by C D Muller
“Better,” he said, his lips curving into a sneer.
Selena was not amused. She was not sure if he was just using basic elemental attacks, as he did not demonstrate much manipulation. How was she supposed to learn more?
She quickly regained posture as she wanted to show Ashur what she had learned. She wanted to prove that she was more capable than he thought. Selena recreated her flame shield while watching Ashur's expression change.
“I can absorb your fire power,” she said confidently.
Ashur closed his eyes and merely shrugged. Selena was confused as to why he was not attempting to attack her again.
“Well done I suppose,” he said as if he were bored. “No more for today. Please join your other brothers.”
He immediately walked off towards the dueling field but Silver came over and clapped.
“You did very well,” he said encouragingly.
“Silver, it’s so good to see you,” she said with a smile.
“It’s Captain now,” he said with a wink, “don’t let the others hear you address me otherwise.”
“But I thought something had happened to you,” Selena said again.
“I’ve told you before to not worry about me,” he said again, “now, we should be probably get going before Ashur has a heart attack. The Divines forbid if he ever does.” He pretended to making gasping noises as they walked off.
Their group stood around the large field as Ashur made his way to stand in the middle while holding up a sword with one hand. Behind him was a large, old barrel holding many long, wooden sticks.
“During basic training, all of you will be trained to fight with a sword, a firearm, and a bow. Afterwards, you will get to specialize in the weapon of your choice while still having the knowledge to use other arms. It is also tradition that at that part of your training, you will also use our forge to make your own personal weapons, as they will be an extension of yourself. A true soldier is versatile. For now, we will begin with sword fighting.
“Sword fighting is a crucial and very important practice that you must learn. All of the dragon riders know how to use a blade. Today you will learn the very basics of how. Everyone, grab a stick from the barrel behind me. We will not use actual swords yet. We do not want any accidents here.”
Her legs felt like lead with every step she took as all of the recruits got in line to grab their weapon.
“Everyone find your bunker buddy. You two will partner up and learn how to fight together. Once you find your assigned partner, you two will line up and face each other, like so” Ashur barked again as he and Silver modeled his command; the soldiers followed suit.
“The first rule in sword fighting is to relax. In combat, it is easy to tense up, but it’s crucial to let your body stay loose;” Ashur yelled again, “it is also traditional that at the beginning of a match, you always begin by showing respect to your opponent by giving a bow. Observe.”
Silver and Ashur gave the demonstration and held up their wooden swords as if they were in an actual duel.
Ashur quickly stepped forth and swung his weapon in Silver’s direction with finesse and grace. However, Silver quickly blocked his attack and knocked his sword clear from his hands.
Some of the young boys snickered and Silver smiled at Ashur. However, Ashur narrowed his eyes and attempted to speak, but held his tongue.
“What are you laughing for?” Ashur yelled, “twenty push-ups from you three! I want to hear you count them out!” He pointed to those who laughed.
“The rest of you practice disarming your partner,” Silver called out, keeping his eyes fixed on Ashur to keep their training moving along.
“Yes, sir!” the rest of the recruits shouted in response and followed his orders. Ashur gritted his teeth before walking to pick up his weapon.
Erik motioned for Selena to follow him as they took their place among the line of soldiers already practicing.
After making sure they had enough space, they attempted to take the same stance as Silver and Ashur did before striking each other with their weapons.
Selena saw Silver come over from the corner of her eye, but she tried to keep focus on Erik’s movement. He struck her upper left arm.
“Sorry,” he mumbled.
“You need to keep your balance,” Silver said as he observed Selena’s form. He walked over and stood next to her before switching to a more relaxing stance. “That's the second rule. Because with that, you can strike or parry without getting hit.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, her face turning red with embarrassment.
“Look down at my feet. Try to keep them at shoulder’s width apart and when you go to move to strike your opponent, try to make sure that your feet are spread and not close together. When you do parry an attack, keep the blade close and try to predict your opponent’s movements and attacks, so that you can counter them,” he further explained.
Selena attempted the stance that Silver showed her.
“Something like that would work, but again, remember to relax your muscles. If you want, I can practice with you two to help,” he offered.
For about an hour of going through their practice sword play, Selena learned that there were a total of thirteen basic rules to remember. Silver went through the entire list during their session.
“Ashur and I will be going over all of them with you throughout basic training. By your last week, you will have them all memorized,” Silver said with a smile.
All the while, Ashur stood and observed Silver’s training methods without saying a word.
After practicing Silver’s teaching methods, they practiced drills again for the rest of the day, having only a small break for lunch. They were only given fifteen minutes to eat their meal of salted pork, a few fresh vegetables of carrots and peas, and more salted flour crackers that Selena learned were called hardtack among the other soldiers in the great hall.
They were finally dismissed around five in the evening to catch up on their chores, wash their clothes, and to relax and prepare for the next day.
Her body ached all over as she stumbled out of the training grounds. From a distance, she saw Neith stride across the ground as she parted her way through the sea of new recruits as if she were on a mission.
