Shaking, Ward lay in the small cot writhing in pain. It wasn't "Training" he had been subjected to. It was torture. The Ravagers weren't permitted to hurt each other.. But under the guise of training him she had done everything short of killing him.
There wasn't an inch on his body that wasn't covered in red welts and dark bruises from her wooden sword.
"Ouch!" He said audibly as he made the mistake of moving. The small tent echoed with his pain, and Rold woke up from his slumber only enough to say, "keep it down.."
Ward wanted nothing more than to stand over the man with a bat and give him a beating of his own... But that would only get him killed..
"I just have to survive" he winced as the night dragged on. Eventually exhaustion overpowered the pain, and sleep took over.
...
He woke the next day to Mary's sword, and the next.. and the next...
She knew how to control her strength so that he could stand the next day and the torture could continue. All the while he learned little more about the ravagers.
Food came by a hooded man who said nothing as he sat down the wooden tray nearby. Rold eventually left the tent one day and disappeared, and so a torturous week passed with no incident other than one hard whack from a wooden sword after the other.
"Can't we stop... please.." Ward huffed, leaning into the wooden staff. He had chosen the staff at a whim but it served a good walking stick at the end of the day, so kept going with it.
"Haha stop??? The commander said to train you, so I'm training you" Mary said, a hint of amusement in her voice. The woman was vile, and he looked her in the eye and tried his best to give her a death stare... but it only made her laugh.
"What? If you want to kill me come do it.. you've got a weapon.." she teased. He sighed and stood where he was, he wasn't going to fall for such an obvious taunt.
"Fine I'll come to you then.." she said, dashing forward with her blade. He knew that lunge. She had done the same one a hundred times before.
With a small step back he held up the staff and readied himself. "If I can't win.. I can at least try and hurt her too.." he thought. Anger courses through his veins like thick blood, and all the pain pulsed from his bruises, welts, and cuts...
Mary swing hard with her blade, aiming for his side. He waited till the last second and blocked with his staff.
'Clang!' The wood rang as the weapons glanced off each other. It was a satisfying sound to Ward. He had done it.,. Finally... he had managed to stave off one of her attacks.
Mary seemed dumbfounded, and the anger in her eyes was clear. "What? A lucky block? Try this then." She said, thwacking him on the right shoulder.
He dropped his staff and fell to the ground. He had grown used to the constant pain.. but the sudden, stinging pain got him every time.
For the rest of that afternoon Mary was merciless, and he didn't manage to block another hit...
...
Ward began to seriously practice in his own time. There were plenty of times that Mary didn't train him, and he took a couple hours at night to practice with the staff.
He also began to condition his body. There wasn't much else to do in the camp. No one talked to him, he wasn't allowed to leave, and he didn't have to hunt for food to survive... so he began to train...
At first he ran around the edges of the camp. Others looked at him like he was weird, but he knew there was only one way to escape: with strength...
He then began to strength train. Push-ups, lunges, sit-ups.. he even found some heavy stones that he would lift, throw, run with..
And so time passed, and he fell into a strange rhythm...
...
6 months later...
"Ha Ha Ha!" Ward yelled.
'Clang clang clang!' Two weapons struck each other faster than the eye could see. Their owners were fighting intensely, and to others would seem to be evenly matched...
But the stray hit and there pointed out the truth: The woman had the advantage..
She was taller, older, and faster..
Every so often one of her attacks would slip through and hit the boy. He never hit her. A stray graze didn't count, it didn't hurt her.. not like he wanted to hurt her..
"That's enough for today.." Mary said, lowering her sword and stepping back. She had beads of sweat falling from under her hood and Ward took a strange satisfaction in that..
6 months.. he had spent 6 months training non stop everyday.. taking beating after beating everyday.
Walking back to the tent he looked at the worn, wooden staff in his hand. It had mark after mark from where it had struck Mary's blade.. from where it had struck nearby trees in training..
It felt comfortable, and he felt stronger than when he first got there..
Stepping inside the tent he took off his robe, revealing a bare chest.
To others, they would be shocked to learn he was only 12.. His muscles were taught with power.. his skin covered in old scars and new bruises..
