The time of Dawn is one that is the most peaceful.
With the creatures of the night opting to sleep in for the morning and the creatures of the day just on the verge of waking up, it was safe to say that Ars was most peaceful at this time.
That was at least until it was interrupted.
"RISE AND SHINE ROOKIES!"
Voice blaring into their ears first thing in the morning as a splash of freezing cold water struck him, Ren jolted out of his bed and onto the floor as the cold water clung to his skin like an extremely rude wakeup call.
'What the hell is happening!?'
Eyes darting left and right before up and down, the same voice that he had barely heard in the dredges of his sleep once again blared noisily in his ears.
"FIRST RULE OF BATTLE! EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED! NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF YOUR TENTS INTO A LINE BEFORE I MAKE YOU!"
Voices of confusion ringing out around him, Ren, still half asleep panicked and collapsed onto the ground
'What's happening?'
Shivering from the sudden cold that had assaulted him, Ren clasped his hands around the wooden dove carving around his neck, the familial Heirloom bringing him a measure of calm.
It may not be magic anymore, but it gave him the presence of mind to pull his mind back to Ars.
'He said to get out right?'
Stumbling out of the tent by following those words shouted into his half shocked mind, Ren stumbled against a wet Bell that fell to the ground with him.
"...Bell are you okay?" Shaking his head rid of the rest of the sleepiness and shock through the suddenness of the fall, Ren stared at Bell in confusion as his face flushed red.
"Why are you red?"
"Cold"
"Okay"
Grunting as he got up and off of the ground, Ren put out a hand which Bell took as they walked out of the tent clad in nothing but wetness and freezing temperatures.
The cold morning wind didn't help this in the slightest as by the time they left the tent, a man with a split lip glared at them.
Glaring up and down the line of tents on row 4, the man booming voice echoed loudly as other people in similar clothing walked to his side.
"SECOND RULE YOU SHOULD KNOW YOU SLOW WEAK GNOMES! WHEN A COMMANDING OFFICER TELLS YOU TO DO SOMETHING, YOU DO IT QUICK, AND WITH NO QUESTION GOT IT?!"
Glaring at the four tents worth of people, a vein popped up on Mister Split Lips head as he shouted again.
"I SAID DO YOU GOT THAT?!"
"Yes sir!"
Hurriedly shouting on instinct, Ren flinched as the man's split lipped face looked at them all as he growled.
"Good, now I'm your instructor Johnson and I'm tasked with training your sorry little asses into shape." The Instructor crossed his arms, his eye twitching with anger.
"I got so much better things to do than to train some idiots..."
Groaning so loudly that even Ren could hear it from the last row causing more than a few people to shift uneasily, the instructor turned to glare at them
"What!? You got a problem with me groaning about how spineless you are!?"
"..."
Instructor split lip snorted "I didn't think so. Now. Pick up your wet shit and bring it to the laundry area, Row 4 is on chore duty today and everyone's bringing their shit to us."
"Um... Sir?"
"Do you have a question!?" The Instructor snapped, his face betraying his impatience and unwillingness to be here for even a moment longer.
"...No."
"Good"
Watching the man in front of him wilt under the harsh glare, Split lip over there spun on his heel and walked away.
'...'
Ren glanced to the side where a red faced Bell was standing, Osso, Amber, Gary and Lint all looking at each other in the same amount of confusion that Ren no doubt had on his face.
"RULE TWO, FOLLOW YOUR GOD DAMN ORDERS!"
Flinching at the sudden roar that filled the air, every single one of the gathered recruits hurriedly broke formation and entered the tents, grabbing all their wet things.
Exiting from the tents while carrying the wet blankets and their foldable tent beds, the Instructor pointed at the rising sun.
"FASTER YOU SNAILS, THE SUN'S ALREADY RISEN!"
'The sun was already up though.'
Mentally complaining at the man, Ren flinched as Split Lip turned and glared at him
"Now follow me to the Laundry area, every Satur, Row 4 is on Chore duty, so next we're gonna be peeling vegetables and setting up the latrines. So if I don't see you there on time, expect heavy punishment got it!?"
Growling at them all, Ren and the others looked at each other in trepidation before following Split Lip to where the laundry area.
---
"Ugh... That Instructor is a piece of shit." Rolling his shoulder, Gary groaned loudly as they moved towards the Mess hall together.
"What's shit mean?"
"It's a curse word Osso" Amber helpfully stated.
"Oh... Well I agree that he's a piece of shit."
"I agree Osso"
"Just stop nitpicking about every little thing we do you damn instructor, what are we? His slaves?" Groaning again except a tad louder this time, Ren blinked as he noticed the sudden silence of his friends.
