Damon was dreading this day. This morning the first thing he thought of when he woke up was face meeting sand. As he stood, standing around watching everyone else learn from Instructor Trey, he couldn’t help but feel jealous. Wishing he was there instead of-

  “Cough, cough!” Damon coughed up the sand he just ate after being kicked by someone from behind.

  “C’mon Beaumont. I’m here.” Slowly getting up, Damon dusted off the sand from his clothes already annoyed. Turning around he met the arrogant smirk of Kesh who was pacing the small sparring circle while twirling his training sword. “Pick your sword up Beaumont.” Kesh pointed with his sword to the fallen sword of Damon’s. “You're a soldier and you're on a battlefield. And yet you stand with no weapon in hand.” Kesh shook his head at Damon in disappointment.

  Damon retorted “You kicked me from the back.”

  Kesh rolled his eyes. “Yes, because every soldier on the battlefield will fight fair.”

  Damon felt ashamed after hearing him and felt even worse when the teenager added sarcasm to his words. Damon, finding he could say nothing else, picked his sword off the ground and stood ready. “For now let's just see how up to par you are in the lessons so far.”

  Kesh scanned Damon’s stance with seriousness. Gone was the smirk, replaced by a solemn and focused expression. Completely unfamiliar to Damon. He wondered if that was the expression he always wore when he got serious. Damon never saw it before because when he sparred with Kesh, all he saw was an arrogant smirk, probably saved for only him considering his skills with a weapon.

  With both hands on the grip of the sword and his right foot in front of the other. Damon stood ready for whatever was to come.

  Kesh raised his sword up and sliced downwards where Damon lifted his sword to meet. After two consecutive hits Damon dropped his sword, not being able to hold it any longer.

  Kesh took a deep breath before looking at Damon.

  Damon, feeling the scrutinizing gaze of Kesh, couldn’t help but look away. Something he felt a little embarrassed about. “Why did you take the hit?”

  Damon hearing the question shifted his focus back on Kesh who continued his twirling of his sword waiting for his answer. “Umm. To not get hit?” Damon answered, obviously unsure.

  Kesh stopped his sword from spinning. “Yeah everybody hopes to not get hit, you idiot. I mean why use a deflect?” Damon shrugged, still not sure of the answer.

  Kesh sighed loudly. “Who do you think has more strength, you or me?”

  Damon gave a once over at the purple haired teenager who had a more lean build compared to his small and thin build. “You.”

  “Yes, so why would you try to continuously try to fight head on with me knowing this?”

  “I didn’t think about it.”

  “Of course you didn’t. Well, now we know one area where you lack. The ability to react appropriately. In battle it is known as experience. You watch what's happening around you and you react.” Kesh explained.

  “Now what would you do when facing someone like me?”

  “Run?” Damon answered, his tone unsure.

  Kesh chuckled “Yes, I would assume that is a good choice if you ever see me on the battlefield Beaumont.”

  Damon, not liking that he unknowingly gave the arrogant noble a compliment, quickly thought of something to save himself. “With the way you look, battlefield or off it people would still run.”

  Kesh pretended to not hear the diss, instead choosing to still smile at the former compliment. “Strength. You should easily know what the counter is.”

  “Speed.”

  “Yes, speed. Footwork and your ability to throw your sword around quicker.”

  “I already got the footwork down. I learned it when we learned during the second week.”

  “Yes but all that you learned gets thrown out the window once you're in battle. You either stumble because you're moving too fast or trip on something because you didn’t notice the rock behind you. A lot could happen to disrupt you and knock you off your focus.”

  Damon nodded in agreement. He remembered tripping on the second day on the ropes that surrounded the sparring circle. An embarrassing moment that sometimes likes to show itself in his thoughts every now and then.

  “Good. so let's train with that at least. Ok into your stance. Let's work on footwork.”

  ***

  “How was your first day of practice with Kesh?” Baron asked, emphasizing the noble’s name with a sneer.

  The question immediately brought Damon back into that circle of sand stumbling and falling, eating sand. Again and again. The constant mulberry Kesh was throwing at him was beating him down. He was very close to just running up to Kesh and just swinging his sword at him. Especially when he gathered his other friends in the class to laugh and judge him. But he knew the moment he went swinging Kesh would once again embarrass him.

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  Damon let out a groan of despair before slamming his head on the table. His actions caught everyone’s attention in the group, even a few others nearby.

  Sunny, worried for his friend, asked “What's wrong? Did he bully you? Did he use his status to bother you? Want me to get Tristan?”

  Damon simply shook his head at the barrage of questions. With a sigh he lifted his head and explained “Worse. He treated me normally. He actually trained me. Like really trained me. Besides the occasional jabs and thrown mulberries, he actually took it seriously and trained me.”

  “Wow. Really? The same Kesh who looked down on us the moment he met us? That Kesh?” Baron paused his meal to make sure he was hearing things right.

  Damon nodded in resignation. “Let's just talk about something else.”

  The group nodded, giving their friend his space. It wasn’t long before they moved on to the next topic.

