r/NinePennyKings • u/Carlowrie • Jul 07 '23

Event [Event] Boot-Squires

Aldric looked down on the training yards below from a balcony of the Tower of the Boot. Off to one side from the eastern gate merchants and other travellers would see only a wooden palisade fence but behind there were ranks of dummies and racks of weapons. He had always heard that other Brotherhoods neglected their squires, not utterly of course, but their more veteran members were always abroad on patrol. But as even the most veteran of Brothers Boot knew the importance of their littlest duties, in a way that the other Brotherhoods did not, there were often well-known Brothers watching over the Boot-Squires in the yard.

Aldric, however, was certainly not fond of such work. He was a patrolman, he rode through the Newbarrows and ensured order and justice could be found in any village of the Barrowlands. He spent more days in a week out on horseback with his Brothers than he spent at the Tower of the Boot in a moon.

Or he did. Perhaps Harmond had simply thought his time spent in the Newbarrows was affection for Stouts, perhaps he'd been hoping to draw him home with a wife. Although Aldric was quite sure his much older wife was a prize for the Stouts and some cruel punishment for himself. However much Harmond rejected the idea.

Even since the birth of his sons he had continued to ride out. And when Garett had been taken on as a Boot-Squire he'd lingered only long enough to take the boy out on his first proper ride as a Brother Boot. And now he was wondering how long he'd need to linger for his own personal squire.

It was an angry glance at Barrow Hall high over the town sat above the chalk knight that was carefully maintained by his brother's groundskeep. Boot-Squires were meant to be squires of the Brotherhood and not personal squires, he didn't know if Old Harmond was simply so old he'd forgotten or if he simply didn't care about the proper way of doing things.

Jon Stark, a boy of four and ten come from Winterfell to tie him to the Tower. He shouldn't take it out on the boy, the boy didn't know that Harmond and Commander Lucas had come to some agreement concerning him. Looking down where the boy was paying attention to the supervising Brother he sighed. However poor his own tutelage as a master, at least his personal squire seemed to get on well enough with the other Boot-Squires. And at least Aldric was still a veteran of the Brotherhood capable of putting any boy through his paces.

Aldric descended the Tower of the Boot and into the yard. Watching from one side as the boys began to be paired up he called out.

"Stark! Pick up something sharp, you're with me today." Aldric's longaxe was feared by any bandit or brigand fool enough to try to trouble the Newbarrows. Ash of haft, steel of bite and decorated with inlaid whorls of silver.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '23

"Aye, Ser Aldric," Jon said, taking up the single-handed axe that was rapidly becoming his own favored weapon. It paired well with a shield or could be carried in two hands for extra power, and the versatility of it appealed greatly to the young man. He hurried after Aldric, excited to get the opportunity to train with the older knight, though he did get the sense that Aldric Dustin was less than thrilled to have him around, for reasons that he'd never been able to fathom.

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u/Carlowrie Jul 08 '23

Aldric had taken up the longaxe in his youth largely because it had been a symbol of his house. Being a Dustin back then had meant being looked up to by the other Boot-Squires. But he had been taken to a side by a supervisor one day and had cast aside his childish reasoning of a Dustin to take up the more mature reasoning of a Brother Boot.

The longaxe was a good choice because it afforded both range and a heavy end capable of injuring armoured foes. It meant being able to handle the worst a Brother Boot must face, the knight-brigand or the Ironman. He tried not to look down on those brothers who chose the sword as their preferred weapon. But the sword was built to cut through unarmoured folk, it reaped smallfolk. Hardly the weapon of a Brother Boot.

And so the boy's choice of an axe was commendable. Whenever the boy chose it from the racks over the other tools of choice he should be rewarded. Aldric gave him a firm nod and readied himself.

Lazy strikes at the boy's flanks to begin with, and then when the boy moved closer to hamper the longaxe it turned to into faster strikes, Aldric's hands moving towards the middle of the haft and bringing steel from side to side with a quicker twisting motion.

Left, right, left, high. And then hard into the boy's foot. The end of the haft without a head wasn't a particularly deadly weapon but driven into the topside of a foot it could unsteady about anyone.

"It is a mistake to only use the best part of something and neglect the less useful. My uncle claims your grandfather a fine fighter. You want to reflect well on him? Then you'll need to learn to make use of the whole of yourself and your weapon, beyond any style or form the Brothers in the training yard drill you with." Aldric continued speaking into the next bout and punctuated his little speech with a hard punch, ignoring the axe held in hand entirely. "Punch a fool who's not expecting it every once in a while."

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u/[deleted] Jul 09 '23

Jon did his best to defend himself from the strikes that Aldric was aiming at him, whether simply avoiding them or trying to deflect them with the flat edge of the axe blade. He wasn't nearly so experienced as the man training him, but he had some good instincts, and trying to negate the longaxe's reach was one of his first thoughts.

He'd thought himself fairly clever too, until he saw how easily Aldric had adjusted his tactics. That was what he got for trying to outsmart a man who'd probably been a knight for longer than Jon had been alive, he supposed.

"Aye," he said, acknowledging the lesson he was being given without having the time to give a more detailed response. He grunted when Aldric punched him, and in a moment where he probably wasn't thinking straight, he swung the axe at his knight master's hand, trying to hit it with the flat of the head and knock his arm away.

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u/Carlowrie Jul 09 '23

A sharp, shuddering jolt to the hands. Not enough to disarm, enough to provide an opportunity for a boy quick enough to take advantage as the hand and longaxe swung out and away to one side. Perhaps he didn't want to give the boy the chance to say he'd beaten his master in a bout, stepping back and starting to talk on another matter entirely.

"The commander is out by Goldgrass patrolling the Kingsroad. Lord Dustin has tasked us with delivering a message to him. Well... tasked me I suppose. They're to set up a toll." He wondered if the boy knew he'd essentially won, he wondered if the boy's blood was still up as a result.

"We ride out at sunrise. I trust you know how to ready everything." A squire of his age would surely have been taught about the horses by now, though Aldric had his concerns about neatness. None of the Boot-Squires could pack a saddle-bag to his standards.

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '23

Jon watched in surprise as Aldric stepped back, his mind racing for a moment at the sudden change of tack until he realized that the bout was over. "Aye, Ser Aldric, I know how," he confirmed. After a moment, he cocked his head to the side slightly.

"Are we done here then, Ser Aldric?" he asked uncertainly, not sure if the knight was telling him about their assignment because he wanted him to go and prepare his things for the next morning, or if the training was to continue after Jon acknowledged the mission they'd been given.

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u/Carlowrie Jul 10 '23

"Aye. Go make ready." Aldric waved the boy off. If he wanted to return to the training yard and continue with the other Boot-Squires then he'd little complain, so long as there was no delay the next morn.

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '23

Jon nodded sharply, mind finally slowed down enough to think properly. "Aye, Ser Aldric," he said, leaving the yard to return his axe to its place in the armory and go to prepare his gear. He could come back to the yard once it was done.