Translated From Sarconian Scout

It was another ordinary first day for Swordmaster Knas.  He looked down the ranks of brown-clad students with a level of eagerness.  This was the job he loved, and having a fresh class was always interesting.  Some Students stood with their practice swords held by their sides, some rested them on their shoulders, and others had placed the points on the ground and were resting their hands on the pommel.  A couple were slowing revolving the swords in their hands, grasping them first by the hilt, then by the long wooden baton that served as the blade, obviously trying to figure out which end was which.  Knas smiled inwardly as he called the class to attention, introducing himself, his assistants, and laying down the law.  "Now," he said when he was finished, "This next will probably be review for many of you, but it's good to keep the basics in mind."  Knas lifted his practice sword.  "This is your practice sword.  It is formed and balanced almost exactly like a real sword.  This end is the blade, and this end is the hilt.  Always hold the sword by the hilt; on a real sword the blade will be sharp."  He noted with satisfaction that the two confused Students were now holding their swords properly.  Randomly calling on students, he had them identify the cross-guard, grip, and pommel.  This finished, he moved on to basic stance.  "You'll be hearing this in nearly every class, so pay attention.  Never stand with your feet together unless you are at attention.  Always have them approximately shoulder-width apart.  Keep your weight on the balls of your feet as well.  This will stabilize you quite effectively."  He gestured for the class to shift to the stance he had just explained and sent his assistants down the ranks.  They would give each student a firm shove in the shoulder.  If the student's stance was correct, they would remain on their feet.  If it was incorrect, they would stumble or fall over.

Over the next forty-five minutes, Knas decided what would happen during the next class.  Firstly, he realized with regret that he would have to give his lecture on how dangerous swords really were. Then he would randomly pair the students, have them duel, and figure out where they needed to be.  The totally incompetent would study under an assistant, while the rest of the class stayed with Knas.  Every now and then, of course, Knas added to himself, there would be that one student who had already received extensive training, and they would have to be shifted to a completely different class.  And Kans believed that he had one of those - a tall, quiet boy with brown hair and green eyes who had an ease about him.  I could be wrong, Knas thought.  I have been before, and flawless performance of basic movements doesn't mark him as exceptional.  But there's something about him that gives me a hunch.  Knas turned away from his scrutiny of the boy.  Whatever his hunches were, they would have to wait until the next day.

The clashing of the wooden practice swords echoed off the stone of the courtyard the next morning, and Knas found himself watching the green-eyed boy again.  Looking down at the chart next to him, Knas noted that the boy's name was Jasper and immediately placed him as the young Strianelian protege of John and Mary Breaker who was rumored to have studied with Gilthoniel Dragontongue.  Watching Jasper duel his opponent, Knas was willing to consider the rumor as truth.  Jasper was turning aside every attack with competent ease, and even if he was not taking the offensive very much himself, every attack he made dove easily through any defense attempted.  Knas glanced around.  There were plenty of capable assistants to handle the rest of the class.  If Jasper had studied with Gilthoniel, Knas knew that he was be extremely skilled, and he did not want to keep him in a basic class like this.  Knas signaled the assistant overseeing the duel Jasper was engaged in.  They would find out Jasper's skill level now.

 

Jasper felt nervous when the assistant overseeing him called an abrupt end to the duel.  The girl Jasper had been fighting, if it could even be called that, bent over, gasping for breath.  "Are you okay?" he asked her.

"Yeah, just out of breath," she replied, rubbing her arm.  "You hit hard."

"Sorry," said Jasper.

"Nevermind," the girl gasped.  "This is sword class, not a picnic or something like that.  You get walloped on."

"Go ahead and sit down, Rachel," the assistant told the girl.  

As she moved away, Jasper saw the Swordmaster headed in their direction and began feeling more nervous.

"Jasper Watson, am I correct?" the Swordmaster asked him.

"Yessir," Jasper replied.

"I've heard that you studied with Miss Dragontongue.  Is that true?"

"Yes," Jasper told him a little hesitantly.

"For how long?"

"Around three months."

"What level did she say you were at when you left?"

"We didn't go by levels sir, but when she left, she said I was 'pretty good'."

The Swordmaster turned and gestured to the assistant.  "Max.  I'll oversee it."  Jasper fell back a couple steps and took his stance, wondering why Max suddenly seemed uncomfortable.  The Swordmaster stepped out of the stone circle.  "Begin," he said.

