Henry woke up before the rooster's call.
Since he had been training with the knights, he was starting to adjust to an earlier wake-up time. When he went to sleep each night, he was so drained that he fell asleep right away and slept solidly until morning.
The earlier hours also made it so that he had more time to work on his swordsmanship before he was to go back to the stable and be walked all over for the rest of the day.
As he stood up from his bed, wearing only shorts, he stretched to the ceiling but didn't reach all the way up so he wouldn't hit the beams in the roof.
He felt lucky that it was summertime and he didn't need to wear much clothing to bed. It made it that much faster to get ready to go for the day.
He had been sleeping with the sword leaning against the wall next to his bed. If he was wearing clothing, it was on his waist. There were never any exceptions. He wanted to show everyone around him that he was serious about the opportunity given to him.
Seeing the sword on his waist, some other people had taken an interest in him. No one would say anything, but they wondered how a fellow peasant got such a beautiful sword.
Henry always ignored the stares.
As Henry dressed, he pulled the off-white tunic over his head and tied up the laced part of his shirt. As he looked down at his body, he could have sworn there was more muscle definition, but he didn't want to believe it and fall for wishful thinking.
All that was left to do was splash some cold water on his face to wake him up.
Before leaving, he grabbed the leather canteen that Trenton had given him so he could hydrate on the way to the training grounds.
Henry made it to the field of dry grass that they had been training on for the past three weeks. He finally heard a rooster call, but it was in the distance.
Without needing to be told what to do, he ran from the edge of the field to a distant tree three times before warming up his muscles with overhead strikes and sideswipes with both of his arms.
Trenton and Maximus had left their horses at the edge of the village as usual and walked the rest of the way to the field. They had more items to carry than normal. Maximus with the usual pot of breakfast and Trenton with a couple of bags over his shoulders
They were both pleased to see Henry finish up his warm-up, and they greeted him with nods, not wanting to interrupt what he was doing.
As Henry's movements ceased, Maximus offered him his breakfast, and Trenton dropped the bags on the ground.
"We have something for you when you're done eating," the red-haired knight said, kneeling on the ground to open the bags.
Henry had been told before to slow down while he was eating so he wouldn't get an ache in his side when he had to do more cardiovascular exercises. He had to focus hard in order not to rush—the speed of eating certainly came from having faced starvation many times before.
He returned the small pot to the knights and went forward to ask them what they wanted him to do next.
Trenton was still crouching over the bag, and as Henry stepped closer, he saw a suit of armor being placed on the floor.
"Look here," Trenton said. "We discovered old apprentice armor in the training grounds' storage room."
To a weathered knight, the armor was shabby and of an older style. However, in Henry's eyes, it was immaculate. His pulse raced with excitement as he thought of wearing such armor and feeling like he was more than just a peasant.
"I can't take this from you," Henry responded, snapping out of his daydream and knowing he couldn't accept such a nice gesture.
"Don't be modest," Maximus said in his usual quiet voice. "No one is using the armor, nor will anyone miss it."
"You're going to wear it while you train today," Trenton explained. "You'll wear it for the sword-fighting competition and need to get used to the weak points and where to guard yourself."
They helped Henry into the armor. Being that it was apprentice armor, it wasn't a full metal suit. It covered his shoulders, arms, and a little bit of his chest. The plates of the armor were bound together with leather straps. The bottom half of the armor covered his thighs down to his knees.
Even though he had already warmed up, the knights asked him to get used to running with the armor and see how good his range of movement was when he did sword strikes from different angles.
"You look like an apprentice already," Trenton observed. "If you do well in this competition, you'll receive a newer suit of apprentice armor, but for now this will have to work."
After another round of warming up with the armor, Henry could tell he was slower with the metal covering various parts of his body. He wasn't used to carrying extra weight, especially since his body was so skinny in the first place.
Henry was instructed to draw his sword so the knights could test how he was feeling with the armor on. He was used to relying on his speed, so having that taken away made it so he needed to find a backup for situations where being fast wouldn't be enough to evade an enemy or save yourself.
After the knights tested him with the new armor, they resumed what they had been doing for the last week.
Since he had built up some strength and stamina, they were now at a stage where they had spars and matches that emulated what Henry would face in the actual sword-fighting competition.
Sparring with two knights who had such different strengths in battle was helping Henry strengthen any weak points and get rid of bad habits that would hinder him in nearly any situation.
The only downside to finally being able to spar was that they weren't trying to hold back as much as before. His bruised and beaten body was a sure sign of how hard a challenge he faced with every sword fight.
There was a reason for their harshness. They needed him to understand that participating in the sword-fighting competition could mean the difference between life and death, depending on the opponent.
Even though killing was against the rules of the competition, knights had to know that the second there were real weapons involved, there was a risk of injury or death along the way. A knight's job entailed more than just flashy swordplay and rescuing damsels in distress.
As they finished for the day, the knights were pleasantly surprised at how well Henry did with the armor. There was no doubt working his life away had given him strength beyond the muscles on his body - or lack thereof.
They went into the sparring with low expectations but turned out to be pleasantly surprised.
Henry didn't know it, but he was slowly taking away the knights' preconceived notions about peasants.
Normally they visited the stables or taverns in this area with no regard for the people around them, but they both found new respect because of the young man they were training.
On the other hand, the knights were treating Henry with such kindness, he started to believe maybe the stories of knights being horrible were a little bit of a stretch. To him, It seemed all the knights wanted to do was spar and go on adventures, which Henry didn't see as bad things.
Despite their kindness towards him, Henry was still nervous to face higher-ranked knights. He had to assume they were more arrogant and unwilling to accept him as one of their own based on his background.
No matter what, he would try to prove himself in the competition. They had been building his confidence for nearly an entire month.
The competition had two separate categories: knights and apprentices. In either bracket, all competitors were trying to have their skills speak louder than their titles. He wouldn't be the only one there with something to prove.
The thought of people of a higher class watching him during the matches made him nervous. It was his goal to show people that peasants could be anything they wanted to be even if they weren't privileged enough to have the resources.