A Duel with Donovan [Mila/Don]

[Donovan]

A sheathed Fragarach rested across Donovan's shoulders as he used it to stretch out his sore back - his night's rest had been less than comfortable. Their walk this morning had been long and well off the beaten path to avoid any townsfolk getting swept up in their duel - or any jealous thieves taking their chance to steal their valuables whilst focused on each other. When finally they came upon an open and even meadow that would be perfect for them to practice in - nearly 200 feet long and 100 feet wide, they had plenty of room to practice up close magic or ranged combat.

Above them, the sun peeked through clouds dotting an otherwise crystal blue skyline. The wind rippled through the surrounding forest, and birds and crickets made themselves known. “It’s a beautiful day!” Donovan mused. Along the forest wall, Kitchi played. Hunting and stalking mice and voles. As the fox had gotten older, it had proven itself to be a less than natural hunter - Kitchi excelled more at stealing from humans than hunting its own prey.

The mercenary looked over at Mila - it was strange how much more… alive he felt after just one day of being back with an old friend. He’d been in such a dark place for so long, unable to find a shred of light - and now he could see it shining at the end of the tunnel. A long tunnel, to be sure, but for the first time in ages he felt hope.

His curly salt and pepper hair blew around wildly in the wind as he stood upright from his stretching routine, feeling sufficiently limber. “Alrighty then, Mila - what are the rules to this magic duel? Should I be worried about you setting my clothes on fire?” He cracked a wry smile and scratched the side of his head with the sheathed blade.

[Mila]

Mila felt great. Well not too great, but she definitely, felt better than she did two days ago. It was amazing what meeting a good friend could do for one's mental health. While she wasn't fully recovered mentally, she was glad to finally, be taking some steps into the right direction. She managed to sleep, semi continuously, for the first time in a few days. And she felt like she could slowly start putting the past behind her and move forward in whatever direction life had to throw her way. But, now life had thrown her into this direction. She walked a few paces behind Donny. 

She wasn't sure when they managed to make their way out of the village and into the meadow. But, she was glad that they did. The walk felt good. And the meadow was quite nice to look at. There were a few low land, late blooming flowers, that occasionally dotted the grassland. The world around them was alive with.. life. And something about that made her feel good. Once, they stopped, Mila let out a content sigh. She took a deep breath and simply soaked it all in. She took in the scent of grass, and, the musty mystery smell of whatever animal that was here before them. At this point Donny had asked for a bit more clarification as to what consists of a magic duel. And Mila was slightly dumbfounded for a moment. As if the gears in her head, which generated thought, ground to a halt for a moment. The horrible mental image of setting Donny on fire hit her. She didn't even think of which one of her magics could be the least lethal. Because everything could be lethal with enough force. But, she had to give him an answer with what remained of the momentum of the last thought she was thinking about. 

"I stand over there." She blurted out, while pointing in one direction.  

"You stand over there." She moved her hand and pointed to another spot.

"And we hit each other with magic until one of us falls down." 

She then rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes. The gears that powered her thoughts kicked back up and realized how bad of an answer that was. But, just because it wasn't exactly an eloquent answer, didn't mean that it was a bad one. It was actually true.

"Crap. I realized we have a problem. I.. don't have access to any advanced wind magic. So we won't be evenly matched. And there's no way i'm using Volcannon anywhere near you. Or this meadow made of highly flammable objects." The mental image of accidentally setting an entire prison compound on fire, in a rescue attempt, crossed her mind. 

"So the only other two options of spells.. would be Gaea.. that's Earth Magic.. or Flora.. which is Fauna Magic." 

[Donovan]

"I stand over there. You stand over there. And we hit each other with magic until one of us falls down." Donovan nodded, trying to hide his incredulous expression. In all fairness, that was the gist of dueling in the first place. He supposed he had just… expected slightly more direction. But now that he thought of it, what else could their little dueling session be? It wasn’t like when Duma was teaching him how to properly use a sword in combat. Mila couldn’t teach him magic in the way that she’d learned it. That would take years - even if he had a knack for the stuff - which his mother quite firmly concluded he didn’t after several years of trying to teach him how to use healing magics.

“I’m honestly not sure what else I expected,” he laughed. “But I think Flora’s probably the best magic for this terrain, don’t you think? It would be a shame to tear up the earth and ruin all plant life around here.” Flora? I’ve never heard of any such magics. I am, indeed, itching to test our might against such an unusual opponent!

