Amer was at it's brightest time of the day. The residents called this time 'noon'. On ground that was dry and gritty, a military fort could be seen. It was the only man-made structure within a mile. There was a dirt that was almost perfectly straight that ran tangent to a field of rubble around the spiked log wall of fort. The silence of the surrounding areas was broken here; both by the clash of weapons from inside the fort and the sounds of footfalls outside of it.
Jeffery jogged along with his classmates around the perimeter of the base. They took a route that wasn't very close to the walls of the palisade- the military had scrambled large boulders around it, presumably to make it harder to approach directly on foot, and utterly impossible to get close with any larger vehicles. Any time that would have been saved by running closer to the wall would have been negated by the necessity of weaving around the boulders. The only part of the perimeter exempt of this treatment was the packed earth path splitting off of the road leading to the base's gate.
This was Jeffery's sixth lap, and he was exhausted. He guessed that the distance he had run was about a mile- the rocks extended quite a ways past the edge of the base. While he was running, he saw one of the people carrying only a shield make a brief excursion into the boulder field to pick something up. They shoved that something in their mouth- likely some part of Kieth's sandwich. He had ended up carrying the 'sword' in a very awkward manner. He didn't want to let it touch the ground, but after only the second lap his hand was fatigued enough to force him to switch the 'sword' to his left hand. He only managed one and a half laps like that, and after not even a complete lap after switching hands again, his right hand was tired again. He settled for carrying the 'sword' under his arm on his forearm while supporting it with his left hand. It was almost like the way some two handed lances were held.
His ability to run was slightly hindered because he could no longer move his arms, but it was a price he was willing to pay. Jeffery caught up to Rob. Even though he was burdened with the sword, he was still decently fast. Besides, Rob had to carry both the shield and the sword. Rob was only on his fifth lap, and his face was red. His panting was audible from ten meters. Now that Jeffery had switched to such an awkward method of carrying the sword, though, he was barely faster than Rob, so he decided to slow down to match his pace.
"Hi, Rob *pant* how are you doing"
"I must say," Rob noticeably slowed when he started talking, and his breathing got destabilized even more, "I didn't picture our first day *huf* in becoming heroes *huf* being so… arduous." Rob blinked to clear some sweat that had fallen from his forehead into his eye.
"It's kind of absurd that they expect us to be able to be able to carry such heavy equipment. Shouldn't they have given us smaller shields and swords?" Jeffery scowled, clearly unhappy "I mean, this 'sword' comes up to my chest. Isn't that excessive?"
"Mhhh… expecting to have swords in your side is a bit much on your part"
"Shut up." Jeffery ran faster than Rob, and quickly left him behind. He got tired of his weird hold, and switched back to holding the 'sword' the normal way. He managed to finish his tenth lap and promptly dropped his sword. Keith glared at him angrily, but didn't force him to do another lap. He was the second to finish, but he was almost an entire three minutes slower than the same boy that was able to easily handle both the sword and shield before. He harrumphed. Sometimes the world can just be unfair, he thought. He sat on the ground to rest, not giving any thought to the fact that he was getting his previously pristine uniform covered in dust. Many minutes passed with him resting with his back against a log, until all of the children had finished. Rob managed to finish sixth, quite impressive considering that he had to carry so much more. Brian and Samantha finished shortly after him. Samantha had also not taken a shield, and looked to be in much better condition than Brian for her laziness.
Keith finally started to speak. "Despite that pathetic showing, I'm supposed to congratulate you on taking your first steps towards serving your country and devoting yourself to it's ideals and traditions. So congratulations." Jeffery doubted the congratulations were supposed to be delivered in such a manner. He waited. Surely there would be some other arduous task to- "and all of you, go to the field. The general is waiting for you there." Ah. They would be learning from the general. Excellent. He really wanted to stab the man at this point. Not fatally, mind you, just something as shocking as being shocked.
He reluctantly followed the rest of the trainees into the lion's proverbial nest. "Hello new subordinates! I'm general Winston! I'll be teaching you about channeling! You guys are all so isolated out here, you probably haven't even heard of it before. Well, I'm here to take you out from under the rock you've been stuck under all your lives." Somehow his cheerful and kind speech only reinforced Jeffery's enmity towards the man. "Our world has Mana all throughout it, Channeling is essentially just storing some of that mana and releasing it later to reinforce you. Observe." He walked out of the base. The kids walked through the gate for the fourth time today, and were wishing for some rest after the run.
The general walked to the right, and stopped at one of the larger boulders. "So, I am going to release some of my energy through my arm. At first, you'll only be able to use it to improve your overall strength and speed, but if you're devoted you'll be able to focus it on only some parts of your body." He turned and his arm burst into flames. The children gasped, they weren't expecting such a spectacle. Oddly, his uniform was completely unaffected and he didn't seem to be in any pain. "As you can see, my channeling method is fire based. Your beginning method will also be fire aspected." Jeffery had to admit that he was impressed with the general's showing. It might not be as cool as the abilities the hero books described, but seeing such supernatural effects in person was still incredible.
