When the boys and I eventually got to the border, we were thrown into tents and told to prepare for training.
The camp we were stationed at was temporarily set up and was filled with the Tlavian Tsar's special guard. Nothing really made them special compared to regular soldiers. They had swords as back-ups for when their spears broke. Their armour was nice, with the navy glint and shine it gave off when they marched in the sun or moonlight. But that was it.
Day one, we were woken up late in the morning. The other boys thought it was great. I on the other hand was a bit confused.
Back in my home town of Berez, there was an old man named Mr.Orlov. He was the father of my Aunt's friend and used to be a soldier himself. However, the stories he told me were filled with discipline and as far as I could remember, he never got up late as a soldier.
As we all got up from the hay beds we slept on, we were given our own armour. The General stood at the tent's entrance. He stared at us with a menacing look on his face.
Each of us was handed shoulder pauldrons, a gorget for our necks, a cuirass for the top of our chests, tassets for our hips, and finally we got knee poleyns, and greaves and sabatons for our lower legs and feet.
"You've all been given armour and you will now all learn how to put it on! Is that understood?" General Noxov yelled at us.
I took the lead and immediately puffed out my chest, threw my arms along my sides as straight as I could, and at the top of my voice answered "Da General!"
The other boys, including the one who wanted to be a news collector, all followed my lead and did the same. The tent erupted with all the boys yelling "Da General!".
General Noxov nodded his head, maybe even slightly impressed by our performance, before leaving the tent.
There were thirty of us in the tent, and we all stood at our beds waiting or fiddling with our armour. We were all a bit confused, not sure if we were supposed to figure out how to put our armour on ourselves or wait for someone to show us.
A little while passed when the tent flaps flew open. Five girls dressed in navy tunics, fashioned with blue highlights, entered the tent.
This is where all was revealed.
Everyone saw the girls' faces. They looked sad or gloomy. There was no life in their eyes.
Two guards entered after them, and went to either sides of the tent. They explained in turn that the five girls, Olga, Ann, Sophia, Vasillisa, and Marsha, were here to teach us how to put on our armour. Or if we couldn't they would do it for us.
The guards then left us, and we were left alone with the five girls. Four of them didn't hesitate and simply started going around greeting each boy and helped them.
All except, Ann. She looked older than the others and she seemed really depressed.
The boy who was into writing stepped forward, and introduced himself to her.
"Hi there. Um...my name is Pyotr. Can you help us with our armour?" he asked nervously.
Ann didn't respond. She stared into space, and her brown eyes never stopped looking at whatever she saw in front of her.
"Is she looking at my belly?" Pyotr asked as he shuffled back to me, unsure of what to make of her.
The general and two other people walked into the tent. One was a young guy, wearing an apron.
His face had the look of scorn and disappointment. But I could feel that he didn't mean it, as if he had a truly wonderful personality hidden behind his rough look.
The other was a woman. She had bright red hair, red eyes, and was the only one wearing a different colour tunic, sporting maroon as her colour of choice. She had a similar look to her as the smith. However, I did notice her undergarments slightly revealed at her blouse.
Like the rough but kind smith, she also had a duality to her. It seemed hers was more depraved but sweet. It made me feel sad.
She stepped forward as she pushed Ann into me.
"Come on Annie, get a move on" she said to her quietly.
Ann walked into me, the look on her face still the same.
Unsure what to do, I decided to hug her. It didn't spark a reaction at all.
"I don't think she's here" I told Pyotr.
"What do you mean? She's standing in front of you?" Pyotr replied, thinking I was making some strange joke.
The general, the smith, and the lady, all turned their heads to me. The general's bright green eyes were gleaming at me.
I stared back at him. My eyes didn't leave his, as ultimately like Ann, I wasn't looking at him either.
Instead I joined her world, the world her eyes so sadly explained to me. In it was despair, loneliness and revenge.
"Well Pyotr, you are not wrong, but believe me, she can't see you right now" I told him.
"Don't talk nonsense" the general snapped at me. "Since the two of you are so good at seeing each others 'worlds' I guess you can look after her, boy" the general told me not sounding kind at all.
The lady gritted her teeth and the smith left the tent.
"Right! All of you have been drafted! So the chances of you all being natural soldiers are slim! You are all here for one reason, and that is to become the best of the very best. The five girls here will feed you, bathe with you, teach you skills that will help you maintain your armour and items. They are all volunteers from the luxurious capital, and are here for your needs."
This speech of the general made us all very uncomfortable. Since most of the boys here were either already married or engaged.
