A Life Beyond by Mark Church (ebook reader web TXT) 📕

as most of you know I'm Tahmidius from the small town of Banglashera' he started to speak as every pair of eyes stared at him, most of them awestruck by him actually being there 'And my main reason today is as you may or may not know that I have offered to take on a sort of….apprentice after the Games have been completed, so I am visiting every class inside the school to just say hello and mainly good luck. Now as I understand the school is holding the Inter-Class Cup again this year but I wanted to help in any way I could seeing as I have been here many times before, so I spoke with the teachers and offered one pupil the chance to be mentored by myself. Purely out of class time I mean. It's a chance for one of you to learn new skills and spells that you may not have been able to make before and maybe just maybe help you to be considered worthy enough to join the next Tri-Yearly-Night-Games', excitedly the children clapped and whooped with delight at the thought of being mentored by their hero, something most of them could only dream of until now.

'Settle down children…' Lady Willo said, raising her voice just enough to be heard over the excited chatter of her class 'now, I expect you all to start putting in the hard work from this point onwards as you're journey towards Class Champion begins….now' as the bell rang, signalling the start of the Inter-Class Cup, all the children sat upright in their seats as they were now earning ‘Class Points’ on every aspect of their school work, ranging from appearance all the way up to projects and challenges set by the teachers. Daniel looked less than impressed by all of this which didn't go unnoticed by Tahmidius who saw him sitting there looking very disinterested,

'You there boy' he said pointing in Daniel's direction,

'Me??' Daniel replied looking around the class to see if it was actually him he was addressing,

'Yes you…'Tahmidius replied 'did you not hear what I was offering?'

'I heard it all right' Daniel said as he let out a yawn 'but to be totally honest I'm not that bothered, first of all I don't have any clue as to who you are and second of all I'm probably going to fail most of this anyway, so this cup thing seems a bit pointless',

'POINTLESS!!!' Tahmidius shouted, totally taken aback by what Daniel was saying 'I can assure you one thing boy, there are people around this world who would give anything to be offered the chance of a lifetime',

'Which is??' Daniel smirked as he could see Tahmidius slowly getting angrier by the second,

'The opportunity to have ME as their mentor, the opportunity for ME to pass on most of my extensive knowledge, and the opportunity for YOU to be surrounded by greatness!' Tahmidius replied as he puffed out his chest in a way that screamed ‘I am the best’.

'Oh now you put it like that…' Daniel fired back quickly 'Then I am truly sorry for not knowing about you sir, master, your lordship...or whatever we are supposed to call you, I must be from another planet to not have heard of you!'. Tahmidius was unsure about what Daniel was saying, whether it was sarcastic or he truly was sorry,

'Very well boy...I forgive your naivety' Tahmidius smiled a very odd smile at Daniel 'as I was saying. Errrm, oh yes that's it….so good luck to each and every one of you. And remember my motto ‘Don't be lucky, be strong and plucky’. No one remembers second place so make every point count, and who knows at the end of your term it could be you standing beside me looking towards greatness!!'.

The whole class clapped as loud as they could as Tahmidius smiled then took a huge step back before bowing to the whole class, then the whooping started again,

'Class...once again settle down' Lady Willo clapped her hands to grab their attention 'And thank you once again Tahmidius, it's an honour to have you come into our class with such excellent news like that, I truly hope the winning pupil comes from our group of young students'

'The pleasure is all mine' he replied as the door was opened for him, 'Oh and children...don't forget that I shall be training in the Arena every day if you want to come and see what I am all about, and what it takes to be a champion' looking directly in Daniel's direction which made Daniel snigger slightly at seeing Tahmidius trying to stare angrily at him, then in one swift movement he flicked his cloak around himself and sped off out of the classroom door which banged shut behind him.

'What...was….that??' Daniel said to Tobias, still sniggering to himself, Tobias felt slightly offended by Daniel's lack of respect for one of his heroes,

'That was a bit rude Daniel' he said 'I mean that soldier is someone I have looked up to since I was young, I have heard stories about his bravery and skill that would put most people to shame!'

'All I saw was a bloke in a cape doing his best to look important but failing massively' Daniel replied 'I mean, seriously, are we meant to believe something good will come from whatever pointless training he gives one of us?, He's more interested in getting his profile up considering he hasn't actually won anything yet'

'Well I believe in him and I believe with a lot of hard work this term I will be the one to be trained by him!' Tobias stated as he raised a finger in the air like he had made a valid point,

'Well good luck to you, you won't see me trying too hard to win it, and he’s just a fraud I reckon!' Daniel said as he crossed his arms and sat back in his seat once again looking bored as Lady Willo continued with the lesson.

