We all went to the bunkhouse and passed out, it was one long day. We jogged or sprinted the whole day with minimal breaks just enough to keep us on our feet.
I was up at the break of dawn once again, I had a half-hour before breakfast started so I went to the river that was just outside of camp to wash myself off thoroughly I changed into fresh pants before wading in, I was more concerned with privacy then my clothes being wet.
The last few weeks of daily workout and unarmed practice had done wonders for my fitness and it truly showed as my six-pack was becoming more pronounced getting just a bit more definition than before. I was quite fit before all this happened from daily spars and adventures from my old life as I was calling it now, I was only 4 and a half feet tall so I didn't have a lot of extra weight to lose in the first place.
I looked up as I finished washing my hair and Hazel was only 10 ft away, I was so surprised that my hair went from very wet to completely dry and on fire in an instant as I took a step back and raised my hands to a defensive posture.
Just as I flushed red at my embarrassment and surprise Hazel let out a small laugh, " Interesting, even being extremely surprised causes you to subconsciously use mana". she said as she turned away and left with an embarrassed Bell following close behind.
What is wrong with her? Why does she keep looking at me as if I am an experiment? If only I knew...
After the very weird meeting at the river, I gathered my clothing and dropped them off on my bed before I headed for breakfast. Fes and Hes followed me after they asked if they could join me for breakfast to which I agreed.
The look on the boy's faces was surprised by the different breakfast menu at the small kitchen on the east side of "Camp". the other Kitchen I had shown them only served gruel and eggs on a normal day but here we got Refried beans with bits of fatty meat in it.
We all ate 2 servings of food today as we still remembered how little food we actually had yesterday.
After breakfast, I went directly to the Training yard to my assigned space and waited in an at ease position like the day before, I was first to the field and it was once again empty but I didn't care it was better to be early than late and this way I had a few moments to myself where I just watched the birds or other small animals run at the edge of the field, the bushes were still thick enough to afford some protection from predators.
Most of the trainees had filed in and went to the spot they were told to return to with their bunkmates all stood at ease just like me but they also chatted with each other a bit, but our group was quiet. Richard was at the back glaring at all of us, Fes and Hes were behind me and Hazel and bell were in front of Richard.
It looked like about 10 Trainees hadn't arrived in time so the sergeant assigned to the missing people stormed out of the field with staves in hand, 'those trainees were in for a terrible day if they slept through breakfast' I thought to myself as I stood quietly in line.
Once the other trainees had sprinted in with sergeants close behind yelling at them, we all settled down as Staff Sergeant made another appearance. "Yesterday you wee sparks went on a nice walk and some didn't get food at the stream and the 2 slowest teams didn't get supper, today this will happen again." he said with his accent before turning to his sergeants "Take them for a walk sergeant's!" he roared out as the sergeants started to lead us out of town once again in the same direction as last time.
We now knew what was going to happen once we reached the river and we all knew the consequences for coming in last. As soon as we were able, we started to sprint out of the gate towards the stream. A lot of shoving happened between the groups as some people were slower than others. Some groups left slow members behind as they set their own pace leaving the slow people with the sergeants that only kept the same pace as yesterday. As long as you kept the pace the sergeants left you alone for the most part.
I kept pace with Sergeant Kace and let people pass us as fast as they wanted, I knew that this first leg of the "race" was only to get to the water quicker and have our dry ration again so I wasn't in a rush to print the whole way there, not only that but it would be impossible if we didn't pace ourselves properly,
Hazel and bell kept pace while Richard took off running as fast as he could. It looked like he wanted to get some lunch today, Fes and Hes kept pace as well so we had 5 keeping pace with a smiling Sergeant Kace, "Good job, you aren't as stupid as I thought... mostly." he muttered out.
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I set up a P.A.T.R.E.O.N. account/ OGYMpw. For those that want to support me! Every little bit helps!