The First World Sphere

Chapter 10: Gareth, The Protege

Chapter 10: Gareth, The Protege

Chapter 10 Gareth, The Protégé

We walked toward Callem, and before I could speak, Gareth spoke firmly and clearly, “Captain Callem, we are early and don’t want our instruction time to begin just yet. Storme and I will complete the daily stretches before we start. Is that ok?” Whoa. I stared at Gareth, who had his face relaxed and had his eyes locked with Callem. What the hell, Gareth! An hour of stretching...three hours of combat training...three hours of farm work. Adding an hour to our commitment? I felt betrayed as we had not discussed this, or had we? I did the same to Gareth sometimes, explaining my reasoning after the fact.

“That will be fine,” his deep voice intoned. He then proceeded to return to pulling weeds among his tobacco plants. Gareth was already walking to the packed earth training ground by the shed. I noticed six different training dummies set up in the yard that had not been there the last time.

“Gareth,” I intoned with irritation in my voice, “Why didn’t you tell me about this?” He looked at me without his normal grin and sighed.

“Storme, do you know who Captain Callem actually is?” What? No, you didn’t tell me anything, and why wait till now to reveal this? We were best friends, damn it! “Captain Callem is Commander Callem Dregalla. He was the First Sword of the Skyholme, recognized as the best swordsman in all of Skyholme for 17 straight years. The streak only stopped because he stopped competing in the Annuals. When he was promoted to oversee the training of all naval personnel and raised to Commander, he just stopped competing for the title.”

Gareth looked reverent in his eyes, “Freya and I went to the library in the city yesterday after Sweets and Treats and lunch,” he smirked and got his grin back, “She didn’t tell you about the lunch or the library trip?” First betrayed by Gareth and now my sister. “Well, I researched and read the news posts from when Callem was in his prime. He was unbeatable in combat duels and earned many accolades in combat. He single-handedly boarded a Sadain warship and killed everyone on board while in the midst of an aerial engagement.”

Captain Callem called in his booming voice from twenty paces away as if he was listening right next to us. “I hate that tale, boy. There were six of us that boarded that ship. Four of us lived, and all the credit was given to me because I killed 27 men and women myself. Get to your stretching, boys, and stop bringing up fables.” I was a little startled by his interruption. I started the progression of stretches with Gareth.

“Now I will attack each of you, and you will defend.” Wait, what? Before I could respond, Callem had another training blade in hand, swinging simple strikes at each of us. First Gareth, then me. My aching arms could barely hold the training sword, but I blocked the first six deliberately telegraphed strikes before the seventh bashed my own sword into my forehead, knocking me out. When I woke, I just heard the clang of steel. Gareth and Callem were still at it, but Callem’s strikes had increased in speed.

In a clearing after a short trip through the woods, the site I beheld had me thinking about changing my mind. Gareth was puzzling out what he was seeing, but I knew. It was an obstacle course straight out of hell. Narrow beams ten feet off the ground, ropes, suspended bags, walls, a pond with rock hopes. I didn’t want to be on American Ninja. There was also an archery range on the far side...or did that mean he was going to shoot arrows at us while we did the obstacles?

Before I could do an about-face and return to the farm, Callem spoke, “The course is a little overgrown, so rather than work the fields today, we will clear the brush and check the ropes.” Callum had a devilish grin, and Gareth was tickled pink with the idea of the training course by the stupid look of joy on his face. We got to work and finished in just over three hours and were allowed to head home.

“Gareth, I think I am going to buy a cart,” I said after I had forced my body down the path for half a mile.

“Why Stormy?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

“So you can pull me home after training,” I replied without humor in my voice.

Gareth had a response ready, “You should just get a horse or reindeer.” That wasn’t a bad idea, but it would draw attention to me as they were expensive animals to maintain. He suddenly went off-topic, “Tell you what, we race home, and the loser buys lunch for the next week.” Before I could reply, he was off. I didn’t chase him as he sprinted away. I was slightly fast than him over rough terrain, but his long legs easily beat me on straight paths. The only solace I took was that he was moving a bit gingerly, so that inhuman boy had felt today’s training a little, at least.

On returning to town, I went to the pub and gorged on milk, bread, roasted chicken, glazed vegetables, and beer cheese soup—all without Gareth. I rolled myself home and went to my bedroom after letting my parents know I had returned. Freya came in, and I quietly relayed the day’s tales, making sure she knew how gallant her brother was. I did tell her I was a little upset she hadn’t told me about the library trip and what they learned about Captain Callem. She then told me she had just looked at the picture books in the library and didn’t know what Gareth had been researching, but he did mention a Commander, somebody. Ugh. I gave her a lecture about paying attention to her surroundings and the absolute importance of sharing relevant information with her brother, me, not Pascal. She was a little huffy but seemed to acquiesce.

After she left, it took me a while to find a comfortable position to settle into. I generated the gold coins and stuffed them under my pillow, not wanting to travel the five feet to the secret cache in the wall. At least tomorrow, there was no training, and I could go claim my cleanliness spell!