Sam and Albert arrived in the dining hall and found a free table. Alice and Chloe still hadn’t arrived yet after a few minutes, so they grabbed a drink and waited for them to show up. It was nearly halfway through the break when they finally showed up at the dining hall. “What took you so long to get here?” Albert asked. “The Healing class went over time. The healing teacher Professor Silvia Bronzewood got a bit carried away” Chloe replied. “Well, you’re here now, what classes do you both have next, I have Advanced Equestrian” Sam asked. “I also have Advanced Equestrian” Chloe quickly replied. Alice followed up a moment later “I’ve got Domain Management” she said.
“I see, and we all have dungeon diving after that, right?” Sam asked. “Yes, and we’re all planning to form a party together?” Albert asked. “Yes, the four of us but we could do with one more” Alice said. “Let me take care of that, I know someone who would be suitable. We have Sam who will be a front-line fighter capable of magic and archery, myself who is a front-line fighter who will be capable of using magic, then we have Alice who’ll be our designated magic user and then Chloe as our designated healer who can also use magic. The person I have in mind is more of a defensive fighter that normally uses a heavy tower shield. He should be in our dungeon diving class as he’s in class 1-B” Albert explained. “Alright, we’ll leave filling the final spot to you” Sam said as he glanced at his watch. “Looks like we should be heading out to our next classes. Break is nearly over” he advised his friends. “Alright, see you all in Dungeon Diving class” Alice said as she and Albert headed off. “Alright Chloe looks like we’re heading over to the stables” Sam said as he got up and slung his bag over his shoulder.
When Sam and Chloe arrived at the stables it appeared as if the students were all waiting just outside the entrance. Sam wasn’t really sure where they were supposed to be, so he decided to join the group of five students that were already there waiting. When the time on his watch ticked over to eleven thirty a woman wearing riding gear stepped out of the stables and took up a position in front of all the students present.
“Good morning everyone and welcome to Advanced Equestrian. Please come inside and put your bags inside one of the lockers on the far side of the stables and then join me back here where we will discuss what we’ll be doing today” the woman who Sam assumed was the teacher for this class said. This was the smallest class he had been to so far with there seeming to only be seven students in attendance.
Sam stored his bag in one of the lockers and headed over to where the professor was waiting. Once everyone had regrouped in the middle of the stable with the professor she spoke again. “Alright everyone, my name is Professor Mariana Gounaford and I’m the Equestrian and Advanced Equestrian professor for the first and second years. Now today we will just be going for a bit of a ride. This will be to assess everyone’s riding level and make sure you’re all capable of taking this class. I assume you all have the Horse Riding skill or an equivalent?” Professor Gounaford asked. Sam nodded his head in confirmation as he looked around the group. Everyone there were nodding their heads confirming they all have the necessary skills. “Alright then, those of you who have their own horses here at the stables go and saddle them up. Those who don’t have their own horses please wait here” the professor instructed.
The professor directed the students who had horses that were in the care of the stables to their horses while Sam and Chloe both without their own horses waited for the professor to finish directing the other students and to return to them. When she finally did she directed them to two of the academy’s horses. “You will be riding these horses for the rest of the year unless you get your own before then so make sure you take care of them” the professor said as Sam and Chloe examined their assigned steeds.
The horse Sam had been assigned was a black colt named Bolt which he was named due to the white stripe running from the tip of his snout all the way down his back and down his tail like a lightning bolt. Chloe had been assigned a chestnut mare named Yorum which the professor explained came from the name of a mythical steed written in ancient texts from an era before magic. Once the professor had finished assigning their steeds Sam got to work saddling Bolt and getting to know the horse. Unlike Carrot, Bolt was a good horse that did as he was asked and didn’t kick up a fuss when he tried to secure the saddle to his back.
