Menacing Misfits: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (Darkthorn Academy Book 1)

by Robyn Wideman

  “That just means Captain Morgan isn’t suicidal,” Colin said.

  “Anyways, that minidras is now my familiar.”

  Cara raised her hand to her mouth. She looked completely shocked. “You have a minidras familiar?”

  “Lord Scratches. He’s up in the room right now, I think. He was there when we left for the library.”

  Shaking her head, Cara commented, “Unbelievable.”

  “We’re headed to the room right now; you want to meet him?”

  Cara clapped her hands together. “Yes!”

  They went to the room and Jack opened the door. Lord Scratches was still on the window, sill looking out towards the woods.

  “Hey, Lord. We’re just dropping off some books before going to dinner. This is Cara.”

  Cara entered the room and smiled. “Hello, Lord Scratches.”

  Lord Scratches looked at Jack and then over at Cara. He hopped from the ledge onto Jack’s bed, Jack rubbed him behind the ears and Lord Scratches started to purr.

  “See, he’s like a big old cat,” Jack said.

  “Sure,” Cara said as she slowly walked closer to Jack and reached out towards Lord Scratches. “If cats had wings, scales and magical powers.”

  “Some cats have magic,” Colin said.

  As Cara touched Lord Scratches, he turned his head, looked at her for a moment and then bit her hand.

  “Ouch,” Cara said. “He bit me.”

  “Lord Scratches! No biting!” Jack scolded. “I’m sorry Cara, I didn’t think he’d do that.”

  Cara backed away, holding her hand. “It’s OK. Maybe he’s not totally adjusted to people yet. He didn’t bite me too hard.”

  Lord Scratches waddled into the middle of the bed and then curled up into a little ball as if nothing had happened.

  Jack sighed. “I guess I have a lot to learn about having a minidras familiar. Hopefully the dragon class will teach me. Come on, let’s go get some food.” Jack turned to Lord Scratches. “You stay here. Bad minidras.”

  Lord Scratches looked up and gave a quick chirp.

  Jack didn’t speak chirp, but the way Lord Scratches had lifted his head and then returned to his nap, it sure sounded like sass.

  When they got into the hallway, Colin laughed. “Maybe you aren’t so lucky after all, Lord Scratches might be a handful.”

  “Was it just me or was that last chirp sassy?”

  “As a once-thirteen-year-old girl,” Cara said, “and trust me, I know that attitude well—I have twin little sisters that age—that, my friend, was sass.”

  15

  “Hey, Jack. Looks like we are in this class together. Want to sit next to me?”

  Jack smiled. “Hey, Cara. Sure, I’d like that.”

  They were just about to sit when the professor burst into the room.

  “Sit down and shut up!”

  Jack and Cara quickly found seats as the professor stared them down.

  “I’m Professor Logston. This is Magic Basics and this is where I teach you bunch of apple-munching meatheads magic.”

  Jack was surprised by how intense Professor Logston was. He was walking back and forth like he was preparing to attack them instead of talk.

  “The first rule of magic is there are no rules. Your imagination is the limit of what can be done. That said, there are general concepts and guidelines that should be followed. It might sound cool to combine a fireball spell with an ice spear, I mean who wouldn’t want to see a flaming spear of ice, but when that spear explodes and you have hundreds of ice shards poking out of you like a gods-be-damned frozen porcupine you will realize some things shouldn’t be done.”

  Professor Logston turned to his desk. There was a pile of stones sitting on it. He lifted his hand and the pile came up off the desk and started floating across the room. It started to separate and a stone went to each student.

  Jack grabbed his stone. It felt cool to the touch and incredibly smooth. It reminded him of the stones used for the magic test.

  “These stones are enchanted to be receptive to magic. Those of you who’ve already been using magic will quickly move on to other challenges, for the rest of you that stone is all you’re going to be focusing on.”

  A student in the front row put their hand up. “How do we activate the stones?”

  “Magic.”

  The student looked confused, just as confused as Jack felt.

  Professor Logston sighed dramatically. “If you’d read the first chapter in your book, you’d know the answer. I expect from now on that everyone will be coming to class prepared and not just relying on my superior intellect and powers to get you through the class. Now, everyone get to work. Once you’ve demonstrated that you can use the stones, I will give you another assignment.”

  Jack leaned over to Cara. “I didn’t read all of the first chapter, did you?”

  “I didn’t have to. My previous school uses the same books. I’ll walk you through it.”

  Jack breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

  “The first thing you do is understand your own magic. Some teachers use different methods, but I find the easiest way to explain it is you need to think of your mana, or magical energy, as a ball churning around in your stomach. It is hiding from you right now, but it is there. You have to concentrate as hard as you can on feeling your own body and finding that ball. It might not feel like a ball, it might feel like a spark of energy or an unusual warm glow. You have to visualize it, feel it, and then imagine taking that energy and pushing it into the stone.”

  Jack frowned. It sounded very easy, yet incredibly hard.

  “Is that clear?” Cara asked.

  “Clear as mud.”

