Today is the 28th of Pisces, the camp is preparing for the new year’s celebration and I am reading a book about history. I finally found the year we are in, it’s the year 236 of the Golden Era. A new era begins every time something that affects the world happens. Last time was the advancement of magic and the creation of technology. What that technology is I have no idea, the book isn’t about modern history so all I get is the name of the age, and how long it lasted. There was an Iron Age and a Silver Age. Both were around 1000 years each. The iron age was when demons were controlling the planet for the most part. The Silver age was when every race got their place to live in away from each other and the Golden age as said before, was when advancements were made in magic and technology. After reading that I got the year we are now by asking people. It took a while, most people don’t care.
It has been a few months since the wolf incident, a lot happened between that and now, and at the same time nothing really happened either.
If one hundred people were needed to leave the camp it was a big number. The movements of the bandits and the other nations slowed down a little and they probably went underground, mostly it’s the scouts and spies working in the last few months.
The totality of the wolf fight aftermath is still a mystery to me and Arnold. We got a few details but they are not telling us everything. We got the basic picture but it’s just that.
Looks like we were in a coma for around two weeks. The one who found us was one of the scouts that was sent as part of the search team. By what we both heard the guys we were following tried to guide us to the easier obstacle course but they went ahead a little too fast and we both lost each other making me and Arnold go take the harder course because we didn’t find their trails. They thought that we just surrendered and went back to camp, but when they got there and we weren’t there, pretty much everyone imagined that we were lost in the forest or in the pits of the other courses. By the time the scout found us we had already bled pretty bad, there was a pool of blood beneath us. Going by what he said to us and we heard from other people, he had to run so fast to try and save us both that he almost broke his legs running due to the speed he achieved. Both me and Arnold received healing from magic and potions non-stop for about 10 days after he got us back to the camp and after that until a month ago we needed regular healing cast on us. Looks like healing can’t regenerate blood but it can lessen the symptoms of blood loss if you are constant healed. But even then, both of us couldn’t even leave our beds. We were still alive but that didn’t mean our bodies would be working like normal. Doing anything really was exhausting both physically, mentally and spiritually. I had to let Lucia stay on the command all this time. Looks like me taking control causes a little stress to the body, but even that little was too much on our current state. We also couldn’t talk more than a few words per day, which made things harder than it should. I felt like a baby again with the amount of help I needed from other people.
The group who lost us was punished in more than one way. We only hear second hand tales from other kids but a lot of the soldiers had to hold Aria and the Boss so they wouldn’t kill that group of soldiers. But this doesn’t mean they weren’t punished physically by at least one of them. By what the other kids told us, on one of the days we were still in a coma all the soldiers of that group appeared with bruised faces and some people saw Aria’s knuckles bloody.
Their other punishment, that was decided after we woke up, was that they had to pay for our treatment.
Blood transfusion is possible but really hard and needs to be done via magic by a specialist, which we have none and they are expensive. They also can’t really do much at one time, as it was explained to us by the guy treating us, that the magic he was using on us during treatment cost a lot of mana, the magic energy we all have inside our bodies, and he has to wait some time between sessions or our bodies would reject the treatment.
The treatment was him making a copy of our blood with magic and injecting it in our veins. He doesn’t know a way to identify other people's blood so normal transfusion was out of the question, especially for me, I had demon blood after all. The amount of blood he could create was reasonable but he had to divide that between me and Arnold so we didn’t receive that much blood per session. Also, he had to make sure that the blood he created was exactly the same as ours. Looks like blood rejection in this word is a little more brutal. There are more than 10 blood types between races and a lot of people have some mix between the types of bloods. If a body receives blood or something that needs blood like organs from a different type of blood than the host, the body strongly rejects it. In case of blood most of the time you will just bleed the blood that is different from yours from any hole your body can find in it, the other things that can happen where not told to us as by the good magic doctor, he only left a little message about it. ”Even I don’t like to think about it”.
