Power Awakens

Jaac stood waiting, many months of basic training had passed before the boys had managed to arrange their first night out together, this was mid winters day. For the first time since they had arrived in Mank, they had spent four hours training rather than the usual fourteen.

Jaac had said his goodbyes to his Da weeks earlier at the beginning of Winter Fall as Petrek and Eddick set off with a charge from the King. He hadn’t had time to think of anything since, focused entirely on his training. Although he had just started his basic military training, he thought he was in hell. His muscles ached all over, his joints ached, and he was absolutely exhausted every night, so much so that he just went straight to his bed rather than attempt to go out and meet his friends.

When he had told his Da how much it hurt after the first two weeks, Petrek had laughed out loud in front of Eddick and said “Don’t be soft your just moaning. I’ve always said you were a Mummy’s boy,” Petrek smirked “me and Eddick did basic training in Dublain and it was five times harder than this. We still met in the local tavern at night and had a few beers.”

As usual, not a single word of encouragement from his Da, Jaac knew that he meant well and loved him, but his Da had always put him down his whole life. Jaac just wondered what it would take to ever get his Da to say something nice about him.

All this went through his mind as he waited for the other boys outside the Dolphin Fountain in the Mank central market place. He was the first to arrive and he could already see Ainy and Mort walking towards the fountain. Jaac sat on the low mottled marble wall, which continued around in a twenty span wide circle. The four impressive marble dolphins towered a good fifteen spans high behind his head, each one balanced on its tail aligned to one of the four main compass directions.

Ainy smiled at Jaac as he said “Tem, late as usual, he will be late for his own funeral that one. He’s always late, I don’t know why we bother turning up on time.” Ainy grumbled “Anyway, as usual, it’s been down to me to organize something, I’ve been speaking to one of the servants who is cousin to a Tavern serving girl in The Three Parrots. She will serve us ale if we keep in the corner and keep quite. As it’s mid winters Day it will be heaving. Its rubbish we couldn’t meet before now, I’ve been so exhausted since we started training, I think they mean to wear my arms off.”

Jaac responded, “Yeah, I know what you mean, I’ve been completely goosed, every time I think I am getting fitter, they just find something harder for me to do. Hey, here comes Tem now, he must be keen, I thought it would take him another ten minutes before he got here”, “Come on Tem”, shouted Jaac, “we got some serious drinking to do”

Mort just smiled and sat down waiting for Tem.

In the Three Parrots the boys had their first taste of grain brandy, although it seemed to burn the throat on the way down, they all kind of liked it. The boys all tried to out do each other with the drinking, showing off due to the two girls Breanne and Natissha who had finally joined them.

For once Jaac couldn’t see Osakee anywhere near. Osakee was his shadow and appeared following him everywhere he went. Jaac thought that sometime Osakee took his guard duty too seriously, it’s good that he wasn’t here tonight. It gave Jaac and the other boys a chance to relax, it was a good start to the night. The start was probably about as much as Jaac remembered.

The following morning Mort thought that someone had broken a metal bar over his head, he couldn’t move without an immense pain in his head. He vaguely remembered Ainy getting friendly with Natissha, Breanne’s younger cousin, Ainy was always good with girls, he seemed to have a knack for making them laugh. It was Natissha who had brought out a second bottle of Grain Brandy, after that, his usually flawless memory seemed to elude him.

At breakfast, Mort saw Jaac and Ainy, Tem as usual, was late. Ainy looked like he was going to throw up and so did Jaac, suddenly Jaac jumped up as Mort walked over, he ran towards the Training School latrine with a very pale face, and Mort guessed what he was going to do.

“Hell of a night eh” smiled Ainy as Mort sat down. “You seemed to be getting on with Natissha’s friend… that is, until you threw up all over her. Ah well, maybe next time”

“I feel like crap.” answered Mort, “Don’t you feel bad”

“Yeah, I am really not looking forward to the training today,” muttered Ainy. “Hey, here comes Tem, he seems to be ok though and he drank more than all of us. How’s it going Tem?”

“Fine” answered Tem as he sat down. Tem knew that he looked ok but he felt really ill, of course there was no way he was going to let the boys find that out, he wasn’t soft like that. “I’m moving into the second year group today, Mathus says I’m ready and Jaac will be joining us in a few weeks. Mathus say’s second year is loads harder than the first year. I don’t feel up to it today that’s for sure. Where’s Jaac?”

“I think he’s gone to be sick,” answered Mort, “ He’ll be back soon, you know how he likes his food and he never misses breakfast, even if he’s ill.”

Jaac, for the first time the boys could ever remember, never came back for breakfast, it was probably the only time in the years that he was at Mank that he missed it. The boys managed to meet on a regular basis at the Three Parrots over the following year and a half, each time the morning after was horrendous, although Jaac never missed another breakfast. The training was always that much harder for up to three days after they had visited the Inn, but the boys kept plugging away at the training and seem to make rapid progress through the Apprentice ranks.

Shortly after Tem joined the second year group, Jaac was also promoted up. The group seemed to exhibit some signs of envy for Tem and Jaac, as never before in the history of the Training school had a first year pupil moved into the second year ranks before their anniversary. What was worse was that both Tem and Jaac were better than almost every student, even the senior ones. The other students always seemed to work Tem and Jaac harder, but this seemed to just make Tem and Jaac even better.

Tem and Jaac were also given lessons in Majee with Tem quickly developing a talent for defensive Majee, but he seemed to have a block for anything else. The teaching of Majee, like the Martial training, had Apprentices split into years, and almost in line with the Martial training, Tem and Jaac moved into the second year exceptionally quickly, except this time it was Jaac who moved up first, followed six weeks later by Tem.