Chapter 35 - Initiation

Arnest’s eyes started to uncomfortably wander towards the floor as the man in front of him leered. He placed his book on the table so that the pages were pressed against the top, forming an impromptu bookmark. The man also removed his glasses, folded them, and then tapped the thin metal frame against the book’s hardcover. Eyebrows furrowed into sharp daggers that shot out an aggressive glare that one might aim at a pestering fly.

“Go away. Go away. Go away.” sounded out, repeatedly like an echo, but Arnest figured it was just the principals internal hopeful mantra.

After a while of the man staring and inwardly screaming, he heaved a heavy sigh, put on his glasses, and pulled out a giant book that looked like an archaic encyclopedia. He skimmed the pages and stopped at a quarter of the way into the book.

“The only company that’s suited for fighting in the Kille Isles are the Larks, so that's what I'm giving you. As for provisions, you can collect three weeks worth of rations from the supply depot by the docks.”

Principal Damon started scribbling something on the corner of a heavily creased piece of paper, ripped it out and handed the torn chicken scratch to Arnest. Looking at the undecipherable writing, The letters were recognizable but their groupings didn’t form any words that were familiar to him. Unable to make sense of it, he just stood there dumbfounded, with the scrap of paper in hand.

“I’ll send someone to inform the Lark company to arrive here, tomorrow morning.” said Damon who paused for a moment, staring Arnest down before continuing, “You should be fully aware that the Killean people are heavily connected to Ralom. If anything happens because of your negligence, I will hold you fully responsible and you will be severely punish-”

“Umm…” Arnest interrupted, glancing up to the principal with a small smile and a little optimism. He lifted the note up, getting ready to voice a question, but the annoyed principal didn’t need to drink Mente wine to know what he wanted to ask.

“What, you can't even read the most basic Raloman code yet? Has Instructor Maest taught you anything over the past two weeks?”

Arnest awkwardly shook his head and Damon started muttering angry curses as he reached into a desk drawer. A small book was pulled out into view and thrown at Arnest, whom barely caught it before it hit him squarely in the forehead. On the top of the cover was written “An Introduction to Cryptography”. His eyes traveled down the plain binding and reached the author’s name, Alto Maest.

“Did Instructor Maest write this?” Arnest asked, making an educated guess.

“Are you an idiot? Who else could have written it?”

The displeasure oozed out of every word and Arnest wasn’t daft enough to miss it. That, and the principals thoughts were becoming evidently angrier. He said his apologies and expressed gratitude for the help, expediting the process of getting out of the irked principals’ presence. Damon yelled “Don’t slam the door!” as Arnest was leaving so he became even more careful, making a mental note to do the same for any future visits.

Once out, Arnest rushed up the stairs. He wanted to also apologize to Zorr and maybe figure out how to help him, whether that meant talking about Instructor Maest or anything else that he could possibly do. But by the time he reached the thirty third floor and knocked on the door, there was no answer. Arnest waited for a hour and only a few other students passed by. There was no sign of Zorr and daylight was disappearing each passing minute.

“I’ll see him tomorrow.” Arnest thought to himself and he started to climb up the stairs towards his floor.

He wanted to stay and wait, but his easy going life was starting to change. The slip of paper given to him by Principal Damon was still in his pocket. He assumed it was an official document, that probably would allow him to get his soldiers and begin his journey to the Kille islands. The second Arnest entered his room, he sat at a table and opened the text written by his mentor. Pouring over the boundless words, he eventually got some sense of how to decipher the code.

“Near the Killean Isles, rally forward towards dark storms,” is what the note translated into.

“Another code…” Arnest thought, scratching his head.

The sun was setting at this particular time however Arnest did not first think of sleep, but rather continued to read the cryptography text until there was no longer natural reading light. By this point, when everything was pitch black, Arnest retired to a cot. Tired, yet excited, he found himself imagining a grand future. He replayed scenes conjured from the stories he remembered from Fox Village and wondered how many similar experiences he might have or if he could outdo them entirely.

After a while, as Arnest was finally ready to sleep, his mind slipped to the past. He thought of those he left behind: the children of Cirqa Efatos and their leader, Jerrei. Clyde and his former band of pirates. Halphas, the shy half demon. Those of Fox Village. And finally his grandfather whom he hadn’t seen for months now.

“I wonder how Grandfather’s doing right now....” he thought, before dozing off.

Morning came and a thunderous banging shocked Arnest out of his slumber. It was the door that was being pounded, trembling under the violent knocking. Arnest eased out of his cot, the disturbance willing him towards the door. Quickly opening the door, a fist found itself knocking on Arnest’s head instead of the hardwood.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Ouch...” Arnest sleepily mumbled, rubbing his slightly dented head.

