Charles king lonely hope part 1
Chapter 23

I woke up on Friday morning, both excited and exhausted, Mum’s warning about Monday being the easiest day, I wasn’t ready for Big Barty bringing in more earth mages and tasking everyone on the German’s side to fight a forest full of golems. And claim a flag guarded by Tommy and Jackson this exercise was all day every day, only stopped for breaks, to change the teams or groups of people or to teach spells. I didn’t get to see Kevin or grace much apart from lunch breaks or being at the guild we were put into different groups. I was with Shinji in the vanguard unit, we got to run out first and attack everything in sight, it’s fun but after a while, it’s tiring. It was a group of 5, me, Shinji, Amy who brings so much energy, a red-headed boy called Garrett, tall, ginger super slim and finally Brent a smaller boy with big ears and an Irish accent. Brent and Garrett didn’t talk to me at first, they finally spoke to me on Thursday and now they both don’t shut up.

“Charles, who is stronger you mum or dad?”

“Who is stronger your Uncle Tommy or your Auntie Alex”.

“What about the eternal Dragons, who is the strongest and what is it like there?”

“Will you join the guild when you finish school”.

And I found this very funny I sent them to ask Kevin all these questions.

On Thursday lunchtime I was sipping on a can of purple nectar while talking to Grace when a chair pulled out next to me and Kevin slowly sat down glaring at me.

“Why do I have random ginger kid and Irish kid hounding me with 1000s of questions” he growled, “I have a headache, they cornered me in the changing rooms while I was getting dressed, they don’t stop talking Charles, they didn’t stop talking” I burst out laughing and I couldn’t control it, Kevin eventually calmed down.

The guild has been bright and joyful, someone started a pool on what was going to happen in language wars, Mum and Dad have put a bet on their team winning Tommy put a bet on our team winning, Tracy put a bet on Kevin capturing the flag. Grace’s mum put a bet on either me or Grace getting it for the win. Madison has been gathering information from everyone before she placed her bet and she won’t tell anyone what her bet was. Lincoln claims he doesn’t care.

“Okay, class Settle down!” MR Ridgewell said, “Today is the day, we won’t be here long, in a few minutes we will be making our way down to the sports hall, but before that, I would like to say that I have been told about how well all of you have done and I am super proud to be your form teacher”.

I like how excited noise in the form room turned into silent nerves in the changing rooms, my normal incoming headache or Brent and Garrett quietly spinning their sword hilts in their hands,

“How long do you think this will take?” Kevin asked me, “I’m already hungry again”.

“No idea,” I said, “I could for some bacon toast”.

“Add a sausage to that and I’m in”.

Mr Ridgewell walked in, “Okay boys when you’re ready come out, and wait on the field”. Everyone stood up, outside of the changing rooms was Big Barty and Jonah engaging in conversation, but they stopped to wish everyone good luck. We got outside and lined up.

“Charles?” Mr Ridgewell said, “Where is your hilt?” I looked down and only just realised I didn’t have it.

“It’s in the changing rooms, sir”.

“Go get it” I ran off to the top and slowly opened it in case someone was on the other side.

“He needs to know Bartholomew” Jonah sounds angry, I closed the door, so it didn’t make any noise. “He has no idea what is coming his way”.

“It’s not my decision Jonah, that is up to his parents, you know what they been doing, especially since you have been helping this week”.

“I admit I judged him before I met him and I apologised for that, he is a good kid, works hard, and doesn’t cause anyone, any trouble. I now know why you have a soft spot for him, but that is why you should tell him”.

“I can’t its not my choice, I am not his parents its down to them I will speak to them”.

“Make sure you do, he needs to know, his life is in danger, and he has no idea how bad it is! if he doesn’t know what is going on by the end of the day, I’ll tell him myself!”

“Tell me what?” I came out from around the corner. Jonah jumped two feet in the air.

“What are you doing here Charles?” Barty demanded. “you’re supposed to be outside”.

“I forgot my hilt, but what am I supposed to know? And why am I in danger?” my guess is it’s the dark magic stuff.

“Nothing, forget about it until after this capture flag” Barty closed the distance gently grabbed me by my shoulders and looked me in the eyes “We will talk later but for right now, completely focus on this, I have spent 2 weeks training you, and everybody knows this, I have complete faith that you will go out there and make me proud, so for me, make me this promise, you’re a young man, a man of his word, promise you will forget about what you heard until after this event, I want you to do well and focus” Barty looked at at the doors of the changing rooms and Jonah opened it.