Once Sam and Chloe had their horses saddled, Professor Gounaford instructed the students to walk the horses out into the courtyard behind the stable. Once in position she instructed the students to mount and follow her lead. The students got into a formation riding two abreast with one at the back. Sam and Chloe were riding next to each other behind the professor going at a slow pace. It was just as they hit the kilometer into their walk when the professor passed out her next instructions. “Alright listen up. I want you all to spread out into a line without stopping. Once you’re all in a line I will blow a whistle and I want you to gallop to the tree over there on the right. Once you reach the line from the tree I want you to bring your horse to a sudden stop. Once you are stopped wait for me to come by and have a look at your final position” she explained.
While maintaining their walking pace the students directed their horses into a line. There had been a few difficulties in maneuvering into their positions as the student unfamiliar with the action nearly bumped into one another. Sam had thought spreading out into a single line would have been easy considering the formation they had been walking in but apparently not. Once in position the professor had them continue walking forward for another three and a half minutes before finally she blew the whistle. Sam quickly flicked the reins urging Bolt forward. It took a moment before he began to pick up speed and Sam continued to thrash the reins up and down until Bolt reached a full Gallop. He paid close attention to his peripherals ensuring no one else was veering into him. Thankfully there wasn’t anyone directly next to him and he refocused on the tree in front drawing a line from it and calculating how long until he passed it.
As Bolts snout touched the line Sam pulled back on the reins. Bolt immediately put on the brakes and lurched back onto his hind legs nearly flinging Sam off his back. Sam gripped tightly onto the reins and dug his feet into Bolts sides managing to hold himself in place. Bolt finally settled and dropped back down onto all fours, Sam relaxing in relief as his muscles pulsed with pain and a ~Ping~ sounded in his head.
“Are you alright Sam?” A call came from next to him. Sam looked over to see Chloe looking over in concern. “I’m alright” Sam replied giving her a thumbs up. Once Sam had caught his breath he looked back at the tree and the imaginary line. He had done pretty well managing to stop Bolt just 15 metre after the line. As he looked over at the others everyone one else appeared to have gone beyond him. It was a bit harder to tell with those on the end, but it looked like he had everyone else beat.
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“That was a close call” the Professor said startling Sam as she came up along side him. “Yeah, never had that happened before. Although I guess I never tried it with the horses back home” Sam said. “No, I should have warned you that he likes to rear up when you put the brakes on like that, sorry about that” the professor replied. “It’s fine. Now I know for next time” Sam said. “So, how did I do” Sam asked. “Well apart from the rearing up which I will let you off on account of you not being familiar with the horse. You were also a bit slow off the mark, but I will also put that down to unfamiliarity with Bolt here. Other than that, you did great. What level is your Horse Riding skill?” the professor questioned.
Sam took a quick look at his notifications to clarify what he had assumed was a skill level up before he answered her question. ~Natural Skill ‘Horse Riding’ level gained. 'Horse Riding' is now Level 2~. “I was level 1 but now I have just leveled up to level 2” Sam said. “That’s some impressive stuff for Level 1, well done” she praised. “Alright, hold your position until I have assessed everyone else” the professor instructed before she flicked her reins and her horse trotted off leaving Sam alone with a confident smile on his face.
Once the professor had assessed everyone else’s finishing positions she gathered everyone around to pass out the next instructions. “Alright everyone, the next thing we’re going to do is an obstacle course. This will include weaving through posts and jumping over hedges. The obstacle course is just a bit further out right of the tree. You will each run the obstacle course three times. There is a total of 15 obstacles you will avoid hitting. For each obstacle you hit you will be ducted a point. If you run through the obstacle course once perfectly I will have you also run through obstacle course two” The professor explained.
Once Sam and his fellow students arrived at the obstacle course they lined up behind the starting line and waited for the professor to blow her whistle to start the run. Sam had chosen to go second last as he had never done any jumps before and wanted to watch what the others did before his run. He would have gone last, but another student was very adamant about being last, so he had gone in front of her.