The lanky mercenary began to walk toward the spot Mila had pointed to, along the way, he began to unbuckle his armor, tossing the worn studded leather aside until he was wearing nothing but his green tunic, gray trousers and brown boots. He figured being able to move faster would make this duel a little more evenly matched - he’d learned a long time ago that it is often better to avoid magic all together than to try and block the blow. “Neither Frag nor I have ever seen someone use it before - did you develop it or something?” He unsheathed Fragarach. The short, lightweight blade glinted in the sunlight. Fragarach’s eagerness overwhelmed Donovan’s own apprehension - It had been awhile since they’d been in a decent fight, after all.

[Mila]

"Flora it is then." Mila sorta beamed at that. Donny was right this sort of terrain was great for Flora to do it's thing. There were plenty of flowers, weeds, and grasses for her to work with. And worst case scenario the small sample of seeds she had in her satchel could come in handy. Not that she anticipated the need to suddenly grow an apple tree... but the option was there. 

"I'm not skilled enough to make my own tome." She replied. Appreciate the sentiment though.

"Flora magic is pretty old. But, it fell out of favor, and was forgotten about for a while. Veritas Academy sort of rediscovered it. And redistributed it's knowledge back out into the world." She spoke as she pulled out the semi-bright-green tome from her bag. The sage had some fun customizing the book's outer cover. At one point she colored in the large formerly white flower, that was printed on the cover of the tome. The binding had a thin line of painted thorns 'growing' in from the cracked spots in the corners. 

"I've had a lot of practice with it at the Academy. It's a great utility tome. Been using it mostly to grow herbs on the go. I don't have.. much experience using it in battle." She smiled sheepishly. 

"Hope you don't have hay fever." She gave Donny a slap on the back. She then started to walk up towards her position in the meadow. Phew. Alright, Mila. We can do this. We can do this and not kill our friend.. or summon bees. She shuddered lightly at that thought. The little elemental in the jar was eager to see this fight happen. It didn't share it's giant caretaker's sentiments or fears about striped flying insects. The little elemental was up, glowing, and it even had it's arms held up in a sort of boxer's position. As if it wanted Donny or Frag to 'put up his dukes' and duel.

[Donovan]

“When’s the last time someone actually made their own tome, anyway?” He mused aloud - what little he knew about magic, it seemed like most of it was developed before the Scouring, when the whole of Elibe was brimming with magic as intense as it was in Vinland. “You’re going to have to tell me more about Veritas when we have lunch,” Donovan’s stomach growled just thinking about lunch. He’d packed a Salami sandwich and it was calling his name with near as much clarity as Fragarach.

He cackled at her joke as she slapped his back “Just as long as I don’t start sneezing we should be fine.” He shook his head, thinking about the vast applications of magic, that would make life so much easier for so many people. “I feel like most people talk about magic purely in the context of combat, but growing your own herbs and vegetables sounds like a wildly better use of the arcanic arts than just blowing someone up. But… it sounds like we’ll both be getting some valuable practice out of this first bout.”

Enough talk, Liar. Let us hone our skills. Donovan shoved the swords thought down as he threw Fragarach’s scabbard to the edge of the clearing where he’d left his satchel. “You ready?” He waited for her response, took a breath, and slashed the leafed blade sword through the air - sending a blast of wind hurtling in her direction. A terrible genius fell over him and he called out, “Hope you brought a windbreaker!”

[Mila]

"No idea." She answered his question about making an original tome. Mila had a whole lot of experience repairing tomes. Her trusty trinity tome was proof of that. But, never any experience on making a tome from scratch. And now that she thought about it, would making a personal tome really be something new? Or would it be a rehash.. or reimagining.. of another common tome.

"Gladly! I'll tell you all about the academy when were done." That perked her up a bit. She liked talking about her semi professional job. Donny commented on the use of Flora magic ability to grow plants. And how that sounded a lot better than just exploding something. Mila agreed. And she had experience in the subject. Veritas was good at utilizing magic in a variety of forms. They had to in order to keep their territory alive from the onslaught of the undead. Her mood soured a bit but, she shook it off. 

