“I, Kaedin Varus, Lord of the South and sovereign of Fief Varus sentence you to death.” the Lord said. In front of him stood thirty-eight men, all deserters of the last battle. Oliver stood miserably at attention as he watched the lord cut the rope holding the men up. They all dropped at the same time with a sickening crunch. Oliver flinched as he saw the life leave his squadmates eyes.

The Red Dragon walked in front of the bodies, “This is the price of cowardice, do not forget the oaths you swore or this shall be the price you pay. Dismissed.” As the rest of the gathered soldiers walked off Oliver stood still watching the bodies hang. The rest of the army didn’t seem to care, hell it wasn’t their squadmates and friends hanging from the gallows so why should they. He thought back to the times when Dylan would sing while they marched, or how Bart’s evening stew tasted.

“Come on, there’s no point standing here,” Kevin said and placed a hand onto his shoulder. Oliver didn’t move, “Oliver let’s go.”

“Damn it private, if you don’t move your ass this instant I will tear off your head and piss down your neck!”

A messenger boy sprinted over to them and Kevin glared at him, “What do you want?”

“Excuse me, Sergeant,” the boy said, “General Iroh has requested your presence.”

“The General, what does he want with me?” Kevin asked and the boy shook his head, “not you, you” he said and pointed at Oliver.

“Me?” he asked with a mixture of surprise and fear.

“Him?” Kevin asked incredulously, “boy I think you have the wrong man. Neither of us is important enough that the General would want to meet us.”

The boy cocked his head, “you are Private Oliver Irons, 1st Cohort, 1st Century, 1st squad?”

“Don’t remind me,” Oliver said bitterly, “that’s the rest of first century.”

The messenger boy ignored his comment, “Follow me.” he said and started down the road. Oliver sighed and turned to Kevin, “see you later Sergeant.”

He ran off after the boy and Kevin shambled back to his tent. He reached down and picked up his wallet and fished out eight bronze chips. A clearing was set up a few blocks down and he went to drown his sorrows.

Oliver hurried along behind the messenger boy and stopped right in front of a large tent with the Iroh falcon on the side. Six guards stood in by the front entrance and a dozen more stood around the sides. The boy showed one of the guards a letter and they stepped aside and Oliver walked into the building.

The room was not what he was expecting, actually, Oliver didn’t know what he was expecting but this wasn’t it. In one of the corners was a simple folding cot with a table on the side. In the center of the room was a large desk covered in papers and several chairs surrounding it. A teapot sat on one of the chairs and the General sat in another.

Oliver panicked, he had never been alone in the same room as someone as high ranking as Iroh before. He snapped a salute and belted out, “Private Oliver Irons reporting as ordered.”

Iroh jumped and drew his sword, “Gah!”

In a flash, a dozen and a half guards stormed in and looked around in confusion.

“Sir are you well?” a guard in a captain's cloak asked.

“Yes, yes, everything is fine Lawrence, you may return to your post.” the General said with a wave. Oliver blushed and apologized, “My apologies, your grace. I did not mean to startle you.”

“It is no matter,” he said, “Now, what does matter is what I am going to do with you.”

Oliver gulped and thought about the fate of his squadmates, he really didn’t like the sound of that. “May I ask, what are you going to do sir?”

“Simply put, you shall be reassigned to a new squad. Normally this would be to another one within your own century. However, 1st century currently exists only on paper. Therefore you are being transferred to third century, first squad.”

“Yes sir.”

“There is another matter to be discussed.” Iroh said and poured a cup of tea, “would you like some?”

Oliver never really enjoyed tea but figured it wasn’t wise to reject an offer from the general. “Yes thank you, sir.”

“Eyewitnesses report that you single-handedly slew four orcs, now that is quite the feat considering you did it wielding only a bayonet, while the rest of your century abandoned you.”

“Thank you my lord but with respect, your reports are wrong. I only managed to fend off two orcs before I was beaten to the ground. A knight in black got the other two and saved me life.”

