As Trintor and Shannon started to argue over percentages, penalty fees and minimum quantities, Niall’s mind started to drift. Although the negotiations seemed to be heated, he felt confident the two would come to an agreement. If nothing else, with a deal, Trintor would be incentivised to keep Shannon alive. The two of them were still haggling as Sergeant Strang ordered them out for an afternoon of square bashing in full battle array.

Shannon and Trintor found him in the barracks that evening. “OK.” said Shannon. “My miner friend and I have come to an agreement. Assuming we’re all still alive in six months’ time, both of us are going to start to make a lot of money in the next few years. Niall looked from one to the other. While the glint in Shannon’s eyes suggested she had hit the jackpot, Niall could see a small smile playing about Trintor’s lips. It was not immediately clear to him that Shannon had achieved as much as she thought she had in the negotiation.

Niall shrugged, it was not his problem. “Does that mean that we can get some extra training then?”

Trintor nodded. “We need to get something to a lawyer to be notarised, but the deal is done. We can start now if you want.”

Niall found Huff and Penton and the five of them headed over to the sword training area. They picked up their training swords and started to run through the exercises they had been doing earlier. This time Trintor made corrections as they went. In response to the tuition, Niall found himself improving much more rapidly then before. Trintor had been modest when he said he was not a teacher. The high level of his Short Sword Skill meant his corrections were far more insightful compared to those of the instructors. Equally, he was only correcting four people rather than the tens of people the instructors had to look after. The hour flew by and by the end, although he was shattered, Niall was exhilarated as he went to sleep that night.

Over the next few days, Niall started to fall into a pattern. First thing in the morning and last thing at night he tried to keep up his meditation practice. In between, governed by trumpets and the shouts of the instructors, the days were filled with weapons training, marching, running and more cleaning than he ever thought could be possible. Each evening he and others would slip out to train in the evening light. The group even increased in size. As the others found out what they were doing, many of them scoffed at the idea, but a small and growing, number of the recruits decided to join them.

Two weeks later, Niall was lying in bed when Pobble did the equivalent of clearing his throat.

“What’s up Pobble?” Niall thought to the Fae shard.

“Seeing as how Niall was complaining about his classes before, he should look at his Testimony now.” said Pobble.

Niall sat up in his bed and swiped across.

TESTIMONY: Niall Vendra

ATTRIBUTES

Strength: 31

Endurance: 42

Agility: 23

Will: 26

Perception: 30

CLASSES:

Junior Smallholder 6

Apprentice Blacksmith 6

Acolyte Healer 6

Hunter 3

Brawler 2

Militia Recruit 1: +1 Strength, +1 Endurance, +1 Agility. You have started to build the foundations to be a member of a Militia

- Short sword 3

- Spear 1

- Shield 1

- Light armour 1

- Field Camp 5

UNALLOCATED SKILLS:

- Meditation 4

- Flow 7

- Steelmind 12

- Telepathy 1

“Finally. I’ve got my Militia Recruit class. This is good news, Pobble.”

“Niall is one of the first in his cohort to get his Militia Recruit class. Niall is lucky.”

“It’s not luck, it’s hard work.”

“No, it is luck. Niall has managed to cheat and get a high Field Camp skill because it overlaps with Woodsman. The rest of the recruits have not been taught that yet.”

“Well, I still think I’ve been working hard.” Niall thought.

“Pobble is sorry. Pobble forgot Niall has a fragile ego. Congratulations. Niall is almost an average adult. In Niall’s culture, would this be an appropriate time to give him a slow hand clap? Unfortunately, Pobble does not have any hands, but Niall can imagine it. Is that better?”

Niall lay back down. “If you’re quite finished, I think I would like to get some sleep.”

“Pobble had not quite finished, but it will do for now.”

As Pobble’s consciousness retreated Niall couldn’t resist feeling the muscles in his arms. They were certainly larger than anything he could recall having in the past. A smile crept over his face as he drifted back off to sleep.

The next morning Niall jogged out to the spear training area with Huff. Niall glanced over and realised the training regime was revealing hard lines in the farmer’s face. “How are you finding all of this?” Niall asked.

Huff ran his hand across his chin before he spoke. “On one level, I’m really excited. Trintor knows what he’s doing. It means the other sword training sessions are doubly useful as we can practice Trintor’s tips even more. But, honestly, I’m still scared. It’s all so slow. I just don’t know if we’re going to get good enough in time.”

Niall nodded. Huff had articulated the worry that had been niggling at the back of his mind. As the recruits lined up with their spears and shields, Niall continued to think about what more he could do. He looked around at the others as they all tried to move the unwieldy spears in a way that would meet the standards of the instructors. For the most part, the other recruits were struggling just as he was, even Trintor’s skill with the sword did not help him with the spear.

His eyes were caught by a group of three women at the back. At first glance they appeared to be as clumsy as the others. Then, he watched them closer. They were playing a game of some sort. Each woman took it in turns to see how late they could delay the start of their move before they would get in trouble with the instructors. However, their moves were so smooth and quick that they could complete the move much faster than the others. Once one was reprimanded by an instructor, another of the three would start delaying their moves.

A spear butt slammed into his ankle. “Footwork, recruit.”

Niall pushed the thoughts out of his mind to focus on what he had to in the moment. He did not forget though. At lunch he waited until he saw the three women sit down and then went over to them.

“Do you mind if I sit with you?”

The women gave him a long stare and then one gestured at a chair.

“I don’t think we’ve met,” he said. “I’m Niall.”

“Lupa Velaz, this is Vimoni and Tierra,” said one of the women pointing at herself and then to the others. “We know who you are, little man. You’re the try hard doing extra training in the evenings. To what do we owe this pleasure?”