Sam watched as the students in front of him began the obstacle course. It was immediately apparent that he wasn’t the only one who had never done jumps on a horse before as the first three students who went all failed to get their horses to jump over the obstacles with the horses stopping and going around them. Chloe, who was fourth in line, however, didn’t seem to have that problem as she was able to jump over the three shortest of the jumps. Sam watched closely at her movements but couldn’t quite figure out how she was getting her horse to jump.
Before long it was Sam’s turn to take on the obstacle course. He was far from confident about the jumps but at least he wasn’t the only one who couldn’t do them. Sam brought Bolt forward to the starting line and waited for the whistle. Once the whistle had sounded he brought Bolt up to a trot and began weaving in and out of the posts. Once he had finished the posts he moved onto the jumps but was unable to get Bolt to go over any of them. Sam joined the back of the line and watched on as the girl who had wanted to go last took her turn. To his and everyone else’s amazement she completed the course perfectly.
The professor took them through the course two more times before the girl who had ran the course perfectly stepped up to take on the harder course. She didn’t go through it perfectly but got quite close scoring a 45 out of 50. Once they had all run through the course they were given their scores. Sam received a 28 having clipped two of the posts sometime along his run as well as failing to do any of the jumps. Overall, his score wasn’t bad and was better than a couple of the others who also failed to do any jumps.
“How did you do Chloe?” Sam asked as Chloe rode up beside him atop Yorum. “I got 36 points, clipped the second last post on all three of my runs and failed to make any of the two higher jumps” she replied. “That’s pretty good, nearly top of the class” Sam said. “Nearly, got third place. One point off second and of course we have little miss perfect over there with 45 points for her run plus the 45 for her extra run” Chloe said rolling her eyes. “Little Miss Perfect?” Sam questioned. “Alarna Tournous first daughter of the Prime Minister. Always does the best in everything and always wanting to show off” Chloe explained. “I … see” Sam replied slowly not really understanding the clear distain she had for Alarna Tournous.
Before Sam was able to say anything further the professor came back over to give her final instructions. “Alright, that will do it for todays class. Please head back to the stables and remove the horses’ saddles. Once done please wait in the centre of the stable for some final instructions” the professor said before turning and heading back the way they had come from.
Not having any reason to wait Sam turned Bolt around and followed after the professor with the rest of the students also doing the same shortly after. Once they had returned to the stables and had all removed their horses’ saddles and locked them back into their stalls the students gathered in the middle of the stables waiting for the professor to come over to dismiss them. Sam took a quick look at his watch and saw that there wasn’t much time left for them to finish up and head over to their classroom for the dungeon diving class.
A few minutes later the Professor returned to the students that were waiting and addressed them for the final time of the day. “Alright everyone listen up. If you have a bow and quiver please bring it to our next class. We will be spending the next lesson practicing Horseback Archery. If you do not have a bow please purchase one before then or talk to your weapons combat teacher and ask to borrow one. Please raise your hand if you have the Mounted Archery Skill or Horseback Archery skill” she instructed.
Sam raised his hand in response. He and 3 others had raised their hands. “Alright those who have their hands raised please put them down if you have the Horseback Archery skill” the professor requested. The other three students lowered their hands, but Sam kept his held up since he had the Mounted Archery skill. “Okay, that’s good, at least one of you has the Mounted Archery skill” the professor said. Before the professor could continue Alarna, one of the people with the Horseback Archery Skill asked, “What’s the difference between the Horseback Archery Skill and the Mounted Archery Skill”. The professor clearly torn between scolding her for interrupting and answering the questions answered “Well, the Horseback Archery skill works when riding on horseback however the Mounted Archery Skill works when riding on anything. That means you only have to level the one skill rather than multiple riding skills. It also has better combinations for merging to Pseudo skills” the professor explained.
“Now as I was saying, please bring a bow and quiver of arrows to the next lesson whether those be your own or those borrowed from the archery range. That gives you two days to get some organized. “Now does anyone have any final questions before I dismiss you?” the professor asked. The professor waited a few moments and when no questions came she dismissed them from their first Advanced Equestrian class.
