The Hunters of Sian

The Exams Begin

He could not, or rather, would not, consider the small cabin his parents owned as his. For one painful moment, he wondered what would happen to the cabin. It had probably already been taken over by someone else in the village, the few small aspect of Nell's family thrown into the fire and erased. He gave himself a little shake and clutched the satchel tighter. He didn't have a place to go back to anymore. Thinking about it wasn't helpful.

'Don't bother coming to the pool tomorrow morning. You will eat your morning meal, bring your gear and your weapons, and go straight to the stables. You won't be in classes tomorrow,' Cadric boomed. The class stared at each other in confusion.

'You can consider this the start of your exams. You will be travelling into the forest tomorrow' The confusion turned to a mix of shock, excitement, and panic. Marshall suddenly went very white. Jeremy's jaw dropped slightly. Nell's stomach did a flip. They were starting tomorrow? In the forest!?

'To assist you, you can go into the storerooms and pick one additional item each. Don't take too long about it.' Nell went in straight away, making a beeline to where he knew there to be basic camping supplies including small pots to hang over a fire. Jeremy followed him, confused.

'You want a pot? What for?'

'Are we going to travel together?' Nell asked anxiously. He realised with a small jolt that Jeremy might very well went to do this assessment on his. To his relief Jeremy shook his head.

'If we can travel together, it would be safer right?' Jeremy grinned. 'And less boring,' he added.

Nell grinned back, relieved and took the pot down from its hook. 'Well, meat soup and stew go further than just cooking an animal over a fire,' he explained.

'Good thinking,' Jeremy said. He headed over to the far wall and took down a length of thick sturdy rope. 'This might come in handy,' he said with a shrug. He wasn't the only one who thought so because Nigel shoved him out of the way to grab his own rope. Jeremy rolled his eyes and he and Nell left quickly, ignoring the laughter and sneers from the other nobles when they caught sight of Nell's cooking pot.

'We're done here. I suggest you get a good night's rest. You're going to need it,' Cadric boomed as they came out of the storage room. The class dispersed. Nell threw the strap of his new satchel over his shoulder and adjusted the length of the strap.

'This is pretty cool,' Jeremy said excitedly, doing the same.

'Exams tomorrow though,' Marshall moaned, catching up with them. He didn't even seem to care about his new satchel and dragged it on the ground behind them as they left the arena, oblivious to the disgusted look Arabella shot him.

'Do you think the first test will take all day?' Nell asked thoughtfully, still running a thumb over the smooth stitching on the shoulder strap as they walked.

'Must do or why would they tell us to bring all our gear?' Jeremy said sceptically.

'Of course, our first test had to be riding,' Marshall snorted angrily. 'I miss horses,' he added grumpily as they made their way to the banquet hall. The boys all helped themselves to food. They started on their writing tasks straight away, now knowing there wouldn't be any time to finish them tomorrow. It was hard to concentrate with the level of noise all around them. Marshall was stabbing at his sausages with a little more aggression then was strictly necessary. He was taking the news of their exams worse than Nell had expected.

Nell finished his paragraph, put his empty plate in the cleaning racks and waved goodbye to the others. Once he was back in the peace and quiet of Sallos' quarters, he peered inside his new bag and drew out the knife. The leather sheath was stiff, and he wiggled the blade to get it free. It looked very sharp. He jumped slightly at the sound of the door closing.