Chapter 3: Pride and Foreshadowing

Later, my father went to bed early, and I took Dover to the gym where knights could practice and hone their already impressive skills. The other knights had taken notice of him, and began to naturally ask about him. For all his determination and spirit, Dover was a bit shy. I had to do the introductions for him, and most of the knights were friendly towards him.

It wasn't uncommon for the academy classes to be brought up to the base, so many were used to showing off or talking with the younger cadets. We enjoyed it as much as they did, because we got to show off, and they got to watch their heroes in action. So, when Dover came up, the other Knights were just as happy for him to be there as he was.

Dover and I watched a swords practice, with no armor or jets. Two knights met in the center, clanging their wooden practice swords together three times before they went at it. Dover watched intently, remembering the small things I had taught him the week before. I commented to him, "See that? The knight in the blue shirt reacted too slow and is on the defensive now. As I said before, it's all about speed, not strength."

"Mind proving your words, Sparkster?" The voice of Axle Gear rang out over the crowd. He stood there, like most of us, in simple shirts and shorts, a smile on his face. I walked up to him, we embraced and shook paws.

"Enjoy the lake?"

"You missed a great time, Sparkster. One of my better weeks."

"I'll take your word for it. You talk to Petrov?"

"Yeah. Not a big deal. It'll be nice for me to relax and be a teacher for a few weeks. So, what do you say, want to have a practice spar?"

I laughed. Everyone knew that without my jetpack, I'd be at a disadvantage. "You know I'll lose."

"Maybe."

"All right. If you really want to show off, fine. You know Dover's watching, right?"

"Yep. Make my victory all the more sweeter."

"Fair enough."

We waited for another minute, while the two guys in front of us finished. When they did, Axle and I grabbed practice swords and headed out into the center, banging them together three times.

We smiled at each other, confident. Sure, I knew I'd probably lose, but as good as friends as Axle and I were, we loved to be pitted against each other for fun. Of course, had this been with full armor and jet packs, I would have had an equal chance to win as he would.

After banging out swords together, neither of us charged the other. We circled the center of the ring, waiting for the other to take the initiative. Both of us had a confident sneer on our faces. The other Knights and Dover began to cheer one side or the other. I was watching Axle, waiting for him to misstep, but he matched my footwork exactly.

Finally, his patience broke, and he moved towards me, baring his sword. I spun mine in my right paw, holding it backwards, and put my left hand forward in a ready pose. Meeting his strike was my parry. We continued exchanging blows, the pace of the fight becoming faster. Just exchanging direct attacks for a solid minute, we never lost our concentration on the other.

But, I could feel his speed. I had the better endurance, but his blows were coming in way too fast for me to last much longer. Other rocket knights had to move out of our way as I tried to pin Axle against the wall. Using a feat of agility I had never seen before Axle jumped backwards, hit the back wall and rebounded off of it. Knocking me down with a kick to my shoulder as he moved towards an overhead horizontal pole, I hit the ground as I saw him turn over and grab the pole with his opossum tail. Before I could flip back onto my feet, he had already come back to the ground and his sword point lay a few inches above my nose.

My sword had gone sprawling with his kick, so I held my paws up in defeat. He smiled, and lowered his sword. I smiled and took his outstretched paw to help me up. "You lose again, Sparky." He said.

I shrugged, and said; "I guess this makes us even on the beer debt then."

"You had better believe it."

"Oh well. There always next time."

Dover was getting sleepy, so I put helped him to get to bed and I collapsed on my own bunk in the dorms shortly their after.

I heard the trumpeter blare out the morning call the next morning, and groaned. Opening my eyes, I saw that the others around me were doing much the same around me. We staggered out of bed, and I went to fetch my gear and make sure Dover and my father were awake. They were, and my father was waking my little brother when I walked in.

"Showers are down the hall, to the left, if you want to hit them Dad. Just follow the half-dead knights."

"Wait a sec. I'll have Dover join you."

I was clad in my robe and towel, and Dover followed behind me. My father, always the early riser, had been showered and dressed for a while. Dover was a little taken aback when we entered the locker room. Metal lockers were set up in the usual fashion, with interlocking rows and benches, with a central pathway leading into the shower. On the other side of the shower room was the armor and jet pack cases, also set up like the lockers. One-way glass windows lined the top of the walls near the ceilings, letting us see out and no one see in. (Though some more adventurous girls from the castle town have tried now and then…)

No one would be changed into their armor, at least not yet. We changed only for drills and actual calls, so most were either just putting on shorts and shirts, or the armor's under suit.

What shocked Dover more than anything was the lack of modesty in the locker room. Sure, prepubescent nudity was commonplace on the farm, but Dover felt a little shy about stepping into the shower, surrounded by adults. I was indifferent about it; I had been exposed to it since my academy days.

I changed into some pants and a sleeveless shirt afterwards; Dover was clad in his farm overalls. The academy would give him some clothes in the way of a uniform, but I resolved to buy him some city attire later today. Dover ran to get my sword, which I had put back in my armor's glass case last night.

Putting the sword's strap diagonally like before, Dover and I walked to breakfast where other nights were gathering. Breakfast was unusually good this morning, someone had given the academy a load of apples, and so the other knights and I were surprised to see the large fruits at our tables and bits of apple cooked in with the oatmeal. Typically all we got for breakfast was plain oatmeal, or maybe some wheat bread with cheese. Sundays had scrambled eggs and hotcakes, so that was the day we enjoyed the most.

My brother was a little tearful as my dad drove away in the cart, but I put my hand on his shoulder, and he looked up at me as I said, "Come on. Let's go have some fun."

