The March to the Training camp was a long grueling one that had most of the Townspeople stumbling from tiredness.
With the Summer heat beating down on them with the Autumn cold still a long ways away, by the time Ren arrived at the camp from the start of the marching line, he barely even recognised that they had reached their destination.
Placed against a large cliff face with a small hole placed right above the camp, from where Ren could see, people continued to walk up and down the side carrying weapons, armor and the like.
And centered around that very whole was the camp in all of its clothy glory.
From what Ren could recognise thanks to his late mothers teachings, the Tents were made from the wool the Principality was most famed for.
"Listen up Jelly legs!!" Captain Harken barked. His head bearing a slight sheen from the summer heat as he reared up in front of the March.
"Get familiar with the sight in front of you, cause it's gonna be all your gonna see this Summer!"
The Mage Captain mounted upon the horse pointed at a series of tents circling a more central one.
"See those small tents surrounding the big one? The big one is the mess hall, and the small ones your houses! Receive your tent tags from the Vice Captain standing near the Mess hall before your meals okay? No Questions? Good! Now disperse!"
Ignoring the couple of hands that had shot up his words, Ren watched as the Mage Captain entered the camp right before looking around quietly.
'Do we go now or...'
---
Sitting in the mess hall with a bowl of meaty porridge placed in front of him, Ren thanked whatever Gods were out there that the Principality had so much Sheep Mutton to go around as he dipped his bread into the stew.
It was nothing to write home about since it was exactly the same as to what he would eat at home, but a couple hours in the boiling sun made it the best meal to have ever crossed Ars's green surface.
'Ouch'
Flinching slightly as the muscles briefly froze as if to cramp, it thankfully didn't happen.
Lord knows he didn't want to be the seventy first victim of the dreaded cramps.
The 70th victim certainly didn't seem to be enjoying it at the least.
Shoveling down the rest of his food down his gullet and rinsing it down with water taken and boiled from the nearby river, Ren wiped his mouth and got up.
Dodging past the group of much older men who were talking about how Mad the King had become recently.
Ren made way for the new batch of tired townsfolk eager to eat their last meal of the day before looking at the tag he had received before entering the mess hall.
'Tent 44. What a nice number.'
Thinking about how the number 4 symbolized good luck due to its connection with the 4 seasons, Ren looked around and etched the surroundings into his mind as he looked for Tent 44.
The Training camp itself was small and unimpressive.
Besides the carved path into the cave facility where it seemed all the important people slept, everything else was consigned to Tents held up by desticked tree trunks.
Literally the only difference Ren could see as of now with the dim rays of the setting sun was a difference in size of the Food Hall and the rest of the tents.
'And I think that field out front was the training field.'
Recalling the large boxy dirt field that they had passed on the way here, Ren bypassed the flickering torches and eventually found the row where his would be home was placed.
Ren glanced at his left where a particularly loud group of adults laughed at whatever joke one of them told.
Pricking up his ears slightly, Ren found out the joke was a rather spicy one detailing the difference between a Tiger and a whore.
Something about one eating you and the other 'Eating' you.
Tasteful
Slightly flushed, Ren for his part as a young teen not yet at the age of adulthood that is 16 finally found Tent 44
Comparing the tag in his hands to the rough mark in front, he was slightly surprised to find that others were in there before him.
And by the looks of it, they were all roughly the same age as he was.
'Did the Captain assign people my age here?' Ren thought.
Turning to look at them all, the five teens glanced at each other before one of the larger boys gestured for him to come to them.
"Hey there new guy."
Raising an eyebrow, Ren found an unoccupied space and wondered aloud "What do you mean new guy? Aren't we all new recruits?"
"That's what makes you the new guy" Giving Ren a mock look of arrogance that reminded him of the old Noble brats who wandered around with their knights, someone else jumped in.
"What Gary means is that because you're the last one to arrive, you're the new guy."
'Ah...'
