Alz soon found himself back at the familiar field once again.
On the field, there were several elves standing orderly in front of Lein. The elves were split into three separate columns and all looked to be around his age.
The elves in two of the three columns had contained some faces which he vaguely recalled seeing over the past two weeks while the elves in the last column were his five roommates.
He did not reveal any look of surprise at this as he had already known about this beforehand. He had learnt over that past two weeks that all hatchlings who arrived at the fourth village would receive instruction directly from Lein in the first three years of the stay.
He quickened his pace and ran up to Lein, lowering his head slightly and apologising for being late. Lein silently stared at him for several seconds, causing Alz's body to tense up.
“Don’t make this a habit! Get into line.” Lein finally said after staring at Alz for a while.
Lein then turned his head back to the front and looked towards the hatchlings. Alz heaved a sigh of relief and quickly ran to the line where his batch was.
“Now that everyone is gathered, we can finally begin. All the new hatchlings, step forward." Lein shot quick look at Alz again as he mentioned the first part but quickly continued on.
The six hatchlings walked up to Lein with their hearts pounding furiously. They had all been told on the sequence of events at the beginning and knew what was coming, the basic physical evaluation.
All hatchlings were tested on their physical abilities at the start of the year. For the first three years, they had to undergo a basic physical evaluation while in subsequent years, they would go through more advanced evaluations involving actual combat situations.
The six of them obediently followed Lein's instructions, going through some physical tasks which tested them on their strength, endurance, flexibility, and stamina and were graded for each individual component.
During these tests, only Polon's results stood out, surpassing the average results by far. This came at no surprise to Alz and Link, as they knew he had always been fond of and good at physical activities, but the others were shocked by his performance. Meanwhile, the other five of them had average results.
After they were done, the other two batches took turns completing the same tasks and received their evaluations as well. By the time it concluded, the second drum had already rung and Lein guided them over to the mess hall to have their meal.
The mess hall they were brought to constructed to accommodate the warrior hatchlings and there were already several groups of elves sitting when they arrived. The three groups quickly proceeded to collect their food at the front after they arrived.
They soon collected their food and took a seat at a nearby table that could fit the six of them. They were part of the same batch after all and there were many things they would be doing together in the following years.
“Man, Polon really did great today!” Link excitedly exclaimed as he slapped Polon's back.
“Yeah he did even better than most of the seniors too.” Alz nodded in agreement as he turned to look at Polon.
“Hehe.” Polon laughed and revealed a shy smile as his face reddened.
The other three elves also chipped in praises at Polon whose lips slowly formed a silly grin. Following that, they began to talk about the things that they had learnt over the past week, supplementing each other's knowledge and learning more about how everything worked.
They were not being particularly quiet as they spoke and some of their seniors in the mess hall walked over to help with a few questions that they had. Slowly, they began to learn information such as famous hatchlings and useful survival tips. Many seniors also introduced themselves and gave them a warm welcome to the village.
About 15 minutes later, they finished their meal and returned their utensils to the front. The six of them then rushed off to assemble at the field. They were not late, but when they arrived at the field, they saw that Lein was already waiting so they quickened their pace and gathered before him.
The other two groups of hatchlings were already dismissed, but they still had something left on their itineraries today, the mental evaluation tests. This test was only conducted twice for every hatchling, once at the start and at the end.
The test was used to assess the intelligence and problem-solving skills of the hatchlings and would be included in their overall performance evaluations.
Elves who performed well might even gain the option of stopping their trials and receiving special training for important roles in the tribe instead. One such example was the librarian role which was only offered to hatchlings who performed well in these tests due to the nature of the role.
The six of them were naturally very curious when they first heard of this. However, they did not manage to learn anything about the tests because it was prohibited by the tribe to share any information with the hatchlings on it.
After they had assembled, Lein gestured for the hatchlings to follow behind and walked out of the field towards the North. They walked for around 10 minutes until they arrived before a grand structure, the library.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
The library was also made using the same architectural materials as the other buildings in the village. However, the library had much thicker walls and appeared to be sturdier than most other buildings. There were no visible gaps on the side of the structure, only small holes at the top that were left intentionally.
The libraries were of extreme significance to the Calla tribe. These building stored the wisdom of the tribe over the ages and was the one of the key factors in its development. Much of the information that was stored were vital to the tribe's survival, including information on wolves, maps of nearby areas and herb identification methods.
Therefore, the tribe spared no expense when it came to the building's construction, making the libraries the grandest buildings in the frontier villages, and second only to the council building in the central village.
At the entrance to the library, there was a woman with beautiful straight silver hair standing in wait. Her figure was slender, but her chest was ample which added to her womanly charms. She had beautiful facial features and enticing amethyst eyes which would make any elf take a second look at her.
She turned to the group with a bright smile that contained traces of playfulness when she noticed their arrival, directing it toward Alz who was following behind Lein.
Alz noticed this and looked up, matching the gaze of the woman who had literally been sticking to him over the past two weeks, in fact she had been sticking to him even until today, the gaze of his mother, Tia.
