Wolf Knight

Chapter 7

On his first morning in camp, Wolf slept late, along with everybody else in his tent. He didn't see the wolf that slept next to his cot, because it got up and left the tent. He awoke when Wart shook him, "Quick wake up or we'll miss breakfast!"

Wolf bolted from the cot, half asleep, pulled on his trousers and boots, slipping his pages tunic over his head. He, Wart, and their tent mates ran to the mess tent, to collect their breakfast of sausage and eggs. Only after he sat down on the hillside to eat did Wolf realized the sun hadn't arisen over the rim of the valley. He started to shiver in the cool dewy morning and quickly ate the hot food.

Wolf finally had time to be introduced to his two other tent mates Harold and George. They were nice enough and were interested in where Wolf came from. When the boy hesitated, George declared it didn't matter. "If you're Wart's friend, you're my friend." Harold agreed. Before they finished their breakfast, the sun had fully arisen and the boys were starting to feel a little warmth.

Just as they finished eating the horn sounded two blasts, and everyone ran to put away their mess kits. Then they ran to the main tent to receive their assignments.

There the Dragon caught up with Wolf. He took the boy to a corner of the tent where they sat down at a small table. "I need to talk with you, to find out what your education level is so we can determine what your needs are."

Not knowing what to expect, the boy hesitated before quietly saying, "I almost finished sixth grade."

The Dragon beamed, "Excellent, but that is not quite what I mean. We're on summer break and most of the education we do here is physical, but we can't ignore your schooling. I need to find out what your reading and math levels are, in case we need to bring you up to speed before school starts. Trust me, this will be painless."

"Sure," the boy replied skeptically."

"First let's start with reading. I'll give you a series of short stories to read and ask you a couple of questions on each one until I have a good idea of your reading skills. Then we can stop."

"Yes, Sir."

The Dragon gave the boy a sheet of paper with a simple story, too simple it seemed. The knight asked a few questions about the story. He seemed to be more interested in why the people in the story did what they did. Wolf had no problem explaining it. The next story turned out to be more complex. Again the man quizzed him not about what happened, but why people acted the way they did. The reading and questions continued until the last story, a convoluted mystery tale, which had a lot of big words, like 'infuriatingly' and 'extrapolate.' Wolf had problems trying to figure the story and the people out. Wolf started to get frustrated.

The Dragon reassured the boy with a smile, "A lot of what people do in this world is not well understood. You read very well for your age. You must read books a lot."

The boy puffed up his chest, "Yes, sir, I read a lot in the library, especially science fiction."

"Good. It shows. I don't think you will have a problem with the school. But, now I have to test you on math."

Wolf groaned, "Not math."

This time the Dragon gave the boy a page with math problems, starting with a simple multiplication. He spent a half-hour working his way through the increasingly difficult problems until he stumbled on a division of large numbers.

The Dragon smiled again, "That is good enough. I'll get you some help in math. You'll get some extra work in English, and you'll be ready for class when school starts up. First, you will be assigned to a mapping team every afternoon. Trust me; it will help you with your math."

Wolf, dismissed, took his free time to explore the camp further. At lunchtime, he found Wart and they went for some sandwiches and tea.

Afterward, Wolf and Wart were assigned to a squire named David. David sent them out with four other pages to start mapping a part of the upper valley. The six of them went to the quartermaster and obtained compasses, notebooks, and safety harnesses.

They marched north for an hour to their designated area in the higher part of the valley. During the march, Wart introduced Wolf to the pages, named Charles, Stewart, Dennis, and Frank. They were all pleasant and welcomed him to camp. Wart mentioned there would be a soccer game after supper and invited Wolf to play.

When Wolf mentioned he didn't know how to play, Wart laughed and slapped him on the back, "If you can run and kick a ball you, know how to play." Then Wart turned serious, "I'll show you what to do first."

When they reached a large glen, they broke up into three groups and went to separate edges of the glen.

There Wart put on his safety harness first, and then he made sure Wolf wore his harness correctly. They climbed a tall holly tree with good level climbing branches. Wolf liked the security of the safety harness. He discovered himself to be very nervous about heights and had visions of slipping. Wart, seeing his nervousness, assured him it would get easier the more he climbed.

