"Teacher Lecia, I've noticed that the Water Dance is very different from the Scythians' usual fighting style. How did your ancestors come up with this method of training?"
Like Danyla, Walda and her female soldiers were fascinated by the Water Dance, so they gradually joined in the training as well. Whether her First Men blood played a part, Walda learned remarkably quickly. In just a week, she had made tremendous progress, greatly improving her fighting prowess.
As she trained, she also noticed something unusual about the Water Dance. Not only did her body grow lighter and more agile with practice, but the skinchanging ability she had been struggling to master had also reached a new breakthrough. Just yesterday, she had successfully skinchanged into the falcon she kept.
Danyla had now settled all the Scythians on the island of Hogland. They no longer had to worry about food or clothing, and they had ample time and equipment to continue honing their martial skills.
With no further need to wander far and wide to provide for her people, Lecia devoted herself wholeheartedly to teaching at the Sanctuary of the Blessed.
"Legend has it that when our Scythian ancestors wandered into the Thorne River basin, they received a blessing from a Giant Turtle and learned how to practice the Water Dance. Later, when we drifted to Braavos, we brought it with us."
"A giant turtle? Could that have been the legendary Old Man of the River?"
Walda's interest immediately deepened. Ever since she had begun following Danyla, she had grown increasingly convinced of, and fascinated by, such mysterious powers.
In the mythology of the Rhoynar of western Essos, the Old Man of the River was the eldest son of their chief deity, the Mother Rhoyne, and the most important lesser deity under her