Zane woke to the sound of the horn blasting twice through the camp. Twice . . . twice, what did twice mean again? Zane racked his still sleepy brain and then remembered. Once meant time to wake up, two meant gather at the command tent, and three meant they were under attack. Zane, Cliff, and Aaron got out of bed and got ready quickly; all of them making sure that Pug got out of bed and was ready on time. Then they departed for the command tent, meeting up with Rose and Penny on the way. Zane noticed that almost twice as many tents were put up than the day before. He wondered why and decided that Dux would probably tell them. They reached the command tent and found Captain Dux once again ready to talk to them.
"Someone tell dirt face that it's too early to be up," Pug said rubbing his eyes.
"Alright you newbies," began Dux. "This is the last time that I will be babying you. I've gotten you up so early because I assumed that you wanted to eat." Zane wasn't sure, but he thought that he saw Dux give Pug a dirty look at this point. "Now, each tent will be given an area of the forest to hunt their dinner. Look at the map set up on the table in the command tent to see. You will be called in by tent, you will be given, by Oran, your placement, squad, and hunting area."
Dux called in the first tent and they stood around waiting impatiently. If Zane had felt nervous that day before, now he thought he was going to either throw up or pass out. He could tell that everyone was nervous because no one said a word, not even Pug. The only one who didn't look nervous was Penny.
"I wonder where I will get put?" She said cheerfully. Zane looked and Rose, she looked more grumpy than nervous.
"I don't care where I'm placed," Rose said grumpily. "If you ask me this whole thing is stupid. Girls can't be warriors? What is that all about?" Rose and Penny's tent was called and they were left to their own thoughts. When they were finally called Zane felt as though he was going to explode. He took a deep breath and followed the rest of them into the tent.
They found Oran sitting in a chair in the corner of the tent. He motioned for them to sit and they seated themselves around the table in the middle. A large map was spread out on the table. It was covered in markings and drawings showing various things. Zane assumed that this was the map that Captain Dux had referred to earlier.
"Names?" Oran asked quietly. They told him their names and then waited. Oran shuffled through papers and set four of them aside. "Aaron Rudis," he said reading the paper. "You have been placed as an archer. It seems as though you have a knack for it." Zane heard Aaron let out a sigh of relief from Aaron. He put Aaron's paper aside and picked up the next one. "Cliff Arx," Oran now said. "You have been placed as a warrior." Cliff just nodded, but Zane could tell from the look on his face that he was happy about his placement.
Zane was now so nervous that he was shaking. He was glad that they hadn't been given breakfast that morning. If they would have, well it would probably be on the floor of the command tent at the moment. "Puganto Brevis," Oran said. "You have been placed as a scout. Congratulations." Pug folded his arms and leaned back in his chair but didn't look surprised in the least.
Oran consulted his list and said, "Zane." His gray eyes bored into Zane with an unnerving intensity. "No last name?"
"No sir," Zane replied looking at the table. Pug, Aaron, and Cliff looked up at Zane in surprise and he avoided their eyes.
"Ok then," Oran answered. "You have been placed as a warrior." Zane felt as though a thousand pound weight had been taken off his shoulders. He had completed his first task. He was a warrior! Great, now all that's left is to become the greatest warrior of all time, Zane thought sarcastically. No problem. "Ok that's everyone," Oran said cheerfully. "Now your hunting area will be here," he said pointing to a section of the map to the west of the camp. "It is the same place where you received your scouting evaluation. Now as you might have noticed, last year's recruits have joined us."
From there, Oran explained how their training would work. They would be trained for two years and then would be able to join the guard for real. They would receive one week of basic training, then be divided into four divisions, each with thirty-five warriors, fifteen archers, two scouts, and eight nurses. Plus each would have a Captain, Lieutenant, and sergeant. When they left the tent it was still early in the morning, so they decided to go and hunt down their dinner in their designated area.
Zane thought that the four of them made a very good team. He laid down traps to catch small game. Pug tracked down the bigger animals, while Aaron followed him and shot whatever they found with his newly received bow. Zane noticed that Cliff was mostly left out of the proceedings, so he showed him how to lay traps where the animals were most likely to go. This seemed to really cheer him up a bit.
While they were setting down the traps Zane asked, "Why don't you talk to Penny more Cliff?" He just shrugged and mumbled something about being shy and girls not noticing him. "Oh come on Cliff. Didn't you see how much she blushed yesterday when you grabbed her arm? She obviously noticed you." Cliff just shrugged again. Zane sighed and gave up.
When they met Pug and Aaron outside the woods, Zane was extremely happy to see that they had gotten enough food for dinner and supper. It wasn't much, but his grumbling stomach was just happy that they had food. They went back to camp and gave their food to the cooks, who labeled it as theirs. After Zane and the others finished their dinner, Zane saw Rose and Penny walking back to their tent.
He flagged them down and asked, "How did your placement go?"
She sighed, "I'm a scout." She said sadly.
"I'm a nurse!" Penny replied happily.
"Scout is the best next to warrior though I guess," Rose continued. "At least I get to learn how to use weapons." When Zane finished the conversation and went back to Aaron, Cliff, and Pug, then training began.
Cliff and Zane had different training than Aaron and Pug, so they parted ways. Zane decided after a couple of sessions that basic training was fun and challenging. They learned tactics, hand to hand combat, and sword fighting. He quickly learned that, though he had though he was good after he won the freestyle competition, that even his hardest competitor had been a novice compared to a real swordsman. The things that Captain Dux could do with a sword amazed Zane.
Zane was slightly disappointed to see Winston among the warriors, but decided not to care. He was always hanging around with his group of cronies, and Zane didn't want to get into any more trouble. After supper and afternoon sessions, the four exhausted friends met each other at their tent and quickly fell asleep.
The week of basic training passed quickly for Zane, and he soon fell into an easy routine. He caught on to the training easily and found that he was a natural for battle tactics. He grew closer to all of his friends, especially Rose, and was finding himself very happy.