Arianna went for training. The training went on as usual. The only difference being the ugly expressions on the faces of the officials and the cold look that occasionally passed by their eyes when they looked at her.
She didn't see any abnormalities in their expressions as the higher races naturally had no fondness of humans whatsoever. Well, until she realized that there were two officials who she hadn't seen today. Although she didn't know the name of every official, she had a photographic memory and never forgot a face.
Soon, she thought there were no abnormalities after all. They were officials and could take days off.
Faye, the witch was a lot harder on them than usual today.
Stance!" Faye screamed. They took a fighting stance.
"Punch!" She screamed and they punched forward with strength.
"Kick!"
"Squat!"
"Dodge!"
"Tilt!"
"Spin!"
The spin part was the difficult part. Arianna didn't understand why they had to spin.
"Order!" Faye yelled and because of their dizziness from spinning, they found it difficult to maintain order. All three of them fell to the ground. Faye didn't even give them a chance to breathe. She just took out her whip and lashed them.
Despite the pain of the whip, dizziness was still dizziness and they couldn't really get up in a while. After 30 seconds, they stood up and lined up neatly again.
Faye looked at them coldly. Arianna thought that the woman had a great passion for her job as she was mostly always the one who would act as instructor.
"Spin!" She said and they started spinning. After a while,
"Order!" Once again, they found it difficult to stand properly and fell. Faye whipped them again.
The other two trainees were envious of Arianna because anytime they got whipped, she would heal quickly. So while they were bloody and looked the part of cannon fodder, she looked neat.
This treatment continued for a while until they started getting proficient at it. Arianna then realized that the "spin" was placed before the "order" to test someone's mental strength and ability to focus.
"Spin!" They spun.
"Order!" They immediately got back into order.
"Spin!"
"Order!"
"Spin!"
"Order!"
"Stance!" She returned back to the beginning after reaching satisfactory results.
"Punch!"
"Kick!"
"Squat!"
"Dodge!"
"Tilt!"
"Spin!"
"Order!"
After this exercise, "March!" Faye screamed and they marched to a stack of barrels of water. The water was filled to the tippy top. They had to carry these barrels to the other end of the grounds and back without spilling it. The amounts of drops that spilled helped in grading everyone.
Arianna marched forward and carried the barrel. It should be noted that barrels had no handles so one had to carry it with both hands. Carrying something heavy with both hands would pull one down and they would have to run while carrying it. One could not walk carefully while carrying it with both hands. Running would inevitably spill the water.
There was noone who didn't spill water. One of them even dropped his barrel and it broke and he was whipped. As Arianna lifted the barrel, she prayed she wouldn't drop the barrel.
She started walking fast. The trek to the end of the training ground was around 100 metres of distance. She got to the end of the training ground and had already spilled a quarter of the water. She started walking back.
When she got there she kept her barrel and the next person followed through. This went on until late afternoon.
Then another activity began and their instructor changed.
They began running around the entire unit. Although this unit could be considered small when compared to other training centres, logically speaking, the area of the unit was not small. And running was a very tasking exercise.
They ran for three hours straight, occasionally falling down and picking themselves up.
Soon, training was over and they headed towards the dormitory. Arianna was walking over there, lost in thought.
She remembered the first day she had come to this unit. That day she had found a book. The book was golden with very thin lines on it that looked like veins. There was no title on it neither was there an author.
As they journeyed, she had found the book lying on the ground, so... openly. She looked around and saw that noone saw it or more precisely, pretended not to see it. For a book that was lying on the ground unhidden, it was impossible that noone had seen. Completely impossible. At first, that was what she believed untill the book called out to her.
"Take my book." A voice spoke in her ear. The voice was neither low nor loud but only she could hear it.
She walked forward and picked the book. She dusted its cover and rubbed it. It looked very precious. Probably some powerful person had lost it here. Such a book, could she even keep it without being discovered by the demons?
She put the book in her dress regardless. Noone, not even Leyla who had been with her throughout the journey had noticed this small action of hers. Even when the book was bulging slightly out of her dress, they hadn't seen it.
Perhaps, because too many things had happened in the past few days, she had totally forgotten about the book.
Now that she finally remembered it, her curiosity couldn't help but grab hold off her tightly. She almost ran to the dormitory.
For such a book to not have been noticed meant that it had some concealing ability. She needed to read it.
She took long steps to her dormitory.
"You. Stop there." Arianna heard a deep voice and turned.
She saw the usually cold black eyes she saw everyday at training. It was her general.
"Sorry General. Are you speaking to me?" She asked.
"Yes, human. You." He replied patiently.
He knew her worth and had to handle her with care so that she could build trust in him. He needed to deceive her into thinking he was that good teacher that would always guide her. So he needed to take things slow and remain patient.
Not many people knew that the former queen, Queen Elena was a human. She was considered a superhuman and was extremely skilled in the field of medicine. She could tell people's illnesses at a glance and she had special abilities like healing.
General Zord had found this out by accident. He had once been in a place with a drunk soldier. While speaking, the soldier had accidentally spilled the secret about Queen Elena's human identity. The soldier slit his throat the next day when he realized what he had done. He died and the secret remained with Zord.
General Zord was very surprised when he heard it. Queen Elena was even more powerful than him. And she was just a human. Of course, he never spoke of it to avoid death.
Watching Arianna heal, reminded him of Queen Elena and he thought that if he could bind her now, she would be forever loyal to him.
"Yes, General?" Arianna replied and walked to him. She bowed.
"Raise your head." He ordered and she raised her head. She met his pair of cold eyes and then quickly looked away. It was wrong to look at your superiors in the eye.
"Your training isn't over yet. Run again. Run around the unit." General Zord said.
For a moment, Arianna couldn't believe her ears. But when she looked at the general and saw that he was completely serious, she knew she had to do it. She took a deep breath and started running.