Iroh frowned and looked down at one of the papers, “that is interesting, private, considering these reports came from three distinct centuries and nearly eighty men. They all reported the same thing, a single private held his ground and slew four orcs before being wounded by a fifth. Perhaps you experienced some form of hallucination during the fight. Orc blood does have that effect on men sometimes. Anyways, take these,” he said and handed me a letter, “and report to your new century, the rest of your gear will be sent to you shortly along with a new musket.”

Oliver took the paper and returned to parade rest, “you are dismissed, and private try not to break this one. Firearms are rather expensive.”

“Aye sir,” he said and walked out, a new messenger boy waited at the tent flap and said, “I’ll be taking you to your new quarters.”

Oliver walked behind the boy and arrived at the banner of third century. A short bearded man sat beside a massive cauldron of stew. He looked up and grunted at the messenger boy. “This the new guy?”

“Yes Sergeant Steele, this is private Oliver Branwen.” the boy said and Oliver handed him the transfer papers. The Sergeant ripped them open and read the letter. His eyes rose then he carefully folded them back into the envelope and put them in his pocket.

“Very well, I’m Sergeant Steele, your new squad leader, your bunks going to be in tent four. Suppers in a few and it’s mandatory so freshen up and get your ass out in time.”

“Aye sir,” he said and saluted, Steele gave him a nod and Oliver walked over to the tent.

Before he even opened the tent flap, he could hear laughter and singing. It reminded him of his old squad tent.

“I heard we’re getting a replacement for Jerry.” a voice said, Oliver, stopped and listened.

“Yeah, great another newbie from basic. I tell you those fucking greenies are only good for meatshields. First look at real combat, they’ll piss themselves and break rank.”

“You’re one to talk Kyle, I saw you trembling like a little girl when those orcs charged us.”

“Oh, you little shit!”

“Nah, supposedly he’s the guy from 1st century, real badass too. Killed six orcs without breaking a sweat.”

“Quit making shit up Reece, that’s bullshit 1st century was full of cowards and half-men. The only reason their centurion wasn’t executed was because his pappy paid him off.”

He sighed and walked in. immediately all conversation stopped. Six men sat around a small barrel playing cards and smoking. One held a guitar in his hands, another sat on a cot reading a book and the last was cleaning his musket.

“Well, this is awkward,” Oliver said as they stared at him, the room broke into laughter.

“You’re the new guy right?” the tallest man asked, he spoke with a surprisingly high-pitched voice.

“Nah he’s just some random bum they found on the street.” the one with a guitar said, “Simmons, what the fuck kind of question is that? Of course, he’s the transfer.”

“Fuck you, Kyle,” Simmons said and gave him the finger. “You’re not a greenie are you?”

“Not anymore.” Oliver said and looked around, “Which one’s mine?”

“One in the corner by the entrance.” one of the men said, he was the most handsome man in the tent. Oliver looked at the cot and groaned, the two tents closest to the exit were the worst. When the weather was bad, all the cold air hit those two first. When it was blazingly hot, the sun would beam through the flaps. The only upside was that if the tent caught on fire, he would be the first one out.

“Great,” he said and sat down on the bunk. The rest of the men eyed him carefully.

“Hey, aren't you the guy from 1st century.” the handsome one asked. Simmons slapped him over the head.

“Washington, if you're going to ask him, ask him.”

“I was getting there asshole.” Washington spat and turned back to Olliver, “Anyways, what I was going to say is. Are you the Lone Musketeer?”

“The what?” He asked in confusion.

“You know, the Lone Musketeer, sole survivor of 1st century, slayer of orcs,” Reece asked with excitement.

“First of all, that is a horrible nickname, and second there are two other surviving members of 1st century.”

“Hey keep it down I’m tryna read a book.” the one with a book said.

“Not even going to say hi Tucker?” Kyle asked with an amused expression. Tucker sighed and bookmarked his page.

