I am Legion (Fantasy, military) - Page 2 - Writers Forum

Kittenification · 12-17-2007, 12:56 PM

Sorry I haven't been around the forums in a few days, I've been way busy with college applications recently. Hopefully I'll have more time soon though.
Enjoy reading
Ch3 P3

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As the students left the wood through the narrow stone gate, they found the headmaster waiting for them “Greetings, pupils. I hope you enjoyed your time in the wood. You know it‘s wider across on the inside than around on the outside? And anything cut in it grows back overnight. In any case, you will now be attending your indoor classes- Strategy, music, and Alchemy. Alchemy was always my favorite. Now follow me to the professors building.” he said, walking swiftly toward a square tower.

The students were taken to the tower, where they first were tested in strategic ability by playing chess, then given the chance to demonstrate musical prowess, where Padraig startled Tristram by playing a lap harp with a surprising amount of skill while Conor accompanied him with a small drum and Tristram sung. Finally they were brought to a room with hundreds of bottles of different chemicals and told they could use whatever they liked. Without any real idea what he was doing, Tristram mixed several things, but failed to produce any real result. Damien however managed to make a liquid which the instructor called “noble water” and was capable of eating through a bolt of iron.

Finally they finished the indoor classes. It had only taken a couple hours, but after so long in the forest, the stone classroom felt horribly confining. Lizzy stood at the foot of the tower waiting “Bout time you finished. Those classes were EVIL, and I don’t envy you having to take them. Now you have just the riding examination and you’re done for today, so follow me.”

As they walked, she began talking to Catherine “You know, I think you did really great today in the combat examination. If its alright with Gareth, I’d like to take you and a couple other students in our own separate class so I can concentrate on you more fully. All the other teachers do it, so I should be able to as well.”
Stopping outside the stable, she grinned “You know what, I think I’ll ride with you. See if anyone can keep up with me.” As they entered the massive building, A tiny man, bald, with blue eyes and a healthy grey moustache greeted them “All o’ ye pick a horse. Once ye have, ye’ll go around the track in groups o’ four. I’ll time ye, and yer eventual class will be decided based on yer time. Now pick a horse, saddle it and come behind the stable to the track.”

Tristram immediately ran to a large chestnut. He was light enough that a big horse would almost certainly be able to achieve one of the better times. Saddling quickly, he was one of the first out, and so he ended up in the first group of four, with two blue house students and Anne. The riding master cracked his bullwhip and they were off, charging around the first bend, Tristram and Anne led the other two by a tiny amount, and ever so slowly, Anne was inching ahead of Tristram. On the next curve though, he whipped paste her on the inside. Once he was ahead, Tristram grinned. This was the part he was best at. Every time Anne or one of the other riders tried to pass him, he managed to pull right in front of them, preventing them from moving up and taking the lead. As he passed the finishing line, he jumped out of the saddle, rolling as he hit the ground. “How did I do?” he called out to the instructor

“Well yer a touch flashy fer my pers’nal taste, but ye got the second best time of any student so far, so Ye’ll certainly be in the advanced class.” was his reply “Now take the saddle off yer horse and then ye may go.”
Removing the chestnut’s saddle, he rubbed it down before walking back over to the area of the sandpit to see if he could find an archery range.

The archery building was shaped like a large comb, one long hallway with bow racks and quivers of arrows all along one side, with ranges of increasing length coming off the other Tristram went immediately to the longest range. Selecting a heavily recurved shortbow, he began to shoot, every shot striking the target, the majourity of them in the red bull’s-eye. After a short while other students began to show up, but all of them stuck to the shorter ranges. Eventually, some of the students who had been testing with him showed up- Catherine, at the second longest range with a crossbow, Ryan, next to her with a longbow, and Sarah, at the shortest range with an unstrung recurve and an extremely frustrated facial expression. Tristram watched as she strung the bow backwards and attempted to shoot, failing to propel the arrow more than a few meters. Walking over to her he leaned against the wall “You want a hand?” he asked.

She turned to him, red hair hanging in her eyes, nearly in tears. “Why won’t it work? Nobody ever taught me how to shoot, and the combat teacher wants me to be good at it, but its so hard.”
“Well, lets start by getting you a lighter bow. it’s a lot easier to learn if you don’t have to think about how hard it is to pull.” said Tristram, removing the string from the bow she held and placing it on one of the wall racks and selecting a light shortbow “This should do. Now you want the arrow to rest on the left side of the bow if you pull back with your right hand. That will give it a somewhat straighter course.”
“Does this look right?” she asked, drawing back the arrow

“Not quite” said Tristram. “You want your left wrist to be a little more straight, and your right elbow should be lower” gently pushing her elbow down, he nodded “Alright, now you want to put the arrows point just above where you’re aiming, and let go. Once you do, don’t move till it hits.”

Breathing deeply, she released. With a snap, the arrow sped to the target, hitting several inches to the left of the center. “very nice. Now again” said Tristram, watching carefully and correcting her elbow again “Very nice. Just keep practicing and you’ll be using the longer ranges in just a few days. If you need any more help, I’m down at the last range.”

“Thank you so much. I was thinking of giving up. Maybe you could help me again some time?” she asked, smiling a little “Even with practice, I’m sure I’ll need help.”
“Of course” said Tristram “I’ll probably be here and at the pit almost every day, so if you ever want to find me, that’s where to look.”

Waving once, she turned back to the target, carefully aiming at it as Tristram walked back to the second from last range, where Ryan and Catherine were having a contest “Mind if I join?” asked Tristram, selecting a short composite bow of horn and yew.
“course not” said Ryan “person with the three worst shots gets the arrows and bows of the other two tidied.
“Sounds fair” said Catherine, and Tristram agreed.

They each took three shots, and in the end, Catherine and Tristram each had two bull’s-eyes and a near bull’s-eye, and Ryan had a single bull’s-eye with two shots within an inch of the center. “Damn” he muttered “I’m not used to people who are better than me. I guess I’ll have to practice more. See you two here tomorrow?”
“Actually, I’m going to be at the pit tomorrow. I need to get better at close fighting, so I’m going to see if someone can give me some individual lessons.” said Tristram “But I might come in here a briefly to check how Sarah is coming along. Apparently she has literally no experience with archery, so I’m trying to teach her.”
Catherine raised an eyebrow “How… sweet of you. Do you offer teaching to anyone, or just pretty redheads?” she asked

“I would probably be willing to help a couple more people… why, do you know someone who’s interested?” replied Tristram, returning the look. “Anyways, I’m off. You should stop by the pit tomorrow and watch me make a fool out of myself, possibly teach me something.” Handing his bow to Ryan he walked off, pausing for a moment to watch Sarah hit her target right below the bull’s-eye before continuing.
Back at the red building he couldn’t find anyone, although he heard the noise of a large number of people. Curious he looked around until he found a stair that led to the building’s flat roof, where he found almost all the red students.