A loud cheer could be heard from just down the corridor which stirred Daniel from his daydream,

'Sounds like Mr Fake has gone next door' laughed Daniel causing Tobias to slap him on the arm,

'Look Daniel' sighed Tobias 'I believe in Tahmidius even if you don't sp please let's not argue over this, I'm going to watch him train after class in the Arena, I've never actually seen him in action so this is exciting to me',

'Go enjoy the show then Toby' replied Daniel 'don't let me stop you' 'its Tobias by the way!!...The thing is I we can't go into the Arena alone and I don't actually have anyone else to go with…' he turned to face Daniel who sort of knew what he was getting at,

'I think I see where this is heading…' laughed Daniel as he raised his eyebrows and flopped back in his chair again,

'I would very much like to go with you to the Arena Daniel' Tobias beamed at him as he stared right into his eyes 'Oh please say yes Daniel. It would mean the world to me..I've never seen him actually train live...oh please say you will...just this once!!'

'If I say yes will you stop pestering me about it??' said Daniel who was now staring at his desk,

'Yes. Yes I promise!!' came the excited reply 'so you'll go then??'

'If it keeps you quiet then yes I'll come along, but only this once ok!!' replied Daniel who now felt his arm being shaken rather violently and turned to see a visibly excited Tobias with the biggest grin on his face.

'Just don’t expect me to enjoy it ok!!' said Daniel as he pulled Tobias’ hand off his arm which had now turned red through him gripping it tightly and looked up to see him still grinning like a Cheshire cat and showing no signs of stopping,

'Stop it!!' said Daniel 'you're giving me the creeps now...give it a rest!!', Tobias eventually stopped shaking and smiling, looking totally exhausted as he turned to face Lady Willo who was none the wiser about what was going on with these two boys,

'I..I can't help it...he's just my absolute hero!!' an exhausted Tobias replied 'I would love to get his autograph to show my parents!!',

'Alright, alright I get it!!' said Daniel who was slowly regretting saying yes to Tobias, but he could see just how much it meant for him to get even closer to someone who he looked up to more than anything in the world so he changed his attitude towards him and smiled back. As Lady Willo continued with the lesson Daniel started wondering about how his sister was doing in the next class and what she might be up to, ‘I bet she's loving all this new work she's getting to do’ he thought ‘bet she's in charge of the class already!!’. But it seemed Lillie was feeling slightly stuck in the middle on that front, she didn't really feel like she was fitting in at all, no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't get any closer to having a new set of friend's to talk to, she was feeling rather alone but it was only the first day and she was maybe trying TOO hard, she couldn't wait for the end of the day when she got to meet up with her brother just for a bit of companionship really, Harvey on the other hand had now been fully integrated into the classroom thanks to Pontus and his heavy handed tactics and was loving being centre of attention for once without being picked on, his confidence had grown dramatically in the few hours he had been in class, every question thrown at him he had answered correctly and confidently, Mr Scoot was pleasantly surprised by the transformation of Harvey since the beginning of the day,

'Well Well Well Harvey…' Mr Scoot said happily 'It seems that you are simply racing ahead in the point’s stake today!!' a glint flickered in Harvey's eyes, a look that had been seen before, something….not quite right,

'Yes…I supposed I am sir' a wicked grin spreading across his face as he stared right through Mr Scoot,

'If you keep this up Harvey then I can see the all-time points record for a single day being smashed, and I'm sure Pontus wouldn't mind that' replied Mr Scoot,

'Why is that then sir?' Harvey's eyes squinted slightly as he answered back,

'Because…' remarked Pontus as he rose from his seat and looked down his nose at the class 'I am the record holder for both ‘Most points collected in a day’ and ‘ All-time class points holder’, oh that was a great year for me' he smiled as he looked around the class smugly only to be met by scores of rolled up paper balls being thrown at him 'OW...stop it!!!' he shouted as one hit him right in the eye 'sir please make them stop!!' he demanded,

'Yes yes Pontus….ok children please stop pelting the paper at him, we don't want another pupil to lose an eye!!' Mr Scoot said smiling to himself, as Pontus stood there rubbing his eye Harvey tugged at his robes causing him to spin round,

'Don't think your records will stand for long Pontus, there's a new boy in town!!' Harvey cackled like never before causing Pontus to feel slightly worried by his new friend's odd tone,

'Ooookkkk' He muttered to himself before sitting down in his seat with Harvey's eyes burning into him, throwing him a look that even he found very off putting, Hayla had heard everything that was going on and turned towards Pontus,

'A dark soul…' she said 'as dark as the night and as cold as the Sea of Souls!!', Pontus felt a cold shiver running through his body,

'Wh..What?' he replied 'what are you talking about?', Hayla leaned in closer,

'What the eyes can't see, the mind will reveal...your friend is not one of us...be wary of him' then she turned round as if nothing had happened leaving Pontus afraid to look