Mila wasn't quite ready yet. Once, she got to her spot she looked down at it. And contemplated if she should keep her shoes on or not. Gaea and Flora responded to her better when she was barefoot. Something about being able to 'feel' the nature magic better. But, a sharp pebble and a mystery pile of a solid-liquidy mixture told her, 'keep your shoes on'. She gave Donny a thumbs up letting him know she was ready. The sage quietly started to channel her magic.Focus. The did her best to tie her own magic into that of the plant life around her. She steadied her breathing. And slowly got a feel for the life around her. Grasses and small flowers were the most common 'weapon' she could use. And she dobuted Donny could be stopped by a rouge bunch of soft grass blades. There weren't any trees for her to exploit either. So she pushed her magic a bit further. She could feel the tiny buds of life underneath the earth. Seeds,bulbs, or spores. She thought back to Donny and his magic, and what they can do. This was supposed to be a learning experience for his magic. No. Both their magics. 

But it seemed that Donny cut her musings short. He sent a rouge blade of wind towards her. She couldn't move out of the way for a variety of reasons. Flora magic had a tendency to root her in one place. She was still trying to concentrate on the fauna magic. And wind magic was really fast. She raised her hands up to protect her face, and she took the brunt of the wind blast. It hurt. And now she had a thin cut on her hands and arms.  But, it didn't knock her to the ground. She lowered her arms and kept focusing. Then she felt it a surge of magic. The plant life around her could almost sense her pain. There was a slight pained expression on her face, as it was very hard to keep focus, it felt like every grass blade had a thing to say. Not that she could hear the conversation between plants.. but.. magic.. made her feel that she could feel what they feel. What they want. Control. Control. You are in control.. not the plants. She raised her hands up. Palms facing dowards. Let it out.. carefully.

She motioned her hands in a circular pattern infront of her. And all around her feet the plants responded in turn. The grasses that could bloom.. bloomed. All at once in a fantastic display of color. Mila waved her arm up. And the plants in a 3ft radius around her detatched from the ground and encircled her briefly. She then proceeded to 'throw' the plant life towards him. A mini blizzard of grass, roots, leaves, and petals were flung towards Donny. 

[Donovan]

Mila took the brunt of the gust without budging, like she was rooted firmly to the soil beneath her feet. Donovan wondered if she’d be able to use Gaea at the same time as Flora. It’d certainly be tricky to knock her to the ground if she bound herself in roots and earth. “Hey am I around to move around at all? Like… we’re keeping this at range, right?" He called across the open field. Pay attention! Fragarach yelled into his mind. Around Mila’s feet the meadow bloomed. Flowers from nothing burst into life. Poppy reds and lily whites emerged and surrounded her, while little perfect blue flowers he had long since forgotten the name of dotted her feet.

So this is Flora… he thought. This isn’t just controlling plants. This is creating life and beauty. “Mila! This is incredible!” He called out. “I’ve never seen anything like this!” They aren’t happy that you cut her. Fragarach warned. What? Frag, why would you use honed wind. We’re just trying to knock her over. While Donovan scolded his weapon, he didn’t notice the beauty that had just been created, lift and swirl around the aquamarine mage. Okay, maybe I got a little overzealous with that first strike, but from - Brace yourself!

The mercenary looked up just in time to see a cyclone of plants hurtling toward him. He was beginning to regret taking off his armor. His off hand raised and covered his face whilst he raised Fragarach, pointing it toward the oncoming attack. He envisioned a burst of wind - a powerful but short ranged attack to break up, or at least slow down her assault - and swung his blade. A broad wall of wind disrupted some of her magic, but failed to completely falter the heavier roots that she’d sent his way. He grunted as one smacked straight into his stomach and another ripped through his tunic, drawing a thin line of blood from his left shoulder.

“Stories above. I’m not really sure what I was expecting there.” He said to himself before quickly turning Fragarach over and drawing from the will of the wind bound within his sword. Twist. He thought, and felt in his grip a clashing of heat and cool, and a rage of a storm. With a diagonal slash, from hip to shoulder, the wind around him contorted and spiraled near instantly. We’ll give her time to prepare herself. Fragarach explained, as the mini twister moved slightly slower than the previous slash of wind - though Donovan thought it would be difficult for someone to simply outrun it.

