Kace just smiled at what I had said kindly, "very good Bruni, I expect you to help teach your group mates. I am only allowed to give them the basics so anything extra you can teach will be much needed."
"yes sir, I don't plan on being the only one to feed our miserable group in this forest so at least some of them are going to learn to fish or learn what berries are good if the berry bushes are anything like back home I can help in this area as well," I said before turning the fish so they didn't burn.
At my words the rest looked down, embarrassment flooded all of them. Bell looked up at me first" can you teach me berry picking please, I don't like to kill animals." she said while the others murmured in agreement.
I grabbed a cooked fish and stared at it before responding, "sure thing, but not today, we still have a lot of work to do around camp and we gotta cook the bird's sergeant Kace brought back," I said as I looked at Kace and he nodded before throwing me the birds to gut pluck and clean.
Kace had the others set camp up while he explained what all needed to be done but what really surprised me was that he wanted six 8 ft poles spaced around the perimeter of our camp in a rough circle about 2 ft into the ground. After they had gotten that done he pulled out a hatchet and gave it to Richard to go cut down a bunch of young trees about 4 inches wide at the least and about 20ft long. As Richard brought down the first one Kace had the others gather and lay them in between the poles that they had dug in the ground and started to teach them to make bindings out of bark that he was stripping off of the tree.
Kace had them tie the logs horizontal between the big poles in the ground every 6 inches, it wasn't a wall per se as all the gaps it had in it but it would keep out unwanted visitors causing anything that wanted to get in to either climb in or go to the opening that was about 6 ft wide on the side of our camp nearest the water.
At the set up I had become confused so I asked Kace about it "why the wall sir? Predators very rarely come into a camp and with a fire going at night they wouldn't ever come into the camp in the first place.
"It isn't predators that you should be worried about kid. Think about this exercise a little, what else is in this forest beside you guys and predators," he said while tieing up another log to the makeshift wall.
It all clicked in my head so I said out loud for everyone to hear, "We aren't the only group of trainees out here and if this is anything like last week then it's going to be an all-out battle royale isn't it? I asked. "when the other groups can't get enough food then the strong will want to take from the weak!"
After I said this, everyone looked at me before turning to Kace with a serious look before adding even more effort into the work that they were performing, wanting to get this wall finished before sundown that was only a few hours away.
Sergeant Kace just smiled at the hustle of the exhausted trainees were using now. He left to go find us some supper.
I went out to gather more wood for this evening and suggested everyone else does the same but only within shouting distance of the camp, I didn't want any accidents to happen to our group on the first day.
I walked for a while into the forest for a while, for the first time in what seemed like forever, I had time to think in peace and quiet. I started by thinking of my village before the attack and the naive lifestyle I lived. I got a real taste of adventure and it was nothing like how I imagined.
Bitter tears started to fall down my face as I sat down on a fallen tree nearby and just wept, I missed my mother so badly that I started to get angry at the injustice of what had happened once again letting the rage I suppressed out once again. Mana started to flow out of my hair making it billow in the ethereal wind once again, it flowed down my shoulders into my hands as I just turned to the sky and screamed out in impotent rage, I clenched my fists and fell to my knees as more tears started to fall but this time with even more mana.
The surroundings were catching on fire from the mana escaping in my fit of anger first the log I had been sitting on grew into a blaze, old leaves started to disintegrate from the fire. I pounded a fire wreathed fist into the ground causing everything within 5 ft of me to light in an all-encompassing fireball.
"you called?" a voice called out from inside my head causing me to startle, I remembered this voice... it was the same as last time... "just look at the beautiful mana coming from you, I just want to eat it all up," the voice said with longing.
''What do you mean? I asked the voice in my head, "why would you want to eat my mana who or what are you!? I asked it.
"Ah, I will tell you one day boy but not yet." the voice said before a hand made of flowing fire reached out and started to pull the mana that was spread out into it before it withdrew into thin air just in front of me making it seem as if it had returned inside me.
After the mana had all disappeared I felt even more tired, so I stumbled my way back to camp to look for my tent and bedroll, a few asked why I looked so tired but I ignored them not wanting to talk about anything right now, all I wanted was to sleep and so I did the instant my head touched my bedroll.
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