"?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."X2
"Hey what's going on?" Ren asked, only to see Bell point behind him.
"Ah."
Looking back to see the very same instructor he was badmouthing a while ago glaring at him with a face as red as fire, Ren felt his chances for a nice day tomorrow plummet into the ground.
'This is definitely not nice.'
---
It was indeed, not nice.
"FIX YOUR DAMN LEGS BOY! YOU CAN'T PROTECT THE KING'S LANDS LIKE THAT! STEADY THEM LIKE A TREE! NOW GET UP!"
"Ugh!" Face planting into the ground as his legs were swept out from beneath him, Ren grunted in pain as the Instructor with a scarred lip shouted at him, an angry glare in his eyes.
A common theme Ren noticed was that he was specifically targeting him and him only much to the worried eyes of his friends.
Not that they didn't try to help him of course, but Amber who was solid proof of this attempt was currently forced to carry a series of sandbags on his back.
This resulted in his friends being unable to do anything but watch as they all carried sandbags.
"WHAT? GOT A PROBLEM RECRUIT? NEED YOUR MAMA AND DADA? GET UP!"
Grunting, Ren forced himself up off of the ground, spear in hand as the instructor who bore a scar on their lip continued to glare at him.
"WHAT'S WITH THAT LOOK IN YOUR EYES ROOKIE? ANGRY?"
Ren would be lying if he said he wasn't, but if he didn't want to be put on latrine duty under the guise of insubordination he held it in.
But with the way things were going, it seemed as if that was exactly what the instructor wanted to do as he struck Ren's leg again and made him fall flat on his face.
"Ugh!"
"GET UP NOW!"
'I'm trying, but you're not letting me.' Biting his lip as he tried to get up again, much to Scar Lips pleasure, Ren tensed his legs as the spear struck his leg again in an attempt to make him fall again.
The Instructor's eyes narrowed with displeasure at the sight, but what could he do but let Ren up?
Strike again at his leg it seems.
Biting his lip until it bled crimson, Ren felt a pain strike his ankle as the Instructor was forced to let him up.
"Better..."
Grunting with reluctant praise, Ren steadied his shaky leg and pointed his spear forwards as the Instructor wandered around him eager to spot any mistakes.
Like a red faced hungry wolf eyeing its prey.
'What a petty bastard.'
"..." Eyes narrowed as he circled Ren, Instructor Scar lip muttered something to himself before giving one more painful tap to the leg.
'...'
"...Show me a spear thrust."
Crossing his arms as if waiting for Ren to inevitably mess up in some twisted way, shape or form. Ren felt his leg briefly shake with pain as he tried to steady his hands.
And then Scar Lip struck again.
"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING? HOLD THAT SPEAR CORRECTLY!"
Striking his hands with the baton in his own, Ren flinched as the spear flew out of his hands and onto the ground. 'You didn't even say that.'
"THIRD RULE OF COMBAT! NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LET GO OF YOUR WEAPON! NOW PICK IT UP!"
Positively roaring in Ren's ear, he flinched before bending down to try and pick up the fallen spear again only to be knocked flat on the ground.
"You let go of the tension in your legs, now get the hell up."
'I hate you.'
Wanting to glare at the Scar lip but being unable to do so due to how fucking petty he had shown himself to be as of far, Ren waved off the stinging sensation in his hands and tried to pick up his spear.
"PICK IT UP ROOKIE OR YOU'LL BE EATING DIRT TONIGHT!"
Kicking the spear away from his grasp, Ren looked at Scar Lips face which had a twisted form of amusement plastered onto it.
"..."
Nevertheless picking up the spear as pain tickled every part of his body like an inescapable itch, the Instructor glared at Ren who never seemed to want to give up and struck his hand again.
Flinching slightly at the pain but not letting go of the spear this time, Ren didn't bother to hide his glare this time as the Instructor's face flushed red with anger.
At this point, Ren was quite sure that this wasn't pettiness anymore more so was it genuine hatred for him.
Why? Ren didn't know
He just knew that he hated the man similarly
"YOU CALL THAT POSTURE!? I CALL THAT DEAD YOU IDIOT!"
Flinching again as the baton struck his spine again and again, Ren swung and thrust the spear into the air with a whistle.
Eye twitching and face visibly red as veins popped up against his forehead, Scar Lip who looked like as if he was going to blow up struck him again, harder this time.
Finching as it struck his side, Ren bit his lip harder as the spear in his hands melded with the sounds of other spears whistling through the air.
Like bird song.
Biting his lip as sweat beaded his forehead, Scar Lips face which seemed like it couldn't get any redder than before let out a ferocious roar as the baton struck his leg.
