The returning soldiers line the caskets near the center of the camp so the one who stayed can see the fallen one last time.

The Boss himself comes to get Arnold.

“Arnold, come with me.” Says the boss.

Arnold clenches his fist and follows the boss. I go after them along with some other people. A lot of soldiers are opening passage to him and the boss. And after a bit of walking they stop, probably his family caskets.

I get as near them as I can.

“Boy, I am sorry, if I had been faster I could have helped them” says the boss with a sad voice.

“What happened?” Asked Arnold.

“The enemy attacked our back line with monsters and used hostages from a village nearby who helped us a little. Only a small part of their group still was that far back as they were resting that day. They fought, rescued and defended the villagers against the enemies till the end. They were able to defeat them but fell because of injuries. By the time we got word of what happened and got back everything was already over, the villagers were the only ones there and they told us what happened, how those two protected them with their bodies and the other there soon followed. If they didn’t defeat that group we probably would have a lot more bodies today.” Explains the Boss.

Arnold is looking at the caskets, probably looking at his parents one last time so he can remember them.

“That day they truly were heroes.” Says the Boss.

Small groups of people start to pay respects to Arnold’s parents and to him. This takes several minutes and a lot of people are doing the same to the others.

After everyone says their final goodbyes, the mass burial starts. The soldiers start to close a section of terrain outside the camp with wall of dark cloth so the medics can dispose properly of the bodies without other people being able to see it as it looks like not everyone is with all their body parts.

The boss guides Arnold somewhere and strangely Aria also guides me to the same place. We are both guided to the Boss tent. I have never been here, it’s full of paper, books and weapons. Also this tent is a lot bigger than the ones used by other people, it’s bigger than the couples tents.

“Before I talk with you about what I need to, here!” The Boss gives Arnold a sword and a monocle.

“Those were from your mom and dad, those items were the only possessions they had on the field that we were able to get that where still in a acceptable state, they are yours now.”

Arnold looks a little overwhelmed but holds up as the Boss has something else, this time for both of us.

“The why may be different for both of you, but I need to ask. Do you still want to stay here? If you stay here one day it could be you out there.” Says the Boss.

“If any of you two decide to leave we have people who can take care of you.” Injects Aria.

“Yes, I want to stay here, I won’t be able to become a commander of the Purple Dragons if I am not here.” Says Arnold with full confidence.

“Yes, you all are here, why would I go anywhere else?” I say.

The Boss and Aria look at us for a moment and accept our answers.

“Then from now on you both of you must stay healthy and strong so in the future you can be trained.” Says the Boss.

“No, we want to train now.” Says Arnold.

“Yeah, train us or we can’t use the dummy area anymore.” I energetically say.

“What do you mean?” Asks the Boss.

“I killed a dummy and now we can’t go there anymore.”

“Well, they said if someone trained us we could use the area.” Injects Arnold.

“I will take a look on that, for now go get ready so we can pay our final respect to the fallen, especially you boy, the souls of them will only go further the more time passes. If you want to say something to them the sooner the better.” Says the Boss.

After that we both leave the Boss tent and go to Arnold Tent where I help him store his sword and monocle somewhere safe since he doesn't know how the monocle works and almost can’t hold the sword even with my help.

“Can you leave me alone for awhile? I promise to find you when we start the burial ceremony.” Arnold asks me.

I just nod my head and go back to my tent. On my way there I receive instructions to put on my best clothing so I start to see what I have. Most of my clothes are actually boy’s clothes, with the exception of the two cotton dresses I use to sleep and my pieces of underwear. Nothing I have is really the best thing I have so I am kinda lost on what to do. I spend at least an hour trying to decide on something as this ceremony seems to be pretty important to the people here and I don’t want to look disrespectful. During my pondering Aria appears in my tent dressed in a very beautiful white one piece dress that goes all the way to her ankles where its a little bag in mot places. Except on her boobs and hips, there it’s the perfect size.

“Lucia I brought this to you, let me help you dress up.” Says Aria with what I can only describe as a white lollita dress.

After a painful 10 minutes of Aria putting me in the dress and trying to do things with my current short hair that are not possible we leave the tent together.

Fancy shoes seem to be hard to get so me using my normal leather sandals is not really a problem since by what I am seeing most people, while using some really fancy clothes like dresses and suits, still are using military or casual leather shoes or sandals. Luckily today is not raining, but I feel people would just put up with it even if it started to rain.

