Alexander looked around himself, it didn't appear that he was besides the river any longer. What he saw was old stone walls. In a way it reminded him of the monastery. Just as he had this thought a door opened into the room he was in. Looking towards it he saw no one entering.
Walking out the door he looked to the left and right, seeing no one, but he was starting to believe he had returned to the monastery, or at least somewhere that looked very much the same. Making a decision he started walking the corridor to the right. As he came to a corner he could make out a shape hurrying into another room.
Alexander slowly approached the door to the room. Knocking on the door he heard no response. He tried knocking again, but no answer this time either. Opening the door he could just make out guard rails around a staircase.
Looking down the stairs he could see what appeared to be shadows against the walls. As he walked down the stairs he could make out the sound of what he thought might be people speaking. When he got to the bottom of the stairs he again saw no one, but only a short corridor leading to a closed door.
Getting a creepy feeling he hurried to the closed door and slammed it open. Inside he saw the nuns from the monastery reading from books and chanting. Lights floating in the air around each of them. One of the nuns even held a dagger above one of the orphans from the monastery. With the sound of the door slamming open, the nuns turned as one towards Alexander. The lights floating around the nuns turned brighter and brighter before turning into pure balls of fire.
Alexander woke with a start just as several fireballs had hit him. Breathing a sigh of relief at the sight of the river and trees around himself he realised that it had just been a dream. It was somewhat similar to the dream he had had when he just enlisted in the army. Both had started in the monastery, both included the nuns reading in secret, but from there on it diverged quite a lot. The only think they shared towards the end was that he woke up when he got hit by a fireball.
Thinking about it, it was probably just a combination of some sort of homesickness and some nerves before getting to Fort Exor. Not thinking any longer about it he packed his sleeping bag and filled his flask with water from the river. Having finished this he resumed his walk towards the fort.
By the time he started to see walls he was feeling quite hungry. Looking up at the sun he estimated that he had walked for half the day already. Slowly making the last bit of distance he reached the fort.
As he was starting to cross the last few meters to the fort he was stopped by one of the soldiers guarding the entrance "Halt, who are you private?". "I'm hungry… No.. Sorry.. I mean I am Private Alexander, I was told to report to Sergeant Stonecutter. I just finished my training at Elghus"
The soldier stopping him nodded at this "Sergeant Stonecutter is currently out on patrol. Though you should have been told to report to Lieutenant Skinner since he is the commanding officer of 1st platoon in 2nd Battalion A Company. Sergeant Stonecutter is his second. You will find him in the 2nd Battalions officers barracks."
Thanking the lance corporal for the clarification on whom to report to, Alexander made his way towards the barracks he had been told where the 2nd battalions officers barrack.
Inside the barrack a older man sat behind a desk relaxing, on his uniform where a the insignia of a sergeant with a mark above it. "Sir, private Alexander reporting for duty." The older man looked up at Alexander "Which officer are you to report to private?"
"I was told to report to Lieutenant Skinner sir." He nodded at Alexander's response and indicated towards the 3rd door on the left side from the hallway on the right of the desk.
Alexander made his way towards the door that had been pointed out and knocked on the door. "Come in" came a muffled voice through the door. Alexander opened the door and stepped inside, saluting the lieutenant sitting at the desk surrounded by papers. "Sir, I am private Alexander and was told to report for my new post here"
No answer came at first from the lieutenant as he wrote something on one of the papers in front of him. He then rifled through one of the stacks of papers on his desk before grabbing one of the papers. "Private Alexander was it? You are from Tiramdal I see. Trained at Elghus.. Hmm. I assume you are bone stupid.. Sorry.. I mean I assume you can't read, write or do anything other than what you were thought as a recruit at Elghus. Am I correct?"
Alexander was taken aback at the harsh words spoken by the lieutenant. "Sir, I guess that is correct.. I don't know any of those skills, but given the opportunity I would like to learn." Lieutenant Skinner looked at Alexander when he heard that answer. Studying him he didn't see anything remarkable, just a plain boy. He was sure that the boy couldn't be sixteen as he seemed to have said when he enlisted. After all he wasn't more than 1.45-1.50m tall at best. No signs of facial hair could be seen on his chin. His hair was a dark brown, eyes seemed to be a hazel-green mix. At least his voice didn't betray his actual age.
Lieutenant Skinner felt somewhat bad that a new private in his platoon was so young, but with the posturing by the Principality the army couldn't really say no to willing soldiers. When the war broke out proper, the army would have to start conscription, press gangs would have to be sent out. Thinking about it, the boy would most likely have been added as a levy by the duke of Holther. Being a levy would spell almost certain death.
He shook his head slightly at those thoughts, it wasn't anything he could do much about. "I will assign you to 2nd squad, the leader of the squad is Corporal Elden"-he looked down at his watch-"seeing the time you will most likely find him in the battalion mess. Right… This fort is garrisoned by the Exor Brigade, which is a half-brigade, lead by Colonel Aber. The fort is basically split into two, 1st battalion on one side and us on the other. If you have any other questions just ask Corporal Elden. Dismissed!"
Alexander saluted the lieutenant and made his way back out of the office and back towards the front desk. He asked the staff sergeant, he assumed that was what the insignia implied, where the 2nd battalion mess hall was. Getting some quick directions he thanked the staff sergeant and started heading towards the mess.
The mess hall itself wasn't much different from the one back in Elghus, perhaps a bit larger. As he stepped inside and smelled the food his stomach rumbled loudly. Seeing as he was still carrying his kit and rifle he wasn't sure if he could grab any food. Looking around he tried to see if he could spot any corporals. He might have been lucky, or unlucky, seeing a corporal just standing up and starting to walk towards him.
"Private, why the fuck are you carrying kit and rifle into the mess hall?" the corporal walking towards him was pointing at the rifle. "Sir, I was told by Lieutenant Skinner that I could find Corporal Elden here in the mess hall. He said to report to him as a new member of his 2nd squad, sir."
The corporal patted him on the shoulder lightly "Hehe, I'm just messing with you bit kid. Oy! Jimmy! You've got your first kid here!" At this a rather tall man stood up from the same table the corporal had come from. "Yeah yeah, I'm coming over to you. You didn't need to scare him Lars. Look at him, he's shaking. Though I guess that could be from your ugly mug."
Jim lightly punched Lars on the shoulder before stepping in front of Alexander "so, you're one of the new soldiers eh. Don't look like much. Well, anyways, welcome to 2nd squad, only you and me so far, should get the rest of the freshies coming in by Saturday. Grab some food, its lunch time after all, we get 30 minutes to eat, so might want to hurry up. I'll show you around afterwards. Just put your kit and rifle against the wall over there, cooks probably not gonna see it."
Alexander did as Corporal Elden had told and put his rifle and kit against the wall before getting some food. He ended up sitting down with at the table with a bunch of corporals, not that he knew anyone else here anyway. So sitting with Corporal Elden and the other corporals would have to be it for now.