Zachary breathed in a slow breath before exhaling it, His golden locks dripped with sweat causing them to became stuck to his forehead, In front of him was a equally weary opponent, A fellow human, And a fellow walker of the light, After a moments rest the man quickly charged forward, sloppy yet in the state they both were in it mattered little. Drawing on his last reserves of strength Zachary slid sideways, Almost slipping on the wet morning dew that covered the practice field. As the man charged past him Zach brought his elbow down on the mans upper back, directly in the center of his shoulder blades. The opponent expecting some form of straight up resistance, And the fact of the elbow shot, Combined with the wet ground caused his feet to slide out from under him, making him face plant straight in the ground, When this happened he recovered rather quickly but it was to late and Zachary soon held the dulled practice sword to his chest, Letting it rest there slightly to give his arm a rest. Then after a moment Zachary moved the sword, planting it point down into the soft dirt and held out a hand to the downed warrior.
The man accepted the offered hand and Zachary helped him to his feet, A smile on his face. Patting him on his back he grabbed his sword from its place within the dirt and wiped off the mud that clung to the gleaming sword, He then turned and watched the rest of the practice field, Most of the battles where race against race, but on the rare occasion someone may find themselves facing a opponent of a different race, but that was mostly avoided so as not to give one race a unfair advantage in a fight. After a moment of scanning the practice field he looked up into the sky, The weather was cloudy, but a hint of sun showed through the clouds, And as the clouds moved the sun appeared in full, Casting a warm glow on his body, A smile crossed his face and he closed his eyes taking a second deep breath before slowly exhaling it, Letting his body calm down and his adrenaline stop pumping. After that he slowly opened his eyes and the smile left his face, As once again he glanced around the practice field, This time his eyes Gray eyes settled upon a bout between a Blood Elf and a Orc, It was strange that such a bout between to powerful foes had gone on this long, And had not long ago ended in the favor of the elf, But as he watched he could tell the favor was already heavily tipped in what he soon realized was her favor.
As he watched the Orc visibly tired, the Elf barely seemed to be breathing had as she repeatedly danced just out of the Orcs axe attacks in a graceful display of both Agility and Speed. Zach continued to watch and quickly became enthralled by the elves movements, the graceful dodges and the way she seemed to dance with every move of her legs. Zachary moved closer to get a better view of the fight, Though still being careful to avoid the other bouts going on around them. Then he stopped a short distance away, And soon the elf turned on the Offensive, she began blocking the Orcs axe attacks and even parrying with a few blows of her own, Though he noted she continued to use the flat of her blade. Then in a flurry of movement on the elf's part the Orc was disarmed. Though he continued to fight, though he tried Zachary soon found his eyes solely on the elf again. Now that he was closer he was able to make out more details about the elf woman, Her hair was Brown like the leaves in fall, and pulled tightly back into a pony tail, Her features seemed angled and her body was slim, Almost on queue she seemed to detect his gaze on her and she pushed the Orc back then turned he face towards him And timed slowed on Zachary's end and he quickly took in every detail of her face, Before reaching her eyes, Which confused him, Then the moment passed and the elf turned her attention back to the fight. He was confused for the mere fact that her eyes, Had seemed to glow, Which was not strange for most of the blood elves he had met, But it was strange for the fact that they had seemed to be almost a pale blue, Which he had never seen in a blood elf, There eyes almost always glowed a bright green, On account of what he had learned was there exposure to the Fel Energy that had corrupted there race.
Slowly a larger crowd gathered and the elf decided the fight should end, Which only furthered the belief that she had been toying with him the whole fight, Quickly the elf swept the legs out from underneath the now exhausted Orc and placed a sword to his throat, And the fight was over, Many who had seen the fight clapped, Both applauding the Orc for how long he lasted, And for the Elf's grace and Agility in the fight. A single bell rang singling time for the first meal of the day, And the large crowd rushed off wanting to be the first to eat. And Zachary was left alone with the elf, After a moment she looked off in the direction of the mess hall, Then back to him, A sly smile crossed her face and then she was gone, Running towards the mess hall herself. Slowly watching her run Zach felt a strange feeling bubble up from the depths of his being, Then he realized it was his stomach growling, And slowly at first he set off at a run towards the mess hall himself, Already realizing that he would be the last to eat now.