A few minutes later everyone begins to gather near the place where the corpses were buried. As he said he would, Arnold found me. He is in some kind of tuxedo, seems a little big for him, but he did something and it is fitting him now.

We stand near the front row of this group along with some other kids, we are in a way that looks like someone will give us a show. There is a little stage in front of us so everyone is making sure we don't spread too much from there.

When it looks like everyone is here The Boss goes up the stage and burn some kind of paper talisman, after that when he begins to speak I can hear him like he is talking in front of me even if he is a little far.

“Now we are going to pay our respects for the fallen one last time, while their souls can still hear us, let’s hold hands and show that even in death we are still family and pray our last messages for them..”

Everyone holds hands and begins to do a silent prayer. During this time I can feel energy passing through me. It’s magic energy, a lot of it, the prayers of everyone are using magic energy for some reason. When I felt it, I started to do a little prayer too. I didn’t know any of them personally so I can’t pray for something they probably wanted done, all I can do is pray that the gods help their souls find peace with more competence than they did for me.

A few minutes of prayers later the Boss starts to talk again. This time with a bottle of wine in his hand.

“Purple Dragons!” He says addressing everyone. “This is the first time losses of this type happened in the history of this group and I feel like I have to address it with something.”

People are standing there really curious, me included.

“Most of you just accept the name of our group, but you don’t really know the meaning behind it. You see, more than two decades ago when I still was a young man I lived in a place that is now erased from the map all the way in the south, just before the Snow Line.

There the great Poison Dragon Bleak once lived.”

People are really paying attention now.

“Contrary to what most people think, dragons are not evil by nature, in fact they can be better than most people, it was the case for Bleak. During all my life there he protected our village from both monsters and other people, all in exchange for some cooked meat from time to time. As long as we didn’t do anything to him or the forest surrounding our village, he would do his best to help us. One day another dragon showed up, one more powerful than him, and that dragon attacked my village. Bleak doing what no one thought he would do, fought the other dragon and drove it away, but he was mortally wounded in that fight. Before he succumbed to his wounds my elder asked him why he did that, and for the first and last time he talked with us”

“I want to be a hero, to be a hero you need to do good things for good people, right?”

“Sadly the village itself was destroyed but everyone survived because of him. His words stuck with and I too set out to the world to try and become a hero. But being a hero is hard, even more if you are a missfit to the society around you, if you are weak, if you are poor.”

“Along my journey I found good people who wanted to do good, bad people who didn’t want to be bad anymore and all in between. Before I knew this group was formed, I choose the name Purple Dragons in memory of Bleak, so I could strive to be like him, to try to be as powerful as possible to protect and help those that need and deserve that help even in the face of overwhelming power.”

Everyone is kinda standing in silence.

“Now let’s celebrate, let’s celebrate that we are still alive,that we won this battle, and the memory of the fallen!” The boss empty the bottle in his hand on the ground. After that everyone gives a big cheer and a party begins.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Some soldiers are playing music and singing, lots of people are dancing, there is a lot of good food I didn’t know we had. Every type of meat you can imagine as well salad strangely enough. They even gave candy to us kids, it was pretty much a sugar ball with some honey, but it is still candy. Everyone is talking about the last battle they had, the little information I could get besides the exaggerations of how they fought was that another kingdom just teleported a large army somewhere and that's why so many of us had to go last time.

This party finished early to my surprise. I thought that people would party until they got wasted, but no, they actually stopped after a while and just went to sleep, or the red tents to alleviate their tensions. Not that no one got wasted, but those were the one who couldn’t handle alcohol anyway, mostly the younger soldiers. Looks like you become an adult at the age of 15 in this world. I hope it’s not super disrespectful to turn down drinks when you are older, I hated drinking and I don’t think this will change even in this life and it’s probably bad for my body, even here.

During the party the kids pretty much ate a little and after that we had nothing to do since most adults wouldn’t talk to us like normal so we just played cards in someone’s tent until it was bedtime.

--//--

Next morning the day started a little later, except for the guards of the camp, everyone else got an hour or two of extra sleep.

This morning was a massive bath rush. Everyone usually takes a bath before sleeping but most people just went to sleep yesterday so the smell of sweat and tears is strong, too strong in fact, the medical team is screaming at people for them to take a bath and fast.