The only two who weren't engaged or married was myself and another big guy who was sitting on the bed next to mine.
And I thought I imagined it, but for a split second I thought I saw Ann's eye twitch when the general said 'volunteers'.
"Tomorrow morning you will all get up early, unlike today. You'll head over to the training ground outside, and Miss Valentina will teach you everything you need to know, isn't that right Miss Valentina?" the general explained as he turned his attention to the red head.
"Yes, of course general" she replied respectfully.
"Good. Is that understood!?" the general yelled.
"Da! General!" we all yelled back.
Miss Valentina and the general then left us, leaving us the rest of the day to learn how to put on our armour.
As the time of day continued the girls helped everyone in the tent. However, Ann was still the same. By lunch time she was incredibly weak.
I sat on my bed with her resting her head on my shoulder, as the big boy across from us sat on his. He had blonde hair and had a lot of muscle.
The two of us hadn't said anything all morning since the general left.
The girls were all very focused on the other boys, who were making it difficult for them, by wanting to ask questions, and trying to be all touchy.
"Hug" the voice across from me suddenly spoke.
"What?" I said to the big guy.
"Hug. A hug. You didn't hesitate to hug her" he told me.
I looked at him confused by what he meant. As I turned my attention to Ann who was still using my shoulder, I noticed that she had started to shiver.
"Hug her again" the big guy told me.
"Why? She didn't respond to it" I told him.
The big boy didn't like my response and mimed a big hug motion, before pointing at her suggesting that I hug her again.
I sighed and put my arms around her. Through the hug I could feel her shivering much clearer. She grabbed onto my tunic gently.
"Her eyes are closed now" the big guy whispered.
"Yeah? And what does that matter?" I asked softly.
"It means you are trustworthy, girls don't hug guys that aren't trustworthy" he said and got up. He walked over and sat at the foot of the bed next to me.
"Name's Davvi Gladyenov friend" he introduced himself.
"MacCetae" I introduced back.
"Ann Anisimova" Ann introduced in a gentle voice.
We both looked at her in surprise. Her eyes were still closed but the fact that she spoke to us was a miracle.
I asked Ann if she was hungry, to which she replied to by tugging on my tunic.
Davvi Gladyenov, or 'Glad' as I thought to call him, explained that she looked very hungry, and that he could tell since he behaved similarly when he was really hungry.
Luckily before I could even ask if he had some food on him, the four girls left the tent and disappeared.
Two minutes later, they returned with five carts. On them were many plates of beef and chicken, as well as two big jugs of wine and beer.
The girls handed out plates to everyone before taking some for themselves. We could only drink when we had finished eating.
Ann was too weak to feed herself so I asked Glad to help me with her. Slowly, she ate piece by piece, as Glad fed her with home-made chopsticks scared that she might bite him.
Ann soon changed very much as she regained her energy. I guess she felt more comfortable with us, because when she was done eating, Glad and I found ourselves having to listen to Ann talk on and on about how she volunteered for the army.
However, it took a dark turn, when she started explaining how she volunteered.
"So, I was walking down the street from my house in the north of my neighbourhood, and at the left of the road there stood a carriage. It said 'Volunteer to be a Nurse for the military' on the side of the carriage. I thought it was strange and…"
"Ann! Okey where you saw it isn't important, you said you were forcefully enlisted. Who or what caused you to be forcefully enlisted." Glad asked her.
Ann suddenly went silent and the gloomy look she had earlier the morning, revealed itself on her face once more.
"They saw me and threw me into the back of the carriage" she told us.
"Who?" I asked.
"The soldiers who are at this camp! They did the same to the other girls" she whispered.
Glad and I looked at each other, and then we looked over our shoulders to the other girls.
They were friendly and didn't seem to be in the same gloomy state that Ann was.
"Ann how are we supposed to believe you. They helped the boys and are eating and drinking with all of them" Glad told her scratching his head.
Ann suddenly looked even more disheartened. She stood up and took my hand, before dragging me to the other side of the tent.
Now, when us boys arrived, we were shoved from the carriage through the same entrance that the general had entered from before.
However, on the other side of the tent, were two tent hallways, that lead to a locker-room and bathe area, and the other to an armoury.
Both the locker-room and armoury had their own entrances to the outside of the tent. Ann dragged me down the hallway leading to the armoury, and when we got there we found the smith, busy carrying crates full of tools to a workbench nearby.
"What are you two doing here?" he asked us as he put the crates down.
"Uh, we need some privacy…" Ann said nervously.