Nearly stumbling from the pain, the sound of something snapping entered his ears as Ren grunted with pain.
Turning his head to the side where the Instructor stood with a burning baton in his hand, Ren took great pleasure on the stunned look on his face only to blink in confusion.
'Wait why is it burning?'
Turning around to look at an incensed Captain Harken holding a series of flaming bolts over his head, he nodded his head absentmindedly.
'So that's why.'
A week went by with that being the last Ren had ever seen of Scar lip
Not that it was any easier.
'My body hurts'
Gritting his teeth, the spear in his hands whistled through the air as the instructor. A different one. Came behind him and tried to sweep his legs out from under him.
It failed to say the least.
Having failed to do that, the Instructor who he didn't remember the name of nodded his head. "Good, you're paying attention, now hold your weapon against your chest and give me ten laps around the camp before you can call it there."
He was a lot nicer than Instructor Scar Lip albeit he did the same things as he did.
But if there was an obvious upside to the situation with Scar Lip out of the picture, it would be the fact that this Instructor didn't hold a petty little grudge against him.
It was hard trying to pay attention to every single move that Scar Lip made and preparing against it all the while doing what he was expected to be doing.
"What are you waiting for!? Your Mom's permission!? RUN AND MAKE IT TWENTY!"
Barking into his ears to the tune of bird song, Ren snapped back to reality and nodded his head hurriedly while turning and running to the side of the training camp.
Ten now Twenty laps, Ren would make sure to complete the entire thing this time.
'I don't know how they know that I didn't complete all the laps, but they did.' Recalling a time when he was dismissed to run 5 laps around the front half of the Training camp only to do 4 of the required.
Through some sort of magic, the instructors were able to tell that he didn't complete all the sets he was pushed out to do, and because of it, Ren was now scarred by the smell of 7 rows worth of toilet smell.
It wasn't that bad, but it certainly wasn't good enough for Ren to skip a bit of running.
'Besides I think I'm getting used to it... I think'
If only his thighs didn't burn with an incredibly annoying itch every single time he ran longer than usual, this would've been a lot more bearable.
'Why does it always itch like this..'
Eye twitching, Ren slowed down just enough for his fist to slam into the side of his thigh without tripping himself and collapsing face down on the dirt like that one time before.
And as he slowed to a speed that prevented him from collapsing onto the ground and scraping his knee, Ren caught movement from the corner of his eye
'?' Slowing down a bit further, Ren saw four familiar faces led by a similarly familiar face.
The Four being led by the one were those people who had thrown the buckets of water to wake him up. But... There was something off about them.
Eyes dull and glassy, the once seemingly normal men were now somewhat subdued and tired looking.
The fact that they were carrying something that looked like a coffin didn't help.
'That's definitely a coffin.'
Taking a better look at the thing they were carrying, it was definitely a coffin.
Having had the chance to take a look at a coffin thanks to the debt chasers bringing it to their front door and not so subtly threatening Ren's father about how comfy a coffin was, Ren continued to stare at them.
It didn't help that they were being led by Scar Lip the Petty bastard deeper into the forest where the River running nearby was.
It was the first time Ren had seen him in a week, and it was the weirdest meeting he had never expected.
'Weird...'
It wasn't until a few recruits that he had left behind started to pass him did he snap back to his senses.
'Yeah, I should get back to running.'
Hastening his steps again so that he wouldn't be forced to survive the night on a belly full of dirt. When he glanced back, Ren saw no sign of that Scarred lip.
The Bird Song formed from spears rang loudly today.
Spear still stuck in his hands as he ran, before he realized it, three weeks had passed since that interaction and the end of the month came closer.
---
Guard's Log: Night Watch
- Event 17: Wooden Statue discovered on Elmer's street.
Investigation revealed it was owner of the bakery 'Grandmother' Ommo who was in Mid to late stage Woodsman's curse with half of the curse on her body.
I offered to cover curse removal costs.
Reason for denial: She wants her Grandson to come back.
Further investigation revealed Grandson is Osso who had gone off to the army to pay for removal of curse.
Escorted to the Lumberer's Guild for a curse removal.
- Event 18: Guard Halsey found to have been drinking on guard duty using money obtained through illegal means.
Caused 1 Injury
𝚂̶𝚞̶𝚐̶𝚐̶𝚎̶𝚜̶𝚝̶𝚎̶𝚍̶ ̶𝙵̶𝚒̶𝚗̶𝚎̶
Investigation revealed money was taken from Grandmother 'Ommo' during Alzheimer's episode.
Suggested Punishment: Removal from guard
+++
Uh...
Tree