The First Student: part I

James is in his Academia de Ciencias Marciales. Oiling down the practice weapons, making sure the metal ones are free from rust or cracks, and going over the wooden ones to make sure they won't splinter. The school had been open now for a few days, but it hadn't been graced by anyone other than himself. A knock at the entrance on the door frame draws his attention away from his unnecessary task. "Yes, you may come in." He says with a voice that easily carries to the far side of the room, in what he hoped was a welcoming tone. Walking through the door and into his sight was, for one of their kind, a rather small Leonin. Their movements had some power in them, but their body was lithe, and moved with a rough, but natural grace. A good sign for any sailor, or sword wielder. Their fur was the purest white, and as they approached, James saw that he was taller by more than a head. They came to a stop a few feet away and rocked back into a sailors rest posture. There was a nervousness about them, as if walking into a trap they already know but can't avoid.
 
"Are you here to deliver a message, or something else?" James asks politely.
 
"I was sent by Ankre Thunderborn. He said..." their voice cracks from their throat suddenly going dry. "He said I'm to be your test." They look up with a look that appears fierce, and determined. But James has seen enough false bravado to know it from true.
 
"Did he now." James says this with a soft tone, but one with no indication of approval or disappointment. The Leonin's reaction is almost immediate. While everything in their frame and stance still says determination, a flash happens behind their eyes. Bitter disappointment. James walks around them, looking their frame up and down, seeing their muscular development, looking for scars which may tell a story. "What shall I call you then?"
 
"Koren, sir." Their body tenses in, excitement?
 
"And what honorific should I use for you Koren?" He says as he walks back in front of them.
 
They eyes, now looking filled with desperate hope. "Mx, if you please, sir."
 
"Mx. Koren, before I agree to teach you, I would like to know some things about you first." James walks and pulls over a couple of small benches, and gestures for Koren to sit on one.
 
"Of course sir! Whatever you need to know." An almost desperate eagerness in their voice.
 
"Okay, before questions, enough with the sir. I'm no Captain, at least not yet. In here, you can refer to me as Maestro. It means teacher where I'm from." A small bit of laughter escaped from him as he corrected them.
 
"Yes, of course si...Maestro!"
 
"Good. Now Koren, how old are you?"
 
"I've seen nineteen winters Maestro!" They answer with too much eagerness. The answer shocks James for a moment. Their people tend to be taller than him, and yet here's one past the age of majority, who's shorter than even most humans.
 
"I apologize for the insensitivity of this question, but, why are you so short compared to others of your kind?" Their expression told him this isn't a happy story.
 
Koren hung their head, looking down at the floor, and spoke quietly. "It's because of my fir...Maestro. In my parents pack, this color was considered exceptionally unlucky. One of the unluckiest colors one could be born with. There are none in the pack with a color like mine. I was told that when I was born, the pack priest declared me cursed. At only a few days old they left me out in the woods near the Pride's savannah." Their words are choked by old emotions. "I was found by a crazy old Reborn Dwarf. He didn't remember quite how to feed something that's alive and helpless, but Baba did his best. I went hungry at lot as a kid. Healers say that's why I'm so short."
 
"Thank you for telling me Koren. I do not hold your short stature against you, though I'm sure many have. You are a being in your own right, and have been dealt the hand you have. To have made it this long, and this far means you've likely done an excellent job with a difficulty most never know." James says, pride leaking into his tone. Koren's ears perk up, not having heard that tone directed toward them very often. "So why are you here. Why aren't you out there on a ship, or doing something else with your life? Why here, why now?"
 
Koren's ears drop. "Because I'm cursed, like the priest said. Bad luck has always followed me around. When I was eight, Baba met his final death at the hands of a mob as he was trying to get more food for me. I made my way to the city where he was going and saw his body dismembered, and hanging from the city wall." Tears leaked from their eyes, running into their fur and matting it down. "I wandered into the city, and was kicked, and beaten and cursed at by everyone there. I hid, scrounging whatever food I could. Even made what I could only call a friend with a few people there, others like me. I lived like that for two years, in a constant bruised state from either kicks from the passers by, or by toughs taking what little I had. Eventually the city council declared that all indigent and poor people were a blight on society and needed to be removed for the good of the city and the safety of it's gentle folk. They sent the Knights Resplendent to deal with the problem. Some of us they jailed until they could be sold off. Some of us fled. Most of us...most of my friends they slaughtered in the darkened alleyways we called home." They held back tears, remembering very bad times, and the deaths of so many they loved. James gave them time to collect themselves, not in a rush and letting them tell the story at their own pace.
 
