Lunch that day, and all of the other days as Liam quickly found out, was a simple meal. It was bread, mostly, with a little cheese and apples fresh from the trees. He eagerly piled his plate, as he discovered that all of the bread was newly baked and still warm from the ovens.

After they'd eaten, the Wolf took them to a small room in the main building. There was a single large table in the centre of the room, filling most of it. On one side was a chair, on the other three were long benches.
"Now we will start to educate you," the Wolf said. "We'll start today with reading and writing, which you must learn before anything else. How many of you can already read and write?"

Liam put up his hand, as did most of the others over the age of six. Maren at any rate had compulsory basic education, so that was probably where they'd learned. The Wolf gave each of them a sentence to read from a book, then asked them to write down their name on a slate. The four boys did so, and the Wolf checked them over carefully. Then he said,
"Yes, very good. Liam, Gary and Tomas go through to the next room on your left, and you can start on etiquette today. Josef, to the next room on your right and you'll be doing some more work on your handwriting. The rest of us will be starting reading. Don't worry, you'll soon have learnt, and then you can move onto the other lessons."

Liam led the other two out, found the door and knocked politely. There was no answer, so he pushed it open. Five boys aged between about Liam's age and ten looked over at them from the table. One of the Shang warriors had taken their seat on the fourth side. She was looking at them inquiringly.
"Uh, the Shang Wolf sent us." Liam began uncertainly, he'd thought she'd have been expecting them, since she must have known they were there.
"You passed his test, then?" she asked. They nodded. "Don't' think you won't have to work again, because reading and writing is only the start of your education. Now, take seats with the others please. Today you'll all start etiquette. This means that if you ever end up at a court, you won't feel totally lost. Of course, all of the different lands have slightly different traditions that they follow, and you have to learn them all. We'll start today with Tortall. Tortall is ruled by a king, King Jonathan."

After half an hour of solid work, they were sent next door to the Wolf again. He greeted them with a smile, and told them that now they'd be doing some more advanced work on reading and writing. They had to read a chapter from an old, boring book and summarise it. Liam had been very well taught academically and managed it without difficulty. He grinned cheerfully at the others in the class as he left. They had been told to report again to the training yard, and Liam was all to happy to do so. He was a warrior, not a scholar.

The Rat still wasn't there, so his group was split up, Liam joining one of the other two groups, and Martin and Gary going to the second. Liam was with the Wolf again, who seemed to be one of the main primary instructors.
"We'll start by warming up of course," he said cheerfully. "Do a lap of the yard please."

Liam sighed and jogged off. When they returned, the Wolf led them through a series of stretches. Then, at last, he deemed them ready to begin.
"What I'm going to teach you now, is called the First Drill, and its one of the most basic and effective things you'll learn. We'll go through it slowly first, then bring it up to speed. If I think you've learned it well enough by the end of the session, you can try using it against me, so you can see how it will work in combat."

He first demonstrated it at full speed, then positioned them in a line behind him, so that they could see easily what he was doing. The first drill was a series of punches and kicks designed to drive back an opponent. This meant that they were also learning step by step how to punch and kick the correct way. By the end, the short sequence was properly engraved in Liam's memory, and he was using it comfortably enough on a set of pells that had been set up for them to work on. Before dismissing them, the Wolf said,
"What you need to do now is build up some callus, that's hard skin, on your knuckles so it doesn't hurt to punch hard. What I want you to do, is to practice punching five minutes every night on your barracks wall. It will hurt at first, but you're all warriors, you can take it, and the harder you work at it, the sooner it will be painless to do. Don't even think about slacking, because I'll know."
"Yes sir."
"Now go to your meal." With a flash of inspiration, Liam brought his right fist to his chest, trying to copy the smart salute he had seen Marek do earlier. The others raggedly attempted to copy him. The Wolf smiled, and nodded approvingly. They were learning very well.

After the meal, they had another session in the training yard. The Rat was back now, and was waiting for them where he had waited before, acting as though nothing had happened and nothing was out of the ordinary at all.
"What did you learn this afternoon, Liam?" he asked, picking him out as the oldest in the group.
"The First Drill."
"Excellent, do you think that you can show me?"
"I think so," he said. Although he was sure that he could, he wasn't sure about the other pair.

Liam and Martin ran through the sequence without fault, although the younger boy went at a much slower pace. Gary tried, and obviously had the right idea, but he pivoted the wrong way, became muddled up and stopped.
"A good attempt Gary," the Rat said encouragingly. "I know you're not picking things up quite as fast, but that doesn't mean you won't. Do your best, and you're sure to catch up. Different people learn differently, and Liam I know has already had some very basic training at his home."
"Yes sir," Gary said disconsolately.
"Martin, you need a lot more speed, and much more force in that, but you're doing very well. Liam, you need more force too, but I know that that's easier when you actually have something to hit. Anyway, in this session, we're going to do archery. This is the only sharp weapon you'll see for a long time, so I'd advise that you make the most of it. Come on boys, we'll go out to the archery range, which is around behind the stables."

Liam grinned happily. He thought that he knew quite a bit about archery because he'd been hunting many times with his parents, and his mother had even been persuaded to show him the basics. However, although he was allowed to string the bow now, while the others weren't, he had to work on how he stood for the whole hour. It was even harder work than the exercises, and he hadn't even been moving!

After that lesson, they returned inside for more lessons. Today, they began to learn Yamani, and Liam had his first geography lesson. Here they learned not only about the physical characteristics of the land, but also the history, traditions and social structure. It was a convenient way of combining subjects. At last, they were sent to wash in the cold pump water, then go to bed, exhausted and aching but learning what they'd come to learn.