“Come here” My hilt flung itself into Barty’s hand.

“That was cool! And I promise”.

“Thank you, I’ll teach you it one day, now go make us proud”.

“Good luck” Jonah said. and I was ushered towards the door. the door opened and I ran back to the group.

“Are you okay?” Kevin asked.

“Not really but I will tell you later”.

“Quiet down everyone” Ms Sandhu shouted, standing in the stands, along with Mr Ridgewell and Ms Musa, “okay forms w, x, y, and z. capture the Flag is about to begin all of you have been excellent this week, and I’m sure everything will pay off today get ready because in a few minutes, Mr Payne will be taking you to our flag before that I will go over the rules, same as the battle royale, only magic and sword attacks are along any punching, kicking, or biting is forbidden and you will be disqualified, apart from that anything goes, good luck” Ms Sandhu pointed to the forest and stood there was Mr Paynes, skinny, play and painful to be around, even his suit looks like it doesn’t want to be on his body.

“Follow me, and don’t talk” Mr Payne said, he is a lot of fun. We shuffled in silence through the forest, I forgot about how tight these magic suits are. 5 minutes later we came to a small hill with a red flag up top, Mr Payne walked up to the stop and stood before us all, and then began to rub his hands together, and suddenly waved his hands in the air. a small red gust of wind glided between the group and red scarfs appeared on the arms of all the German side.

“If you see red, they’re your team, blue is the French. You will all be watched, so perform well, on the sound of the bang begin”. Payne left and we all stood there silent until Kevin got to the top of the hill and sat down. Everyone just looked at him, but he raised his finger to his mouth.

BANG! A large fireworks exploded in the sky. Kevin stood up “Who are meant to be the scouts?” around 20 people put their hands up, “Okay, let’s follow the plan scouts go and replace their camp and then we can send our vanguard in, gather up in your teams”.

“Is Kevin the leader?” Amy asked me when we were forming our teams.

“It would seem so,” I said,

“He is ranked number one in our year,” Garrett said. His hair looks even more red in that suit.

“What are your rankings?” Brent asked.

“None of us are in the top 10” Amy said, “and like four people in my class claim to be number 11".

“I don’t get what you mean,” Garrett said.

“It means that no matter what number we say, you don’t know if I’m true”.

“I’m number one,” Kevin said leaning over the hill, “Sorry I was listening, I have seen Charles’s ranking, I’ve seen his paper, I’ll tell the person who captures the flag his number”.

“What do I get?” I asked, “And when did you see my paper”.

“Erm... you’re team tells you their real number, sounds like a good deal?”

“Deal,” Amy said.

“Deal,” Garrett said.

“Deal,” Brent said.

“Deal,” Shinji said. he was awfully quiet, but he normally is.

Charlotte was in a group of all girls, and Grace was in a mixed group a few feet away.

“We found it!” Ethan and Tori came running back to the hill, “But we are being followed!” 5 French came following Ethan and Tori, leading it was Antonia the small brunette girl.

“Grab their flag! Antonia shouted, “We can win it now and take all the glory”. They ran at full pace. I wanted to go and fight but Shinji stuck his arm out,

“It’s not our job” he said, coldly but he sounded cool. I was surprised to see Charlotte and her crew run out to meet Antonia head-on.

“Charles, Amy. Shinji, Brent, and Garrett! Follow Ethan and go win this!”

“Got it,” we said as a collective. And followed Ethan who had run around Charlotte’s crew and past us waving us along, he had a gigantic smile on his face. We ran behind him, listening to cheers from the other teams, telling us to.

“Go get them”.

“We will help soon”.

“We got this”.

“Go beat them”.

We ran further into the woods and the noises from our side faded down and the air became surprisingly ghost-like, every bit of noise felt amplified, this must be how the people in horror movies feel.

“There’s a group!”

“Get them!”

“It’s Charles’s group!” 5 French burst through the trees at us. I am eagerly looking for a fight but stupidly running so close together.

“Jack and Jill guys,” Brent said. jumping to the front of the group, Jack and Gill is a special attack our group learned from Jonah.

