Adei trained. She had always trained. From the day she was born to the day she will die, physically or mentally, she trains. For what? Wrong question, a question neither she nor I have ever asked ourselves. She fights because she is, she trains because she is, she evolves because she is. Such is Adei, forever stuck in the hollow tunnel full of fatality, attached to her kind, violent heart, pledged to a futile life of being used and exploited… for nothing. Or for the twisted will of a withering deity who used his last breath to mutter an egotistical prophecy, a pact with death itself that never it should be defiled, for eternity. Who, of course, is me. Nevertheless, maybe I was not as cruel as I thought. After all, I gave the warrior one feature which sets her above all of my puppets, emotions. So trudge on, my prodigy, come at me, and may your independent mind help you seek and find. Seek and find.
"My dears, why don't we just get all the Hypnocamps out of this hellhole?"
It was during training. They had just got up after a sleepless night. Why could they not sleep? Because right above their heads, they heard steps. Yes, because at night, sounds are amplified, like the sound of your heart that pumps in your ears. The steps wouldn't stop. The small rustling of the thousands of enemies scuttling about. The loud steps of the colossal behemoths. Adei was trying to sleep on her belly, and her tail could not rest. With every sound, it tensed. They knew that if the monsters outside made a single wrong step and fell on a concealed entrance, it would break open, and the entirety of the Hypnocamps would… die.
Then, in the morning, they got up in silence. They had seen that the entire team had not slept, yet they still pointlessly asked "Did you sleep well?" before starting to train.
And that is when Katala said it.
"And just how are we supposed to power through all of those monsters?" Asked Nomu.
"Even if we do, how are we supposed to find our way out of this misty trap?" protested Ocy.
"And why should we care!?" Katala had tears rolling down her cheeks. "Those people are gonna die, they haven't seen people in decades, and when we arrived, did they ask for anything? No. They gave us food, and a place to sleep and said 'welcome!' and that with open arms. And we have to be able to do something right? And… and…"
She was shaking. Elen took her in his arms.
"Darling… we can't save everyone."
"Can we save anyone?"
Katala dashed away.
Her friends stayed there, thinking. They were trying to process the information hurled at them during the past few days, and uselessly plotting them against their emotions to see who would win, but no matter what reason, what evidence tried to convince them that they were powerless, Katala was right. They had to do something. When they each looked up, they looked at each other's faces and knew they had thought the exact same thing.
"Well." Elen broke the silence. "We can't do anything if we don't at least try."
They all started training.
As for Katala, she had sunk into her bed. The tidal waves had capsized her will and her forever-shining glimmer of hope was growing dim. She hated death. Yes, everyone did, but her especially, or at least she felt like it, otherwise how would they be able to stay so serious? But she was wrong. They were not that seri-
"Ummm, excuse me?"
A little voice had emerged right next to her.
"I think that's my bed"
A little Hypnocamp was behind her, tugging onto the corner of the thatch bed.
Drago, the caretaker of the village, came running.
"Netti! Don't disrespect the visitor like that! Sorry, miss, it won't happen again."
"N-no, I'm the sorry one, was this your bed, little boy? You can have it back. So is your name Netti?"
The child tried to speak, but Drago pushed him to the side.
"No, children do not get names yet, we assign them when they start working. In the meanwhile, we call them Netti or Netta. Now, why won't you accept our apology? If you want this bed, you may get it."
"Listen there Drago, you and your people saved our lives. We are the ones who should do all the thanking. We never came here to be your visitors; we are here to survive and fight."
The Hypnocamp had a shocked look on her face. She opened her mouth like she wanted to talk but found nothing to say. Then, quite dismissively, she muttered "thank you" and left.
Back in the training ground, she saw her friends training. They trained, like before, but now with a new outlook: rather than focusing on honing their own skills, they perfected their teamwork, after all, they had all made a silent pact that they would save Hypnocamp, so they needed to perfect themselves.
"C'mon Adei, one more time!" yelled Elen
The girl mimicked fighting the training dummy and tricking it to turn its back to Elen. Then, with a loud click, she signalled at him to send a fireball. A thin bolt threw through the air, and on impact, exploded into an archipelago of white flames, and Adei fell to her knees, protecting her body with her arms in a vertical palisade. They were very warm, but the armour was strong enough to hold.
"Ok, we've got that one down."
