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

each other, but instead of continuing on down the field they turned and started to duel. This was a little different than dueling on foot. He had to keep his horse positioned where he could reach Rex with his sword, yet he had to continue to use his shield to block Rex’s blows. It was obvious that Rex was experienced at dueling on his horse and he did his best to defeat Trance. But Trance would not give up and used all of his skill to battle Rex. It seemed that their match would go on for quite a while. Then Trance turned Odin to the right and moved in and with a swift stroke won his first jousting title.

Trance celebrated with his team and was hugged and congratulated by Corena. He now waited to see where he’d be positioned in the Every Weapon Joust. The judges took nearly twenty minutes to decide the ranking of the boys that would compete for the Every Weapon Joust. Rex was ranked fourth, Hamon was ranked third, a spearman from the Black Knights was first, and Trance was ranked number seven out of sixty-four boys.

As he did in the Swordsman Joust, Trance easily defeated each of his early round competitors. All too soon he faced his friend Hamon and in one of his toughest matches he advanced past his friend. It almost appeared that he’d have to face Rex again in the final; however, a mace man from the Amorites defeated Rex. This was unexpected and the crowd loved the unexpected. Trance for once thought that he was sure to win again and got a little too cocky, something out of the ordinary for him. To his huge surprise and that of his opponent he was knocked off of Odin in his first pass. Humbled, Trance went and congratulated the very surprised mace man who had never dreamed he’d win this tournament.

The team returned home late that night with tales of how well they’d done and the prospects of the remainder of the year. Many of Trance’s teammates were eagerly anticipating the end of year tournaments. They were held every year on another planet and they’d be competing against schools from several other inhabited planets as well as many of the schools they had already competed against on Althora.

***

At home Trance began to study more so he could continue to get the best grades he could. He had also performed in four of the seven scheduled band concerts. There seemed to be more and more people attending the concerts each time he performed. Unfortunately he did not advance very far in the band competitions. Still he enjoyed them as much as the knight class.

He continued to pray and work hard at his schoolwork since he knew that to get into the Golden Griffins he’d have to have very high grades. Also he’d become more interested in his church and the Bible here on Althora. All of the Bible stories fascinated him. The ones that seemed to capture his imagination most were the prophecies about the return of the Only Begotten, the Son of God. The stories sounded so close to those from his Bible from Earth that he compared them side by side. The Althorian Bible said that Jeasous was born in Ephratha in the land of Judath in Zian. Trance looked closer and suddenly made an intuitive leap.

The names in both Bibles were so close; could the Jeasous be referring to Jesus? He would have to ask his minister about it when he saw him and show him the scriptures. Yet one question stuck in his head: how would those ancient stories from the Bible be here as well? He would have to study this more. There were other stories that were unique to Althora’s Bible and those were of another figure that would arrive and perform some heroic deeds that would precipitate the return of Christ. These were stories foretelling of the Great Griffin General.

This figure would appear and lead many worlds to peace. He would lead a great army into battle against the Sphinx and defeat them and their allies. He would first be a traveler and then in the process of time come to fulfill his destiny. Finally he would be king and rule justly and have peace for many years. However, he would not see Christ’s return. His actions though would lead to a descendant who would have to overcome many obstacles and restore himself and finally face the Deceiver, a person who was out for power for himself. This descendant would be slain by the deceiver who would take control for a short time. However, after some years a descendant would regain control and would actually see the return of Christ.

Trance had many good church lessons discussing when and who this Griffin General would be and appear. He recalled that there had even been a big stir at church as a news story that the first sign of the appearance of the Griffin General had been fulfilled. The story was about the birds that had circled the Crown Mountains. There was some speculation about when the next sign would be seen and recorded. It seemed obvious that something historic was on the verge of happening.

While these reports and stories perked his curiosity and interest Trance knew that he still had to finish the school year out and hopefully do well at the end of year tournaments. His dream of being a real knight was becoming a reality.

Chapter 18

The Journey

The day felt rather familiar. The Sonderson family plus Kyle were packing what they needed to take with them to a new planet. They were headed for a planet that was amazingly near Althora, where the ends of year tournaments were held every year. This was to be a pleasurable trip into space. The family was going to use the time for a vacation, and would be there for two weeks.

Millions of years ago the two