Allen's journey to Lothlórien took a little over three months. By the time he returned to Wilderness Town, the surrounding lands had entered another busy harvest season. It had to be said that accomplishing anything in this age was difficult; the time wasted on the road alone was considerable.
By Allen's return, however, the Cabinet had all but finished recruiting the Knight Apprentices. Most of the thousand recruits were children of suitable ages, nearly all of whom had received some education at the schools Allen had founded. A smaller portion were young soldiers already serving in the army. Some had even followed Allen into the Tunnel in the Misty Mountains and fought in the battle to rescue Beorn's Tribespeople. Young as they were, they were genuine veterans.
Once recruitment was complete, the qualified Knight Apprentices began their basic training. Their current subjects included caring for horses and basic riding, identifying and maintaining commonly used weapons and armor, and learning military discipline and common commands.
The difference was that most of the boys learned to use lances, longswords, and Knight's Shields. Those with an aptitude could also learn throwing techniques. Depending on their ages, they trained in various kinds of heavy armor, with an emphasis on physical conditioning. Beyond that, most of their instruction focused on killing enemies during fearless forward charges. Almost all the Swadia Knights became their instructors.
For the relatively few girls, weapons training focused more heavily on archery. They also wore light armor. Although it could not withstand enemy slashes and thrusts in close combat, it could lessen the impact of arrows during exchanges of mounted archery.
Their instruction taught them how to choose an escape strategy immediately upon meeting an enemy head-on. If escape was impossible, they were to maintain a safe fighting distance and end