Practicing with the Sword.

After that Alan went to a near by isolated Area to practice his weapons and combat skills.

He perform all the different weapon movements that he had learnt except the sword. Then he practiced the hand to hand combat skill. Finally he took the Swort out of its sheath. He was suppressing the temptation to start practicing the Sword from the beginning as he knew once he start sword practicing, he will be completely lost in its training. And he did not wanted to slack on training of other skills. So he kept the Sword skills for the last part.

Alan took a deep breath and unsheathed his sword. The moment he held it. He felt an indescribable joy. A kind of pull that he had never experienced with any other weapons he had used.

Ho took several deep breaths to calm his mind. Then started the swort art movements. This time he repeated all the basics sword movements for more than 5 times. The speed of each set increased as the time progressed.

At the end when he sheathed his sword and wiped away his sweat, he was confident that he was almsot perfect in his execution of the movements.

Alan came back and had dinner with everyone else and went to sleep.

The same routine continued for the next 15 days. Alan got up earlier than most of the others everyday. Took care of the horses, got cleaned up. Had soup, then started their journey.

He would spend the morning inside the carriage with his grandmother and Uncle.

After the meal, he would walk with a different soldier everyday holding their horse's reigns.

In the evening again took care of the horses, practiced his combact and weapon skills.

Helen started their discussion of various topics again with Alan from the 3rd day of their journey. Which also gave her something to do and took her mind off the journey.

John tempted with their discussions joined them, providing his inputs and views on various topics. Which greatly helped Alan to broaden his prospectives.

Both Helen and John began to probe Alan about all the topics he had learned or discussed. Like history, geographic, his sums and values, trading, music, instruments, combact, weapons, fighting skills and technics, medicine and many more.

After the inital week of their discussions and probing. Both Helen and John joined together and started a healthy debate with Alan regarding all the subjects in their morning study session.

John even began to discuss battle tactics, attack and defend formation. Helen began to teach and biscuss complex medical conditions and how to treat them with Alan.

By the end of another week, they realized that they don't have any other topics to discuss or teach him.

They looked at each other helplessly and sighed at the same time.

After lunch Alan again started walking with one of the soldier. Even though he had developed a good bonding and trust with all the horses there. He had not yet tried to ride any of the horses.

By the time they halted for the night, Alan was pretty sure he can start riding the horses soon...

He went through his routine work of caring for the horses. Then He went to practice his combat and weapon skills.

After carrying out all his other weapons and Combat skills, he looked at his Sword and smiled.

Alan had a doubt about his feelings towards the sword. He was wondering whether the pulling he felt towards his sword was just his infatuation, whether if it is a call from only 'his sword' or is it overall from the weapon "Sword" Itself.

So a few days back he request to hold and check the swords of his Uncle John, Captain Kavin and few other guards.

To Alan's surprise as soon as he held his Uncle's sword, he felt the same familiar pull. Even before the sword was pulled out of its sheath. He unsheathed the sword and he new immediately..... Even though the sword was a bit big and the handle was thicker for him, he can easily use this weapon as an extended part of himself.

He then tried to hold many other swords but the feeling was the same. It was like he had an intimate connection to the weapon. ....

Now with a smile Alan pulled out his sword and took the stances. From the moment he started moving his hand, he felt like the sword was a part of himself.

After 15 days of practice, Alan was executing all the movements and the skills flawlessly. His movements were so fluid that it was difficult to discern where one move ended and another began.

After half an hour of sword practice, Alan stopped his training and went back to have his dinner with others.