The doctor was a really cool guy, he even tried to teach how to do the blood magic he uses but it looks like you need a lot of unique affinities with magic to be able to use it and no one in the camp had it, even the non-mages. He also is a little strange. He uses a lot of masks made out of wood that look like humanized animal faces. He said that it’s to protect his identity as his type of magic is really rare, if someone found him when he is not on a job, it will be really easy to kidnap him, he has 0 combat power but would bet his life on his skills with blood magic on a medical application. He also doesn't tell anyone his name, he is known as the Blood Doctor by other people, also for his protection he says. Which takes us to a little more than a month ago.
The treatment was working but at a snail's pace. Most of the blood he gave us simply evaporated in our bodies. We were recovering blood normally and a little more because of him, but not enough and not fast enough. The doctor was even ok with pay cuts as this looked like something that was beyond his abilities and he only noted that months after he started. But he finally got an idea of what was happening after closely examining us. Since we needed healing magic to stay alive, every time we received it while having the magic blood in us only for a short time, our body tried to work like normal pumping blood faster but since the blood made from his magic need a few days to assimilate on the body completely, our bodies were absorbing it as magic energy every time we received healing. For this to stop he had to fill us up with blood again but he didn’t have enough mana for that.
That was when the Blind Six were called to action. This was the name that the people in the camp gave to the six soldiers who lost us in the forest. They seem to have accepted their fate in all this.
They were tasked to get two big magic crystals. If you are good enough with magic you can use a magic crystal and the mana in it to use more mana than you would normally be able to. The fact that he needed the big ones meant we would do the treatment in one go. That way we wouldn’t need healing and the blood could assimilate.
It only took a week for the Blind Six to acquire the crystals, but they never told how. Most people just accepted it as they weren’t crazy enough to try anything that could tarnish the Purple Dragon’s name at this point.
After that the doctor used both crystals, draining them completely of mana and making a lot of blood, enough to fill both me and Arnold and transfused the blood to us. A few days later we were better, so much we could walk. The doctor checked on us one last time and went away as this job had taken him more time than he thought we would need.
Me and Arnold had to do some light rehabilitation. Thanks to the healing magic our muscles were maintained in the state they were before. We also had a growth spurt during this last month. The growth we should have had in our bodies during the time we were bedridden happened in the spawn of a few days. Let me tell you, growing up is painful.
I also had to be escorted to the place where we fought the wolf to take my sword back. It was attracting a lot of monsters for some reason. I felt really bad about having left my sword there all this time..
This now take us back to the present where everyone in the camp is preparing the new year’s celebration party, which is also Christmas and everyone’s birthday party at the same time. People here in the camp don’t celebrate their birthday on it’s day since there are too many people and constant partying is bad for the camp, so everyone just celebrates their birthdays in the New Year’s.
Even the kids give presents, but since I don’t have money and was unable to do pretty much anything for a long time, even after being discharged, I am just helping with what I can, which is usually delivering messages for other people after lunch when I finish reading.
“Lucia, can you go to the Training Area and see if anyone can help me put these tables there?” One of the cooks asked me while he was cleaning the tables we would be using.
“Yes!” I energetically say. I go running around asking everyone there if they can help. The training area is being cleaned. Some people who finished their part of the work there go help the cook.
“Hey, Lucia, can you go fetch one of the mages? We need to burn the trash.” One of the soldiers cleaning the training fields ask me.
“Yes sir.” I say while going around asking for any mages who can do the job.
The rest of my day went pretty much like this. Go find someone, tell this to someone, find something, etc… At the end of the day I finally feel like some sense of accomplishment and it lessens my guilt about being unable to give anything to anyone as a gift after everything they did for me these past few months.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
I close my tent and begin to bathe myself. Aria stole a tub from our warehouse and placed it in my tent. It was easier to do that than to sneak me into the bath everyday so the other woman couldn’t see me naked. The tub uses my own mana to fill itself with water, heat the water and keep the water clean and better yet, if I start to run out it will just stop working. It’s been a weight off of my shoulders being able to bathe in peace. After that I change and go to sleep.