Even Ocy wanted to get involved, so he teamed up with Nomu. Nomu would send him flying at the target's eyes, and still camouflaged, he would render them blind by piercing their eyes. Then Nomu would swoop in, his large swords down and pivot his momentum with the thud of a foot to deliver a powerful vertical slash. Even an Ounga didn't stand a whiff of a chance.
Katala had immediately understood. If they were trying so hard to work together, its that they wanted to do something. They had a purpose. A smile sprang across her face.
"Were you guys missing some group damage?" she asked, as, unlike Elen, she didn't focus on precision.
"What do you mean?" answered Nomu.
"Well, we're gonna be fighting hundreds of enemies, possibly at the same time. Sure, if one large enemy arrives, your tactics will work, but how will you have time for that out there? Let me show you, dears."
She took all the training dummies (there were only four) and arranged them in a semi-circle before the group.
"Our role is to create a safe circle where we can travel and the Hypnocamps can stay in security in the centre. Elen, you will be the marksman, if any enemy breaches our defences, which will happen, you will shoot at them. Adei, you're the piercer, your task is simple, kill as much as possible as fast as possible. If you feel overwhelmed, retreat. Nomu, you are one of the most important, you must hold the line. Try to kill as much as you can with your swings, but your main task is to hold them back, not reduce their number. Finally, I will be at the centre, blinding them and providing support where the defence is lacking. Keep in mind, when we do go out there, Hypnocamp soldiers will be here to cover the holes and help maintain the circle secure, but we cannot rely on them. Let's get to training!"
"Since when is she the best tactician in the team?" chuckled Nomu, patting her on the back. She turned noticeably pinker.
"But what about meee?!" protested Ocy, "I wanna feel their blood, I wanna hear them scream, I WANT TO KILL!"
"Uh, Ocy dear, here we're working to have minimum casualties, and I really like you, but you don't have any fighting experience. This is not the place to try it out." Nomu reluctantly nodded in approval. He wanted to see the little guy shine, but most of all he didn't want to see an Ocy omelette oozing on the floor. "However, I have the perfect Idea for you. The second most important concept, only behind army strength, is morale. You need to pump them up to join, the sooner the better, and then you will be responsible to make sure they do not panic. You can already go prepare. Enough delay, time to train!"
Ocy walked away, muttering "Stupid chara design… There are two magicians, a tank, an assassin and what am I? A chameleon pipsqueak."
The next morning, as the alarm rang, everyone woke up and Ocy was ready. Well.. ready after a small instant of fascination with the alarm system, which was composed of a large hollow tree trunk set on another wood piece, and water poured into the tree trunk from a reservoir above. When the trunk got full enough, the trunk would tip over and, after having released all of the water, fall back down, hitting a large piece of metal and creating a loud gong. This told Hypnocamps when to hide or expose the glowing bugs to mimic either night or day.
Anyways, Ocy climbed up on the large pillar at the centre of Hypnocamp's caverns, and after taking a deep breath, screamed as loud as he could.
"Citizen of Hypnocamp!" Heads turned, searching for the source of the voice. "I am Ocy, one of the warriors that arrived a few days ago. Most likely, you still have not noticed me, because I am small and camouflaged. When I was in my home camp, Nepo, I was a scout. I was shunned, and overlooked, any temporary attention came from the information I brought and not a single person even knew my name. I lived in fear of someday being crushed by my very people like my parents were before me. But one day, people came. They came and said they were on a mission, and although I was just another Neponian, one of the many eyes sticking out of the grey sand, they remembered my name. They saved me from my life of misery and brought me to new horizons, protecting me from evil and danger. Since the day I arrived here, I have noticed how similar your current life is to my past life, you live a life hidden underground where, at any moment, monsters could raid and murder your entire population, where resources are scarce and leisure even rarer, and, stop me if I am mistaken, but from your attitude, I see that life before was not kind to you either, that you were ignored for your lack of colour, and sent to do menial and unpleasant work of service to others. Well, now I come to tell you that there can be a new outlook on life. Me and the rest of Adei's unit, we have chosen to save any Hypnocamp who desires to leave the black mist and escort them to the next safe city. But to accomplish that feat, we need your help, we call upon all trained warriors, all archers, all scouts and anyone with adequate formation to join us in the training cave to free your people! I was once a speck, yet another ignored being stuck forever in the grey sands, soon your people will be full of smiles, laughs and carefree citizens, so come help us."
Cheers roared through the caves.
Next chapter on the 26th of December