Max swung at Jasper, and Jasper knocked the stroke aside.  After a few more feeler thrusts, the two boys flew at each other.  The rest of the class was distracted from their respective activities by the loud, fast whacking noise that now engulfed the courtyard.  Those who had watched or participated in frequent duels quickly saw that Jasper was Max's master.  Max was holding off defeat by lively ducking and dodging, but Jasper's skill was relentless.  Jasper dominated for the better part of the duel, and Max was quickly defeated.

"Very good, both of you," said Knas, nodding.  "Jasper, I'm going to transfer you to a more advanced class that will meet here at three 'o clock.  Please arrange your schedule accordingly."

"Yes, Swordmaster," Jasper said, nodding.

The swords started flying.  Jasper and Nancy worked together easily to combat against Max's double-sword defence.  Suddenly, Max, disengaged and went for Nancy with both swords.  It was a familiar combination to both Nancy and Jasper, and Nancy could have handled it with little trouble on her part, but she never had the chance.  Jasper, without even realizing that he did so, stepped in between her and Max's stroke, blocking the other boy's attack.

"Freeze!" shouted the swordmaster.

Jasper, who had been holding back but was now about to exert all of his skill on Max, froze, as did the other two combatants.

Knas paced over to them.   "Did you see what happened there?" he asked the class, who had been watching intently.  "Jasper, did you step between Nancy and the stroke aimed at her on purpose?"

Jasper thought for a moment.  "I suppose I did, Swordmaster Knas, but I didn't really think about doing it before I did it, if that makes any sense, swordmaster."

Swordmaster Knas nodded.  "Did you hear that?" he asked the class.

"Yes, sir," they responded.

"Who can tell me what Assistant Jasper meant?"
Jasper was beginning to see where this all was going and remembered getting this lecture.  A student raised a hand.  "He meant that he acted instinctively, swordmaster."

"Exactly," said Swordmaster Knas.  "Young ladies, I want you to remember this.  When you are out on a mission, it will be the boy's instinct to protect you; he will step between you and the brunt of  the attack.  Now, notice Assistant Nancy's stance." Knas walked over to the still-motionless trio of assistants  "She is still ready, but she has moved back a pace, allowing  Jasper to take the lead here and fend off Assistant Max.  If she had not backed off like that, if she had continued in her defense against Max, she would have given Jasper here a nasty cut on the shoulder.  This," he pointed to the trio, "is standard.  There are modifications, of course.  If they were in full battle, Nancy would pivot," he gestured to Nancy to pivot, "and watch Jasper's back while he is preoccupied with Max.  Return to your former position, Nancy. Please continue the duel slowly and freeze when I say so."

Moving slowly, Jasper began his attack.  Max retreated for a short time, then moved off the defensive.  Nancy spun out and came back to Jasper's side, swinging her sword gracefully towards Max and reentering the combat.

"Freeze!" Knas shouted again.  "See how she has reentered the combat?" he asked the class.  "That is also standard..." he gestured for the three assistants to unfreeze and continued on with the class.

 

Winter, though it seemed that it had just slipped  away, locked its icy grip back on the mountains.  Indeed, it was a very early winter, Alethea observed as she gazed about the farmyard.  The  clouds over the mountains were threatening a terrible storm.  Alethea's worry was not the storm, however.  The house was snug, and they had plenty of wood and supplies.  Her worry was that Jasper was not home yet.  The boy had become as a brother to her, and she was concerned for his safety.  At last she shrugged and turned away towards the porch.

"The Scouts will probably keep everyone at headquarters anyway, what with the storm," she said to herself.

 

The full force of the storm hit Jasper about a half mile from the Breaker farm. He slid off Larkspur, gently crooning to the horse over the howl of the storm.  Going to the saddlebags, which were always kept packed with a few basics, he pulled out a compass and cradled it in his hands.  Looping Larkspur's reins over his arm, Jasper started walking, trying to stay on the bearing of the compass.  He was no stranger to storms; they were frequent on the plains, but this one was cold.  After some time, he ran into something.  He felt it carefully.  The barn!  He opened the door with almost numb fingers and led Larkspur inside, pushing the heavy door shut behind him.  The howl of the storm faded to an extent.  The horses whinnied their greetings, and the cats meowed loudly.  Jasper rubbed down Larkspur, filled the horse's manger with hay, and headed for the house.  There was a sturdy rope that led from the barn door to the porch, so he was not worried about getting lost.

"Jasper!" Alethea gasped as he came in the door, stomping snow from his boots.

"Hello, Lethey," Jasper replied, unclasping his cloak.