Lein hastened his steps when he saw that Tia was waiting outside, arriving before her soon after. He gave her a small bow in greeting which she returned with a light nod and a dazzling smile.
Previously during the introductions, Tia wasn't in her best state and the hatchlings were too preoccupied by other matters to observe their surroundings. Now, there were no longer any distractions around and they finally noticed Tia's beauty.
“Hey Alz, that’s your mum, right?” Link said with some doubt in his voice as stared at Tia with his eyes wide open, poking Alz at his side. He vaguely recalled seeing her back then but the impression she gave back then was worlds apart from now.
Link wasn't being especially loud, but his voice stood out in the silence, allowing the other hatchlings to overhear. They other hatchlings immediately flashed looks of envy as they moved their eyes between Alz and Tia.
Alz felt his blood rushing up to his head, causing his cheeks to burn furiously. He looked down to hide his face while recollections of the soft sensation last night played in his mind, causing his head to redden further.
During the past two weeks, he had naturally inquired about his parents' work and learnt that his mother she worked at the library and his father was part of the guards. However, every time he asked for more details on his mother's job, she would just smile playfully and say, "you will know soon".
Looking at the playful expression his mother had earlier, Alz naturally realised that she had not told him about their current encounter beforehand on purpose. Happiness welled up in his heart each time he looked up, but a part of him also felt speechless when he thought about how she had acted this morning, despite knowing that they would meet again later today.
What Alz didn't know was that Tia and Layla were famous in the fourth village for their beauty and talents, being collectively known as the 'Twin Goddesses" in the village. Layla was known for her talents in virtually all areas of the supporter skill set while Tia was known for her wit and intellect, along with her meticulous eye for detail.
Tia had been appointed as the overseer of the library by the elven council and was in charge of all matters relating to the library. This included documenting and recording information, verification of information and accounting for everything in the library.
This was a position that was notorious for the mental burden it placed on the holder of the position, yet Tia had been performing extremely well, earning her the respect of most of the elves in the village.
“Welcome to the library, preparations for your tests have already been made. Don’t worry about the results, it will be fine to just try your best.” Tia's bell-like voice clearly spread into the ears of the hatchling, encouraging them.
“"Yes!"" a spirited reply came from the hatchlings almost instantly, except for Alz who was feeling embarrassed and turned his head down.
Tia lightly giggled as she saw Alz's reaction but immediately turned around and led the group of seven into the library. When they entered the library, they immediately saw two other elves waiting by the side.
These two were librarians who had volunteered themselves as Tia's assistants for the day. Given her position, Tia normally wouldn't even make an appearance for these tests and would just assign a single librarian to handle it.
However, things were different this year. She had forcefully taken charge of the tests this year no matter how much the other librarians tried to convince her otherwise. In the end, they could only give in but insisted that these two elves assisted her from the side.
At the end of the day, these librarians simply did not want her to overwork. They were the only ones in the village who truly understood how much effort she put into her work and did not want her to tire herself over such a simple task.
Tia understood their feelings and readily conceded to this arrangement, partly also because she understood that it would be better for Alz if she did not personally conduct his evaluation
As he caught sight of the two librarians waiting by the side, Lein's movements froze for a moment while he revealed an expression of shock. His expression lasted for less than a second before he recovered but he was still feeling shocked.
These librarians usually cooped themselves up in the library and hardly showed their faces around the village. There was only six of them in the entire village including Tia and were all handpicked by the council after many rounds of selection. Their role was of critical importance to the village and even the tribe and were treated respectfully by other members in the village.
Yet, now half of them were mobilised just to conduct a simple mental evaluation test for newcomer hatchlings, something that was probably a first in the village or even the tribe's history. Hence, it was difficult for Lein to not be surprised, but the hatchlings remained oblivious to his feeling as they followed behind Tia, looking around the library curiously.
Tia lightly nodded her heads towards her two colleagues and continued walking deeper into the library. The two librarians naturally followed beside Tia when she passed by, joining the group.
The group of elves soon arrived in a room that had fifteen seats placed around the room. There were several rocks with holes in them around the room, along with a few 'shelves' made of vine that carried many wooden 'scrolls' in them.
These 'scrolls' were made by connecting small rectangular pieces of wood together
The hatchlings were completely oblivious to this and silently followed behind Tia as the two librarians walked a pace behind Tia by her sides. They soon reached a room with many around 15 seats scattered around with several ‘shelves’ made of vine, holding many ‘scrolls’ in them.
The scrolls they used were made by joining rectangular pieces of wood together and rolling it up, with the contents inscribed on the inner side.
“Take a seat and wait, he will be bringing you for your tests one at a time.” Tia said while pointing to one of the librarians who stood beside her.
The hatchlings obediently nodded and were escorted out to the test site one by one. Each hatchling took about 45 minutes to finish and soon, the first three were done. It was finally Alz's turn as he nervously proceeded out of the room behind the librarian.