Many of them were in wooden chairs on the northern half of the roof, where a large awning shaded them from the sun, while in the southern area there was a small walled in field where a lot of the boys were kicking around a ball. Looking around, he spotted Padraig sitting with a large group of people past the ballgame facing out towards the lake. After a moment’s indecision, Tristram decided to go over to where Anne was sitting in the shade. Dropping into a chair next to her he pointed at the field “Any idea what’s going on there?”

“Oh, well as far as I can tell the goal for each team is to get it through the two posts that the other team controls. The only real rule seems to be that they can’t touch it with their hands or arms.” she said “Where were you just now? Sorcha went to look for you, but I guess she never found you”
“I was at the shooting range. Your sister and I showed Ryan up in a little shooting contest.” said Aidan
“Oh, that’s good, but where is Catherine? Wasn’t she coming back too?”
“I thought so” said Aidan, “but I suppose she stuck around. Or wait, no, there she is”

Catherine was on the ball field, a blue sash holding her long blonde hair out of her eyes as she ran. Following her example a few other girls had joined, but most were content to watch. Right when Tristram was considering going to join in, the bell signaling dinner rang out and the students all rushed down the stairs, some briefly stopping in their rooms to change, others going straight down to the first level where a thick beef stew and fresh baked bread were being handed out by the dining attendants Sitting down next to Padraig at a table in the corner, Tristram grinned at his roommate “What have you been up to then? Just sitting on the roof, or were you doing something earlier?” he asked.

“I was talking to Lizzy, then back at the alchemists room.” said Padraig “I want to learn what I can about alchemy, because apparently it has a lot to do with metals. Where did you go off to though?”
“I was shooting” replied Tristram “Tomorrow I’m going to be seeing if I can learn something about close combat though.”
“I might join you then” said Padraig, looking up as Catherine, Anne, and Sorcha all arrived at the table and sat “Hello girls. Where were you earlier Sorcha?”
“At the pit. I wanted to see who was practicing.” she said, looking at Tristram briefly
“Tristram was telling me that he’s going there tomorrow” said Catherine “actually he said something about me teaching him a thing or two.”
Sorcha frowned “How exciting. I’ll probably visit the musicians, or maybe go to the archery range. One of the blue girls said something about a nice boy showing her how to shoot.”
“Really, a nice boy who teaches shooting?” said Tristram “you should definitely try to meet him. I’m sure you would get along.”
“He’ll probably give you lessons” said Catherine “Your pretty enough.”
“Oh thank you!” exclaimed Sorcha “I’ll go there tomorrow.”

As they began to eat, the redheaded boy who had been at the table the day before slipped into the seat next to Sorcha “Evening everyone.” he said, smiling broadly “How are we all tonight?”
“We’re fine.” said Sorcha, not returning his smile.
“I don’t think we’ve been introduced.” said Tristram “You are..?”
“Domnic Garos” said the boy “and you are Tristan Galloway?”
“Tristram.”
“Right. Tristram, Tristan, Tramtris, whats the real difference. What sort of skill have you got then?” asked Domnic
“Thus far I haven’t a clue” said Tristram “You?”
Domnic smiled, and his face lengthened strangely, showing rows of sharp teeth as his ears went pointed and grew and his pupils slit. Then, as if nothing had happened, his face was normal “I’m a lycanthrope- a werewolf” he said.

“You ever meet people who have a problem with that?” asked Padraig “Just, theres all the old superstitions and such.”
“Theres plenty folks who don’t like it” said Domnic, glancing at Sorcha “but silver doesn’t burn me or nothing, so usually they do no real harm. Theres no real magical weakness in a Lycanthrope, but a well placed arrow would kill me just like it would any of you. While we are on the topic of skills, I heard Catherine might have found hers?”
“Well I haven’t been able to use it since the first time, but everyone who saw agrees that it was much too fast to be me moving without magic, so I guess we’ll see.” said Catherine “Perhaps when I’m at the pit tomorrow I’ll be able to learn something more about it.”
“Speaking of tomorrow, I’m going to bed now. I can’t handle the mornings unless I’m in bed early.” said Sorcha.
“I’ll walk you to your room?” said Domnic
“No, I’m fine” she said flatly, her smile not reaching her eyes
“In that case, I’ll eat some more” he said, standing and walking over to the serving counter.
“Goodnight everyone.” Sorcha said “ I’ll see you all tomorrow. As she left she trailed her hand across Tristram’s shoulders before moving away quickly.

“On the off chance that you haven’t noticed, she seems to like you.” said Catherine
“Yes, and it doesn’t make sense. She only met me yesterday.” Tristram muttered
“Well she thinks your good looking, she’s a huge flirt, and she’s used to boys falling all over themselves for her.” said Anne.
“I don’t mind her flirting, and I think she’s gorgeous, but I can’t really take her seriously because of how… stupid she seems.” Said Tristram.

“Just making sure you were aware” said Catherine “Although I guess that’s slightly insulting to your intelligence, but still, you never know.”
Domnic had returned partway through the conversation “ I assume you’re talking about Sorcha?” he’s asked. When Tristram nodded, he laughed “see my personal dilemma is she hates me. Very disheartening when all I’ve done is try to be friendly. I reckon she might be one of them that has a problem with the animal in me.”
“this is off topic, but Dom, What classes did you get?” asked Padraig
“I’m in the fifth combat class and some sort of small group for survival. Lowest level for alchemy and music, and third strategy. I hate music you know. Sets my hair on end it does. Oh, and no riding, on account of horses cant stand me.” said Dom

“So your in the same combat as all of us but Anne and Sorcha.” said Catherine “and Tristram is also in the survival group. I think all of us here but Padraig are in lowest alchemy, and all of us are in the fifth music class, and we’ll all be together for strategy.”
“What are you doing instead of riding?” asked Tristram
“I’ll be running the same courses as the advanced riding class, but as a wolf. Should prove entertaining.” he said.

