We have been on the road for a week making camp ever night, It seems at first everyone was worried about demons or bandits coming out and attacking us, But the knights kept checking the area around us and are always on guard against any attacks. Their are about 25 kids who did not get cold feet and run back to their parents. For the 8 guards and pope to keep an eye of us is not easy task. Right now we are walking down a stretch of road what looks like it is going to go through a jungle, Just as we are about to go in the jungle the knights and the pope stops us.
"Everyone we will be going through this jungle in a team of three, Since most of you have already made friends just take two of them in the jungle with you, The ones who make it out to the other side, where we will be waiting will be trained as diciple of the church."
The kids are all shouting about how they already passed the test, After 10 minutes of grumbling and shouting the kids all start forming groups, I look around to realise, not only do I have none to partner with, I have no friends from my town so I am forever the odd one out.
After everyone picked their partners, I look around and see a kid sleeping on a log by himself so I walk over and try to introduce myself.
"Hello my name is Lucas would you like to be one of my partners for this journey in the Jungle?" When the words came out it sounded like I had a robot voice because I was so nervous in talking to another kid.
Ah, The young boy with brown hair and had what looks like to be a staff next to him, Rolls his eyes and looks at me.
" Sure". At first I thought the boy rolled his eyes at me because he was smug and did not want to partner with me, But it seems he was just tired and did not like getting woken up.
'My name is Lucas, Nice to meet you" I give a sly smile while I am looking at the brown haired boy.
"My name is Raphael" He shakes my hand and picks up his staff and has a look around.
"We need to find one more" I say to Raphael thinking he was asleep the whole time.
" Their is a monkey kid in the start of the jungle over their, He points to where a young boy with red hair is located"
I look over their and see a boy jumping tree from three all energetic. I walk over to him and look up at the tree he is jumping back and forward in. "Excuse me would you like to join Raphael and mines group?"
He looks down and says "I will join if you guys can catch me". The instant those words left his mouth, A staff came flying through the air and hit the red boy in the head and he came tumbling down the tree. When he hit the floor Raphael walked over and put his foot on the boy.
"My name is Raphael and Over their is Lucas, What is your name?" Raphael takes his foot off and smiles at the boy while offering a hand to help him up.
"My name is Ronan please to meet you" He takes Raphael hand and looks at me with a smile. I cannot help but think these two boys are weird.
I walk up to am both "So you guys ready to walk through this jungle, The quicker we do this, Is the quickest we can start our training in Xera" I am quite excited to start training and getting stronger.
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"Yes let us go" They both said in unison.
We walked very deep in the forest there does not to seem to be any enemies here so I guess the pope just wanted to see if we had the nerve to go in alone.
Raphael looks at me and frowns. "Your black clothes do not suit a priest Lucas, But they do have gods blessing on them so they would be worth a fortune"
My face turns into shock because this is the second time I heard someone say that "What is gods blessing and why is it rare to find it on clothes"
Raphael laughs while smiling, "That is because only a priest can give a gods blessing to one set of clothes or weapon, But everything you're wearing has separate blessing"
I am speechless when Raphael told me this "butt I do not know any priests, Let alone any who would bless my clothes" "They where from my mother"
"Then she clearly knows someone who knows someone or is stinking rich" Ronan says while jumping up and down like a monkey.
I have never really thought about it much but my mother is a mysterious person.
AHHHHHH, We look to our left and right in shock, All we hear are a bunch of kids screaming. My blood starts to pump and before I can even compute what is happening Raphael, Ronan and I are all in a dead sprint running as close to each other as possible. The screaming has not stopped and we hear kids crying and we smell blood.
We hear growling approaching us and before it gets to close to us, We have jump into a small ditch in the jungle, It is round and kind it is own little house.
"What is going on out there" I whisper because I do not want what ever is out their to get us. My hands are shacking and the adrenaline is going through my body
Ronan and Raphael where both white as ghosts and have hands shaking as much as mine.
"Do you guys think the church knew this was going to happen when we came in here?" Ronan has lost most oh his drive to jump around now
"I just do not know" Raphael says with a frown.
"We have to think of a plan guys, or else we are going to end up like the others" I mustered all the fake confidants I could build
"We are to weak to fight whatever is out their attacking people, So I think we should, Wait a couple hours and hopefully when it has stopped hunting. Raphael says with a grim face.
"So it all comes down to luck?" When I voiced my thought all our faces went pale again.
"Everyone try and get some sleep and will run tomorrow" This is all I can say without letting sadness out in my voice.
That Night was the longest, loneliest and scariest of my life, We had stayed there longer then we where playing to, The sun was just rising when we decided to head out, Not of us wanted to go out in pitch black.
As soon as we got out of our hidden hole, We just sprinted and sprinted not daring to look back, How could we face what was in the jungle?
After about 30 Minutes of sprinting, We can see the end of the forest but we do not slow down or stop in the slightest. As soon as we broke free of the jungle, we see the pope and the guards looking at us. We look around only to see we are the only kids who are here. Not one of the kids who went in have come out yet. Raphael and Ronan run straight up to the pope and start screaming up him, He just looks at them and laughs.
"If they where to weak to even get out of this forest then they are to weak to become any use to the church" At this statement, Ronan Raphael and I are all shocked for words. Over 20 children have yet to make it back and they do not even seem to care, Is this the church we heard so much about? We sat there pondering while we waited for anyone else to leave the forest. By the end of the next day. There was only one more child who made it out. Her name was jenny and she looks like she has just been through a war zone, Her eyes are lifeless and her blonde hair was a mess, The only good thing you could say about her was she still had an aura that radiated that she wanted to live. After whatever horrors she has seen that would not be surprising.
"The 4 of you have earned the right to join the disciples of the church, Let us all head to Xera" The pope starts walking off after that with the guards in toe, Not one of us are following and we are just standing wondering if this is the right thing to do .
I look at Raphael,Ronan and Jenny " Hey at least after years of training we can just leave the church if we so wish" and with that I start following the pope and his guards.
The other three follow after a brief hesitation.
I promise to myself that one day, I will come back and kill whatever thing lives in that jungle.