Waking up in the new dorm was a completely different experience to what Yaric was used to. He hadn’t even finished getting dressed and he could already hear the sound of people walking past his door. Leaving his room and going into the common room in the entrance, Yaric found over a dozen students already up and talking in small groups. Lauren and Li Na were waiting, and moved over to Yaric as soon as they noticed him.
“Come on, breakfast time!” Li Na called enthusiastically.
“Morning. Ok, I’m coming!” he said loudly as Li Na grabbed his arm and started dragging him outside before he could say anything else. It was still dark outside. The predawn sun was only just starting to chase away the stars and light up some clouds floating high in the air, but it had yet to peak over the horizon. An early morning breeze brought a chill to everyone as they left the warmth of the dorm rooms.
“Why isn’t anyone else coming yet? They’re all just sitting inside?” Yaric asked.
“They will,” Lauren replied, “they’re just waiting for others that haven’t got up yet. Some people have already gone ahead of us too.”
“We aren’t going to wait for Sven?”
Lauren paused for a second before answering, “No, Sven does his own thing. And he used his points from winning the tournament to arrange private lessons before breakfast.”
“Oh, ok. So he will join us there?”
“I doubt it. Sven mostly keeps to himself. Last night was probably the most I’ve ever seen him talk with others, and I think it was just because you had joined us. He will be back to normal now.”
Yaric wasn’t sure what to think of that. One of the few people he had felt he was most likely to become friends with was already off doing their own thing. Li Na and Lauren had waited for him however, and they didn’t seem to have any other plans.
“Don’t you guys also get private lessons?”
Li Na just scoffed, but Lauren answered again. “No, I’m saving my points for more intense lessons. I want to have at least 3 months of consecutive lessons before I cash in my points. The stop start training I can get now doesn’t work well for me.”
Li Na hip bumped Yaric as she added, “Why would I want to get up even earlier just to make myself tired before normal lessons even start? Everyone tells you that special lessons are the way to go, but I have a secret plan. I’m going to sleep early and wake up late, so I will be rested and ready for all my lessons. And I never overexert myself! That way I can get the most out of every day!”
“You’re just allergic to work,” Lauren laughed.
“Am not!”
Li Na was pouting when Lauren calmed down enough to speak normally. “In our first year, this one here kept earning extra laps around the training grounds,” Lauren laughed, “because she was determined to cheat with every exercise. Lina somehow convinced herself that the exercises were a test to see who could outsmart the instructors.”
“How many times did you get away with it?” Yaric asked Li Na.
Lauren burst out laughing again as Li Na started blushing and staring at the ground in front of her feet.
“Never,” she grumbled quietly.
“Yeah well, you were just making up excuses for trying to skimp on training. And all that got you was more training! I don’t think anyone else ran as many laps as you did in our first year,” Lauren teased.
“So what? I learnt, didn’t I? Now I know to just do what’s put in front of you, and use your free time to recover before the next lessons! And I’m way more alert than you now!”
“How are you more alert than me? Wait! I’m doing exactly the same training as you!”
Yaric tuned out the good natured bickering as they approached the food hall, looking to see who had arrived already. There actually weren’t that many people that he recognized from his year, but that could just as well be because he doesn’t remember everyone’s faces. There was good news however, and that was that Chris hadn’t arrived yet either.
Lauren and Li Na were still needling each other as they fetched their plates and got breakfast. Yaric was careful not to pick a side, but he found it difficult as both constantly asked his opinion, especially Li Na. The rest of their class was trickling in along with the other years, and the food hall was soon packed.
All three of them finished and left while the majority of students were still eating, ensuring that they arrived early at the training grounds. Yaric and Lauren immediately started stretching and warming up, while Li Na gave them a running commentary on how they were wasting their time and energy.
Hiawatha came over less than ten minutes after they had started, and sent the three of them and their few present classmates on a run. Every student was sent to join them as they arrived, and there was soon a long string of students doing laps. Training was already completely different for Yaric, running with classmates being a significant change, but on their third lap Hiawatha started flagging them down for another change in the routine.
“Everyone! Run back to your dorm rooms and put on your armor! If you don’t have your own, find something in the common room storage and get back here! Run run run!”
