"Okay, we're here. You can take the bag off now."
With the recruiter's permission, I pull the burlap sack off my head, and immediately take a lungful of fresh air as he jumps out of the carriage, letting the cool forest breeze in.
"Come on out, it's late enough already. We have introductions to do." he hurried.
I hop out; and the sight of an impressively large fortress greets me as soon as I lift my gaze up from the slightly damp soil - the road to here was far from beaten. The stone the walls are made of is just a contingency; its true defense is its elusive nature. Deep in the woods, with no trail, any forager or hunter would think it's just another Imperial fortress, a spy would remain clueless.
"Quit staring and move on!" he shouts out at me, he's already a bit ahead, moving towards the slowly opening gate, its sheer weight and mechanisms creak and clank as it swings open. I rush to catch up and in process, I notice the walls' curious defenders.
Clad almost entirely in leather - so dark, it's almost black; some stare down at me from above, faces resembling animals. Instead of a human looking at me, I see an ever-so-slightly reflective wolf head. Another guard bears the face of a fox. Matte, metal masks just barely reflect the sun's glow, which hides itself below the horizon quickly, as they man the walls' ballistae and make the rounds on top of the walls, crossbows at the ready.
"This place is the training camp? I was expecting tents in an open field." I comment as I catch up to the recruiter past the gate.
"Just one of the many, we're not interested in half-measures. Anyone who wants to take this place will have to pay a heavy price. And they won't hold it for long; no vulnerabilities, anywhere. That's our trade." He answers with absolute confidence in his voice.
A handful of similarly masked men are practicing with ranged weapons, shooting bolts and arrows at round archery targets from across the redoubt's courtyard. It seems even almost at night, this place is still busy.
I follow the recruiter down a set of stairs, underground. We make a turn and continue down a stone corridor, dimly lit by torch sconces. Many sets of doors pass us, as a pair of footsteps echoes.We make another turn and pass through a doorway, then we continue on through another dim corridor, then again down a set of stairs.
We turn, pass a doorway, turn, pass a doorway. All the doors look the same, all corridors too. Lack of any decorations or points of relation seems to be by design, creating a semi-intentional maze, yet, the recruiter doesn't appear to be lost at all.
"We're here." The recruiter abruptly exclaims and interrupts our journey, "I have confidence you'll make it, but it's up to you to not screw up. Straighten up." he says as he pulls a door open and enters.
We enter a room that could be called 'decorated' by standards I've seen on the way here. A desk and chair hold a central position in the far end of the room; large, standing cabinets line the walls; a wooden chest sits far in the back; a large map is rolled out on the desk, and what seem to be documents, litter it. A bulky man in a bear mask sitting at the desk lifts his gaze up from them to look at us as we enter.
"Captain Bear, reporting a new recruit. I'm leaving him in your care." The recruiter says as he salutes him. Bear-masked man nods with an acknowledging grunt.
"Remember what I told you." The recruiter says as he passes by me on his way out.
The door closes. I'm left alone in the room with the large man as he stares at me from his desk. Elbows on desk, his chin on his fists, looking like he's in deep thought. Suddenly, he gets up and walks up to me.
The equipment strapped to his armor claps against the leather, along with all the pouches on his belts. A small crossbow strapped to his hip rattles, buckles on straps ring gently as metal bits collide and a long dagger in a sheath weaves and bobs with each heavy step he takes.
He was already big when he was at his desk, I'm not exactly small, but now that he is standing on front of me, he can only be described as towering. Immense presence emanates from him as he looks down on me, feint glint of his eyes visible from behind the bear roaring at me.
The longer he stares at me, the harder it becomes to swallow. It's not a stare down, yet it's difficult to keep looking in his eyes, and the uncomfortable feeling I'm getting is only growing. The longer I look, the more I can gather who he is, and we haven't exchanged a word yet. He has nothing to prove, nothing extraneous to say. I've dealt with highwaymen before and sent them screaming as soon as they were chopped slightly; I never really sensed I was in danger - until now. I've only seen this kind of gaze from weary, bloodied war veterans as a child-
"Well? Don't tell me Hawk sent me one of the mute ones." He says as he spreads his arms out, in expectation of an answer. His entire presence screaming threat disappears off to somewhere. "What do I call you?"
"Ah, I'm Grimwald E--"
He sticks his palm out in front of my face, "Now hold it there, I asked you what do I call you, not what's your name. Grimwald is fine for now. But most here won't call you that. Shouldn't, even." he says, as he returns his hands back to his rather dignified stance, one holding the other behind his back. "Follow me."
We leave the room, turn and start walking down the absolutely unremarkable stone corridor again. "I'm sure Hawk gave you the rough idea what do we do. But why are you exactly here? What did you do?" He asks as we move at rather leisurely pace, he keeps his hands behind his back, as if he was simply on an evening stroll.
"Well, I was just having an afternoon drink at the inn, and three drunks were giving the bartender and the girls trouble, were loud and incredibly rude for an hour straight, so I told them to quiet down or go home. They had trouble with me asking them to behave, so I just had to tell them off, so to say." I pause for a moment to make sure I didn't skip a detail, then continue.
"A moment later- Hawk, was it? Was asking me if I wouldn't want to serve the Empire in a way that matters, sir. That's about it." I give the bear-masked man a slightly sanitized account of what happened, so I don't look like a drunken brawler.
"Tell them off?" The large man erupts in a jolly guttural chuckle, but quickly contains himself. "I am now grasping why Hawk picked you out." He says in a still amused tone, and continues. "And as for sir and somesuch, you can spare yourself pleasantries and platitudes - but it's good that you're respectful." He continues.
