For the first half of the class. Master Shen taught the students a variety of poses, strikes and blocks for hand to hand combat. Then she made them line up.

‘There’s only so much teaching one can do. Someone can know all there is to know about fighting, and still be defeated on the battlefield,’ she gazed out, looking like she was recalling a memory of her past, ‘To be ignorant is bad, to know is good, but to be able to do is best of all. Therefore, at the end of each class. I will partner you up and you will put each day’s lesson into practice.’

Two by two, Master Shen paired the students. Sparrow ended up with a girl the same age as him, with shining black hair and green eyes. Her name was Jade.

Jade was a princess and highly placed in the line for the Dragon River throne. Sparrow had watched her as she practised the various stances and strikes, they seemed second nature to her.

She’s done this all before, Sparrow thought with a gulp. She’s going to kick my ass.

They faced each other, bowed and took up fighting stances

From across the courtyard a voice yelled at Sparrow, ‘Have you no shame? You’re fighting a girl!’

The voice was Rhino-xi’s, ‘Obviously, you’re not man enough to take on another guy, you’re not man enough to take on me.’ Rhino said as he scrubbed at the floor of the classroom.

Master Shen looked up from where she’d been helping Piggy to get into a fighting stance. Piggy was facing the scrawniest girl in the class. But still, Sparrow was worried for him. He was not a fighter.

Master Shen left Piggy and his half-formed fighting stance, and marched over to where Rhino-xi was yelling.

‘That is where you went wrong in your fight against Sparrow two days ago.’ Master Shen said ‘Rhino-xi you must never underestimate your opponent. I happen to have trained with Princess Jade before. Wu-li, her uncle, began teaching her at just three years old. That is why the only one to be worried about in this fight is Sparrow.’

The master gave Sparrow a nod of acknowledgement, ‘Although, I think he’s wise enough and has watched Princess Jade enough to know that she’s a born warrior. She may lack a bit of muscle but at least she doesn’t lack brains.’ The teacher said, staring hard at Rhino-xi until with the red face, he went back to his scrubbing.

Master Shen clapped her hands and spun to face the class, ‘As this is your first hand to hand combat under my teaching I want to add a little extra challenge to it. Tonight for dinner we have succulent Spicy Chicken with ember roasted vegetables.’

Master Shen paused, and looked her students in the eyes, ‘Whoever wins between your peers will eat double dinner tonight, the losers will go to bed without eating.’

She smiled. ‘Give it your all. I’ll be watching to see who tries and who doesn’t. Remember, this is just one fight of many to come.’

The partners bowed to each other. Sparrow slipped into his fighting stance – back straight, right knee bent, while his left jutted straight out in front of him. He danced on the balls of his feet – light and aware.

Master Shen hit her mini gong and Princess Jade began to circle him half-heartedly.

Sparrow faked a punch, but Princess Jade read him like a book, grabbed his arm, twisted it and then kicked him in the knee. Sparrow was sent to the floor.

He rolled and his movement caught her off guard, she shot forward and Sparrow was able to get back to his feet. He turned. Just in time. The punch she’d been lining up for the back of his head hit him in the shoulder instead, stinging his bone. She slipped backwards. Like a praying mantis, hands up. Ready.

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Sparrow’s shoulder was sore and he used that pain to feed his anger.

Without any technique he rushed in, punching wildly. Out of ten punches only one caught the side of her face.

The punch barely connected, but Princess Jade turn bright red.

‘Well done,’ she said, and then the princess was on him like a steamroller. Two punches landed in his gut and his groin. An elbow came up and smashed him in the eye so hard that everything turned black.

Sparrow woke up on the courtyard mat a few moments later to find the princess staring down at him.

Master Shen was reminding the princess that she was only trying to beat Sparrow, not destroy him.

‘Still, very well done Princess Jade.’ Master Shen said, rubbing her on the back. ‘I hope we can all take a lesson from this. Ah… I see you’re awake Sparrow. Now get up.’

