That deer ran and ran, trailing its life blood behind it, eventually slowing enough for me to jump onto its back as-well. Then I realised the deer whose back I was on wasn’t the same one. This one was a Buck with a terrific spread of antlers supported by huge neck muscles. He ran and ran. It was the most exhilarating experience that I would ever have the joy of. I was ecstatic as it quickly caught up to Bert’s deer. I knew I had to get of then and I did the strangest thing. I wasn’t at-all afraid of this deer, so I stood up on its back grabbed its massive antlers for support and jumped straight across landing in front of Bert, I couldn’t resist letting out a whoop of exhilaration. I had just copied one of the most difficult manoeuvres a knight could ever learn, and I suddenly knew, this was what I wanted, the scandal of it alone should have put me off, but it didn’t. I wanted to be a knight. The loneliness got tough after that. I had never known my father, knew nothing about him, but my life was to be set upon a path of loneliness that would set me apart from all I knew. That is my first memory.
***
My next real memory is of life at sixteen, my sixteenth birthday in fact. The best present I could have hoped for, a yew bow with peacock fletched feathers, by now I knew how much such a thing would cost and was amazed that my father, Matthew Wood, would give up such money for me. He had always encouraged me to follow my dreams, he protected me. I thought of him as my father then, came to learn what the word really meant and knew, if I ever should find my blood father , he could not possibly measure up to the father I had now. I paced nervously around the front room, waiting for Bert to get there. He would be so jealous, and I had looked forward to it.
I hadn’t known then, although I have since learned, that provoking jealousy in Bert, or indeed in anybody of his character, is a sure way to get yourself hurt. Matthew said I had to practice six hours a day from now on, but that didn’t bother me a bit. I went outside immediately to try out the new weapon, that’s what it was to me, for all its beauty all I could see of it was its use as a weapon. I was a farm boy but even then I had high expectations of myself. I would never have been satisfied with taking over that farm and keeping myself and a family alive. I wanted to do something with my life. Ever since I was little, and at that age it wasn’t a very long time at-all, I had wanted riches and glory. I had wanted to be a knight. This one thought stayed with me as I grew up, shaping my actions, the one thing holding me back was Bert, still my best and only friend. Matthew took me outside and showed me how to aim it. They left me there practicing, they being Matthew and my mother, and talked. Although to this day I don’t know what they talked about, but I suspect it went something like this.
“Matthew what are you doing giving him a weapon like that. He’s only a child!!” (My mother was always worrying about me)
“It was at his”
“I know very well who requested this, is it right that you should give such hopes to a farmers boy when that’s all he’ll ever be.”
“He has high expectations of the lad, as do I, is it that hard for you to have a little confidence.”
“Oh very well” my mother sighs accepting with exasperated resignation.
“Don’t worry, I’ll watch him”
***
Hours later, as it began to go dark, I finally came in from practice. Since our income was significantly less than a hundred pennies, I would be required to practice for six hours a day. The prospect of this exited me, and practice I did, so much in fact that I came to the attention of the local baron, or so I had thought. It was only much later that I in fact had been the work of Matthew. Since that knowledge was kept from me I was thrilled, and an archery tournament was soon arranged. My practice seemed to suddenly take all the time in the world. Weeks passed and the tournament loomed up before me. Bert was less than pleased about this and neither was my mother, although she tried to put on a brave face. The tournament came and I won easily. Sufficed to say, the baron was very pleased, however many veterans finding themselves out-matched by a 16 year old were less than pleased, and soon a mob came to our village. They were sufficed to say very angry with me and, to my eternal shame, I considered shooting them. Instead I simply stood at the front of the village the sword that had been the prize in its sheath around my waist.
Strangely I had no fear of the approaching mob, and this scared them. I laughed as they ground to a halt. As far as they were concerned I was invincible. I realised the power in that and drew the sword, with a single ruby in its hilt it flashed blood-red light into their eyes, my hair was even blond in the sunlight, the hours of practice bleaching the hazel from it. To the mob I must have looked like the primordial hero. I was in control of the spirit of the group now and assumed the ready position, the only position I had learnt from it. They tripped over each other running from the hero whose rage they had provoked. That day I became famous in the village as the hero who had driven of muggers without a drop of blood being spilt. I enjoyed this fame, not knowing it would be dangerous, but of course Matthew and Bert had. My training in the sword began at once with Matthew. The training was embarrassing to say the least. In particular I remember a lesson when he taught me the process of foining. I had begun the lesson the same as any other, after the walk up the hill to our practising grounds, I began with warming up exercises and then we began to spar. Matthew was as lightning with the stick sword in his hand, this suggested to me much later that he had been more than a gamekeeper. Today, however, I did something even I had not expected, I matched his blows. We fought for hours and still he could not land a blow upon me. As the sun broke cover for the morning so did the sticks we had been fighting with break, this did not stop us however, we had already covered how to use a broken sword as an effective weapon and we fought on. The hours passed and finally I disarmed him. He was that shocked, it seemed to me that no other had ever accomplished such a task, and suddenly looking around, I saw that the sun had long since set. Something else I noticed was the location we had ended in. we were in the town square. The fight had been witnessed by everyone there. Matthew and I were both exhausted, and the people around us stared in disbelief. I picked Matthew up from the ground, and retrieved our broken practice swords. From that day forth I was not remembered as the boy born out of wedlock or the boy with no father. It was that fight they remember me for there. When we were sat in front of the fire, with my mother twittering in the background, he explained foining, a technique I would need should I ever become a knight, he had said. “The technique is to shove the point of your sword at a ring in the other knight’s chainmail. If you push with enough force, the rind will bend for your weapon. The next day Matthew and I were called to the baron. We were to be his personal guard in his visit to the capital. This was the chance I had been looking for. I was obviously meant to take it.
