Welcome to the Skirmish

Well the morning eventually came along with the brighter skies and tweeting birds. People were beginning to wake up and chat with each other. The machine came to a halt, and the last of the sleepy heads were woken up before we all got herded off the machine and back on to the ground. I had survived. I felt good and strangely energised considering the lack of sleep I had had.

We were in the middle of nowhere. A bunch of fields with woods dotted around on the horizon. But there was a bunch of tents set up like a little settlement, within a low rock wall boundary, and some wooden squares dotted about on the ground in one area. Big Ian said that this was the safe zone. All who had fought previous were sent to a wise woman who treated our wounds with special potions and balms... everything healed instantly... it was quite amazing. Next up we were all split into groups of 20. These would be our teams. Each team was then assigned to a couple of leaders each. These were called our Marshalls. They were experienced fighters who wore bright orange to be easily identified. All of our small posse got to stay together. They said it would be best for us to stay together as most of us know how each other fight and we might be used to relying on each other in combat. I was glad to have experienced fighters on my side.

Next we all got rounded up and brought over to a rack lined with identical weapons including big heavy swords, spears and big knives. 3 Marshalls each took a weapon and gave a quick demo of how to use these weopons at a basic level. We were then asked to choose a weapon and go to the Marshall to collect one, if you wished to use them. I instantly dropped my hammer and considered my options. The big sword looked good... many people were going that way... but then I thought... I'm a small lad... I couldn't carry that thing around let alone swing it. Then there was the spear... Ben put his spear down and went to get a new one... a real one. He was in his element... but this wasn't for me. So I went to the knives... It would be just like my hammer but I could stab and slice with it too. When I picked mine up the marshall pointed me over to the dark wooden floor and said that I can practice in the safety of the square. And so I did. It was fun swinging it around and getting used to it. I noticed straight away that the grip was so much better than what I was used to. All of this continued to amplify my excitement.