Most nonmagical folk think I'm a freak because my skin is gray, my lower canines are prominent, my hair is oily black, and my muscles are quite large. Neither of my parents display any of these characteristics in public, yet I do. Of course, I've seen my mother become a gray, tusked humanoid with oily black hair, yet it was only when I was at home with both of my parents. I was 7 at the time, and I had no idea that magic actually existed. Everyone at school kept telling me that magic was not real, so it was sort of a surprise when I watched my own mother become that creature, which is apparently called an orc. My father is a human, yet he is also a wizard. I guess that makes me ... what, a half-orc? I don't even know what to call myself. My parents plan to allow me to train in the way of the sword, see what I can do. It'll only last until I'm eleven, which is when I'll go to some school called Hogwarts. Still, I look forward to wielding a sword. Somehow, I feel like wielding two swords would suit me quite well. I've got three years until I get transferred to this Hogwarts, so I'd better get to training. I, Kolmar "Coal" McGarly, am off to my first sword training session of the day.
The students of Ares' School of Swordsmanship, located in Bolton, Arcadia, walked into the main room of the salle, dressed in their red and white uniforms. "All right, twerps, the usual weapons master is not here right now, so I'm in charge until he comes back. My name is Craven Fairley, but you twerps can call Mr. Ares," the man in the middle of the salle said. Kolmar didn't really like the way Mr. Ares spoke, but he couldn't help but like how direct he was. He slightly raised his hand and said, "Excuse me, sir, but is it your name on the front of the building?" At first, Mr. Ares seemed to ignore him, but when he mentioned the front of the building and his name, he replied with, "Yeah, I'm the owner of the business, but I don't really teach. I just supply the material for training anyone who comes in here. You twerps are the first group of adolescents we've taken since I started this school. Which reminds me, Go grab yourselves a practice sword or two. The only restriction is that it needs to feel right in your hands. After you've picked yourself a blade go over to those padded poles - whichever one fits your stature - and figure out what kind of rhythm suits you best. That rhythm is going to play a big part in what kind of fighting style you have. Go on, hop to it. I expect to be hearing the smack of wood on plastic from the direction of the pells - those padded poles I told you about."
Kolmar got first pick, since he managed to reach it first. His first sword was this fairly long piece that seemed to be made for him. His second sword was a shorter piece that fit great in his off-hand. He went to a set of pells that was perfect for his unusually large height for his age. He got into a rhythm and stance that felt right, and started with one of his weaker strikes and used that for both weapons. However, his rhythm was rather slow at this point. He decided to up the ante and put a little more strength into his blows. His rhythm got faster. He put more strength and got the same result. He went to nearly full strength and got to a blurring speed. Then he got up to full strength and delivered a blow to his pells so hard that his longer practice blade broke with a resounding crash, which made Mr. Ares whip around yelling, "What in Heaven's name is going on!?" Then he saw the destruction and looked at Kolmar in awe. "What happened young man?" he said, and Kolmar replied, "I got up to my full strength and delivered a mighty blow. When I hit the pells, my practice blade broke, and I think I broke the pells, too. My rhythm was extremely quick."
"Tell me your name, young one," Mr. Ares demanded. "My name is Kolmar "Coal" McGarly, Mr. Ares sir," Kolmar replied. "Well then, Coal, I welcome you to this school... What's with the other practice blade? Do you really need it?" Mr. Ares said. Kolmar looked down at his offhand weapon, looked back up at Mr. Ares, and said, "It feels extremely natural for me to have two melee weapons, sir. I probably don't need the other sword, but I don't think it would feel right for me to not have it. Is there a shortage or something? I can put it back if you want."
"I think you should, because you're the first of this group to actually go on to the next step in your training, which is ... well, you'll have to wait and see, Coal. Come on over to the next room in this salle."
TO BE CONTINUED ...