That night, I had a nightmare of my dad chasing me with a bunch of witches with him on land. I wasn't sure at the time what that meant so I was a bit uncomfortable and nervous when I woke up. When I did, I saw Loid in front of me telling me to wake up. It startled me a bit so I froze and got really scared. "H-Hey there, Melody. I'm sorry if I scared you, I was just waking you up so that I could prepare you for my soldiers." Loid said, getting off of me. "I-It's fine. Thank you for waking me up. What do you mean by 'prepare me'?" I said, a bit confused. "Well, about that. My division is called the circus of the army. It's made up of abominations that end up on our ship but don't end up dead. You're a new member, and witches are some of the most beauti- I mean, some of the most human-like abominations that are out there. Just.. prepare yourself for anything." Loid said beckoning me to come out from under the table. Just then, I felt a rumble on the floor and Loid said, "Oh, joy, they're already here."
"So this is-" I started to say, cut off by the door slamming open and my soon-to-be coworkers running through it. Loid stepped in front of me to block me from their view. "Ahem. Sit down, everybody. I have a very important announcement." Loid said in a commanding voice. Everyone sat down at the big table and looked at Loid. There were 18 people sitting there. "We have a- wait... Where is Marie?" Loid said, looking around the room. Just then, a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes came into the room. She sluggishly sat down at the table and fell asleep. "What am I going to do with you... Anyway, we have a new recruit. Her name is Melody. Please give her a warm welcome into our team." Loid said, stepping aside and ushering me in front of him. "IT'S A GIRL!!!" Almost the whole team said. "Well, don't just sit there everyone, introduce yourselves," Loid said, Looking at the lady elf at one end of the table. She rose and the rest of the crew followed. She started first. "I'm Lithia, an elf and the 2nd in command of this little squadron. Nice to meet you." Lithia said, bowing.
Beside her was a gnome. "Hello, miss. I'm Fredrick, a gnome, and you must be an angel from the heavens." Fredrick said, winking at me. "I'm Ssssid, a Naga. I hope you get comfortable sssweetheart." Sid said. "I am Taura, a centaur. I hope you're ready for training because you'll be in for a ride." Taura said, laughing a bit. "I'm Marie, a witch. Nice to meet..." Marie said, dozing off in the middle of her sentence. "And... I'm Jerry, a minotaur. I hope we can be great friends." Jerry said a warm smile on his face. "Okay, that's enough. Those are the people on your specific squad, so get accustomed to them. That's about it. Sit in-between Fredrick and Sid. ... Wait, nevermind, don't do that. Sit between Jerry and Marie." Loid said. "Yes sir," I said, walking up to the seat. "Don't mind Marie, she just loves to sleep," Jerry said. Loid sat at the one-chaired table and signaled for Lithia to start talking. "Okay, time for our missions. There have been sightings of a nearby island that could be a fortress in the future since the government has been torn to shreds. They want us to go out and eliminate any dangerous things that could be there since it's too dangerous for their men." Lithia said, putting out a map of the island.
"It's pretty groundbreaking stuff, but the catch is that they don't want us back here until they can land the ship safely on the island. There seem to be tribes and other things that could be dangerous on the island. Another concern of theirs is those groups of sailors looking for the same solace as us, a fortress. They might try to kill us and claim the island for themselves. We're going out there in a week, so I'd advise you all to train hard and get ready for the mission of a lifetime. Tomorrow we'll talk about what squads go where and about the mission in depth. You are all now dismissed." Lithia said, in a commanding voice. I went with the others out the door but then I stayed and listened to the conversation between Loid and Lithia. "Commander, are you sure that this is a good time to bring another person in? We're about to go on a huge mission, so we can't afford a newbie to screw this up." Lithia said. "Listen, Lithia. I truly feel like she can really help us on our journey out there, and future ones too. I want you to take some time to get to know her before writing her off as some newbie." Loid said, dismissing Lithia out of the room.
I hid in the corner of the hallway since it was dark. Lithia walked out of the room and sighed. "I hope he's right, but, does she even know any healing magic? I mean, I can heal, but we need multiple people in our group to heal since we usually get all the hard missions." Lithia murmured to herself. "U-Um... I'm really sorry for eavesdropping, but I don't actually know that much about healing. I-I was going to try and learn from Marie." I said, coming out of the corner of the hallway. "O-Oh... I didn't notice. Well, you shouldn't from Marie, she's a combat witch so she's terrible at healing." Lithia said as I walked up to her. "Then... C-Could you teach me?" I said, inquisitively. "Sure, I guess. Let's go train then." Lithia said, leading me to the training rooms. When we got there, I saw Tommy yelling at Major Damien while he was practically getting strangled by the guard holding his leash. "Tommy? Why are you in a collar?!" I said, walking up to the scene. Then, I watched in horror as the guard took out his sword and put it in front of Tommy's throat. Tommy didn't stop, so I rushed in and yelled "Tommy, stop!!!" Everyone was surprised. "But, he was talking about how he hated you!" Tommy said.
"That's my problem, not yours, Tommy. Please calm down and go with the guard. I can handle them." I said to Tommy, hugging him and then turning to the guard who has just sheathed his sword. I was really angry at the potential brutality. "Excuse me, sir, but why do you have to use your sword when you can handle a situation with your hands. Or are you too weak to do that?" I said to the officer, coldly. "Wha- Hey, you better show some respect." The soldier said. "Respect? You don't even respect other people's lives, and you're asking for respect?" I said, getting a bit more frustrated and angry. "Hey, Melody, you have to calm down. You'll get in trouble." Lithia said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I glared at the soldier and then left. "What was all that about?" Lithia said as we entered the training room. "He's very dear to me and has protected me for a very long time. I just didn't like the fact that he was about to die for yelling at someone. Ah- sorry for my rudeness." I said, feeling a bit bad. "No problem. I get that you mean well, but the first rule of this ship is to respect higher-ups, got it?" Lithia said. "Yes ma'am," I said.
"Now let's get started," Lithia said, taking out a staff. I, in turn, used my magic to make a sword and prepared myself for a fight. Lithia dashed towards me and tried to hit me but I dodged. I then tried to hit her and she dodged right into an energy blast that hit her arm. "Wow, that was a pretty smart move. Good job." Lithia said, holding her arm and jogging up to me. "I-I'm so sorry!" I said, panicking. "Relax, It's not bad. Anyways, have you healed yourself before?" Lithia said, showing her hand. "Yeah," I said. "Well then, just try and pour some of your mana into me," Lithia said. I closed my eyes and I tried to move the magic to her. I opened my eyes and saw that I healed her. "That was really effective, good job," Lithia said, feeling her arm. "Thanks!" I said, proud of myself. "Now that you have the hang of that, let's try giving you a... staff!" Lithia said, grabbing a wooden staff and tossing it to me.