Gary, Ren assumed, groaned loudly "You ruined the joke man."
Laughing as he got up from his bed, he swept the Curly red hair out of his face and extended his hand. "Like Bozo over there said, my names Gary Porker"
Bozo the acclaimed 'Joke killer' shook his head filled with black hair "My name isn't Bozo by the way, it's Lint, Lint Porker, Nice to meet you"
"Are you really brothers?" Ren blinked as he looked between the two. "You two look nothing alike."
Observing the two figures, Lint 'Bozo' Porker hugged his pillow and spoke quietly. "That's cause we're from the same orphanage, it's where we got our last name."
"Really?"
"Yeah..." Wistfully staring into nothing Gary patted Ren's shoulder and spoke.
"Don't worry, he does that sometimes."
"I'm kind of worried."
"My name is Osso!" A short black haired teen interrupted, his sudden appearance causing Ren to jump as he laughed loudly. "You're jumpy!"
To loudly in fact as someone from a tent over shouted in annoyance. "Hey be quiet over there! Some of us are trying to sleep here!"
Instantly quietening down, another of the initial five spoke up through a head full of brown hair. "My name's Amber."
"Hi Amber" Ren whispered
"Hi" Amber whispered back.
Turning to the final piece of the bunch who still hadn't said a thing yet Ren whispered to Gary.
"Who's that?"
"Oh him? That's Bell"
"Hello"
"Hi"
"Yeah, Bell's quiet."
"I can see that."
Claiming the last bedspread still untouched by the five, Ren stared at the others while they stared at him.
'This is awkward.'
Shifting quietly on his sheets, Gary spoke up quietly.
"Hey."
"Hey." His Brother Bozo whispered back.
"Do you want to exchange stories?"
"Were put into the orphanage at the same age, what would you even want to talk about?"
"No, I mean with them" Gesturing at Osso, Amber, Ren and Bell, the four of them all looked at Gary with curious eyes as he elaborated.
"I mean I want to talk about why you came here."
"Why would you want to know that?" Bell whispered, holding their pillow in a similar position to Lints
"Cause I want to be friends."
"Aren't we already friends?" Osso giggled, the smaller than average boy suddenly appearing behind Amber.
Gary shrugged "Maybe? I want to know more about my friends I guess"
"Oh if that's the case then I should start first!" Eagerly raising his hands to show the blackened skin hidden in the darkness of the tent, the moonlight streamed through the top of the tent.
"My Grandmama owned a bakery." He begun excitedly "She was the best at making those little bread balls you know? Usually she filled most of them with cheap vegetables, but on good days she fills them with meat."
"Oh is it that corner bakery on Elmer's Street?" Amber spoke up with a glint of curiosity in their eyes as he placed Osso onto his lap, the boy bouncing up and down.
"Yeah! That's the one!" Excitedly nodding his head like a pecking chicken, Osso continued avidly "Anyways, besides making the best pies in the whole wide entire world, she's the strongest old lady you'll ever see!"
Flexing his muscles and trying to look big, Osso dropped his arms soon after. "So at first when she caught the Woodman's curse I thought she would've fought it off as well."
Osso's jovial face fell as he slumped against Amber who could do nothing but awkwardly pat his shoulder. "But she couldn't buy the medicine she needed."
Lint's eyes now wide open cautiously appraised his slumped over figure and spoke quietly "So you did it for your grandmama?"
"Yep!" Instantly bouncing back to the annoyance of the people a tent over, Osso whispered happily "That's why I'm here signing up to fight in the Beast Wylds"
Turning to look at each other, Lint removed his pillow to reveal a pale youthful face and gestured at Gary "Me and Gary both have the same story."
"I don't remember when I was dropped off at the Porkers Orphanage, but Missus Porker said that when she found me, I was right besides Gary who's crying up a storm while I was sleeping like a babe."
"Hey!"
"So yeah, there we were, both with no mother and father while Missus Porker and Mister Porker were raising us alongside the rest of the Porker Kids."
