Charles king lonely hope part 1
Chapter 21

There is nothing in this world that you could offer me in exchange for the moment I just had, walking past Wyatt and Barty J and watching them realise who offered to teach me and Lincoln and that we accepted too, oh my god, I’m so full up on that moment I couldn’t take a moment well, until we made our way past the cafeteria towards the training areas and we walked past some of Wyatt’s crew, they know who his dad is because their mouths fell open. We walked towards training area D or sports hall I forget what I meant to call them anymore, Barty Sr hung his suit jacket up, why do all these rooms look the same as all of the other rooms? either it means to be that way, or someone is lazy.

We set our stuff done on the right side of the training area, Barty Sr, summoned three wooden coat hangers from the wall, “Hang your stuff here boys” he said before hanging his suit jacket up. Lincoln and I followed suit. The doors behind us opened up and a stern-looking red-haired woman liked red, red! Angry red. She has nose piercings and I think worker boots because she assaults the floor when she walks. She stormed in.

“over there” She pointed to the other side of the room and a horde of first and second-year girls walked through the door and then across the room, and suddenly, Grace, Charlotte and that Antonia girl who stood up during our first assemble were all together, Charlotte looked over and seen me and Lincoln with Barty Sr, she shrieked and then brought her hand up to her mouth to hand a giggle and then tapped and Grace on the shoulder, then pointed at us, she whispered something to her.

“No way!” Grace said louder than even she expected, she walked away peering over with her mouth shaped like a giant O.

“So, you’re the other guild that booked the area” the red-haired woman in the big boots had a deep voice, “I am Eleanor Wright, from the impure outlaw, please stay on your side”.

Barty Sr put his hand out to shake Eleanor’s hand but she had walked off and left him hanging. Lincoln and I looked at each other and raised our shoulders.

“don’t go over there boys” Barty sighed. “Before we begin we will have a little talk, I can imagine both of you are wondering why I offered to talk you on”.

Lincoln and I both nodded.

“During Halloween I witnessed you both take on a minotaur without hesitation, you worked together without speaking, I was very impressed”.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Thanks,” Lincoln said,

“If you’re wondering, I know that you both don’t get along with my sons, kids will be kids because that being said I didn’t get along with your father and uncle in school, but I believe I can teach you both well this week, any questions?”

“Why didn’t you like them?” Lincoln asked.

“a few things, we didn’t see eye to eye, different school teams, competing for internships that type of stuff”.

“Why did you chase after me on Halloween?” I asked. Lincoln’s neck spun so fast I heard a click and he groaned in pain.

“You jumped to my son’s defence against a minotaur before you realised it was you they were after you, and then saved all the children who were dressed as werewolves, what type of mad would I be if I didn’t try to help”.

“Fair enough good answer,” Lincoln said, rubbing his neck.

“What are you going to teach us?” I don’t know why I’m being so straightforward with Barty, I guess he just seems like the type of guy who will be honest with me.

“I plan to teach you to create space and time for you both in a battle, you both have spells that need a few seconds to be performed so creating time is ideal, Lincoln you have your inferno spell, from what I see and heard, you store the magic in your arms and when firing you twist your arm like a boxer would a punch that creates the spin”. Lincolns mouth quickly opened and then shut again, he looked incredible puzzled. I am too if that is true how did he know all of that? “Something you might not know is, that the rookie royale, is filmed, I take it you never looked up at any point, guild members are scattered in the trees, recording everything for anyone interested, like parents and guilds... your parents will want to see how you done and guilds will want to see how you handled yourself”.

“I didn’t know that” I Proclaimed

“It’s a secret, you normally learn that when you leave school and can have the footage if you request it, you two might be the only two who attend this school that know it, so do you me a favour and keep it a secret please, I can get in trouble if any was to replace out I told you”.

“Why did you tell us?” Lincoln asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Barty said, looking more friendly now, his features have softened, and he looks more like a dad now. “I think the two of you have great potential, fearless and skilled, smart and creative, defence and attack I have faith in the both of you”.

That may have been the nicest thing, anyone has ever said to me.

“let’s begin, you put some distance between you, but stay level with each other and face me” We did that, and Lincoln took a few steps to his left. I faced Barty in the background were 3 women from impure outlaws giving a speech to the girls who were all sitting on the floor.

“This is a neutral spell, one based around throwing your magic at your opponent and knocking them of course or knocking them off balance there for giving you time and space, there are two ways of performing this spell, first is physical and the second is vocal. We will be focusing on the physical version, at first it will require both of your arms to use, but over time you will be able to use it with one arm, or even a leg. Understand?“.

“Yes sir,” we both said together. This reminds me of when Mum and Dad used to teach us in the garden. Barty snapped his fingers and summoned two practice summons from thin air, impressive.

