A Talented Fletcher

chapter eighteen

Wit

Finishing the ciphering work only a few minutes after I began. I set my quill pen down and looked around.

"No cheating!" Mr. Pine called from the front of the class as my eyes darted across the room.

"Oh...I'm done." The words spilled out of my mouth like it was the most obvious thing, but every other student stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to me, even Heather and Barnes were stunned.

"That's not possible. Oh, you must not be doing it right, let me check your answers." He dismissed my claim and walked over to pick up my paper. As he was checking over my work, Barnes sent a light scoff my way and whispered a taunt into my ear. "Look, Wit, it's alright if you don't know what's going on, it's just your first day. If you had any questions you should've just ask-"

"Th-this is all right." Mr. Pine breathed. He skimmed over the sheet with his finger over and over in an attempt to find a mistake that he never would. Hmph. I can do math. "None. No mistakes." He looked to me with shocked eyes. "Excellent work, Mr. Wit." He brought the paper with him to the front and collapsed into his seat in front of the eyes of the entire class. "What're y'all looking at? You have twenty more minutes!"

As everyone put their nose back to the grindstone, Barnes' mouth was left ajar as he stared at me with what I hoped was newfound respect.

I gave him a little wink.

"Damn." He narrowed his eyes and grumbled. "Why did I even help you, you fletcher," before getting back to his own work.

...what does fletcher even mean?

Left to my own thoughts, my eyes wandered as the soft melody of quill scratchings gorged my ears; it was strangely satisfying, like late night crickets.

Given so much free time, I observed the ridiculous situation I'd found myself in.

The classroom was small, quaint I would say if my mom were around. The walls were made of thick oak logs and parted in squares, where glass was placed inside for windows, all of which gave view to the main grey cobblestone street, which was right between the school and the training ground, where Heather's father and several other sturdy looking men were meditating in some Buddhist stance.

Are the people here hippies?

A groan gripped my attention and I turned to my left to see Barnes scratching his shiny brown hair in what could only be confusion. His green eyes dried and he brought his fists up to rub some moisture into them. Still confused several rubs later, he turned to me with hopeful eyes and whispered, "Bro...can you help me?"

I was surprised by the question. He seemed like the proud type but then again he seems like the studious type too, maybe he's proud but still likes to learn? That could be why Mary likes him.

I smiled and quietly helped him with his math; I worked out the next few problems for him, explaining the processes as they became relevant.

"Oh! That's so much easier, bro." He smothered his excitement with a whisper.

Having received my very first lesson, the guy was off to the races. Gliding through the work like it was lightweight stuff. Which it was.

When ciphering was finished we moved onto other subjects. Barnes explained the classes as a system of two halves: there was morning and then afternoon. Morning class was all inside work, like studies and writings, while afternoon classes were done outside and they were subjects like hunting, crafting, and fighting.

After ciphering, we moved onto subjects that required much more of my attention. First, it was mapwork, or rather geography, a class I'd never been good at even before. In exchange for my tutelage, Barnes offered his own as he saw me grind my fingernails between my front teeth: a habit that I could never seem to kill.

He softly explained where Oakridge was in relation to accessible resources, and described our affiliations with nearby cities, to include general political relations between surrounding nations.

Not that any of that stuff had much to do with Oakridge, as it was as isolated a region as you could get. It was enclosed on two sides by high mountains and on another side by a narrow valley, all of which made it treacherous to come and go. All of this information came from what Barnes said was Jax's own map work. They knew what the cities nearby were like from literature, but Oakridge itself was relatively new, being founded only a generation ago by Heather's grandfather, Heath Highland. In fact, Jax was the one that set up the mapwork course based on how he'd been taught in the city.

It was weird; everyone seemed to have an odd respect and almost reverence for the wandering noble, 'Lord Jax'. I thought he was kidding when he introduced himself like that.

After mapwork, we went into sciences: rocky territory for the both of us. He was still learning a majority of the material, while the vast majority I had learned in my old school was warped by what people called 'mana'. I had to figure out this world was just like my own plus the presence of the omniscient energy, but then that trait changed everything I knew about what was normal.

Finally finishing sciences, the morning class came to a gleeful end. We took a lunch break and moved outside to the training field I'd been staring at all morning for the afternoon classes.

That was where things got really interesting, becau-

"Alright, now! Mr. Highland is going to take a few of you guys to personally train today." Mr. Pine introduced Holden, who'd stepped forward and smiled.

"I'll take it from here."

The proceeding round of applause and excited whistles drew a blush to Holden's naturally gruff appearance.

Besides the absolutely disgusting way he dotes on his hateful daughter, the man is intimidating no matter how you looked at him. His face was the type of chiseled I'd only seen from drug addicts and extreme muscleheads, and his dark hair and even darker eyes made me sheepish. He must weigh at least three hundred pounds. At, at least, six-four, Holden gave off a lumberjack vibe, if said lumberjack went through intense military training and learned to love the haircut.