When they reached a couple of good branches about ten meters up, they made themselves comfortable and secured their safety harnesses. Wart started to sketch a map of the clearing, being careful to include the location of the other two teams and their trees. Once satisfied with the sketch, he took compass bearings on the other two teams.

Together the three teams formed a large triangle. Wart drew lines on his map, between their location and the others, and then marking the compass headings on the lines. He told Wolf to make another copy of the same drawing with coordinates on a separate sheet in the book. Once Wolf had finished, they started mapping in all the other landmarks they could see, a lone tree here, a large rock there.

When they were finished, all three groups climbed down and met at a rock in the center of the glen. There they combined their data into a new map, taking more compass readings to as many landmarks as they could see.

They used a hundred-meter long string, marked off in meters, to take distance measurements between the trees they had used for their observations.

When all the data had been entered on the map, they relaxed and ate a snack from packets of dried fruit, mostly pear, and raisins.

All of a sudden, one of the boys threw a small furry ball out onto the field and yelled, "Hare and Hounds." All of the boys scrambled to grab sticks. Wart tossed one to Wolf and yelled, "Get the ball to our tree." Wolf got the idea right away and joined in the melee. Together they managed, in a few minutes, to hit and kick the ball to their tree. Wart jumped for joy, and Wolf got into the spirit and let out a war-whoop.

Red arrived, riding up on Easy Rider, and ordered the boys to report back to the main tent. She also told Wolf, that after he finished mapping duty, he had to report to the Raven. She wheeled Easy Rider about and headed back to camp at a full gallop. Wolf found himself admiring how effortlessly she rode and hoped he would be able to ride that well.

The boys gathered their supplies and started running back to camp, but Wolf found himself short of breath. He had to slow down and walk. Wart stopped running to walk with him.

As they walked back to camp, Wolf asked Wart how he got his name.

"Wart was a nickname for King Arthur when he was just a kid and didn't know he would be king. I got it when some of the older pages discovered I liked to read stories about him."

"I've heard of him. Didn't he have a round table or something?"

"Better than that, he made his table round to show that no knight or king was of greater importance than the others."

"Do you want to become a knight?" Wolf asked.

"I haven't decided yet. It's really hard; you have to work at it day and night. You aren't expected to decide if you'll try for it until you become a squire. If you decide to, you'll be paired with a knight. Most students don't try for it."

"Why haven't I heard about these knights?" Wolf asked.

"I don't know. I hadn't heard of them until my parents sent me here. They must be quiet about what they do. I see knights come and go. So I know there are more than just the teachers in this school, and they don't always wear uniforms." Wart replied.

They soon reached camp and proceeded to the main tent. Working together on a table with their drawings, the pages made a standard size map of the glen that they had just surveyed. Some of the older pages, using a type of math called trigonometry, checked all the numbers and verified all landmarks.

Finally, David declared the map complete and thanked the pages. Wolf took his leave to go find the Raven.

Wolf found the tracker sitting in front of his tent, studying a map and a notebook. The Raven looked up at the boy and smiled, "This is the first time I've had you alone to talk to. How has your first day been?"

Wolf excitedly gave the knight a brief description of his mapping activities.

"But, did you enjoy it?"

"Oh yes, Sir," the boy replied without hesitation.

"Good, I think you will do well here. Pay attention to all your lessons."

The Raven fumbled through some papers in an obvious ploy to stall for time. "I hate paperwork. It is the bane of every teacher.

"You won't always enjoy the work. Everybody works here, and every job, fun or not, has a purpose. Whether you know it or not, you have already begun your education. We believe that everyone has something to learn from any experience.

"Most pages here are not attached to a particular Knight but work in groups for whichever Knight or squire happens to need them. Generally, a Knight has a page assigned to him to act as a messenger.

"Yesterday my page broke his arm and had to be airlifted out to a hospital. He will probably be going home for the rest of the summer. That is why I had to come to camp early.

"I need a replacement page and want to offer the position to you. It will mean extra work, hard work, but you will have more interesting experiences. I teach wilderness survival and can use some help. Will you accept the position?"

Wolf's mouth dropped open.