Category : Stories

Sub Category : Adventure

We both stood rigid in formation, our spears at the ready, waiting for the command to charge. It seemed like we had been standing there together, me and Walen, for hours on end. I still remember the first day I met Walen over 10 years ago. 


He was a skinny thing with wiry blond hair that fell to his shoulders. How he managed to make it into the knights school I will never know.


Of course the other recruits saw it as a weakness. I’ll admit for awhile I thought he was not gonna last a week. But a week went by of training and then two, finally we were able to do sparring matches. 


Walen got paired with Roderick, probably the toughest kid in our year, and the meanest. We were certain that Walen was gonna lose this one but we were very wrong. After a couple thrusts and parries from both boys Roderick got impatient and took a haphazard swing that threw him off balance. Walen then rolled underneath Roderick and tripped him. Before he could get up Walen had his drill sword at Roderick’s neck, thus ending the sparring match. 


Later I went to go congratulate him, I was not one who was easily impressed. When I got there though, there was eight kids surrounding him. One of them was no other than Roderick. 


“Hey!” I called hoping to distract them. It seemed to work. Only problem was now they were mad at me. 


“Gotta problem.” Roderick asked me as his buddies surrounded me. 


I mustered up all the courage I had to reply, “Yeah, I do. You can’t take some kid beatin’ you. So you decide you need seven others to beat ‘im.”

That got an angry growl from Roderick and a punch aimed at my face. I managed to duck but the rest chose that moment to join in. I got some good punches in but they got more. Before one minute was up I had a broken nose, a black eye, several missing teeth, and even more loose. 


Just when I thought I couldn’t fight much more, one of the boys went toppling backwards and another body was added to the fight, only this one was on my side. By the time an instructor was heard coming and the boys bolted, me and Walen both looked in rough shape. 


When Sir Talmen came we were both leaned up against the wall trying to catch our breath. He looked at us with an expression of utter surprise and said, “What on Earth happened? Actually, never mind. You can tell me after you both have seen the healer.” 


An hour later we were both sitting on beds across from each other. We were both silent. The healer, Madam Kiley, left moments ago to get more supplies. I finally decided to ask the question that was on my mind. 


“So why’d you go and jump in there?”. 


He looked at me and grinned, I noticed he was also missing a couple of teeth, and said, 


“Couldn’t just leave ya to get killed, not after you jumped in to help me any how.” 


It was my turn to grin at him, “Anytime.” I held out my hand and he shook it, both of us laughing at the sight of the other.


From there we spent years training together, Roderick ended up expelled along with most of the others. Our friendship grew with every passing year, till most who saw us would think us brothers. Then the war came and we were called on to fight. That was four years ago, now this could be the ending of the war, and it wasn’t looking good.


“Wish they’d call it already.” Walen whispered to me.


“Edgy are we?” I whispered back, flashing a grin.


“Best get this over with.” He said, his tone becoming quite solemn. 


“Don’t you go and start given up on me, got it?” I said. 


“They have ten thousand, we’re lucky if we got three.” He replied sharply. 


“Since when did that stop us? You remember ten years ago when we took on eight kids twice our size? We didn’t give up then did we?”


He thought for a second. “Guess not.” 


“We said we was in this together, so whaddaya say, one last stand?” I asked, at that moment the horn blew signaling the charge. 


He grinned at me, “One last stand.”, and with that we ran into the fight side by side just like we had since that day ten years ago. 


Me and my brother.