Cefor · 12-17-2007, 02:55 PM

Nice addition... though it did progress a little fast for my liking... slow it down just a tad.

Other than that an excellent piece and please post more soon!

Btw where are you from?

Kittenification · 12-18-2007, 10:23 AM

well, I was born in Colorado, but my first language was German (German mother) and I initially spoke England english (English father) and I still write more English than american, except where the spellcheck autocorrects words.
I currently live in Pennsylvania in the US though.
I think you might be right about the going fast part, and I'll try to avoid that as I continue writing, although I believe theres at least one more part where it does that, possibly to a greater degree than here. We shall see.

Cefor · 12-18-2007, 12:29 PM

Cool, I like the sights in London

Also cool on the German, my girlfriend's Father is german so we went over to meet his family in the summer.... was great and the Germans are so nice.... Though I accidently almost did the Nazi salute! I was talking about the film 'Euro Trip' and the bit where the german kid draws a moustache and does it.... and I very nearly acted it out.... hehe almost got arrested, well if I'd have been seen. (we were walking in the street)

Anyways, hope that the speed of the next part(s) don't de-rail the story.

Keep it up,
Cefor

Kittenification · 12-22-2007, 04:56 PM

Last little bit of Chapter 3 here, have fun reading.

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“You know what, I think I’m going to bed too.” said Catherine “Will someone walk me?”
“Of course” said Tristram, standing up “I wouldn’t want you to get lost on your way up the stairs.”
“You still wanted to head to the pit tomorrow right? said Catherine as they reached the second floor
“Of course” he replied “I could use a good beating, and if theres a pretty girl to give it, so much the better.”
“you know, for someone who refuses to flirt, you certainly flirt a lot.” said Catherine “oh, and this is my room. I didn’t get a roommate, so it’s sort of lonely, but I guess if I ever need peace and quiet its nice.”
“Goodnight Catherine” Tristram said, touching his lips with the first two fingers of his left hand “sweet dreams.”
“Goodnight” she said, smiling a little as he turned to walk away “Whore.”

Tristram laughed aloud as he started down the stairs to the common room, where he found Padraig and Dom absorbed in a game of chess, while Anne looked on. Sitting next to her Tristram jerked his head towards the two boys. “Want to play a game?” he asked
She blinked, startled “I beg your pardon?” she asked, looking at him strangely
“Of chess. You looked like you were fairly absorbed in their game, so I asked if you wanted to play.”
“Oh. I thought you meant… something else.” she said, blushing a little “But, no thank you. I would rather watch. Or actually, we could just talk”
“Talk?” said Tristram, somewhat dubiously
“yes. Just talk. Its what girls do instead of football” she replied, arching an eyebrow
“so, what’s the point?” He asked.
“Forget it Tristram. Your just being difficult.”
“Would you prefer if I was easy?” he replied, smiling slightly
Padraig turned to him “weren’t you trying to avoid flirting? Because if you were, you just failed. Pretty blatantly.”
“No, that wasn’t flirting, it was… unintentionally sexual wit.” said Tristram
“Either way.” said Dom “I just won. Checkmate, metal boy.”
Swearing, Padraig stood and walked over to the fire.

“Sore loser?” asked Tristram
“I’d say fairly so, that was our third game since you left with Catherine.”
“You should come to the pit with us tomorrow and practice.” said Tristram “Even though Catherine is better than me, I want to practice against someone bigger too.”
“Sure thing” said Domnic, nodding.

“I’m going to bed” said Anne “I’ll see you tomorrow boys. Try to get some rest.”
“Actually I’m for bed too” said Padraig “I’ll see you two tomorrow”
As Anne and him ascended the stairs, Domnic punched Tristram’s shoulder
“I’m going for a walk. Catch you tomorrow, alright?” he said, walking towards the door, leaving Tristram to sit by himself. After several minutes of staring into the fire, Tristram also stood and walked up the stairs to go to sleep.

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oh, and happy solstice to everyone who celebrates it.

Destroyer2000 · 12-22-2007, 10:52 PM

This story is awesome. I've read it everytime you posted an update; keep it going. Very good work!

Cefor · 12-23-2007, 03:59 PM

Nice, keep updating.

Yeah, happy solstice, though I prefer Christmas... it sounds better

Kittenification · 12-25-2007, 01:58 AM

lets see....

Chapter 4 part 1 is it?

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The following morning, Tristram was awakened by someone shaking his shoulder “Come on lazy, wake up! Everyone else is in the common room already!” said a girl’s voice. Rolling over, he blinked until Sorcha came into focus.
“Sorcha, why are you waking me up instead of an obnoxious bell?” he asked, rubbing his eyes
“Well, Anne and I were both awake, and theres still half an hour until breakfast, so we decided to get all of the people we eat with up early and eat before everyone else. This way we can all just sit around in the common room for a bit before going to the lecture hall.” she said.
“Alright, I’ll be down in a minute. You’re at the usual table?”
She nodded and walked out of the room and he dressed quickly, all in brown before following. After a quick breakfast, the group moved into the common room, where they sat around the fire, discussing the previous day’s examinations. When the bell rang they all walked over to the lecture hall, where they found the headmaster waiting for them.

“Good morning everyone. I hope all of you who are new enjoyed your tests yesterday. I have only a few announcements. First, it has come to my attention that the former bandit king, a Taylor Garos was slain recently by a man known as Sinister Jack, who, as it happens, is one of our graduates, and while I congratulate him on this success, I must offer my condolences to our own Domnic Garos, who was the former bandit lord’s nephew.”
Domnic stood “Thank you headmaster, but my father and myself hated Taylor. I was curious though, as to why you would congratulate one of your alumni on becoming a bandit king. Isn’t the university generally considered… good?”

The headmaster smiled, nodding “Domnic, you just reminded me to explain the most important thing about the university and by association, the legion. Both are independent, nuetral, entities. Certainly most legionnaires and students are loyal to their homelands and that’s fine. But your main loyalty in the service of this university is to the school itself. We consider ourselves to be detached from the law. The school itself prefers not to cause any direct conflict with the law, but we support our students as long as they stay loyal to us. Jack fought for his kingship defending three of our students, so he certainly still has the support of the school. Remember that, if you’re ever in trouble, your fellow legionnaires will all be sworn to protect and help you and you them, above all else. But I’m going on a bit, and you need to get to Gareth and Elizabeth. Good luck in the pit, and remember to enjoy yourselves.”

