Terrance's Last Day of Training

WRITER'S NOTE: This is retrospective of Terrance Tavf as he completes his squire training with his mentor Sonas. This chapter can be found in "The Blacksmith's Nephew." Please enjoy the reading."

'I've been trained to do this for my entire life. Well, actually, make it half. I'm only 20 years old and I wasn't a squire until I was ten,' I said modestly.

I have grown stronger than I ever was, used to be or ever known myself. I am now a young man with an average body size to say the least, and stand at 5 foot 6. After the first month of training, I was given a set of blue heavy metal armor for protection. On the chest plate of my armor was a dark green peacock feather sigil. Over the years, my armor, of course, got bigger as I continued to grow up. I eventually ditched having short hair and just grew some. Now I have a longer, neatly spiked hair front and back on top of my noggin. I gels it everyday in order to keep maintaining my style. 

Princess Ruth (aka the one love) became the most beautiful woman ever to be seen or born in the entire Kingdom and country! In fact, she was the most beautiful being in the whole Uflornian world! I may be biased but she really is! She was very independent, kind to others and graceful. Ruth is 3 inches taller than me yet I don't mind it. She has an average body size as well with some nice curves, I must admit. The Princess herself over the years loved to dress up but she would often wear some casual attires from time to time for she too loved being a tomboy as much as being a loyal. My type of woman if you ask me. Ruth wasn’t your typical Princess for she truly felt like she can be herself. I, Terrance, of course admires this about her for she was one of a kind and I loved her no matter what.

Sonas Erce has training me throughout the years. He taught me all the ways of being a holy and just knight. The mighty knight has even taught both the Princess and I everything we needed to know about fighting along with self-defense. 

Queen Esther is still well and beautiful as she always was. She looked like she hasn’t aged at all if I'm being honest. I can see why Ruth takes in from.

Uncle Joseph would come and visit at the castle every so often. The same goes with me visiting my uncle at the shop and house. 

My pup Scamp was still alive and breathing. He is now eleven years old and still acts like a pup to this day thus I still call him as such.

Over the years, he had gotten much bigger and fluffier. Princess Ruth even got a chance to meet with the dog when she and I were done with our first week of training, since then the two of them had gotten along very well. This was a great sign for me to know because Scamp is my bestest friend, and if Scamp loves Ruth, then surely Ruth is really the one for me. 

The Northern Kingdom of Rissindell hasn’t changed much over the years expect that there has been a theft amongst us. Lemmy Adham, the Head Guard, has been very frustrated about this for there have been several complaints from the villagers telling him about their stuff getting stolen. 

After hearing it for the last time, the dwarf marches to the castle on a hot, sunny August Saturday morning. Today was a very special day for it was Princess Ruth’s 21st Birthday. There will be a ball later in the afternoon and evening. All was invited to come! Everyone including the Princess herself was very excited for this special occasion, especially me. Eventually Lemmy saw Sonas and I standing there with their weapons in their hands at the training ground. The two of us were getting ready for training that day. 

“Why hello there,” shouted the dwarf with a pleased look to Sonas and myself.

“Hello, sir Lemmy, top of the morning to you,” smiled Sonas as he waved with his left hand.

“Hey there, dear friend,” I nodded with a smile.

The dwarf walked closer to us two gentlemen so we all could talk instead of shouting across the training ground.

“What have we had the pleasure with you here?” asked Sonas.

The dwarf then explains the two of us his situation: “Well, you see I have been struggling with something lately. There has been a thief among us and I still haven’t caught them yet. Have the two of you seen anything suspicious lately?”

“No, we haven’t,” replied the knight calmly. “But Terrance and I will surely keep a lookout.”

“Yeah," I agreed. "We shall have the eyes like hawks and let you know if we see anything.” I then scans the area with my hand over my eyes seeing if there’s anything. I also did it considering it was a hot and sunny day.

“Thank you very much,” replied the dwarf.

“No, thank you,” nodded Sonas.

“Well, I will let you two get back to training. I shall see you both at the ball in the afternoon.”

“Okay sounds good Lemmy, see you then,” I smiled as I then gave the dwarf a thumb up from my right hand.

Lemmy looks at Sonas and I along with a couple of nods. He gives us the guardian salute while we do the same. The dwarf then turns around, heading out of the training ground, and returned back to his post on the guarded wall. 

Sonas looks back at me and asked the following: “Are you ready for your last day of training?”

“Last day of training?” I replied as I stood there with a confused look upon my face.

Sonas calmly says: “Yes… my dear boy. For today, it will be the end of your training. Tomorrow you shall be appointed as a knight by the Princess herself. Come on Terrance, did you forget?”

“Yeah…I guess I kind of did. Just a lot has been on my mind lately,” I mentioned as I rubbed my left hand on the back of my head.

“Like what?” 

“Like is everything going to be okay once I’m officially a knight? What if I happen to fail somehow?” I explained as I was feeling a little concerned about becoming what I always had dreamed of being. The next thing I did was drop my head and eyes down as I looked towards the dirt after done speaking.

