Training. Non-stop physical exercise. People are yelling everywhere. As the body grows numb, so does the mind. The yells give the directions, but there are no questions. Everyone follows the instructions, moving in sync with each other. The body and mind are being broken down and built back up. A warrior of the battlefield is being created.
It's difficult, but he chose to be here and do this even after he knew it would happen like this. The half a hell-hole he was legally forced to still call home for the moment was far away now. Once he got through this it would be a new chapter in his life. The yells guided his steps and actions with precision. The once constant smile he had always worn was gone already. He would be a machine when he needed to be, a warrior when told to be, and a working cog in the gears of the background when he wasn't.
He was learning to move better, fight better, use weapons better, and how to care for himself and his own equipment quickly and efficiently. It was mostly repetitive, but it eventually required less and less thought while being quicker and easier to do. Many complained in the first week or 2, but he never really did. This was all better than before now as far as he was concerned. No need to think too much, just move. Pain meant little to nothing. He had been unhappy and felt emotionally broken for so long before he came here, even though he wore a smile in front of everyone. Now the smile was gone, his body hurt almost constantly, people yelled at him continuously, and he could barely think.
He felt kind of happy.
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Marik woke up from another one of those strange dreams. He was starting to get a little used to them, at least. Whenever he felt that strange sort of tired before falling asleep is when the stronger ones would come and leave him some new idea by the time he woke up again. This time he could kind of understand what a machine was. He also had a vague idea about how the training he had basically experienced during that dream felt. It was all kind of weird.
Now that he was awake, he should probably get up.
Marik jumped out of bed, stretched lightly, and journeyed to the dining table where a piece of meat awaited him as breakfast. It wasn't much, but at least it was something. He had barely seen his family recently. He caught glances of his siblings outside on occasion, but they hadn't returned home as far as he knew. His parents were usually out doing adult things before he woke up and would only come home right before he went to sleep again.
It had taken 3 days to find him in the forest and he had been in bed for almost a moon before he was able to get up. Now it was 8 days later, and he had missed the night-hunt. The good news was that now his body was fully healed and felt stronger than ever. The bad news was his throat was not better and had gotten worse.
If he wasn't talking then his throat felt a little scratchy but mostly ok. He could even hum just a little. When he tried to talk, however, he ended up with 2 voice sounds at the same time. There was this really high scratchy screech that made everyone's ears hurt no matter how quiet he tried to make it and it made his throat feel like someone was trying to claw their way out. At the same time was a lower rumbly voice that was harder to hear and understand the quieter he tried to be, which made a tickly feeling in his throat that wasn't much better.
Trying to talk to people and explain things was now almost a game that included few sounds and a lot of movement. When he had tried to tell the story of what happened during that first night-hunt, it had taken almost all morning and few if any specifics were conveyed. Ultimately it had been his mother throwing out a bunch of guesses about what he was trying to say who figured enough of it out that everyone could understand.
'I followed the group. They broke my leg. I fell in a hole. I broke my arm. There was a whole day and nobody came. I tried to go home.'
There were a lot of details missing and nobody seemed happy with the story, but he wasn't asked about it any further. These days he seemed to be mostly left alone.
Marik finished his breakfast and decided that he might as well try and do something to keep from getting too bored. He assumed he was still allowed to go outside as long as it wasn't too far. Running in circles around the den was definitely not the most exciting activity he had ever done, but he did enjoy running and there was little else to do. As he was running around outside, he saw Beta wave and start walking towards him as if she wanted to talk.
Marik stopped running and waved back.
"Good morning. I see you're finally healthy again. I heard about how you still can't really talk, so you can just nod. I won't lecture you about excuses since that's for your parents to do, but I don't really dislike you or anything. I have children of my own, so even I understand that a cub will be a cub. I realize it's aggravating knowing the limits, especially so young, but you should know that being among the hunters and fighters isn't the only thing there is. Do you understand?"
Marik thought about it for a little bit. Was there any part of what she said that he understood? His parents hadn't said anything about any kind of excuses so far, so he didn't really understand that part. He'd been hearing a lot of people mention some limit or other around him recently, but nobody bothered to explain what they were talking about so he still couldn't understand that either. As for things other than being a hunter or fighter, that was something he hadn't heard about until now. His mother was a hunter before she became Den Mother, and his father might be the best fighter in addition to being a really good hunter, so all the stories he'd heard and known were about hunters and fighters and he couldn't quite understand what else there might be. Realizing he did not, in fact, understand any of what she was talking about, Marik shook his head.
"You don't, huh? I mean, you are still young, so..." Beta sighed lightly, lost in her own thoughts. "Alright, it might still be a little early, but since it'll happen anyway we might as well get started. Follow me."
Marik still didn't understand, but he followed behind Beta obediently. At the edge of the village in the opposite direction from the night-hunt clearing was what appeared to be a large den made of a bunch of small dens smashed together. Along with the normal rock and clay that the usual dens were made of, there were even parts of trees stuck in various places. A large man, only slightly smaller but definitely older than Marik's father, came out of the entrance to greet them as they approached.