As the students left the room and walked down toward the pit, Sorcha ran up next to Tristram “your in the fifth class right?” she asked
“Yeah. Just barely though because I’m terrible at close fighting.” he said
“Alright, well I’ll see you afterwards then. Good luck.” She said, biting her lip and looking at him for a moment before dropping back to talk to Anne.

As they walked into the western combat house, They were greeted by Gareth, Lizzy, and four older students with black sashes “So here’s the deal.” Gareth said “These are fifth year students who will be the primary teachers for levels one through four, as you can see, each of them is holding up fingers indicating which level. Lizzy is taking level five, and I’ll move around, looking in on all of them to make sure its going well. Now, everyone follow the appropriate teacher for your level.

Lizzy led the fifth level students across the pit and into the eastern combat house “Alright, first off, I want each of you to pick what you think will be your primary weapon in close combat” she said “If its not working out you can always change it up, but if you choose well, you’ll be significantly more skilled with that weapon than you would be if you switched frequently. Some things to keep in mind though. Don’t get a heavy weapon if your not fairly strong, short weapons are not advised if you’re small, and paired weapons are not as effective as they seem in your imagination unless you’re VERY good. If you want advice, I’ll give it, but only practice will really show what weapon you’re cut out to use.”

Several students immediately chose weapons- Padraig a hammer, Conor paired axes, and Damien a scimitar and a large circular shield. After a while only Tristram and Catherine stood looking at the wall “Catherine, we think your skill is speed, right?” said Lizzy
“yes. Does that help my decision?” asked Catherine
“Well, using your speed to your advantage you can get right close to anyone, and you can dodge all sorts of attacks.” said Lizzy “I think you’d be particularly good with a buckler and gladius. The small shield is good for hitting, so you can attack even faster, and a short sword like a gladius can be used quickly to flurry hits with the shield, or with stabbing attacks it can overwhelm most armored opponents. Try it out, but until you have a better idea how to use your speed it will be difficult to take down more experienced enemies, so just practice dodging attacks.”

Taking the sword and shield, Catherine walked out to join the rest of the students
“And you, Tristram, we have no idea of your skill, but you’re an archer so I know you have nice arms” said Lizzy, squeezing his upper arm “You know, I think I might have a fun idea. You ever box?”
“Yeah” said Tristram “they organize matches in the pub at home, and I used to join in sometimes. I was pretty good too.”
“Alright, well if you were hanging around bars that host fights, I assume you know what knuckledusters are?”
“Yes.” he said “You want me to use them then?”
“Well, in a manner of speaking. In some of the southern martial styles, they attempt to mimic animals, and the weapons they use in those styles are also chosen with the animals in mind.”

Walking over to the equipment locker in the corner she pulled out what looked like a pair of steel knuckledusters with three short thick blades, all coming to strong, sharp points several inches from the knuckles “These are called tiger claws. Originally they were used by assassins so that the murders they committed would look like they had been the work of a large cat, but eventually someone had to use them in actual combat and found that they work surprisingly well against most opponents. The original version had much shorter, more curved claws. The long straight ones were developed because the scratching and slashing of curved blades requires your enemy to bleed to death. These are a little faster. Anyways, do you think you want to try them?”
“definitely” said Tristram “but do we have some not-sharp ones? Because I would rather not kill the other students”

“Oh, of course. Half a second.” Rummaging through the locker, she came out with a second pair of claws, these with flat tips and round blades and tossed both to him “alright, now lets get outside and see if you can make those work.”
Grabbing a buckler and cutlass, Lizzy led the way out into the pit where everyone was standing around, except for Damien and Conor, who sparred lightly, and Dom, stretching carefully, a short distance from the rest of the group.

“Alright children, lets see what you’re made of!” Lizzy shouted “Make a big circle, and on my count, the free for all starts. Everyone do your best so I can decide who to partner you with.”
Once they were all circled up, she raised her sword “Combat starts…. NOW!”
For several seconds nobody moved, and then several people started slowly advancing on the center at once, stopping once they were within a few feet of each other. Conor turned slowly to Padraig and leapt at him, chopping at his legs with one axe, and his head with the other, but the metalworker jumped clear , circling slowly to the left until Conor was between him and the rest of the students who had moved into the center. As the two of them fenced back and forth, Sarah and Damien exchanged blows, her halberd repeatedly being stopped by his shield, until a flicker of green light sent him spinning away. While he managed to keep his feet, he was so off balance that she was able to dispatch him easily with a quick jab.

For a while, Tristram stood back, watching as everyone fought, until Conor tripped as he backed up. As Padraig raised his hammer, Tristram ran up behind him, hitting the center of his back twice quickly. As Conor got up, they nodded to each other before turning away and continuing to fight. Briefly, Tristram exchanged blows with Sarah, but then Dom ran in from the side, knocking him to the ground.

Rolling immediately to his feet, Tristram ducked Dom’s next two swings before dodging into his guard and slashing at his chest. Blocking with the top of his shield, Dom slammed his knee into Tristram’s stomach, dropping him to the floor. Immediately he was forced to roll to the side as the larger boy swung at him, leaping to his feet and stumbling back as he parried another series of blows. Slashing downwards with both claws, he managed to rake Dom’s chest. Startled, the redhead snarled, striking at Tristram with the handle of his axe. Tristram blocked, catching the handle in between two of the blades on his left hand. Using the right claw to brace it in place, he yanked, pulling the axe from Domnic’s grasp. As it dropped to the sand, Dom’s outline flickered and then became clear, taller and stronger, with elongated teeth, slit pupils and red fur.

Punching Tristram in the center of his chest, he knocked him to the ground, where he arched his back, gasping for breath. As Dom reached down to grab him though, there was a blur of movement and several thuds, and the werewolf stumbled backwards, slashing all around him and throwing his shield. Seconds later the same thing happened, this time though the blur stopped on the Lycanthrope’s back, where Catherine clung, touching her blade’s “point” to the back of his head. Coughing, Tristram stood and looked around. The only people left “alive” were himself, Catherine, Conor, Sarah, and Ryan. “Very good Catherine. You seem to be getting the hang of your speed now.” said Lizzy “Since some alliances seem to be forming, lets finish this as a team battle. Tristram, Conor, and Catherine, lets see what you can do to Ryan and Sarah.”

