasn't enough time to really get anything together, so we dropped it." "Well that's going to make my job a little easier." "Oh boy!... I seem to recall your saying that we were going to clean up. I feel like I could use a shower and a change of clothes." "O.K. You know where the bathroom is, go to it." "One teensy problem, I don't have a change of clothes. S'pose I could borrow something?" "Yeah, I think you'll find everything you need in the drawers there." He said indicating the massive wardrobe behind his desk. She poked through his drawers for a few minutes. She selected a cream and grey tunic style sweater and a cream colored turtleneck. From the sizes on the jeans, she thought it best if she stuck with the ones she had on, her hips would never fit in those. She was pleased that Mac had a few pairs of socks like the ones she had on, in her size even. She tucked the clothes under her arm and retrieved a small ditty bag from her fencing bag. She took her things into the bathroom and took a shower. * Oh boy does this hot water feel good. * She had been a bit sore, but it melted away during the shower. She didn't know if it was the hot water or her now remarkable recuperative powers that was responsible. Frankly she didn't care. She took a nice fluffy towel out of a wall mounted cabinet to dry off. She threw the now soggy towel over the rod for the shower curtain so that it would dry. She put the shampoo and conditioner back into the ditty bag and pulled out a brush. She pulled on the clothing, a pretty good fit, much like many of her sweaters which had come from the men's department. If it was a little baggy, fine, it would be more comfortable, not to mention hide her not so great waistline. She wasn't exactly fat, just never missed many meals. She brushed out her hair, a real battle considering what trouble long, thick, and wet hair can do. She shook as much water out of it and then crunched it to put some of the curl back into it. She pulled out a large brown barrette to secure it. She pulled it back and pinned on top of her head. She quickly checked herself to make sure that she was presentable, satisfied she put all of her goodies back into her bag, and vacated the bathroom. Mac was waiting at his desk for his turn. He picked up a few articles and took his shower. While he was in the bathroom she roamed around the room. Mac made her a little nervous, she hadn't really looked around a whole lot since she'd been there. She felt a little like a bug under a microscope. She checked out the bookcase, impressed with some of the titles. She recognized some of the bindings too. They had a number of old books at home, rescued from her great grandmother's estate. She picked up a volume of Whittier's poetry, one that was published well before the turn of the century. Inside was an inscription, "Duncan MacLeod, 1889" * _Oh my God_!, I didn't realize he was that old! * She turned a few pages to Whittier's picture, * My God, I really do have an autographed copy. This one is the same edition, but there isn't an inscription under the picture. * I wonder how much an autographed copy is worth? * She put the book back onto the shelf. She looked at a few other titles, some of them she had read, many of them not. Several of them were even in foreign languages. She picked up a copy of _Don Quixote_ it was in old Spanish. She attempted reading a few paragraphs, she couldn't get the exact words, but the gist came through. At least she still remembered her Spanish after almost two years. She put it back on the shelf. She looked some more, then she saw a poor ragged little book. She knew it was very old just looking at the edges of the pages. She pulled it out, it was a play, _MacBeth_, she carefully opened it. What she saw amazed her, William Shakespeare's autograph! * My God! * that book was just too valuable to be sitting in somebody's home. She turned the page, another inscription, only partially readable due to some sort of damage that it had sustained in its long life, "To Duncan Mac.... Fr....T....." * No it couldn't be, he can't be _that_ old, gotta be an ancestor." __________________________ I probably went off the deep end with the fencing, but, hey, I'm writing it, you aren't. ;) I based the drills off of some of the ones that Dr. Engle and Al have shown me a couple of times at practice. Also, I well realize that it is unlikely that Shakespeare ever autographed any of his works, but, hey, I couldn't resist using Macbeth after seing "Song of the Executioner" If you are missing parts, check my web page, parts 1-9 are there. http://www.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/~copelasa/home.htm Samantha Copeland =========================================================================