  Cara laughed. It might take a while for you to find it, but once you do it will be much easier every time after that, until it becomes second nature and you just command your magic without even thinking. That’s what the great mages can do.”

  “I doubt I’ll ever be a great mage.”

  Cara shrugged. “Let’s just start with finding your magic and getting through this class without getting Professor Logston excited.”

  “He is very excitable.” Jack then closed his eyes and tried to imagine a ball of magic sitting in his stomach like some giant human hairball. He didn’t feel anything. He opened his eyes and sighed. But he didn’t complain, he just tried again. And again. And again.

  When Professor Logston came to them, Cara put her stone in her hand, and it glowed, changing colors like a prism.

  “Very good, Miss Dale. I see you came prepared.”

  “My prep school magic teacher is an old colleague of yours. He said I’d need to be on my toes if I was going to pass this class,” Cara said.

  “Oh. And who was that?”

  “Paulo Tarry.”

  “That old scamp? Teaching at a prep school? How intriguing. I suppose he went over everything that I teach.”

  Cara grinned. “He said you’d throw in some new stuff to make sure I didn’t have it too easy, but yes. He used your magic studies book as the basis of our coursework, along with the traditional first-year magic books in case you’d moved on to a different position.”

  Professor Logston frowned. “And what prep school was this?”

  “Allbright Academy,” Cara said.

  “I should’ve known,” Professor Logston said. “It shouldn’t surprise me that one of the elite prep schools in the realm would snoop around and find out what our students needed to succeed. I can find no fault in that, but Paulo was correct. I will make sure you are challenged, even if it won’t be reflected in your grades.”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way, Professor.”

  Finally, Professor Logston turned to Jack. “I gather you are not as well prepared as Miss Dale.”

  “No, sir, I have no formal magic training.”

  Professor Logston scowled. “I see. That will be problematic. Most first-year students find the first couple weeks of my classes to be mostly review of what they alr
eady know, just strengthening the foundation so to speak. You’ll have to work extra hard to catch up.”

  “I’ll help him,” Cara volunteered.

  Professor Logston nodded. “Normally, I would suggest a student needs to do things on his own, but in this situation, I think you’ll need all the help you can get. Carry on.”

  As the professor walked away, Jack looked over at Cara. “You’ll help me?”

  “Of course. That is what friends do,” she said with a smile. “Why don’t we meet later and I’ll help you.”

  16

  The second of Jack’s classes was Combat Basics. He nervously stood with the rest of his class. He recognized a few of the other scholarship students, but the rest were regulars. Colin and Stannerios were in different classes.

  The instructor walked up to the class. He was a shorter man, barely taller than Jack, but he stood erect with a confidence that made him seem bigger. He appeared to be in his late forties, maybe early fifties—Jack couldn’t tell.

  “I’m Instructor Brazee. I was a member of the Westdrift Empire Army for twenty years and a member of the Westdrift Dragon Brigades for another ten. I’ve been in several wars, including the War of Seven Nations, the Harmoria Uprising and the Nurangaurd War. I’ve been in more battles than I care to count, on land or in the air, and I’m here to teach you the basics about combat.

  “Now, I know for many of you, you’ve been receiving basic combat training for several years now, and some of you actually have skills far exceeding what we’ll be covering during this course. That is OK. There is no one, myself included, who can’t benefit from additional training. We’ll be doing a lot of physical work. Combat is about speed, power and precision. Precision is a function of practice and skill, having your mind and body working in harmony, while speed and power come from training your body. For those of you who haven’t yet done any basic combat training, you may struggle to keep up. Do your best, and focus on continued improvement. You will have to pass a test at the end of the semester, but you have until then to develop the skills needed to move on. If you fail basic combat, you will not be eligible to be a dragon rider.”

  Jack gulped. He was one of the students that had no real training. He’d have to work harder than everyone else. Being a dragon rider was a dream for every kid growing up, and Jack was no different. Now that he was actually here, there was no way he wouldn’t give his all to achieve that goal.

  “Before we start, I want to get an idea of what level of experience everyone has. I want all the students with at least one full year of advanced combat training in at least one or more fighting styles to step forward.”

  Of the thirty or so students, ten stepped forward.

  “Impressive,” Instructor Brazee said. “Now, those with at least two years of intermediate-level training.”

  Six more students stepped forward. Instructor Brazee nodded. “An exceptional group. It is rare for me to have half of my class have at least an intermediate level. Now those with at least two years of basic combat training step forward.”

  Eight more students stepped forward. Jack looked around. There were only six students remaining.

  “And everyone with only one year of training step forward.”

  The rest of the students stepped forward, leaving Jack by himself.

  “OK,” Instructor Brazee said. “I want three groups. You first ten with the most training for one group on my right. You next six for the next group.” He then looked at the others and picked four students to join the second group. Jack noticed the four that he picked looked like they were the biggest or the ones in the best shape.

  “These three groups will be the main groups you train in when we spar. I may move students between groups as I see everyone’s skill levels, or for individual training exercises I may move you around, but for the most part the people in your group will be the ones you train with this semester. The next thing I want you to do is find a training partner of about the same size and strength. I don’t care if you’re female or male, human, orc or other, just try to find someone of equal size. We can change it up later, but for now this is who you’ll spar with.”