"I was sold to a traveling show. I was a ten year old cub, and for the third time in my life, second that I remember, I'd lost everything and everyone I'd known. I did all the dirty jobs for them. They weren't cruel to me, but they didn't love me either. But for the first time I went to bed with a full stomach every night, and that went a long way for me. For four years I stayed with them. Even starting to perform some parts on my own. I was once again happy." Koren sighed, feeling the weight of another wave rushing toward them to crash down on their heads. "We were performing at a town, near the edge of the Iron Curtain in Patlov. A lot of the troupe thought being so close to that awful wall was a bad idea, but our Master convinced us. Said "the people needs their spirits kept up, and they'd be willing to happily pay to have a smile for a while." So we went. And it was good. For two weeks we danced, capered, told jokes and stories. It was wonderful. And the Master was right, they needed to laugh and money flowed freely. We spent two weeks there. We were going to head out the next morning so we were pulling out all the stops for our last show of the night. Right after the crescendo, screams started. They quickly spread across the town and toward us. Creatures straight out of a nightmare came right at us. Slaughtering, and eating anything that came their way. Myself and four others grabbed what little we could and ran. We ran and escaped while our friends gave their lives to help us escape. Three times in my life, and twice that I could remember, everything I loved, everyone I knew was taken away from me. I looked back as we ran and saw my friends get ripped apart." Koren's body wracked with sobs, tears freely flowing down tightly shut eyes.
 
James let them weep. He quietly got up, filled a cup with cool, fresh water and came back. As Koren's sobs lessened, he held out the cup. "Here, you should drink this." Koren reached out and took the cup, finishing it slowly. For several minutes, the only noises that intruded upon the room was that of distant workers, and the whistling wheeze of a nose clogged after crying.
 
"Thank you." Koren said after several minutes more. "We ran, and never stopped running. We lost granny Matilda before the sun rose. Maybe it was the running, or what we'd left behind, but her heart just gave out. Thax'dona disappeared. They went to relieve themselves and never came back. Paskova walked off into a river that was swollen and running fast with the water from spring rains and ice melt. I couldn't stop her. Marano stayed with me until we reached the coast. We holed up for the night in a port city, and before sun rose they'd left me with only a note wishing me luck. I stayed in that city for a while, scrounging, performing, barely making enough to eat. I eventually got a job down on the docks because of my agility and size I could help untangle things most people couldn't reach or throw latches no one else could see so that the cargo could get moving. It was good work, but misfortune always dogged me. I untangled heave line, a part of the cargo net breaks, causing a few crates to fall and shatter. I'm blamed for it, pay is docked. I help unlatch things, but some small valuable piece of the cargo or a ladies effects goes missing, I'm blamed for it, pay is docked. For four years this went on, until finally I'd had enough. I would have quit if I hadn't been accused of taking a precious family heirloom. They searched everything I had, and all of me, stripping me down to nothing. Even after all that I got five lashes and was told to leave."
 
"As I was leaving the docks, my clothes in tatters, barely covering me, a bosun ran over to me. I'll admit, I cowered, afraid that I was going to get beaten or blamed for something again. But he took me by the shoulders, told me his Captain wanted a word, but that it was a good thing. and to come with him. So I did. There was the most beautiful elven woman I've ever seen! I forgot the pain from the lashes on my back as I looked at her. Took her a few times to get me to understand, but she told me that she knew that I didn't steal the heirloom, because they'd watched the person who did, and they worked for the Dockmaster. They wanted to offer me a position on the ship. They saw how fast I could move, how easily I handled things, so they figured I could climb the rigging easily enough and help with other tasks. I signed up right then and there. We sailed out with the evening tide." Koren sighed heavily, the next wave crashing over them in their story. "We were out for five days. This ship which had never suffered an accident or an equipment failure encountered a sudden storm as we were crossing the Sapphire Sea, heading toward Avalon. It came upon us suddenly, no warning. We couldn't even pull the sails in. It snapped both masts. Took us hours to cut them loose and all the rigging. The ship had oars and we were close to Novandria, so over the course of two days we rowed the ship into port. That was six months ago." Koren relaxed, as if a huge weight had been lifted from them. "We got here, I got off as the ship was going to be in dock until the masts could be replaced, and I got hired on to work in the church. Been doing whatever they ask of me since." Koren looked up at James, they're eyes meeting. "And today I got told to report to you for training by Ankre Thunderborn. That's my story." They sat there and waited for James to pronounce judgement.
 
James just smiled. "You've had a hard life kid. Harder than any three people should. And now I think I know what Ankre Thunderborn meant." James stood up and put a hand on Koren's shoulder. "If you'd like to learn from me, learn how to fight, how to use whatever weapon you'd like including your body, then I accept you as my first student." Koren's hands open, the mug dropping to the floor and bouncing, clearly have expected to be tossed out after telling James everything that's happened.
 
"Yes, please!" Koren spoke with tears running from their eyes again, seeing a lifeline when they expected none.
 
"Okay then Koren. Drink some more water, and move these benches back over against the wall. Then go to the weapons rack and pick up two of the mid length sticks. We'll get started as soon as you're ready." James said proudly, thanking Lucetius.