"Mister Porker was a Butcher by the way" Gary interjected.
"Why'd you come here then?" Ren asked. "Doesn't a Butcher earn 3 Sats per day?"
"3 Sats is barely enough for twelve mouths."'
Glancing at Lint who was staring off into existence again Gary elaborated "Two of those mouths were me and Lint, while the other seven are our fellow Orphans, the Eighth one being the Porkers baby, and the Eleventh and Twelfth are the Porkers themselves"
He shrugged. "We could barely make ends meet with 3 Sats, but since Missus Porker could somehow make ends meet by working as a chef for some Noble, we got by."
"But then she caught Blood Swollens and got fired."
"And that's why we joined the army" Shrugging his shoulder, Gary laid his back against the bed rest. "Now that there's only ten mouths to feed, it should be easier on Mister Porker"
"...So are we just sharing sob stories or are we sharing why we came to the army because I have a lot of sob stories" Amber said.
"Army stories that turn out to be sob stories"
"Gotcha" Murmuring to themself, Amber wielded Osso like a rather large pillow before telling his own story.
"Well there's not much to me besides having a father who's part of the Guard." Amber started.
"Unlike you lot, my father was perfectly fine when I last saw him"
"But that's also the last time I saw him since he got drafted to fight in the Wylds"
"So you came here to find your dad?" Osso tilted his head to look up at Amber. "Isn't that gonna be very hard if you don't know where he went?"
"Maybe" He answered, patting Osso's head as he struggled out of the tall boys grasp. "But getting into the same army where he was is as good of a start if any."
Amber laughed to himself "Besides, the money helps"
Mood lifting as everyone laughed quietly at his little joke, Bell and Ren exchanged gazes before they spoke up first. Their voice as quiet as a mouse.
"My Father was a Teacher for the Noble kids while My mother was a teacher for the Peasants, Misses Huckleberry they called her."
Ren tilted his head slightly at the name but Bell continued nonetheless in a subdued tone.
"I joined the army cause my Mum's got the Pox, I needed the Medicine for it"
"But isn't Pox medicine cheap?" Ren asked in confusion "It's slightly expensive, but a Teacher for a noble should be able to buy 5 of them right?"
"Ah that's because the Market's running out of all the normal medicines due to the upcoming war."
"What are you talking about? What do you mean?" Scratching the back of his head, Gary furrowed his brows while Bell widened her eyes and hurriedly made an excuse.
"Ah! It's just something my Dad taught me... It just means that because there's not much medicine left to buy, what's left is all super duper expensive."
Bell hugged their knees "And because of that, I'm here to get my Dad the rest of what he needs to buy my mum her medicine."
All eyes turned to Ren who coughed awkwardly underneath all the stares and begun slowly.
"Well... Like you four... Not you Amber" Pointing at everyone save Amber who acted in mock shock, Ren spoke quietly for the sake of the people the next tent over.
"My Dad's a candlemaker and my Mom's a seamstress... Was. A seamstress"
"What happened to her?"
"She died"
"Ah." Regretting even speaking, Ren ignored Bozo burying his head into his pillow as he continued.
"Before Gas lamps became popular, my Dad had some money saved up."
"And using that money, he sent me and my siblings to a good school."
Bell stiffened slightly but no one noticed in the darkness of their tent
"Then I found out that the money he had left over wasn't enough to send the entire family to a good school for long and he had to turn to a loan" Ren gestured at himself
"Do you want to know how I found out that my dad took a loan for me and my brother and sister?"
"How?" A voice whispered in the darkness. Either from Osso or Amber he didn't know, but he answered nevertheless.
"When he got sick with Sun Spots."
"...Isn't that the disease that causes your blood to become light or something?"
"Yeah. We had to keep him in the storage with the rest of the food otherwise he'll bleed out to death."
"Ah that's..." Gary awkwardly reached out to pat Ren's shoulder.