Yaric took off with everyone else. The run wasn’t that far and many students still on their way to the fields turned around and joined in the run back to the dorm rooms. It didn’t take long to explain the situation to them, and by the fifth student people were calling out to everyone they recognized to let them know what was going on.
Having a room right at the entrance was an advantage, as Yaric was the first to start equipping his armor. He wasn’t much faster than the only other time he had tried on his armor, and gave up on some of the straps, choosing to rather try to get them right once he got back to the training field.
“Having trouble?” Li Na laughed when she saw the state of Yaric’s armor. Both Li Na and Lauren were waiting for him again, each in academy armor, but this time it was Yaric who blushed as he looked down at himself. “Relax, it’s really hard to reach all the straps. We did each other’s. Come here.” She waved him closer and grabbed his shoulders to turn him around. Lauren joined her and everything was tightened and adjusted properly in just 2 minutes.
“Thanks, I couldn’t get any of those right.”
“Don’t worry, it looks like you’ve never had the armor on before. Now that everything has been adjusted it will be much easier to put on in the future. But it will still be faster if someone helps.”
Yaric nodded gratefully as they ran back. The trip back was quick, but everyone noticed the extra weight during the run. Hiawatha didn’t bother saying anything when he saw them running up, just pointing his finger in the air and twirling it, letting them know that they needed to carry on running. No one said a thing, and the next hour went by slowly as they continued to lap the fields.
Finally, Hiawatha called them all together again, and the entire class waited silently as more and more students finished their last lap.
“Alright! Welcome to your fourth year! This year, things will be a bit different. Your evenings will be spent on brand new drills. It’s time for all of you to learn to work together as a unit! But first, your weapons skills are poor! Time to practice!”
Hiawatha started pairing off students and sending them to pick up weapons to practice their drills. They each began with spears, before moving on to swords. Keagan, the student Yaric was paired with, was very quiet compared to most of the students that Yaric had got to know, but he still paused every now and then to help Yaric with a bit of advice.
Yaric hesitated when they were told to pick up shields. Hiawatha noticed very quickly, and called him over. “Fetch your shield and come back here.”
The shields they started with were circular, a little over 2 feet in diameter, and had a padded central strap with a leather grip right near the edge. Hiawatha took a few minutes to get everyone started before coming back to Yaric.
“Good! Now hold the shield up by the rim and slide your other arm through the central strap. Good! Now when you hold the grip as you are you have a lot of control of the shield. You will notice that the central strap is very wide – this is so you can drop the shield quickly if needed, even when wearing a bracer like you are now. I will show you some very basic movements and techniques, but I need you to keep in mind that you will switch to a different shield later. I want you to note the differences in how they are used!”
Hiawatha proceeded to demonstrate how the shield was held, and some basic movements used for defense.
“A shield that is strapped to your arm is held close to your body most of the time. You can’t extend it like with other shields. No, don’t hold it flat, move it around slightly. Move your elbow closer to your side. Now hold your hand out slightly further from your body. Good! This way the shield is slightly diagonal when facing your opponent, so it can more easily deflect strikes and thrusts instead of stopping them. If you do need to block directly, don’t stop the blow with your shield arm! Anchor your arm against your body, similar to your rearward arm when wielding a spear. Then let the shield take the blow, but use your body to absorb the impact.”
Hiawatha picked up his own shield. “See how this angle places the outside of my shield along my side? If I held the shield in my left arm like this, but turn it flat to face you, the right half covers my body, but the left half extends out uselessly. It’s actually an easy place to grab or hook, and the leverage is not to your advantage! Look how it covers my left side when it’s angled though. See how the edge is slightly behind me now, and how I can now use my body to absorb blows from the side?”
Hiawatha added a long sword to his equipment, wielding it with one hand as if it were a short sword. He began to slowly swing and thrust toward Yaric, forcing Yaric to use his shield to block. The strikes were slow, to allow Yaric to get a feel for the shield, but he started to gradually vary the part of the body he targeted and the direction he attacked from.
