“That was so cool,” Quinn said, walking next to Aaron and Grey. “Who knew we had that kind of power within our veins, did you see how that electric ball was swirling around.”
Aaron agreed, “it was mind-blowing. I can’t wait to try it out. Concentrate on feeling and think of nothing specific. You guys want to practice together?”
Quinn nodded eagerly and smiled broadly whilst Grey looked at both of them blankly. “I can’t, I have to clean the school grounds,” said Grey.
Aaron looked disappointed, he wanted Grey to come over to his house. He wanted to show his mother his new found friend.
“Maybe next time,” Grey said.
“Tomorrow?” Aaron asked.
Grey sighed, slouching. “If only I could say yes. I have to clean the school grounds for the next six months,” he said, miserably.
“Six months!” Quinn exclaimed. “What did you do to get that sort of punishment?”
“I rather not say,” Grey murmured.
“You’ve got to tell me! If I don’t know I won’t sleep!” nagged Quinn.
Grey had a ‘if I must, I must’ expression and he replied, “It was to train my brain to be a thirteen-year-old, according to Mrs Wretchered I am still trapped in my twelve-year-old state so she punished me.”
“Ha ha ha,” Quinn laughed. ” That’s insane!”
Grey shrugged. They all reached the exit and were saying their goodbyes when Grey suddenly asked, “Oh, before you guys leave. Where are the north gardens from here?”
Aaron and Quinn directed him. They used their hands and words swirling them in various directions, explaining to Grey and Grey did his best to memorise the lefts and right turns. Eventually, they departed ways and Grey found his way to the gardens. He reached the garden store room and then heard Finnegan call out his name.
“Grey, Grey,” Finnegan called his name twice and Grey turned his head.
Finnegan waved excitedly at Grey. “You wouldn’t believe what I learnt today!” said Finnegan, happily. He ran to where Grey was.
Grey found a rake in the garden store room and gave it to an enthusiastic Finnegan. “Anything to speed up our cleaning?“ asked Grey, taking out another rake for himself and held it in his hand, closing the garden store room door.
“It might, if I practice well enough,” said Finnegan, grinning from ear to ear. He placed the rake against the wall and removed a book from his tunic. “I have received a book on instruction of battle tricks!”
“Battle tricks?” Grey questioned. “Aren’t you a moral prince? You do have righteous and royal blood in you. Those battle tricks don’t sound very noble. Remember in the comic, Arthur and his son. The type of people who used tricks were villains.”
“But Drill Sergeant Conner really is noble and no way is he a villain,” disagreed Finnegan, strongly.
“Drill Sergeant? He sounds troublesome just like your battle tricks book,” stated Grey.
“Everything is troublesome for you Grey,” Finnegan said, annoyed. “Drill Sergeant Conner said I should start practicing with immediate effect. See this book,” he said, waving the book of battle tricks in Grey’s face. “He gave us this book to begin practicing the practical modules within it.”
“He gave you this book to practice by yourself?” Grey asked, arching his eyebrow in thought.
“Well yes. It is important to start on our own to show our interest and motivation,” Finnegan repeated Drill Sergeant Conner’s words from the recent lesson.
“Sounds to me like he just wants less work, if you practice at home, it means he wouldn’t have to teach much during school,” Grey said, thinking that Drill Sergeant Conner was a rather smart man. He gave students schoolwork, allowing them to do it at home which meant his school load at work would be less.
“I don’t think so,” said Finnegan, thinking about Grey’s words. “He told us to train at home and ensure we were at school at 5 AM.”
Grey was stunned. “5 AM? The sun doesn’t even rise! Will he also be attending the 5 AM session?” he asked Finnegan.
“Of course! We will be warming up with stretches, running and then more exercises,” Finnegan replied, excitedly.
“Maybe he isn’t smart after all,” Grey spoke out his thought, shrugging.
“Oh, Grey you are wrong. Drill Sergeant Conner is very smart. He even wears an eye patch, he lost his eye in a battle war.”
“I don’t know if you could consider losing an eye smart,” responded Grey.
Finnegan snorted, he was going to prove Grey wrong. He eagerly turned to page 20 of his instruction manual on battle tricks. “Read this!” he said, plastering the opened pages onto Grey’s face.
Grey inched his face back and read the bold heading within the book. “Agility?” he read out loud then he scrolled down inspecting the written words. “Constant enhancing of speed and gracefulness,” Grey repeated the written words in a doubtful voice and then arched his eyebrow in question, “What does that even mean?”
“Well obviously you wouldn’t understand. It’s only us Swordsmen who would understand this concept,” Finnegan said, condescendingly.
“You are quite right, Fyn,” Grey agreed, thinking about his own Mage lesson and homework. “I will not bother with your Swordsmen concepts and battle tricks. We should just focus on gathering all the leaves and then clean all the classrooms.” He lifted his rake and began to slouch his way to the gardens.
“But aren’t you curious to know?” asked Finnegan, disappointed.
“Not really. I have my own Mage tricks and troubles to deal with,” Grey replied.
“But...but...” Finnegan looked distressed, he really wanted to explain what he had learnt and what agility meant. “Grey you must be slightly curious,” he said, slightly desperate, placing his book back into his tunic and retrieving his rake on the bricked wall.
“Fyn, I think we should concentrate on cleaning the gardens. The wind was quite aggressive today; it blew most of the leaves from the branches,” said Grey, uninterested.
“Well that might be so but... but...” Finnegan tried to think of a way to draw Grey’s attention back to his agility lesson. “My...my...if I explain what I learnt in my lesson it might help us clean faster,” he said.
“You do have a point there,” said Grey, pausing in thought. “If we complete this faster, we would return home earlier and I’d be able to take my afternoon nap.”
Finnegan nodded, not understanding what Grey’s fascination was with afternoon naps, those were things they did when they were five years old but he was glad he could explain what he had learnt. “Agility is the basis of the Swordsmen training. Our bodies need constant training to be fast enough, to almost travel at the speed of light, then they will be able to handle any impact that might occur in battle.”
“If you are moving that fast, it is likely the impact would be severe,” Grey said.
“That’s why we are going to train until our heads can’t think. It’s all about exercise, building muscles, swiftness and accuracy.”
Grey sighed in pity for his friend. “That’s complicated and just overbearing with hard work. I feel sorry for you Finnegan. Waking up at 4 AM, training at 5 AM, having normal lessons at 8 AM then cleaning the school grounds until 7 PM. Then you have homework,” said Grey, dismally.
Finnegan face turned ghastly. “Perhaps, that does sound a bit much, 5 AM to 7 PM at school and homework,” he said, worried.
“But you are right, it will help us clear out the gardens faster. You should achieve your goal with all your might,” Grey approved.
“Um, yeah,” Finnegan agreed, unsure if his training was beneficial or not.
“You will likely be the best and have loads of adventure,” Grey carried on.
“Yeah, yeah,” Finnegan repeated uncertain, thinking about spending most of his day at school.
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