The next day is strange. All the kids were gathered and we were locked in a big tent that was placed near mine in the morning. Besides going to the bathroom, where we had to ask for an adult, and our bath at the end of the day, we were stuck there.We had plenty of food and water and the other kids were seeing us as some kind of heroes, they kept asking me and Arnold how it was to fight the wolf.
We both agreed that it was a traumatic experience, but not something that should weigh on our minds for too long. We were lucky that day. We were weak and still are. Any adult could have easily taken care of that wolf, so that means we just need to get stronger.
We spent way more time explaining that to the other kids and that we are not fearless warriors who need to be followed as exemples, also we shot down a lot of kids who said they would try the same thing.
We played with some dolls, marbles and cards until we were called back to our tents to sleep late at night.
In the morning after the toilet rush everyone was called to the training area where the breakfast would be held. There was a lot of the same, but this time they were serving coffee for the adults. Looks like coffee is really expensive in this kingdom so the adults can’t really buy it, even if they really like it. Kids are banned from drinking coffee.
After that everyone goes back to their tents to put on their day clothes and everyone begins to exchange presents.
I just stay in my tent. I have nothing to give to other people and I can just say happy birthday to the people I am close with later when I know where they will be instead of running around looking for them now. But not even an hour later I had company.
“Hey Lucia, you there?” I hear a voice ask outside my tent. There is a lot of noise outside so I can’t identify who is this.
“Yes, you can come in.”
“Here, this is for you.” It’s Arnold and he is giving me a present I think.
“Thanks.” I say while opening the small wooden box he gave me. Inside there is a necklace made of iron with a small red sword made out of a metal I can’t identify on it.
“This is really cool. I am sorry I can’t give you anything back.” I say somewhat sad.
“Don’t worry about it.” He says with a smile. “Let me help you put it on.” And he does. I can’t put this by myself, the chain is one of those that you need to lock so it can stay on your neck.
“That is it. Now I need to go, I need to see some other people. Till later.” he says as he waves at me. I do the same.
This necklace is really cool, but what I am most intrigued about is this red metal, I will ask him later about this.
A few minutes later Aria burst in my tent.
“There you are. Why are you here alone?” She ask me.
“I don’t have anything to give to other people.”
“That may be true, but there are a lot of people who want to see you. And looks like someone already gave you something, didn’t it?” As she looks at my necklace.
“Yeah”
“But before that, come here.” She grabs me by the hand and pulls me outside.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Everyone on the medical team was there and said to me.
“And we have gifts.” Says Aria.
It’s not like I got particularly close with the medical team, I can’t even remember half of their names, but I am somewhat happy they are here.
They begin to put some things in my tent, some of those things were group gifts from two or more people, while others were single gifts. I got some dresses, one of them had magic on it so it always fit me, even if I grew up. This looked expensive but seems like it was reasonably cheap as the dress is really simple and not for combat in any way. I got a pair of black low-heels with the same magic. I got a teddy bear. It was a small white one, hand-made. Also a bunch of generic clothes that I could use for the years to come. The last gift was a joint gift from pretty much everyone in the camp. A magic string. This thing by what I was told is really hard to find. If you have a magic string, you can tie it on yourself and it becomes part of your body. You can somewhat control it like your arms or legs but there is a limit. The reason I was given this is so I could tie it on me and tie my Sword on it. Doing that the string would hold the sword for me without the need for me to have it in my hand all the time.
“Thank you” I say. “And sorry I can’t give anything back.”
“Just don’t go fight wolves again for the time being and it will be good enough.” Aria says and everyone agrees.
The men of the medical team excuse themselves while the women play with me a little, making me dress up for them in some of the new clothes I got.
A while later everyone leaves as they need to prepare for the party.
During lunch time I notice that the security of the camp is being done by armored knights not from here. Looks like until after tomorrow no one in the camp has to do military work as we have other people doing it.
