Completed A New Chapter Begins

[Claudia Blackwood]

2nd of Spring, 515 AV

It was on this fateful day that her life would change.
A new chapter in her journey of life was about to begin.

A sunny morning graced the second day of spring, as Claudia woke up to a brand new day. It had been a while since she had applied to the squires, and she had not yet received any word on her application. She wondered if she had been successful.

She would definitely be heart-broken if she could not be part of the order, for it meant that she would not be able to become a knight. Becoming a knight was her childhood dream, and one she sought to fulfill. Washing up with a bucket of water she had requested from the innkeeper, she got dressed and made ready to get back out into the streets to carry out her daily errands and the like.

As she was about to leave, there was a series of loud knocks on the door. Claudia wondered who that could be, as she didn't have many friends in the city yet. Opening up the door, she saw a scrawny looking boy dressed simply in a uniform of a page with the order's insignia embroidered into it.

He clutched an official looking scroll in his hands, as he shot her a question. "Are you Claudia Blackwood?" She gave him a nod before replying "That's me."

The boy then stretched out his hands, presenting the scroll to her "I was tasked to deliver this message to you. It comes directly from the Office of Recruitment, from Ser Erik Rainstrom himself. Please take it." He presented her with a brief smile, as he finished offered her the scroll again.

Grabbing the scroll from his grubby hands, Claudia tore open the wax seal that had been affixed to the scroll. Unrolling it, she let out a gasp as she read the contents of the message. It read

Dear Claudia Blackwood,

I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the order as a Squire. Please proceed to the Squire Dormitories and look for Chaperone Rachel Pernis. She will then introduce you to your bunk and inform you about your patron.

Best Regards,
Ser Erik Rainstorm

As she digested the information, Claudia couldn't help but jump for joy. She had finally been accepted into the order. She was finally a squire. She was well on her way to achieve her dream of being a Knight someday. Turning back into her room, she packed her belongings and vacated the room.

As she got to the ground floor of the Golden Dragon, she waved to the innkeeper as she told him she would be leaving, saying "A new chapter begins!" earning her a puzzled look as she left, not a clue as to what in the world the girl was talking about.

[Claudia Blackwood]

As Claudia was leaving the inn, she happened to recognise the page who had passed her the scroll earlier on, chatting with a couple other boys his age, probably street urchins, judging by their outfits. She tapped his shoulder gently, asking him "Hey there, could you tell me where the dormitories are?" The boy looked at her, quizzically for a moment, before recognising her as the one he delivered the scroll to earlier.

He then gave her a crooked smile as he answered "Its in the Bittern District, on the second tier, you can't miss it." She thanked the boy, giving the group her usual beautiful smile, causing a few of the boys to blush in response to the attention. "Good day miss!" one of them said, apparently pleased with the attention.

Claudia turned towards the direction of the Bittern District and head towards it. After a series of turns and winding corridors, and a particular long set of stairs, which she climbed with excitement, she finally reached the Squire Dormitories. Stepping through a set of doors, she entered the building. Right up ahead, she saw an elderly looking woman sitting at a desk, scribbling away.

Claudia got up to the desk, and she asked "Hi.. I'm er..looking for Chaperone Rachel Pernis?" The older woman stopped scribbling, looked up and gave her a frown, scrutinising her. She said "I'm her." Claudia perked up, saying "I'm Claudia, and I'm a new squire, I was told by Ser Erik that you would be my chaperone." The woman's face softened as she heard the girls reason for being here and she replied "Welcome to the order Claudia." She got up from her seat, motioning for Claudia to follow. "Come on now, I'll lead you to your bunk."

As the pair walked past several rooms, passing many squires along the way, who threw inquisitive looks their way, curious about the new squire. They finally arrived at the location, and her Chaperone said "We're here. The empty bed is yours." her finger pointing towards the empty bunk. "Use the chest to store your belongings. Quickly do that, and I'll bring you to meet your patron."

Claudia hurriedly entered the room, and stored her belongings in the chest provided, next to the bunk. The pair then left, walking back, towards the reception area. As they were walking, Rachel said "Oh, and by the way, your patron would be Ser Sebastian Greyheart. I believe he's waiting for you right now."

[Claudia Blackwood]

As they got back to the reception area, Claudia could see a muscular, well-built man sitting on one of the few chairs placed in the sparse room. He had a mop of dirty blonde hair, and a set of strong masculine features that accentuated his handsome face. At first glance, she thought that he had a cool and nonchalant look about him, but all that changed when he saw the pair approaching.

He gave them a roguish smile, as his eyes caught sight of Claudia. She smiled to herself, inadvertently presenting him a smile as well. She thought to herself, he doesn't look too bad; his rather roguish appearance gave off a certain charm.

