“This is the place” Rem said as he pulled his sister beside him up the small hill.

  As they stood at its precipice they could see the sunset framed by the wheat fields, a single old willow tree marking the edge of the village sprawling in the background.

  Their hands stayed interlocked as they looked at the village, surrounded by golden fields. Just two children enjoying a mundane sight.

  “Elise, you know when I grow up I want to leave the village. I want to see the world“ the boy spoke as the sun began to slip past the horizon completely and the stars began to show.

  The Girl turned and looked at him, framed in the Orange glow her blonde hair seemed to meld into the fields.

  Before her stood the stunted farmboy with dark brown hair and eyes that was clothed in cheap linen and wool. The fabric was sun bleached and repaired in multiple places. The knees of his trousers were layered thicker and full of dust from farmwork.

  She chuckled “leave? There is nothing special about either of us. We will just be farmers like ma and pa” Rems head turned red like a turnip as his dream was called out like that. Flustered he shot back “we don’t know that yet, we will turn seven soon and pa said I can try the guard test in the city then”.

  That was his plan, every year the guards of the nearby city of Eberlain held an aptitude test for children at the age of 7. He didn't know what the requirements were but his father had said that he would allow him to take the test if he could bring the visiting guard instructor to take him there.

  His sister's sigh pulled him out of his reverie “you don't really think that is going to work, do you? No way they take in some bumpkin like you” with those words she turned and began tracing down the hill “come on, it is getting late”.

  Rem looked after her before yelling “you are so mean, I'll show you. They will take me in!” before running after her.

  Time flew the next few months. Rem worked on the fields during the day and trained in the evening.

  His sister tended to her flowers while his parents watched them from two woven chairs. His Father seemed happy and relaxed while his mother had a hint of emotion in her eyes he couldn't interpret. He thought it was sadness. But why would his mother be sad when he trained to reach his dream? It couldn’t be, so he decided he had to be wrong. Everytime he thought he saw it, it was replaced with a smile nearly immediately, so it couldn’t be too bad.

  One night he could hear his parents argue.

  “You know he can’t make it, they only take the ones with talent or those the parents pay for. Neither of us have a talent for internal energy manipulation and we can’t afford to pay for them to take him either.”

  “Mary, I know how he feels. I also wanted to see the world when I was a kid. I wouldn’t have listened to my father, had he told me not to even try. It is better this way”

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  “You will let him run into a wall? Shatter his dream? You are his father Will, you should protect him!”

  After a brief silence he heard his father sigh. “Why do you think I let him train during the evenings? You know I can’t feel inner energy, but maybe his work will pay off. All we can do is believe in him”

  Now his mother sighed.

  “It really isn’t in our hands, is it…”

  Rem lay in his bed unsure what this meant, he had never heard of this inner Energy before. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine a flow of power inside himself but he felt nothing. After a short while he fell asleep…

  After that night every time Rem went to bed after training he tried to feel this inner Energy, whatever it was. Since it was called inner energy it had to be inside of him not outside.

  Yet after all this effort he could never feel anything inside himself, even when he concentrated to the point of getting a headache.

  While his efforts regarding this elusive energy did not bear any fruit, his ability to manipulate his long stick improved drastically in this time.

  He could now do a quick stab then retreat as well as a quick triple stab. While he didn't have an opponent to train against he made himself a training target out of straw he collected from the field after the harvest.

  First his parents looked at him confused when he brought the straw to their house and began building a strawman. He had seen one in a field before and wanted to make his own.

  After a brief confusion his mother chuckled, then sat down beside him.

  “We’ll need a fixture first, bring me 2 of the shorter sticks” while motioning at one of his first training sticks, he broke when he hit it against a tree.

  After he went and got it, his mother made a cross with the sticks, with the shorter one fixed to the longer one roughly one third from the top. She used a knife to add notches so the sticks wouldn’t slip then wrapped a tight layer of straw around it in a cross pattern.

  “See? Now you can add more straw around it” she said, smiling at Rem. “Do you want to do it yourself?” As she presented him with the impromptu training dummy.

  Rem looked at his smiling mothers face and hugged her “Thanks ma”

  Later they added layers of straw to the torso. They skipped the legs and head as they were not important anyway. When they were done, Rem's father got a big hammer and hammered the dummy into the ground in their backyard.

  That night Rem was so exhausted that he fell asleep and his father brought him to bed, holding him in his arms.

  Looking down on his sleeping son he said “I hope you can do it son”

  Time flew by in the next months. Rem was training with his new target dummy every day and repairing it every other day after training. The straw broke and needed repairs but it wasn’t a problem as it was readily available. He got smoother in his movement and his thrusts got more precise but he was still only doing two moves. His triple stab and the stab then retreat. Last year he had heard the guards say that it would be better to perfect few moves than be bad at a lot, so that’s what he did.

  He still never felt this ominous ‘inner energy’ he heard his parents talk about that night but he decided to just continue his training and do his best anyway.

  Then finally the time came and he saw a carriage with the banner of Eberlain on it move into the village. It was more of a wagon really. A simple wooden tub with benches on the insides and a half heightened wool ceiling that had the banner on it.

  Driving the wagon was the Instructor that would decide his fate, a man with Ash-Auburn hair and a goatee as well as five other children that must have passed the exam in the villages he visited before.