“Nice to meet you, Oliver, I’m Tucker Lee,” he said and stood up. “Come on dinner's almost ready and Sarge made his stew.”

“Right, and this time he didn’t mix up the pepper and fire powder right?” Washington said dryly.

“I heard that!” Steele yelled from outside the tent.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

We filed out of the tent and were each handed a bowl of soup. It was a thick broth of what looked like beef, potatoes, and possibly carrots. John took a sip, it wasn’t even close to Bart’s but he drank it all down without complaint.

“Alright boys, this here is Oliver Irons. 1st century was folded into 3rd so he’s here to stay.” Steele said and looked around. The entire squad had gathered around, all thirty-three men sat around the fire chatting and eating.

“What’s the centurion like?” Oliver asked and put his bowl down. The squad quieted down.

“Well, there's not much to say about Centurion Graves.” Tucker said with a shrug, “he shoots straight and never volunteers us for bullshit assignments.”

The rest of the squad muttered in agreement, “He’ll fight with us through the thick of it.” another added and the men nodded.

“Good to hear the men think highly of me.” a smooth voice said, the men shifted around to face the voice. Bowls were set down and men shot up and saluted, “Sir!”

“At ease,” the centurion said and eyed the men before resting his gaze on Oliver. “So you’re the transfer.”

“Yes sir.” Oliver said standing at parade rest, the Centurion waved him down, “sit down private.”

“Alright, we got marching orders for tomorrow.” he said, “we’re breaking camp and moving to Black Stone Fortress. Iroh wants second, third, and sixth centuries to scout ahead of the main force.”

A wave of hushed mutters spread through the squad, scouting duty was not a popular assignment as it had one of the highest casualty rates in the army.

“We’re expecting to meet minor resistance once we reach Little Rock, so keep your weapons clean and your powder dry. That’s all.” Graves said and walked off.

“God damn, just when I thought I could get a day off.” Oliver joked and put his bowl away.

“So Oliver,” Reece asked with a glint in his eyes, “what was it like?”

“What was what like?”

“Killing orcs?”

Oliver groaned, “Fucking terrifying.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The pain seceded and I gasped in relief, “Good God that was awful.”

“Detention!” Ms. Mallory bellowed and cuffed me over the head with her wand. I winced and rolled over. “Be in my room tonight before 5:00, same goes for you, Mr. Tourel.”

“Yes ma’am,” we said in unison while glaring at each other. My attention was drawn away when Cassie stomped up to me and slapped me across the face.

“Hey what the hell?” I asked angrily, rubbing my face, “What was that for?”

“That was for acting like an ass.” she said sternly, “You should know better than to get in random fights.”

“Jeesh, you’re not my mother you know.”

“She is right,” Noah added, “you really shouldn’t have gotten into that fight without a weapon.”

“Yeah the two of you are pretty evenly matched,” Sam said and helped me to my feet. “We could have helped you know.”

“Bah, what’s the fun in that,” I said and waved them aside.

“We’re a team, we need to act like one,” Alex said and the other two nodded.

“There’s no need for you guys to get involved in that, it was between the two of us.”

“If it involves you, it involves us.”

“Yeah.”

“As nice as it is to see some team bonding time, we really need to be going to class,” Arya said and grabbed Alex by the collar and pulled him away.

“Wait I don’t even know what class I have next.” Alex protested, fumbling for his pad.

“We have Math together in Fletcher’s class.” she said, “I checked already.”

That reminded me and I fished my pad out as well, survival with Crowley, “hey you guys have the same thing as me?”

“Survival training?”

“Yep,” I said and we followed the map to his room.

“So your father fought in the legions right?” I asked as we walked, Cassie had fallen behind to make sure Val didn’t get lost.

“Yeah, not in one of the steel legions though, just a regular pikeman. Made the rank of Captain before his fifteen years ended.” Noah said.

“Captain?” I asked, “oh yeah, the regular legions used a different unit structuring.”