“No! Don’t try to drop your shield arm to cover an attack against your knee! You are exposing most of your torso to the follow up. Drop your whole body slightly as well. You can get your shield there quicker, and your body will follow behind your shield for much of the way and end up less exposed as well, limiting the danger to you.”
Yaric dropped his stance when Hiawatha repeated the same strike, earning himself a nod of approval. “See? You are also in a much better position overall. Stand up! Now block the way you did the first time. Stop! Hold your position. You are now leaning slightly forward, and you’re even leaning slightly over the front of your shield while trying to reach your knee! You aren’t just exposed, your stance is extremely weak. And almost all of your weight is on your front foot!”
“Now block as you’ve learned. See your new position? Your lower stance is even more stable! You’re much harder to attack if your opponent is looking to follow up, and any counter you use will either attack much lower than you usually could, or attack in an upward motion starting from near your opponent’s center of gravity! Your counter will be the one that’s hard to defend against. You can also shield bash from this position, which isn’t common with a shield like this. Just thrust your whole body forward from your back leg, and use your shield as if blocking a big strike to your shoulder. Aim to hit your opponent with the same shoulder.”
They carried on, testing Yaric’s reactions while he improved his feel for the shield. For the most part, Yaric found he was actually quite good with the shield. Hiawatha had very little more to say, only taking issue when Yaric defended a thrust to his face, and with how Yaric moved when he had to block a blow directly.
“Stop! Don’t lift your shield up like that! You’re exposing yourself again! You are also losing sight of your opponent. Exactly as you did when you defended a strike to your knee, try again, but drop your head down like you're trying to keep your head between your shoulders. Good! You can still lift your shield a little, to make up the difference. No! Not all the way up! Don’t block your vision!”
Hiawatha moved around next to Yaric and held his sword out awkwardly, as if the sword was being wielded by someone in front of Yaric. “Look where my hands are when the thrust makes contact. They are far below the top of the shield. That means that the point is still stabbing upwards when it would make contact with your shield, and be far below the targeted point. Your shield only has to rise to cover the point of intersection where the weapon passes the shield, NOT where the weapon is targeting.”
“Look at what happens when I chop down. See how my hand is at the same height as my sternum. And yet the sword is targeting your head. That’s why the blade is at almost a 45 degree angle. Your head only needs to be below the part of the blade that extends past the shield, far enough to reach. This is no different to how you learned to deflect strikes in unarmed combat. Use the angles to your advantage! Push your shield slightly further forward to increase the angle of my sword if needed. But always remember two things! Never block your own vision if you can avoid it, and always anticipate your shield shifting slightly with the blow, especially if it’s a weapon swung down at your head! Add some extra space to compensate.”
After another 20 minutes of practice, Hiawatha dropped his sword and raised his shield properly in front of his body. “Now, we are about to switch to a different kind of shield, but I want to show you a different way that this kind of shield can be used. I want you to put some focus on the differences between each type and how you can use them to your advantage. Attack me.”
Yaric was confused, as he only had a shield, but he knew better than to hesitate, and immediately stepped into a front kick. Hiawatha deftly twisted slightly and lowered his upper body, blocking directly. It was like kicking a mountain, and Yaric was sent backward by the force of his own kick.
Hiawatha then stepped forward, and as he came into range, he thrust out his shield arm as if he were punching. Yaric was forced to twist and take the blow directly as the edge of Hiawatha’s shield struck, knocking Yaric off his feet. The strike drew the attention of some of his class, and he heard scattered laughter as he picked himself back up. Hiawatha seemed to be oblivious.
“When you hold a shield at 2 different points, you trade distance from your body for much more control of the shield. That means you can also use the edge as a weapon. Make no mistake, you expose yourself terribly, but there are definitely situations where the risk is minimal, and you may be forced to if you find yourself without a weapon. As you will see shortly, the same can be done with the next shield, but you will be striking with the entire frontal face of the shield instead of the edge. It is far more defensive in use, and even when used offensively it will most likely to be used to knock an opponent off balance or push his weapons out of position, so you can follow up with your own weapon. Now, fetch one of the shields on the other rack.”
