Chosen Part 2
Chosen pt 2
*Gem and Jimmy are 16
Scar is 19
Joel is 29, Lizzy is 27
Impulse is 30
Doc is 55*
Gem
Joel had made it sound like he knew someone who’d ask me to be their squire. It had been a week since he had asked Jimmy, and I had yet to receive an offer.
“Why the long face Gem?” Lizzy asked me as we walked into an empty training room.
“Nothing… i just… no one has asked me to be their squire yet.” Lizzy nodded in understanding as we approached the rack full of bo staffs.
“Aren’t there a few more groups heading back from the border?” I grabbed a staff, looking it over before shrugging.
“That's what I keep telling myself.”
“Joel seems pretty confident that someone’s going to ask you. I'm sure whoever it is just hasn't made it back yet.”
“We’re waiting on two more groups as far as the briefings say, do you know who Joel thinks is going to ask me?” Lizzy gave me a smirk as we got in ready stances.
“Now I'm not one to spoil his fun.” I sighed.
“Of course not. Ready?” she nodded, we bowed to each other before taking our stances again.
Lizzy lunged first, the sound of wood on wood filled the training room as we matched each other's blows. Lizzy left a small opening, I took it, knocking the staff out of her hands.
“You’ve gotten better since the last time we’ve done this.” Lizzy said, grabbing her staff.
“We haven't properly sparred like this in a while.” I pointed out.
“Are you calling me out of practice?” I gave her a smile.
“I never said that,”
“You implied it.” She got back into the ready stance and I matched her. “Ready?” I nodded, making the first hit this time.
After five minutes of no disarming, we were slowing down.
“Draw?” I offered. She nodded and I took a step back. “See you aren’t all that out of practice.” Lizzy laughed. Rolling her eyes at me.
A hand landed on my shoulder, without fully comprehending who it was I grabbed the hand, using momentum to flip them over myself and onto the mat in front of me.
“Dam Gemstone, give a man a little warning.” Scar wheezed out as he tried to catch his breath.
“Maybe don't sneak up on me like that. And I've told you to stop calling me that.” I offered him my hand. He took it and I helped him to his feet.
“You could have at least told her you saw me.” Scar said to Lizzy.
“To be fair, I only realized you were behind her right before you got flipped.”
“That was a fun party trick.” a voice said, I turned around to see Sir Doc of Monstera, Scar’s knight master and Joel’s former knight master. “Did Joel teach you that?”
“You could say that.” i nodded, “it's good to see you haven't broken Scar past repair.”
“And I see that flip trick isn't the only thing you've picked up from Joel.” Doc’s voice was dry, but I could see Scar smiling.
“She's not all that bad.” Scar said confidently. “Maybe you’d think of being her squire next year if no one claims her.” Doc raised an eyebrow.
“One Annora is enough for one lifetime” I couldn't help but chuckle at his statement before he continued to speak, “Plus as far as I was aware you were spoken for?”
“Nope, not as far as I've been made aware.” Lizzy grabbed the bo stuff that was still in my hand, I let her grab it with a small nod. “If you guys are here that means that the last group of knights have gotten back from the border before the holidays.”
“We trekked through so much sludge and mud. Most of the passes will probably be closed in the next few days or in the next week.” Scar said.
“There is one more group that should be here by the end of day tomorrow. We just made good time for once.” Doc said. “And I didn’t tell you this Miss Annora, but you have been spoken for.” I gave him a quizzical look.
“And yet no one will tell me who?” Doc looked at Lizzy who nodded.
“Seems that way.” I groaned.
“Come on Scar, let's see if Sir Doc has let you get rusty on your jousting.”
“Are you even supposed to joust against other people yet?” Scar asked skeptically as he followed me out of the room with a nod from Doc.
“I’ve gone against Joel a few times.”
“I forgot how insane you can be Gem.” Scar sighed.
“Please, I've seen you pop a shoulder and hip back into place, say you were fine and kept running.” He laughed.
“True, I would rather not joust. I just spent most of the day in a saddle.”
“Well I would like something to do.” i argued, “it doesn't need to be jousting though” he nodded thoughtfully.
“You think we could rope Jimmy into a game of blindfolded swords?” Scar asked, referencing the one time we thought it was a good idea to blindfold to people and have them spar with training swords. Without adult supervision… let's just say a few people got a broken nose before we figured there should be some actual rules…
“That is ridiculously reckless. I'm in.” we had modified the game so only one person was blindfolded, everyone else had to wear bells on their person. Everyone had training swords but only the blindfolded person could be offensive, everyone else just had to pay attention and block. “I've got a few pages we could grab too if they aren't doing anything,”
We made our way through the pages wing first, grabbing anyone who wanted to play. Jimmy was fortunately still moving his things from the pages wing so he was easier to find.
“You want to play blindfolded swords? Is that really smart?” He asked skeptically. Scar, who was leaning against the doorway, gave Jimmy a smile.
“Gemstone here wants an excuse to beat someone up. You know, let off some pent up emotions.” Scar elaborated. I rolled my eyes at the nickname.