Claudia presented herself before him as her chaperone; Rachel Peris introduced the two of them to each other. "Claudia, this here would be your patron, Ser Sebastian Greyheart. He is a Sergeant Knight in the order, and I'm sure you two will get along just fine." Giving her a quick look over, he let out a chuckle. "We just might, Rachel. We just might."

Stretching his hand out for a handshake, he introduced himself "You can call me Ser Bastian, or if you have a really long-winded streak about you, Ser Sebastian, whichever is fine with me really." That really took her by surprise. She had thought knights to be particularly picky about how they were addressed. Ser Bastian here, didn't seem to be so much the case.

Although one might judge him to be stern and fierce looking from his appearance, it couldn't be further from the truth. Once he spoke, his tone and animated gestures broke the disillusioning spell, and one could not help but change ones impression of him.

She shook his hand, excited to finally meet her patron. She had a gut feeling that they were going to get along just well. Rachel raised her hands, piercing the air with a loud clap, announcing that she would be leaving them, to get back to her duties. That left the two of them alone, free to do whatever her patron so wished. The first thing Ser Bastian said was "Lets, go to the outer courtyard. I've got something waiting for us there. Let's see if you're up to it."

A relatively quiet section of the city, The outer courtyards in the Bittern District leading to the dormitories seemed like an good place for a little workout. As the pair headed out into the courtyards, Ser Bastian gestured towards two wooden swords resting on the wall. "Grab one of them and toss the other to me. Let's see what you can do." Walking over to grab one of the sparring swords, she tossed the remaining one to the knight, which he caught effectively with one arm.

"Alright, come at me." he said casually, throwing her a smirk.

[Claudia Blackwood]

Adopting a basic stance with her feet slightly apart from each other, Claudia lunged towards Ser Bastian with a probing stroke. She held the wooden practice sword with both hands, getting a good feel of the practice sword in her hands. Unburdened by the weight of the sword, it felt strange, but this seemed to allow a greater freedom of movements to carry out the strokes needed.

He batted her first strike away easily with a half-hearted swing. He seemed to think her ignorant, and she strived to prove him otherwise. Taking a step back, she then made a thrust, accompanied by her left leg taking a step forwards. He made to carry out the same careless bat again, but this time, she didn't stop there.

She carried on with a basic vertical cut, with the blade perpendicular to the ground, clearly aiming to come down on his head. Ser Bastian then raised his sword above his head, with the blade slightly tilted to the ground, causing the offensive blade to achieve nothing more than to glance off.

He gave her a smile as fended off her first series of attacks, saying "That's more like it! Bring it on, more!" Goading her into attacking him further. Claudia obliged by sending a horizontal cut, aiming at his left shoulder, quickly followed by another slash, this time heading for his right shoulder. He held his sword on the left comfortably, parrying her attack before moving to block her other attack on the right.

Claudia watched his parrying technique as he kept his blade as vertical as possible, with the blade central to his shoulders. Ser Bastian seemed to be smiling more by the chime, and she was wondering what was going on in his mind. She hoped she wasn't disappointing him.

He thought to himself Definitely better than I thought. Not just a pretty face after all.

What followed next was a downward swinging slash aiming for her patron's left leg. He followed by swinging his sword to his left, downwards in the direction of her blade, parrying the attack away from his lower body. She aimed for his right, but was repulsed with an equally confident sets of blocks and parries. Launching yet another thrust towards the centre of his torso, she finally managed to land a successful strike on him.

Claudia had no idea if she had managed to catch him by surprise, or if he didn't block that attack on purpose. All she knew was that, at least she had managed to score one hit.

That's something.

By then, both of them had worked up quite a sweat. They were both drenched in perspiration, their bodies glistening with perspiration.

Ser Bastian seemed to think that this was an opportune time to conclude the spar. "Alright, that's enough for now." He took a couple of steps forward, closing the distance between pupil and master.

He placed a firm hand on her shoulder saying "I'll admit, you did alot better than I expected." Before removing that same hand, to ruffle up her hair, prompting a "Hey!" from her. He then told her "Put these practice swords back where you found them, then let's go for a drink. I could do for a icy cold ale just about now. How’s that sound?"

"That sounds great!" as all she said, as the pair moved on, ending the rather eventful afternoon of introductions and training.

[Orin Fenix]

Grades are Served

 

Claudia Blackwood

Skill	XP
Socialization	3
Observation	2
Weapon: Longsword	1
Endurance	1

Lores

• Becoming a Squire
• Rachel Pernis: Chaperone
• Location: The Squire Dormitories
• Ser Sebastian Greyheart: Patron

Shield Points

+1	Patron Present
+1	Training

Extras :

A truly lovely read! It was short but sweet and I loved Claudia’s excitement as she found out about being in the Knighthood.

Don't forget to edit or delete your grade request in the grade request thread.

If you have any questions or concerns about your grade please feel free to send me a message.