Inside the cabin Nine, Wit, the pretty boy from earlier, and a few other boys Nine didn't know the name of were assigned a cabin. They entered through the doorway and were greeted by 3 bunk beds and a large dresser, presuly for holding any personal effects. There was a surprising lack of dust and if anything, the cabin looked lived in.
"Cleaner than I thought." Wit whispered over to Nine
"Yeah, I gotta agree with you there." Nine replied. "They probably got somebody who upkeeps these cabins." He turned his head to the bunk closest to him and the doorway and made his way over to it. "You gonna bunk with me Wit?" He asked
Yeah." Wit replied. "I'll take the bottom bunk."
"Got it." Nine said quickly. He then, like the rest of the trainees in his cabin, made his way over to the large dresser. One of the boys opened it up and inside were the bags each of them had packed for their week-long stay. Earlier when they first entered the grounds of the Rookies Training Camp they were asked to give their bags to a man with a meal roller and presumably this was why.
"Looks like somebody already brought our stuff over. Cool." Nine said, grabbing his bag from the pile in the dresser. Everyone else in the Cabin proceeded to also grab their bags and bring them over to the bunks they had chosen. Nine tossed his bag on top of his bed while Wit merely left his bag on the ground beside it. Nine then climbed up the small wooden ladder to the top of his bed.
By this point it was so everybody in the cabin was setting up their beds. The beds had mattresses' but when Nine tried laying down on his it might as well have been as hard as stone.
'Well I've slept on worse.' Nine thought as he recalled one bad night where his parents had temporarily kicked him out and he had to sleep outside.
Nine then proceeded to roll out the bedroll he had borrowed from his uncle Alex as well as a pillow Wit had lent him. At that point night had fallen so Nine and the rest of the boys turned out the small electric light bulb that illuminated the cabin and went to sleep.
The next day Instructor Blair had all the trainees get up at 5 in the morning. He had the trainees meet up at the field they had run 20 laps around the day before. The morning dew had misted the grass and a cold morning breeze blew through the field. Some trainees shivered with each passing breeze.
Nine came out looking like he'd just rolled out of bed, because he had. His usual wavy hair was now a ratty mess and his eyes had small dark bags under them.
"You look like you need at least another day's worth of sleep." Wit whispered jokingly seeing Nine's sorry state. Nine only bobbed his head in response and spoke no words. Wit had slightly messy hair but that was about it.
"Well though some of you might be tired." The instructor said looking at Nine, " Hopefully this will help wake you up. You all will be running 25 laps today. Afterward, make sure to use healing magic wherever you feel sore. Once you are all done with that, we will go to the actual training grounds so you all can start practicing using weapons."
Hearing the mention of weapon practice peeked the trainees interest. A lot of them hadn't used a weapon before. Quickly, a lot of the trainee's egan getting started on their 25 laps, not even bothering to complain how it was 5 more than yesterday.
"Guess you don't have to do 30 this time." Wit said to Nine as they started jogging.
"Well yeah." Nine replied. " I know uncle Alex doesn't like how I'm a little lazy, but he doesn't hate me." His uncle had always been a fair person albeit a little judgmental.
The two boys proceeded to run their 25 laps until they reached the final lap. Some people finished before them while some were still on the field running. The three who stood out from before appeared to have finished first this time as well. None of them even looked remotely tired.
"Last lap." Wit urged as he and Nine dragged themselves through the final stretch.
When they got to the end they both went to take a lie down on the grass before realizing it was too wet to lay on. They then trudged their way over to the concrete path and took a seat.
"Well i'm looking forward to that everyday." Wit muttered sarcastically.
"You know," Nine said, looking down at his legs. "It actually seemed a little easier this time."
"It's probably those 30 laps you had to do payin off like I said they would, but yeah, I guess it was a little easier." Wit replied. "Anyways, shouldn't we be healing our muscles like your uncle said?"
"Oh yeah." Nine said and began healing his legs like he had done the previous day. The same green glow appeared and his legs began to feel better. Wit did the same and the familiar blue glow appeared.
After all the trainees were done with running and had healed themselves the instructor called them to gather in front of him.
"Now that you are all done it's time to head to the training grounds." With that he led the group of trainees to another open field except this one had a wall with numerous weapons on it, rows of wooden training dummies, archery targets, and a stone circle platform in the center which looked like a ring. "Go ahead and choose a weapon that fits you." He told the trainees.
Everybody made their way over to wall of weapons and began choosing the weapons they would be using. Nine took a quick glance and didn't really see anything he thought would fit him immediately. Everybody else seemed to pick a variety of swords, polearms and some bows, but Nine remained undecided. Finally he found an old shortsword and picked it because he couldn't chose. he moved it around a little and felt its weight. "Ehh, good enough" he said uneasily.
Wit, who was still beside him, had picked a long sword and large wooden tower shield.
"You sure you'll be able to carry the sword and the shield." Nine asked Wit
"It should be fine." He replied flatly. "We're supposed to be getting stronger right?"
"Yeah I guess." Nine said in a nervous voice.
"What about you? Set on the Shortsword are?" Wit asked
"I mean it works right." Nine said nonchalantly.
"Hey, what about these?" Wit suggested picking up a pair of metal gloves. They had small spikes on the knuckles. Presumably they were for punching.
Nine took them from Wit and tried them on. He moved his fingers about testing how they affected his hands. He then made a fist and punched the air.
"Hmm...They feel about the same as the sword."
"Well then why not use both." Wit suggested.
"Both?" Nine questioned
"Yeah. It's not like you're not allowed to."
"Yeah I guess." Nine replied. "Both it is then." With that done he and Wit made their way over to the instructor who was waiting for the rest of the trainees to arrive.
"Now that you all have your weapons sorted out it's up to you to train by yourselves. If there anyone who's never touched a weapon in their life, come with me and i'll teach you the basic." Instructor Blair announced. After that everybody seemed to scatter, some going with Instructor Blair, others finding a training dummy, and the brave few tried sparring with one another.
Nine made his way over to a free training dummy and began practicing using his shortsword the dummy. He practiced vertical as well as diagonal slashes. Some point in the middle of training Nine dropped the shortsword and practiced delivering punches and other blows to the dummy. Of course the dummy didn't move so it wasn't that great a practice session but nonetheless it improved his familiarity with his new weapons.
He simply repeated this over and over again. Everytime he would get exhausted he would use healing magic which didn't seem to drain him of energy as much as it made him feel better. Eventually the sun began setting and the instructor ordered everyone to stop. A couple kids had scrapes and bruises from sparring but overall, most of them just looked tired.
"Make sure to use healing magic on yourselves." Instructor Blair reminded everyone. "Other than that your day is over. Make your way back to your respective cabins."
Everybody began walking toward the path to the cabins on their own after this. Wit ran up beside Nine and started talking.
"So...Are the gauntlets and shortsword working out so far?" He asked curiously.
"Yeah." Nine replied. "I honestly can't choose between them so I think I'll just go with both like you said. What about you with that huge shield."
"Well I didn't get to use it today but it's more for the future."
"Future?" Nine asked, puzzled by what he meant.
"Yeah, for when we leave Bastion. We could potentially die out there so a good defense is a must."
"Oh yeah." Nine said solemnly. The reality of their possible death sunk in and it really showed on his face.
Finally the two boys arrived at their cabin where they would sleep the rest of the night till 5 in the morning the next day.