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Hiawatha turned around and started calling out names while Yaric jogged to the first rack to put his shield away. The shields on the second rack looked much the same, but had a solid piece of round metal in the center of the shield, and only a single, solid handle to hold at the back.
Yaric made his way back and saw several students running laps. All of them were students that Hiawatha had just been calling out. Hiawatha hadn’t been so oblivious after all.
“Good! Now, this is how you hold your shield.”
They spent another 15 minutes going through some basic techniques for using the shield, and Hiawatha started probing Yaric again so he could get used to the new equipment.
“Keep doing that! Good! You are learning. Much of the techniques are the same. Try to use what you’ve learned already. Good! You dropped your body quickly. No, don’t block a thrust like that!”
Hiawatha had struck at Yaric’s side, which he had blocked well, but the follow up thrust was to his center, which Yaric tried to block directly. He succeeded, but the sword struck right near the edge of the shield, and the single grip in the center of the shield was not sufficient to keep the shield from twisting in his hand.
“Remember what I just taught you! With these shields you take frontal blows closer to the center! Try keep the strike aligned with your arm. Let your extended arm flex to absorb the blow!”
Yaric repeated that same block again and again, until Hiawatha was finally satisfied.
“Acceptable for your first day. Practice these techniques on your own. It’s very important that you visualize the attack you are blocking however, especially with a shield such as this. You can extend this shield out much further, so you can create more difficult angles for your opponent to overcome. Also, look how the coverage changes.”
Hiawatha took the shield from Yaric and held it right against his body. “You can see everything from my hips down, and my shoulders up.” Then he thrust the shield out towards Yaric. “And now?”
“Uh, I can see your legs almost up to your knees, Instructor. Nothing else.”
“Good! And that is a good indication of what you can attack with a sword or spear. Of course, you should never cover you eyes like this, but you can see what a difference it makes when your shield is further in front of you. The same size shield covers more of your body.”
Hiawatha gave the shield back.
“Now, hold the shield close to your body.”
Yaric complied, and Hiawatha grabbed the top of the shield and pushed down. It wasn’t easy, but Yaric resisted. Then Hiawatha gave the shield a sharp yank towards himself. Yaric was almost pulled forward, but he kept his balance and mostly just extended his arm to compensate.
“Now, hold your shield out further. Even further. Good!”
This time Yaric strained but could barely offer any resistance as the shield was pulled down, and when the shield was yanked forward Yaric was pulled off his feet and had to take a large step forward.
“Extending your shield out improves your coverage. Quick punches with your shield can knock your opponent off balance or tangle up his weapon. But… your shield is itself a vulnerability when it's out too far. One of the things I want you to focus on while you practice is to quickly change how far out you are holding you shield. That will be all for now, once you are better with basic movements, I will have you practice actually using them.”
Hiawatha left after that, and Yaric got down to practicing the movements. The glares some of his classmates were throwing his way hadn’t escaped his notice, and Yaric chose to face away from the rest of the class as he practiced by himself. Chris had appeared to be especially upset, with frequent glances in Yaric’s direction. He seemed unreasonably jealous, and Yaric was sure there would be some consequences later.
Everyone was moved into pairs again, but this time it was to spar. They began with unarmed combat, sparring with full contact. This was Yaric’s first time sparring in his armor. It showed.
His balance wasn’t quite right, and some of his movements seemed restricted, but all in all Yaric was surprised. He definitely fared better than he had expected. Keagan was pressed more than once, and had to keep his focus in order to win. Which he did. Repeatedly. But it was not at all the whitewash that Yaric was expecting. Yaric began to have hope that he would catch up.
The pairs were kept the same after lunch, when they began sparring with the weapons they had used earlier that day. Here Yaric struggled much more, and it was all he could do to just put up a fight. Keagan was happy at least. He seldom won so many fights, and he seldom won so decisively.
It was after 4pm when Hiawatha rejoined them and called everyone together.
“All right, today we are going to start learning about unit formations. Everyone fetch a spear.”
The class had their spears quickly, and Hiawatha continued. “We are going to first focus on the formations themselves, what they look like and where everyone goes. Then we are going to practice getting into those formations as quickly as possible.”