After some help from Besta I was able to take a discreet bath and was told to go to the training area after I changed. When I arrived there the Boss and some other guys were there along with Arnold.

“Good morning Boss, Good Morning Arnold, Good morning people.” I say.

“Good morning” They all reply.

“All right, you two said you wanted to be trained right?” Asks the Boss.

Both me and Arnold just nod our heads.

“Then you two need to keep up with these guys at least, do what they do and if you can you will be trained. Now begin.”

The group of 6 men all in metal armor start to run really fast. Me and Arnold go after them. We both have a lot of stamina but we are slow compared to adults so it’s not much long before they have a big lead on us.

Before we know we are leaving camp and into the forest on the other side of the camp. Looks like there is some type of obstacle course here where you need to dodge traps and such. Let me tell you something, that was hard.

The first obstacle was a pit where you had to either jump over it or use the rope tied to a tree branch to swing across it. Arnold used the rope and I used my sword to get some more impulse for the jump since I couldn’t hold the rope with just one hand. It has become a rule that I must walk around with my sword because for some reason people are drawn to it and try to pick it up.

After we both passed the first obstacle and fell face first in the dirt we continued to run the course, now without being able to see the group ahead of us.

The second obstacle was a little far away than the last one, we couldn’t see one from the other, which was something shared by all the obstacles, that way you couldn’t plan ahead of time, by the time you saw it you had to think quickly.

This one was a bunch of logs making a type of straight maze where if you could move to the sides while still going forward you could pass this one really fast. Both me and Arnold hit the last log on our path just before the exit. You couldn’t see that one until you were face to face with it. After recovering from the impact we continued.

The third obstacle was to climb a rock. This one I needed some help, I had to put the sword in my mouth and Arnold had to tell me where were the places I could hold on to. Also I needed his help to reach the top, I was short a few centimeters. After that we just jump onto a bunch of leaves that make us not take damage from the fall.

The fourth obstacle was another pit. This one we had to walk on bamboo sticks without falling. This one was easy, we were light enough that the bamboo pretty much was just holding one enough that it was actual footting for us.

The fifth one was to swim across a man made pond. I never really swam in this life but it wasn’t that hard, Arnold on the other hand had some struggles but powered through and crossed not long before me.

Now wet we finally reached the last obstacle, we just had to pass through a cave and the finish line was on the other side. At least that was what the sign we found said.

The cave itself was not bad, you almost couldn’t see anything but the light on both ends of the cave was always visible so we knew where to go. We tripped more than a few times on cave roots but nothing serious.

After a few minutes we finally reach the end where we end up in a part of the forest that was cleared. we were also a lot more dried up than we expected. A perfect circle was formed with the cut trees, fitting for the finish line. There we started to look for the others.

“Hey, we are here!” Screamed Arnold.

“Oooi! We finished the race.” I screamed.

We did it a few times but no one came.

“I think we are in the wrong place.” I said to Arnold.

“Me too, let’s go back.”

At that moment we heard a growl coming from the woods and in moments a wolf puppy came out of the trees. Panic hit us.

Wolves in this world are really big, big enough for people to ride. A wolf puppy is around our size, so it’s not small.

“Shit.” It is the only thing I can say before the wolf jump on us.

Arnold jumped on top of me while pushing me to the side so we both dodge the wolf. Luckily for us the wolf hit it’s head on the fall so we have a few moments to be ready for the next pounce. Running is not an option, that thing is way faster than us.

“Lucia, explode him, like you did before.”

“How!?” I ask confused. That thing will not just stay put while I hit him.

“I will get his attention, you be ready to strike.” He says with a clearly scared face.

I just nod my head, adrenaline is rushing and I can’t make words that would explain how much I think this is a bad idea, but it’s either that or slowly be cornered by that animal. I prefer the one where we have a chance of survival.

“Come get me you overgrown dog!” Screamed Arnold while throwing a rock at the wolf and running towards the cave. This got his attention for sure, he is ignoring me completely.

Arnold is now with his back against the wall of the cave entrance, I was able to close in on the wolf’s back but he is ready to charge again and he does. This time again Arnold dodges and the wolf attack and I run and try to slash him, but nothing happens, I hit him that’s for sure, but I couldn’t do that much damage, mostly a superficial cut.

Panic hit us again, we freeze with what happened and the wolf is back up and charging at me now. Before I can move Arnold tackles me to the side and the wolf cut his left arm a little in place of me. It doesn’t look like that was a deep cut but he is bleeding.

