1 A New Story To Tell

I've been long in thought over what would happen once I arrived at Hjalfast School of Knights... I never expected it to be this... well big? I remarked gazing up at its tall towers, it felt like a city within a city. Its marbled walls blinded you as you came ever closer till the point where you could see the stonework perfectly. It stood like a gem in the midst of a city, torn by war, broken by grief and full of despair and hatred. As I entered the smell of roast meat and various fruity wines overwhelmed me. Was this the real place? Or had I just stepped into a glorified tavern? I held firmly in one hand my letter of recommendation from my local lord... well I see local lord, but in truth he is my father and I his bastard.

My mother was a serving girl, she worked hard to please her lady, the name of I forget. All I was told was she was overwhelmed in grief over my eventual birth and threw herself at another man due to my fathers disloyalty. They were later found and executed for adultery, supposedly this caused a massive uproar in the hold I was from, but what am I to know? I wasn't even born yet. Anyways lets just say I didn't get along with my father or my mother for that matter and I asked to be sent here to basically just get away. There was no honourable obligation for me to leave, just except I wanted to.

Anyways as I walked into the building I noticed a couple of desks with people standing behind them. I approached nervously... well as much as you'd usually be, handed over my letter and the look they gave. Well lets say I've had more flattering looks from some old trout that threw his mug of ale at me a few nights ago.

"Name?" the lady remarked, her expression unwavering.

"Stavn." my nervousness showing vividly as I began to scratch my left arm.

"So you wish to join the Knight in Training? And to do so you brought no armour?" She'd sigh before bursting with laughter.

"I was supposed to bring items with me?" As more I was confused, I literally had no idea what was going on.

"Are you a simpleton? It would've been best for you to bring your own." She picked up her quill and began to write down something. She then passed the letter back to me.

"We owe your 'father' some money so he's going to cut us out of his debt if we let you join. No go scurry off to the squad I've written, they are used to receiving fuck ups like you."

I grabbed the letter from her as quickly as possible and then went off to a board at the back of the room to look for directions. As I approached it I could feel it... the pressure of everyone staring at me, judging me. I quickly scanned the map searching for the Headquarters of the squad called "The Hullmfald Ruts" I thought for a second that the name must've been spelt wrong as a joke. Surely this team wasn't actually called...that. My eyes catching the name on the map, I felt a sense of real disappointment fall over me.

I paced myself slowly as I headed towards the area taking deep breaths as I stepped. This is the point where I realised that having your eyes closed whilst walking is not the greatest idea in the world... Lets just say... I bumped into someone that I might've seen as somebody not to... well bump...into.

"OI! Look where you're going clutz!" a girl screamed as I slowly tumbled to my ever impending fate of being slammed into the ground. Now you might think 'Hey maybe you're into that shit?' you're wrong... so very fucking wrong.

I opened my eyes to a girl in some casual clothing her hair was just past her shoulders at the front and in a ponytail at the back, its colour? Brown, like tree bark? No.... that's not a nice thing to say about the person you walked into. But it was a nice brown closer to ash than it was supposed to be but... nonetheless it was nice to look at. Her eyes blue as close to sapphires as you could get. Then all I could see was her boot in my face. I lay there for a while as they marched off thinking to myself "I didn't get her name." and then "Ah fuck my nose is bleeding and my lip is burst."

I quickly moved towards my HQ, my hand trying to cover both my nose and mouth as much as possible, as I approached the entrance I basically began to prepare to throw myself through the door. I ran towards the door ready to throw myself through and then it suddenly opened with me basically flying through and landing at the feet of a group of strangers. Then a booming voice filled the room.

"Welcome to the group of fuck ups kid! Welcome to the Hullmfald Ruts!"