“I’m so sorry!” the attacker said, bowing over and over again.

“Why were you knocking on my door so loudly?” Arnest asked loudly, examining his assailant.

He was neither a young boy nor a man, so somewhere in-between. There was not a single strand of hair on his clean head that shined under the morning suns and he wore a common Raloman uniform. However Arnest didn’t concentrate on his unusual balding but rather the bronze crest, which appeared to be of a whale, that hung from his right breast.

The in-between boy-man stopped bowing, straightened out his back and saluted. “Student Officer Arnest, I am Cato of the Lark Company. I was ordered by Captain Nemo to come here and inform you that we are awaiting orders in the main lobby.”

“I’ll come down in a little while then.” Arnest said, moving towards the closet to grab something to eat and drink.

He opened the closet door and started rummaging, pulling out some preserved meats and a stale loaf of bread. With jerky stuffed in his mouth, he turned around and started moving towards a table when he noticed Cato still standing by the doorway, saluting.

Arnest, realizing what was going on, said “You can go back downstairs now.”

Cato let out a relieved sigh of relief and relaxed his stance, heading back down to his comrades.

After a while, Arnest started to make his way to the Lark Company who were presumably still waiting for him. As he made his way downstairs, he casually took in his surroundings one last time.

“I guess I won’t be back here for a while, huh.”

“Student Officer Arnest!” Cato exclaimed when he saw Arnest coming down the stairs.

The rest of the soldiers looked up and saw Arnest. They quickly assumed their stances and salutes in respect to his position.

When Arnest arrived at the foot of the stairs a muscularly defined officer walked up to him. He wore the same insignia as Cato, but this metal whale was golden. Saluting, he said in a natural and fluid voice, “Captain Nemo, at your service.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Captain Nemo.” Arnest extended his hand out towards him.

A simple handshake was made before Arnest quickly asked, “So when do we head out?”

“Whenever you’re ready,” Captain Nemo said, still saluting.

“Then let’s leave right now then.”

Captain Nemo turned around towards his subordinates and yelled, “Lark Company, move out!”

The Lark Company started to march out of Guardia’s front doors and headed towards the docks. By the time they reached their ship, they were all muddied by the trek. They all looked like beggars now. but at the same time there was a cheery quality about them.

“Cato, I heard you hit the student officer?” asked one of the soldiers.

“I-I didn’t mean to hit him.” Cato nervously stuttered.

“I heard that he insulted your mother so you smacked him across the face.” another soldier said.

A soldier to his left also chimed in with, “Oh, I heard that too!”

“Good job, kid!” said another, who heartily slapped Cato’s back.

“That never happened! I said I didn’t mean to hit him!” Cato protested.

The company exploded in laughter and started to head onto the ship. It was a modest ship, no gilded exterior or fanciful busty nautical figureheads, but it had the signature Raloman crimson sails. The size of the ship was probably designed with the size of the company in mind since it had just enough space for each of its soldiers.

Once settled, at around noontime, Captain Nemo walked up to Arnest who was watching from the top deck.

“Student Officer Arnest, will you come with me for a moment?” he said with a friendly smile.

“Sure.” Arnest agreed, without thinking too much about it.

Captain Nemo started to walk down to the central deck where a majority of the company was situated. “Men, as you know, we will be hosting the respectable Student Officer Arnest here on our ship. the Alastair, as a honorable guest.”

“Aye!” a good number of them responded.

“It’s been awhile since we last hosted someone, so I wonder if any of you Larks remember…” Captain Nemo continued to walk until he was in the middle of the crowd. “What do we do with honorable guests?”

A hundred voices sounded out in Arnest’s head all at the same time. The soldiers next to Arnest grabbed ahold of his limbs and effortlessly lifted him up in the sky.

Arnest started to yell, “What’s going on, Captain Nemo?!”

“Don’t worry, it’s just a little celebration!” Captain Nemo laughed.

Voices continued to ring in Arnest’s head, giving him a headache. The Larks, who were carrying Arnest, moved towards the port of the ship. With a “heave” and a “ho” they tossed his small figure into the water. Arnest flopped against the surface of the water, belly first, and slowly sunk into the ocean slowly submerging.

It took a few moments before Arnest was able to collect himself and swim up for air. When he reached oversea, he was ready to start yelling again but the soldiers were crashing into the water like cannon fire. Looking up at the deck’s edge, Arnest saw Captain Nemo proudly standing atop the railing.

“Glad to have you as a part of the Lark Company, Arnest!” he yelled before joining the other Larks and splashing into the ocean.