Disclaimer: all of my ideas are my own, nothing else.
A/N: please please please review! Thank you so much to my 3 reviewers; I appreciate it very much!
Chapter 3: New friends, New Life
By the time the bell tolled the sixth hour, all of Cliona's belongings were unpacked and her palms were sweating once more from the nerves. What if they thought her strange? What if they figured out that she wasn't, in fact, a boy? All of agonizing questions roaming in her head made her stomach slightly queasy. She mentally battle with herself, and once she had her racing heart slightly in control, she stepped out into the hall. It was now starting to fill with young boys who looked as nervous (or even more so, if that was indeed possible) as she felt.
The clump, clump of heavy footsteps signaled the coming of the Duke into the hallway. Inadvertently, Cliona felt her back straightening and her head coming up as he passed by her; she felt as though she should show him what she was worth, what girls were worth. Of course, he would never know the truth until she had earned her shield (hopefully, anyway), else wise the opportunity to show him the stuff she was made of and the truth about women and girls that men just didn't want to hear or believe wouldn't ever arise. All the same, she wanted to make a good impression on her first day despite her fears and anxieties.
"Now," his commanding voice rang out loud and clear above the clatter of the palace's bustling activity, "You have come here to study to become a knight. A night of our nation is more than just a man with armor yielding weapons on a horse; a knight is a protector of our very thoughts and territories, our freedom and the people that make our nation up. It takes more that brute strength to become a knight; it takes knowledge, wisdom, and skill. We will see how many of you are up to such a life style. This will be difficult, much more so than most of you imagine. The life of a knight is not easy. With all of this in mind, follow me to the dining hall. Later you will get the chance to learn your schedules and how things work around here. But lets waste no more time. Come, follow me."
When he was done speaking, Cliona released a breath she didn't realize she had been holding: what an inspiring speech! She would do it, she just had to. With that, she filed down the hallway after the myriad of other pages.
0000000000000000000000000000000000
The dining hall itself was rather an unremarkable setting, just your standard mess hall complete with tables and benches and a dais at the front. There was the page half and the squire half. The boys practically tumbled into the line to receive their meals. Cliona barely manage to suppress a giggle at their antics; how very much like her little brother's they were! Boys and food indeed. Once her food had been acquired (a portion noticeably smaller than most other's), she wandered over to a table with four other first years already sitting down.
"Excuse me, but is this seat taken?" Cliona inquired politely.
"'Course not! Sit right down. You're new too, aren't you?"
"Yes. And who are all of you?" By the looks of it, at least three of the four knew each other already.
"I'm Dominic, and this is Thomas, Edward, and Frederick, but we all just call him Fred. And you are…?"
"Edmund of Hollybranch."
"Not a well known fief is it?"
"Nah, too far north. Its quite cold up there."
Their conversation drifted on during the rest of the meal. They all seemed to be a personable lot; Dominic tall and freckled, Thomas small and bookish, Edward with flaming red hair and an insuppressible spirit, and Fred with sly, witty comments to keep them all entertained. It seemed as though you couldn't find four more different people, yet they all seemed to be quite friendly together and the five of them soon formed a little group. All too soon for Cliona, the meal ended when the Duke of Winston's Peak stood up.
"Right now, your schedules are being passed out. This is slightly different than before, as we have seen the need to change our program of training. On them are the details of your life for the next years until you become a squire. They will address what you are to do for the next few weeks before your departure from the palace."
At this statement, gasps were audible around the room: leave the palace?
The Duke raised a hand signaling for silence, which immediately fell, for he had a distinctly imposing air about him, garnering respect and fright alike from the assembled pages.
"Yes leave." He said that as though irritated with something. "You will be spending your time as pages living with a Lord and his family. We know that this is essentially what you do during your squire years, but it will be different. The main purpose for this is book learning, how to properly run a fief…"
At this Edward groaned. Loudly. But was silenced with one piercing glare from His Grace himself.
"And maybe some fighting if you're lucky."
At that Thomas groaned, though not as unabashedly and loudly as Edward had.
"You will be a personal assistant to your Lord, but first we need to test your abilities to fit you with the proper person. You will stay here for one month, leave fore three, come back for one, leave for three, and so on. The rest will be explained on your schedules. You are now dismissed, but expected to be here promptly at the dawn bell tomorrow." He said that last bit with a warning in is voice, as if to imply, Or else.
The scraping back of benches could be heard as the pages filed out to turn in their trays and go back to their rooms. Cliona was about to walk into her room to collapse on her bed when a voice from a nearby room stopped her.
"Hey, Ed, want to join us?" Fred asked, indicating Thomas, Edward, and Dominic amassed behind him in his room.
"Sure," Cliona replied, stifling a sigh and a yawn that threatened to be emitted from her due to her tiredness. But she did want to talk with her new friends, and that was the thought that drew her into his room.
"So, what do you think about the new developments in our training schedule?" Thomas asked from the corner where he was perched on a stool.
"Awful." That was Edward, of course. "We'll hardly get to have any combat training until we're squires! Why did they change it? The old system seemed to work just fin; some of our greatest knights were trained in it. Besides, what kind of an army will we be if all we know is how to keep track of expenses? That's what clerks are for!"
"I suppose they just wanted smarter knights, not mindless killing machines who don't know how to run a fief. That could amount to something dreadful; imagine the poor people who lived within his command if he couldn't care less about them or doesn't know how to?" Cliona mused thoughtfully. "Not that most knights are, but all the same they exist. Take Sir Jake for example; anyone heard of him before?"
They all shivered: the stories of Sir Jake were all legendary and positively dreadful, particularly the one about how he had killed twenty people simply because he wasn't smart enough to realize they were trying to help him, therefore resulting in the death of hundreds of others. It was one of the worst defeats in the history of the country of Luanda.
"Has anybody checked their schedule yet?" Dominic inquired, breaking each of them out of their pensive states. "It looks like we'll have at least some fighting training before we're stuck with boredom for months on end. That part of it's jolly anyway."
They talked on for a little while longer before Cliona realized it was bedtime and past; the sky had turned to an inky black while they had been chatting.
"Well, I don't know about you four but I'm off to bed; the dawn bell will come all too soon if we don't hurry up and go to sleep anytime soon." With that they bid goodnight and went their own separate ways.
Though the day's events had worn her out, Cliona didn't fall asleep for a while. She found it hard to, given all of the thoughts swirling around her head. But at last she did, and when it happened, it was with a happy smile on her face.