Grinning, Ryan whispered something into Sarah’s ear. She nodded and they both ran straight for Tristram. As they drew close however, the blur that signaled Catherine’s movement intercepted Ryan, and he fell, rolling backwards and then rising, shaking his head furiously. Holding his hand aloft the made a fist for several seconds before opening it. As soon as he did there was a painfully bright flash and Tristram saw nothing. As the whiteness faded from his vision, all he could see was black. Swearing, he backed up quickly, swinging his claws wildly.

After several more seconds the darkness faded and he saw that Conor was blindly defending himself against Ryan’s spear, his eyes shrouded in a tiny cloud of darkness, while Catherine was fighting Sarah, jumping in for a few attacks and rushing out whenever the green glow flickered. Running to Conor’s aid, Tristram jumped, kicking Ryan in the side of the chest with both feet, and pouncing on him, pinning him and indicating his death with a claw to the forehead.

As he rose he heard a yelp and spun to see Sarah touch her halberd’s blade to Catherine’s chest where she lay sprawled on the ground. Moving to opposite sides of Sarah, Tristram and Conor struck at her invisible shield, but failed to accomplish anything. Then, as she faced Conor, Tristram leapt, clawing and scrambling his way to the top of what was apparently an invisible, impervious dome. Crouching at the top, he waited very still. Seeing what he had done, Conor attempted to scale his side of the field, but without claws he fell, and Sarah rested the halberd on his shoulder as he rose.

Looking up she grinned and the green light flickered as she swung her polearm at him. Right as the shield went out though, Tristram leapt as high as he could, and her swing passed under him. Falling onto her, he wrapped his left arm around her back as they fell to the ground, hooking both her arms behind her while he put his right hand at her collarbone, the talons just touching her throat.
“Well isn’t that cute” said Lizzy mockingly “But this is combat class my darlings, and you two look distinctly… non-combative”

Flushing, Tristram rolled off of Sarah “well at least I got her” he mumbled, slipping the claws off of his fingers.
“It will do” said Lizzy “if you talk to Gareth he can teach you some Tiger fighting, although his area of expertise is with softer styles. Now everyone line up and I’ll partner you up.”

The students all lined up and Lizzy smiled “I feel so old, teaching this class. Anyways, partners. Padraig and Ryan. You two have fairly different styles, with Padraig being more reliant on strength and footwork while Ryan uses speed and reach to his advantage. Hopefully you can work well together. Conor and Dom, You two will be good together. You are both overconfident, Conor because of his greater experience and finesse, and Dom because of his strength. If you can each take a little of what the other has, you’ll be very, very good fighters, especially if you can learn some humility along the way. Catherine and Sarah, I think it seems like a good plan to put the two with the most combative abilities together, although you’ll want to practice with the boys sometimes too, so you’re used to larger opponents. Tristram and Damien. You two both underestimate yourselves a little, and neither of you knows his skill yet, so you can’t use that as an advantage, at least for the time being.”

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and happy Christmas folks!!!

Kittenification · 12-28-2007, 05:09 AM

Chapter 4 section theduece

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As Lizzy partnered the rest of the class, those who were already partnered left, heading over to the forest where they found all the students from the other combat classes, standing in the first clearing with Liam “Fifth level combat?” he asked as they walked in. Tristram nodded and he grinned “No worries. I’m used to the last combat class coming late. Now, everyone go to the camp you were in yesterday or the day before, unless I named you for the small group.”

Once the majority of students had left, only Tristram, Ryan, Catherine, Ian, Damien, Domnic, and Sorcha stood in the clearing. “Alright. To make up for your large numeric disadvantage, I’m going to give each of you a knife and give you two axes for the whole team, and I’m giving you your own choice of where to make your camp. Good luck. Remember, I’m watching.”

Thanking him, they took their tools and walked a little ways into the woods, circling up under a large oak.
“Alright, where do we think we want to camp?” asked Ian, “Ryan and Tristram, you covered the most ground yesterday, can you think of anywhere good?”
Tristram stepped forward “I think we should keep our supplies stashed all over. That way we can be mobile, which is important. The other groups are all around twenty strong, so we can’t fight them if they find our camp.”

“I agree” said Ryan “we can get food by robbing and raiding, and store it all over the place in small cashes.”
“We will need shelter eventually” said Dom “We do stay out here one night a week remember? Even in winter. Bearing that in mind I would say something underground would be best, that way we wont get robbed in our sleep.”

“Well we should find a place then. Nice and far from everyone” Damien said, his voice quiet, but carrying authority “Tristram and Ryan, you should raid until we have enough food in a few stashes near to our shelter to last us for a few days.” Grinning, the boys ran off into the underbrush as Damien turned to Ian and Dom “you two would be best put to use as diggers along with me. Girls, you should make our door. Take four logs to make a frame. Weave smaller sticks to fill it, then a layer of leaves, then dirt, then plants and such”

Tristram and Ryan successfully stole several baskets worth of food from the other camps, hiding them up high in an old cedar near their camp, while Damien, Dom, and Ian dug, breaking the dirt up with pointed sticks before throwing the clods into a pile a short ways away, while the girls constructed the ceiling- a framework of logs overlaid with smaller sticks, leaves, and dirt. Once Ryan and Tristram returned, they helped to dig until the hole was only slightly less deep than Tristram’s standing height. At the bottom they threw all the ferns they could find, and a single basket of fruit.

Laying their roof over the pit, they merged the edges with the normal ground as well as they could
“Alright, we have a camp” said Catherine “Now we should try to gain an advantage over the other teams. I think we need to make bows. A team of seven attacking from ambush with bows can easily take out a larger group, and if we also make pointed arrows we can hunt for food as well.”

“I’ll make bows.” said Ryan “For short term out of bamboo, but since we have axes and knives, I’ll cut a bunch of lengths of good wood to set aside so later on we can make better bows.”
“Well I’ll lead arrow construction” said Tristram “Bamboo will be nice for that too, although we don’t have anything good for fletching at the moment, so they wont be nearly as accurate as they could be.”
“if we get thicker pieces of bamboo, those will make much better weapons than actual wood.” said Sorcha “it’s light and pretty tough. I’ll get each of us a good piece”
“I will make as many strong ropes and cords as I am able” said Damien “Good bowstrings and lengths for climbing both.”

