Eventually, they found a clearing, and Astor trained with the spear, moving his feet back and forth just as the centaur had taught him, making cuts and thrusts and darting away from invisible blows. Firenze had explained how a spear, unlike a sword, could not block an attack, so Astor had needed to learn how to prevent a strike by avoiding it. To improve his reflexes, Firenze would occasionally fire an arrow, and Astor would need to quickly dart out of the way. In his early training, this had gone wrong, and Astor still had a few scars on his shoulders and arms where Firenze's well-aimed arrows had grazed him. Astor had asked after each session for the past few months if he was ready to storm the castle. Each time the centaur's response was the same.