"Greetings Beta. Is there something I can do for you?"
"Omega Gilik, this boy, Marik, has already had his limits recognized. I thought it best that he get started here early."
"This young?" A sad look spread across Omega Gilik's face.
"Indeed. Marik, from now on you should come here every day for your training. I leave him to you, Omega."
Beta turned around and walked back into the village, leaving Marik behind with his new mentor. Omega Gilik sighed and motioned for Marik to follow him into the large building. Marik spent the next while being shown around and introduced to the craftsmen, cooks, and retired elderly of the village. It was kind of interesting to see where all the things he had taken for granted actually came from. Omega Gilik winced the one time Marik had tried to speak, but after figuring out that it was some kind of throat injury the rest of the introductions and explanations were done with no more speaking required.
"It's getting about that time for you to head home, boy. I think I might have some ideas about that throat problem you got, so when you come tomorrow we'll see about starting to work on that. Come early tomorrow."
With that, Marik was sent back towards home. As he was walking back home, thinking that it would be nice to talk again after all, he saw the group of Alpha's children chatting amongst themselves in his path. One of them noticed him as he came closer and pointed him out the rest of them.
"Look, it's the useless weak guy."
"Where do you guys think he's headed to this late?"
"He's coming from the crafter's place, so maybe he thinks he's heading home?"
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"Wait. Maybe he doesn't know that his family kicked him out yet."
Marik suddenly became confused. He didn't remember ever getting kicked out of anywhere by his family. He was even told to go back home just minutes before. Maybe the group just didn't know about that. Either way the confusion apparently showed on his face.
"Look, he's all confused now. He probably thought he was going to actually do the night-hunt still, you know."
Marik nodded at that, since of course he was still going to the next night-hunt. The group in front of him just laughed.
"No way. He really thought that. Hey, Onal, shouldn't we try to help the poor idiot understand what's going on?"
"You're right. Look here kid. The crafter place only takes people in when they got kicked out of their home because their family don't want them anymore. You're stupid and useless, so you'll never be allowed on another hunt because you're too weak. Go back to the crafter place. Now."
Marik started to feel angry. His family had never told him they were getting rid of him, so that had to be wrong. He was NOT weak. He'd never lost to his siblings, and even his father had once commented on how strong he was. He was going to go home and ask about all this now just to be sure. That meant he was not going back to the crafter place.
"NO!"
The whole group visibly winced from the high voice being shouted loudly. A look of incredulity and anger filled the face of Alpha's son, Onal.
"No? Did you just tell me, the next Alpha, no? That's a challenge to my authority, right? I thought you might have learned your position during the night-hunt, but it seems we need to teach you better."
Marik didn't even have a full second to understand before the entire group pulled out their weapons and charged at him, with Onal staying slightly further back to lazily poke him with a spear when possible. Marik might not have had fighting or hunting training yet, but if they wanted to fight then he would fight and prove himself. He was strong.
As 2 swords came at him, he stepped back some to dodge and then stepped forward again, throwing off their aim slightly. Tiak and the other one each had a staff. Tiak's staff come down for his head while the other staff aimed for his legs. From a slight distance away Onal poked with his spear towards Marik's gut. Marik managed to hurriedly knock the spear point away and turn his legs sideways so that the low staff hit muscle and didn't break his shins. Tiak still clobbered him in full, though, which made Marik even angrier.
He leapt forward towards Tiak, which gave her a chance to hastily throw a punch at his face. Luckily the punch only got his cheek and wasn't enough of a hit to throw his charge off. Marik was angry and annoyed that most, if not all, injuries for the last several moons all seemed to be Tiak's fault and he really wanted to pay her back right now. Apparently none of the group thought he would last even a second much less charge in to attack back because they all had surprised faces and reacted somewhat slowly. That slight amount of time gave Marik the chance to throw a full force punch straight into Tiak's face.
Tiak went down. In a 1 versus 5 fight, Marik had still managed to knock down the girl who had been doing the most and he felt proud of his accomplishment. Then there was a loud sound of 2 solid objects colliding, accompanied by a massive headache and blurry vision, and then darkness. He was rudely brought back to full consciousness by the ground as it met his face. Suddenly there was extra weight on his back and he turned his head just enough to see the 2 with swords each holding him down from either side with one of their feet while pointing their swords at his neck.
"Don't move or you die," said Onal as he helped Tiak back up.
"Just kill him anyway," said Tiak with blood dripping from her mouth and nose.
"I got a better idea. I'll be right back."
Onal sprinted off while the rest of them glared at him angrily. Marik had the feeling that if he even twitched right now, they might really stab him in the neck with their swords. Onal came sprinting back fairly soon holding a little jar.
"Hey. How did you get Exile Ink?"
"I just asked father and he handed it to me. Don't worry, mother taught me how to use it."
Marik was still feeling a little dazed. He'd vaguely heard something about how exile worked, where they put a special ink that slowly erased the ancestral markings and made it so that they could never be marked again. The problem was that he had no markings yet, since he wasn't even close to 10 years old. Was it possible to even be exiled by removing markings that he didn't yet have?
