Hunter Sky

Chapter 4 - Orientation

Among the knight candidates sleeping on the hall floors, Zack snored peacefully as he laid on the hard stone floor, resting on his side with an elbow bent under his ear as a pillow. A feet away was Lea curled into a ball with her knees near her chest, and her arms hugging her legs. Away in the far corner, sat Jirell leaning on the wall with his head lowered. He heard footsteps tapping the floor, and slowly rose his head to look.

A tall knight holding a horn in his hand walked along the row of still bodies, until he stopped over Zack and Lea. He raised the horn to his head. HNNNNNNNNNNNN!! the horn hummed a loud bellow that jerked the walls, causing the students to jump up frightened.

Lea slowy sat up and crossed her legs, her eyes squinted at the bright sunlight sneaking past metal bars of the window. Zack snorted and turned on his other side, still sleeping even after the horn sounded.

"Wake u-" the knight paused and looked at his feet, realizing Zack's eyes were still closed. He gave him a slight kick on the head, causing the golden haired boy to jump up with widened eyes.

"Wake up! It is a new morrow! Get up and form a line outside! Now! We will be taking you to the academy to begin your training! Move it!"

Zack's shoulders slumped as he got up and joined the line with the other dreary students, slowly making their way out of the fort.

After making it through the trials. Zack was among thirty candidates to be admitted into the Royal Altean Knighthood Academy, out of the two hundred that initially came for the trials. After spending the night at the fort, the knights escorted them out to the town, on their way to the academy.

As the knights escorted them through the bustling capital of Northwell. Zack was struck with awe by the great buildings boasting fine architecture, the clean cobbled pavements on which he and the others walked, and the fancy looking people going in and out of the different shops he saw on sides of the streets.

He drew a visual comparison in his mind of the dirty sometimes muddy streets of Eastbourne, paired with the clean stone paved streets of Northwell. And the old rusty buildings that probably couldn't survive a hurricance, versus the state of the art fortified buildings he saw here in the capital. He saw walls to the far side of the town's edges, which had walkways on top of the walls themselves, which led to several overhead bridges across the town.

He then began to stare at the well-dressed noblemen and noblewomen passing by on horses, some resting back in a carriage as someone else rode, and some troding on foot. However, some of the noblewomen seemed to have taken offense at his roaming eyes following them. When he realized their glares, he quickly turned his gaze to the merchants leading their horses with carts of rich goods attached to them. His nostrils were stung by the delightful aroma of scented perfumes coming from the merchant's wares.

Lea saw him bobbing his head up and down and turned to him, "Is this your first time in Northwell?"

"Yeah, this place is wonderful," he replied.

Lea smiled, "Really? It doesn't seem that wonderful to me, or is it because I live here heh heh. I'll show you some cool spots around town once we're done with the orientation."

Zack nodded to her as he thought how strange everything was. It was the first time he had seen a merchant with a horse, as in Eastbourne they could only afford donkeys. Even the peasants here dressed fancier than those from his home village. Occasionally, he saw various armed knights passing by greeting the knights who were escorting them, and he smiled as he pictured himself among them wearing armor and carrying a knightsword.

After a little while, Zack and the others exited the town and began walking on a dirt path, near a wheat field on the left and a river on the right. Ahead he saw a mill on the outskirts of the wheat field, sitting near the dirt path. He turned his gaze to several farmers scattered across the wheat field on the left hard at work, when suddenly, the knight leading them began to speak.