  Did you hear about the Diamond Class? I heard they are studying real living Elemental Beasts. Watching how they move and how they use the power of Elements.” Sunny excitedly spoke of the rumors flying around.

  Damon grumbled “Yeah I heard.” Damon, feeling jealous, dug into his food trying not to be bothered by the activities of the Diamond Class.

  “Is it true?” Amelia leaned in to ask, unknowingly bringing her face closer to Damon whose attention shifted from his food to the pale skin of Amelia’s cheek where he spotted a mole on her cheek.

  Clearing his throat caused Amelia to turn her attention to him and realize how close she was. Turning red she quickly leaned back into her seat, no longer interested in the rumor.

  Baron had his head down biting into his food trying to hide the teasing smile on his face.

  Damon, knowing Baron long enough was able to notice the hidden smile and narrowed his eyes at his friend.

  “I wish we could get some live learning.” Damon complained

  “You should’ve signed up for Botany then. We get plenty of real life experience.” Said Gina.

  All three boys shuddered at the thought. Having to learn about the weaknesses and strengths of plants and how to grow them already sounded boring. Not to mention the requirement of having to learn the ins and outs of one hundred different plants was enough to give the three boys a headache just by hearing it.

  “I am glad I simply chose Mortal Relations.”

  Gina pursed her lips in dissatisfaction at the jab at her class. “At least we get real life experience. What about you? Stuck in the books aren’t you?”

  Damon rolled his eyes at her attempt of an attack. “Yeah. We learn about the relations of the two sides, which is actually very interesting and fun even though all we do is read from a book.”

  The two glared at each other, waiting till one of them backed out. And with the twitch of Damon’s left eye, it appeared that the winner is going to be decided soon. The friends paused watching the short entertaining match, forgetting their food.

  “You got this, Damon.” Sunny cheered quietly.

  “Go Gina!” Amelia offered her support for Gina.

  Another twitch of the eye came from Damon before someone interrupted them. “Hey Beaumont!” Someone called out to Damon who blinked when he turned to find out who was calling him.

  “HA! I won.” Gina smiled victoriously after spotting Damon blink.

  Damon, angry at the loss, chose to ignore her victory cheer to see who was talking to him.

  “Kesh?” Damon was confused at the presence of the noble heir. He seldom come over here, especially by himself.

  “We are practicing tonight as well. Meet you after the final classes by the Twins.” Kesh said his piece and turned around to leave but nearly bumped into a smiling Tristan.

  “Hey, Kesh.”

  “Grier.” Kesh greeted Tristan before side stepping him and leaving, probably not wanting to stay another second near them.

  “Wow. He’s really taking this tournament thing seriously.”

  Tristan took a seat before shaking his head. “No, I think he’s taking his swordsmanship seriously. His family are quite skilled in combat. His family is well known in the military. And with him being assigned to teach you, you are basically representing him more so than the class. And if you get your butt beat then they will either look at you as an idiot or the guy who taught you. And I don’t think he would take the chance on those options when it comes to his family name and reputation.

  Everybody nodded their heads in agreement. They all found the reason plausible.

  Tristan all of sudden asked “Is he good?”

  Damon startled at the question tilted his head at the retreating figure of Kesh “ Him? Kesh?” Tristan nodded, curious on how good kesh was with the sword considering his family history was filled with skilled swordsmen. “ Good. Very good. I just don’t know if he is as good as you. If I go by the rumors, I doubt it. I think he is as good as Kado.”

  Tristan laughed at the compliment. “What about Rodrick? You always said he was good.”

  Damon raised a finger to the sky “Correction. I said good at fighting with his hands. I’m not so sure about his skill with the sword.”

  “Speaking of Rodrick, where is he?” Baron asked after noticing the absence of their friend.

  “And Kira? She ain’t here yet either.” Amelia pointed out.

  Sunny said “I’m sure they’re fine. They both are probably training.”

  Rodrick recalled his friend getting scolded and chuckled “Or maybe getting scolded. Like the last time.”

  ***

  Damon sat pondering on how he would’ve ease the tensions between the two noble families that have warred with each other for over a century. A marriage or force them to give up their heirs to each other to raise. Damon was unsure what to do. During his pondering a cough caught his attention. Professor Orion was slowly making his way to the center of the classroom.

  “I heard some of you are attending a class for Elements called the Diamond class and you will be learning the powers of Elemental Beasts in person.” Professor Orion looked around the class with a big smile.

  Damon, feeling a little embarrassed at being the only one not in the Diamond class, bowed his head down a bit. Although there were just three of them in the class, it didn’t lower his embarrassment. While Damon was in his head, Princess Nessa and Prince Ryder nodded their heads at the question.

  “I also hear the city you will be traveling to is Flow city, yes?”

  The two royal heirs nodded their heads once again.

  Professor Orion clapped his hands and smiled “ Oh that is very good. We will be joining you on the trip.” His words got a raise of eyebrows from all three students. “Yes, we will be joining you on the trip because it will also be a Mortal Relations trip.” Professor Orion wore an eager grin.

  “We’re going to visit a Commoner Hall.”