Dorian and the recruits followed the sergeant into the Canteen. The canteen was the largest building of all, made sense when everyone in the camp would congregate here for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even a legionnaire needs food after all.
The building was the same dull gray as the rest of the buildings, and the same boring square architecture. Inside there were rows upon rows of tables and benches. Although now it was deserted except for the kitchen staff. Which as he understood it worked around the clock, most likely in shifts. Although it was possible for some races to go without sleep for days or even weeks.
Apparently the sergeant had sent word ahead that his group of recruits would be done soon. Otherwise it was beyond explanation how the kitchen staff had two hundred fifty meals waiting for them as soon as they entered.
The sergeant didn´t let them leave formation. He made them bend off in rows of two to enter the canteen. The canteen was a bit peculiar in the fact that upon entering there were counters on either side of the hallway so they could serve twice the amount of legionnaires at once. He supposed it meant they had two kitchens as well.
Waiting in line was testing everyone's patience. The people in the front lines had it easy, or so they had thought. They were allowed to pick up their plates and take place in the canteen but they would not be allowed to eat until everyone had gotten their share.
One recruit with with his face inches from the ground, sweating from more push-ups, had found this out the hard way. More then enough reason for the others to hold their hunger in check.
With the hunger and the exhaustion from the repeated exercises building up, frustration was reaching mountainous levels in record time. Yet another test, Dorian thought to himself. The first day and they are already pushing us past what we would previously have been comfortable with.
As if hunger is gonna break me just because i didn't have breakfast yet, Dorian thought.
The rest of his squad didn't seem to have a problem with it. Well that may not have been entirely accurate. Ístril seemed to have trouble keeping her knees from shaking. He could see her tremble ever so slightly. It was honestly barely noticeable, he could only see it because he was the one standing behind her.
Even so he was sure that there would not be a trace of exertion on her face. She would stand there with that cold look on her face, her pride keeping her from showing any weakness. Wherever Ístril came from he was pretty sure that she was used to getting meals whenever she so desired. She had this kind of air that made her feel like she belonged to a noble family.
Blaitz seemed to be having trouble as well. Standing right next to him it was kind of hard not to hear the continued growls of his stomach. They were near the end of the line so the standing still, with growling stomaches was straining their patience.
But at long last it was their turn. They walked up to the kitchen staff who handed each of them a plate filled with some kind of thick white liquid with chunks of what seemed to be a type of bread in them. Not the most delicious looking or smelling food he had ever seen. In fact as used as he was to his mothers cooking this was borderline disgusting.
Thing was that he was so hungry he didn't really care what he ate. Going about a day without food would do that to you. None of the recruits had eaten since enlisting. He was glad he had gotten a bite to eat before he entered the city or he would have been even worse off.
Sitting down at the table with the rest of the squadron he took place on the end of the bench. Vor sat down on the other side of the bench launching Dorian through the air landing with a smack on the floor, this to the amusement of the other recruits around him. Even the legionaries had to stifle their laughter.
Not letting it bother him, Dorian was just glad he had already put his plate on the table. Vor raced to his side awkwardly moving his hands trying to help Dorian up repeatedly apologising.
"Don't worry about it neither of us expected it, we'll just take it as a lesson for the next time we sit down!" Dorian told him giving him a pat on the shoulder, well the pat was more on the side of Vor's arm than anything, the shoulders were out of reach.
"I will take care the next time i seat myself" Vor said with that deep rumble of his.
Vor decided to sit on the floor, something he told them he was very used to. Even sitting on the floor Vor easily reached the same height as the rest of them on the benches. Dorian put the bench back were it was and sat in the same place as before, shaking his head he wondered at the weight of the Entman,to be able to actually launch him like that he must weigh hundreds of pounds.
It took a few more minutes for everyone to get their food. After what seemed like an eternity the Sergeant gave them the go ahead to eat. Ravished all of the recruits swiftly dug into their meal. Even though the look of the food was not particularly pleasing the taste was honestly not that bad. A little bland but the hunger more than made up for that.
While eating the weird porridge he could feel the energy seeping back into his body. Fuelling his body with his favourite resource of food, he spooned the porridge into his mouth at lightning speed, barely taking the time to taste it properly. It wasn't just him that acted this way the rest of the recruits were favouring speed over manners as well.
Thus it did not take long for the meal to end. At the end of the meal the sergeant stood up demanding their attention.
"Okay we will now go back to the square and get in formation, we will then be heading to the armoury to give each of you a practice legionary set. You will get a proper set of armour fitted to your body once you have completed the basic training!"
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"Until then you will have to make due with these. It will take some time for your body to get used to the weight of the armour. Although it is not the same as the armour you will later receive the weight is exactly the same! The rest of the day we will practice getting in formation and marching. This will continue for the next few weeks. Only once you recruits have mastered this will we move on to combat training!"
"That will be all, now follow me" As the sergeant ended his short speech he made a gesture with his hands and the other legionnaires got up and followed him in neat formation to the square.
After leading everyone to the square he made them stand again in the same formation. By now all of them knew where to stand. Repeating something for over fifty times made it pretty easy to remember. To his left was Blaitz and to the right Ístril. Blaitz had become his assigned buddy.
