David swung his sword in form after form. Almost lazily, his opponent flicked his sword to block each. He got an idea and lunged at the boy. As the boy brought his sword to counter, David flicked it upwards towards his opponent’s chin. The boy twisted his sword and just managed to block it. He laughed and charged David. David dodged the first lunge, but the second caught him in the ribs, the third under his chin. Dazed, he staggered back and shifted his sword to his other paw. He took a step and swung, sword flashing out in front of him. He was rewarded at the sight of the boy falling back, clutching his side. Without mercy, David lunged and disarmed the other.

“Hahaha, you’re good at this, David,” his partner laughed. He winced, clutching his side.

“You’re not so bad yourself, Mar,” David said.

On either side of them, boys were fighting their partners. Some, like himself, were using swords. Other weapons included quarterstaves and daggers. On the other side of the building was the archery range. To his left, his friend Joseph, who was practicing the quarterstaff, winked at him, bopped his own partner on the head, and swept his feet out from under him. The boy got up, and they shook paws, and all four sat down in the grass under their favourite tree near the lake, the day’s training complete.

“Ahh, quite a workout, eh boys?” Joseph sighed, picking up a long blade of grass and sticking the end in his mouth. Stan, Joseph’s partner, laughed and got up to get a drink. David winked at the other two and crept up behind Stan, shoving him in the lake. Stan swum to the edge, sputtering, and the other three fell about laughing. He glared at them for a second, before brushing his hair out of his eyes.

“It’s not funny!” He shouted, trying not to laugh and failing miserably. Before long, all four boys were in the lake. Their weapons were stuck in the ground beside the lake, David having taken the enchantment off of the edge. After an hour or so, the boys got out and dried themselves off. David adjusted his baldric so it would keep the sword strapped diagonally over his back. He went inside to change out of his wet tunic and trousers. He chose an emerald green shirt and a pair of royal blue pants. He returned to the sun-lit field to find that training was over. Six older boys had their weapons out and looked ready to attack Stan and Mar. Joseph came out behind him, using his quarterstaff as a walking stick. David caught his eye, and Joseph nodded. He drew his sword and put a blunt enchantment around the edge. They strode over to where the other boys were.

“Hey boys! Got a problem?” All six of the boys turned to face him. Mar and Stan slipped off while the boys weren’t paying any attention, grabbing their weapons and hurrying off to get changed. Their leader, a boy about two years older than themselves, sneered at him.

“Yeah, ‘s’matter o’ fact we do. You wanna make somethin’ of it?”

“You know what, I think we will,” David replied, glancing at Joseph. Joseph hoisted his quarterstaff. David braced himself for an attack. The six boys advanced, weapons at the ready. The leader threw himself at Joseph, brandishing a mace. Joseph quickly parried the blow and smashed the boy in the snout with the butt of his staff. The other five needed no further encouragement. Two of them went to help their leader with Joseph, and the other three rounded on David. One of them, a tall, burly bull with long, curly brown hair swung a quarterstaff at him. David blocked it and kicked the offender in the stomach. A slim, silver-furred fox came at him next, a dagger in one hand and short sword in the other. David shifted his sword to his right paw and chopped the boy in the neck twice with his left, hitting him in the face with the hilt of his sword and delivering a bone-shattering kick to the side of his head. Well, that one isn’t coming up, he thought. The third boy looked as though he wished to leave, but the sight of the other two slowly getting to their feet hardened his resolve. Yelling wildly, he ran at David, sword whirling. David brought his sword up and stopped the sword from hitting him. As the other two boys staggered to their feet, Stan and Mar threw themselves into the fray. Mar handed his sword to David and drew his sleeves back. He began muttering words in the ancient language under his breath and weaving patterns in the air. Suddenly he threw himself at the brown-haired boy and grabbed his wrist. A red glow enveloped the two boys and Mar staggered back. The other boy fell to his knees, clutching his arm and shrieking in agony. The silver-furred boy, still groggy, tripped and went facedown in the dirt. Neither David nor the boy he was fighting noticed either of these things, as they were locked in a dance. David never thought he’d ever meet one with such skill with a sword. Even with two swords, David was slowly being subdued. The boy snickered in contempt and flicked his head to get his long black bangs out of his eyes. David, seeing his chance, swept at the boy with one sword, and, as he was parrying the blow, brought the other one down and tripped him. He stepped on the boy’s chest and smashed his head with the flat of his sword, rendering him unconscious. He looked over to see Joseph leaning on his staff watching him, all three of his opponents sprawled on the ground, unconscious.

“Look out!” Stan shouted, and David whirled around in time to see the silver-furred boy lunge at him. He leapt out of the way, and saw the fox flung through the air. He looked over at Mar to see him grinning.

“Air,” he explained. He tried to stand but sank wearily to his knees. Stan and David ran over to him and helped him into the academy.

Ø

The next day was torture. They had History, followed by Training, then back inside for Calligraphy, Lunch, Training, Biology, and then Astronomy. That night David flopped down on his bed and looked over at Joseph. The four had been discussing that night’s astronomy test.

“Honestly, how was I supposed to know there were seven moons other than ours, not six?” Stan grumbled from his bed on the other side of him. Mar laughed from the other side of Joseph.

“I got all the answers right,” he said smugly.

“Yeah, I bet you used magic to look at your notes,” Joseph muttered into his pillow.

“I heard that!” Mar said huffily, and then in an undertone, “But you’re right, I used magic.” He laughed softly. In David’s opinion, it wasn’t really cheating, but using one of the abilities you were born with to excel. David had a bit of magic, and he knew he was lucky to have just that. He couldn’t do much other than pick up a rock, and it had to be nearby at that, but he seemed to do really well at a blunting charm for his sword.

“You cheater!” cried Joseph, and threw a pillow at Mar. Mar laughed and dodged the pillow, throwing his own at Joseph, missing and hitting David in the face. David grabbed it and tried to throw it back, but Mar guided it to hit Joseph in the back of the head. Joseph whirled around and threw the pillow at Stan. And then pandemonium broke out. Mar, laughing, ducked into the hall, followed quickly by Joseph’s pillow. One of the boys in the next room stuck his head out of the door, but was hit in the face with a stray pillow before he could get a word out. From inside the room hoots of laughter could be heard. The boy glared at Mar and threw the pillow at him, but Mar caught it in mid-air and sent it flying back his way. The pillow hit the boy in the face again. By this time, the boys in his room were positively shrieking with laughter. One of them ran out into the hall, brandishing a pillow. The others quickly followed. Stan ran down the hall, knocking on each door in turn. Boys looked out into the hallway. Most of them ran outside to join them in the massive pillow fight. Before long, the air was filled with feathers, laughs, and screams of the other boys. Mar calmly walked in their midst, directing pillows to start beating their wielders over the head, causing feathers to tickle people under their noses, and every once in a while lifting someone in the air and making all the pillows fly at them. Yawning, he slammed barriers to each end of the halls and picked up a pillow. He saw Stan being pummelled by Joseph and another boy and went to help. Using the last bit of magic he had left, he threw Joseph and the other boy back against the walls and sank into a blissful, dreamless sleep.