The general basked in the awe of the audience. "Now, the storage of mana is much slower and boring than the release of it, so I won't sustain this for long. Before then, though," He turned and gave the boulder behind him an open-palmed slap. Jeffery marveled that the hand was moving quickly enough to make it difficult for him to focus his eyes on it. A loud crack rang out, and a bright flash of light shone when the rock and the hand came into contact. Jeffery squinted his eyes, trying to see past the blinding white. When it dimmed, he was amazed! He couldn't help but release a sound of awe. The boulder had been smashed to pebbles and scattered on the ground in a fan pattern pointed away from the general.
"How- What- will we be able to do that?" Rob was not as restrained in his wonder.
"Ostensibly, yes. You might just end up as a failure like Keith, though, and never manage to focus your channeling to only your arms. " Keith gave a snort where he had been listening, but didn't contradict his superior officer. Keith cast annoyed glances at the destroyed boulder. Jeffery doubted the boulders were here when the fort was made, and also guessed that a new one would need to be lugged over to replace the shattered one.
The general continued his speech, "Channeling is simple! Just sit on the ground and think really hard about this shape. If you exercise while doing it, the process goes faster, but frankly, I don't trust you guys to be able to walk and think at the same time." He turned to another boulder and began vandalizing it with a marker taken from one of his uniform's many pockets. He drew a large circle, then an inverted equilateral triangle inscribed within it. Along the border of the circle, there were occasional fancy looking arrows.
"Are you sure it's safe to be writing secret military methods on a random rock?" This time, someone else asked the question.
"This is the version that we can give to everyone, it won't get you far, but it's a way to separate the wheat from the chaff and make the masses satisfied." The general smiled at them. "It's only in such a far-off place that people would be ignorant of channeling." He walked away. With nothing else to do, Jeffery sat on the ground and did as told. He closed his eyes. When he pictured the shape in his mind, he immediately felt that it was connected to fire. There was a sort of primal warmth radiating from it. What the general said wasn't always a lie, he supposed.
When he reopened his eyes, he saw illusionary flames around some of the kids. Rob's were especially bright, outshone only by Brian. Huh, that was sure a surprise. Many kids had not taken the General's words to heart and were doing sit-ups or something similar. Without exception, none of them had any sign of the illusionary flame. He was gleeful to see the boy who had finished first among the fools. He would soon be overtaken… Jeffery was overtaken by feelings of revenge, and lost focus. Subsequently, the illusionary fire faded.
Everyone kept to themselves so no one noticed his glances. None of the kids were in a particularly sociable mood. None wanted to be left behind by the others. The only feeling worse than failure was failing in front of your peers. Jeffery shared their sentiments and did some more focusing on the triangle. By the time the sun set, he was truly bored and hungry. The general was not exaggerating the tediousness of the this whole process. Jeffery felt the warmth fade from him as soon as he stopped focusing. Rob, who he had moved to sit next to about halfway through the afternoon, still had his eyes shut tightly. He flicked Rob's shoulder.
"Hey, i'm hungry, they have a cafeteria from what I've heard, lets go now"
"You actually got bored first. I win." Rob followed their tradition of making mundane things into a contest.
"I'm not bored, just hungry. Admit it, you are, too."
"Not really, wow, it's so dark already? Ok, I guess dinner would be fine." Rob had opened his eyes and saw the dimmed clouds. They got up and walked between a few boulders towards the gate. The red light from the sky was still enough to illuminate their path.
Jeffery had always liked the times between day and night. He felt that the red color of the clouds made it look like the whole sky was on fire. It reminded him that the world was huge and he was a pretty insignificant part of it right now. It showed him all that could be his one day. He swore to himself that someday he'd become powerful, so powerful that he could take control of the sky change it to his whims. He'd probably make it blue for a few hours a week. It would look like the whole world was drowning – an interesting thought, for sure.
"How was I doing today? Was I better than Brian?" Jeffery asked Ralph to see how powerful his illusionary flame was. He guessed that more was better.
"What do you mean?"
"Focus on the shape thingy and then open your eyes."
"Ok, so what do I look for"
"Look at them, you see how they're surrounded in illusionary fire?"
"No… am I doing something wrong? Oh. Nice joke. You almost fooled me there."
"Seriously, can you not see it? It's quite obvious." Jeffery tried again to make sure that the increase in distance didn't hinder anything – it didn't, he could still see the flame perfectly clearly.
"Stop dragging on the joke. You shouldn't fool around with this- our dream is to become heroes. don't treat it as a joke." He stopped at Rob's insistence. It was an interesting curiosity. He would ask Keith when he had time. Keith was very strict, but seemed like a good person.
Dinner consisted of ham slices and bread. He was too lost in thought to be social. He finished quickly before going to bed. He thought about the shape before falling asleep. When he finally did, all his dreams were full of fire.