“Liongod, I bring a message for you,” she called out before Selena managed to walk away.
“What is it?”
Neith dug through her robes to pull out a written letter addressed to her.
“It’s Rahim. He wishes to see you tonight if you’re available, in the Sky District,” Neith said with a smile.
Selena swallowed hard to read Rahim’s handwriting. He wanted to see her near the cottage where she was first taken.
“Thank you for giving this to me,” Selena whispered and bowed her head and quickly made her way back towards the civilian part of Alfheim.
Selena walked down the same road that Ashur took her the night before and after not too long, she saw Rahim and Niamh heading in her direction, bickering with one another. Rahim was apparently the Oracles’ new assistant to help them with whatever it was they had planned. His errands usually involved fetching ingredients for their potion-brewing projects.
“I’m telling you, when I first met Maria,” Rahim began, “she was really scary! She reminds me of a vampire!”
Selena’s eyes widened as she tried not to laugh. She was not sure why she was laughing at this; it was probably because it made her immediately think of Kain.
“Rahim, there are no such things as vampires,” Niamh said.
“Yes there are,” Rahim argued, “there’s a secret group of them called the Shadow Templars. They’re assassins governed by the Empress herself. The Council doesn’t even know about them!”
“How do you know?”
“My uncle Rowan told me,” Rahim replied, “he may be insane, but he used to be part of the Imperial spies. I don’t see why he would lie about that.”
Niamh rolled her eyes, but immediately saw Selena
and waved.
“Andric! It’s so good to see you again! How was your first day at basic training?”
“Tiring, exhausting, and hard,” Selena answered, “we are being trained by two Captains, Ashur and Silver.”
Rahim’s eyes widened.
“Silver is here? And he’s part of the Air Force?” he asked in astonishment.
“Apparently so, as he just became a Captain not too long ago,” Selena said with a smile. She then pulled out the note that Neith gave her and mentioned it to Rahim.
“I’m glad you got it. I wanted to make sure that you were all right. I also heard about mum!”
Selena smiled again.
“I know, I’m very happy to hear the good news!” she responded.
Niamh looked behind Selena and gestured towards a new face that Selena had not seen before. She was a young girl with jet black hair that was pulled back in a ribbon.
“Hi Maria!” she called out.
The girl was dressed all in black, her skirt resting on her knees. Her stockings covered her legs while she wore thick leather boots on her feet. She looked up and waved slightly before looking down at her feet again. Rahim gazed at her with a slightly frightened look as Maria made her way towards them.
She stopped when she first approached Selena and examined her.
“You’re the one that everyone is talking about then?”
Her voice was low, but soft with a hint of sadness and despair. Selena looked at her and nodded, crossing her arms over her chest.
“What do you mean?” Selena asked with a confused look.
“Everyone has been talking about one of the new recruits that showed up to Alfheim with their own dragon;” Maria answered, “that’s the first time that anyone has heard of it, aside from Azrael. Rogue dragons don’t exactly like to interact with civilization.”
“Thor is different,” Selena swallowed hard.
“I’m sorry, please don’t take offense. If anything, I’m happy to see that not all wild dragons are the same and that Thor trusts you completely,” Maria said defensively.
“I apologize for sounding rude. Thor and I have been through a lot lately,” Selena whispered and gave her a polite bow.
“Apology accepted,” Maria replied, returning the same gesture. She turned to face both Rahim and Niamh and gave a slight nod. “How is the job with the Oracles, Rahim?”
Rahim crossed his arms and stuck his nose in the air, not giving her a response. Maria rolled her eyes.
“I see,” she said. “I have to go anyway. It was nice to meet you, Andric.”
Maria turned around and walked off in the other direction.
Their afternoon turned into night. Selena tried to relax for the rest of her evening after dinner and completing her chores. She longed to go to the docks and to meet up with Thor again, but she was forbidden to do so for the time being. Instead, she went straight to bed and fell asleep fast.
The next morning, Selena immediately awoke when she heard the Pyre strike three in the morning. The sky was still pitch black. She forced herself to focus, knowing that she would be punished if she slept in any later.
Selena groaned in pain and tried to roll over but her muscles were extremely sore. She closed her eyes and felt herself almost drifting off to sleep, but she stopped and forced her eyes back open again. She then let herself roll off the bed and got on her hands and knees. Getting herself into the standard push-up position, she did ten to wake herself up. They were difficult, but she forced herself to finish.
“I really hope I’ll have some time to enjoy reading and possibly do some research while I’m here,” she said to herself as she reached for her clean robes after she finished her morning stretches and exercises.
She heard Erik stir in his bed as he forced himself to get out. Although he had been quiet since the initiation, he had been slowly trying to get through the day while healing his pain in his own way. Selena attempted to do what she could to try and be there for him.
Just like the day before, all of the new recruits filed out in a single line and, at the strike of four, both Ashur and Silver walked onto the training field.
