Said the children to Ikthalend, as he rolled over, eyes lazily looking up at them, knowing that they're here for one reason and that's to practice their combat techniques with him, not that he doesn't enjoy the prospect of teaching the young the best way to swing a sword or how to parry strikes, but he'd much rather be in the battlefield then lazing about in the Academy. And as he rises slowly out of bed, saying "You kids are gonna be the death of me..." He gets dressed and walks out, hands pulled on by the eager kids, downstairs, where the innkeeper begins her usual beratement on him for slacking on the room payment, again. "Yeah yeah" he says to the short old innkeeper as he is led outside to the front where the kids start running around and telling him to come with them to the Academy so they can show him their improvement, though he already knows that Billiam needs to step more into his strikes, Lecil needs to move around more, and Ronald needs to keep practicing the basic strike zones before he can start making up strikes... And as they arrive at the training grounds of the Academy, Ikth is greeted with a hearty hello from all manner of student and teacher alike, which he replies to with a silent wave, and continues proceeding to the grounds with the kids. After arriving, they all run to grab their practice swords and start pushing and shoving to get Ikth's attention, to which he laughs to himself at their juvenile competition, until, as once again, it erupts into a three way duel, that, in turn, devolves into a brawl on the ground, and as they scratch and bite away, Ikth thinks back onto when he did some mercenary work as a caravan guard before he came here, what fun that was, fighting all sorts of enemies with all manner of skill and proficiency, before cutting them down and getting bathed in their blood, the look of fear and awe as he returns having held off and otherwise demolished a group of bandits in less than 5 minutes by himself, which he routinely insisted on to allow for the best battle experience... "Those were the days" he says to himself as he stares beyond the kids and into the horizon...
