Tourney Training, Werewolf Style (Zara and Humphrey)

by **Humphrey Williams** Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:46 am

As Humphrey walked out to one of the creature's only areas, he thought about Zara. She was going to be an excellent person to train with, he knew. Zara was fast, intelligent, and he suspected very deadly. This particular place had been nicknamed the lunar trap, and the crystals in this area magnified the light of the moon. It wasn't a full moon tonight, if it was they might have been running in the moonlight instead. He remembered when they'd done it last year, and it had been a blast. Maybe they could do it again this year.

Humphrey had planned to get there early, and he sat down to wait. Tonight, he was the boots, because he would be wearing them into the tournament. Hopefully nobody would recognize them as magical, as he wasn't sure whether it would be cheating or not. Even if there wasn't a specific rule against wearing magic boots, if they found out he suspected they would give him a lower score on principle. It was a risk he was willing to take though, it would give him a distinct advantage over his Durmstrang opponent.

While he waited, Humphrey drew out the small pile of weapons he had asked to borrow from the shop. None of these were incredibly valuable, but they would be useful to train with. From his backpack, he took out two sets of throwing knives, a couple different daggers, two sets of katanas, five short swords, one rapier, a mace, two bows with arrows for each, and finally, two full-length broadswords. As always, Humphrey had his own sword, the one he had made with him. He drew that out, and began to practice.

His sword he had named Anduril, after the Lord of the Rings sword. It had been Aragorn's sword, it meant Flame of the West. There were the runes carved into both sides of the blade, in the elvish language J. R. R. Tolkien had made. Literally, it was a full language, with working conjugations, syllables, grammar rules, and all that stuff. He'd learned to speak a couple phrases in it, and was working on getting better at it. The blade was a dark red, just a slightly lighter shade than maroon. Its pommel was white gold, with hard steel beneath it to give it a strong center. Gold was beautiful, but not a very strong metal. In the center of the pommel was a dark blue sapphire, and the cross guard beautifully connected the blade to the handle of the sword. Nothing fancy, just straightforward, with a simple elegance to it. Anduril was roughly the size of a claymore, just a bit smaller in length. Now that he had grown, the sword didn't seem quite as ridiculous on Humphrey as it first had.

He'd kept practicing with it over the summer, and had looked up many sword forms. Studying them, he had memorized technique after technique, and tried to master each one. His time spent wielding his blade had kept him in shape, and he also took a dancing lesson with his aunt. It may not seem like it would help, but after he had taken dance lessons, the footwork he used for sword techniques had improved. Humphrey had just taken the class to be nice to his aunt, and spend time with her. Turns out, it had helped him with his swordplay.

Slowly, he began to work through sword forms; the steady swing of the blade relaxed him. This sword, he had made with his own magic, and Anduril seemed like an extension of his arm. It was not clumsy, the blade was a part of him, his creativity, the American in him, that is what had given him the idea for the design. Flame of the West, that is what he was at Hogwarts. Though he'd been in Edinburgh for six years, he still thought of America as his home. The magic he had put into the blade to make it, well he always felt it when he grabbed the blade. Holding Anduril always left him with a sense of peace and purpose, though he couldn't say why. Humphrey had yet to kill with the sword, and he hoped he never had to. But, that is why he had started studying to become a swordmage in the first place, to defend himself with it. Killing with Anduril, he didn't want to do it; yet, somewhere deep down, he knew he would have to.

by **Zara Hawkins** Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:16 pm

Zara wondered through the Lunar Trap in search of Humphrey. He had asked her to help him train for the tournament which was quickly approaching.

Walking through the trees, she could smell someone nearby. She recognized the scent at once and walked straight to it. She peered through some trees and saw Humphrey training with a sword. He was pretty good, but she had a feeling Humphrey came to her for help because of the night he figured out she was a faster runner than he was.

Walking towards him, she could see how focused he was. Not wanting to get in his way, she stood and watched for a little while until he noticed she was there.

by **Humphrey Williams** Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:56 pm

His heightened werewolf sense of smell picked up Zara's scent. He knew she was approaching the clearing. When she fully entered it, Humphrey knew exactly where she was without even looking.

