The King, The Burglar and The Guardian

Chapter Nine

Word count - 3,270

Ch - 9

"Bilbo come here for a moment." And he followed her instructions without question.

"Here." She handed him one of her smaller swords. "No Adelaide, I don't want that."

He tried to back away from it, but she pushed it into his chest. "You don't have to keep it, I just want you to know how to defend yourself alright? So you don't get yourself killed."

Bilbo tried to argue her point but she dragged him to an open space in the camp and started to give him a lesson before he could leave. The good polite hobbit he was wouldn't allow him to leave while she was talking to him.

"You should have your knees slightly bent but focus your attention to the balls of your feet. You can move easier when your weight is on them instead of your heel. Are you following?"

Adelaide noticed a few of the dwarves watching them, but kept her focus on the hobbit. He nodded and crouched to follow her instructions.

"Keep yourself relaxed. I'm going to strike high and I want you to block it to the best of your ability all right? Just go with your gut."

She lunged forward slower than she normally would, but she wanted Bilbo to have time to react. He swung the sword up to clash with hers, but he tripped over his feet and nearly fell.

"Good try, but let's try something else." She offered her arm and walked back to her spot.

"You tense up when you move. You were relaxed, but your shoulders got real tight on impact. You have to stay relaxed. You're trying to anticipate and predict what I'm going to do. Don't. you have excellent eyesight, your body will eventually learn to read the attackers movements." She was looking down at the hobbit, waiting for acknowledgement.

When she got it as a nod, she patted him on the shoulder and moved on. "I want to work on your footwork. Your feet crossed over one another which you swung up to block. Like you were trying to twirl. Which is your strong foot?"

"How would I tell?"

"Which foot would you use to push off when you start running?"

He stepped his right foot forward.

"Alright, good. Let me show you something."

Adelaide walked over to Bilbo and stood beside him. "When you're crouched and have this stance, you're a hell of a lot harder to push away or knock over." She showed this by trying to jerk bilbo over. Lightly, of course. Bilbo nodded but got embarrassed when he saw Thorin watching the two. "I think I can try blocking you again." He got a surge of confidence trying to impress the leader of the company.

Adelaide threw a quick glance in Thorin's direction. She caught onto Bilbo's embarrassment but tried again anyway. "Want a heads up where I'm going to strike?"

"No"

She jabbed forward but Bilbo thought she was going low. She stopped the blade just before piercing his shoulder.

"You tensed again."

He looked relieved she stopped the attack, but he was motivated to try harder with the dwarves watching.

For what felt like hours, Adelaide would train with Bilbo. He was indeed a very fast learner. She found she couldn't hear his footsteps even in this close vicinity.
Bilbo had caught on very quickly and started to take note of Adelaide's body language to block. About halfway through, Adelaide told him to take the offence and strike her.