The smith frowned and scratched his beard. He looked at us and squinted his eyes with suspicion.
"Alright, just don't do it on the workbench" he said as he gave us a little salute and left, closing the tent flap properly.
This made me feel a bit uncomfortable.
"Great now the smith thinks I'm a ladies man" I thought to myself.
Ann dragged me to a corner behind the tent and made sure no one was around.
"Ann, I'm flattered but what the hell…"
Before I could finish trying to ask my question, Ann took off her top, and turned around.
My initial reaction was to look away, but when she gently turned my head back and turned around again, I saw.
Right at the bottom of her loin, between her hips, was a tattoo of a heart with a flower that looked like lips.
"Um...Why do you have a tattoo? And it's so detailed?" I asked her, confused at what I was looking at.
"It's the tattoo of a heart, and a flower called a...courtesan's lips" she said uncomfortably.
I took her top from her hand, and put it over her.
"So is it permanent? Why do you have it?" I asked her again.
Ann put her top back on and then sat down on a crate behind her.
"The other girls are courtesans, except for me" she said calmly.
"Huh?" I said in a stupid voice.
"I was dragged off the street, against my will. They were also dragged into this. However, if I understood what Olga told me, I guess the words 'sold of' is more what she described it as" Ann said sombrely.
At that very moment, a trumpet played, signalling the end of lunch. The smith came rushing through the tent flaps and told us to assemble by the beds.
The two of us ran back to the beds and found everyone, including the other girls, standing in two lines.
I joined the end where Glad was waiting for me, and Ann joined the other end where the girl called Olga was standing.
That's strange, who told us to line up? We were only told to assemble.
At that very moment Miss Valentina, pushed me and Glad forward.
"Hmm, someone forgot to put on their armour" she said as she smirked at us.
Glad and I looked at each other as he said "Fuck" to himself silently.
"Miss Ann" Valentina called out Ann. "You were supposed to teach these boys how to get into their armour, not out of it?"
Everyone giggled. The smith then chose that moment to walk into the room. He walked over to my bed, then to Glad's bed, collecting our armour before throwing it at our feet.
For the next two minutes we were lectured on how to assemble our armour, and they made Ann put it on us.
As punishment for 'fooling around' with Ann, I got given a steel mask.
"This is the mask of shame. We didn't think we'd give it out this early, but seems there is a ladies man among us" Miss Valentina announced as she tightened the mask strap on my head.
Glad was giving me a very nasty look. Ann was silently blushing in at the end of the line, feeling uncomfortable with her new reputation.
Eventually, we were all lined up. The girls formed a line in front of the two rows of boys.
We all faced the entrance, standing at attention.
I was having a hard time keeping up with everything that had happened. Ann was hardly cured of her gloominess, before she dragged me to the armoury. Then as she was badly explaining to me what had happened to her, in the armoury, we were told to assemble.
Everything about this army camp was a mess. In fact it didn't feel like the army at all.
Miss Valentina and the smith went and stood on either side of the tent's entrance.
General Noxov threw the tent's flaps open as he entered the tent. He gave us all a good look, and walked between us. His inspection took a while, before he went and stood in the middle of the room.
It was then that he decided to look straight at me, and yelled "Well soldier! What is with the mask?!"
"The mask of shame sir!" I replied loudly.
The general walked up to me and this time round, he seemed angry.
"You are a womanizer?! On the first day!? This is war! You lousy boy! Immature and undisciplined" he yelled in my face.
Somewhere to my right, Glad was trying not to giggle.
The general stopped yelling, and went and stood in front of us all.
"Listen here you lot! All of you will spend the rest of today training with Miss Valentina and Mister Oliver. And the next day, and the next day, for a whole month!" he yelled at us.
"Gentlemen, Ladies, I hereby name you the Blazer Platoon, in honour of our Tsar, who bares the star of the Blazing Knight on his crown. The star of the Knight that protects all of Tlavigrad. In a month, one of you will be given that honour. One of you will be given the symbol of honour, to bare on his helmet, as he leads our men into battle, against the Vocians!" the general announced all enthusiastic.
"Da! General!" the Blazer Platoon responded.
The general nodded, and left the tent.
Miss Valentina then ordered us all to go outside in an orderly fashion.
As we marched out into the camp, and sunlight, I thought to myself "Well, as strange as this army seems, and as horrible as it felt getting made fun off and yelled at, I might enjoy it here."
Little did I know what lay in store for our platoon. For as we started training, outside the camp walls, enemy eyes were watching us from the forest trees in the north-west.