The apprentice and Master Shen helped him to his feet. ‘You fought well, Sparrow,’ Master Shen said. ‘and by well I mean like a blind monkey who’s just drunk an entire bottle of rice wine.’

The master sighed, ‘You’ve got no technique. But should you remain with us for long enough I will remedy that.’

After the end of day gong had run Sparrow went over to Piggy who had received number of small bruises from the scrawny girl Piggy had fought and ultimately lost to. They went back to the dormitories. Much to Piggy’s disgust, neither of them got dinner that night.

Instead, Piggy complained about the school, and about how primitive fighting with fists was while Sparrow held a cold, damp towel to his eye.

‘Do you think it’s going to swell?’

Piggy shrugged, ‘Hard to tell. Barbaric I say… barbaric.’

Sparrow nodded, just glad he still had an eye.

****

When night had fallen Sparrow, who been kept awake by the pain in his head, heard a tapping on his window. He rolled out of bed and staggered forward to see Princess Jade crouching on a stone ledge in front of his window. She gestured for him to follow, and he climbed out without saying a word.

She led him further down the ledge until they were sitting on a small platform, looking at over the campus and the academy fields, and the bright silver moon that shone above them.

‘Here,’ she said, handing him a few large pieces of fried chicken, wrapped in a silk cloth.

Sparrow immediately bit into the chicken. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was.

His hunger consumed him in for a minute. They sit in silence, as he munched away happily. Eventually, as he was licking his fingers he looked across at Princess Jade’s face and her green eyes that reflected in the moonlight.

‘Why are you here?’ he asked.

Princess Jade frowned, ‘You don’t have any friends, do you Sparrow?’

Sparrow picked out a piece of chicken that had stuck between his teeth, ‘I mean, Piggy’s my friend.’

She rolled her eyes, ‘But you don’t have any important friends, do you?

Sparrow shrugged, ‘Not here. Back at home I had plenty of friends but here. Everyone seemed so different.’

Jade nodded, ‘It isn’t easy. Even at our age. We’re already fighting for places in the army and government and trying to form alliances and curry favour. It’s all good work for the future. But…’ she shrugged, ‘You know I’m already starting to feel lonely. You can’t talk to all the other nobles about it because that would be a sign of weakness.’

She handed another small package of roasted root vegetables to Sparrow, ‘But you. You’re a no one. It doesn’t matter what I tell you, because you’re never going to be in the same position as the rest of us, you’re not competing.’

Sparrow scratched his head and mumbled between the bits of root vegetable in his mouth. ‘Are you saying you want to be friends?’

Princess Jade scoffed, ‘Close your mouth. Never talk while you’re eating.That’s the first rule I’ll teach you.’ Then she shrugged, ‘I wouldn’t go as far as friends. I was thinking something more like an alliance.’

Sparrow coughed, he’d never been in an alliance before, he wasn’t entirely sure what an alliance even meant, but something had to be better than nothing. Besides, he liked the princess. She had given him food and she was pretty.

‘Sure,’ he said, holding out his hand.

The princess gave a slight groan when she saw the crumbs sticking to it, but eventually reached out and shook.

Sparrow went back to munching his root vegetablees while the princess watched.

She began to shift slightly, rubbing her hands together as she spoke, ‘Sometimes late at night. My sisters and I would sneak out of our windows and we’d sit, holding hands, looking up at the moon.

The princess waited for him to speak, but Sparrow merely nodded. The root vegetables were too good and he was trying to impress her by not talking with his mouth full.

Princess Jade sighed, ‘Sparrow, as my new ally, would you like to hold hands and look up at the moon with me?’

Spares smiled as he finished, bits of parsnip were stuck between his teeth.

‘Of course,’ he said, and took her hand in his.

Her was slimmer and smoother, more like fine paper while his was rough and worn in comparison.

They were silent for a long while. Princess Jade might have been the girl who beat him up, but Sparrow didn’t mind. The moon was nice, her hand was warm, and he had a full belly. As far as he was concerned life was good.

It’s a pity, it didn’t stay that way for long.