DRAGONHEART: Dawn of A New Beginning

Chapter 10

Throughout this week, who could have known that Geoff, the orphaned stable boy at the monastery, would reveal the deepest secret of what is truly in a dragon's heart...

Geoff was beginning sword training in the stables. Now 16 years old, he had dirty blonde hair that he rarely combed and the beginning of a small beard that could be seen on his chin. His icy blue eyes were the color of the clear skies. Geoff was just finishing making his sword, which was a wooden stag and a horseshoe for the handle. He grabbed his hammer and nailed in the horseshoe near the bottom of the stag. When it was done, Geoff smiled in satisfaction and flipped it in his hand, getting ready to practice with it on the dummy.

The young man dreamed of one day becoming a knight. He didn't want to be stuck as a stable boy forever. He wanted a life of adventure, to work at the castle and be in heroic battles, not mucking up stables and feeding pigs. He wanted his life to be worth something.

Geoff started on the dummy, ducking, blocking and pivoting as he strikes the dummy's bucket helmet off the top just as he saw noble men on horses outside the stable windows. He went over to the stable shades and pulled them open to see a couple of the king's knights riding on their horses through the monastery.

"Make way for the king's noble knights!" they shouted. The monks stepped out of the horses' way and carried on.

Geoff closed the shades and ran outside to follow them. Geoff jogged through another section of the outer yards of the monastery and stopped at wall surrounding the outer edge of the monastery that sat just above the road that wound around and through the monastery and to the castle.

The sworn knights carried standards with the Red Dragon Rampant on a white back ground, the symbol of King's Coat of Arms.

The last one, the youngest squire in the line, raised his attention on Geoff. Geoff who gave out a polite smile, earning a scowl as the teen looked away and continued riding.

What's his problem? He thought to himself. Geoff kept his eyes on him as they rode on down the stone pathway. Heading back to the stables, the boy gasped as he almost walked into Friar Peter.

"Wishing to be one of them, won't get the stables clean any faster." Friar Peter said sagely as he joined the teen in watching the procession.

"Where do you think they're headed, all dressed up like that?"

Friar Peter spoke with a bit of a bored tone, "They're off to the castle, to honor Lord Osric being sworn in as the King's chief advisor."

Geoff smiled, "The castle." he said in a bit of awe and longing.

The pair waited until the procession had turned a corner and disappeared before heading towards a side yard in between a thick, monk cell filled wall and the main building of the monastery, other monks moving about within their respective duties.

"I suggest you get back to the stable before the abbot catches you around." Friar Peter spoke up above the familiar echoes of the hymnal singing.

Geoff sighed slightly, "I promise I well have the stables scrubbed cleaner than the abbot's table by vespers; and Friar Peter? I'll even clean out that old dungeon for you if you just unlock it for me."

Friar Peter leaned forward as if revealing sensitive information, "I'll tell you a secret about that dungeon, there's nothing down there that can transform you into a knight."

Geoff held back a scowl, but the friar wasn't finished, "You're a good boy at heart, if you work hard and practice humility, you'll be a fine stable master someday..."