Careful, These Things are Sharp

Captain Tazami motioned to the soldiers carrying the two boxes to begin passing out their contents. The soldiers complied and began to walk down the three rows of recruits, handing each of them a machete in a thick sheath. The recruits looked at each other and at Tazami with increasing confusion. A few chuckles and comments passed down the ranks as some of the recruits took the machetes out of their sheaths and began looking them over.

"Are we hunting people...or gorram demons?"

Several of the recruits snickered at the anonymous comment. Tazami rolled his eyes and held up his hand.

"All right, shut the hell up, all of you..."

The voices simmered down, and the recruits returned their attention to Tazami's position in the front of their position. Tazami took one of the machetes from the box as the soldiers returned to his position and replaced the boxes. He rolled the heavy blade in his hands with incredible ease.

"Seeing as how most of the luh suh has survived the first two weeks here in Hell better than I expected, clearly I'm not doing my job correctly..."

The recruits cringed in varying degrees at the thought. Everyone of them had thoughts of Koltai's experience in vary degrees. Tazami smiled slightly at the recruits' collective disturbance. They had spent the last two weeks doing various physical drills to weed out the least promising of the group. Only three had washed out so far. Tazami wasn't surprised.

"Nevertheless...it's time you started weapons training..."

Tazami flicked his wrist and the machete in his hand flipped around the back of his hand. He caught it with the blade facing backwards and ran his finger over the sharp edge absently.

"Recruits, meet your new best friend. For those of you with kuh ai looks of stupidity, this is a kukri."

Tazami tossed the blade to his left hand and back as if the machete was a juggling pin.

"From now until you leave this dirt patch, this blade will never leave your side. You will sleep with it, bathe with it, and love it for all it can do for you."

A varitey of chuckles and stifled laughs echoed from the recruits' positions and Tazami frowned.

"Tian di wu yohn...you've got an instrument that can decapitate a man in one blow, and the ruttin' lot of you act like a bunch of horny schoolgirls reading a gorram porn magazine..."

The laughter died away, though the mental image Tazami provided for the men in the audience resulted in a number of retained smiles. In the back row, of course.

"Now, attach the holster to the back of your belt as mine is..."

Tazami turned to show the proper orientation of the holster. The block of recruits followed his example and began attaching the sheath to their belts with varying degrees of initial success. The two soldiers by Tazami's side left his side and entered the lines of recruits to assist them with attaching the sheath. After several minutes, the recruits had their sheaths attached correctly and the soldiers returned to the front of the group. Tazami returned his kukri to its holster and motioned for the soldier to his left to hold up the empty holster in his hand.

"You will see two straps here that hold the kukri in place," barked Tazami as he pointed to the two straps on the aloft holster, "and each must be closed to keep the blade in position. Tazami then motioned to the top strap.

"This strap keeps the blade from moving in horizontal position...unstrap it now."

The chorus of unsnapped sheath straps rang out in the group.

"Your blade is now free to exit the sheath by pulling directly parallel to the sheath. Understood?"

"Yes sir!"

Tazami nodded at their acknowledgment and unstrapped his kukri as well. He placed his right hand on the handle and spoke as he illustrated the first practice strike for the recruits.

"Now, on my command you will draw your kukri to a ready position like this."

Tazami quickly drew the blade from it's holster and stopped the fluid motion to make a 45-degree angle with his shoulder.

"This is your ready position! Every strike you perform with the kukri should return to this position. From the ready position you can strike..."

Tazami swung the blade quickly in a short cut aimed at an imaginary man's chest.

"and you can defend..."

Tazami swung the blade again in a much more complicated series of movements that the recruits would understand later to be a parry and counter-strike.

"Now, to the ready!"

The recruits jerked quickly on their kukris and a dozen groans erupted as several knives did not even leave the sheaths. The recruits that did get their kukris out moved in jerky, uncoordinated motion.

Tazami sighed heavily and audibly.

It was going to be a very long day.