The commander started to train me to salute! For hours after we would stop for the day, I stood with my left hand held over my heart in a fist, while my other hand was on the hilt of a wooden training sword that had been in fitted in a harness to my right hip.
Every time I shifted out of position the commander would fix my posture with a sharp-tipped wood sword being jabbed at the offending area all the while she lectured me on the "basics" as she called them.
The lectures consisted of how one was to salute, military ranks, how to address a commanding officer, and what was expected of a trainee mageling.
I didn't remember all she had "taught" me that first day after the hellish salute posture I stood in for more than 4 hours listening to her berate my every mistake or any shift of my body that wasn't part of the salute, as she stated the rules and what was expected of me in the coming months would start to nod off as it was well past midnight at this point.
She finally released me to stumble into my bedroll and pass out by the fire the soldiers had set out for me after they saw the introduction I was receiving from the commander.
"Ye Din not have to be s'hard on the boy." Sergent Kevin, the man-dwarf told the commander after she had sat down at the fire to eat the meal the soldiers had cooked and I was too tired to stay up and eat.
"It is only the beginning, and it will prime him for when we actually get to Mount Spire. They will break the boy before building him back up into the soldier we want him to be," she said before continuing "If I can speed up the process for the boy then he will progress faster then the raw recruits that are coming for the fall training in 2 weeks time!"
"Poor lad thought you were gonna stop since we got back!" the man laughed crazily from the other side of the fire.
"Only when he is broken can we finally start to train him, till then it is all preparation.
The next morning I was awoken at sunrise and was told that a nice jog would do me wonders for my tardiness. The soldier that the commander had tasked with keeping me from slowing down followed me on a horse and gave me a "nudge" with a staff he held.
Felt more like a hammer blow but I kept jogging away from the camp and down the road. The rest of the camp would catch up eventually and only then would I be able to get back on my horse for some cold rations.
About 2 hours later I had made pretty decent progress but I was sweating profusely and I was gasping for breath on the ground where I had collapsed.
The commander tossed me the food and a soldier dropped the reigns to my horse as he stopped nearby and waited for me to mount up.
I didn't complain, I just did as I was ordered, much to the Commander's surprise she thought I would start whining and asking for her to not be so strict but I forced myself not to. That's not what soldiers talked about to commanding officers.
Commander Harriot was staring at me, looking for any defiance as she would quickly beat that out of me with a practice sword if needed!
"good job trainee," she said emotionlessly, "Next we will go over the lessons that were taught to you last night and everything that you have forgotten I will add an extra hour of posture training tonight," she spoke while riding beside me.
Those first days were some of the worst in all of my training. I got very little sleep, I only ate cold food and I was so tired at the end of every day after posture training that I collapsed into my bedroll usually without eating.
It was hell. I would go for my morning jog every morning and then have a cold ration after the commander had caught up. Then I would have to show that I at least remembered if not understood everything she taught me the previous night. When that was done she would instruct me on the rules and regulations of the military all while I had to stay awake.
I fell asleep mid-lecture while riding on the third such day and she woke me up by kicking me off my horse, as I landed on my back with the wind knocked out of me she Grabbed a long staff and jabbed up at me with anger in her face all while Yelling at me to get my Lazy ass back into the saddle!
"Demon" I whispered in the saddle as I finally was able to get back up.
"Yes," she answered back to my statement with cruelty in her eyes. "I will not coddle you boy. You agreed to join the army so now you are my ward and I do not like my effort to go to waste, so I am training you as hard as I can to prepare you for what is to come" she said with finality as she demanded I think on my actions as she road up a few horse lengths to where Kevin was watching me from over his shoulder with pity and even a little respect.
"That boy is going to be a monster at this rate," Kevin thought to himself as he turned back around to look down the road.