After lunch until nightfall, most people are resting or helping the cooks prepare a giant feast. I spent the afternoon walking around a little but there was not really much to do so I went to my tent to read. When night was beginning to hit I took a bath and put on one of the new dresses I got as well the heels. Looks like a lot of people are also dressing up with their best clothes, but not everyone can or want to.
Everyone gathers in the training area, there are tables full of food and drinks, the food will not go cold and the drinks will not warm up due to runes placed on the ground. Music is being played while someone is singing, everyone looked like they were having a good time. The kids played, as well as the adults sometimes. Before I knew morning arrived. I was the only kid that managed to stay awake all night, not that I was not sleepy, but talking with the people there, hearing the music, eating the food, I just wanted to enjoy as much as I could and my tiredness was just ignored. When the sun was beginning to show up, the partying stopped, people began to clean things up and all I remember was someone carrying me to my bed as I fell asleep as soon as the party stopped.
I wake up around noon. As I walk around the camp, there is almost no one outside. From time to time I see someone going to the toilets but that's it. Looks like today is the nothing day for the group. Everyone, except the kids, can’t eat or drink today for some reason, so most of them are just in their tents, doing nothing probably. I get a bunch of fruits as the food for the day as the kitchen will not be able to operate today. Most kids also don’t go out so I have nothing to do. I go to the library to read and I am joined by Arnold. As he now lives alone like me, he probably has no reason to stay in his tent. We spent the day reading stories and went to sleep later at night.
--//--
It’s the 2rd of Aries, things in camp go back to normal. As the sun rises the wake up gong begins to sound. The guards from yesterday are not here anymore and the normal guards are back in place. After breakfast I am called to the training area along with Arnold, so I put some normal clothes and head there.
“Good, you are here, let’s go.” The Boss says while walking away.
We just follow him confused. He leads us a little far out of the camp, still in the plains the camp is.
“Today I am going to test to see if you still can be soldiers. If you pass, training begins immediately.” The Boss says.
“BRING THEM!” He screams after.
With it four soldiers bring two wolf puppies tied down by a lot of ropes and chains. The boss also gives both of us a Knife each and not a small one, we almost can’t hold it properly.
“You two. You must kill the wolf with the knife or your hands. They are unable to attack so don’t worry.”
We were put in front of the wolves. They are a little bigger than the one we fought before. They may be tied up, but both me and Arnold still fear these creatures, at least for now. I don’t know what is going through Arnold’s mind but I made mine up. I could just fail this and not train to be a soldier until later. I could be a little girl for a while longer and just play and enjoy life. But I won’t. I need to get strong, and fast, I don’t know how much longer we will stay here, but I need to be strong enough to protect myself. No one in the camp knows or cares about my situation, but if we have to go to a city or somewhere else that finds out and there are people who cares about it, I probably will need to be able to defend myself alone in the worst case. I don’t think I will always have a thousand people around me who can defend me so I need to get strong.
I stab the wolf’s eyes then I proceed to stab and cut his body. Seeing me Arnold also starts to attack his wolf.It is hard, I don’t have the strength to cut his flesh easily, but I do it, I cut his stomach open and stab his bowels while going up to hit its heart. It’s bloody, it’s stinky and it’s dirty, but I ignore all that. By the time we finished we were bathed in blood.
We give the knives back to Boss while he takes a good look at us. We are not shaking, we are not crying, we did what he told us and now we are just a little disgusted by the blood and pieces of meat on us.
“Congratulations, from now on you two are recruits. Me and everyone else will personally train both of you. You two are really strong and have a lot of potential. The training will be hard but you become stronger than you can imagine. Now go take a small bath and find me in the training area.”
We just nod our head and go our way. When we are at the camp the excitement we have just explode and we scream.
“We did it!”
We both run to our baths so we can start this fast. On my way to my tent Aria saw me and almost had a heart attack seeing me bathed in blood. What happened before was soon explained to her while I took my bath.
Soon after that I changed clothes and went to the training area so our training would begin.