“A few rounds can't hurt, and I see you've gathered quite the crowd. Might as well.” He put the last of the clothes on his bed into the trunk, closing it. “Let's go get beat up by Gem.”
“I’ll give the first few rounds to someone else, give you time to warm up before I kick your but.” I joked.
“Delayed torture, even better.” Jimmy grumbled following us out of his room.
“Speak for yourself, she already slammed me against a mat.” Scar complained.
“Keep calling me Gemstone and I'll do it again, on purpose this time.”
“Someone’s feisty.” I ignored Scars comment, walking to the door that led to the outdoor training yards.
We headed to the larger outdoor training yard, taking advantage of the last few hours of sunlight left in the day. Wooden practice swords were being passed around, as the sound of bells filled the air.
“Someones got to come by and put a stop to this right? And then we’ll all be in deep shit.” Jimmy muttered.
“Nah, it's just for fun, we're being safe.” Scar said, taking a sword and a bell. “Besides, it's good practice, if something gets in your eyes you're going to want to be able to keep fighting.”
“And that's what we’ll tell whatever adult wants to shut this down, now take a bell Jimmy.”
After a few rounds, the blindfold got passed to me. We had collected a bit of a crowd, mostly pages who opted out after the first round or castle staff who were here to watch the chaos unfold.
Jimmy finished tying the blindfold on my head.
“Is this tight enough?” He asked. I moved my head a bit.
“Yep, this should work,” I heard him walk away, the bell jiggling softly. “Let me know when you’re ready.” I shouted.
“Ready.” a voice called out.
A few people’s strategy was to just keep moving. Another way to stay as still as possible and hope you got overlooked. I took a deep breath, holding the sword. I took a few steps forward.
A bell softly rang, like it was shaking along with someone's breath. I testingly brought the sword in front of me and slashed. I clashed with wood, what I assumed was a first year infront of me yelped. He had probably put the bell close to his chest not realizing his breathing could give him away.
After a few passes, his bell rang loudly as he booked it.
I ignored the chattering of the crowd, walking in a different direction, trying to find someone who’d actually fight me. The round would end if I could disarm them, or if I fought five different people. One down, four to go.
My blade hit someone softly, they must not have been facing me.
“Shit,” quickly my blade was hit back. I felt myself smile, the sound of wood on wood filling my ears. The kid backed away before running.
“Come on, I'm not that scary.” I said aloud. Someone behind me nudged me with their practice sword. “There we go.” I muttered spinning to hit the blade with my own.
Muscle memory kicked in as I focused on listening, trying to anticipate movements. I felt my blade catch theirs, and we locked into a stance.
“I think that counts! End of round!” Scar said cheerfully. I stepped back, letting the person who could see unhook the swords.
“This is quite an interesting game.” the guy in front of me said, his voice was familiar.
I ripped the blindfold off, to see Impulse giving me a smile. “Impulse!” I restrained myself from hugging him in front of everyone. I had worked four years to be seen as one of the guys, hugging him like a girl would go to undoing that. “When did you get back?” he laughed.
“Just now, we decided to tough it out rather than stop.” he gestured to the few knights who had joined the crowd of onlookers.
“I'm glad you’re back, Joel has been insufferable.” he laughed.
“I don't doubt that. Have you had any knight master offers?” He asked as we put the training swords in their bin. He unclipped the bell from his shoulder and dropped it into the small bag that the rest of the pages and squires were.
“No, everyones been cripdit with it.” i sighed, “not that i wasn't expecting something like this to happen. Lot of people see a princess and just think I'm doing this for fun, but don't actually want to get dirty.” I had tried so hard to shake that perception, but there was only so much I could do.
“Interesting. Would you be interested in being my squire? Given that no one’s asked you yet?”
“Yes! One hundred percent yes!” i couldn't help the smile on my face, “Wait, is this why Doc said i was spoken for?” Impulse let out a laugh.
“Joel had been talking about taking Jimmy as a squire as early as your second year. We have always done things together, so I figured I would ask if you would consider me as a knight master.”
“You’re not going to regret it. I promise.” Impulse gave me a smile.
“I wouldn't regret taking you on. Not when you almost beat me blindfolded.”
“That's just because you can only be defensive, you can't strike back.” I pointed it out.
“I see our Gemstone here finally has a knight master.” Scar said teasingly.
“You knew.” I accused him.
“Guilty. To be fair we weren't supposed to beat the Impulse group to the capital.” he shrugged.
“This means come spring we’ll go down to the border together.” I pointed out. Impulse nodded.
“Yep, I think even Joel might get to join us if he can play the cards right.”
“Oh great, I'll be dealing with all of you?” Doc’s voice came from behind us making Jimmy and I jump.
“Sounds like it.” Scar said cheerfully.
“Sounds like a headache.”
“You don't mean that and you know it,” Impulse said, Doc gave him a look and impulse added, “sir”.
The next four years were looking to be a lot more fun than I had anticipated.