Eyeing the sacks of durra Abbados groaned, ‘I thought we were going to begin weapons training today?’
‘Well, I for one, refuse to pick up one of those sacks ever again,’ said Tutimaios.
‘Me too,’ said Hanno.
‘Are those mutinous words I hear?’ asked commander Ayi as he stepped into view. ‘Come, come, I asked you a question, now I’m waiting for an answer.’
Tutimaios spoke up for the three of them, ‘Yes, we do not wish to carry those sacks ever again.’
To the others amazement Tutimaios didn’t receive the rough side of the commander’s tongue, ‘Well said, the sacks are of no further use in our training, but are merely there as a reminder.’
‘A reminder?’ queried Hanno.
‘Yes, a reminder of what it took to get to this point and of what to expect if you are not strong enough for the training to come.’
So the weapons training began and the first lesson they learned was that it was harder than they thought. They were each given a stick about the same weight as a war axe and commander Ayi invited them to come forward one at a time and strike him. The boys looked at each other and grinned, they had played at being soldiers since they were little and they were sure that they knew how to handle a weapon. Tutimaios was first to step forward.
‘When you are ready, begin your attack and try not to give me warning,’ said Ayi.
Suddenly and without warning Tutimaios raced forward and brought his weapon crashing down with a grunt, only to overbalance and find himself sprawling in the dust. Ayi without even raising his weapon had simply side stepped and allowed Tutimaios to defeat himself.
‘Next,’ called Ayi as Tutimaios picked himself up and moved to one side.
Abbados stepped forward.
‘Remember what I said to Tutimaios, try not to signal your attack.’
Of the three of them Abbados seem to have gained the most from their training regime, gone was the chubby boy and his place was a tall muscular young man. He crouched, moved forward warily and began to circle Ayi. Having seen what had happened when Tutimaios tried an overhead blow, he decided to take Ayi’s feet from under him with a low sweeping blow to the legs. Twisting his body he swept his arm back and then round in an arc at knee height, only to have Ayi leap high in the air, bring his weapon down onto his unprotected back and send him to sprawl in the dust. Ayi motioned Hanno forward and Abbados barely had time to scramble away before Hanno lashed out, much good it did him. There was a sharp crack as Ayi parried the blow and an ‘Umf!’ from Hanno as Ayi jabbed him in the stomach sending him gasping to his knees.
Ayi helped Hanno to his feet and waited until he had recovered his breath before he spoke to them.‘What lesson did you learn from that?’
‘That we don’t have the skill to go against a trained adversary,’ said Hanno.
‘That we were slow in our reactions,’ said Abbados.
‘ That you deceived us,’ said Tutimaios.
‘How so?’
‘By allowing us to go against you knowing that we didn’t stand a chance.’
‘Yes, yes, all of those. But the main reason that I beat you, was because you told me in advance what you were going to do.’
‘But we didn’t say a word,’ Abbados protested.
‘Yes you did, with your eyes. Each of you looked to the point of impact a second or so before you struck. The most important lesson to be learnt is to never ever, let your opponent know what you are thinking. Now we will do it again.’
And they did, over and over again, until they felt like giving up and wished they could go back to just doing exercises, but one look at the sacks reminded them of how much worse things could be.
It took a long time and a lot of painful knocks, but eventually they became adept at handling the training weapon and were allowed to move on to the battleaxe, the main weapon used in close combat. Ayi also taught them the use of the sword, the javelin and the bow. Skills in the latter two, the young princes would hone and develop when hunting, though they were not necessarily ones, they would use as leaders in battle.
After five years instilling them with everything he knew of the art of battle Ayi was justifiably proud of the way they had turned out. Gone were the pampered children of the royal court and in their place were the three strapping young men before him. He had trained them well, but it took more than just weapons training to lead men into battle, it took courage, confidence and skill. They had the latter, and had shown the other two in the hunt, against water buffalo, hippo and lion.
The quandry was what to do with them now. Under normal circumstances his charges would have joined the army and would have gained experience in one of the many expansionist wars. But after years of peace that option was not available and while he knew of other ways for them to gain that experience; it was neither his place, nor would he have liked to suggest such courses of action. He decided the best thing to do was to await developements and knowing his charges, he would not have to wait very long.