"What were you thinking?" Alethea scolded.  "Going out in a storm like this!"  She grabbed Jasper's cold hands and held them between her own.  "Are you crazy?  Why did they even let you go?"

"I have some experience with storms," said Jasper, "And I live tolerably close.  They figured I'd make it."

Alethea clicked her tongue in disapproval as she led Jasper towards the kitchen to get something hot for him to drink.

Anna, who had been hiding under a small table, leaped out and took a death hold on Jasper's leg much in the way that she would cling to a tree she was climbing.  Jasper's gait slowed to a slight limp at the weight.  Anna detached herself when they arrived in the kitchen.  Alethea started making tea while Jasper sank into a chair and pulled out his notebooks.  Anna scrambled into his lap, bouncing.

"What was history class about?" she asked him.

Alethea smiled as she listened as Jasper pulled out his history notebook and began outlining the lesson.  Both Anna and Jasper benefited from Anna's curiosity; Anna because she was indirectly learning from some very skilled teachers, and Jasper because he was repeating the day's lessons and therefore clarifying it for himself.

"Wasn't that silly for King Derek to go crazy?" Anna asked Jasper.

Jasper considered her question for a moment.  He didn't have any notes on this part of the subject, so he decided to go on his own experience.  "No, I don't think it was silly.  Sometimes sisters get annoying..."

Anna grimaced at him.  "I don't," she said quite firmly.

Jasper smiled and continued.  "...but there's a bond between brother and sister that's quite different from the bond between friends or spouses.  It's hard to explain, but you know what I mean.  Especially being a twin.  What would you do if you knew the Aranara had captured Stephen?"

Anna cocked her head as she thought.  "I'd cry and cry and then I'd go down there and say, 'Give my brother back or you'll be sorry you didn't!'  And then I'd get them with a sword. "

"Well, then, you can understand why King Derek was so distressed."

"What's 'dis-tressed' mean?  I heard Alethea call her hair 'tresses' one time, so did you mean that King Derek pulled all his hair out because he was so sad and crazy?"

Alethea giggled.

Jasper laughed.  "Um, no.  Though it does sound kind of like that, 'distressed' in that case means 'very sad'."

"Oh."  A sly look came onto Anna's face.  "I"ll bet Stephen doesn't know that."  Stephen, up to this point, always seemed to know more than his twin sister, and Anna was not usually content to let him be the brains, challenging his intelligence at every turn in hopes of finding something she knew and he did not.

"What don't I know?" asked Stephen, who had just entered the room in hopes of a pre-bedtime snack from a lenient Alethea. 

"What 'distressed' means," Anna responded, a challenge in her voice.

Stephen struggled for the definition, but in vain.  "I...don't know," he admitted, not looking too happy about the fact.

Anna surveyed her momentarily vanquished twin from her perch on Jasper's lap with prim regalness.  Jasper grinned over her head at Alethea, who was putting the tea on the table.  Seeing the beginnings of a spat between the siblings, Alethea called Stephen away from his woes with the promise of scones and hot milk.  Forgetting the failed attempt at defining the word, Stephen scrambled into a chair to eagerly await the coming refreshment.

Alethea set a cup of tea in front of Jasper and, pouring tea for herself, sat down across from him.  "My mission has been bumped back, Jasper," she told him.  "I'm leaving for Corvan with Master Kall and his assistants in two days."

"In the middle of winter?" Jasper said disbelievingly.

Alethea smiled slightly.  "Politics doesn't pay attention to seasons."  She sipped at her tea.  "The passes into Corvan are quite low.  We shouldn't run into too much difficulty.  The Council is sending three Scouts with us instead of the usual one."

Jasper nodded and drank his own tea while he thought.  "It's a shame politics can't  be sensible," he muttered.

Alethea laughed.  "Politics is is about the most ridiculous thing that there ever was.  You won't ever find it to be sensible, Jasper."

"Then why do you do it?" asked Anna as she nibbled at a scone that she had dunked in warm milk and honey.

"Fmbophy haf tof ip," said Stephen with his mouth full.

"Stephen," said Alethea, "don't talk with your mouth full.  It's not polite, and no one can understand what you are saying."

Stephen swallowed, then repeated, with a reproachful glance at his twin sister, "Somebody has to do it."

Anna sighed resignedly.  "I guess so.  But can't some boring old guy handle it instead of Lethy?"

"Anna!" reproved Alethea.

"Anna," said Jasper, " 'Old guys' may appear to be boring, but it's not nice to call them such, even behind their backs."

Anna sighed dramatically and ate her scone.