Amidst The Storm

Chapter 1

Will awoke the next morning to the sun shining through the window onto his face. He heard a knock on the door.

"Will, it's time to get up." Said a voice from behind the door. "It is the day of Selection!"

The day of selection was a day where kids from the Ward got chosen for their job. Be it a knight, Messenger, Scribe, Chef, or a Kings Chaser. Will longed to be a knight but knew he wouldn't be big enough to be one but, he still dreamed of it. Normally you got chosen when you were twelve, but Will had missed the Selection last year and did not get to be picked. So he was going this year instead.

"Will! Get up! You have a half hour until you need to be dressed and in the kings office! So hurry up."

Will moaned as he got out of bed. After everything that happened last night he had laid awake in bed for four hours before going to sleep. He got up went to his wardrobe and looked through it. He finally decided on a wool beige top and brown leather pants. He put on a brown belt and leather boots, then went downstairs to the kings office

When he went in the king greeted him "Hello Will, please sit down over there." He motioned over to the corner where there were five seats. Four of them already occupied by other Ward children.

Apparently there weren't many twelve year olds this year. Thought Will to himself he looked at them and recognised one of them. Her name was Sahra Airist. She had long flowing blond hair that was tied back in a braid and eyes of deep green. She was a taller girl and she detested Will for a reason he did not know.

He sat down in the seat to her left. Normally, he would not have chosen that spot but given the situation he had to. As he sat down she elbowed him in the ribs just to be a pest. He didn't retaliate but instead nodded his head at her.

"Nice to see you to..." He muttered under his breath. "Next time a handshake would be nice..."

He looked up in time to see the king stand up and address the five children.

"Okay, where is Arthur Strought?" The king asked in his professional tone of voice.

"Right here sir" came a strong voice from the far right chair.

"Arthur. First off what would you like to be?" Asked the king. "A Knight sir" said Arthur.

The king looked up at the castle battlemaster, Sir Dowdry. "What do you think Sir Dowdry?" The king asked. Dowdry inspected the stocky young boy. He was about five foot eight but compared to Will's five foot one he was a giant "He should be a valuable candidate for our army sir." Sir Dowdry replied in an even tone but you could see the exitement of getting Arthur into the army behind his eyes.

Will was getting more and more nervous each second and all he knew about the three next children was that one was a Chef apprentice, one was a Scribe, and Sahra was a Messenger.

Then it was Will's turn he got up to face the task masters, Chef Tub, Sir Dowdry, Mistress Evalyn, and Scribe Wright. Will then noticed for the first time the figure standing behind the king. His face concealed by the shadow of the hood that hung down over his face. He decided that it was best though if he played his attention to the king instead.

"Will Hoffman, what do you aspire to be?" The king asked in a curious tone. Will acted without thinking. "A Knight sir." He said quickly.

"Well sir Dowdry, what do you think?" The king asked. The light in Dowdrys eyes changed from excitement to amusement. "I don't think so sir. He's a bit um... Scrawny."

Will's hopeful look turned into utter embarassement. And only got worse when he was denied by all the other taskmasters too. But then a gruff voice spoke up at the back.

"I'll take him sir." Every one turned to look at the cloaked figure in the back. He had removed his cowl to show his face. He was around the age of forty and had salt and pepper hair, he was clean shaven, and had a sharp jawline. He was a smaller man at about five foot ten and was less muscular than a knight but more muscled that a normal person would be.

Looking at him made Will want to look away, but he knew it would show as a sign of weakness.

"You will take him Matthias?" The king asked. "Yes I will" Matthias replied in an even tone.

Will found that for once he could not read a persons expression. It was like Matthias had a face made of steel. His gaze was unmoving and deadly. He looked like he could kill a man with his bare hands.

"Will, congratulations you have just been accepted as an apprentice Chaser.

Will had only ever heard rumors about the legendary Kings Chasers. They were an elite band of highly skilled warriors who kept order in the kingdom.

They used massive Compound Bows, Shruiken, and Slings to hunt down enemies. Not to mention that they were experts at unseen movement. Chasers could blend into nearly anything using the cloak they had. It was a burgundy, grey, and brown mottled cloak that Menoven had adopted as their own over the years from the kingdom of Agiast. And they knew how to use everything that they had with them.

After the meeting, Will left with Matthias to go train with him as an apprentice Chaser.

"Matthias?" Asked Will while they were walking through the woods "Where do you live?"

Matthias answered Will saying "Well, if you were paying attention to your surroundings, you would know that we have arrived. Welcome to my humble abode."