My brother had been impressed with the city as we drove in, but was speechless as I took him around the main square. The first thing I did was go to my favorite tailor. Walking in, I greeted him, and explained what I needed him to do.

I could still remember the heck Axle and I went through for being "country boys" in our first year, the city kids laughed at our homemade working clothes, making us feel inferior. Fortunately, the academy appoints their seventh year class to act as guides to the first year students, and my "advisor" went out and bought me some city garb to dress in, as did Axle's guide.

The tailor went straight to work, measuring Dover's arms, legs and such, and all the while talking to me. He would make three sets of clothes, and have them ready in a few days. I laid out on the counter a few of the coins that I had gotten from Princess Sherry for helping her shop in addition to the bolt of cloth she had made.

Next, I took Dover around the city, showing him a few sights and an art museum. The museum curator almost didn't let us in, because of Dover's appearance but conceded when he saw the seal of the Rocket Knights etched onto my sword.

Lunch came somewhere in there, and then the biggest shock for Dover came when I bought some ice cream from a local candy shop. He had never had this treat before; our village never produced it. Because he had never eaten it before, most of the cone ended up on his face, and not inside mouth. I looked down at him; he smiled back.

I joked with him, "Not a word to any of our sisters, alright?"

He nodded and took another bite into the waffle cone.

We spent the rest of the day until dinner together, and then we headed back to the base for dinner. He tried to stay awake afterwards, but the day in the city had exhausted him and the full belly knocked him out.

The next morning's routine went roughly the same; only I packed the majority of my things into a huge backpack and took my full armor. I met Axle as he was leaving for the academy, and we shook paws again. Much to my surprise back then, he didn't resent being re-assigned away from active duty. Now, some odd years later, I know that he was fostering a deep anger.

Dover and I left the base and we headed down the main street and towards the castle gate. The castle had it's own set of basic army guards, but used Rocket Knights for personal guard of the Royal family, mostly when they ventured outside of the castle. In addition, the castle had it's own set of walls, just in case the worst should happen.

We were admitted almost immediately, and I went straight to General Winter's office to report in. He was a kind old opossum, but gruff when he needed to be; so he was quite fine in letting Dover stay in the castle. I headed to the Rocket Knight dorm. In all, usually up to ten knights were stationed on the guards at one time. I walked in, and saw that the room was mostly empty. Finding the nearest empty bed, I put my gear down on top of it, and Dover was put into a guest room nearby.

Following General Winter's instructions, I changed out of the heavy armor, and put on a clean pair of pants and the usual sleeveless shirt. Dover accompanied me as I headed out to the courtyard, to find Princess Sherry in one of her usual spots by the pond. She and I had become friends over the last few years, and had met in an unusual situation.

My first internship with elder knights had been with the castle guard. It happened during my final year at the academy, and my first day was spent with Princess Sherry. She was and still was into the hands on arts, and pursued drawing, sculpting, and sometimes tailoring as hobbies. Unfortunately for me, she had been looking for an appropriate model for a drawing, and somehow I fit the bill exactly – so the knight I was assigned to "volunteered" me.

Sherry was never a fast worker, so I had to stand in full armor on an extremely hot day, leaning against my sword for a few hours. Towards the end, I heard her remark to her teacher, "Well shoot. That ruins everything. I guess I need to start over." I think about then, I felt to my knees under the armor and heat.

She rushed up to me, and told me that had been a joke. She had been done with the drawing. I panted, with my tongue hanging loose, "That's great. Can I take off my armor and get a drink now?"

She gave me an odd look, and said jokingly, "You know, I've always wanted to do a nude drawing." She laughed, and then treated me to some well-deserved dinner.

Now, she had a sketch pad and pencils in front of her, as she drew the weeping willow that hung over the courtyard's pond. She heard me walking up, and ran up towards me. I preformed the usual bow, and kissing of her hand, and I heard her say, "And who pray tell is this handsome opossum next to you?"

I think my brother had never been a deeper shade of red, as she let him try and kiss her hand. I said out loud, "Milady, this is my brother Dover. He'll be joining the academy next week."

"This is the famous Dover I've heard so much about?"

My brother nodded quickly, turning his head away. I could see it in his eyes, he was developing a crush. I couldn't blame him. Sherry was quite beautiful, and only a year younger than me. She hadn't found a decent guy to settle down with just yet, but her current boyfriend, one of the new Rocket Knights, was promising. Sherry and I had a deep friendship, but it was no more than that. We cared for each other, but only as friends.

Sherry already knew about the reassignment, so she it was no surprise to her to see us walk into the courtyard like that. Since my job was to be her personal guard for most of the day, it was pretty easy. We spent all morning in the castle courtyard, while she made sketches on her paper. I merely sat on the same rock, and Dover sat at the water's edge. Sherry talked to me as she drew, and listen to me when I had something to say.

The next few days were like that, I was just around Princess Sherry most of the time, just spending the days with her. At the end of the week, I moved Dover to the academy. He was a bit more tearful this time with me, even though he knew I'd be keeping tabs on him with his instructors and visiting him myself.

After a few weeks, Dover was just fine. Blending into academy life like a sponge to water, he withstood the discipline and roughness and was quite the swordsman already. His instructors were impressed with what he could already do, even if he was the brother of a Rocket Knight.

Princess Sherry asked that I be assigned to the King's guard division for a while longer. She enjoyed having me around – General Winter knew it was better to have a bodyguard she was friends with and could talk to than one that was serious all the time. I enjoyed it as much as she did. The days were easy, and fun even though I did miss being on-call with Axle.

Axle stayed at the academy for a while and then he was given a new partner and assigned to cover a region close to the Zeblous/ Devotindos border. I did miss having him around, but he and I did get together to have some fun most weekends.