Deciding to ignore her for the moment, he focused on his forms. Now he was loose, he tried some forms he was still trying to figure out. It was a lot faster, and fancier than some of the ones he had been doing before. Each move was complicated, and unique in its own way. Already though, he could see that the forms were becoming more precise. Airen was still better than him, he knew that; Humphrey also knew, though, that he was gaining ground on him. Not quickly, but Airen was already a master. Humphrey was still working his way up to that, and had more room to improve than his fellow Gryffindor.

The reason he had asked Zara to train with him was simple. She was faster than him; and in a fight, speed was often more important than strength. Yes, strength was useful, but if you were faster than your opponent you could generally beat them. Humphrey thought he was physically stronger than her, Zara was smaller though. Especially since he had grown another four inches over the summer. Now, he was six feet one inches tall, and he didn't expect to grow much more. Seemingly of their own accord, his chest and arm muscles had grown. Yes he had always worked out, but now he was reaching maturity his muscles were as well.

Finishing up his last form, the Bonetti Defense, he looked up at Zara. "Hello Zara, how are you this evening?" Humphrey asked in a friendly tone of voice. Walking over to her, he sheathed his sword. "The blade is named Anduril, elvish for Flame of the West from a book series I read. I'm from America, so that name appealed to me. The author of the series, J. R. R. Tolkien, was a linguist. So, his two different tongues of Elvish, Sindarin and Quenya, can actually be learned, spoken, and written like any other language. Anduril is Sindarin, and the markings on the blade here are the glyphs used for the language." he said, showing her his sword.

"Now, teach me everything you know about fighting Zara. You seem like you know how to handle yourself in a fight. Plus, you're a werewolf, so you are stronger and faster than most monsters I will be facing. Or whatever it is they have in store for me. Also, you've always seemed just deadly, not sure why. Hopefully you aren't offended by my saying that." Humphrey told her, blushing a bit. He didn't want her to think he was scared of her. "Not that I am scared of you or anything like that." A man had to try and save his pride when he could.

by **Zara Hawkins** Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:30 pm

Zara watched as he finished practicing with his sword. It was quite impressive really. Each move he performed made it look easy but Zara knew it's probably taken him a lot of practice.

"I'm good and very impressed," she said smiling. Zara listened carefully as he explained to her about the sword, nodding as she acknowledged every word he said. It was pretty interesting. She examined the sword as he showed it to her.

Zara laughed as he blushed. "Don't worry. I'm not offended. I know just how vicious I can get as a wolf," she said, giggling a bit. It was going to be a challenge for her to train him. She hadn't done anything like it before. But she was definitely willing to try her best to teach Humphrey what ever he needed.

"Alright, just remember that you may have to use your wand on some occasions. That's if fighting alone comes too challenging for you. I mean, you never know what you're going to have to fight in this tournament, Humphrey," she explained. "So, I'll train you in terms of fighting, but we need to remember to practice your spells as well," she added.

"Alright, first up, I think we should work on your attacks," she said, "With and without your wand."

by **Humphrey Williams** Wed Jun 20, 2012 1:50 am

"Impressed, really?" Humphrey asked, how could Zara, the incredible werewolf be impressed by a couple sword forms. "I have a pretty good teacher, and I've been putting in a lot of work. The sword helps a lot, it feels more like a piece of me than a weapon. Maybe it had something to do with my making of it. Anyways, let's get down to business." he said, smiling at his werewolf buddy.

When she laughed his embarrassment vanished, and he laughed with her. "Well that's good, wouldn't want to offend the queen wolf. Now, I'm sure it probably took a long time to become as fast as you are, but is there any way you could do it in a quicker time? I mean, even if I wasn't as fast as you, just train me up so I'm not quite so slow, if you get what I mean. Compared to most people I'm fast sure; however, I have a feeling whatever I'm facing is going to be able to kick my butt if I'm not ready for it." he explained to her.

"Oh, I know that. That I've been training for all summer. Got caught up on what I missed from second and the first part of third year, then read all the course books and perfected the spells from fourth year. Right now I'm working my way through the fifth year course books actually. I'd love to have a duelling partner though. It would be nice to have a werewolf as well, since we don't get hurt so easily as regular humans." Humphrey told her, smiling widely. This was going to be fun, training for this tournament. He knew Zara would work him hard, and that is one of the reasons he asked her in the first up.

