Red haired girl

Chapter 5

Will woke up early. Glad to have time for it today, he ate his breakfast. After that, he went to get a rope. Where would he have to search for a ten meter long rope? And a bigger problem: how could he manage to find a rope and be in time for training? He sighed.

“Let’s start in father’s shed,” he muttered. When he arrived there, he got a little suspicious: in the corner, tightly rolled up, was a rope. It looked like it was about the size Will needed it to be. Eyebrows raised, he walked over to grab it. Then, still a little suspicious, he went to the training square, with the rope over his shoulder.

                 There, he noticed that he was the first one to arrive. Will started to wonder if he had to go to a different place, after all, he was never first, but no, Owen hadn’t said anything about that and the sun had just peeped over the horizon, so he wasn’t late. He decided to sit down and wait for the others to arrive. He didn’t have to wait for a long time; after a couple of minutes – the sun was now half visible – did Noah and one of the other boys arrive. They had brought ropes as well and sat silently down next to Will. Bryan and another one were already visible coming down the road. They sat down in front of the three boys and formed a circle this way. Will felt a warm feeling spreading through his body: he finally felt he was somewhere where other people wanted him and not, well, hated him.

            Owen came out of his hut. He gestured for Bryan and Noah to move and sat down between them. He looked around the little circle and frowned. He looked at the sun, which was now fully above the horizon and he shrugged. Will noticed one of the boys hadn’t arrived yet and he was glad that it wasn’t him.

“Very well,” Owen said, starting that day’s training. “I see you’ve all brought a rope. Well done. You can put them over there,” he continued, gesturing vaguely towards the hut. “You won’t need them today.” One of the boys – the one who had arrived with Noah – started to complain, but one look of Owen silenced him. “I’ve taken a look at your exercises and I was pleased to see that most of you understood it all right. Today you are going into the forest again. I’ve made a new exercise, which will explain itself.” Will saw Bryan look a little uneasy, after all, he couldn’t read. “You are going in the same pairs as yesterday, but you’ll get more time. I expect you back here the day after tomorrow.” The same boy who earlier started to complain about the ropes, now started to complain again. Probably because he had paired up with the boy who hadn’t arrived yet. Will wasn’t so pleased himself. Two whole days of survival in the forest wasn’t exactly what he knew as fun.

            At that moment did the last boy arrive. Owen raised an eyebrow.

“And where do you think you come from?” he asked, while the boy sat down. Will thought he looked quite desperate, but he couldn’t figure out why.

“From home,” the boy said, sounding like he was about to cry.

“Well,” Owen said. “You can go back there now, unless you have a very good reason for being late at my training.” The boy turned pale, but he sounded more confident when he answered.

“I went to find a rope, but I didn’t know where to look for it, so I wanted to ask my father,” he said. Owen gestured for him to continue. “So I looked for him, but I couldn’t find him. My mother was in the kitchen and I asked her where he was. She said he was still in their bedroom, so I went there. But he wasn’t there!  Nobody had seen him leave the house or could tell me where he was.” The boy didn’t continue.

“What are you trying to say, Leon?” Owen asked. Leon looked up from his shoes, with tears in his eyes.

“My father has disappeared!” he yelled. Most of the boys gasped and Will felt exceptionally sorry for him, since his own father had disappeared as well. Owen didn’t seem to think this was a good reason for coming late.

“And why does that allow you to come late?” he asked. He pointed at Will. “His father has also disappeared and he’s in time.” Will closed his eyes. Please leave me out of this, he thought desperately. Leon looked at Will.

“How do you deal with it?” he asked quietly. Will opened his eyes. They didn’t leave him out of it.

“Well,” he started hesitantly. “I’m, eh, I’m kind of used to it.”

“See?” Owen said. “No reason to come late.” Will frowned.

“I wouldn’t say that…” he said. Owen raised an eyebrow and turned back to Will.

“Oh? And what would you say, then?” Will wished he hadn’t said anything.

“I didn’t see my father often, because of the war, so it wasn’t that different when he disappeared…,” he fell silent, thinking of the day when sir Peter had told him his father had disappeared. He had run into the house, with a wild and desperate look in his eyes. He couldn’t manage to look Will in the eyes. When Will had asked him what was going on, he had looked up and said in a defeated voice: “Your father has gone missing.” After that had sir Peter looked after Will, until he and three other knights disappeared as well, now five days ago. Will had never felt more lonely than at that day.

“All right,” Owen said wearily. “You can keep on following the training, but if you're ever late again, you’re out!” Leon looked relieved. “And I’m not going to explain today’s programme again,” Owen continued stubbornly. Will rolled with his eyes.

            The boys paired up again and Bryan looked threatening at Will. Again. Will raised an eyebrow and Bryan winked. Will shook his head and sighed. Right, he thought. Owen gave them a new exercise, which was probably a whole lot longer than the previous one. Will put his rope next to the hut and the other boys followed his example.

“All right, what do we have to do?” Will muttered. Bryan handed him the exercise. “Well that’s odd,” Will said surprised.

“What?” Bryan asked. “What?” Will showed him the piece of paper. Bryan looked angry.

“I can’t read, remember?” he hissed. Will shook his head.

“I know, but that’s not what I meant,” he said. “Look, there’s only one sentence on it.” Bryan looked confused.

“So?” he said. “Is that important?”

“No,” Will said. “I just expected more.”

“Right. But what do we have to do?” Bryan asked.  Will looked at the paper.

“Well,” he said. “I believe we have to find something Owen has hidden in the forest.”

“You believe or you know?” Bryan asked suspiciously.

“Come on,” Will said instead of answering. He walked to the edge of the forest, hearing Bryan following behind him.

“Will! Come on!” Bryan shouted. “We have been walking for two hours already and you still haven’t told me what we are looking for! How could I help if I don’t know how to help?!” Will sighed and stopped walking. Bryan had been complaining like this for twenty minutes. Will turned around and said: “We’re looking for a piece of paper.” Then he turned around again and continued walking. After a few seconds, he could here Bryan follow. He came to walk next to Will.

“I don’t understand,” he said confused.

“Well,” was Will’s brilliant explanation. “This one,” he held up the exercise, “says we have to find the next step of the exercise by walking to the west. So we’re walking to the west.” Bryan was silent for a moment.

“Isn’t that a little bit too easy?” he asked then. “Are you sure you understood it right?” Will nodded.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“If all we have to do is written on those papers, then what is the purpose of this exercise?” Bryan muttered. Will stopped walking.

“You’re right,” he said surprised. Bryan stopped as well and turned around.

“Yeah, that happens form time to time,” he said proudly. Will thought for a moment.

“I think it’s best to keep on walking. After all, we have two days to go and we don’t know what’s in front of us.” Bryan nodded and the two boys continued to walk through the forest, wondering what they were up to.