As everyone separated, either going to help Damien gather vines and bark or going to the nearest bamboo thicket- near the larger camp that Tristram and Ryan had come from, they gave their lair a last look over to make sure it was hidden, before moving apart quickly. At the bamboo thicket, Sorcha and Ryan quickly cut as many tall bamboo plants as possible while Tristram stood lookout. As soon as they finished, they moved quickly back to the area near their camp, where the three of them cut differing lengths of the bamboo and set to work making weaponry.

Shortly afterwards they were joined my the rest of their group, all of them dragging fistfuls of vines and bark strips. As everyone sat around the clearing, working quietly, Tristram became aware of the noise of something moving through the brush, back along the rout they had taken to the bamboo. As he stared into the thicket, he thought he saw a figure with short hair duck behind a tree “Ryan” He jerked his head toward the spot and Ryan nodded, moving out to the side so he could circle around. Shortly after he was out of the clearing, Tristram stood, grabbing one of the lengths of thicker bamboo Sorcha had cut and walked slowly to the edge of the wood “whoever you are, come out here. We’ve got a man behind you, so don’t run” he called out, his eyes searching the area near where he had seen the intruder last.

After several seconds of silence, Conor dropped out of a tree “Hello cousin. I was just trying to find your groups encampment. I assume its somewhere here? In a tree perhaps?” as he spoke, Ryan came up behind him, grabbing hold of his arm “well in any case, that’s not really relevant. Our team is now allied with all the teams that aren’t yours, and so we wanted to work out an accord.”
“Sounds fair” said Tristram “what do you have to offer?”
“Can I talk with your whole group?” his cousin asked
“Of course”

Walking back into the clearing, Tristram and Ryan sat, but Conor kept standing “It seems odd that you haven’t even gotten food or shelter together yet” he muttered, looking around.”
“Well cousin, tell us why we should want to negotiate an ‘accord’ with you” said Tristram, laying another arrow shaft on the pile he had been making prior to sighting Conor.
“Well for one, you don’t seem to have food, and we have an excess.” said Conor “Two, we have Padraig, who can create or modify metal tools, and finally, as the smallest group, you will probably want friends sometimes. That’s where we come in.”

“Sounds fair” said Damien “if Padraig can get us a pickaxe and two shovels, then we will at least agree not to attack you”
Conor frowned “I’ll let him know, and if he agrees, I’ll be back soon, but we were hoping that you would want to open up trade”
“No thanks. The only thing we don’t have enough of is good tools, and we don’t need enough of those for a trade agreement. Of course, individual group members may want to organize their own deals, but as a group we only agree not to rob you.” said Damien.
“Assuming Padraig agrees and you get us the tools. Otherwise we’ll have to acquire them for ourselves.” said Ryan, grinning broadly

Conor shook his head slowly and walked out of the clearing “I’ll be back soon” he called, and then he was gone.
Laughing, Tristram stood and stretched “He must think we’re utterly stupid, seeing how it looks to him like in spite of our lack of food or shelter, all we’re doing is sitting around making rope and arrows.”
Catherine grinned, knotting the end of a braided bark cord “at least he’s going to get the digging gear for us” she said “as good a job as the boys did with sticks, it would be nice if we actually had some room down there.”

“Yeah, I reckon we should have at least one person digging at all times, and more whenever we can spare them” said Ian “that way we’ll end up having a real palace down there. We can even make tunnels and separate chambers, so long as we support the ceilings well.”
“if we make tunnels leading out of our camp we can use them to get in and out too” said Tristram “It’ll help us avoid giving this opening away.”

As they sat discussing ways to defend and improve their camp, Conor returned holding a pair of sharp spades, a pickaxe with a blade like a narrow hoe on the back side and two hand shovels “Padraig had already made these” he said, gesturing to the hand shovels “based off those tiger claw weapons, except as shovels. We don’t have a use for them though, so we decided to toss them your way too.”
The handles on the hand shovels was the same as the tiger claws but they had a wrist brace and each had a broad curved shovel blade extending from the knuckle guard. “Anyways, I’m off” said Conor “I’ll see you around.” Waving, he jogged out of the clearing.

Immediately, Ian, Tristram, Dom, and Damien grabbed the digging tools, opened the pit and dropped down, lifting out the basket of fruit that sat in a corner before getting to work. As they did, Ryan took an axe and went to cut wood to make bows, and Sarah and Sorcha continued making cord. Within an hour, the boys had dug to such a depth that they could no longer throw the dirt out and Tristram had to use the hand shovels to cut hand-and-footholds to get in and out. Using baskets they managed to keep digging downward for a short time before Liam appeared at the lip of their pit “that’s all for today boys. Come back to the gate so I can talk to everyone.” he said, turning and quickly walking off.

As they climbed out, brushing themselves off, Sarah, Ryan, and Sorcha began laughing.
“What?” Dom asked, looking down “Oh.” All four boys were completely covered in dirt “if you three can take care of covering up here, we can go to the river and clean up quickly before meeting up at the gate.”
“Sounds good” Ryan said “See you there.”

After diving into the river and rubbing as much dirt as possible out of their clothes, Tristram, Dom, Damien, and Ian ran back to the clearing where Liam stood in front of the rest of their fellow students “Ah, there they are.” he said “now, I am going to give each of you a team colour. For the rest of the year I want you to wear a sash of that colour as long as you are in the forest. Conor’s team, you will be green. Small group you get grey. Riverbank diggers, lets have you in brown. The team with the log fort gets white, and the fishers get blue.” looking around, he nodded once “alright. Well the main thing that seems to be happening now is a lot of alliances are being made, most notably by the green team, who have succeeded in allying with all four other teams. You should all strive to remember well who is friends with who, or you can end up in a fight you really don’t want. Now go to your professors. I will see you tomorrow.”

