Naphtali woke early, as the sun was rising. The first rays of light beamed in through the window, he wasn't used to having windows made of clear glass rather than beaten tin, and so, watching the early sun rise; while lying under the cosy covers of his bed was a luxury that he had never before been able to afford. It took some willpower, but eventually he slipped out from under his quilt, shuffled through his bag and clothed himself in his usual apparel.

Naphtali left his quarters and bounded down the stairs in excitement.

I'm a Dragon Slayer

First day of training

First day of training

First day of training.

Naphtali skidded and as he reached the bottom step; he slipped, falling backwards onto his bum.

"Ahh," he muttered looking upward.

The common room was lively, everyone was up and about, and in a sense it was surprising to Naphtali to see so many Dragon Slayers in one place, but in another, it wasn't. Luckily, none of them seemed to notice his clumsy fall – the Dragon Slayers went on as usual, thank goodness – except for one, who stood with his hand over his mouth, cackling quietly. It was the blonde-haired Brekka. The young Dragon Slayer walked off, grinning.

That was embarrassing Naphtali thought, pushing himself to his feet.

Naphtali walked into the midst of the common room. He could see Torin sitting on one of the tables at the far end with two other Dragon Slayers; they were drinking mallac together, though Torin wasn't holding a mug. Naphtali approached him, his stomach churning. He felt extremely awkward and out of place, and although he couldn't see any of the other Dragon Slayers turning to look, he felt like every eye in the room was on him. He sat down awkwardly next to Torin, trying to obscure himself as much as possible.

"Don't get comfortable, Naphtali – we'll be going in a moment," Torin said.

"So, this is the boy you're going to be training, huh?" one of the Dragon Slayers said.

"You'd better teach him how to walk down a staircase properly," the other Dragon Slayer laughed.

Naphtali's mouth dropped, and his face turned red.

"You find that amusing. But I recall someone getting their underwear snagged on a dragon's tooth when they were an apprentice. Wasn't that you!" Torin said.

"Shut up Torin! That was years ago, I can't believe you still manage to bring that up."

"Well what I can't believe is that Torin finally managed to find an apprentice" the other Dragon Slayer said.

Torin huffed.

"Come on, Naphtali, let's go start the day."

Torin rose and strode across the common room with Naphtali on his tail, tugging lightly on Torin's robes.

"They all saw me fall over?" Naphtali whispered to Torin.

Torin turned back, looking at him, confused.

"We are Dragon Slayers – don't you think we would notice something as abrupt as that?"

"Yes, but..."

Torin continued with long strides.

"Wait," Naphtali said, running after him, "where are we going to train?"

"Outside. Did you explore the guild at all yesterday?"

"No, I just stayed in my room."

"Follow me," Torin said, continuing until he reached a door on the right side of the wall. It led down a hallway, lit with lamps that were barely aglow. Eventually they were met with a large double door at the end of the hallway – with light streaming in through its gaps. Torin pushed it open, and Naphtali stared in amazement.

"This is the backyard of the guild," Torin muttered, stepping outside.

Naphtali had never seen an area so open within the walls of Aldun. For a moment, he thought the door might have led them outside the city, but they weren't outside the city at all. Naphtali squinted, scanning the horizon. Naphtali could see the tall eastern part of the Aldun city walls surrounding the area, and the watchtowers that lined it. So this was what lay behind the mysterious Dragon Slayer's guild wall. It was hard to imagine something so big existing within the density of the city of Aldun, but it was probably why it was in the quietest part of the city.

The green grass stretched far and wide, enclosed only by the walls of the Dragon Slayers' guild that rounded off in a semi-circle, adjacent to the city walls. At the very far end was a large, multi-storied dome, not overly tall, but extremely wide; with hundreds of entrances and exits, it resembled the ancient arenas that Naphtali had heard so much about. On the very far side was a large lake; its water shimmered in the morning sun and the wind that blew through the area created gentle waves upon its surface. On the other side was a horse track surrounded by a small brown picket fence, and a large, circled dirt patch, that had worn the grass, from what Naphtali assumed to be that of constant riding.

"Let's go," Torin said.

They followed a dirt pathway that wound through the grassy fields toward the arena.

"Gosh," Naphtali said, pointing in front of him, "that stadium is...big?!"

"That isn't just a stadium. That is where we will be training; every Dragon Slayer is assigned a space within the outside layer of that dome."

"We get our own training area? That's amazing! And what's in the middle?"

"The main arena."

"What do you use the main arena for?" Naphtali said as he jumped up and down enthusiastically.

"There are tournaments held there every now and then. Only for Dragon Slayers, of course, from our guild, or any other."

"How do you enter? I mean are apprentices allowed to compete?" Naphtali asked enthusiastically.

"All Dragon Slayers are allowed to participate; there are no qualifying rounds. But apprentices don't usually get far."

"Apprentices – isn't that just me and Brekka?"

"At this guild, yes. But Dragon Slayers do travel down from other guilds. Although we aren't the largest guild in the land, we have the largest stadium, so our tournaments usually get the biggest turnout."

"That's so great! I wonder how they fit a stadium this size in Anea?"

"They don't. The training area for their guild is underground. Let's keep going – that lake over there, well, that's where you'll learn to swim."

"Dragon Slayers learn to swim?"

"How do you think you're ever going to stand a chance against a water dragon if you can't swim?"

"I'd never really thought about that."

"Over there" Torin pointed to the opposite side of the grassy fields "is where I will teach you to ride a horse."

"But I already know how to ride."

"I'll teach you how to ride a horse properly."