[Mila]

"Of couse you can move!" Mila shouted back at Donny, in between her attack. Dummy! Donny had the luxury of movement. Mila did not. Well she technically could move. But, if she stepped away her whole concentration of magic would be disrupted. And even if she choose to move out of the way Flora made it very difficult to do so. The whole being rooted thing wasn't metaphorical. It was borderline physical. If she did move each step would be so.. heavy. It felt as if invisible vines of plants, wrapped around her feet, and she'd have to pull her legs up hard just to break free. Gaea after effects were similar to Flora's. But, it was a different kind of heavy feeling. 

While the complements were nice, Donny needed to think fast. The blizzard of plant matter struck Donny. She didn't expect it to do too much damage. She wanted it to be more like be a nuisance. She wanted to test his adaptability with his wind magic. She was about to amply its power a tad bit more. In order to temporarily blind him. To further test that ability with wind. She employed a similar tactic with her tutoring. She wasn't sure how proficient Donny was with his magic. But, the swordsman surprised her a bit with his ability. A gust of wind to cushion the blow of her petal blizzard. She expected that. But a mini twister? That was unexpected.

She immediately lowered her arms down. And any grass, petal, stick, or leaf that was up in the air due to her own magic.. came straight down. Mila made sure to turn them root side down. She even twisted them a little so that the roots returned underground. She was certain the plants that were aggressively transplanted would not survive. Another consequence of Flora. But, she wanted them to have the best shot at living.

Now, how to deal with the twister? Fortunately, for her the twister was visible. The swirling mass of wind kicked up dust and leftover derbies from her plants. She let out a heavy sigh. Then she took another breath in. Then out again. She channeled her magic back towards the ground. Each breath she exhaled, slowly expanded her field of magic. She was looking for something. Anything she could use to disrupt the flow of the wind. Ironically.. I actually.. need a wind breaker. 

As she 'put out a call for help' from the neighboring plants, she kept staring at Donny. Watching his movements. What other tricks you have up those sleeves? Another exhale. But then something called back to her. A chestnut. A lone little chestnut that was once a part of a squirrel long forgotten caches. And she was fortunate that the lone nut was in front of her. A little under half way between her and Donny. And in the path of the twister of pain! The sage immediately stopped challenging her magic to the ground around her and just focused, on that one single chestnut. I'm sorry about waking you little guy. But i need your help. She thought to herself. 

Breathe. 

"Grow. Please. Grow." She whispered to herself.

[Donovan]

The twister left him and he began to run, after all, Mila did give him permission to move about as he wished. He hoped the twister would prove to be enough of a distraction to hide his movements. He didn’t use Fragarach’s magicks to assist his movement, he didn’t think he’d need it. The unarmored mercenary knew that he could outflank the magi, no matter how skilled she was - Fragarach could summon wind faster than any mage could cast, even if the spells they used out powered anything a magic weapon could ever conjure.

But suddenly, her leaves, grass, petals, and sticks fell to the ground. Donovan stopped in his tracks. With what little he knew about Flora, he couldn’t take any risks if he wanted to give Mila a run for her money and prove himself even a little worthy of her partnership. 

He took a deep breath, allowing himself to have a moment of thout. They’d agreed that the two of them would use purely magic based attacks for this duel, so Donovan needed to utilize range and deception to prevent his friend from absolutely wiping the floor with him. Don’t you dare lie in combat, Boy, that is so dishonorable! “Mila! Big one coming your way!” He shouted, revealing his position and scrapping through the air in front of him, sending a feint of a magical attack in Mila’s direction. Then his left foot stepped behind his front-facing right as he falls into a unicorn stance. The leafed blade scrapped the meadows soil as he sends a larger burst of wind upward, trying to knock as much loose dirt into the air between them as possible. If he could just break her line of sight...

[Mila]

The twister is coming! Mila panicked to herself. Please little guy! She mentally pleaded with the tiny seed in the ground. Growing a tree from seed was significantly harder than growing flowers or herbs. If the tree was a sapling then maybe Mila would have had an easier time in the matter. She closed her eyes and continued to channel more of her energy until. She felt something crack. Oh.. no. I broke it! Her magic started to slip through her fingers. If felt odd. Like she was holding a raw egg but there was no egg in her hands. But then something felt heavy in her hands. And then she felt something move. The ground in front of her slowly started to burst open. A small crack at first. And then a tiny little green shoot, shot up from the ground. 