Hiawatha paused and looked across all of the students assembled in front of him. He seemed much more serious than usual. “A word of warning. The speed with which you get into formation will be timed. In the future you will have certain standards to meet. This is not individual. If one single person does not meet those standards, each and every one of you will fail! You do not want to fail! Understood?”
“YES INSTRUCTOR!”
“Good! Now, you lot, come over here. The rest of you stay where you are. This is a basic spear formation. This one is simple as you are not carrying shields. But make no mistake, moving in formation is no joke. Now, each of you stand together, starting here.”
All Hiawatha did was move the group of students into a line, standing shoulder to shoulder, and then have the rest of the students form lines behind them.
“Everyone will keep their spears up! Now, this is a very basic formation to create, as you are simply lining up to present a wall of spear points. The closer you stand, the denser the wall. But get too close, and you will have trouble moving. That is part of what we will practice now. Everyone in the front row, lower your spears!”
The entire front row dropped their spearheads, but problems immediately occurred. Up and down the line there were spears that took a moment to get into position as their wielders struggled to move their arms down and back. Some were also not held out straight enough, causing many spears to clatter down on top of their neighbors.
“First lesson! Standing too close is not just standing too close to those next to you. You must keep the proper distance between you and those in front of you! Middle row, move back! Now raise your spears and try again!”
This time it went far smoother, and when Hiawatha had the second row lower their spears between the front row there were almost no issues either. The third row struggled a bit, but they got settled quickly once the first two rows lowered their hands slightly. Yaric was in the third row, and Li Na and Lauren had both joined him.
“All right, good! Now everyone, raise your spears again. I don’t want to see any spears lowered again until you are told! All of you move to this spot,” he said, digging his heel into the grass and then stepping back several paces.
The whole class moved toward the spot Hiawatha had marked, the lines collapsing immediately as the students pushed and shoved, all trying to get on the spot Hiawatha had indicated. Everyone was under the impression that this was some sort of test, and with good reason, as they had all spent a long time training under Hiawatha. The problem was they never knew exactly what the test was.
Once they were all bunched up in a group, Hiawatha called for their attention. “All right everyone! Back into formation, right where you are! Form up, form up!”
It was a disaster. Everyone pushed everyone else around, trying to find their places in the formation. Yaric, Lauren and Li Na had an easier time than most, as they just hung back and then joined the back line as they had the first time.
“That was not very good! Do you know what you all got wrong?” Hiawatha paused and a looked around at all of the students standing in their rows. “Everything! You got everything wrong! No one took charge of the starting point! No one coordinated with anyone else in any way! And why are you all in more or less the same places as the first time? Do you think you have your own place in the formation? You do not!”
“You will each learn how to play your part from any position in the formation! You could have to form up in a surprise attack, or while under fire! Wars have casualties! You will all learn how to fit in wherever you are needed. And you will all learn to tell where that is.”
Hiawatha had everyone in the front row drop their spears, followed by the second and then the third rows. At least that went much better. He had everyone raise their spears, and called everyone forward into a mob again.
“Form up where you are!”
It was chaos. There was almost no improvement, and the only positive was that the students stopped trying to get into specific rows and started slotting in wherever there was a gap. The biggest problem was a new issue that cropped up. Each row ended up with a different number of students, and the entire formation was useless.
For his part, Hiawatha was amazingly calm and patient, and kept drilling them over and over. There was very little improvement even after an hour of practice, and they never did anything other than form up and lower their spears.
A surprising change came in the early evening, just as they were told to form up again for what felt like the hundredth time. Li Na grabbed Yaric by his shoulders and firmly moved him into position in front of her. Then she grabbed Lauren’s arm and pulled her back, pointing behind her. She had a big smirk on her face that just screamed trouble.
“Everyone!” she shouted, “We are the center of each row! Line up on either side of us!”
There was a moment of hesitation, but everyone quickly decided to give it a try and started forming up. It was massively faster, and everyone was in position in a fraction of the time they usually took. There were still issues, but the difference was blatantly obvious. Their biggest problems were at the ends, where the first row on the left flank had one extra person, while the right flank had an extra person in the first and second row. The two at the right figured it out first, and both quickly ran around the back and joined the lone front liner on the left flank. Oddly, Li Na and her friends ended up being off center, as more people formed up to their right than their left, but it still worked.