"Hold him still. I don't want to miss."
Onal pulled a needle out of the top of the jar that dripped with a cloudy yellow liquid. Dip, stab, stab. Onal poked the needle all over his body, occasionally reapplying the liquid. Whatever the Exile Ink was, it made it feel like fire was crawling all over his body just under the skin. His head was still spinning from getting hit, and the pain from the Exile Ink being poked into him from all over only intensified. By the time his body was turned over to apply it to the front as well, Marik had already passed out.
"What happened here?!"
Marik woke up to the sound of shouting and the feeling of being dragged by his arms. He was suddenly dropped, which allowed him to look up and see his father coming out from his den, where he had apparently been dragged to, while Beta, who was the one who shouted, ran over to her children and their group that were surrounding Marik on the ground.
"He challenged me, so I fought him," said Onal as if it were the most natural thing to have happened.
"Why is Tiak bleeding, then?"
"That's the worst part," came Onal's voice slightly lower as anger flashed across his face. "He couldn't even get close to hitting me, so he suddenly jumped towards her and punched her in the face. Naro got mad and immediately knocked him out after that."
Marik didn't hear anything after that. He was suddenly picked up and thrown over his father's shoulder, which made the headache and burning flare up again. Just before he lost consciousness, though, he realized something. He had wanted to show that he was as strong as he always thought he was. Instead he had been beaten down into submission in mere moments. They had been right all along. He was weak.
When Marik woke up the next morning, nobody was home like normal. He didn't even glance at the table as he walked towards the door, as breakfast was the furthest from his mind. He trudged outside and began walking to the crafter place. He understood now that he was weak, but there were still other things he didn't understand. He needed to ask about those things, which meant he needed to be able to speak again. Omega Gilik said he could help, so for now he would stop trying to think about or understand, kind of like the him from his dreams, and instead focus on speaking again and learning things at the crafter place.
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The past 7 days had gone by before Marik even knew it. He went to the crafter place as soon as he woke up every morning. Omega Gilik would give him weird things made from plants to drink and strange little rocks to suck on or eat that he called 'candy'. They tried various things like massaging and screaming and whispering as well. It seemed to be working, because sometimes he could manage to get only one of the 2 voices to come out instead of both at once.
While they worked on getting his speaking back, Marik was also being made to run around while doing and learning a lot of things. Mostly he just did the little errands that everyone needed done, like bringing this box to that person and such. Whenever he wasn't running around, one of the crafters would show him how they did what they did and make him help out in small ways. He had to keep focusing on trying to speak throughout it all, though, which often made it difficult to focus on what the crafters wanted him to do or learn. He was slowly picking some things up and everyone was very patient with him.
By the time he got home each evening, he was so tired that he fell asleep as soon as he reached his bed. He hadn't seen any of his family the whole time. They weren't home when he woke up and left or when he came back to sleep. The only indicator they had ever even been around was the small breakfast on the table each morning.
This morning, however, when he went to the dining table his parent were sitting there. His father still looked angry, but his mother looked worried and sad. His father beckoned him over, so Marik walked up to him.
"Marik, do you understand what you did wrong?"
Marik thought it through. Maybe his father was talking about how he had failed all the tests. Before he could think much further than that or try and ask, though, his father sighed a little.
"You will not be allowed on the night-hunt."
Marik froze. His thoughts suddenly sped up while his body remained stiff as a board. Had he failed so much that he was no longer allowed any more chances? Was that group, as mean as they had seemed, actually right all along? Was his father throwing him away? He needed to ask. Most of the practice he had been doing seemed to suddenly disappear in his panic, but he still squeezed out a word.
"Failed?"
His father seemed to think about what Marik was asking for a brief moment before answering.
"Yes. You failed."
His father seemed to want to say a little more, but now Marik had to know something first.
"Leave?"
His father closed his mouth and stared at Marik. Marik could tell that tears were forming already. He wanted his father to just say that he didn't have to leave. He hoped that the group hadn't been right. It had been proven that he was weak, but it didn't mean he wasn't wanted. His father finally seemed to come to an answer to whatever questionable conflict was in his mind and nodded.
"Go on."
Marik's heart broke. He held back the tears until he was outside, but he couldn't remember even one step of the walk to the crafter place. The next thing he knew Omega Gilik was in front of him just inside the building asking what was wrong and if he was ok.
"Thrown out."
That was all Marik could say, but it seemed to be enough. Omega Gilik stopped asking anything and led him to a room with a bed before gently placing him on it. Omega Gilik gently patted his shoulder, then slowly stood up and began walking out of the room,
"Sleep today. We'll talk later."
Marik cried a little longer, then fell asleep. When he woke up again that evening, Omega Gilik was sitting in a chair nearby, sipping a drink. After noticing that Marik had woken up, voice training began again. This time, though, Omega Gilik made him train his voice by answering all questions slowly, carefully, and with as much detail as possible. Each time his voice cracked or split he was forced to start the sentence over.
By the time morning came, Marik was able to speak small sentences slowly and Omega Gilik had heard almost every detail about Marik's life for the past 3 moons.