Richard, Landon, Mark, and Jake had had a hard time sleeping that night. They were much too excited to begin their training early the next morning. Each of them determined to prove that they had what it took to become the best knights Camelot had ever seen.
By the time dawn had finally arrived the four boys had only managed to get a minimum of five hours sleep leaving them a little tired from the lack of sleep but none of them dared not show it for the risk of angering and insulting their mentors.
Dressing in their new uniforms as quickly as possible they rushed out onto the Camelot battle training grounds trying hard not to be late for their very first day of their squire training.
As they raced onto the large grassy field they noticed some of the other older squires already there standing in a perfectly organized straight line awaiting for their mentors to arrive.
"Look who decided to finally show up." One of the older squires smirked to the other squires as he noticed Richard and the others jogging up to them.
"Hello boys, eager to make a fool of yourselves today?" Another one spoke jeering at them.
"You wish. We are going to be the best knights Camelot has ever had." Jake commented back glaring at the squire.
"Ha! Now who is wishing?" the second squire jeered back at them.
"You four had better step aside and watch how real squires train." A third squire spoke up glaring at them.
"Oh yeah? Well why don't you-" Landon started to retort but was quickly cut off by his mentor, Sir Leon.
"That's enough. As squires you must all learn to work together, listen to each other, and get along as you will need to trust each one here with your life someday in the field of battle." Sir Leon scolded them all.
"Yes, Sir Leon." the squires replied in usion and seemed to hang their heads slightly in shame.
Richard couldn't help but notice one of the knights, by the name of Sir Ulric, smiling proudly at the older squires behavior towards him and his friends. He fought hard to resist the urge to glare back at the knight. He never did like Sir Ulric. He and his squire, Branton, had always treated him poorly since the day he arrived in Camelot but he was determined to work hard, prove them wrong about him, and finally earn the respect he so rightly deserved.
"For today's assignment all of you are going to be working on your lancing skills." Sir Ulric announced to all the squires as he paced back and forth in front of them like a general assessing his soliders.
"Branton!" He continued this time yelling like a general commanding an army in battle.
Lancelot, Leon, Percival, and Gwaine all frowned at Ulric. Neither of them liked the lack of respect he showed his squire or any of the other squires for that matter but he had senority over them in the ranking of the knights so they couldn't do much about it for now.
"Yes, Sir Ulric." Branton replied standing up straight with his head held high keeping eye contact with his mentor and never flinching when he spoke to him.
"Since you are the only one here with a minimal amount of skill with a lance you are going to show these mere...pages" Sir Ulric ordered stopping briefly to address Richard and the others before continuing "how it is done."
Branton nodded as he made his way over to the wooden horse they used to practice their lancing technique.
Lancelot, Leon, Percival, and Gwaine all exchanged a silent glance with one another before Lancelot decided enough was enough. He was going to have a few stern words with Ulric concerning his lack of respect and chivalric attitude.
"Ulric, I want to have a word with you." Lancelot spoke sternly as he strode over to him.
"That's Sir Ulric to you." Ulric corrected him coldly as he glared at Lancelot with a look of disgust believing himself to be much better than Lancelot.
Lancelot ignored the look forcing himself to remember that he must not to strike another knight unless there was good cause to do so and unfortunately for him being insulted wasn't one of those good causes.
"Sir Ulric, a word now." Lancelot force corrected himself as he walked a couple feet away from the rest of the knights and squires so not to be within hearing distance of them.
Ulric didn't look pleased but proceeded to follow Lancelot anyway.
"Sir Ulric, as a knight of the round table you know that all of the knights are treated equally and fairly, no one is better than someone else." Lancelot began to lecture him.
"In my day there was no porposterious round table. The head knight was the one in charge and by technicial standards that would be me." Sir Ulric argued with his head held high.
"That was in the day where you served Uther. Arthur is king now and has decreed all knights to be treated equally." Lancelot corrected him as he began to feel his anger rise up inside of him. Sir Ulric had always managed to get on his bad side and this time was certainly no different.
"Big words coming from someone who lied to get his knighting ceremony and isn't of noble birth which gives him no right to become a knight in the first place." Sir Ulric sneered back at him.
Lancelot tightly clenched his fists as he fought against the strong urge to punch Ulric straight in the jaw and finally put him in his place.
"That's enough! Ulric, you serve King Arthur now and will abide by his rules or forefit your title as knight. You will also treat all of the knights, including Lancelot, with the proper respect they deserve and will treat all of the squires with respect as they will someday be knights as well." Leon spoke up taking command of the situation before it got ugly.
"As you wish Sir Leon." Ulric replied glaring back at Lancelot one last time before leading the way back over to the squires who watched silently watched the entire scene as they tried to figure out just exactly what was going on.
As Lancelot joined the others Gwaine leaned over and whispered to him "Ignore Ulric he is just trying to start trouble as usual. Arthur knighted all of us so we have as much right to be here as he does."
Lancelot nodded before turning to the squires. "Richard, Landon, go over and join Branton on each side of the wooden horse and turn the wheel to make it move. While you're up there watch closely at how Branton holds and tips his lance to strike at the wooden dummy." He told them calmly wanting so bad to look back over at Ulric and say 'See? This is how you talk to your squire.' but didn't.
"Yes, sir." Richard and Landon replied in usion rushing over to where Branton had went to do as they were instructed.
"What about us?" Jake asked.
"The rest of you will watch for now and play close attention because it will be your turn soon." Percival told them using the same calm tone Lancelot had used when addressing them.
Jake seemed a little dissapointed as he frowned but nodded anyway not daring to argue the point further with his mentor.
"Hand me my lance." Branton commanded Richard.
Richard glared at him fighting the urge to tell him to get it himself but did as he was told as he remembered what Leon had told them earlier.
Branton snatched it from him without even bothering to thank him as Landon and Richard began to turn the large wheels on each side of the wooden horse causing it to move forward towards the dummy.
As they kept turning the wheels they watched how Branton easily balanced the wooden lance under the crook of his left arm waiting until just the right moment to move it forward strike the dummy in the shoulder of it's left arm.
After being struck the dummy then began to rapidly spin which Branton seemed to easily avoid being struck by the rapidly spinning wooden arms. It was only after he momentarily looked away to give Landon and Richard a cocky grin that he was hit by one of the sandbags hanging from one of the wooden dummy's arms knocking him straight in the jaw and sending him flying off the wooden horse.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Get up this instant!" Ulric yelled.
Branton forced himself to his feet as Ulric ran over to him and began to loudly scold him.
For a moment Richard almost felt bad for Branton, almost.
The other knights watched disapprovingly before continuing with the lance training for the other squires.
Richard, Landon, Mark, and Jake had been knocked off the wooden horse so many times that they lost track of all the bruises they had gotten from it. As they walked back towards the entrance of the castle they proceeded to hang their heads in shame feeling like complete failures during the thier training session for the day.
Their mentors had told them not to take it so hard as it was only their first day and it would take awhile before they got it right but still they didn't feel much better. All they could feel was that they had embarrassed their mentors and let them down and nothing their mentors told them could change their minds of that.