“Your goal is to knock these dummies over from where you currently stand, only using your magic, before you say anything it doesn’t have a name, it used to centuries ago, called unrelenting force, until experts describe it and all force and requires no skills, I think these so-called experts are dumb since not one of them can even perform it, and trust me they have been asked too, so yeah begin” Barty stood in between the Dummies and smiled, okay. I guess I should start, knock over that dummy that must be a good ten yards away with nothing but magic, I’m thinking he doesn’t mean blastballs because he would have said so and it’s a neutral spell so no dark magic or fire for Lincoln. I began by using both arms like what Barty said and pushing them forward with neutral magic, nothing happened, but Barty smiled, and I felt encouraged, 1 hour later Lincoln’s dummies shook ever so slightly. Barty clapped his hands and gave him a thumbs up, I took two steps to my left and gave Lincoln a fist bump before continuing, well I was going to but the bell rang and it was lunchtime.

“Well done, I’ll meet you both here after lunch” Barty grabbed his Suit jacket and left for the door, the hook it was disappeared instantly, my hook did the same thing when I took my stuff off it too.

“Are your arms hurting?” Lincoln asked, when we squeezed our way into the cafeteria, I looked around before answering, I learned my lesson after last time.

“Yeah killing me,” I said, we sat down at our normal table and then slumped further into our seats I didn’t expect to be this tired after one lesson. I don’t think either of us had any desire or energy to stand up and get anything to eat or drink.

The cafeteria grew louder by the second and strangely enough, I felt like I could fall asleep, I was already resting my head on my arms and my arms on the table but then Tim the giant-sized hero slammed a tray down on the table, sandwiches, and cans of soda.

“I didn’t think neither of you two would want anything heavy,” he said, he pulled off his black blazer, the one only very few people were allowed to wear and wrapped it around his chair. “So, how was your first lesson?” Lincoln and I, looked at each other and sighed, “That bad huh? What is it you’re doing and who with?“. Lincoln bit into a cheese sandwich and then took a big gulp of a red can I think it might be a fizzy strawberry flavour and then he began to tell Tim about our lessons, halfway through his explanation, Kevin turned up looking delighted, then Yasmin looking tired and grace minutes later, apparently they didn’t leave the hall until ten minutes after the bell. I saw some of what they were doing but I couldn’t quite make it out as to what they were doing.

“No wonder you’re tired” Tim said, “using up a lot of magic I’ll be back” Tim stood and then left, returning minutes later with three plates full, now with chocolate bars, sausage rolls, packets of crisps, and more sandwiches, “get your fill, you’ll need it” Tim grinned and then ripped open a chocolate bar and inhaled half of it instantly.

get your fill, you’ll need it, truer words have never been spoken. It’s Friday, my final lesson with Big Barty, a new name I came up with, Lincoln seemed to replace it hilarious, it lost its humour when Big Barty found out we called him that and he didn’t mind it at all. Big Barty had become a lot friendlier he had even brought in sweets and drinks for us to have mini breaks during our lessons and for God know what reason this drove Eleanor the woman from impure outlaws, mad. She would come bounding over and then demand why we weren’t training at the exact moment,

“They need to be put to work every moment they can, no resting!” she barked at Big Barty, hands on hips in big boots like always, he smiled at her and that did not help the situation, “do not smile at me! You know I am right”.

“Are you now?” Big Barty said, slightly patronizing “Have you seen these two perform what I have asked them to do?” her head spun to Me and Lincoln.

“I have” she growled.

“And can they perform it?”

“yes” his mouth twitched, and she was half right, Lincoln can perform it on command and myself only about have of the time, it turns out Big Barty wanted to teach us a spell that can be used quickly and forcefully, and in his words.

“Consider this a defensive spell, no one must know that you can use it, it will look like a punch or a slap and hit like a baseball bat, use it when your opponent gets close and thinks you don’t have anything to stop them” I do like Big Barty, shame about little Barty and tiny Wyatt. The latter has become more vocal in passing with his insults, but out of respect for Big Barty, I have tried to keep my cool and not react.

Big boots Eleanor stopped back to her lesson and Barty turned back to Lincoln and me.

“I think she likes me” Barty chuckled. the bell rang louder and I thought that guild week was over and I was sad, I might miss this big posh guy.

“Okay, you two gather around,” Barty said ushering us over. “Firstly, I would like to say thank you for picking me, and my guild, I think this has been a good week, we achieved what we set out to do and I’m rather proud of how both of you performed, no complaining, no moaning to others you both stared down your tasks and done very well and I am very confident we will work together, enjoy the language wars” Barty winked at me picked up his count and then left.

“What does that mean?” I asked.