“Good! That was much better. Actually, very good! It usually takes a few days of chaos before a class starts getting a feel for this, well done! And you too Prospect Lina, you will be awarded bonus points at the end of the next tournament! Now, first row, lower spears!”
Yaric lowered his spear along with everyone else in his row, and Li Na’s spear soon joined his, followed shortly after by Lauren’s. This was repeated several times, and each time Li Na took control of the formations. After a while Hiawatha intervened and blocked Li Na from taking charge again.
Lauren immediately took over, followed by Yaric, and soon there was a small amount of confusion again as multiple people tried to take control. They never went back to the chaos of their first attempts though, and Li Na was beaming the entire time. It had transformed into a self-satisfied smirk by the time they were dismissed, with Li Na skipped alongside them while Lauren insisted they make their way straight to the food hall.
“Did you see what I did? Did you? Did you see how I took charge?”
She was very proud of herself.
“It helped us get much faster.” Yaric answered encouragingly.
“Yes, well done. You were very clever. Such an inspiration. Future captain. Leader extraordinaire.” Lauren teased. “Who would have thought you would be the one to figure out a way to do an exercise better.”
Li Na slowed her skipping as Yaric and Lauren spoke, her smile gradually dropping as they spoke, until it was replaced with a frown.
“Get faster? Do an exercise better?” she asked with a concerned expression on her face.
“Yes, of course” Yaric replied in confusion. “We did so much better with your help.”
“Who cares about that? Didn’t you see how I got everyone to form up around me? I just told everyone to form up like Battle Mage Trokhym had, and they all just listened. I never had to do anything for the rest of the day! I can just stand there now, and the formation forms up around me! Now I can do nothing and get all the credit, while everyone else does the work for me, and they get all the blame for any mistakes!” Li Na’s grin was back as she started skipping again.
Lauren and Yaric both slowed slightly as they realized what Li Na had been doing, and they hurried to follow her. “You mean that was all just so you could skip training?!” Lauren asked incredulously. Li Na just smirked as they made their way into the food hall.
Lauren pushed them to eat quickly, with Li Na boasting all the while. It didn’t take them long, they had worked hard all day and everyone was very hungry. The food hall was also very empty with most students going back to their rooms first to shower and change.
“Lets get back. We need to sort out our armor and clean up still. And I need to get some sleep.” Lauren said as she pulled them out.
They all hurried back and helped loosen the straps on each others armor, before saying their goodbyes in the common room, promising to be up early again the next morning. Yaric was in bed not long after, listening to his classmates walk past his door on their way to their own dinner.
The next thing he knew it was morning, the sky still dark outside. It only took a few minutes to get ready, and he was surprised to find both Li Na and Lauren already waiting for him, yawning together in the common room. Lauren again rushed them out the door, pushing them to get breakfast early.
Yaric found that he preferred the quieter meals. There was far less noise this early since there were so few students already eating. It quickly started filling up though, and by the time they left there was a slight traffic jam forming in the doorway.
As he jostled his way through, Yaric caught sight of Chris standing outside in the crisp winter air, just to the side of the throng of students trying to get through the doorway. He caught Chris’s eye almost immediately, and Chris smirked as he elbowed Yusaf next him. All four of them stood straighter and watched Yaric intently as he pushed his way out with Lauren and Li Na.
“Damn!” Lauren muttered next to Yaric.
Yaric looked over at her in confusion, before turning to look back at Chris still standing outside in the dim predawn light. They finally got free of the crowd and Chris immediately swaggered forward in full showman mode. He was grinning maliciously.
Yaric’s stomach dropped as realization dawned. Lauren pushing them to eat and leave early suddenly made so much more sense. He knew that there was nothing he could do, what was going to happen next was inevitable. His only consolation was that while what was about to happen might be inevitable, how it happened was still in his control. For the next 2 seconds at least.
His mind made up, Yaric quickly turned to his side. “I challenge you!” he declared loudly.
