"Wake up paides!" Eiren Tobias screams loudly and our sleeping quarters unit all walks out. We look around and see we are the only ones to be called outside.
"Today is very important! Today you all will hunt and whoever has caught the biggest game will be awarded with the fact that you are better than everyone else!" Everyone looks at each other as Eiren Tobias's word marks home for many. Many boys puff out their chests eyeing their competition, many side-eying Nikolaos.
"The hunt will now commence! No weapons are allowed from the base, only the ones you make yourself!" Eiren Tobias finishes his speech pointing his finger to the forest East of our camp. The boys all begin to follow the finger with likely no other thought but to compete and win. The group then turns to me with Nikolaos scratching his head and Georgios rubbing his head.
"What should we do?" Nero asks, looking back and forth between the forest and us.
"Well, we could get hurt if we split up… I say we all stay together and so we can work as a team and take down the largest animal we can find. Once we return we can then return and offer it to Eiren Tobias." Everyone gives me a confused face and a nervous smile.
"He didn't say for us to work as a team though Damon… and also even if we did do that wouldn't it mean he only would give one person credit?" Georgios asks and I place a comforting shoulder on him.
"That's why when he tries to give one person credit we then cut the hunt into fourths. They have been teaching us to work as a unit not as a singular consciousness so why would they switch that up now?" Everyone's faces switch up and even Nikolaos gives an unusual dopey smile messing up my hair.
"Alright, so should we catch up with everyone else?" Nero asks and I shake my head no.
"No, because they are scaring all the game away by stomping and loudly trying to outcompete each other. We are going to go in the opposite direction." I point south to the forest that everyone else in our whole class completely neglected.
Everyone nods and we begin to walk south and make it deeper and deeper. I pick up a sharp rock and carve marks on the tree to make sure we don't get lost and notice Georgios doing the same.
"Remember guys we need to be silent. Yet before that, we need to all find sticks and rocks." No one questions my statement as we all quietly search and find. We then all huddle up showing what we have found. Nikolaos carries a comically large tree branch with no rock while I carry a large-sized stick and a rock fit for whittling it. Nero and Georgios both return with medium-sized sticks and good rocks as well.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
We all begin to whittle our sticks with our rocks into wooden spears while Nikolaos practices his swing giving a nice whoosh each time. Eventually, we all finish and begin to walk forward in a triangle position. I stand in the middle with Georgios and Nero covering my flanks. Nikolaos hovers in the back like an unsung golem ready to go on a rampage.
After hours of patiently walking silently, we hear a break in the wind. We motion each other in the direction and set our eyes on a stray female deer. It's massive size easily being over 200 pounds.
I motion Nikolaos to take the lead if he can properly throw his branch onto the deer's head it could likely stun it long enough for us to all stab it. Nikolaos readies his aim with sweat dripping down his tanned head until..
.
It hits! The deer stumbles dazed as we all run at the deer. Even Nikolaos grabs a stray rock to help as I stab her deep in the neck. I use all my strength thrusting it deeper and deeper as she winces in pain. She finally drops as we all soak in sweat lying down for 10 minutes.
"By Zeus we are lucky!" Georgios pumps his hands into the air while laying down his hair now out of his face.
"I agree, just imagine if it was a male we would've been goners!" Nero laughs with a nervous tone as he looks at our successful hunt.
"Hah I beg to differ! We could have easily taken a male down and if we were lucky we could keep the awesome horns as well! Like those cool hunt stories they used to tell us!" Nikolaos can't hold back his excitement and we all begin to stand back up. We all grab a leg of the deer with Nikolaos and I being on opposite sides to make up for the lack of strength Georgios and Nero have. It takes a stressful amount of time and we take several breaks as we make it back to our camp with the help of Georgios and I's tree markings. We all give relieved smiles and then drop the deer in front of our Eiren.
"So you all worked together?"
"Yes sir!" We all say in union with private smirks while glancing at our hard work.
"Hmmm I didn't expect this…"
"Sir we can split the game 4 ways as each one worked to kill it!" Georgios shouts breaking the usual silence in front of instructors bringing Eiren to nod in agreement.
Eventually, after the day begins to set everybody comes back. Most return with nothing or a few old hares. Leaving our group with the victory with our reward being our time spent together furthering our teamwork.
"Now there is another reason why we have hunted today…" The Eiren patiently speaks, leading us all to hang onto his next words. "Tomorrow we are expecting to have guests and thanks to the few that managed decent results we can properly satiate them. Now everyone go ahead and retrieve your rations!" We all pick up our more meager rations and eventually fall asleep.
"Wake up paides! Today is just as special as yesterday!' Eiren Tobias screams loudly making us all wake up. We walk out ready for what the day holds apart from all of us holding in our yawns. As our eyes look onward we see large tables with food and even the rare appearance of our paidonomos like yesterday.
"Two days ago the king himself requested to mentor Nikolaos our agoges Bomonike. The same will happen for all of you today! A dance will take place for the whole day for your male suitors to interact with you paides. The same males that saw all of you yesterday during the day of our Bomonike. It is your choice to accept the men that want you or not but beware it is required to find your erastes." Eiren Tobias finishes and a group of Spartan men equal to our own approaches us by march with the king Agesilaus at its head.