After sitting through Music, Strategy and Alchemy, Tristram walked over to the stable were Professor O’Neil greeted him “Ye’re in the advanced class, so jest saddle up and wait out front till the others are there. Ye’ll be goin fer a ride down around the lake.” nodding, Tristram saddled the horse he had ridden the day before and walked out in front of the barn to wait. After a short time he was joined by Sorcha, Dom, Conor, and Catherine “This is all of us” said Catherine “Apparently he’s a fairly exacting teacher…”
“Well lets go” said Dom “He said we just have to go all the way around the lake. Its rough terrain in a couple places, but if we’re quick we might be done before the main class”

Sorcha nodded, smiling, and leapt up into her saddle, taking off towards the school’s gate. Quickly, Tristram, Conor, and Catherine followed, and seconds later, Dom caught up, currently in an almost entirely canine form. Within a minute of riding they had caught up with Sorcha, who was riding across a deep ford in the river that fed the lake. As the horses charged in, Dom dove in, fading to a more humanoid shape as he hit and swimming quickly across, shaking himself dry on the other side. As the horses charged out of the water, he bolted off, moving along the shore. As the riders hit the straightaway they gained on him, passing him on a downhill section. As the group continued around the lake they crossed three more rivers, jumped numerous fallen trees, and scrambled up a rockslide. As they rode back to the barn they were met by O’Neil “That was very good. Ye made it back in good time, and ye stuck together. For the rest of this week I’ll have ye doing the same route, but I’ll change it every week, and from time to time I’ll have ye on the track so I can check yer progress. Now get on wi’ yerselves. I’ll take yer horses.”

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Enjoy.

or don't. It's your decision I suppose.

eliec · 01-01-2008, 03:53 AM

and enjoy i did! nice work man, keep it up

Destroyer2000 · 01-01-2008, 11:38 AM

Seriously, very nice. Keep it up.

Greed · 01-03-2008, 11:03 AM

This is wicked. perfectly bloody as any good fictional story should be. Please continue to post and i'll read.

Kittenification · 01-08-2008, 04:52 AM

Well since the website is back up, it would seem I am due to put up a bit more writing- Here it is.
Chapeter four, Section three

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Leaving their mounts to him, the students walked back to the pit, where Tristram left them at the east house, choosing weapons as he went to find Gareth. Carefully avoiding the knots of students sparring, Tristram walked across the arena to find Gareth and Lizzy sparring with several older students. Leaning against the wall, he watched as the pair of instructors stood, back to back, Lizzy holding a pair of long slender knives and Gareth completely unarmed.

As they fought Tristram realized that in spite of being outnumbered, Gareth and Lizzy were never in danger of being hit as they quickly moved from one opponent to the next, dispatching all five in a matter of seconds, before tuning to each other. As Lizzy jumped to slash at Gareth, he jumped toward her, catching her hand by the wrist and flipping her to the ground. Rolling to her feet, she stepped forward, slashing upwards with both wooden knives at once, forcing him back and whipping her back foot around to kick at his head. Catching her foot in one hand Gareth lifted it as high as he could, but Lizzy leaned towards him and slashed, one leg on the ground and the other almost directly overhead. As Gareth released her foot to dodge the knives, she fell back, rolling to a standing position. Then Gareth jumped forward, quickly dodging both blades and catching Lizzy’s wrist, striking her side with his elbow. As she fell to her knees he grabbed her ponytail and touched his knee to her forehead before turning to Tristram “You’re the one Lizzy gave tiger claws to?” he asked “ I don’t know if I would have started you off with such an exotic weapon, but she said you did well with them, so we’ll see. Lets go into the west combat house, theres usually nobody practicing in there.”

In the house, Gareth looked Tristram over slowly “you’ve boxed then?”
“Yes, is that good?” Tristram asked
“It wont be bad. If nothing else, it means the muscles used with the tiger claws will be a little more developed. Before we start using weapons though I want to teach you to use tiger style attacks. In the south, where I lived for many years after graduation they have several styles of combat based on animals. All of the styles are either internal- focusing on the mental or spiritual power of the user and attacking weak points on the body, or external, using the practitioner’s physical power to destroy opponents. Tiger is the epitome of a physical style. To use these techniques properly, you want to fight like a tiger would. Above all else, a tiger is strong, and he knows this, so your first objective is strength. If I remember correctly you were an archer in the first combat, so I assume you have good arm muscles. Now follow my movements exactly…”

For the next hour they practiced two stances- the broad, strong horse stance, and the carefully poised cat stance, and Tristram learned the basic hand form for tiger attacks- a flat palm with his fingers slightly curled “Just remember, hit, grip, and rip” Gareth had said. Picking up the claws, Tristram walked out into the arena, where he found Lizzy instructing Padraig and Dom, as Catherine practiced a series of strikes and blocks on her own. Walking up, Tristram grinned “Your imaginary friends must be sore by now” he said “Want a real opponent?” She smiled lightly before suddenly slashing at him, just missing as he jumped backwards.

As she leapt forward, stabbing at him, he succeeded in locking her shortsword with his right-hand claws, but before he could slash with his left, he was hit in the chest several times in the space of a second. Stumbling back, he was forced to concentrate on defense as she pressed her attack, until he stepped into her guard as he had seen Gareth do to Lizzy earlier, locking one of her arms with each of his. For a moment they struggled against each other, but then Tristram leapt backwards, causing her to fall flat on her back with his weight on top. Rolling to the side, Tristram brushed some lose hair out of his eyes as she regained her feet “you know” she wheezed “you are way too heavy for such a skinny boy. Did you eat Dom or something?”
Then suddenly he was on his back, and she was pinning his arms with her knees, sword at his throat “you know, if you had your skill, you might be able to beat me.” she mused “Oh well. For the time being lets try again. I wont use my skill”

And they fought several more rounds, Tristram only winning one, before they split up to fight other people. Against Sarah, Tristram fared well, but Dom kept him humble, beating him easily every time “It’s alright little man” he said “you picked those up for the first time today. I got my first sword lesson when I was seven. Eventually Tristram was too worn out to continue and he watched Conor and Damien fight. Damien was good, but no match for Conor, who dispatched him by yanking the top of his shield, causing the bottom to hit his legs and knock him over, allowing an easy finish.

When the dinner bell rung, the students all raced back towards their respective houses. Sitting at their usual table, the red house students chattered busily about the day. “So Sorcha how was combat two” asked Dom, before biting into a piece of chicken with relish
“Oh its alright. I’m not very good at all” she said “Although the teacher said if I practice well I might move up to three soon. How is five? I heard you got to choose your own weapons?”
Padraig nodded “Yeah, and Tristram decided to get fancy with it. Got these claw weapons that look like extra murderous knuckledusters”
“Hey, Padraig, how is your lots camp coming in Liam’s class I hear you’re friends with everyone now?” asked Tristram

“Yeah, Conor was great about talking them into it, and having metal tools as a bribe helped a lot.” said Padraig “The clay digging team- brown I guess, keep finding lumps of crude copper in the shallows and we’re trading for them”
“Oh, speaking of alliances, how about the white team- the log fort guys.” said Catherine “apparently they decided to only make two alliances, and the blue team followed suit. Other than us, they’re only friends with each other. Apparently they’re thinking about moving closer to each other too. If I were one of the clay diggers, or the small group, I would be a little nervous about that little development.”

