FicWad

Just a little note before reading on: Raven is entirely my intellectual property. If there is any event/character/concept/whatever that is similar to someone else's work, I state here and now that I did not directly steal the idea/concept. As the way of the world, two entirely different people can invent similar things. (You can privately point out the bit you are unhappy with and refer me to your source).

Please R&R and enjoy my story.
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/Raven/

Chapter 1


"Bren!"
Someone prodded her in the side. She muttered incoherently.
"Brenna!" The prod was harder and sharper this time. She groaned and battered the pestering hand away. "Come on Bren! We'll be late to breakfast and I know what you're like when you don't eat." She dragged the sheets off her friend.
At the mentioning of food, Brenna of Avalon sat up on her bed and opened her eyes blearily. Her best friend was sitting on the end of her bed.
"Oh, it's only you."
"What do you mean it's only me? I'm your damn wake call because you won't get up when the cock crows!" she said in exasperation, standing up. Her short blonde hair bounced in Ash's agitation. "Get UP!"
"Ash," she moaned. Ashley gave her a dirty look. "Okay, okay, I'm up, I'm up." Bren jumped off the cot and disappeared into her dressing room, her hair fluttering like a banner behind her.
"Be quick. You don't want the boys thinking that you're lazy again."
"Yeah, sure" Bren replied sarcastically.
Moments later the woman was dressed and Ash was waiting by the open door of their room. Bren gave her friend a calculating gaze. "I just got them to stop."
They jogged at a slow pace so they wouldn't be breathing heavily when they got to their destination. The young women came to a walk as they reached the short corridor which led to the mess hall. Bren paused just before she turned through the door, pointing down to the other end of the corridor where three of the second year students were also late. Ashley snickered as she walked in, her amber eyes hiding her amusement. Those boys just covered them from being the last to breakfast. It wasn't imperative that their male year-mates shouldn't know how late they were but the women decided these occurrences were best left unknown. The deities knew that Ash and Bren wouldn't miss the opportunity to tease them if it were the other way round.
The two female students joined the short serving line, grabbing a tray and selecting their food. Brenna looked around the hall as she stepped away, searching for the mischievous bunch of bastards that she and Ash called friends. She spotted Dale of Spring Mountain at a table near the wall. It wasn't that hard, since he was the biggest of the older students. Ashley followed her to the table and sat next Sean of Green-towers, straight across from Dale, while Bren stole into the spare seat between him and Perri of Blue Downs.
"Morning boys," Bren said cheerily.
Dale nudged Brenna while he gave her cheek, "Morning Sleepy."
She pointedly decided to ignore him all day. Ashley saw the expression on Bren's face and knew that it wouldn't last past breakfast.
The rest of the men at the table greeted the women raucously. Although it came into practice two decades ago, conservatives were still persecuting females who wished to study combat. However, all the young men of the fourth-year class at the Kings' Academy were Bren and Ashley's good friends.
They had come to respect the skills of their female year-mates during their first year. An arrogant man in fourth year at the time had taken it on himself to bully the girls at the Academy. Safe to say the conservative wrongly challenged Bren and Ash near the end of their first year and was soundly beaten; he underestimated the girls' collective strength by stereotyping them as weak. The entire class of first-year students knew that that man was glad he graduated soon after.
Brenna has always been tall for age and was one of the tallest in her year. She had a strong warrior figure with strong muscles built up on every limb from hard years of Academy training. Her hair was as black as coal and fell half way down her back. She had a long neck and a plain face, but the cast of nobility on her features brought out her astonishing, sea-green eyes. Bren's mouth was slightly full and was always ready with a smile.
The clanging voice of the Kings' Academy's main bell echoed down the corridors. It was the first signal of the day and the warning for the students to get to their classes. The sound of scraping benches reverberated throughout hall as the students stood and returned their trays. Bren dropped the piece of toast she had just bitten onto her tray and hurriedly swallowed her mouthful before getting up. She put her tray back and eyed the remnants of food on the serving table. The other seven fourth-years waited impatiently at the doors for her, but still chuckled when Bren snatched a handful of grapes from the fruit bowl on her way past.
They rowdily headed towards the closest exit near the stables for their first lesson of the week. The Kings' Academy stables housed the horses of both the students and the teachers. Those students who didn't own a horse was provided with one while at the Academy. Brenna looked forward to their classes with Violet, the horse-mistress and the teacher attuned to the earth. In these lessons she could spend time with her wonderful mare, Swiftstar, who had a coat the same colour as her owner's hair and a white star covering her soft nose.
