The Knight of Chivalry

Chapter 2

The other squires were fighting each other with wooden swords, they all were a little mean towards Simon as they didn’t like how he was the squire of the great lord and they were squires of the knights and had be so for many years. There was Charles De Tribearn the son of Sir David who was the squire of Sir Francis, he was the biggest of the squires of them all a favoured the battle axe in battle rather than sword and shield but he could use these fairly well to because Francis was a very able swordsman and taught him well, he had a very bushy brown beard and his hair flowed down to his shoulders, his eyes were piercings blue eyes held a cunning look in them as though he was very strong he also had intelligence. Joseph of Haven was another squire, he was of median build and the son of Henry who was the count of Haven and served as squire to Sir Rothwell, he had blond hair and green eyes and he was an ok swordsman but he was very vicious he often was the one leading the bullying of Simon and other people like the servants but only when the adults weren’t around when they was he was as good as gold even though he often wore a sneer of a smile. Then there was Edward Walter the oldest one of the squires at 17 and he hopefully will be made a knight soon he hoped as he had completed all the training for being a squire and had served Sir David faithfully for a few years, as he was the son of the sheriff he was very respective and full of justice he was usually the one that stopped the others from going too far reminding them that they would be knights one day and should behave honourable, he was a very able swordsman too using skill and smarts to get the best of an opponent, he was fairly tall but not quite as muscular as the others he had hazel eyes and light brown hair but he kept a neatly trimmed beard and was fairly friendly to Simon. The last squire was William Ducaine he was the youngest and smallest of the group, he was the son of the bailiff Richard and so being a squire was a step up for the family but as Richard had served the lord so faithfully for many years that lord Reiner had giving this as a reward, Will was the clown of the group always making them laugh with his antics and though he was the smallest he favoured the mace as he had some muscle to him, he had black hair and brown eyes and served as squire to Sir Porthos. Simon approached Sir Francis and the spoke.

            “Hey sir the lord has sent me down for combat training” he said.

            “Ah of course well pick up a wooden sword and I shall fight you and teach you some more, we’ll be training in armour tomorrow to get you used to that” Replied Francis and so Simon went and got a wooded sword and squared off against Francis, they were of about the same height but Francis was broader and older than Simon in his thirties but he was a skilled fighter to have lasted this long. They circled each other, they had been here before but then they had more dangerous weapons and were fighting to kill or defeat each other now it was just practice. Francis took the first swing at Simon and he easily parried it and did a counter swing which Francis managed to side step, they followed this up with a quick succession of swings at each other using different style to get through to hit each other but they never hit each other they were to skilled, though Francis had the stronger swing Simon was too fast for him and was very skilled knowing when to parry and when to dodge. They fought for a few minutes moving around and trying to get the upper hand on one another but they were both as equally skilled as each though last time Simon managed to get the upper hand but they fought for a lot longer then, in armour and this time he knew they could go on forever. The other squires had stopped fighting and was watching them fight, shouting encouragements to Francis and all looking very impressed by this fight though they had trained in combat for many years no off them could be able to hold him off for so long as Simon was. A few more minutes passed and then Francis called an end to the fight.

            “All right that’s enough I see you are still as good as ever Simon but I have a few things to teach you and then you will be a very able swordsman indeed all of you can listen to this too, a swordsmen training is never complete though you may be good at it there is always something to learn from other swordsmen and you can be better if you accept that, also you must observe your opponent for weaknesses and a way through his defences, Simon started that but he didn’t get through that as we didn’t fight for long enough I have no doubt he would have got through my defences at some point and I, his, but he was to slow thinking about it, a fight is not just about strength it’s about mind you have to out think an opponent and quickly or the opponent might get the better of you2 Francis said and they all listened and then he said get back to fighting. He took Simon off to the side and told him more about different fighting styles and showed him some moves that he knew that he saw Simon didn’t use and explained some more theory behind fighting and how to analyse your opponent quickly. He then got Charles and said the pair of them were to fight as they were the best fighters. So the circled each other and then Charles went on the offensive and struck again and again at Simon with speed and strength but Simon was skilled and blocked all of the strikes and then he turned his blade against Charles and in a few swings had disarmed him, he looked surprised at this but took it in good grace and then Francis dismissed them all saying that they had trained enough for today and then he left.

            The other squires turned on Simon when they was alone, Joseph had a malevolent grin on his face.

            “So you are such a great swordsman eh, let’s teach him a lesson boys” he said and the others save Edward came at him with their wooden swords. Simon sighed he hated to hurt others for no reason but he wasn’t going to lie down and take a beating and so he defended himself. Even three on one he fared well though they had the advantage in numbers his skill was so much better than them that he managed to fend them off and disarmed two of them and tripped up the other in a few minutes with only a few hits on him at that point they looked like they was ready to kill him but Edward stepped forward and aid that enough was enough Simon had bested them fair and square in this fight and for them to go to the kitchens to get lunch as he was hunger and the others nodded at this as they too were hungry but Joseph gave Simon a parting evil smile as if to say next time you are a dead man.