Chapter 19
I woke up the next day just before five, I woke up Pera and we got ready. After we got ready, we woke up Max and Donald, and we were the only people awake at that time of the day. The sun was still hiding under the sea not wanting to shine on the world yet.
At exactly five in the morning both drill sergeants arrived and shouted, "UP AND ABOUT YOU HAVE 2 MINUTES TO GET READY OR YOUR TRAINING WILL BE INCREASED."
At that moment everyone that was still asleep woke up startled and most fell when they tried to get out of their bunks some falling face first and some managed to break their fall.
As everyone was scrambling to get ready, the four of us were already ready, so we were able to get in line before the drill sergeant even finished speaking. I saw that they both looked shocked at how ready we were, but I could also see a hint of satisfaction as they looked at us.
Five minutes later, the first person started arriving beside us, ten minutes later everyone was ready. I could see the gleam of sadistic pleasure in the eyes of our drill sergeants. Then after everyone was standing in a line, he said, "most of you are late to get ready and caused us to time. Everyone except those four," pointing at us, "will have to do double the training required. And I have to remind you that if you don't finish your punishment you will have to train while the others eat. Now follow me, I don't want to hear a word until I say otherwise."
We walked towards a distant mountain for about twenty minutes. After we arrived some people were already panting, so I could only pity them. After we stopped for less than a moment the drill sergeant barked at us, "stand in order," he waited for less than ten seconds and then continued, "you see this mountain, for those of you on time you have to climb up it and down five times. For those that were late you have to climb it ten times."
Everyone shuddered except the four of us, but I could see that both and Max and Donald didn't train so they would suffer more than us. Before we set of the drill sergeant reminded us, "remember you have less than 5 hours until breakfast is served so if you want to eat you have to get this done quickly. Once you finish you can head back and rest or eat. But I expect everyone to be in front of the tents at 11 sharp, I don't have to remind you what will happen if you aren't there do I?" Seeing everyone shudder he took that as answer and then shouted, "OFF YOU GO. AND REMEMBER DO NOT DIE. I DO NOT WANT TO FILL ANY PAPERWORK."
Everyone set out, everyone except the four of us started running hoping to be done by the time breakfast starts. However, Pera and I started jogging at a normal pace for us but still faster than the other two so we left them behind and started talking with each other.
I asked her something I had not had the courage to ask since we learned about the war, "are you sure you want to do this? We can still get you out with the help of Vos and no one will miss one recruit, and we both know that I am the only one needed to help as you can't see the shadow marks or anything else."
Seeing my serious expression she pouted and told me, "so, what if only you can see the marks and help. Didn't we agree we would not leave each other, or are you saying that you are sick of me and don't want to be around me anymore? Do you think that I am a burden to you?" Seeing my stunned expression, she quickly added, "huh, I guess you really see me as a burden."
Hurriedly I corrected her, "never in a million years, in this life or the next will I ever think of you as a burden. Never will I tire of you. You are the only person I care about in this world and if you think for a moment that my thoughts changed then either I am doing something, or someone else took over my body."
Holding her hands, I pulled her into a stop and looked into her beautiful purple eyes, I said, "I just wanted to make sure, because we will have changed once we come out on the other side of this." With the utmost tenderness I could conjure I continued, "and when we get to the other side of this war, and we win there is something important I must tell you. I will not tell you now because what I want to say should not be said under threat of death but the certainty of life, so bear with me until the end of this war and I will be telling you the most important thing that I had ever said, and it will change our lives for the better I believe."
She held my gaze for a while but seeing the sincerity and promise they held she couldn't look into my eyes for long before she turned away her face as red a ruby and then continued to jog trying to leave me behind.
I can guess that if you are reading this journal, you must have figured out what I wanted to say, but let me spell it out for you if haven't yet. With the war looming above us, I was forced to reevaluate my life and my view of certain things. That is when I realized, that since the day I met Pera I treated her like a sister I never had, but I realized that over the years she had grown into something more, more than a sister and family. I had grown to love her to the point that I couldn't imagine my life without her, and that is what I wanted to say, but I was afraid that if I said it before the war that it would jinx us. So, I kept it inside of me and was determined that after the war that I would tell her. I was confident that if she didn't already share my feeling it would be because she had treated me as brother for such a long time that she couldn't see me in a new light without a nudge. And I was happy to provide the nudge.