Violet met the fourth-years at the entrance to the yard. "I know I have worked you and your horses in different kinds of weather. However, Storm has advised me not to teach you in the elements today."
The students glanced outside at the heavens upon the horse-mistress' announcement. Dark clouds clustered in the grey sky and a storm threatened on the eastern front. Storm was the hand-to-hand combat teacher and she was attuned to the water elements. The woman had been fairly accurate in her weather predicting in the years Brenna had been attending. She was slightly disappointed that they wouldn't be riding today but Bren trusted Storm's weather advice.
Even after years of hard training atop a horse, Tate of Snow Valley still wasn't comfortable in his seat. "Where do we get to go, Violet?" the fourth-year piped up in relief.
"Blade wants to take you lot."
Torrance of Blake-lake elbowed Tate in the ribs. "Nice one! You want a day off from riding and we all get stuck with the sword-master."
"Oh he's not that bad Torr," rebutted Conner of Haven.
"Just because you are better at sword than I" Torrance grumbled.
Bren placed her hands in the smalls of their backs and shoved both them forward. "Move it ladies. I don't want to be any later than we already are."
"We get a full day of bashing at each other, won't that be fun," Perri commented semi-seriously.
The fourth-years navigated back along the halls to reach the practice courts where Blade reigned with the weapons training. The sword-master didn't have a mean personality outside of the courts but a few of his exercises seemed down right cruel to half of the Academy's students. There was salvation for some of the students in the form of the woman Jaeger, Blade's prentice. These two of the sword were of the fire element and occurred on the opposite ends of the scale. Jaeger had not yet taken after her master so was the warmth and light of fire, whereas Blade represented the unpredictable nature of fire.
Sword-master Blade had already started the second-years on warming up by the time the older students joined the class in practice court two.
"Ah, the band of misfits has arrived." Blade said in greeting. He waved them over to the cushioned mats. "You lot know how to start."
The students nodded. For the past three weeks the sword-master had been making the fourth-years perform the same set of stretches before every lesson. They spread themselves out so they wouldn't hinder each other.
"I wonder why Blade wanted us" Dale commented.
Bren stretched an arm behind her head. "Either to torture us or" she nodded towards the second-years "torture them."
"Any body want to bet on our weapon?" Sean asked innocently. "A silver coin he chooses blunt, short blades."
Torrance took up the bet. "It'll be staves."
Ash grinned, "Weighted long swords."
The three men grimaced at her words. Ashley uncannily won most of the bets she entered amongst the fourth-years. They wrapped up the last of their stretches in silence. The students could tell that Blade had one eye on them, though his attention was on Jaeger's run-through with the second-years. Once done, the sword-master sent the younger students to the court walls to get a weapon. Torrance, Ash and Sean watched on with interest as the class quickly obeyed Blade's order. Sean threw his hands into the air while Torrance just shook his head in defeat. They had taken the practice long swords from the walls.
Bren leaned on Ash's shoulder. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that you were clairvoyant."
"Predicting the future is not my thing" she replied. "I just remember something like this happened to us in second-year."
"Wasn't that the time when Dale fell over and tripped two of the fourth-years." said Perri.
"And Conner was whacked in the head with the hilt of the sword."
They chortled discreetly until Jaeger beckoned them to join the second-years. Blade stood in front of the gathered students and proceeded to instruct them in the day's training.
"The each of the second-years will be duelling with a fourth-year. The object of this morning is to expose the younger students to the pressure of fighting a more experienced warrior. I want all of you to be on guard."
Blade turned to the older students. "Go easy on them at first." He motioned them to grab a practice sword.
The second-years congregated on the mat opposite the seniors, many of them were rigid with trepidation. Jaeger pulled at one of the young boys and pointed at a fourth-year. Luckily there was eight students in both the years so none missed out on the cross-class duelling. There was only one female in the second-year and Zora of Rocksby was teamed with Perri, the smallest fourth-year. The prentice teacher figured that Zora didn't need an intimidating mountain like Dale on the girl's first pressure session.
The younger students were having a hard time keeping up with the more experienced older students. It didn't seem fair to them to be duelling with an obvious disadvantage. However, Sword-master Blade saw it as an opportunity to learn under pressure and not run the risk of losing their life in the process.
The practice swords that they were using were made of wood and the edges had been rounded. Also the weapons were weighted with lead causing them to be a lot heavier, so a normal sword would feel lighter than it was. The most damage these swords could do in the hands of little experienced students was to give the fourth-years some nasty bumps and bruises if they weren't careful.
