Revolutionary Youth Brigade, Fresta Kingdom, North Blue
Miles away in a place hidden deep in the forest the blacksmith's granddaughter was living in her own nightmare.
Her name was Elara. She was only seven years old.
When the soldiers had carried her away. she had cried and screamed until her throat become sore. Now she was too tired and scared to cry anymore. She was in a big cold camp with hundreds of other children just like her.
The camp was surrounded by a tall wooden fence with sharp points on top.
Their day had also started with the sound of a loud mean bell. The children were all woken up from their beds before the sun was even up. They were not given a nice breakfast. Just like others they only got a single loaf of bread for a rest of the day. It was not enough for them to do the training for the rest of the day.
Their trainers were not kind teachers. They were the same cold eyed puppet soldiers.
"You are not children anymore!" one of the trainers shouted at them in the cold morning. "You are the Youth Brigade of the Revolutionary army. You are the future of the revolution. Your old families are gone. Your old names are gone. The revolutionaries are your new family."
'My grandpa is my family,' Elara thought with a small rebellious voice in her head. 'my grandma is my family and my name is Elara.' She missed them so much it felt like a big hole in her chest. She missed her grandpa and the warm feeling of her grandma's hugs.
Here there were no such things as hugs. There was only shouting and mud.
Their training was very very hard for the children. They were forced to run around on the muddy field until their legs hurt so much they could not run anymore. If a children fell, they did not receive any help. Instead they were just yelled at to get up and keep running.
After running they had to do exercise. They had to do push-ups in the mud and crawl under ropes. Elara's small arms ached and she was covered in smelly mud from head to toe.
After the exercise they had to learn how to march.
For hours and hours, they marched back and forth across the field.
"Left, right, left, right," the trainers would chant in their robot voices.
For elara it is very hard to keep up. The boy next to her who was a little bit bigger than her started to cry because he was so tired and missed his mom.
A trainer walked over to him. "Crying is a weakness," the trainer said. "Weakness is a threat to the revolution. Do you want to become a threat to the revolution?"
The boy shook his head trying to stop his tears.
"Good," the trainer said. "Then you will stand here and your hands should be up, not move until I say so." The boy was forced to stand all alone in the middle of the field for the rest of the day, a punishment for everyone to see.
Elara learned a new lesson: here the feelings were not allowed.
But this is not the worst part of the day. the worst part of the day was the "lessons."
They were all herded into a big cold building and made to sit on the floor. A trainer stood at the front and showed them pictures.
The pictures were of the old king, but he was drawn to look like a big ugly monster. Then they were shown pictures of Monkey D. Dragon, who was drawn to look like a great and wonderful hero from the fantasy world.
"This is your enemy," the trainer said, pointing his finger toward the monster king. "He was evil. He made you sad."
"This is your savior," the trainer said pointing to the 'hero' Dragon. "He is good. He made you free from the evil king. You will love him. You will fight for him. You will die for him."
They had to chant these things over and over again, until their voices were hoarse. "The king is evil. Dragon is good. The revolutionary army is our family."
Elara's mind felt dizzy. She knew she loved her grandpa and grandma but the soldiers kept telling her the revolutionary army was her new family. It was very confusing and very scary. She just wanted to go home.