Zachary arrived, late just as he predicted and slowly filed through the lining, Receiving the bottom of the cauldron soup, And the stale bread that had been left over from yesterday, The Strange Blood Elf's fight was the talk of the mess hall and as Zachary made his way to where his friends always sat he heard several people taking about it in awe filled voices. As he sat down his friends included him in there debate on whether or not the Elf was going to be sent off to the advanced group.
"She definitely will! Did you see how she handled that Orc? It was uncanny!" Zachary's best friend Logan stated.
"Nah…She would have already been sent there if she was going there…I think she is placed her as a test…To see which of us deserve to go to the advanced group. Zach. What do you think…Zach?" His second best friend Logrinar asked. Catching him staring off towards where he could see the elf sitting at a table by her self, Reading a Book while she ate.
"Huh? Oh…Um, Well I don't think she will be going to the advanced group, because. She may be a good fighter. But who knows how in touch with the Light she is right?" He replied trying to recover from his trance.
"You like her don't you!" Logan responded quickly, Being the first one who caught his glance.
"No!" Zachary quickly recovered.
"Yes you do! By the light! You are in love with that Blood elf!"
"Shut up Logan leave him be…" Logrinar replied with a slight grin.
"Yes, please do Logan…" Zachary said turning his attention back to the elf As Logan pretended to mope while slowly reaching for Zachs Bread.
"Paws off!" Zach said catching Logan shortly after and standing up slowly before continuing his statement. "I'm going to go sit with her…" He said slowly thinking about what he was about to do.
"Oh come on zach! Just because I tried to grab your bread your going to leave?"
"No…But I mean…Look at her, Over there all alone…She is probably lonely." Zach responded.
"Oh she is fine Zach! Look she is reading a book! What more company does she need?" Logrinar said piping in.
"You really are a jerk sometimes Aren't you?" Zach said finally walking away from the table. He felt as if all eyes where on him as he crossed the room. Finally arriving at the elf's table he slowly sat down. She kept her eyes on her book while occasionally moving them from the book to her bowl to take a bite of the food. Finally she let out a sigh and looked up at him, looking him over for a second.
"What is it exactly that you want." She asked slowly, Her voice seemed calm, Yet zach could detect the under current of annoyance.
"Well…No one else was sitting here…So-." Zach began to so before he was cut off.
"So you thought you would move tables, most likely just so you could sit next to me and brag to your friends later about to false experience you had over here." She said responding quickly the annoyance now clear by her tone.
"No…I just figured you would want some company…No one likes eating alone…" Zachary countered slightly surprised at the animosity she showed him.
Sighing she gestured to the seat in front of her as if it was a unspoken signal for him to sit, And not wanting another outburst he sat down without a word. After watching the High Elf for a moment he began eating, though every couple of moments he shifted his gaze of slightly to watch her, Then finally he spoke.
"What are you reading?"
"If you must know…It is a book on the Three Virtues of a Paladin."
"Oh…" Zachary said, Hoping it was something else that could lead to more conversation, but it didn't and after a moment of awkward silence he continued eating.
"So how come I haven't seen you around here before? It seems today you entered with a bang in your bout against that orc."
"My father recently just deemed it necessary for me to enter the actual training…"
"Oh, Who is your father?"
"None of your Business…"
"Oh. Ok." Zachary said sounding slightly deflated.
"I'm sorry…I'm just jumpy I suppose…I'm not used to being very social…and it doesn't help by the fact that I am somewhat of a outcast…" She responded with a sigh, Closing the book next to her and placing her full attention on him.
"Why are you a outcast?" He asked and she laughed, it was a wonderful thing to hear despite the fact that it was obviously humorless.
