A Curious Mask

II- Knight to Be

3 years later

Sweat dripped down Finch's back, running in cold rivulets down his back. The sword was heavy and made his arms burn, but it answered his questions. The armor was heavy and cumbersome, but it made him stronger, which gave him the power to answer more questions.

"Feint! Slash! Jab! Slash! Feint!" The drill instructor yelled as all the boys attacked their posts in time to his instructions.

Finch was having less trouble than most, but he pretended to be just as out of breath. He knew he was exactly the same in terms of soreness, so he used that to gauge how he should react otherwise. Always, the question ran through his mind, Can anyone see past my façade? So far, the answer had been no, and he had been at the military academy for two years now. The instructor called them all to a halt at attention, so Finch stood erect, sword hilt hovering above his chest, blade pointing straight up. The instructor paced in front of the line, looking at each boy as he passed. Finch's eyes were his flaw— he couldn't keep them still and staring straight ahead for the life of him— so when the instructor reached his position, Finch looked him over before making eye contact.

The instructor took a threatening step forward and boomed, "When you are at attention, keep your eyes straight ahead!"

Finch straightened. "Aye sir!"

But still, he could not look away from the man glaring at him. Finch struggled within himself to stop the line of questions about the instructor and snap his eyes away. He managed to go to a line of questions about what was right in front of him, but he was met with the instructor's worn breastplate, which made him wonder if the man had any scars, so his gaze shifted to his arms.

"That's it! Five laps for disobeying a direct order! Go!"

Finch quickly sheathed his sword and took off around the training field. He had to let his soreness slow him down, just in case anyone was watching him. The armor was heavy and his limbs were sore from continuous training geared towards boys older than him. The usual age to arrive at the academy was nine, but Finch came in when he was seven.

In the year since he almost killed Jay, Finch had become a completely different person. His mum found a paste that turned both the wister eye and his regular blue eye brown. He could file the horns on his forehead down enough that no one could find them, and his bushy black eyebrows hid the black stubs well. Along with that, he appeared to develop an actual personality. He learned to smile. He figured out which emotions were expected in which situation and could show them well. He also developed a "passion" to join the military, so he set off to the academy with his father's full permission. No one could see the monster behind the mask, and Finch's dad was pleased.

When no one else was paying attention, Finch would fortify the mask. He practiced for hours while everyone else was asleep and he was still restless. Smiling, frowning, chuckling, worry, stress, concern, amusement, and every other display of emotion besides curiosity were not even second nature at this point. He had to practice constantly to appear normal.

Why did he try so hard? Maybe it was the fear he saw in his parents' eyes. It wasn't regret, for he couldn't feel that. It also wasn't fear. No, he knew the real reason, but he would never tell.

Someone started keeping pace with him, so he looked to his left. A lean, muscular knight was running with him, his athletic build rippling as he easily kept up with the "tired" kid. He had cropped dirty blond hair, a clean-shaven face, and his greenish hazel eyes were fixed on Finch. He smiled when he saw Finch looking at him and sped up. Finch, of course, took the weird knight's challenge and matched his speed, staying right behind him.

Why was this knight's armor leather? It wasn't shiny, like all the knights Finch had seen before; it was a forest green. Why was he running with a kid on punishment? And why did he have a quiver full of arrows strapped to his back? Everyone knew that knights used melee not ranged weapons. That was for army archers. Finch didn't even notice when the knight increased their pace yet again; he was too absorbed in his questions about this man.