“AHHHH!” Arnold screams in pain.

This somewhat makes the wolf go back a little, just for enough time so I can get back up and Arnold can regroup with me.

“Let’s try again.” Says Arnold while picking more rocks from the ground.

I can’t say anything again. I am scared of that thing but Arnold is serious, he really thinks I can defeat that thing. Lucia’s souls give me complete control. All this time I let her be in command so she could get some experience, but this is beyond her, fear is taking control and if any more do, she will die, she knows it.

Now with me complete in command I ignore Arnold’s pain, I ignore my fear, all that matters right now is that wolf. Arnold believes in me and I will believe in him.

“Ok, let’s go but this time don’t stop until we win.” I say to Arnold

He nods his head and we begin.

He picks pebbles and rocks from the ground and keeps throwing them at the wolf non-stop. This gives me the chance to hit it from time to time. This animal is dumb, probably is not that old. If it was just a little experienced we would be dead. He keeps changing his target to the one who is the most pain to him at the moment. Little by Little wounds appear on him, there is blood in my sword now, fur is on the ground and the wolf is getting angrier and angrier. His moves are now predictable, sometimes even the rocks do some damage to him. But things didn’t stay smooth for that long.

When the wolf’s rage reached its peak he started to glow a strange light around him before I knew what happened the wolf vanished before our eyes and was in front of me. He bit my left arm. It hurts a lot. I never felt so much pain in my past or actual life.

“Ahhh, Get of of me!” I scream in pain. But he just put some pressure on the bite.

Arnold comes rushing in with a big rock he needed his two hands to even pick up and start hitting the wolf with it desperately.

“Get away from her!” He screams in anger while hitting the wolf in the face.

Thanks to him the wolf let go of me. I ignore the pain, It doesn’t exist, not now!

I stab one of his eyes with the sword while Arnolds rock seems to have done something to his nose. The wolf is lost for a few seconds, Arnold helps me to get up but by that time the wolf is charging at us again. Arnold just stand in front of me and takes the attack. The wolf bite his arm again this time severing it from his body. While he is falling to the ground Arnold looks at me and say.

“Now!.”

The wolf is in front of me, he can’t defend now. Until this point no matter how I tried to hit this wolf it didn’t have the power I displayed before. But this time it’s not an option, this slash will kill this wolf, I don’t care if this is the power of the sword, mine, the gods or it was just pure luck, I will not die here, we will not die here, I refuse to let this happen.

Using my damaged arm I pick the sword and swing with all my power.

“DIE!” I scream.

The wolf is cut in half, it didn’t have the same power as before but it was enough.

I fall to the ground, the wounds on my arm opened and I am bleeding just as much as Arnold now.

“Did we win?” He asks with a weak voice.

“Yes.” I answer also in a weak voice.

“Good, i’m tired…” And he just faint.

I try my best to do something but I also don’t have much longer, for the first time body exhaustion hits me. I am falling asleep, probably because of blood loss. I pray that we are saved, we won, we deserve something, don’t we?.

--//--

I wake up in a bed, Arnold is in a bed right on my right making this look like a couples bed. He has both arms again. Were we saved? If so, by who? As I wake I begin to think and the realisation that we probably went the wrong way finally hit me. But I can’t do much, my body aches from head to toes. I am still light headed and out of breath. I try to leave the bed but my legs don’t answer me, and my arms almost don’t.

I stop trying to get up. The tent we are is closed, so I don’t know where we are. There is no noise outside, so it’s possible that someone else not from the camp found us.

An amount of time I can’t quantify later Arnold also wakes up but the only thing we can do is look at each other and shake our heads a little. We are too weak to even talk. Not much later the tent is opened and Aria and some other girls from the medical team enter. As they start to try to heal both of us they see we are awake.

One of the girls goes outside and screams.

“They woke up!.”

Loud cheer noises are heard outside.

Aria grab us and hugs us both while crying.

“Thanks gods, I was so worried, if you didn’t wake up I don’t know what I, what we would have done” While crying.

The cheers outside continue and all the emotions that were bottled until know in both me and Arnold just flows. We were both really scared, we could have died and almost did. We cry our fears, our anger, how painful it was, how much we didn’t want to experience that again and how glad we were to be alive. We cried it all, cried until we felt asleep again while in the arms of Aria.