Red haired girl

Chapter 12

Owen was standing in his little hut. Four of the boys were outside on the square, playing a game of tug of war. They were bored, but he wouldn’t let them go home yet. One of the things a knight must know, was to be loyal to your companions, which in this case meant: waiting for each other. He turned his back to the small window, which was on purpose covered with mud and dust, so that he could look out, but nobody could look in. Sighing, he rubbed his forehead. Where were those boys?! They had returned last with the previous assignment and now they were late again. Their answers had been very different either. They had filled in the actual name of one of their plants! It was as though they had already done this training, as if they knew what they had to do. Owen had had very high expectations of them. Not for any specific reasons. Well, maybe Steven´s project played a small role…

            He walked outside, where the boys immediately dropped their ropes and started to bug around him, trying to persuade him to let them go. He ignored them and looked at the sun. Only half an hour left before dark. What took the other boys so long? Okay, they did have the hardest exercise, having to find the small goat path down the cliff, but even then they should have found the swords already. The way back would be easy, following the same route as they used before.

“Why do we have to stay?”

“It’s almost dark. I want to go home!”

“Come on, let us go!” The other students kept bugging around him, complaining like little girls, making it hard to think. Owen had hidden his irritations so far, but now he decided to use them to teach the boys a lesson about patience.

“Will you shut up?!” he exclaimed, startling them. “Sit down and be quiet for a change! You’ll hear it when you’re allowed to go.” He turned his back on them and started pacing. From the corner of his eye he could see the boys had listened to him and were now looking at him, wide-eyed of shock. 

            He felt the urge to smile, but he didn’t, that would make them think that he wasn’t serious. He went back inside and took his notes about the exercises out. He went through them and came to the same conclusion: they should have been back already. That meant they were being slow or lazy or both. Or something was wrong and that seemed to be the case. What did he have to do? He was supposed to be their trainer, not their babysitter. All of the boys were fifteen or sixteen. One of them was even seventeen. They should be able look after themselves. But on the other hand: if something happened to Will or Bryan, their fathers, two of mightiest knights in the kingdom, would come after him, what was not a very attractive idea…

            He put his notes back with the others and went outside. The boys were still quietly sitting on the ground.

“Okay,” Owen started. “You can go when the sun is no longer visible. And I’ll be the one to say when it’s no longer visible.” All of the boys turned around to look at the sun. It was just touching the horizon.

            Owen had decided he would go looking for Bryan and Will when the time was officially up. That meant at sunset. There was no use in having the other four with him, so they could go home. He stared at the sun and hoped the boys would show up at the last moment, but somehow he knew they wouldn’t. Something was wrong, he could feel it. Ironically, he ran out of patience.

“Okay, go away. See you tomorrow,” he said to his students. A little confused, they looked at the sun, but luckily they didn’t ask questions. Owen watched them as they trotted away in the direction of the town.

            No sooner than they were out of view, he ran inside, grabbed his sword and headed for the forest. He couldn’t let them get in trouble. He had to save them.