Blade strolled around the duellists and watched each of the match-ups individually, assessing both combatants' technique and form. He wanted to test the fourth-years to see whether they kept good technique while consciously heeding his orders of leniency.
A rhythmic thrumming echoed from the roof of the Academy. Storm was right about the swollen clouds this morning. The noise of the heavy shower battled with the slapping blades for dominance in the practice courts. Suddenly the fourth-years were glad that they Blade had taken them, no one wanted to be cold and covered in mud like they would if they were outside.
Sword-master Blade was not happy with his fourth-years. The older students seemed to have decided to take lenient on the young ones a bit too seriously. They may be able to dodge their partners' swings but they were slack, doing nothing except regressing in their technique. Brenna of Avalon and Perri of Blue Downs were the only exceptions of the group.
"Halt!" His commanding voice cut through the pounding rain.
The students froze in their positions; no one could mistake his unimpressed tone. Blade smirked as he eyed the fourth-years. The sword-master walked behind the young ones. He whispered to each student, who nodded acknowledgement and he moved on. When Blade had finished, the second-years recommenced duelling and caught most of the fourth-years off guard. The only ones who managed avoiding a bruise from their partners were Conner of Haven and Bren. Blade chuckled as he continued around the perimeter of the mat and checked Jaeger on how she assessed the students.
The fourth-years managed to talk while duelling, a skill they perfected a couple of months into their training at the Kings' Academy.
"Damn, he caught on" Torrance of Black-lake said quietly, loud enough for just the duelling students to hear. He blocked a wide swing at his side, "Too bad."
"The seconds are going down." Ash was behind him, circling with her partner. The second-year, Paul, was at least half a head shorter than she was. He looked slightly frantic when she furiously came back at him with a series of counter-attacks.
Brenna decided not to partake in the chatter; she was sneaking glances at Blade and Jaeger. Zachary of Kirnet was not a challenging partner and gave her easy practice. The sword-master's eyes flicked in her direction, it was as if Bren's thoughts had somehow summoned his attention. She quickly returned her focus to the duel.
The woman sidestepped a cut to her side from Zachary and parried the low thrust. Bren saw the annoyed expression Blade gave her when she circled with the second-year. Defence was all well and good but offence works better, the look seemed to say. The fourth-year decided not to knock the boy on his backside straightaway; she would build him up. Brenna started a repetition of the high, middle, low blow set they were taught in first year. Zachary soon cottoned on and blocked each attack successfully, though he was baffled by the tactic. She quickened the tempo of her swings and slowly stalked her duelling partner across the mats. He unwittingly gave up the ground as he focused on parrying and when they neared the edge of the mats Bren widened her attack, letting opportunities for the boy to get inside her guard arise.
Zachary had a bit more skill than Brenna gave him credit for as he saw and took the first opportunity that he could successfully take advantage of. He parried Bren's low attack and then spun on his heel, attacking with a middle thrust as he stepped closer. She almost smiled when Zachary fell for the bait but Bren kept her expression vacant and slid her wooden blade along his, rather than parrying. The swords caught at the hilt and Bren pushed her weapon left in a circular motion up, flicking her wrist to knock the other blade away then around so she could strike at his left side. Zachary couldn't bring his sword back in time to block and landed on mats from the weight Bren had put behind the attack. She ended the match by placing her sword tip at the base of his exposed throat.
Bren bent down and offered a hand to the fallen second-year as he pushed the wooden top away with his finger. Zachary grumbled under his breath but clasped Bren's arm anyway and she pulled him to his feet.
She nodded her head in an apologetic fashion. "Sorry to trick you."
The boy shrugged his shoulders. "I got to learn."
The four-year smiled at his comment. She had once said that very same sentence when she was in second year of training. "Wise words Zachary."
He was a little embarrassed that this four-year female student respected him and wasn't acting like an arrogant bully. "S-shall we have a-another round?" he stammered.
"Let's see what you've learned then." A glint entered Bren's eye.
The two combatants readied their leaded swords and duelled.

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A/N: I hope you liked the 1st chapter of my story. I've been working on it for so long and changing it so often that I thought I would never write a chapter that I knew was thoroughly finished.
A/N2: If anyone would like to be a Beta for me, I would greatly appreciate it. The more feedback I get the better I shall try to write.
A/N3: I don't care if you flame me or love the damn thing, but I need criticism so if you have a bit to nitpick, do it! please.