“Y- STOP!!” he shouted and put a hand on my arm, but instead of slowing me down or stopping me, he accidentally pushed me and I stumbled forwards into the room. I felt a slight tug on my foot and a faint click. Everything slowed as across the room, two crossbows spat twin bolts at us. I looked down and noticed a thin wire strung a few inches off the ground. ‘Of course, the survival professor would booby trap his own room.’ By the time my trait had kicked in, the crossbow bolts had already made it most of the way across the room. In fact, one of them was just a few feet in front of my face. It moved at a glacially slow pace and I plucked them out of the air. Feeling generous I also removed the ones heading towards Noah.

I breathed out and Noah yelped and hit the deck. I held the four bolts in my hands and gently placed them on one of the desks.

“Your welcome by the way,” I said and looked around the room. It was like a mix between a torture chamber and a cabin in the woods. Horrifying contraptions hung on the walls next to an assortment of stuffed demons and to top it all of. The centerpiece of the collection was the stone head of a giant troll.

Noah patted himself looking for puncture wounds and sighed with relief, “that was close, I tried to stop you bu-”

“Ah-ha!” a voice boomed, we snapped around to the front of the class where a man was sitting. He had to have been the healthiest man I had ever seen, there couldn’t have been more than an ounce of fat on his entire body. That was also extremely obvious to me as he was wearing nothing but a pair of incredibly short shorts. “I gotcha!” the man laughed with glee and hopped off his desk.

“Aleistar?” I asked with surprise. “That you old man?”

“The one and only!” he flexed, showing off rippling biceps that would have made an orc blush.

“Wait you two know each other!” Noah shouted, Crowley, stopped flexing and narrowed his eyes at me.

“It appears we do,” he said and walked up to me, “It is good to see you again Apprentice Varus.”

I put my hands on my hips, “I’ll have you know I’m no longer an apprentice you old geezer.”

He laughed and embraced me, the top of his head barely reaching my chin, “it has been a long minute since I last saw you, how have you been?”

“Great now that I’m not doing all of Hood’s chores,” I said with a grin, he nodded knowingly.

“Robin and his child slaves,” he shook his head, “I always frowned upon his practices.”

“Frowned upon my ass!” I put my hands on my hips, “I still remember six years ago, you had me clean your entire cabin!”

“Perhaps I did, “ he said with a cheeky smile before getting serious, “However you should not talk to me in such an unprofessional manner, at least while I am still acting as your professor.”

“Of course sir.”

“Now go take a seat, you're not going to want to miss out on this,” he said and shooed us away.

“How do you know Professor Crowley?” Noah asked as we took our seats.

“Al’s a retired ranger, he’s the one who used to watch over me during my first year when Hood would go on missions.”

Noah was about to continue when Will walked into the room with Miles Luna. I watched with glee as both of them walked right through the trap. But disappointingly Will instantly created a shield that stopped both bolts coming for him. Miles put a hand up and the space in front of him ripped. Like the fabric of reality itself had been torn apart. The two bolts flew right into the blackness and disappeared.

Noah and I looked at each other with wide-eyed expressions, “Did you see that?”

“I think so.”

“Good afternoon Mr. Tourel, Mr. Luna.” Crowley said to them with a nod, Will looked at him with surprise, “Ranger Crowley?”

“Who else!” the professor laughed and hugged Will, Miles gave him a confused looked.

“It is good to see you again Aleistar, it truly is,” Will said with a happy look on his face. Noah glanced over at me, I shrugged.

“My you have grown!” Crowley said, “Last time I saw you, you barely reached up to my shoulders.”

“I see that retirement didn’t suit you,” he said and the older man chuckled.

“Well, this is as close to retiring as I ever think I’ll get. Now hurry along and get to your seats.”

Will nodded and they walked up the stairs, our eyes met for a moment and I balled my fists. His green eyes flashed with anger but Miles grabbed him by the arm and led him away.

“So how does he know the Professor?” Noah asked.

“Oh, you know how there's one Ranger for each of the fiefs?” I said, he nodded, “Yeah Crowley was the Tourel Fief Ranger.”