There was a look in his eye too that spoke to someone older.. someone who had seen hell and fought it back, at least a little bit.
Rold still hadn't come back since the day he left the tent, and Ward was happier for it. He had the place to himself and it was quiet.. Though he did miss having company of some kind.
He had learned through eavesdropping on conversations that you weren't truly a Ravager until you finished training, and it was taboo to talk to a 'fledgling' as they called him.. He could die in training, or be deemed unfit to be a Ravager and killed.. There was no point in getting friendly with someone who was likely to die...
He never saw the oddly friendly commander again, and he was sure to keep a close eye on her tent. It sat like some distant fortress in the center of the camp: silent and full of mystery..
"I wonder what the ravagers are about.." he thought to himself, "and who is that woman?"
He mostly thought about his friends. A deep longing to sit by the fire with Liza and Dane again, to see their smiling faces and hear their laughs was really what kept him going..
"They've gotta be alive" he told himself as he sit on the edge of his cot. He held his hands together and tightened his grip, staring at the floor, "they've gotta be alive...
...
Two days later the time came...
"Ha Ha!" Ward yelled out. His staff flashed with the precision and strength of a true warrior. Mary seemed shocked, and he could tell he was pressing her.
The normally composed woman was actually getting backed down. She was a foot taller than him, and at least ten years his senior, but he was starting to open up her defenses..
The small training field was abuzz with energy as they fought. It was mid day, probably.. in the Fain it was hard to tell whether it was day or night.. but after a while you got used to it, and you could tell somewhat.
'Whack!' He hit the side of her sword mid swing, and sent it spraying out of her hand. A smile crossed his face.. he knew.. and with no mercy he twisted his waist and followed through with a hard strike to her head.
"Whamm!" It hit her square in the temple.. the force of the hit vibrates into his hand, and he laughed as she fell to the ground. Her hood came off, revealing long dark curly hair and tan skin.. she looked up at him with her dark eyes, pissed off and hurt.
"What?" He mimicked, smiling down at her, "if you want to kill me, come do it... you've got a weapon"
"You little piece of shit.." she said, standing up.
She wobbled for a moment then pulled back on her hood and stepped forward. Her wooden sword still lay off to the side, and he wondered what she was going to try...
As she approached, the air shifted.. something was stirring.. he watched the vile woman approach and he felt something he hadn't felt in a long time: fear...
He wasn't sure why. She didn't have a weapon.. she wasn't charging him..
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary..
But he couldn't shake the sensation..
He leapt back and was shaking as she grew closer and closer with her slow stride. His eyes were fixated on her and his heart beat fast. It was like she had transformed into the floor guardian from the 1st trial...
"Stop Mary!" He heard a female voice call.
Suddenly the air stilled and the fear faded. Mary stopped too, and Ward turned to see a figure in red robes standing at the edge of the training camp.
It was the commander.. the short woman from the tent all that time ago.
Mary had turned too, and Ward heard her say, "I'm sorry commander. I lost control.."
"Go cool down.." the commander said, stepping forward. She placed a hand on Mary's shoulder and gave her a smile before turning to Ward,
"And it looks like you have finished your training, come... and leave the staff.." her voice was soothing, yet strong and commanding.
He quickly set the staff down and followed the woman, taking one last glance at Mary who was sulking back to her tent before he focused on the commander..
"Six months.. and for a young boy too.. you have talent" she said joyfully, "Mary has done well"
He resisted the urge to tell her how much of a vile piece of shit Mary was.. and instead kept quiet.
Before long they were in the middle of the camp, where a group of two other ravagers stood.
"Aah.. here we are.." she said, stopping before the other members. They said, "greetings commander" as she approached.
Ward took note of the two. One was a young man with dark skin, the other.. Rold!.. he fought back the urge to greet him, to curse him, to dash forward and strangle him to death...
"This is Geran, and Rold.. whom you know of course."
"I'm Ward.." he said, nodding to Geran before giving Rold a death stare.. he didn't seem to notice though.
"These two will be your teammates from now on.. you will hunt together.." She said.
He thought for a second before asking, "hunting what commander?"
She turned to him and looked him in the eye, and with all the innocence in the world gave him a bright smile before saying, "why people of course"