It slowly opened it's tiny but broad leaves. And wiggled slightly. Almost as if it were trying to wave hello at the green haired sage. The sage herself was looking at the little thing a little dumbfounded. The little elemental in the jar on her hip looked at the little green shoot in disappointment. It had had it's arms crossed and everything. 

"Oh.. hello to you too." Mila responded to the plant. She even waved back with her fingers. But the plant continued to wiggle. And it continued to grow. And Mila kept putting her magic and her energy into the steadily growing tree. Soon the tiny shoot became a small sapling. It grew bark, branches, and bigger leaves. Mila could feel the plant's roots through the magic in her fingers. The tree continued to grow at a rapid rate until it was a tree that was about 2ft thick and a little over 5 feet high. A stubby tree. An adolescent tree. But a tree none the less! But something that could shield Mila from Donny's onslaught of wind. And shield her it did. The Cyclone of wind hit the tree rather than her. Mila let out a large sigh of relief. Then cut off her magic to the plant life around her. She was breathing heavily. Too much! 

She lost sight of Donny. He put up a dust cloud that hid his movements. That's not good. If this wasn't a magical duel, then the swordsman could have easily run up to her, and sliced her down. Duma would be so disappointed at me. But then the swordsman revealed his location and warned her of a rather large attack. Mila eyed Donny for a bit. She took a look at the spell that he was launching. And then she took a look at the tree and at her legs. Which felt like they were crawling with pins and needles. She tried to take a step. But she felt like she was being held back by some invisible force. She pushed herself to take the step and almost immediately regretted it. Her whole leg buckled and she fell to the ground. Come on Mila... move!

The adrenaline kicked in. And she pulled herself back up and hobbled as fast as she could towards her new tree friend. She hid behind it for a moment letting the gusts of wind magic either pass by or hit the tree directly. She was breathing a lot harder now. I can still fight. I just need.. a bit of time to.. recuperate. She steadied her breathing. I wonder how much energy he has left. Those wind blasts must be taking a toll of him by now. The twister, knocked down some of the tree's newly formed branches. The sage picked up the fallen branches and held them close. 

"Your sacrifice won't be wasted, friend."

[Donovan]

Wind tore through leaves and some branches as the twister clashed with a tree that had grown from nothing. Blizzards of grass and roots were one thing, but an entire tree from seemingly nowhere? Donovan never knew that was even possible. He could feel Fragarach hum in his grip, ready to keep fighting, but they had used a couple of powerful attacks all in a row. They’d need to scale back the force of their blows if the magic blade wasn’t going to wear itself thin too early in the duel.

Donovan ran into the cloud of dirt, hiding from the green mage’s sight. He’d only get a few seconds of cover before the dust settled over the meadow. If she could summon a tree like that, she’d have a lot more tricks up her sleeve than she’d shown when they first got started. He didn’t see the mage stumble away from her original position. He wasn’t aware of how much energy it had taken for Mila to grow that tree from a seedling. The weak gust of wind Donovan had sent her way as a feint, gently rustled the leaves above her head. But didn’t do much more damage to the tree than a mid summer breeze.

Meanwhile, Donovan ran as quietly as he could through the dust cloud, trying to get closer to where Mila’s original position on the field had been. He kept an ear out for the sound of groaning wood or splintering branches, but when he emerged from the cloud of dirt, he didn’t see Mila in her rooted position. As the dust settled, Donovan turned toward the tree, hoping to get a line of sight on where Mila had run toward. Maybe Flora magic needed to be in close range to be more effective?

[Mila]

Mila had little time to assess her situation. Her energy was depleted. Her floral resources were kinda low. She did have the tree to help her. But, trees were heavy and stiff. They were harder to move than something soft like grass blades. The branches she had in her hand were about two inches thick. They had some leaves to them. At this point she heard Donny, move. Most likely he had already reached the spot where she just was. She tried her best to hide her frame from Donny's line of sight. Though she suspected that she was failing that due to the corners of her attire and hair. 

She stared at the branches for a moment. Then a thought hit her. Just need to play keep away. She took another deep breath and exhaled through the nose. The branches were a little less than half her arm length. Mila quickly snapped one of them in half by breaking it over her knee. Then snapped that half into other two more half's. So now she had a total of four tiny projectiles, and one sort of big one. Just like the rocks. Mila mused to herself. The sage had learned a few things when practicing with Gaea. She learned that if she launched rocks, at high enough speed, the velocity of said rock, would impact a small area very hard. She effectively taught herself how to make a slingshot with out the sling. She was going to apply this sort of logic to the branches. 

