Ashan 69th of Arc 711
Morning came too soon. Well, technically morning always arrive on time. Punctual. Right on schedule. The suns traveled the sky at a steady pace, rising and setting with regular intervals. It was never late, and neither was it early.
Who was early though, too early, was the drillmistress and her assistants. They threw open doors without concern for the walls they slammed into. No care was given to the noise made. Although… yes, that too wasn’t accurate. Care was given. A lot, in fact. There went a lot of care into making as much of a ruckus as possible, violently waking the up-until-then peacefully sleeping cadets.
“WAKEY WAKEY!” the assistant yelled in a voice that would even wake the dead, bursting into the room. A moment later, the door crashed into the wall, probably chipping it. Not that anyone would notice, the exact spot where the knob hit the stone was already fairly damaged. Paint had flaked off, stone cracked, shards and dust gathered on the floor below. The latter had been cleaned up many times, of course, but with each harsh wake-up call new debris appeared.
Yana experienced major disorientation as she was so suddenly pulled from Uleuda into Idalos. Instead of having a pleasant conversation with her mother, the Yludih found a superior scream bloody murder in her ear. Instead of being seated at a table of crystal, looking out over a city of crystal, she lied in a bunk in shabby room. Previously mentioned superior –a sack of flesh and bones, not crystal in the slightest—shook the frame of her bed with all his might. If she’d had a skeleton like the other Mortal races, Yana suspected it would have rearranged itself from all the shaking.
“WAKE UP CADET! SLEEPYTIME’S OVER!”
She made an effort to scramble out from underneath the sheets and off the top bunk despite her wooziness –difficult with all the rocking—and only when she had a foot on the first rung did the assistant stop. He turned around with a contented huff, and left. Not even three seconds later Yana heard him begin to torment another unfortunate soul in the neighboring room.
All her roommates were already in the middle of getting dressed. They briefly glanced up as she touched down on the ground, mumbling a good morning, and turned their attention back on their gear. Yana followed their lead. She pulled the military issued shirt over her head and stepped into the trousers, then worked her feet into socks and boots. She snuck a peek at the others, wondering if they knew if they should put on anything else. Clearly they didn’t; they stood awkwardly waiting, seemingly considering if they should head out of the room already or not.
The answer was presented to them shortly, while Yana made her bed a little more presentable –she didn’t want to be reprimanded for crumpled sheets again—in the form of drillmistress Jeesa’s voice.
“All of you, gear up! I want you all clad in leathers outside within five minutes! Don’t be late!”
A loud, simultaneous “Yes, Ma’am!” erupted from all rooms, and the drillmistress and her sidekicks removed themselves from the hallway, heading outside.
Meanwhile, Yana and her roommates clasped the various pieces of leather armor over their shits and pants. Chestplate, pauldrons, vambraces, gauntlets, faulds, cuisses, greaves, and even the helmet. Most fastened with sturdy straps and buckles, the cadets helping one another to clasp those behind their backs. Way back when they’d donned the armor for the first time, it had taken most of them half an hour or so. No surprise with all the fiddly clasps and no-one helping each other. Now they were practiced, and much quicker. They met the superiors outside the building within the allotted timeframe, filing up in two columns. Yana noted the sky was still dark. To the east, the suns began to peek out from the horizon, but their light was still dim.
In a steady stream, cadets joined the file. Most arrived in groups of three to four, but some came alone, or in larger amounts. Some clearly had waited for all their roommates before heading out. A few slowpokes nearly did not make it in time, cutting it real close. Yet, they managed to join up right before the deadline, and no punishment was bestowed. Jeesa quickly counted the heads.
“Good, you all made it, I see. Let’s keep this up in the future, hm?” She smiled sardonically. “Now, you might be wondering why we’re here at five in the morning. Well, I hope you didn’t expect to be given the day off today, ‘cus we’re going to be very busy today. We’ve got a lot planned.” She started walking, making it clear with a gesture that the cadets were to follow. And so they did.
The brief march did not take them very far at all. Once they reached the armory, Jeesa stopped and turned to the cadets again. “We’ll be trekking through the woodlands as if we’re on a mission. There’s a gathering point we need to reach before tonight. We will camp there, and return tomorrow. Everyone is expected to carry their own gear. Shield, sword, bow and quiver. And your packs too, of course. They were packed a couple hours ago and should be filled with everything you’ll need. Tent, provisions, cooking and eating utensils, waterskin, first aid kit, flint and steel, bedroll, the works. However! There’s one pack that is incomplete. Something’s missing. It’s up to whoever grabs that pack to find out what it is, and add it themselves. Naturally, if you don’t you will have t do without.”
She paused for a second, then continued: “Be aware that no-one is supposed to share their gear and provisions without my express permission. Is your tent missing and you did not notice? Too bad, you’ll have to sleep unprotected. Is it your bedroll? Well, then you’ll have to lie on the ground. Rations? No food for you. You catch my drift?”
“Yes Ma’am!” the group responded.
“Good. Questions?”
Someone in front of Yana raised their hand. “Can we recognize the incomplete pack?”
Drillmistress Jeesa smirked. “Of course you can. By checking its contents.” A bark-like chuckle tore itself from her lips. The cadet’s face probably showed disappointment along with the realization that their question hadn’t been the brightest. “What, you expected us to tell you which one we meddled with? Maybe you want us to tell you what we removed from that pack as well, hm? Don’t you think that might defeat the purpose of this exercise then?” Jeesa flicked her wrist dismissively as the cadet began to formulate an answer. “Rhetorical question, cadet, rhetorical question. Anyone else have a question? No? Good. Well then, cadets, you may grab your gear. In an orderly fashion!” She added the last part as soon as the group all at once moved forward towards the shed.
Looking sheepish, they organized themselves into a line like a bucket brigade, only a few entering the armory itself. They grabbed the gear and passed it along to the others. Yana was somewhere in the middle, getting her hands on most of the packs before she could outfit herself. From what she could tell, the packs did weigh more or less the same. Then again, she didn’t think that the drillmistress and her assistants would make the incomplete pack that obvious to spot.
Those who’d been given their gear before her had already started to check their pack’s contents, and Yana quickly began doing the same. Rations, filled waterskin, utensils for eating and cooking, first aid kit, bedroll, tent… everything was accounted for. She double checked, just in case she was forgetting something, but even then nothing seemed to be absent. With a minimalist shrug, the Yludih strapped her sword and quiver to her hips, attached the shield to her pack, and then slung the backpack over her shoulders, followed by the bow. She straightened then, ready.
All around, a few were finishing up their gear check as well. They too rose to their feet, waiting. Jeesa uncrossed her arms the moment the last person was ready. She looked pleased with the efficiency of the cadets.
“Right. Anyone missing anything?”
No-one spoke.
“Not one of you?”
The cadets held their silence. A quick glance around showed only confident or blank expressions. From what Yana could tell, everyone seemed certain they had everything they needed.
“Alright then. I hope none of you forgot anything important. Last chance.”
Again, not one of them said anything.
Jeesa shrugged, a grin flashing briefly. “Very well. Then we head out. Donovan, lead the way, please.”
The assistant called Donovan saluted, yelled a “Yes Ma’am!”, and jogged away with the group of cadets in tow. One of the other assistants joined him at the front, while Jeesa and the last assistant made up the back.
And so, the next exhausting day began.
