The suffocating musky smell slowly grew into a more fresh, earthy one as the winds picked up accompanied by an increasingly pouring rain.
Mikah stopped under a stone arch, it was entirely dark and the rain was very loud around us.
His face lit up for a quick moment as lightning flashed in the background.
“Say lad, have ya ever met a man who made a deal with a banished master?” He asked.
“I’m not sure why you’re asking that but, I’ve never been to the mines or the sea before, so no.”
“Bahaha! Well ya have 2 legs to stand on and ya came out of a human aye?”
“S-sure…”
He closed one eye and made a square with his fingers, although one corner was missing due to the missing thumb…“Ya ever took a look in the mirror then?”
I looked into his eyes “Are you implying I’m some evil maniac… Sir?”
“Bahaha, quite the spicy one indeed aye lad? Relax that blood pumper of yars, ya might piss yar pants baha!” He walked past me and put a hand on my chest.
I felt the sweat drops from my forehead trickle down as I took a deep breath.
“Ya seem to know yar place at least.” He said as he stood to watch the rain.
This old man is fucking insane, what’s he even on about?
“D’ya know lad, I once met a contractor of this banished master. The lad was heads in the cloud, heart under the ground and hands covered in thick blood.” He took out the same jug and started drinking.
I didn’t really have anything to say, I don’t know what he’s talking about but I didn’t want to walk in the rain, so I guess I’m stuck here listening to a crazy person.
“Have ya ever tried looking at a single drop of rain lad?” He asked.
“That sounds impossibly pointless…”
“Bahaha! Right ya are. So why do ya seem like the typa lad to do that? Even with a head in the clouds, the rain is all the same.
I’ll give ya this one word of advice aye? If ya try to look at a single drop of rain from the clouds, ya might crash face first into the hard ground.”
“...”
“R-right…”
“Hic! Bahahahahaha, ya’re a funny lad aincha? Well the rain isn’ stopping anytime soon so we might as well just get a little wet.” Mikah went into the rain and slowly disappeared into the darkness before the lightning made him appear again for a quick moment.
As the decrepit scout’s dawdling figure got swallowed by the darkness, I just sat down under the stone arch and listened to the rain.
My body felt heavy and my head was hurting, it was a familiar sensation at this point but an unpleasant one nonetheless…
I don’t understand half of what this guy said, I guess he wanted to see if I was a threat…? Either way, I don’t know what to think of this conversation, why do people keep giving me those riddles disguised as advice?
Fuck I hate it when people don’t just say what they mean.
I guess I also don’t always say what I mean huh? Why is it so hard to do sometimes… Ego? Not in this case though, this guy doesn’t need my validation, I guess it’s more like what Dawn said, I need to figure it out on my own… Maybe.
Fuck. I hate people.
It wasn’t too long before the rain calmed down and I went to the main tent. It's called a city but for some reason we sleep in tents, isn’t that a bit absurd?
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“...Souvenirs! The stores here are all about military equipment or very basic food, this city sucks!” I heard a voice coming out of the girls’ tent as I arrived at our campsite. Ironic.
I pulled up the wet sheet to enter the boys’ tent and the strangely pleasant scent of fresh rain mixed with burnt oil was soon replaced with the very unpleasant, musky smell of old socks.
As soon as I entered, 2 of the guys closest to the entrance looked at me and immediately averted their gaze. The rest of the students didn’t seem to pay attention to my presence, except for 2 other people who were talking to each other in the middle of the tent.
I tried to read their lips but the fucking smidgeball put a hand over his mouth as he spoke…
I can’t imagine those 2 will give me any trouble any time soon, the prince has a surprising amount of influence over people, I just dislike being badmouthed all the time.
The prince was quietly reading a book as he lay on the bed at the edge of the tent. I remember reading this book once, ‘The Friend is a Friend’.
Why would he read something so naive and boring?
He lowered his book to meet my eyes as if telling me to mind my own business and then went back to reading.
The rain was still quite loud outside and served as a soothing distraction from the constant thoughts of people staring at me as I tried to sleep.
Ironically enough, it was focusing on a drop of rain that might just help me sleep tonight.
When I opened my eyes again, I could only see a small village from the top of a hill nearby through eyes that were clearly higher than mine.
“Yo, how’s it going man?” Someone said from behind me in a clear voice.
“You know… Same as usual.” I responded, my voice was a bit more quiet and uninterested.
The casual conversation between the 2 people revealed that ‘we’ haven’t met in 4 years but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.
What a nonsensical, naive dream.
When I woke up, there was a strange sense of yearning in my chest, my heart was fluttering as I opened my eyes and sat up.
I don’t even know why. It felt as if I had a dream about something important but I couldn’t remember the details.
I just knew that it was about 2 people. What were they doing? Why do I feel so strange about it?
***
All of the students joined the different units they were assigned to after waking up early in the morning.
Zick and Mikah explained the schedule for today, breakfast, routine patrols which from hearing the explanation, sounded more like a reconnaissance mission, equipment maintenance, lunch break.
After lunch the units will come together to form 2 platoons with 10 units each, the platoons are led by a commanding officer, as a special exception this time, Zick will lead the 2nd platoon while Mikah will lead the 1st.
The platoon’s missions are going to be exclusive information for the platoons so we can only learn them when the commanding officer explains the details.
After the missions are completed, assuming no unexpected events come up, there will be a review meeting between the platoons and then a review for each unit, after the review is finished, the unit leaders are supposed to report the findings to Mikah, the captain of the scout’s brigade.
We already had breakfast today though, so I guess I just need to group up with Mikah and the prince for now…
***
The 3 of us exited the city from the northern gate. It took about an hour on horse to reach our destination, a small town at the edge of the forest of the lords.
“Ya lot eva’ heard of Land Lords?” Mikah spoke up.
“No, I’ve neve-”
“They’re humanoid creatures that have an umbilical cord connecting them to the ground…” I said.
“R-right, thanks.” Red-hair responded.
“Well aren’t ya 2 good friends aye? Bahaha! Aye, cowardly boy is correct.” He smirked at me before continuing. “I’ll say it now so ya don’t get too surprised, we consider Land Lords to be munchers.
Those sons of bitches might look human from afar, make no mistake however, there’s no human thing ‘bout them.” Mikah’s casual demeanor vanished as he finished his small pep talk.
“Right then, this town be called Edgetown, we go into town and ask the citizens about unusual events around the area.
If ya hear something regarding children disappearing, munchers grouping too much or anything that seems suspicious, write it all down in yar journals ya received at the camp.” He pulled out a small flipbook and a pencil to show us.
“I believe in my soldiers operating their own thunking boxes so ya have to use that thing to make your own judgements with the information ya learn.
If ya think something’s too urgent to pushback, ya come back to find me. Ya make yar own judgement but ya never act on yar own, is that clear lads?”
“Y-yes s-”
“Yes sir!” The prince yelled.
“Well then, we rendezvous when the sun reaches the middle of the sky. I’ll meet ya lads at the town square next to the bakery. Be safe, be smart, stay alive. Dismissed.” His serious face slowly softened as he finished giving out orders and started slowly making his way into town.
Well, I have about 5 hours to explore the western side of this town, hopefully it’s not too boring.