We completed the first round trip in 50 minutes, we realized that we would barely have time to rest before the dinner and we felt that today would be one of the lightest days in the training so the more we rested in these of relative easy training would be best. The second we did in 45 minutes the same as the third, the fourth we finished in 40 minutes. We were still not tired as we had just been jogging the entire time and we had not run unlike the others who had to do an extra 5 laps and had been running from the start, so we decided to race the last lap.
We finished the lap in about 30 minutes and we were surprised in just 3 and a half hours of our allotted 5 hours. When we came back we were panting as we had ran fast enough to pace ourselves for the entire journey and not just a part of it. We were going to inform the drill sergeants that we had just finished and if we would be allowed to return. When the drill sergeant looked at us with approval nodded and then turned around to speak with the assistant, and she came over to us.
When she reached us, she spoke to Pera while ignoring me in a soft tone that I would have thought she didn't possess, "since you finished before anyone else you can go back. If you want to wash up there is a stream just outside of the camp. Another thing is, if you want starting from tomorrow, I will be here at 5 while the drill sergeant will go to the tents and gather anyone there. If you want you could be here at 5 as it would save you the twenty minute walk and in the next week when we intensify the training every minute will count, so I suggest that you be here."
"Thank you for the advice, Ma'am, I will follow your advice," with that she nodded at Pera looked at me indifferently and left. We decided to do as she said and headed to the river to clean up, then we rested in the tent and waited until the canteen opened, ten minutes before it opened Max and Donald arrived and immediately fell on their beds exhausted, we went ahead of them to the canteen.
There we found some soup of unknown origins being served, so we took a serving each so we wouldn't look suspicious. We went to a corner and sat there, and when no one was looking I stored all of it inside of a portal to throw out later, and then we left found a quiet place and ate there after Murtok joined us.
Ten minutes before the start of our next training sessions, we went to the tents and found out that about three quarters of our group has still not come back and will most likely not be able to eat before this next training session.
At 11 am the drill sergeants returned with the rest of the group that looked that they would drop dead in a matter of seconds, but they were not given any time.
Immediately after they lined up, the drill sergeant began a speaking, "since this is the first day, the punishment would not be carried over to the next session, but tomorrow if you make the same mistake all of the training sessions will be doubled. Now for those who didn't finish their punishment today, you will be given the opportunity to continue it after dinner, or you will have to repeat it from the start tomorrow, choose wisely. Now stand in line and get moving."
We were led to an open field just five minutes away from the camp. There we found a hundred polearms waiting for each of us. Once we stood in front of them our drill sergeant spoke up, "from here on out no one will leave their polearms side, be it when you eat sleep or even when training the rest of the day. You will be using these polearms in shield wall so all you need to learn is how to point it forward and then pulling it backwards. But that will not be enough for me. So, I will be showing you all a training routine to do while using your polearm to get accustomed to it, and you will repeat it until the lunch break. And for those smartasses that think that you can not be punished here I will add extra weights to your wrists legs and chest and you will have to do the same thing as the others is that understood."
"Yes, Sir," we shouted afraid that he would add weights if we delayed by a second. Then each of us took a Polearm and got ready. We watched the routine that the sergeant did and repeated it. Those that got a move wrong would get hit with a stick in the place where they were wrong in their movements and told to do it correctly next time or the hit will be stronger.
While most struggled to get accustomed to this training as they had never held a real weapon aside from a dagger that all they knew about was point the pointy edge away from you and stab. While there were others like me and Pera who were trained previously so we knew what we were doing and didn't get hit as much as the others.
We continued this for six hours straight with barely any breaks in between, before we were dismissed the drill sergeant called us over and said, "for the last training of the day, it will be the same training as the morning with one hour less to complete it, so for those who want the assistant drill sergeant will be there at 6 sharp, so if you want to get a head start on your friends here you can head there and start your training in front of her, but be warned if you start before she is there anything you will do will not count and you will have to start over once she arrives."
We went and ate, and then headed to the mountain before the others even finished eating. We waited there for about twenty minutes before the assistant drill sergeant arrived and we started the routine. It took us a little less than in the morning as we started increasing our pace.
When we finished, we didn't wait for anyone not even Max and Donald. We went to the river cleaned up again and then we went straight to the canteen waited until it opened. We pretended to eat their slop again and then we went straight to tent and the moment we arrived we changed into a different uniform, fell on our bunks and immediately fell into sleep.