Chapter Seventeen

I found myself standing in a fair sized room, similar to the ones we used for sparring practice back at St. Vladimirs, a few hours after I woke up and had something to eat. The Guardian who'd come to guide me around for the day, since I was new, told me to just head in and stand with the others in the line and wait for the instructor.

There were six of us, counting me, standing on a line that ran across roughly the centre of the room, along with a single guardian posted at the door. Aside from me, there were four guys and one other girl. She was standing on my left, and looked to be around the same age as me. She stood at something like 5'5 or so and had long, straight blonde hair that reminded me of Lissa's and brown eyes. Before I could pay any real attention to the guys that were standing in the line, a woman walked into the room.

She stopped to talk to the guard, and based on their facial expressions, I'd say they knew each other, or one of them was simply really good at making conversation. She looked to be in her late 30s to early 40s, and she stood at around 5'4. Her physical appearance made her stand out, to my anyways, from everybody else I'd seen since I'd arrived. Her skin, compared to mine, the guardians, or the others in the room, didn't have much of a colour or a tan to it, making it look like she didn't see much time outside during the day. Her hair, probably dyed, was as white as snow, and seemed to have a dull shine or shimmer to it.

But the most standout feature was her eyes.

They say the blue eyes of the Ozera family are impressive, but these were just something else entirely. The shade, the tint, the shine, they all drew you into staring at them.

By the time I realized she had finished her conversation, she had walked towards us and clapped her hands twice to get our attention. It appeared I wasn't the only person who'd been drawn to looking at her eyes.

"If I could have your attention for just a few moments, we can make sure everybody who's supposed to be here is, and then we can actually start." Her voice was fairly loud, her English was clear, clearer than the guy I'd talked to last night, but it had a weird accent to it. There was a hint of what sounded sort of like Russian to me, but it was overpowered by something else.

She ran her eyes over the six of us and started rhyming names off from her head.

"Logan?"

"Here." The guy at the far end of the line answered.

"Bjorn?"

"Right here." The guy second down from him.

"Alex?" The guy between the last two.

"Here, ma'am."

"Michael?"

"Yes." The other guy she hadn't called yet.

"Teresa?"

"Over here." The girl next to me.

"Alexandra?"

No response from anyone.

"Hmm, must be the one who dropped out. Rose?"

"Right here." I answered.

"Good, only one drop-out, and everybody else showed up." She started to walk slowly towards the end of the room, never really taking her eyes off of us. "My name is Michelle Covelix. I'm a Guardian Knight Major of the 2nd Royal's Division, and the head of combat instruction here at Charigos Academy. It's my job to ensure all of you meet the standards and capabilities expected of you by the division head, as well as the more senior Guardians here. Be forewarned, you will be tested by some of them. It may start as early as tomorrow, or as late as four months from now. They change it up every year."

One of the guys, Logan, I think, raised his hand.

"Ah, first question. What is it?"

He cleared his throat, "When you say we will be tested, what exactly does that mean?"

She grinned, "Glad you asked. See, our jobs entail some higher risks than those of the average Guardian, so we need to be better than them. We need to be faster, we need to be stronger, we need to be smarter. So, to that end, it's become tradition among the staff and instructors of this academy to test students. This could be as something as simple as one of them randomly challenging you to a spar in the middle of the courtyard, or a hallway, or as complex as being asked to plot out the best strategy for a major battle. Regardless of the test, you must do your best. Early on, they'll be fairly lenient, but later on, not so much so. Also, they choose their challenges based on how you're doing in your classes and how you compare to the other students, so pay attention. That answer your question?"

He sort of stared for a second, his mouth open, "Uh, yeah. I guess."

"Alright then. So, you will spend the next 30 days in this class with me. I will guide you through the basics of what to expect from your other combat classes, so learning what I teach you will prove very useful in the near future. After our classes have concluded, you will have to make a choice. Every member of the 2nd specializes in a specific form of combat, whether it be long range ballistics, close quarters hand to hand, trapping, etc. You will have to choose which of these you want to learn. You will then have two combat classes daily, your basics of advanced combat, which will be a continuation of this course, and your specialization class, likely unique to you. Any other questions?"

Nobody spoke.

"Good. Then let's begin."

A/N: I know the periods of time between me posting things are long, and this is disappointing given those periods, but my chapters aren't really long in any of my stories, I'm just not that good at writing anything of serious length. I have another chapter and 3/4 of another written on paper, so if I get any ambition, I'll type those out and try to extend them a bit. Even if I get them done up, I'm only going to upload one a week, so if I'm lucky, I'll have another one for next Wednesday or Thursday. If nothing gets posted, something came up with school probably.

TL;DR: I know this is disappointing given the wait, things keep coming up. Maybe more next week.