“Speaking of the small team, about half of it is here” said Padraig “How are you guys doing? Conor said all you seemed to have was a bunch of rope and some arrows? Which is strange because I distinctly remember having two baskets of apples stolen when we were allied with everyone except you.”
Tristram, Dom, and Sorcha looked at each other “We have… more than is readily apparent.” said Tristram
“yeah” Dom agreed “we’re definitely an… undercover operation.”
Sorcha laughed, and Padraig looked mystified “I guess I missed something… Either way, I have to say that I am definitely enjoying that class, which I suppose is advantageous as it takes up most of the day for our whole first year.”

“So what do we think is on the plan for tonight?” asked Anne
“Well first off I want to get cleaned up” said Catherine “and then we should all go sit up on the roof. It will be nice up there with the full moon, and there will be less people than in the common room.”
“I’m going to get an early night tonight” said Dom, leaning back in his chair “I’ll catch up with you all in the morning, assuming we wake early again.”
“oh we definitely will” Anne said “I liked having time to sit around before class.”

After going to the bathhouse to clean up, Tristram put on some clean clothes and climbed the stairs up to the roof, where he spotted Padraig with a small leather bag, seated on one of the wooden chairs. As he walked over, Padraig turned, spotting him “oh, there you are. I almost thought you would manage to take as long as the girls.”
“That’s possible?” Tristram asked “could have fooled me… Whats in the bag?”
Padraig hefted it “Couple bars of steel and some good pieces of hardwood.”
For a while they sat, Padraig toying with the metal, molding it into a small statue of a man chained between two pillars. Watching, Tristram noticed the Padraig didn’t seem to be molding the metal like it was clay. Instead, his hands provided general definition but most of the fine detail was caused by the metal flowing, seemingly of its own volition into the forms he wanted. “Hey, do you think you could change metal without touching it?” asked Tristram
“I dunno, I’ve never tried… give me a second.” said Padraig. Finishing his statue, he pulled out another bar and set it on the ground.

Kneeling over it he held his hands out and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, the metal went liquid, flowing out as a puddle before pulling together into a dagger with a simple cross hilt and a long triangular blade. Opening his eyes, Padraig grinned, picking it up “I like this. I wonder how far I can do it from…” Tossing the blade a short distance away, he held his hand out toward it, closing his eyes and clenching and unclenching his fist. For a long time nothing happened, but then slowly the blade melted, before pulling together as a miniature trident “Hah. With practice I might be able to do it from much farther. Thanks for thinking of that Tristram”
“no problem.” said Tristram “oh, well look who it is.”

Sorcha, Anne, and Catherine had all come up the stairs “What took so long?” he called, waving for them to come over.
“Oh we forgot about you two. We were sitting in our room talking” said Anne
“And I was talking to Sarah at the bathhouse” said Catherine.
“Well” said Padraig “as exciting as your tales of… conversation are, I think our time was better spent.”
“Why?” Sorcha asked.
Padraig tossed her the trident and closed his eyes, holding out his hand again. After a second, the trident twisted and flexed quickly into a snake, wrapped around her wrist.
Sorcha yelped and shook her hand for a moment before stopping to examine the steel serpent “this is really pretty.” she said “but I cant move my wrist, so can you take it off?”
Padraig nodded and held his hand out toward her again, and the snake liquefied, trickling to the floor where it reformed as a flat bar of metal.

“So you can shape metal at a distance now?” Catherine asked
“Yeah, Tristram asked if I could do it without touching the metal so I tried, and then I tried at distance and it works perfectly.” He answered “by the way how is your skill working out for you? Can you keep the speed up for long at all, or is it just bursts?”
Catherine leaned back, putting her feet up onto Tristram’s knee “so far just bursts, but its getting a little longer each time.” she said “So which of us will get their skill next? I’m going to guess… Tristram.”
Anne frowned “Well I think it will be me, because we’re twins.”
“My money is on Anne too” said Padraig “Then probably Sorcha. Damien and Tristram will be around the same time as each other though.”
“Why do you think that?” asked Tristram
“I dunno, you two just seem similar. Maybe I’m wrong.” Padraig said “Anyways, I’m off to bed. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” standing quickly he grabbed his bag and the bar that sat at Sorcha’s feet and headed for the stairs.

“Well, should we head down then?” Tristram asked
“Well we just got up here” said Catherine “but you can go if you want”
“no, I’ll stay, I was just making sure.” he said, leaning back “so what did you all think of our first actual day of classes?”
“Long” said Sorcha, and Anne nodded in agreement “I like that the riding teacher isn’t having us do laps though. The ride around the lake is much more fun, even if we have to bring Dom.”
“Why don’t you like him Sorcha?” asked Tristram “He’s pretty nice as far as I can tell, and he always tries to be friendly to you.”
“I just don’t like how he…” she paused, biting her lip “Looks.” she finished lamely.
For several moments, Tristram stared at her, before Anne spoke “That’s a shame. I wouldn’t call him bad looking, just a little more muscular than I like, but I guess that comes with being a werewolf and all.”
“Anne, please try not to be stupid” Catherine said “Sorcha doesn’t care about how Domnic looks, it’s the werewolf thing that bothers her.”
Sorcha glared at her fiercely “It is not! I just, don’t like how he follows me around. It’s annoying.”
“I thought you said it was his looks?” Tristram said, raising an eyebrow.
“It doesn’t matter!” she snapped, “I just don’t like him!”

“Alright, well I think I’m going to sleep.” said Catherine “could you walk with me Tristram?”
“Of course.”
They walked quietly until they were out of earshot of the remaining two. “Well” Tristram muttered “That went well…”
“She’ll probably get over it. She is around him for most of the day, and he’s really nice.” said Catherine
“I hope so.” they had arrived at her room “Sweet dreams Catherine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Nodding, she slipped through the door and closed it, and Tristram walked around the building to his own room where he quickly fell asleep.

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Hope everyone's new year is going well.
Have a good one.
Kieran

Cefor · 01-08-2008, 12:19 PM

Hey good work Kieran, I must say that I like the bit in the forest the best part...

Though I'd love to know how the whites managed to get a log fort after so short a time as a team.....

But yeah it's a really good story mate keep up the excellent work.
Cefor