Naphtali raised an eyebrow.

"I know how to ride a horse properly!"

"I'm sure you think you do."

Naphtali folded his arms.

"Hmph," he grunted.

A brief moment of silence passed, in which time nature sung its peaceful song. The flowers swayed in the breeze, and a small firebird flew overhead, its wings and tail glittering harmless flames through the air in the beauty of the sun.

Naphtali couldn't hold a frown for very long.

"Are we heading off to the arena now?" Naphtali said, bouncing up and down again.

"Yes."

"And what are we going to learn today? Are you going to teach me some secret Dragon Slayer sword techniques?"

"Something like that, I suppose."

"Let's go then!" Naphtali ran ahead.

Torin shook his head, continuing at the same smooth pace. There was a massive stone archway at the arena entrance, with several smaller tunnels snaking off to the sides. The first tunnel that greeted them was dark, although small holes let streams of light in, along with the cracks and gaps in the walls and roof. Naphtali lifted his hand, touching the stone walls; it was crumbled away a little, obviously old – the building had been standing a long time, but it was still solid and completely unmoving.

"This way," Torin said, turning into one of the side tunnels, his voice echoing as he spoke.

Naphtali stayed by his side. The tunnel wound around and shot off into another path; they continued straight through until they came to a bright, open ground.

"This is our assigned training area."

Naphtali examined the area. The hard sun-dried dirt was surrounded by a large stone wall. On one side there was a doorway, which was about the only thing around that looked as though it had been modified only recently.

"What's that?" Naphtali gestured towards the door.

"You are full of questions, aren't you?"

Naphtali looked up at the older Dragon Slayer, his innocent eyes shimmered with a sympathetic look. He almost didn't expect to get an answer, though to his surprise, Torin continued.

"That's our study. They have another for us in the guild, but this one is more convenient, so we don't have to travel back and forth to the guild multiple times a day. And in that study is where we will begin our training," Torin said, making his way through the arena and pushing open the door.

"What? In there? What do you mean?!" Naphtali ran to catch up to him. "What about the sword fighting? Archery? Hand to hand combat?"

"We'll get to that; there's just one small task we need to get done first."

"What's that?" Naphtali asked, stepping into the room.

There was a gentle woosh as Torin lit a small lamp and hung it on the side wall; the light illuminated the room entirely. Naphtali had almost expected it to be somewhat cave-like, but to his surprise, it turned out to look exactly like an ordinary room. Quite small, with a desk at each end, and a table and two chairs in the middle and a small bin sat in the corner. Although it smelt of rotten rags and old dirt. Spider-webs had been spun in the corners, and grime was smeared in the cracks between the wood in the walls. A rusty broken lamp lay in pieces on one side, and quite frankly, Naphtali thought that the whole place was a little dusty. A heap of used, empty mugs sat around, along with hundreds of dead insects. Over the table, ink had been spilled, and several scrunched-up pieces of paper lay around too. Smashed arrows and discarded pieces of cotton were tangled in the corners, and there were several dead mice on the floor.

"This place hasn't been cleaned in a while, so before we do anything more, we need to make it sparkle. And by we, I mean you," Torin said.

"Really?" Naphtali replied, looking around at the dirty room again.

"Yes. As soon as you get this finished, we can do something else."

"You're not going to help?"

"I'll be here, but I need to get a few things done."

I thought I got out of all my chores when I moved out of my Aunt's home Naphtali thought, sighing aloud.

"If I were you, I'd start with the broken lamp; I'll get you a bag to put all that in. Then sort the contents of that table nicely. I also want all that ink scrubbed off."

"I could probably get this all done in an hour. I used to do things like this all the time," Naphtali said optimistically.

"Yes, an hour."

Torin doused the lamp, plunging the room into complete darkness.

"Why did you do that for? I can't see anything in here!"

"Your eyes will get used to it. Maybe. Oh, I almost forgot one thing."

Torin drew a black cloth from underneath his robes and tied it around Naphtali's eyes.

"What?!"

"You're going to clean the room with this on."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"Learn to rely on your other senses, I'll be back soon. If you take that blind fold off, I'll know," Torin called. First lesson is to teach you some patience, Torin thought to himself. The door opened, and closed, and then Naphtali was alone in a dark, empty room.

"I bet other Dragon Slayers don't have to do stupid things like this. But I'll prove to Torin how competent I really am! I'll have all this cleaned up in no time at all! Then he'll start training me properly!"

Naphtali took a step forward, his hands waving awkwardly about in front of him; he felt his foot snag on what felt like a loose piece of string. Naphtali stepped back, but the line had already wrapped itself around his ankle. He hopped around, his hands flailing about, before falling back onto his bum.

"Ahh, that's the second time today!"

Naphtali waited for a moment, breathing deeply, before slowly untangling the cotton from around his boot. Hesitantly, he pushed himself off the floor, took several steps and stubbed his toe on the edge of a chair. Naphtali jumped back wincing in pain, but suddenly felt something pull against his foot. The string of cotton hadn't been untangled properly, and as it pulled taut, he fell forwards.

The door opened, and Torin entered, carrying a bucket full of cleaning materials. In front of him lay Naphtali, wrapped in cotton, sprawled under a chair.

"Didn't you say you were going to get this finished in an hour," Torin said.

"I would be able to without this blindfold."

Torin laughed cynically and placed the bucket down by Naphtali's side before taking a seat at one of the desks.

"Are you going to turn a lamp on? Surely you need it?" Naphtali asked.

"The dark doesn't bother me."

Naphtali continued to tug at the cotton wrapped around his legs.