Sparrow skipped his next class, which was studying ancient texts. He knew skipping it would hold him back, but at the same time, he didn’t want to have all the other students to have to sit through hours of lessons with Sparrow stinking next to them.

Truth be told, Sparrow had dealt with manure a lot. It was good fertilizer in the countryside, and his grandma and his uncles often came in smelling of it. But he knew it affected the city folk and the nobility very differently.

So instead of going to class, he walked to the small river that wormed its way around the bottom of the school. There he stripped to a pair of shorts and began to wash. The water and the air surrounding it were cold and soon Sparrow’s teeth were chattering.

It was while he was trying to get the brown stains out of his white clothes with a bar of soap he’d stolen from the kitchens that a small whiny voice appeared behind him.

‘Why are you standing there in just your shorts, it’s FREEZING out here.’

Sparrow spun around, he saw a chubby little boy, about the same age as him sitting underneath a willow.

‘What are you doing here?’ Sparrow said.

‘My name is Francis.’ The chubby boy said, ‘but most people call me Piggy.’

Sparrow shook his head. ‘I didn’t ask you what people called you. I asked you what you’re doing here.’

‘I’m ditching class, same as you.’ Piggy said, ‘Only I didn’t realize you had to get half-naked and stand in a cold stream in order to ditch class.’

‘I’m washing my clothes.’

‘Well, why didn’t you put your other clothes on while you were washing them.’ Piggy said, ‘My mother told me you’ll catch a cold if you stand in wet clothes.’

Sparrow just shrugged, ‘I don’t have any other clothes.’

It took a while for this to sink into Piggy’s brain. He’d never met someone with only one pair of clothes.

‘Well,’ he said slowly. ‘It doesn’t matter if you only have one pair of clothes, you still catch a cold.’

The small, fat boy jumped to his feet and ran down to where Sparrow was standing

He took off his sweater, ‘Here. Take it.’

It took a moment for Sparrow to realise what he was offering, but the moment his brain clicked into gear, Sparrow was pulling the sweater over his head. It was twice the size of Sparrow, but that actually worked out quite well. It fitted him like a cloak.

‘Thanks,’ Sparrow said as he rubbed his hands together.

‘No problem.’ Piggy grinned, ‘My brothers always told me I had a bit of extra insulation.’

He grinned and sat talking as Sparrow finished his washing.

After Sparrow wrung his clothes out the two boys discussed building their own school in the woods together so they wouldn’t have to go back, before Piggy got hungry and they walked back to Swan Academy together for some dinner.

****

Sparrow’s second day at the academy started off much better. For breakfast he ate the same cold lumpy root vegetable mash he’d had the morning before, but this time the meal was made so much better by the fact Piggy was sitting next to him.

Although the day before Sparrow had complained to himself about how bad the food was at the academy. Piggy took it to another level.

Piggy whispered 100 ways the chefs could have made the food better.

‘How are we supposed to learn when our stomachs aren’t happy? My father would get along very well with the cooks here. He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t like good food. You know the sort of guy who eats to sustain himself. I swear I got my tastebuds from my grandma.’

Sparrow just smiled away as Piggy ranted. It was nice having someone talking. It was nice to be able to forget about home and just focus on how much they both hated the sloppy root vegetable mash.

When they walked to class they took a small trail around the cherry trees and slipped past Rhino and his goons who were crouching in an ambush under the trees with manure dripping from their sticks.

When they were out of earshot Piggy tapped his head, ‘Man they really are stupid, aren’t they? Doing the same thing today as they did yesterday. You’d think they’d have some originality. I’ll tell you what, if I was a bully I’d get creative. Yeah. I think that’s what’s lacking around here, some new ideas. Geez, what a bunch of morons.’

Sparrow laughed as they entered through the stone archway of the combat courtyard. On the other side of the courtyard standing in a rigid pose was Master Shen.

Muster Shen had been involved in four wars, 32 battles and six assassination attempts on her life. Despite this Master Shen only carried two wounds. One, a slice across her face and the other, a tear across her heart.

The boys took a seat on the woven mats that had been laid out across the courtyard.

Master Shen’s stare moved from one student to the next, analyzing them, testing them. Working out who the students knew, and who their parents knew.

Not far away the gong for classes rung.

Master Shen snapped to attention.

‘Today we will begin your combat training. For some of you, this training will last the next 10 years of your life. Should you succeed in it. It will protect you for all the decades that come afterwards.’

A noise came from outside. It was three boys grumbling to each other. Rhino-xi and his two henchmen walked through the archway.

When Rhino-xi saw Sparrow sitting on the wooden floor his face darkened, ‘You coward, you decided to take another way to class today huh?’

His two friends laughed. That is until a solid bamboo cane came down on the backs of their legs. The three boys fell to their knees.

Master Shen slowly walked a loop around them.

‘When the gong sounds. You must be in my class. If you come to this class, after the gong sound you do not participate in my class. If you speak a word and if you interrupt my class, you will kneel beside these three boys here.’

‘Do you know who my father is?’ Rhino-xi whined, ‘you wouldn’t be talking to me in this way if you knew who he is.’

‘I know perfectly well who your father is.’ Master Shen said, ‘I know he is very powerful. But I also know that your father does not teach combat. I do. This is my class. This is my domain. And while you’re in here the only person you have to worry about is me.’

Dismissing them without another thought, Master Shen strode to the front of the room and threw three wooden brushes with the bristles sticking out towards the boys. Each one hit Rhino-xi and his two friends in the head.

‘Boys, since it’s your first day I’ll go easy on you. Your only combat is going to be with the front of this classroom, you are going to scrub like servants for the duration of this class.’

Under Master Shen’s gaze the three boys picked up their brushes and began to scrub.