"So I joined the army for the money to buy the medicine and cover the debts and that's why I'm here." Placing his hands on the bedrest, Ren placed his full body weight against the wooden frame with a creak as Amber laughed to himself
"So you're telling me that of everyone here I'm the only not in it for the Money?" Exaggeratedly pointing at himself, Amber fake cried "I feel so selfish now"
"Oh shut up Amber" Lint accused "Me and Gary have it worse since Missus Porker's got Blood Swollens, pretty sure not being able to breath is worse."
"Are you sure Lint? I'm pretty sure having the flu is even worse in these times." Bell pointed out "Since it's so common, what's left is to expensive to buy. You could buy a Noble's mansion with that money."
"My Grandma's got Woodsman's curse-"
"FOR GOD'S SAKES BE QUIET!!!"
Hurriedly stifling their laughs that had been lightened by the mock competition of their familiar fates, Ren looked up at the Wool made tent. "The stars are really beautiful tonight"
"They really are"
"I agree"
"Yeah."
"I can't see anything."
"You just have to imagine it Osso"
The Next morning couldn't have come earlier enough.
----
*Ssssssiiippp...
"Hah..."
Taking a nice and long swig of a small metal canteen, the smell of alcohol wafted out of its small hole before it was subsequently closed.
Captain Harken shoved the alcoholic flask into his waistband as he sat on the edge of the cave built high up into the middle of a cliff.
Due to natural formation of some sort, the cliff side inclined inwards towards the ground making descent from above and into the mage cave an impossible ideal.
In addition, due to the narrow construction of the path that had been recently widened through magic, invaders would only be able to go up three at a time.
Easy to defend and hard to attack in the case that the enemy was able to reach this point.
Taking in a deep breath of the cool night air as the calm buzz of insects reached his ears, the Captain calmly snapped his fingers and turned all the flies surrounding him into fireflies.
Taking in another deep breath that was now scented with slight bits of ash, Captain Harken, former Summer Mage and Current soldier of the army closed his eyes and wondered.
"Why does the King throw away good men and leave them to die?"
The Sun Temple Crusade, Blood Hunt, Burning of the Darkwoods, The Iron Heart Civil Crisis even the Unnatural Turnings in recent times.
Every single of these events save the Unnatural Turnings was a unilateral decision made by the Old and Failing King who had been slighted one way or the other and in the end they always ended with hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Either from some disease or the other, Harken had seen many a good man die for a cause that had no meaning to them as a people, but to the King as a man.
Call it treason, but Harken always felt it strange that the Europatan Principality had a King.
But what could he do? At the end of the day, he was still a soldier of the King's army.
'And like all Good Soldiers, Good soldiers follow orders.'
His hand twitched before he took another long swif of the alcohol on his waist.
'But what does a Mage do?'
Staring at the stars in the sky over yonder, the roar of beasts accompanied the drunk man in the night.
---
Guard's Log: Night Watch
- Event 43: Visited the man inflicted by sunspots and conducted an interview to ensure that he was telling the truth.
Further information: Man's name is Martin, has a dead spouse named Myrta and three children called Ren, Rylee and Roe
Cross verification with the Recruitment records confirm that there is in fact a Ren
Sun spots has abated somewhat under the Summer Tower.
- Event 44: Unidentified Body discovered on the ground at Porker Orphanage Butchery.
Investigation has concluded that the Body belongs to Co-Owner of the Porker Orphanage Butchery and Spouse of Hansen Porker, Henrietta Porker.
Further Investigation concluded that she had Blood Swollens rendering her facial features barely recognizable.
Life Confirmed: Immediate movement to Medical care-
+++
So I did some research and the age of adulthood is considered 14 for boys and 12 for girls in the medieval times leading to me making some changes and setting the official age as 16.
This actually coincided with a pretty important piece of lore so just know that the official age of adulthood is 16 (Although nothing will happen until 18+)
Fair warning that hand holding may occur before 18
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