She focused her magic into the branches. She made a motion with her hand and the four projectiles she had lost their bark on one end. And revealed a sort of sharpened point. She focused her magic onto the bigger of the two branches to get a feel of it's weight. Oh this is so light. She 'held' the four floating projectiles over her hand. She played with them in her hand for a bit. Her three main fingers and thumb moved a certain projectile. The bigger branch on the other hand would need a bit more refinement. And she had an idea on how to do that. Phew. Alright. It's now or never. She pulled herself away from the tree and stepped in front of Donny. 

"Think fast!" She shouted. Before lobbing the bigger branch with her her actual arm strength. The branch was terribly ineffective. But that wasn't the main point of this. The sage then quickly 'launched' her mini darts at Donny. She wasn't aiming at anything vital. She just needed the darts to do one thing.

[Donovan]

The Mercenary hesitated, he didn’t see Mila behind the tree, though, if he’d been a little closer, he would have noticed the fringes of her teal mane peeking around the edges of the newly grown plant. But if she wasn’t there? Where could she be? He turned around, looking into the edges of the forest. Had she retreated into the woods? She would definitely be at more of an advantage in the heart of the forest. After all, trees would be more effective in a fight than petals, grass, and leaves.

He took a few steps forward and scanned the treeline. A sudden snap of a branch grasped his attention - though he didn’t notice the noise had come from behind him. He swung Fragarach broadly, twisting the air around the sword’s blade and spiraling it in a long horizontal stroke toward the forest line. Wherever she was hiding, Mila should be flung from cover as the rippling wind battered her down.

Or. It would have, had he swung anywhere near her direction. Donovan didn’t notice as his opponent stepped out from behind the tree she had grown - four small darts of wood hovering in the air around her. “Think fast!” She called out, giving Donovan just enough time to turn around and see the branch she’d lobbed in his direction coming toward him. He battered it away with a gust of wind, before he even noticed the smaller, sharper branches Mila had held in reserve.

[Mila]

Donny batted the branch away, and in that moment Mila knew, she might have a chance at winning. Maybe! She flicked her hands and the sharp bits of wood were sent flying. She kept he focus on the sharp wooden darts. The goal of this last ditch effort wasn't to hurt Donny. It was meant to keep him distracted. She wanted him to keep focusing on just the darts. She had them swirl around his head. They zoomed by his ears and made an annoying little buzz. Hopefully, the muscle memory of swatting pesky mosquitoes would kick in. Try to hit the annoying areas. She had the darts try to poke him in some annoying areas. The arm pits. The back of the knees. Anything that might get him to move back away from her. 

She let out a hard breath. The hard part was next. The darts were being controlled by one hand. She was going to try to split her magic on the stick, that was swatted away. The one that lay behind Donny. But, splitting's one magic was hard. And even though the branch was within her magical reach, 'grasping' that branch was going to take all that remained of her magic. She took a deep breath in and stared at Donny. Even though she was looking at him, she wasn't quite focused on him. If she ever had to explain this sensation to a person, she 'looked' like she was staring at Donny. But, he was, not within focus, he appeared to be fuzzy. What was completely clear in her vision were her wooden darts. She could see them whirling around him like a bunch of angry hornets. 

She adjusted her footing slightly. She let out her breath. Slowly this time. Darts slowly started to come out of her focus. They were still tethered to her and her magic. And she was still moving them with her hand and fingers. Though the pattern of the darts were starting to become a bit predictable and slower. Donny could probably swat them away fully by now. Or perhaps blow them all away with his wind. She slowly moved her other hand. She could feel the magic of Flora flow out of her fingers. But, the split in focus, mage it so difficult to control. She felt as if her magic, her hand, was moving through mud. She closed her eyes and took another deep breath. And then she felt it. The thud of magic hitting the stick. She closed her hand and 'grasped' it. Hold it. HOLD IT! 

She slowly, willed it to move. The branch hovered in the air slightly. It just barely touched the tips of the blades of grass below it. She made the branch lie across. Mila was forced to 'drop' the wooden darts. She moved her hand swiftly towards her chest. And the stick flew itself towards Mila. Just try to sweep the ankles.