I was in shock when I turned around and headed back inside. How was I going to tell the others? Could I just go out and hand these out to them like they were a worksheet in a math class? The decision was taken from me, though. Laura walked up and asked me who was at the door. I was too stunned to make up a lie, so I told her.
"Ah, so I assume those are..." She began looking at the papers in my hand. I nodded at her and handed her the one that had her name on it.
"Yeah. They are our orders, I guess." I couldn't help but look at the young witches' face. She was the youngest out of all of us, not even out of high school yet. How can she be expected to go to war? She looked back up at me after reading her paper. I guess I must have been kind of overwhelmed because I felt the tears fighting their way to the surface as I thought about how unfair it was to have a child-like this fight in a war that really had nothing to do with her.
She had been ripped away from her family and friends. I remembered when we first got here how she would wake up in the middle of the night crying for her mom. How Grace, Tim, and I would do our best to comfort her and get her to go back to sleep. I just couldn't help myself from feeling angry and resentful at this world for once again hurting her. Laura didn't think this way, however.
She was grateful that she wouldn't be left behind while all of her friends risked their lives. Instead, she would fight side by side with them and do everything in her power to keep them safe. The young girl reached up and touched my face trying to stop the tears from falling.
"Todd. It's going to be ok. Let's go tell the others, ok?" She gave me a bright smile, which broke me out of my dark thoughts. I smiled back at her, and we walked out towards the back yard. The first person to greet us was Derek; he had that dorky grin on that he always wore when he was trying to make someone feel better. He must have thought that I was still upset about the fight that I'd had with Tim the night before.
At least he thought that up until the point that he saw the papers that I held. I handed him his orders, and he read it. This drew the attention of the others who came up to me to receive their own orders.
"So then it's time," Grace said. She was clearly feeling the same way as me. She couldn't help herself; tears fell from her face as she thought about what this would mean for all of us. Tim and I hugged her and were joined by the rest of the group. The Paladin didn't allow herself to be sad for very long; however, there were things that needed to be done after all.
The orders stated that we would have to check-in at our local military office later that day to receive further instruction. We didn't know whether or not we would be shipped out that day or not, so after breakfast, we gathered together all of our supplies. I was busy stuffing as many ingredients, potions, and tools into my bag when Tim came up behind me.
"Hey, we're good, right? I don't want to leave without knowing that we are ok." I understood his sentiment precisely because I felt the same way.
"Yeah, Tim, we're good," I reassured him. The Cleric knelt down next to me and began handing me stuff that I asked for; It took us about half an hour, but I was finally able to stuff most of my items in the bag with his help. The others didn't have much to get ready, but they still packed a fresh pair of clothes and some food just in case the military didn't plan on feeding us that much.
We then gathered at the front door, ready to leave. Grace said a few words to us to try to cheer us up, but I don't think that anyone was listening too much. So we headed out towards the military office. It didn't take us long to get to our location, but there was already a line forming. The people around us had somber looks on their faces, but there were still some veteran adventurers who were going around and joking with the younger ones trying to cheer them up.
'One day, that might be us.' I thought to myself. I really hoped that it would be us at least, that we would make it through the war unharmed and come back to be able to joke and cheer up younger travelers. The line kept moving, and soon we were at the front of it. A very serious-looking man was sitting behind a desk. His hair was very short, and he wore a military uniform.
"Name." He said when I stepped up to the desk. I gave it to him, and he began looking through his papers. He finally found what he was looking for; "It says here Alchemist, you'll be under the command of Lieutenant Brighton. Go to the Travelers guild, and you will find your Platoon." I looked around to the others, scared for a moment that they weren't going to be with me. So I waited outside for a few minutes to be sure.
One by one, my friends came out and told me where they would be going; luckily, all of them were placed in the same Platoon as I was. 'The King and Queen must have come through for us.' I thought. We headed straight for the Travelers Guild after that. There were several groups of people; each group was being put in formations behind a different banner. Grace stopped and asked someone where Lieutenant Brighton's Platoon would be, and we were pointed to a blue flag with a golden sun on it.
A woman in a military uniform greeted us. Her uniform looked slightly different, however, because she had some kind of insignia in the middle of her chest. She noticed us looking at it and figured that she would introduce herself.
"I am Lieutenant Brighton, this,-" She said, pointing to the symbol on her chest. "Is the indication that I have reached the rank of Lieutenant." We all understood. 'This is the person that will be leading us.' The woman then went and stood in front of the formation and introduced herself to its entirety.
"Today, we will be making a move to the training grounds. It will be here that you learn how to move as a unit, and where we will measure your individual strengths and weaknesses so that we can build a strong platoon." The Lieutenant stopped for a moment and scanned over her new soldiers. "I know that this is some of your first times in the military, and I hope you know that your country appreciates your courage. I also see some familiar faces; please look after the less experienced soldiers while you are under my command."
The woman then stepped aside, and a hard-faced man stepped into the position in front of the formation.
"I am Sergeant Laurec. I will be your platoon sergeant and will make sure that each and every one of you follows the orders of the Lieutenant, as well as completes any taskings that you are given. Now Platoon, attention!" Tim's body immediately snapped into the position that it needed to be in for this command. He had been in the military before coming to this world, so we all did our best to follow suit with how he moved his body.
The platoon sergeant then began walking down each row to inspect us. He took note of who had been able to follow his command and taught the others the correct way to do it. We were in the backline of the formation, so we were the last to be inspected. The man got to Tim and took note of his form.
"Have you been in this military before?" Sergeant Laurec asked him.
"No, Sergeant! I was in the military before traveling to this world." Was Tim's response. The man nodded his head in understanding before moving on. The rest of us had to be adjusted. It was when he got to me that his face became even more stern than it was before.
"You must be the alchemist." I mimicked the way that Tim had spoken to the man.
"Yes, Sergeant!" The man scowled at me.
"I don't know how you did it, but I was given orders to make you a squad leader. There are very few alchemists that are helpful on the battlefield, so I hope that you don't disappoint me."
"I won't, sergeant!" I responded.
"Good, because if you do, just know that it's your soldiers who will suffer for it." I gulped nervously when he said this. "You and the other three squad leaders will report directly to me and relay information down to the other soldiers are we understood?"
"Yes, sergeant!" I responded one more time. With that, he told me to go to the front of our line, and I did so.