"Have you seen my eyes? They aren't green. That's because unlike the rest of my kind…I was not infected by the Fel magic that has corrupted much of the so-called Sin'Dorei or as you call them…Blood Elves, Or Children of the blood. I am a high elf. What my kind was before they where corrupted…And because of this rarity…I am a outcast…The Blood elves would want me to assimilate…And join there culture. While I don't want to, Which outcasts me from them…Then the other races fear me because of stunts just like today…They know that I could beat every single one of them if I wanted…that's why I tried to prolong the fight with the Orc today…To…I suppose make it seem as if I was weaker…but look how well that worked." She said taking a deep breath after the long speech.
"True…but, You aren't a outcast anymore."
"And why is that?"
"Because, A outcast is alone…But you on the other hand, Will have me."
She smiled a bit at that which made Zachary in turn smile then she laughed, this one for real and despite the previous laugh he couldn't help but find this one so much more pleasing to the ear.
"I wonder whether or not that is a curse…Or a blessing." She said right as the bell rang, Signaling a end to the mess hour, And Zachary soon realized he had touched little of his food, groaning he would soon find out how much of a long day this would be.
The day continued as normal for the young Argent Dawn trainee's First they had a obstacle course, Filled with Climbing walls, pits filled with unsavory things that where rumored to come from the horse stalls, And a large bridged filled with wooden posts that spun magically to strike you in a attempt to knock you off, Into the pit below filled with horse Dung. And then if you fell into one of the pits, Which almost always happened at such a early stage in the training, you would have to bathe in the lake, Which then took away time from what was referred to as the resting period, A time when the students could do whatever they required to get ready for the rest of the day, Which after a long practice fighting, And a obstacle course, most just napped.
Then after the rest period it was time for classes where the young paladins In training would learn the History of The Light, Beginning with the Church of Northshire, And coming to the present, And then if any of the students had irked the instructors in any way, They would be invited to fill there packs with rocks, And go on a Run, Which just so happened to go though all kind of different terrain, Which then just so happened to eat into your dinner hour. And just by luck it was a member of Zachary's class that was invited to fill there packs with rocks and set off at a run. Zach was already in fit shape from working on a farm for a good portion of his life, And the day to day training with the Argent dawn had only made him stronger, And step by step he felt himself pulling ahead, Breathing Evenly inhaling through his nose, And exhaling from his mouth he pulled ahead of his struggling class mates and managed to make it back in time for there to be around half a hour of Dinner left, Of course that still meant that much of what was left was the poorest quality.
As he got his food he looked around, Searching for the High elf he was quickly falling for, And soon found her off in the corner, Once again reading from a book, Slowly he made his way over and arrived at the table, Sitting down she peered up from the tome.
"Well well, look who decided to come for dinner." She said mockingly to him.
"Sorry, A member of my History of the Light class drew a picture of the instructor…Sadly he was a pretty good drawer…So We got to do a nice little Rock run." He said in-between scarfing down a small loaf of bread.
"I see, that doesn't sound exactly pleasant…Though nor does it sound hard." She responded raising a eyebrow at his appetite.
"Oh yes! I'm sure its fairly easy for a Elf, But us Mortal Humans have a hard time with it."
"Obviously not, If you are here now and the rest of your class isn't."
"I grew up running around…It wasn't to hard for me when you add rocks to the equation."
"I see…By the light you are hungry…What have you not eaten all day?" She asked watching as he quickly demolished the food placed before him.
"Well I didn't eat this morning, You have no idea how long a day is when you don't eat."
Slowly she hands over her loaf of bread and he frowns shaking his head.
"No. You need to eat to, Besides this is filling enough." He said modestly denying the bread despite really wanting it.
"Alright then…If you are sure" She said and silence reined soon after.
Then a commotion came from the back of the mess hall, Signaling the rest of his class had returned, Loudly they made there way to the food and quickly ate, just in time for the bell to ring signaling it was time for all to return to there rooms, And that there was a hour to lights out. Standing up he placed his bowl with the rest and turned. Only to find the High elf gone, Sighing he moved to his dorm, Which luckily he shared with no one yet, Before laying down wondering why she had vanished so quickly, And that is how he fell asleep, Wondering about the high elf he had quickly fallen for.
A/N Alright! So how do you guys like this chapter? I hope its good and I hope you guys will review to tell me what you though!