Chris paused in mid step, shocked. His friends couldn’t believe what had happened either, although Devin mostly just seemed confused. Anger clouded Chris’s face when he realized that his moment had just been stolen from him, his expression promising pain in the future. Both Lauren and Li Na had been taken completely by surprise as well.
“Uhhh… I accept,” Lauren stammered.
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Yaric knocked quietly, standing in the dark hallway lit only by mage lights.
“Come in!” Faruk called, his voice muffled by the heavy oak door.
Opening the door partway, Yaric took just a single step inside.
“I’m sorry I’m late Healer Bell,” Yaric stammered apologetically, being sure to use Faruk’s full title with the door still open.
Faruk smiled widely. “No matter, no matter, come in. Take a seat.”
The healer had taken to keeping a plate of cookies on his desk during their evening appointments, and he now pushed the latest plate closer to Yaric.
“I take it that you have good reason for being late?” Faruk asked, his eyes twinkling.
Yaric just nodded, blushing.
“We can get to that in a moment,” he added immediately, giving Yaric a break. “First, tell me how your first tournament went. Last week you were excited to be going to watch.”
“It was great!” Yaric said quickly. “The earlier years were interesting to watch, but some older students can move so fast that I could hardly see them! Then there was an exhibition match with actual magic spells! I had no idea wizards fought like that!” Yaric continued loudly, obviously excited.
Faruk chuckled quietly, amused by Yaric’s enthusiasm. “Then you should be happy to know that you can look forward to even more exciting duels. The exhibition match that you saw was not a fight between wizards. Those fighters were Apprentices.”
“Wizards do more?!” Yaric exclaimed.
“Oh yes, much more. And unless they have some kind of enchanted weapon, they will fight entirely with magic. It’s far more effective than mere swords or spears.”
Yaric’s eyes clouded slightly as he tried to imagine what that would be like.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. I know you’ve recently joined a class. How has that been?”
“It’s been ok,” Yaric replied quietly, though he couldn’t suppress the smile that tugged at the corner of his lips.
Faruk noticed immediately and smiled in return. “It seems like it went more than just ok,” he prompted.
“It was good and bad. I have classes in the evenings now, and some people in my class think I’m getting special attention. There was almost a fight when I first joined them.”
“Oh?” Faruk asked, leaning forward with a look of concern.
“No one fought,” Yaric said quickly. “Someone stopped them before anything happened.”
“Does any of this have anything to do with why you were late?” the healer inquired gently, concerned that he had maybe misunderstood Yaric’s earlier embarrassment.
“No,” Yaric replied, blushing again. “I was just eating with some people in my class, and we lost track of the time. Sorry.”
“No reason to be sorry. I’d rather you were late than cut your time with them. But I have to ask, ‘just eating with some people in my class’? Is that how kids your age say ‘friends’ these days? I’m almost 2,000 years old, so I wouldn’t know,” he chuckled, reaching for a cookie.
Yaric shrugged, but his smile grew wider. “I don’t know yet. But Sven helped me when I moved in. And Lauren and Lina have both helped with training.”
“And these people you eat with,” Faruk said teasingly, “were they the ones who helped to prevent the fight?”
“Yes,” Yaric blushed. “Sven stopped them, and Lauren and Lina have been helping to keep them away. I didn’t even know until recently.”
“They’ve been helping you quietly with no intention of receiving something in return?” Faruk gasped dramatically, clearly putting on an act. “That does indeed sound like something a ‘friend’ would do.”
Yaric couldn’t take the smile off his face anymore that he could stop his face from heating up.
“Sven, Lauren, and Lina. I can’t say I’ve had the pleasure of meeting them. What are they like?”
Yaric reached for a cookie and took a bite.
“Everyone says that Lauren and Sven are the top two in our year. I saw them fight in the Tournament, and they fought each other in the finals. Lina is Lauren’s friend, and she’s also one of the top fighters. Definitely the smallest.
“Sven stayed calm the whole time when Chris tried to start a fight on the first day, he just spoke quietly the entire time. It’s like he was never worried. And everyone listens to him, even if they aren't friends. Lauren is really smart, she understands everything. She keeps figuring out ways to…