The knight then replied: “Terrance, tomorrow will worry about itself. Now, come on, don’t look at the negative side of things, think positive, my boy! You will be a knight with no fail. Sure, you will make mistakes, but no one is perfect not even a warrior. But you will learn from the mistakes you made by moving forward with your head up high, and always having God by your side.”

I thought about what my mentor said. After thinking it over, I replied back: “Yeah…you’re right. Thank you Sir Sonas. You have been such a wonderful teacher.”

“I try my best. You have been my best student. Now…are you ready?” asked Sonas as he then makes a fighting stance. He held his sword out on his right side and his shield buried into his chest.

I saw this and made my own fighting stance replying back with a smile, “Yes, yes I am.” I then held his shield slightly out with my sword barely visible. This was the moment. The moment I show what I'm capable to became a true knight. Just a step closer to my dream.

The sword I wielded was the same one I accidentally dropped when

I first met the knight. Sonas had me keep it after that faithful day.

My shield on the other hand was given to me by the mighty Honorable knight after the 2nd day of training. It had a green coating with a blue peacock on the base. On the other side of the shield was a sliver surface with a pair of black leather strips for the arms.

Sonas smiled: “Okay, then let your final day of training begin.”

“Alright, let’s do this…” I said as I prepared for the first attack from my mentor.

Sonas closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He then opens his eyes and launches a downward strike from his sword. I blocked the attack thanks to my shield and push Sonas back. 

I then swung my sword rightward yet Sonas blocked the encounter. Next, I quickly manages to spin around my mentor’s blind spot and hit from the other side. With my quick reflects, I was able to hit Sonas’s right side of his back with the surface of the blade. I was making sure he didn’t cut my mentor at all. 

Sonas stumbles forward and laughs: “Ha-ha-ha, I have taught you very well.” The knight then straightens up and swings his sword violently onto my shield. There were six strikes: a downward strike, a sky uppercut, a a downward strike, a sky uppercut, a diagonally right going down, a horizontal left, a diagonally right going up, and a diagonally left going down. 

I then encounters it onto Sonas’s shield with my own sword. Now, I gave him seven swings: a sky uppercut, a downward strike, another sky uppercut, another downward strike, a swing to the left diagonally going up, another right swing diagonally doing down as well and finally a horizontal left swing. 

This went on for a good couple of hours. 

Sonas then goes for another swing (a downward strike) but I was able to counter it (with a slight sky uppercut) and the two of us clashed there with our trusty blades. Our eyes made contact, teacher and student, looking at each other eye to eye, and with our fighting spirits. We both backed off from each other, made our stances while breathing heavily with sweat pouring down upon our faces. 

The Honorable Knight takes a deep breath, smiles and says, “It is done. Your training is officially over. Congratulations Terrance. You have done very well.”

I next took a deep breath as well, smiled, and replied, “Thank you again sir for everything. You have been a great mentor to me.”

“You’re welcome Terrance. And thank you once again for being a great learner. Now go get ready and please escort the Princess for the ball this afternoon. I shall see you soon.”

“Yes sir!” I replied as I took a bow to my now former mentor and left the training ground. I headed straight to my room right away. 

I took a quick hot shower, then combed my hair with a comb-over style, and finally put on the ball attire. Next, I wore on a white buttoned shirt, a navy blue jacket along with a navy blue pants and a dark green bow tie. I even put some dark green loyal shoulder pads on my jacket and placed a pair of brown leather boots upon my feet. Soon I was all dressed up and ready to go after a total of twenty minutes. Had time to kill considering Sonas and I finished pretty early and I got myself well accounted for. I decided to stroll around the castle seeing if anyone needed any help. Although it was very much appreciated from the staff, there was no need to. For I had asked the kitchen, ballroom and the front but everyone politely declined the offer for everything was getting taken care of. So I next strolled on some more and once I was heading towards the way to Ruth, I thought about her...again. I tend to do that often.

It has been awhile since I last saw the Princess and I was really excited to see her. The two of us have become the best of friends over the years. Through the years of knowing her, I have fallen deeper in love with Ruth more and more everyday yet she doesn’t know it because as her future knight I couldn’t love her. It is forbidden for a loyal knight to have any feelings at all. That’s the downside of becoming a protector. You can’t fall in love otherwise you will be distracted the whole time. I also didn’t tell her how I felt because I was very shy when it comes talking about my feelings and I always didn’t know what to say. 

As I got to Ruth’s bedroom door, the first thing I did was knock on her door and shortly out came the Princess. She wore a beautiful blue dress with two straps for both shoulders that matches her piercing blue eyes. The Princess’s dress had emerald gems that match earthly patches of grass on a gorgeous sunny day. She even had a pair of leather brown shoes underneath. Her wavy dirty blonde hair was all braided beautifully of course. All expect of only one strip of hair hanging out in front of the left side of her precious pale face. 

From the moment I saw her there, my heart literally just dropped down to my feet. I then felt my entire body was going numb, and I was trembling from where I stood once I first saw her there.