Space Knights: The Arrival by Gregory Samuelson (buy e reader .TXT) 📕

contender in the Gladiator Circle events. Trance won three more Swordsman Challenge events and two more Gladiator Circle tournaments. The crowds seemed to really appreciate his efforts and were fascinated at his talent, especially since he was from Earth. It almost seemed inevitable that Trance and Rex would compete several times in these events, and their matches got fiercer and evenly contested. Trance won eighty percent of the time. Rex really gloated when he won, but he noticed that he wasn’t getting as much attention as he used to.

Rex remembered with glee when he became captain of his team and started leading them to be the dominant team they were. His heart had burst with pride when many of the top recruiters approached him and tried to entice him to join their branch of service. He had settled on the Golden Griffins and was told that with his talent and ability he’d be a top pick for the division commanders. Chances were that he’d probably get picked by one of the most elite divisions. Now since Trance had showed up on the scene, he wasn’t being talked too as much.

By the semester break Trance had led his team to an astounding first place standing. They were two games ahead of the White Knights. He was excited about the rest of the year. In a couple weeks they were going to switch from castle defense and assault to battlefield battles. As with the castle battles the team would defend their home battlefield and then go invade other battlefields.

One afternoon Trance received something very exciting in the mail, his application to the knights. To Trance’s delight Kyle had a week off and offered to help him fill out his application.

“I want to join the Golden Griffins,” Trance said as Kyle went through the form and read off the questions.

“Alright,” said Kyle as he carefully wrote down Trance’s choice of service. “Now I have to ask you again for the record what weapon you want to be your main weapon?”

“As before, a sword,” Trance answered.

“Your second weapon?” quarried Kyle.

“An ax,” answered Trance amused, “This is like the form for the knight class.”

“Yeah it is,” joked Kyle. “Now let’s get serious, this is very important. Okay, let me guess. You want the bow and arrows for your third weapon right.”

“Yes,” replied Trance, trying to control his own giggles. It was kind of hard since Kyle and him had been joking and kidding each other all afternoon.

“Now,” said Kyle trying his best to keep a straight face, “here is a new question. What kind of bow do you want? You have several choices of bows from compound bows, crossbows, longbows, short powerful bows, and just regular hunting bows.”

Trance scanned the list of bows and looked over the pictures of bows, thinking about what kind of bow would suit him best. He spotted one halfway down the list that would work. It was a bow that was about four feet tall, rather like a long bow that was four and a half to five feet tall, and was made of a special laminated wood. It was a back strung bow with a very ergonomic carved handle that had a rather handy rest for the arrow to sit on before being fired. The rest was carefully shaped to allow for quick loading of an arrow and was a little wider and carefully set for easier sighting and aiming precision. The arrows he’d use would be just standard military issue arrows.

“When you officially join the Golden Griffins you’ll be able to design and personalize your own sword, ax, and shield. I got lucky when I joined the regular knights and got into one of the more elite divisions. I didn’t quite qualify for the Golden Griffins; however, in the division I got in I got to design my own sword. Here I brought it with me to show you,” he said as he pulled it out to show his brother. The pommel of the sword below the hilt was shaped like a leaf and the crosspiece was straight and etched to resemble a tree limb. The blade was etched with a pattern of vines.

“That’s pretty cool,” said Trance, a little in awe. He remembered the sword he had taken from the Boulthorian knight he had killed at the Markem’s farm. It wasn’t as nice as Kyle’s. That sword was very plain and ordinary and didn’t look nearly as keen and sharp either. Kyle let Trance touch and handle the weapon for a few moments before Kyle sheathed the weapon and set it aside. Their mother happened past their room and had looked in on them with a curious expression on her face.

Trance knew that she was proud of him and his success, but he also knew that she was a little worried about him becoming a knight. She knew it was his ambition and that he’d be very good. She just didn’t want anything to happen to him. She worried about Kyle also. Even though he wasn’t her biological son she still felt motherly toward him.

“Alright, that’s done,” said Kyle as he set the application down so he could talk seriously to Trance about what would happen when Trance graduated from school and became a knight. “Now when you graduate from school you’ll get a surcoat and dagger from mom and dad. Then you’ll have four months of vacation before you go to the preliminary camp. Then if you pass after the four-month camp you’ll have a two-month break before you go to the Golden Griffin’s camp in Gaffardsville. When you pass from there you’ll have one month to relax before you’ll be able to be picked to join a division. Got all that?” said Kyle as he explained how the training schedule was set up.

When the application was finished being filled out Kyle and Trance talked about what kind of sword and shield Trance wanted. Kyle told Trance about his experiences from training camp and what it