Instead of standing out in the cold for a few hours, they were immediately instructed to start marching and practicing their plank orders. They were a little better with formation after drilling throughout the day before, but there were still some hiccups along the way.
When the Pyre struck six in the morning, they were once again dismissed to go and clean their rooms, as well as to clean herself up and to eat breakfast. Fortunately for her, her room was not that messy so there was hardly any cleaning that needed to be done, other than just making her bed.
After meeting again on the training grounds, Ashur said:
“Today is going to be a little bit different. We are going to learn about some of the dangerous creatures that you may encounter on the battlefield. I requested the Oracles to help me with this one. Speaking of them…
“We’re here,” Nona said, walking onto the grass with Cassandra and Morta right behind her.
“All of you are going to like what’s coming,” Cassandra continued.
“And we have been preparing this for you,” Morta finished, holding a bottle of a gold substance that was glowing.
“I see that you managed to acquire the venom,” Ashur said, giving a grin to the three.
“Yes we did, but it was extremely difficult,” the three said in unison.
Selena swallowed hard. Venom?
Ashur held up the bottle to show all of them.
“Do any of you know what this is?”
“Sir, no sir,” all of the recruits said in unison.
“This is Marcupo venom. It is a common ingredient that assassins have used in most poisons.”
Ashur summoned his hands and a large, thick book with a black cover appeared in front of him. He opened to a page with a strange looking creature on it. It appeared to be a large snake with a red crest at the top of its head. Selena held her breath as she recognized it as the same beast that hunted Gundisalvus in her dream. The picture came to life as it popped out of the page and started to move on its own accord.
“The Marcupo,” Ashur started to read below the picture, “Is closely related to the Mameleu. It is a large and highly venomous snake species native to Runefell. It is also the fastest moving land snake, moving over five meters per second. This beast is infamous for delivering multiple strikes, injecting large amounts of toxic venom. Its venom spreads rapidly within the bitten tissue. The unusual composition of the different toxins contained within the venom causes serious envenomation and death much faster than any other snake in the world. Neurological, respiratory, and cardiovascular symptoms quickly manifest, usually within minutes. However, it is common for it to deliver dry bites as a warning.
“Another interesting factor is that the Marcupo is able to track down its own venom with its sense of smell, even if the victim has consumed it. Untreated Marcupo bites have a one hundred percent mortality rate. The large snake can live for hundreds of years, the oldest reporting to be close to eight hundred.”
Ashur closed the book and it disappeared in smoke.
“The Oracles were able to help us out with locating its whereabouts, as they’re very rare in Armageddon” he announced.
“The Marcupo was impossible to track,” Nona said.
“But we found it loose in the Hinterlands,” Cassandra interrupted.
“A couple of weeks ago,” Morta finished.
There was a loud hissing sound from the shadows.
“Wait here,” Ashur said and walked towards the entrance of the barracks. The group waited in uncomfortable silence for a few moments until they heard the crack of a whip.
Not a moment later, a large snake slithered out from the darkness with incredible speed. Some of the recruits attempted to run away, but Silver ordered them to stay in formation.
Selena almost screamed, and she wanted to turn around to start running in the other
direction, but something held her in her place. Selena backed away a few steps as the snake started to go after her, but it stopped. Below its giant head was a collar with a chain leash attached to it.
It spun around to face the other soldiers and began to hiss with displeasure. Upon its back were whip marks with dark, purple blood dripping out of the wounds.
Selena held her breath as the Marcupo turned its scarlet eyes upon hers. A large tongue slithered out of its mouth. Selena’s face went white with fear as she noticed a scar running through its left eye like the one she saw in her dream. This was the same snake from her dream.
It hissed again and was about to strike Selena, but Ashur came back and cracked his whip to keep the snake away.
“This,” he began, “is the dreaded snake. It is one of the foulest creatures known in our world.”
Despite what Ashur was explaining about how horrid it was, she did not feel that it was evil in any sense of the word. Instead, she saw pain and sadness in the snake’s expression.
“I do not see the reason why you needed to capture it,” Selena said out of line.
Everyone held their breath and slowly took a step away as Ashur glared at her.
“What did you just say? The Marcupo is one of the deadliest in existence,” Ashur said through gritted teeth.
Selena stared at him and looked back at the snake.
“I do not sense evil within it,” she whispered.
Ashur looked as though he were about to object to her statement, but instead waved his hand to cut her off.
“Don’t let him fool you,” he said. The Marcupo hissed, but Ashur whipped it again. It gave out a screech of discomfort, but stopped its wailing.
“Take this snake out of my sight and you, Liongod… for speaking out of line, give me fifty sit ups!” he spat at her.
At first, she did not respond, but sat down and got into position to start.
“Sir, yes sir.”
Chapter 18:
The thought of the Marcupo continued to appear in her mind. Its scarlet eyes were burned into the back of her skull. That night, Selena had the same nightmare of the Marcupo attack on Gundisalvus that she had before. The dream would then drift to her trying to open up the metal door that she saw upon her arrival to Alfheim in the Hinterlands.
