Amidst The Storm

Chapter 2

Will squinted through the trees. "I Don't see it sir. Are you sure we are there?" Will asked impatiently. 

  "Well" responded Matthias. "If you look on the wrong side of the trail you definitely won't see it"

  Will, embarrassed, looked on the other side of the trail expecting to see a big house with two floors. Instead he was greeted by a brick bungalow in the middle of the woods. It was roughly twenty meters in length and nineteen meters wide. It was made of red brick and grey mortar, and had four windows one on each side. Matthias led Will up to the door and opened it for him. Will walked in and took off his boots.

  "Well, looks like your dead now" said Mathias from behind him. 

  Will spun around to see Matthias standing there in his leather jacket.

  "What do you mean I'm dead?" Will asked "I'm perfectly alive as you can see."

  "First lesson," responded Matthias, "never let an unknown person follow after you through the door. If I had been a bandit or a murderer you would have been dead in that doorway."

  A sudden feeling of stupidity fell over Will. He hadn't even begun his training yet and he was failing. 

  "Sorry sir." Will mumbled in a quiet voice.

  "No need to be Will, and there is no need to call me sir. Call me Matthias instead." 

  Will was shocked at this. "But si.. Matthias, you are my mentor, I ought to show some respect!" 

  Matthias looked shocked at this statement. 

  "Will. As a student chaser you are equal to me in rank. Even if I have my chaser certificate." 

  Matthias looked around the room. "Will" he said "You can have the room at the end of the hall. Take your belongings and set them where you wish. There is a dresser there for your clothes. Supper is in half an hour." 

  Will set off to his room. He opened the door and looked around. There was a bed in the middle of the room. The beds headboard was on the far wall. Beside the door was Will's dresser it was a simple dresser, made of pine and oak, but it was nicer than the rickety one Will had owned before. There was a window on one wall, the sun was shining through it and on to his face as it had that morning.

  Will set his few belongings on the bed, went to the dresser and put His clothes in the drawer. He then placed his few belongings on one of the two shelves. 

  Will came into the kitchen to the smell of stew he looked around and saw Matthias at the stove.

  "Why hello Will, please sit down." He pointed to a chair at the table. 

  Will obediently sat down and waited. "Smells good, like REALLY good!" Will said. 

  Matthias smiled. "It is an original recipe for Chasers from Chef Tub."

  "Really?" Will asked. "Why would he give recipes to Chasers? I mean, we are just people right?

  Matthias chuckled. "Well, once in a while we Chasers deserve a good meal. We don't have to survive off of hard, cold, and bland survival rations all the time do we?"

  "Well no..." Will began, "however doesn't Chef Tub consider giving away recipes a rash crime?"

  Matthias came over to the table with the stew. Will could see the salted beef, peas, carrots, and onions floating around in the beef broth. 

  "Yes, but this was a special occasion you see. The king asked him to give us a few recipes for food, including bread." Said Matthias matter-of-factly. 

  He sat down and served both himself and Will with hearty portions of stew along with some bread. 

  Will ate humbly, dipping his bread in the stew and enjoying a glass of apple cider. He had two other serving of stew before he asked.

  "Matthias, can I ask you a question?" 

  "You just did" Matthias replied without a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

  "I know but can..." Will quickly thought he should change to a statement so instead he said "I have a question."

  "Yes?" Matthias answered, slightly amused.

  "When do I start my training?" Will asked. To him all he had done today was make himself at home, and not doing anything to train for his future job.

  "Well" Mathias said slowly. "Before we get into that, I suggest that we take a look at your weapons first. HOWEVER, we will not do that until the dishes are done." He looked at Will expectantly.

  Will sensed that this statement was directed towards him, so he got up hastily and started to clean the table. By the time he was done Matthias had showered and cleaned up. He motioned to will to come join him at the table where he had laid out several different woolen blankets that were wrapped around objects that, Will inferred were his weapons.

  "Let's start with the largest one first" Matthias exclaimed. "Then we will work our way down the row." 

  He took the largest one and unwrapped it. Inside there were two glinting objects. Knives. One was smaller than the other and had a thinner blade. The other one had a metal wrap around it and a button on the side. Will looked at them curiously. 

  "Matthias?"

  "Yes, Will?"

  Will wondered what to ask first. Why there were knives, or what the Button was for on the one bigger knife. He decided to ask the obvious question.

  "Why are there knives?" He asked. "I always thought that Chasers used Compound bows, shruiken, and slings." 

  "Well, we actually use knives too. Although, they are hidden behind our cloak and in a small black scabbard" responded Matthias. "There are many things that you do not know about our weapons Will, but you will learn about them soon enough."

  The next cloth revealed the shruiken, the one after revealed the sling. The last one on the other hand drew Will's attention even more than the knives. 
  
  It was the size of a pen, and had grooves on the one side of it. Matthias saw the confused look on Will's face and explained what it was.

  "It's a Luminarc," Matthias said,"a type of laser bow. It turns on when the owner of the bow puts their hand in the grooves. When the owner puts their hand in the grooves, there are strings of Andephite that come out of both ends forming both sides of an arc. Then an optical fiber lace connects the two ends of the arc. When you pull on the fiber lace a laser arrow appears. When you shoot  the arrow it stays in a straight line and not lose speed or height."

   Will grabbed it and it immediately expanded into the bow.

  "How are these made Matthias!?" Will cried. "They are amazing!"

  "An explorer found the blueprint for them in a cave that the old generation of humans used back in 3030, during the Great War," Matthias said, "we gathered the materials, and made them to replace our compound bows."

  "Wow," Will said, "when do we start training?" 

  "In the morning, as soon as I give you this one last thing," Matthias with a smile.