Sweet Dreams of Knighthood

Chapter 4

born of wood and string,

incomparable beauty!

the grace of  a bow.

"Can you pay me back by teaching me how to use... the bow?" George muttered quickly, trying to get all his words out before Clay would interrupt him again. A leaf fell from the trees, and

George reached out his hand to catch it. It was a beautiful, red, five-pronged maple-leaf leaf that covered George's entire hand.

Clay gave George a genuine smile. "You don't know how to use it?" He inquired slowly, obviously very awkward. A slight laugh escaped his lips, but it was gentle and made George more at ease.

Flustered, George replied, "Well, I know how it works. You pluck back the strings and..." George trailed off, genuinely hoping his new friend wouldn't judge him. His breathing quickened as he rotated the leaf's stem in his fingertips so quickly it appeared just a blur of red and gold. "You know what? Why don't I teach you how to read first until you're an excellent reader and completely comfortable with all the ins and outs of reading, before you teach me the bow."

Clay smiled a smile that was so self-assured George couldn't believe this fellow had been stammering in front of him just a while ago. "Sounds good to me."

George scribbled down all the letters, capitalized and uncapitalized, in a new page of his notebook.

He settled down in his usual spot, with Clay on the opposite side of them. There was a slight breeze but time seemed to slow down as George and Clay exchanged words and laughed together.

"Okay, you see this?" George pointed to the letters 'E' and 'e'. "That's 'eh'. Called 'eee.' Like in-"

"I can't see," Clay complained loudly, a smile on his face. "Scoot over."

Clay moved until he was beside George, leaning up against him to see the notebook.

George blushed furiously and looked away, hoping Clay didn't see. "O-okay," he muttered, going stiff.

"What's wrong? Continue!" Clay urged, nudging George with his shoulder.

"E as in egg." George softened a little and leaned back against Clay. It was far more comfortable than the tree bark. "This one is 'D,' like 'duh'. D as in a dream." He grinned as he looked up at his friend.

"I'm learning pretty quickly, huh? It's only been like ten minutes since you started teaching!"

Clay asked, leaning forward to stare at George.

George leaned back, wrinkling his forehead in confusion. "That's so slow! You're dumber than I thought!"

"Only because you keep joking around," Clay shot back playfully, ruffling George's hair with his hand and putting leaves in his hair. "Also, how do you spell dream? D-ruh-eam." He frowned.

"Stop it, Clay!" George complained, leaning away. Then he stiffened. "T-ten minutes?" He stood up and started shoving everything into his satchel.

Clay also stood up, his green eyes narrowed warily. They flickered slightly. "What's wrong?" He asked, his tone of voice changing completely from light-hearted to deep and serious within a second. He shuffled forward.

George brushed the leaves out of his hair desperately and patted his shirt. He turned to Clay, brown eyes wide with urgency. "I need to go! I'm late!"

"Dream? D-duh..." Clay frowned as he reached out a hand pleadingly, almost as if trying to stop George.

"Can you show me how to write dream?" He begged.

"I already put the paper back!" Glancing around nervously, George saw his giant leaf and picked up his pen and scribbled, as quick as he could, 'dream.' Just as he was about to put the leaf down, Clay added in quickly.

"Guh-eorge too!"

"Okay!" George exclaimed, scribbling a 'George'. He flicked the pen too quickly, and it caused a splatter of paint on the leaf, but it was the least of George's worries. "Here you go!" He shoved the leaf towards Clay, who lunged and desperately caught it before it fell to the ground. For half a second, George made note of that humorously. Clay had caught it so that it almost seemed like that leaf meant life and death. "Do you want me to write Clay on it; oh it's too late anyway," George lamented.

"Same time tomorrow!" Clay shouted as George started running. "Bring some books for me! I already know how to spell Clay!" Then as his voice grew fainter and fainter with distance, "Good luck! Bye!"