“But doesn’t Tourel hate us?” he asked.

“Well, mostly the nobility does ‘cause we took half their land, the common folk couldn’t care less. To them, it’s all the same.”

We watched as Cassie entered the room and gracefully stepped over the tripwire. She looked over at Crowley with a frown.

“Bravo Ms. Bright!” Bravo!” He clapped, “you are the first student this year to notice the wire.”

She put her hands on her hips, “That was incredibly irresponsible, you could have gotten a student killed!”

As Cassie was giving the professor an earful, Val walked straight through the trap. She didn’t even look up from her book as the crossbows fired. I clenched my fist in anticipation and Noah groaned. The bolts raced towards her before stopping mid-air. Val snapped her book closed with a thud and looked around for the source of the fire. Her eyes trained on Crowley and the four crossbow bolts pointed towards him.

“Good afternoon Ms. Valentine.” he said cheerfully, “it is good to see your father has let you out of the tower.”

“Aleistar.” she said coldly with a glare, beside me Noah shook his head, “Does everyone know this guy?”

“Well, he is kinda a big deal.”

“Very good students, take your seats.” Crowley clapped and leaped onto his desk, “zero students injured, maimed, or killed. I’d call that a win.”

“I’m scared what the rest of this year will bring if this is how he starts day one,” Noah muttered and pulled out a notepad.

“How bad can it be?” I shrugged.

I tried to remain awake in his class, I truly did. But there was only so much school work I could do before my brain just decided to shut down. The moment my head hit the wooden desk, Crowley used his ranger skills and walked right next to me without me hearing a thing. Noah was torn between waking me up and possibly facing punishment with me or letting me take it by myself.

“Ryze!” Crowley yelled into my ear and my eyes shot open. “Good, you’re awake. For sleeping in my class, I want a three-page essay about why you would like to have fries with your burger. To be submitted before Friday.”

“Oh come on! I wasn’t even asleep.” I protested, he raised a brow at me.

“Really then, what are we going to be covering in the coming two weeks?” he asked.

“We. Are. Going.” I stalled and looked around the class for some help, I noticed Cassie pointing at one of the demon heads, then at her mouth. “We are going to be covering the different ways you can cook a demon head for dinner,” I said with complete confidence

Cassie facepalmed as the class erupted into laughter. Crowley nodded and returned to the front of the class, “Three pages before Friday.”

“How is that even possible?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know, surprise me. Now moving on, in this course, we shall take a look at the different poisons and toxins that can be found in the lands of the Empire.”

The rest of the class was spent talking about poisons and their effects on the human body. Class ended and I walked out of the room, Cassie strolled over to me, “How did you manage to get dinner from ‘mouth’ and ‘Werewolf’?” she asked incredulously.

“How was I supposed to know what that meant?” I demanded, “I still don’t know what that means.”

“Wolfsbane is an incredibly potent poison you simpletin!” she smacked me across the head. “It is a wonder you ever made it this far in life.”

“Hey, that’s not very nice.” I sniffed, “I work hard.”

“You were sleeping in class!” she exclaimed, “for the second time no less.”

“Whatever.”

“Hey have you guys seen Val?” Noah asked and looked around. I grinned at him, “Oh miss her already?”

“Come on Ryze, I barely know her.”

“So? Alex and Arya met like two days ago, look at those two.”

Cassie shuddered, “Let’s not talk about them and their activities, we have a class to attend.”

“Yeah, that’s why I gotta find Val.” Noah said, I looked around and shrugged, “Can’t help you there man, you’re on your own.”

He sighed, “whatever, I’ll talk to her next class.”

“By the way what is our next class?”

“You have a pad! So use it.” Cassie said exasperated, “that’s like the third time I’ve said that.”

“Yeah but I could also ask you and not deal with the hassle of pulling it out.”

“Oh this will be good,” Noah said and we turned to him, “Combat class with Ms. Mallory.”

“Shit.”