“I noticed you during the spear drills earlier. It looked like maybe you weren’t taking them too seriously.”

The three women let out loud laughs. “That would be one way of putting it,” said Tierra. “What a complete waste of time. But we were warned about this before we came. It’s the same every year.”

“Really?”

“If you want to learn how to look good on a parade ground, then the training will teach you everything you need to know.” said Vimoni. “If you want to fight, well, then that’s not what you do.”

“You have some experience with spears?”

The women laughed again. “You could say that,” said Tierra.

“Look, what do you want Mr Niall?” asked Lupa. “I do not think you have come here because you’re looking to make new friends.”

“I want your help. You are the best spear fighters in our cohort”

“He has the right of it there.” said Tierra

“The way I see it though, no matter how good you are, unless more of us get better at fighting, none of us are going to come home after six months.”

“You may be correct,” said Lupa. “But I ask you again, little man. What do you want?”

“I want you to help me be even more of a try hard. Will you do some extra training sessions with me and my friends? If you’re right and we are not learning how to fight properly, then it’s even more important.”

Lupa looked at him for a moment before responding. “Let me talk to my girls here.”

Niall stepped to one side and the three women leant across the table, having an intense, whispered conversation with each other. After a few moments they sat back in their chairs and Lupa beckoned him over.

“OK, the situation is this, little man. We’re prepared to help you, but we need something from you in return.”

“Go on.”

“The training here. It is making us thirsty. Each week you can get a bottle of rum to me and my friends we will help you with your spear work. And to be clear that is one bottle for each of us.”

Niall looked at them in exasperation. “Rum? Where am I going to find rum?”

Lupa spread her arms in a gesture of helplessness. “If I could get rum myself then I wouldn’t need to ask you for it, would I? No rum, no training.”

***

That evening in the barracks Niall sat down with Huff, Penton and Shannon to explain the situation. “So,” he said as he finished up. “Does anyone know where we can get some rum.”

“Well, the problem isn’t getting rum,” Penton said. “You can buy it in a dozen places in town. The problem is getting the rum onto the base.”

Shannon rolled her eyes and looked at him. “Yes, if only we knew someone who made deliveries to this base on a regular basis.”

Penton grinned at her. “Wait. Hold on, we do know someone. It’s me. I’m that somebody.”

Huff looked from one to the other in confusion. “Your family delivers here?”

Penton nodded. “We don’t do everything, but we have the delivery contract for the uniforms. There’s a shipment every month.”

“Might you be able to arrange to have some rum slipped in with the next delivery?” Niall asked.

“Smuggling contraband into an army camp? Oh, I might be able to sort something out,” Penton said. “But when we get out, you are going to owe me a favour as well as several crates of rum.”

Niall grinned at him. “If we get out of this, I’ll buy you a whole barrel.”

***

It took a couple of days to arrange, but Lupa and her friends agreed to start the training on the promise of an extra bottle of rum with their first payment. The following day, a group of bleary-eyed recruits headed out of the barracks before dawn. Somewhat to Niall’s surprise, not only had all those training with Trintor in the evenings agreed to come, but so had Trintor himself.

When they reached the spear training ground Lupa turned to face them, flanked by Vimoni and Tierra.

“OK people, listen up. What you have been learning so far is largely useless. If you’re behind a wall then I guess it may be of some use. If you are outside, with the things you’ve been learning, you may as well use your spear for firewood.”

“What do you know?” Trintor called out from the side. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest

Lupa walked up to him. “What do I know, sword boy? While you were playing with your grandpappy, I was out on the hills fending off wolves.”

Niall was not the only one who perked up to listen more closely when he heard that.

“You’ve fought wolves?” The scepticism in Trintor’s voice was clear for all to hear.

Lupa rolled her eyes. “My people, we’re sheep farmers. If we don’t protectour flocks from the packs of wolves then we don’t eat. So, yes, sword boy. Me and the girls have fought wolves. Now are we going to do this, or are you just going to yap at me like a puppy?”

With that Lupa launched into a spear form for them to copy. By the time the bugle sounded DawnCall Niall was a sweaty mess, Lupa was hard taskmistress, but she was effective. Nonetheless she had been overstating the case when she said the forms they had been learning were useless. It was more he could see how, with the tweaks that Lupa and her friends had introduced, they would be much more effective.

As Niall caught his breath on the parade ground, while waiting for the Sergeant to take them on their morning run, he spoke to Pobble.

“Pobble, you’ve been around for a while. Is Lupa just showing off? Do the frontier shepherds really fight wolves?”

“Of course they do. Wolves are a real problem for them. Anyone that does not know what they are doing is going to end up as wolf meat. The shepherds use spears and slings. It is all they can afford but, unless they learn how to use them fast, they will end up as dead shepherds very quickly.”

Niall mentally nodded as Sergeant Strang led them on their run, it was clear the bottles of rum were a bargain. “But I don’t get it. If these techniques are so much better, why aren’t we being taught those?”

Niall could feel Pobble’s amusement in his head. “Does Niall think the army cares about the best techniques? This is the way it has always been done. They would not be able to get their heads around the idea that there is a better way. As long as Niall gets to Militia 2 in six months, they have done their jobs. They do not really care if you know how to fight. You are lucky. There are only a few officers like Lieutenant Bligh who have a sense of honour and actually want to do the right thing.”

“Have you been paying attention? The Lieutenant doesn’t care about any of us.”

“Really? Why does Niall think she is putting in all of the extra effort? Most militia training is easy. It involves a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon. The rest of the time is doing chores or downtime. The long training sessions she is putting in with this company is much more than she needs to do.”

Niall didn’t answer, but instead focussed back on his running. Pobble had given him some things to ponder.