The Musketeer Girl

Chapter 14

An hour passed by before Kayley had dealt with the house robber. She had caught and arrested the thief as the young man was caught in the act - he literally had a bag full of jewellery and money that the elder man confirmed to be his; she returned the items. She asked for a passing patrolling guard to take him to the cells as she wanted to make sure the victim of this crime was okay and didn't go into any kind of shock. "Thank you madam!!" the kind elder man hugged the girl before handing her a small ring "here, as a thank you" the girl realised he wanted her to have the beautiful ring; she attempted to protest as she pushed his hand that held the ring away, but he was very persistent "please, I insist" he gently took the fourteen year old's hand and slid the ring onto her finger. The ring itself was silver with a blue jewel attached to it on top; it looked extremely expensive and Kayley tried once again tried to give it back "please, I want you to have this ring" he smiled as he placed his hand on the girl's to stop her from taking the ring off "after all, I would much rather a musketeer have and wear it instead of it get covered in dust". That one sentence completed froze Kayley....he called her a musketeer "but sir....I'm not a musketeer, I just help them" she informed, sort that would change his mind; the elder man still remained to hold his smile "but you someday will be" he stated confidently "I can tell". A large amount of emotion hit the fourteen year old in one full swoop; this man, who didn't know her at all, believed well and truly that she had a future of becoming a musketeer. "I..." she knew this was a losing battle - the elderly were always extremely stubborn; she huffed out a chuckle "alright, thank you". On her way back to the Garrison, the guard that had taken the intruder to the cells stopped the girl to inform her that he had done just that and he would probably be there for a month at the most - she thanked him for his assistance. Upon returning to the Garrison, Kayley saw all of the cadets doing their own training; she grabbed a cup of water before taking a seat - she decided to clean her gun whilst she waited for her brother and friends. This lasted for about ten minutes before the teenager heard a bunch of quiet mumbles; she looked up from the weapon in her hand to see.....all of the cadets were huddled together, stood only a few feet away from her table as they silently whispered to one another and even gently shoved each other towards her table. She managed to hear the words "ask her" come from a few of them. Raising a confused yet amused brow, Kayley spoke up "...can I help you gentlemen??" she asked, startling every single one of them; they seemed to decided upon pushing of of the cadets forward - he sent them a glare over his shoulder before turning to the teenager with a nervous and polite smile. "Em....well you see....we were wondering" he struggled as he scratched the back of his neck "you...you're em....you're really good at training D'artagnan....so we were hoping you could....that you might be willing to..." he really was finding it hard to work out what to say. Either way, the young girl seemed to understand what he was attempting to ask "you all...want me to train you?? Like I do my brother??" she asked, rather surprised by the request; all of the cadets nervously nodded their heads "hmm" she seemed to think before smiling "alright then". She stood up from her seat, resting her gun on the table by her cup of water before standing in front of the cadets who spaced out in the Garrison "first things first, show me your fighting stance" she ordered, only to receive a multiple of confused looks "the position you'll take before a duel" she clarified; they seemed to understand as they did as told. Treville was an excellent teacher and they proved it as their stances were on point. "Good" she praised "now...pick a partner and line up near the stable" they all nodded and did so with no issues; they were great good at following instructions. The fourteen year old motioned for a pair to stand in the middle of the empty space as "you two are going to duel with one another and whoever wins will go stand by the stairs and the other will stand by the tables" she instructed as the two men prepared themselves "now, begin!!". As each of the cadet pairs took turns to duel, Kayley watched intently as she needed to work out what each of them knew, what they could do and what they needed help on; most of the duels were under six minutes so it didn't take too long. All of the winners stood by the stairs partners up whilst the losers by the tables did the same - under the teenager's orders; they once again duelled with one another, all spread out within the Garrison. But this time, Kayley would stop a pair when she noticed one of them performing a certain technique or skill wrong, or one that they could improve on, before demonstrating the correct or more effective technique. Whenever she did this, even the cadets who weren't in that specific pair would stop to watch. There were a couple of things that she could easily just call out, for example: "move your feet!!", "never turn your back on your enemy!!" and "always hold your sword up at all times when in a fight!!" were the most common ones. 

This was the sight that greeted the musketeers, their captain and D'artagnan as they finally returned to the Garrison; the four young men had met up with Treville just outside the gates. "What on earth?!" they looked around at all of the cadets duelling one another before hearing someone to gather around - it was Kayley?! "Nice work everyone, you all did great today" she praised, earning many smiles "now before I call it a day for training, I'm going to show you have to easily disarm a swordsman" she informed; it clearly excitement each of the cadets as they paid attention to the demonstration - the girl had one of them stand in front of her in the fighting stance. From then on, she performed the move before earning many claps of amazement "and there you go" she smiled "now go take a break and drink lots of water" she ordered; the men did as told of course, patting the teenager on the back and thanking her as they passed her for the food and drink table. The five shocked men approached their young friend as she herself drank from a cup of water; she sent them a smile as soon as she noticed their presences. "Hey" she greeted cheerfully "how did the transfer go??" she asked as she sat down on the table, her feet resting on the bench "it went fine" D'artagnan informed "LaBarge tried to escape a few times but he's now secure in his permanent cell". That was reassuring to hear. Changing the topic, Athos spoke "so what were you doing with the cadets??" he asked with a raised brow; the fourteen year old smiled as she explained how she had returned to the Garrison over two hours ago and whilst she was sat cleaning her gun, the musketeer cadets had asked her to train them as she does her brother "so I said yes" they all smiled. Something made the older man wonder "are you going to help train them again??" he asked "or was this a one time thing??" all of the near by cadets seemed to over hear the question and stopped what they were doing, turning towards the small close group as they too wished to know the answer. Kayley saw this and couldn't contain her smile as the look in their eyes showed some form of hope and want "I...I don't know" she shrugged "I mean...if they want me to, I'm up for it" the captain nodded fondly, happy to hear this before he made his way towards his office; did he noticed how his cadets all went about their business with a skip in their step?? He said nothing about it.