Daggers: Disguised as a Boy

Daggers - Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - The Academy

The great log gates shut with a large boom behind me, spreading some dirt out into a puff of smoke around its base. As I turned back around to watch the giants parade in front of me, I noticed that the academy wasn’t as big as it looked on the outside. It was bigger. The hard packed dirt pathway we were on lead to a miniature castle a little ways away, the sandy colored building I’m assuming to be the Academy’s headquarters. Before I could walk more than twenty paces, neighing and the sounds of curses could be heard to my right. A boy came out of the oversized stables, tugging a black resistant stallion by the reigns behind him, his red hair providing an obvious marker to anyone who would want to recognize him. As he kept a string of curses going, he lead the horse into a wide circular pen. This enclosure had fences of various heights placed throughout it, and the red haired boy, or was it young man, mounted the horse and started riding the stallion around the perimeter.

On my left, however, was another huge circular building, reminiscent of the outside of the Academy. It too, was made of wood, although the ground level of the building showed the inside of the structure, with only wide support pillars disrupting my sight. As my gaze climbed higher, the pillars connected, creating, from my angle, what looked to be a giant round table with too many legs. As I tried to figure out what exactly this structure was, I realized that the giants were leaving me behind. I really need that growth spurt. The miniature sandy castle grew as I ran to catch up to the two who were leaving me behind.

“Getting the lay of land, Pipsqueak?” The clipboard giant said.

“Don’t call me that!”

“No need to get so touchy, but you should probably learn to get use to the nickname.” Clipboard said with a grin.

“And why’s that?” I asked, almost regretting hearing the answer.

“Well, what else in anyone gonna call ya? Ya are really small, Pipsqueak.” The other giant piped up, emphasizing that horrible name.

“They could call me by my name, but I would rather Junior then Pipsqueak any day.”

“Then I will call ya Junior.” Said the giant with a grin, ruffling my hair.

“And why not Takeo?”

“As the Prince said, you haven’t lived up to it yet Junior.” Clipboard laughed, sending me a grin.

We arrived at the front steps of the headquarters, and walking up that short flight of stairs, we then opened the door to find a courtyard. At the center of the courtyard was a small stone fountain, the three birds facing different ways spewing water from their beaks. The first tree I have seen since entering the Academy stood proudly a little ways to the right of the fountain, a stone bench matching the fountain under it. We walked straight through the courtyard, and opening up another door, I was lead into a room bereft of any decorations. The only thing stopping this room from being an empty square was the imposing desk at the farthest end away from the door, which had a gangly man behind it. As we approached the desk, I noticed that the man had a tired look to him, days old stubble spread across his chin, and his cool gray eyes looked tired under his square glasses. The giant handed the clip board over, and he patted my shoulder as the other one ruffled my hair and left.

“Takeo Junior Janice. Age 12. Alright. Let me just write you down as checked in,” The tired man sighed, talking very slowly as he grabbed more papers from somewhere behind the desk. “Okay. You are in the first years barracks, obviously.” Another sigh. “Floor 5, room 505. Take the stairs on the far right side up to your room. Here’s the key. Don’t forget to stop by the seamstress to measure you for clothes, since you obviously don’t have any.” He yawned, and kept talking. “Here’s a map. And if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish up organizing these papers. Why you’re here early, I don’t care. Just go.” He said, waving his hand in dismissal. Here early?

I looked down at the map in my hands, only to see a crude hand made drawing.

“Hey! This doesn’t look that official. Do you have a neater one?” I asked the guy behind the desk. He looked up at me and sighed.

“Well, since you arrived early, you should be lucky I even drew you one. Go on! Use your brain, shorty.” He waved his hand in dismissal again, and started to ignore me.

I rolled my eyes, and started to walk out of the building. Walking through the courtyard, I looked down at the ‘map.’ It was in a bird’s eye view, and at the very bottom, on the south side, all the way across from the front gate, was the first years’ barracks, marked by a “1st”. At least it’s a straight pathway. As I was walking down the dirt path towards my new home, I examined the map. The barracks were divided up into what seemed like six buildings really close together. Or was it just one building, divided into sections? The first years were at the bottom, and following the right side curve of the outlying Academy wall, the numbers went up to the sixth years barracks. The sixth years were the closest to the mess hall, which was attached to the north end of the sixth year barracks, almost parallel to the Academy’s headquarters. In between the dirt pathway I was on, which bisected the whole Academy, and the barracks, are the classrooms, weapon and archery area, and sparring places. On the other side of the dirt pathway, all that was labeled was “OBSATACLES.” That big table-like structure I saw before was labeled “Sparring,” and the stables apparently had jousting to the south of them. Looking over to my right, which was the left side of the map that said “OBSTACLES,” I saw a big pool, which had rods coming out of it at random intervals, and two wires going across the expanse of the pool above it. There was a little forest on the other side of the pool, and a small fence was separating the dirt pathway on my side and the pool a few feet out. I started to see a building coming up in the distance, and as I got closer, I saw that it was labeled “1st.” I think I found the barracks. Looking to my right at the obstacle course again, I saw a tall wall with a vertical rope on it, wheels on the ground, pull-up poles, low benches, and a square dirt area. Well that looks like fun. Examining the map, I didn’t see anything that was labeled seamstress, so I decided to look for it after I found my room. I made my way to the right side of the barracks, and found the wooden stairs. They looked worse for wear, many of them had substantial cracks, and a few were half way if not completely gone. It looks like they made the stairs an obstacle too. Carefully making my way up, I finally got to the fifth floor, and thankfully my room was the third on the left.

I opened the door, and I saw five beds. One bunk bed on either side of the room, and a single at the very back. Two wardrobes separated the single bed from the bunks on each side, the fifth being on the wall near the door. Since the room looked barren, I really was the first one here, I claimed the single bed next to the only window. I’ll be sharing a room with four other males. Crap. And it’s probably communal showers too. Shit.

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This is just alot of information about the layout of the Academy. Kind of boring I know. When I was writing it, my dog came in and just HAD to play, I actually forgot about seeing the seamtress myself. lol The Academy training will probably start in the next two chapters. I'll try updating tomorrow!!