It would take us a day and a half of marching in order to get to the training site. Luckily most of our teachers had been preparing us physically, so there were very few people that were falling out. Unfortunately, I did have one in my squad that couldn't keep up with the pace.
"Sheargin!" The platoon sergeant yelled at me.
"Yes, sergeant!" I responded.
"You have a soldier falling behind fix it." I noticed it as well in the back was a boy that looked like he wasn't even in his teens yet. He was small and pale, probably only around eleven or twelve years old. I told the rest of my squad to keep going with the others while I checked on this boy. I started running beside him at his pace.
"Hey man, how are you doing?" I could tell that he wasn't doing well; he was covered in sweat and gasping for air.
"I'm doing ok squad leader!" He managed to squeak out between ragged breaths. I laughed a little bit at the title and told him just to call me Todd or Sheargin. I told him to stop, and I reached into my bag and pulled out a restorative potion that I'd learned how to make recently. I didn't have very many of them, but I couldn't afford to lose a soldier so early on. Despite his age, we would still need him later on in the training area.
"Here," I said while handing him the vial. "Take a sip of this only when you start to feel like you really can't keep up anymore, ok? Only a sip." He looked at the vial in my hand with wary eyes.
"What is it?" I rolled my eyes.
"Just drink it. Come on; we have to catch up!" The boy grabbed it from me and took a quick sip. I could tell in the way that his color was coming back to him that he was starting to feel better. "Let's go!" I took off running towards the platoon, and the boy was managing to keep pace with me this time. He fell in at the end of the line, and we kept going with everyone. Sergeant Laurec rode in front of us with his lizard cat but veered off to the side so that he could Trott beside me.
"Looks like you can follow simple orders, at least." He said to me while glaring. 'What crawled up his butt?' I thought to myself. "Just make sure that you continue to do your job. I don't like the idea of having an alchemist in power, and I'm ready to replace you as soon as I catch you slipping." I don't know what this guy's problem with alchemists was, but I assumed it was the same prejudice that a lot of people had against us, thinking that we were weak just because we couldn't shoot bolts of lightning or learn sword skills.
It didn't matter, though. This was just one more reason for me to work harder; I would prove myself capable in the training area so that I can stay in the same squad as my friends. But I can also prove this guy wrong about alchemists. We continued on for a while before the sun started to set. The Sergeant halted the march and told us that we would be making camp.
Our group, which was used to working together, immediately began the preparations. I didn't even have to tell them what to do, Sarah and Laura began getting firewood Derek and Tim were setting up tents. Meanwhile, Grace, myself, stood guard. There were four other people in my squad that needed tasking, though. I called them all over to me in order to receive their directions. I had two of them replace me on guard and took the other two to help me find water.
Because of my training with ingredients, I was able to tell by the plant life around the area which way there would be water. It was easy to find, and we began filling up everyone's waterskins from our squad. I had the young boy with me whose name I still didn't know, and a woman who looked like she might have been in her sixties. She had sharp eyes and carried two long knives on her belt. 'She must be an assassin.' The woman kept an eye out for any enemies while we worked on the water.
"So you're our new squad leader, huh?" The woman said while keeping her eyes out towards the forest. "That's a hard job, you know." I looked over at her with curiosity, still keeping the waterskin in the stream.
"Have you been one before?" I asked. She still didn't turn to me, and I waited for her response.
"Yes. Many years ago, in the last war." The assassin responded. 'Just how long has she been here?'
"Excuse me, but when did you arrive in this world?" The woman finally took a look at me.
"Why do you have some plan to get everyone home?" I shook my head. "Then, there's not really any need to keep count, is there?" I knew that she was right, but I still wanted to know. The woman sighed. "I've been here since I was eight years old. So roughly sixty years now." I hadn't expected a response like that, twenty or thirty years yeah, but sixty was far more than I would have thought possible even to survive here.
"I'll be counting on your experience then." The woman just grunted at me this time. So in my squad, I had my friends, a young boy whose job I still didn't know, and a sixty-something-year-old woman. There were also the other two, a boy and a girl who looked very much like each other. I hadn't gotten a chance to really talk to either of them yet, though. 'Hopefully, I'll get to know all of them soon.'
But then came another thought, did I want to get to know them? Did I want to grow to care for even more people who might not survive this war? I didn't know for sure if I wanted that, but I did know that I would have to try. 'I can't lead them if I don't know them, can I?'
After fetching the water, we made our way back to camp. Everything had been set up, and the Platoon Sergeant was talking to the group. Unfortunately, he noticed me walking up to his formation.
"Sheargin! Who gave you permission to be late?" I swallowed the bile forming in my throat, caused by the desire to tell this guy off.
"No one, Sergeant, I was out collecting water!" Was my response.
"You're one job is to report to me, and I will tell you what your squad needs to be doing. Don't take it upon yourself to wander out into the woods, are we understood?" I nodded my head silently. "I said, are we understood!" He reiterated his question.
"Yes, Sergeant," I said in a stony voice. Laurec glared at me one more time before continuing his brief of the plans for tonight. There would be three posted guards at each corner of the makeshift camp and one roving guard who would walk the edge of camp and report anything that they saw. New guards would replace them every two hours or so. The squad leaders were tasked with creating the lineup for guard duty.
"Ok, so who wants it first? It's one person from each squad." The old woman raised her hand quickly.
"I'll take the first shift." She said to everyone else; it seemed like a selfless move to allow everyone to get some rest. But Tim knew differently, this kind of guarding was a lot like something that he had done while he was in the military, and the first shift was always the easiest because you didn't have to wake up from an already peaceful sleep. The Cleric made a mental note to keep an eye on this older woman. His train of thought was broken; however, when I began speaking again.
"Thank you very much... I don't know your name." The assassin rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Just call me, Jack." That was the last thing that she said before leaving the squad to go report in for guard duty. I got the order of the guards for the rest of the night; we were only going to be supplying four guards out of the ten of us. Grace volunteered next, then Derek and Tim. I told them that I appreciated them and wrote their names down on a piece of paper.
I quickly told them that they should get as much rest as they can before their shift, and they went to bed. I still had to report my list to the Lieutenant and Laurec. I shuddered, thinking about having to see that man again today, but still, I took my list and reported to them. The Sergeant was on his best behavior in front of the Lieutenant, which made me even more mad.
'So he's just a bully and a sycophant after all.'