“When a group is bundled together,” Jonah said, during one lesson, ” they are more likely to trip over, this is called Jack and gill, firstly one must see the opportunity and call for it then the other four must act instantly, second all but Brent must lay down the cover fire of blastballs but purposely miss to keep their opponents together, they keep running as a unit and finally brent as an Earth mage must create a small mud wall for them to trip over, and the rest his history, because I expect none of you to miss targets on the floor”.

“Their aim is so bad”.

“How is this missing us”.

“Easy win for us”.

“Raise!” Brent slammed his hands into the ground and a small mud wall formed and tripped up the French.

“Oops, did you fall?” Amy said, “I hope you’re all okay, don’t worry just lay there, someone will come and collect you soon” She laughed like a villain from a child’s movie.

“You lot are scary” Ethan said, after he watched us pepper the French on the ground with blast balls.

“War is War” Brent said standing up slowly.

“You must know how silly you look,” Amy said.

“You can’t talk I heard your creepy laugh”.

“Both of you sound silly,” Garrett said,

“We do!” Amy and Brent said together.

“you’re just mad because you don’t have anything cool to say,” Amy said coldly, and then suddenly perked back up, “let’s get going”. Shinji looked at me and puffed out his cheeks and then shook his head and we began our run again. We stopped again a few minutes later when Ethan slid behind a tree and pointed at a hill with a blue flag surrounded by the French. I can see Wyatt and a group of 4 people standing at the base. Nobody spoke, we all knew the plan, I tapped Ethan on the shoulder and walked as quietly as I could to the trees nearest the open space before the hill. Our group split up with a bit of distance between us, the plan is, that I step out first and get as many as I can to change me. I took a deep breath and stepped out into the open field,

“Hello French people, I have come to get your flag”. I said loudly and the next moment was like playing a video game when you sneak into the evil team’s base and you get spotted and suddenly everyone turns and loads of people run at you, oh crap they are running at me. I turned and ran back, my goal was to run back to our home base or at least as close as I could, all I needed was reinforcement, which came in the shape of Charlotte and Kevin, two large groups and they destroyed the French side that followed me.

“Out of breath there?” Kevin asked after the skirmish, I managed to take out 3 people I didn’t know their names.

“Oh. yes,” I said in between breaths.

“Final push,” Charlotte said, as the rest of my team came running towards followed by large groups, but these large groups were smart and turned around instantly,

“Oh, this is about to be a big battle,” Kevin said, he tapped my shoulder and we walked towards the French flag. “Remember don’t get caught up in Wyatt’s war of words, even if he says something about Bella I know it will be tough”.

“He won’t do that”, Charlotte interrupted, “he has taken a liking to her, and both of your dads... what a friend told me” She shrugged her shoulders and skipped over to her group.

“Is it just me or is she acting differently?” Kevin asked.

“Very differently,” I said I didn’t add that it was a good thing, she is nicer to me now. We came to the open field where the French were all lined up, and then two groups of five split off and ran through the woods to their side.

“Shields up” Kevin shouted, “not you” he added quickly to me, “Wait at the back of the wall with me, Barty told me that you should wait behind a wall if it gets to that point and that you should wait for your opportunity to burst through and go for the flag”.

“We will open a hole for you” Amy said flexing her muscles, my team had caught up and were just behind Kevin and me. I did what I was asked to do and took a step back and watched the two sidewalks closer to each other and suddenly all hell broke loose, for a moment, bliss, peaceful and beautiful silence, that suddenly came crashing down around the reality of a bunch of 13 year-olds are playing war at school in the middle of the day and the funny thing is, we forget we are 13 until we start fighting and lack of skill and ability is put on display, Vikings, Romans, Greeks, Angelo Saxons, Persians, Mongolians, I can go on and on about the warriors and soldiers of old must be looking down, laughing at how serious we have taken this but at this moment, this is everything to me. I don’t want to let my friends, or my classmates down, I don’t want to let Barty, Jonah, and Uncle Tommy down. From what I just saw in the corner of my eye, this is my moment, this will be her moment and I couldn’t be happy. I know what I have to do, charge, and get everybody’s attention on me.

“WYATT!” I shouted at the top of my lungs “What are you waiting for?” I ran as fast I could through the melee, dodging swords from both the French side and my side, I broke through and met eye with Wyatt, he ready his hilt and his sword flew out of it, crystal clear blade.