"As you know, this is a training camp. We will train you to stab, to picklock, to thieve, to deceive, seduce, we'll train you in skulduggery and other such pleasant things..." He suddenly stops in his tracks and turns to face me.
"Respect is best shown through actions here. You're here to learn how to kill and destroy." He says in a low, rumbling tone I have not yet heard from him, the presence he had when I first met him is back, and many times more oppressive as he glares down at me. "Do not get cocky. I don't give a shit how much experience you have, a mere Novice from inside these walls could rip you apart in a fight." I am dead-sure I did or said something that offended him, suddenly--
He turns, and continues walking, "I'm just saying this right now so you don't get the wrong idea." He says in a completely normal, jovial tone, as he had just a moment ago. His overbearing presence once again disappears as suddenly as it appeared. "Too many new recruits come in here thinking they're hot shit because they got in a little scuffle and won, or pulled out a blade and scared off a big bad robber with pubes on his chin. It's a big waste of time to drag each and single one of them through mud, you see." He looks to me for a second.
"But Hawk seems to pick out the better stock. He has a good eye, I'd expect nothing less of a bird of prey. Ha ha ha!" Despite the mask, I can almost tell he had a toothy grin while laughing. It's baffling how quickly this man can leap from making me think he'll stick a dagger in my throat, to laughing at his own dry, unfunny puns.
"Aaand we're here." I didn't even notice when our trip ended, he opens a door to a rather spacious room, men in masks - interestingly; some wooden, stand at attention in front of a wolf-masked man who's on a slightly elevated platform of cobblestone. He notices us as we enter, and nods in acknowledgement towards the bear-masked Captain.
"That's all for tonight. Everyone else, your schedule is unchanged. Dismissed." The wolf-masked man announces to the crowd, they salute, then each of them picks a door to disappear through. Some - through the one behind us. As the room empties, the wolf-masked man walks up; not in a rush, but neither taking his time.
"Captain Bear, new recruit? Went over the rules?" He asks as he salutes the bulky man, his salute is brisk, but shows no sign of sloppiness and his tone betrays a lot of familiarity to the bear-masked Captain.
"Uh-huh. Picked out by Hawk. And no." These two figures seem to be almost mirrored copies of each other, maintaining same posture as they talk.
The wolf turns his growling face to me, "The rules are simple. One, no snooping. If we find you where you don't belong, you're going to regret it. Two, you focus entirely on orders given to you by superiors. No goofing off - no doing it later. Three, no leaving the fortress until you complete your exam. For any reason."
The bear masked man nods, "He's in your care now, Lieutenant Wolf." Captain Bear says as he turns towards the door we came through, but stops abruptly, "Oh, and don't worry about the last one. I don't know any living person who didn't finish the training. Ha ha ha!" He once again lets out a jolly laugh, at what I can only guess is attempt at a joke, but its message is undoubtedly grim and thinly veiled. "Goodnight Lieutenant. I'll be watching you, recruit." He says before his face disappears behind the door frame.
"Goodnight Captain." The door closes. I am once again left in a room alone with a stranger.
"So." The wolf says with a pause as he quickly looks me over, "I am Lieutenant Wolf. I will be your direct superior during your year of training. Follow me."
We exit through another door, "You really couldn't pick a better time to arrive, could you? At the last minute, to give everyone more work. Oh well." he grumbles idly. I almost feel obliged to counter, but I bite my tongue instead.
We arrive to a room with a snake-masked man behind a long desk, much like at an inn, writing something down in a thick tome, he seems almost furious that he sees us, turning his head away in exasperation for a moment. Many racks, shelves and crates sit behind his chair.
"Quartermaster Snake, common issue for the new recruit." He barks out a command to the snake-masked man. To which he responds, placing his hand on where would be his forehead, "Lieutenant Wolf, I've got inventory to do and this really isn't helping. I've got too much workload, I'm not even half-done." He grumbles, as he stands up and collects whatever the common issue is. "Can't someone be sent here, at least to help me count the equipment?" He says, nearly shouting, hidden behind the shelves and crates.
"Suck it up, it's only once a year." The Lieutenant offers no mercy as the Quartermaster places a set of leather armor, a dagger with a sheath, and a pouch belt on the desk, then releases a deep and loud sigh as he sits back down and scribbles something in his book.
"Put that on, I'm not going to carry it for you." The Lieutenant says, "Good time to explain the conduct." he continues, crossing his arms. "In the morning, a bell will ring. First ring is to wake you up. Second is your signal for you to gather in the assembly room - that would be the room where Captain Bear dropped you off."
I put on the armor and strap on the pouches as he explains, "Do not miss the second ring. If you do, you won't be punished. The rest will be. And they'll be given permission to beat you as much as they want as long as they don't break anything, or kill you."
I pause for a second when I hear about collective punishment, "Once, you might get away with it. But I guarantee you - if you make it a habit, you're not going to last long. Oh, and no fighting back either." I make a strong mental note to not allow myself to oversleep.
I finish putting on all the equipment I was given, making sure it's all properly secured. "Finished? Let's go then." We leave the overworked snake behind.
A few doors later, we arrive to a long corridor, packed with doors close to each other. We walk closer to one of them, the Lieutenant swings it open. "This will be your room. You can take off your gear here, the chest can hold your personal belongings, should you have any."
I am presented with a dark, small room with only a small square table, a chest and a bed. The only light is from the corridor, through the bars in the door. I enter.
"Better sleep now, you'll wake early." The Lieutenant warns me as he shuts my room's door. Echoing footsteps; another door opens and shuts in the distance, marking his departure.
I am now alone, my thoughts my only companion. I take all my equipment off and set it aside and lay down on the bed to pay heed to the Lieutenant's words. I'd rather not get on everyone's bad side right from the start.