The legionnaires had what they called a buddy system. A legionary would be paired with another Legionnaire and they would be joined at the hips throughout their army career. That is assuming both of them managed to finish training.
The way they had gotten buddied up was rather simple, The sergeant had just started from the beginning of the line had had said that every one in this column would be buddied up with his neighbour in this column. Blaitz had coincidently been the one to stand next to him at the time so they became buddies.
Ístril was buddied up with Vor, Vivri with Kala and Arin with Gladiel. The latter seemed to be fit together perfectly, both misfits at heart. It hadn't taken long for the rest of the group to notice this. Both of them were optimistic jesters. Something that Dorian rather enjoyed even if he kept it to himself, who didn't like a good joke now and then after all.
Once everyone was back in square formation the Sergeant led them through the camp in a ten man thick formation. For now the walking was not fussed about and they could just follow the sergeant at their own pace.
The armoury was another of the larger buildings in the camp and just as much of a boring gray square as the rest. The recruits moved ten in a line and an old gruntelled looking quartermaster gave gruff orders to those under his command. Taking a single look at a row of legionnaires and sending them out to get the sizes that were appropriate.
Even when it was Vor's turn the veteran quartermaster wasn't phased in the slightest and just gave another of his curt commands. Within the matter of an hour the quarter master had amazingly managed to get all of the recruits a fitting set of armour.
Fitted with the armour the sergeant led them away again to an area just outside the camp. The area had track marks all over it. They practised marching here over the years. You could see the ground being dented from the centuries of marching legionaries pounding their boots into the earth.
The Sergeant had them take an eight man thick formation. A squadron in each row. He then told them to line up properly the way he had taught them to do before. After having done so he took the lead.
"Every time you hear me your left heel will hit the floor understood!?" The sergeant told them.
A few yesses and nods could be seen throughout the formation.
"I EXPECT AN ANSWER DAMN YOU AND IT HAD BETTER COME AS A YES SERGEANT!" He suddenly roared at them making a few of the closer recruits jump.
"Yes sergeant!" The recruits said.
"I CANT BLOODY HEAR YOU"
"Yes Sergeant!!" The recruits said louder this time.
"YOU BUNCH OF SISSIES, MAKE SOME NOISE!!" He berated them with that loud drill sergeant roar.
"YES SERGEANT!!" this time there was a harmonised roar coming from the recruits. Nearly all of them roaring at the top of their lungs, Dorian included.
"Better" The sergeant said calming down. "Now follow me and keep pace!"
He started marching at a steady pace and every time his left heel hit the floor he would roar some word that Dorian couldn't make out. After a few minutes of the exercise people were starting to get the hang of it.
Soon enough the sound of footsteps started to harmonise. The sound of two hundred and fifty boots hitting the ground at the same time had something enchanting to it. It just felt so, right. That was the only word he had for it, the harmony of all the footsteps simply felt right.
He didn't think he was the only one, others sank in a trance as they marched. Before the trance could sink in however the Sergeant ordered the group to halt.
The order came a bit unexpected, causing some people to collide with the ones in front.
"Now that i have your attention! We will now start making turns, the people on the inner side of the turn will make small steps in place and turn towards me! Those between the inner and outer side will need to adjust their pace to stay in line with the rest of their squadron. Those on the outside will just maintain the marching pace and make the turn!."
Sounded easy enough Dorian thought. But yet again things did not go as expected. It seemed that not everyone was able to keep the pace or fully understood what the sergeant meant. This however did not seem to bother the sergeant in the slightest.
Normally he seemed like the type of man who would roar at them at the slightest mishap. It seemed that marching was a bit of an exception even for the Sergeant..
The day melted away while they were practising marching. They started to practice different orders as well. Such as stopping in formation or making a one hundred and eighty degree turns. The sergeant even had them walk in a circle for a while closing in until they just made a complete circle of marching legionnaires. Focused entirely on keeping pace without colliding with their fellow legionnaires.
The hours flew by because of the harmonised marching. Somehow even the constant marching was not as tiring as the morning exercise they had done. He thought that a great majority of the group even took pleasure in the marching.
Soon enough it was time for dinner and the sergeant made them all head back to the Canteen. Dinner this time was potatoes with some meat that he didn't know the name of and what seemed to be a weird kind of carrot, this carrot was green for some reason. It also tasted differently.
Besides the green carrot, dinner was unremarkable. After dinner the sergeant took them out to the marching fields again where they marched until the sun had long since went down and the moon had risen high in the sky.
At long last the first day of training came to an end and the sergeant marched them back to the square lining them up for the last time today.
"This was the first day of training and the days after this one will be mostly the same. Your weeks will be filled with marching until i decide that it is good enough for you to move on to the next phase of the training."
"Until then make sure you get a good nights rest because tomorrow will feel remarkably harder than today because of the accumulated amount of stress!."
Sending them off to bed with those last words the sergeant somehow reminded him of his dad. Rough around the edges but at the end of the day doing what he thought was best for his kid. The sergeant had the same kind of tough love fatherly feel to Dorian.
Heading back to the dorms rather tired after the long day of work each of them removed their armour and placed them in the closet in the therefore designed hanging standards. Then they collapsed in bed and drifted into deep slumber.
First day completed.