“CHARLIE!” Wyatt shouted! And charge at me, I activated my hilt, and met Wyatt’s sword with a swing of my own, I can’t help but smile, I can see her claiming the hill while I’m exchanging sword strikes and I am the only one who knows, I have to keep him facing away from the hill.

“What’s the matter, Charlie?” Wyatt asked. “Nervous smile?”

“Charlie? Really?” I asked, My smile was wider I could have ginger hair on top of the hill reaching for the flag, I stopped what I was doing and looked up at the hill, “Isn’t it ironic? How we are down here while she is at the top”.

BANG! Another massive firework exploded in the sky, Grace was atop the hill holding the blue flag in the air.

“Yes, grace!” I screamed. Wyatt was furious, I wish I had a camera to capture this moment, I would frame it!

Mr. Ridgewell and Miss Sandhu appeared from the Forrest clapping their hands joyously, followed by some other teachers also clapping but looking less happy.

“Follow us and head back to the changing rooms before the celebrations” Ms Sandhu shouted; her voice was so cheerful. I helped Grace down the hill, she came down with the flag and waved it about, and then was surrounded by our classmates.

“It was Barty’s idea,” Kevin said nudging my elbow. “Dangle the big fish in front of them and let the little one swim around the back, it was a good plan, I didn’t know he was going to use grace as the little fish though”.

“I am happy he did,” I said.

“Me too,” Kevin said. capture the Flag was over and my mind was suddenly flooded the images of Barty and Jonah talking about me.

“He needs to know!“.

Grace was picked up and carried for 100 yards before the people carrying her got tired and put her down and the merriment continued into the sports hall and then into the changing rooms, everyone was talking about their fights and what they did.

“Charles!” Brent shouted to me from across the changing room, “When you shouted Wyatt, like a madman and charged through the battlefield was super cool”.

“Thank you” echoes of different people screaming Wyatt rang around the Changing rooms. We left the changing rooms and stood there Jonah.

“Charles can I have word a minute”.

“Yeah, I’ll see later” I added to Kevin, and I followed Jonah in the room that was between the changing rooms, I always assumed it was the teacher’s room, we walked in. and in there was, my mum and dad, Marvin, Uncle Tommy, and Big Barty.

“Hey, son” Dad said with a sombre tone, “take a seat” I sat down in a random chair, I had a look around the room, mainly just desks in here, no windows, a few computers and a bulletin board, I was suddenly surrounded by the adults in the room.

“First of all, son,” mum said, she didn’t sound too happy either, now I’m worried, “Congratulations, you have done very well, you didn’t put yourself over your team and from what I now know about your teams plan you performed with perfectly”.

“Thank you, Mum”.

“That being said, I know you overheard a conversation before between Bartholomew and Jonah and we have no choice but to tell you what is going on, you know about what is going on in some countries in Europe, and you know that your name has been brought up, that has nothing to do with you, that is all down to previous dark mages who lead rebellions and where successful, unfortunately that being the case they believe that you’re a prophecy sent to save them and save them from there struggles” mum stopped and let out and deep breath, dad looked at the floor, Barty nose twitched, and Marvin grabbed both of my shoulders from behind. “Because they believe this, other people have decided that you’re a problem and have put a bounty on your head, there have been several attempts on your life this week, the guild has been working quietly to not let you know and Barty and Jonah have kept you safe this week both outside of school and the single attempt from inside the school”.

“From inside the school? When did this happen!?”

“It was a teacher” Jonah said, “a new one, Simmons knows and now all the teachers will have their backgrounds checked”.

“Charles there is more” Mum said, “Dark Guild has taken an interest in you believing you will bring them power, we have videos of them, that were intended for others with plans to take you and train you up for their own needs”.

“I wouldn’t work for a dark guild!”

“We know,” Uncle Tommy said. he winked at me and gave me a soft nod of the head.

“They don’t care, they would attempt to brainwash you, and we will never let that happen, so from now on, you will always be met at the school gates by someone and taken to and from school, It is all for your safety, and this is only until this war ends, and we are working on ending it, son”.

“So, I have to wait around until someone tries to kill me or kidnap me?”

“I’m sorry Charles”.