He waved off the crowd. "Alrigh', alrigh', alrigh'. Enough." He coughed, hiding his blush behind a closed hand.

Taken aback by the enthusiasm the others showed, I asked Barnes why he was received so well. He informed me that Holden carried the respect of a village chief since there was no formal position as such. That was the reason all the kids, and even a lot of passerbys, hung on bated breath as the man spoke.

"Alrigh', first thing's first, I want y'all to grab a brick here," he slapped a pile of grey rectangular bricks, "and go find a spot to sit your asses down." He laughed with a bark.

With everyone quickly taking a brick, Barnes and I sat next to each other towards the back once again. The cinder blocks in question were around the width and length of the wood chopping boards I'd normally see a karate kid using.

When everyone was sitting he continued instruction. "Alrigh', now take the lotus position; get cross-legged and set the backs of your hands on your knees. Now, if you wanna train with me, lads, you need to be able to break that brick in half in the next five minutes. The lads who can't will continue to practice with Mr. Pine. Thas all I got to say."

His announcement was the cause of excitement: some confident cheers, and some dejected groans, which mostly came from the younger looking kids. From beside me, I heard Barnes mutter, "too easy," before Mr. Highland clapped his hands and roared. "Get to it!"

Just like in class, Barnes moved quickly, the brick he was muscling apart let out chipped crackles. The same noise gained prominence across the field as more people bent the block further and further inward.

...How did I get here? I don't even know, but I think I can split a brick in half; it shouldn't be too much harder than dragging Jax for three miles, right?

Just as I was beginning to sink my fingers into the hard brick, I heard a distinct break and opened my eyes to see Mr. Highland's proud face, dogged by a beaming smile and a booming laugh. "Way to go, Heatherbee!" He grabbed the two halves of the cinder block and held them up for everyone to see. "Come on now lads! My Heatherbee's only thirteen years old and she finished first? Shame on you! Git to breakin' a'ready."

A resounding "Yessir," responded as the group of young boys and girls strained themselves with insulted gusto.

"I'm no fletcherrrr!" Barnes howled as he firmly broke his own brick in half, becoming the second to do so. "Wheew." Sweat dripped off his brow as he stood with heavy heeve. Walking past me, he gave me what I wanted to be an encouraging smile, but what felt like a smug gibe. "It's alright, Wit, buddy. Give it a few more years and I'm sure one day you'll catch up to my epic talent." Finishing his...encouragement...Barnes walked to the front, joined by several more people as they completed the task and formed a group with Heather, near her father.

Major talent? More like major dickhead.

I let aura permeate around my fingers, as I'd done hundreds of times before and snapped the block in half like a thin twig.

Strangely proud of myself, heat rushed to my ears and my smile couldn't contain itself as I stood up and joined the group going to train with Heather's dad. Taking a while to finish breaking the brick, there was only a minute or so left before the screening was done. Altogether there were about eight others in the final group, all of whom were taken off guard by my display.

Barnes smiled and elbowed my side as I joined them, "Wit, can you not be so good at everything, dude? You're making me feel bad for being a year older than you." He joked.

I laughed along and sent back his own words, "Don't worry, Barney, give it a few years and one day you'll catch up to my epic talent."

His smirk faded, "My name's not Barney, you fletch-"

"Alrigh', let's get a move on now!" Mr. Highland yelled to the group. "Let's get you down the field so we can do some more advanced training!"

Away from the thirty or so grumbling failures, the ten of us - nine students plus Mr. Highland - walked downrange for a few hundred feet before he had us stop and form a horizontal line in front of him. As we did so he began his explanation. "The reason I separated you lads from the rest of ya' is because I'm going to train you in how to fight 'while' using your aura. I'm going to train this group for the next month of afternoon classes, and when we're done," his expression shifted from jovial to grave and weighty, "I'm going to take you on the next Hunt with me."

"..." There was a pregnant span of silence before Heather broke it with an ecstatic squeal and the other's exclaimed in their own ways. "Holy shit." Barnes burst, and looked to me with his green eyes, to share in his enthusiasm. "Wit...we're gonna go hunting!"

It took a moment for the meaning to really sink in. I'm gonna hunt monsters? Like the one from the woods?

The realization made my heart pump and my body shake. I was going to fight another one? The memory terrified me. Maybe that's why I'm shaking...but the more I thought the more it dawned on me. This sick feeling...it was excitement. I was excited to try again - to fight - and as much as that thought horrified me, I couldn't help but think it was the truth. I clenched my fists into balls and dug the nails into my palms.

As twisted as it sounds, I can't lie to myself...another fight...sounds thrilling.