  Jack looked around at his group of ten. There were three young women and six men. Two of the men were orcs and immediately paired off. An elven, or half-elven man, Jack couldn’t tell, paired up with the next smallest guy. Those were the two guys that were closest to Jack in size. The other two guys paired off, leaving Jack as the only guy without a partner. Of the three women, two were humans and they paired off, leaving an elven girl standing by herself. She saw that Jack was the only one left and she walked up and stood beside him.

  Instructor Brazee walked around the three groups. He made a few changes to the pairings and then stood in front of the whole group. “OK. Everything looks good. I think everyone has a good partner to start. Again, who you are paired with now may change, and you will spar plenty with other people, but for now, this is your partner. Feel free to introduce yourself during the next part of the class, which is the morning run. Every day we’ll be starting with a run and exercises before moving on to instruction and sparring. I’ll lead the way.”

  The elven girl turned to Jack. “I’m Lana Liahorn.”

  “Jack Vance.”

  They waited until the others were all in line and jogging behind Instructor Brazee before taking off.

  Once they were jogging side by side, Lana turned her head towards Jack. “You’re the boy who fell into the dragon pit.”

  “Pushed, but yes.”

  “I see. Well, I think you’ll be much stronger than me, but I’ve had a fair amount of training, I wasn’t sure if what I was in was considered intermediate or not, so I hedged and went with only two years of basic level.”

  Great, Jack thought. I’m going to get my ass kicked every day by a girl. “I’ll try to keep up.”

  Lana smiled. “I’m sure you’ll do fine. It just might take a while for you to get up to speed.”

  “I hope so.”

  After the run, Instructor Brazee stood in front of the class. Jack was warm, but barely breathing heavily. He looked around and was surprised to see several other students were either breathing heavily or leaning over with their hands on their knees, sure signs that they weren’t used to that type of running. Thank you, Ramy, Jack thought to himself. The weeks of running beside the wagon had brought his cardio to a level where he wasn’t the worst in the class.

  Lana still looked like she hadn’t even started working out yet.

  “Aside from your physical training, this class will focus on hand-to-hand combat and a multitude of weapons. You’ll learn the basics of swords, staffs, archery, and several other weapons. You’ll choose one primary weapon, which you’ll be tested on at the end of the semester, but you will learn the basics of every weapon. But today we’re going to skip weapons training and just work on your physical training. From the way some of you are huffing and puffing after a measly ten-mile run tells me that you aren’t ready for anything else. Drop and give me twenty pushups.”

  Jack dropped. Again, he had to smile. There was a time when he couldn’t do twenty pushups in a row. Now it wasn’t a big deal.

  After the pushups, Instructor Brazee had them do squats, lunges and several other exercises, but none of them were new to Jack. In fact, every single exercise that Instructor Brazee gave them was something that Ramy had made him do. It seemed that Ramy had been training Jack to join the Academy far before he ever broached the subject.

  “OK. Time for some hand-to-hand combat. I just want you to shadow box with your sparring partner. Get used to moving and ducking. I’ll come around to each group for personalized instruction.”

  Jack and Lana squared off. Immediately, Lana explained to Jack what to do. “Make sure your feet are a good width apart and your knees are slightly bent. You want to be able to bounce around, keep your balance. Turn your body sideways with your weak hand forward.”

  Jack did as she said. It was similar to t
he way Ramy had made him stand. The terminology was different, but the ideas seemed the same.

  Lana jabbed, and Jack leaned back the way Ramy had taught him.

  “Good. I thought you said you’ve had no training.”

  “I’ve never gone to school. My grandfather started to train me, but I had no idea that he really knew what he was doing. But he had me doing all the same exercises and we did some basic stuff with footwork and knives.”

  “Was your grandfather in the military?”

  “Yes, for a while. There was a lot about him that I didn’t know. He used to be a blacksmith and then became a tinker, but I don’t know how long.”

  “It is too bad he waited so long to start training you,” Lana said. “But he taught you good footwork. That will make your training so much easier. Good balance and footwork are vital.”

  Instructor Brazee stepped up beside Jack. “Not bad. Lower your butt further, get your center of gravity lower. There you go. Good work, Master Vance. The faster you pick this stuff up the faster I can teach everyone else at an appropriate level.”

  Jack nodded. “Yes, sir. I will do my best to keep up.”

  “Excellent form, Miss Liahorn. Your reputation proceeds you.”

  As Instructor Brazee walked away, Jack raised an eyebrow at his new training partner. “Your reputation?”

  Lana blushed. “I was the top archer in several competitions between prep schools last year, and my father was known for his skills as well. I’m a legacy student.”

  “Cool,” Jack said. They went back to training. Lana seemed nice, and she had skills. Maybe he’d really lucked out getting her as a training partner.

  17

  “Jack Vance?”

  Jack looked up from his book. He was in ethics class and the professor was reading a section of the book to them—he was following along, working on his reading ability. Ramy had taught him to read, but it hadn’t been something he did a lot of. There was an older student standing beside the professor.