"Okay, sounds like a good plan to me." he told her, drawing his wand. "Let's start with some wandwork. Just say when you're ready, because I am itching to go." His feet were bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. What his old coach used to call the athletic position. It had him ready to dodge in any direction, or attack.

by **Zara Hawkins** Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:46 pm

As Humphrey drew out his wand, Zara did the same. She wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do. "Well, first tell what good spells you know that you could attack with," she said. She planned to work with what spells he knew.

After he told her, she decided she might find something, preferably large, and bring it for him to work with. Some of the less dangerous spells she'd let him practice with her though.

After a few minutes, Zara came back to him, dragging a large log along with her. "Alright, destroy this for me," she said.

by **Humphrey Williams** Sat Jun 23, 2012 11:46 pm

"Okay, this will be fun." Humphrey considered which spells to use for a minute. "Incendio!" he bellowed. Immediately the log burst into flames. It was exactly what he had expected to happen, and he was satisfied with the results. "Aguamenti." Humphrey said, and a jet of water put out the flames.

Next, he decided to try a more difficult spell. "Reducto." The log was immediately reduced to a large pile of sawdust. "Haha, excellent. I was hoping that would work. That spell may just be my new favorite. Other than Deprimo of course. So what's next Zara?" he asked her.

by **Zara Hawkins** Sun Jun 24, 2012 12:06 am

Zara watched as he destroyed the log. "Very nice. Now, I'm going to attack you. Don't worry. I won't use any spells that you won't be able to defend. But I need you to focus on defending them, alright?"

Zara stood a fair distance from him and got her wand ready. "Stupefy!" she yelled as she pointed her wand at Humphrey.

by **Humphrey Williams** Sun Jun 24, 2012 12:16 am

"You are going to attack me, excellent. I'm not worried, this is what I've been looking forward to Zara. I'm ready." Humphrey told her, and he prepared himself for what she was going to do. This was what he needed the most practice with, dueling an actual opponent.

She used the stunning spell, a basic but effective choice. "Protego!" he yelled. The shield charm was used to deflect lower-level spells such as this. "Glad I did my homework. What's next Hawkins?"

by **Zara Hawkins** Sun Jun 24, 2012 12:21 am

Zara laughed and shook her head. "I don't know why you asked me to train you. You look like you're all ready for this tournament!" she said giggling. "I guess we should put the wand work behind us and move on to fighting," she suggested.

Putting her wand away she walked up to Humphrey. "So, have you had any fighting experience at all?" she asked.

by **Humphrey Williams** Sun Jun 24, 2012 12:31 am

She laughed at him, that was unexpected. "Well I had to make sure I knew what I was doing. Doing it in class is one thing, but having to actually defend yourself is another." Humphrey told her, and then blushed a bit. "I wouldn't say that. Sure I prepared, but this tourney is going to be more dangerous than what I expect. Yes, fighting time. I'm so excited to do this." he said, smiling widely.

Zara walked over to him, and he tensed up a bit. He knew she could probably kick his butt. "Not really, no. I try to stop fights from happening normally. The closest I got to a fight was when Professor Smith stuck his hand into my chest. That was kind of one-sided though, he surprised me and by the time I knew what was happening I was toast. Ready to learn though!"

by **Zara Hawkins** Sun Jun 24, 2012 12:47 am

Zara saw Humphrey tense up a bit as she walked over to him. She was kind of thinking whether to be evil and pretend to go to attack him or not. But she decided not to.

"Alright, there are three types of punches. There's the head level punch if you wish to mess someone's face up, the stomach level punch if you want someone to cough up their own blood, or the low level punch if you really want to cause a guy some grief," she explained in her own special way.

"First the head level punch," she said. she stood in front of him while she explained. "This punch, you need to aim straight for the face. Not above it, not beside it and not below it. Right in the middle. Yes, it is a little hard to begin with because you don't really want to punch me in the face by accident. But with some practice, you'll get it right." she explained.

She took his right hand and positioned it so that his arm was stretched and his hand was just above his head. Then, she placed his left hand to his side. "This is how it should look. So, get a good feel of it and don't forget it," she said strictly.