After the meeting there was a somber tone in the camp, the air was filled with uncertainty and unease. Most of the people here had been in the war a few years prior and had lost at least one person they knew. Raph met up with Fitz outside and together they met up with the rest of squad 20. Fitz decided it would be best if they carry on with their training schedule; run with saxon leading, hunting, combat training, and finally battle strategy to end the day. As it was already midday they decided to start with combat training for the whole group, not just Raph was subjected to this regime. The combat practice was full on as usual however today he was fighting Saxon which was new to Raph. Saxon, being the large man that he was, used a tower shield paired with a longsword that he easily wielded. He wasn’t the fastest but then again neither was Raph, his defence however was nigh impenetrable. Most of Raph’s attack fell on his shield, while others were deflected away by his sword. It would clearly take some time for Raph to get used to fighting a heavily fortified opponent, Saxon helped him come up with some strategies to use.
The combat training eventually ended and after dinner Fitz got the group together to talk about what they would be doing in the coming days.
“Right, so for now we will have to be based out of here and we can’t go too far either. That being said, I think it’s the perfect time to do some special missions. Solo.” Fitz said with a creepy smile.
“Cap, I’m not sure we’re supposed to be doing that.” Mac said sceptically.
“Don’t worry about it Mac, I got Bishop’s approval on this one. It’s completely above board.” Fitz explained.
“Honestly, now I’m even more concerned.” Mac said.
“Fitz, what kind of things are we going to be doing?” Raph asked.
“Just some basic things, more like merc work than soldier stuff. You know, like hunting, maybe a bandit or two. Easy stuff really.” Fitz said suspiciously.
“Hmm right.” Cook didn’t look impressed.
Saxon continued to be his usual stoic self and just sat and nodded.
---
The next morning Raph was up early again in the mess hall eating his breakfast, when a woman he had seen with Bishop the other day came in and made her way towards him.
“Lieutenant Smith.” She began.
“Yes ma’am?” Raph looked at her rather confused.
“My name is Celia Lord, I am here at the request of the General. He has asked me to deliver these to you.” Celia said as she placed down two large packages on the table.
Raph inspected the packages, the contents were wrapped in brown paper-like material and in plain font it merely said “covee”.
“Huh, plain.” Raph said absentmindedly.
“Thank you ma’am, would you tell General Bishop he has my thanks for this.” Raph said again, very politely.
“I will Lieutenant, If you’ll excuse me.” Celia said, then left.
As the hall was still empty Raph stored one of the bags in his ring and brought the other over to a small stove-like device; he had been craving the stuff since he’d seen Bishop drinking it yesterday. He deftly prepared a mug of his favourite substance, then he took it back over to the table to where he was sitting before. Raph moved the mug up to his lips savouring the scent, it reminded him of Earth, both good and bad. Taking a sip he found it almost identical to coffee on Earth, the distinctive taste you would know anywhere. It was bliss.
As Raph savoured his coffee more and more officers came into the mess hall. Leah was one of those who entered early, she noticed Raph and took the seat opposite.
“Good morning Raph.” Leah said as she sat down, noticing his listless state. “Raph?”
Raph stared off into space, completely ignoring Leah’s existence.
“Raph!” Leah said, more forcefully.
Raph came back to the land of the living after that. “Oh, hi Leah. When did you get there?”
“I just sat down, why were you so spaced out?” Leah said.
“Sorry, I was just really enjoying my cof- my covee” Raph explained.
“Covee?” Leah asked curiously. “Is that what you’re drinking?”
“Yeah, I got some from General Bishop. There’s nothing quite like it in the morning.”
“Bishop gave it to you?”
“I saw him drinking some yesterday and asked.”
“Can I try some?” Leah asked tentatively.
“Sure, you’ve really never had covee before?” Raph wondered why no one had heard of it. He passed the half full mug over to Leah. She picked it up and smelled the liquid inside to which her curiosity only grew. Raph saw her grimace when she took the first sip, he began to chuckle.
“How can you drink that?!” Leah practically shouted.
It was a few moments later when Raph calmed down, he had expected that reaction but it was amusing nonetheless.
“It’s an acquired taste, you either love it or you hate it really. It’s very popular where I’m from.” Raph said then paused at the realisation of what he’d just said.
“It’s popular in Langreth? I don’t recall seeing it in the cafes” Leah asked.
“Yeah.” Raph said somewhat uncomfortably. “There are a couple of places that sell it…”
“Oh right, well personally I think it’s awful.” Leah said, still with a grimace from the after taste.
“All the more for me then.” Raph smiled.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Anyway Raph, I did want to talk to you about something. I know Fitz has your squad doing some training I think, but there is something I would like your help with.” Leah started.
“Oh? What can I help you with Leah?” said Raph curiously.
“Well you were in the briefing the other day so you know that the recruitment is getting increased. As the representative for the Shepherds I’m going along with the caravan again, this time to the north side of Ustral mostly focused around Adaes. This time Bishop asked me to bring someone along with me so we can be more active in recruiting, even design our own tests as we see fit.” Leah explained.
“And you want me to come with you?” said Raph, honestly he was touched that Leah wanted him to join her even if it was a recruitment drive.
“Yes.” Leah said with a light blush. “Basically it’s come with me or you can carry on with whatever Fitz has planned for you.”
“You want me to come with you?” Raph asked, he was unsure if he should be flattered or concerned.
Leah stared down at the table, “yes.”
Raph considered the options for a moment. ‘On the one hand training with the squad would most likely be very beneficial for me and I’m sure the strange solo missions would be interesting. However I don’t think I can really say no to Leah’s request, maybe I can use this time to find out more about her.’
“Hmm, well I guess you do make a convincing argument. I’d like to go with you.” Raph smiled.
Leah smiled at Raph’s response, “Thank you Raph, this will be fun. You can continue what you are doing today, tomorrow we go back to the main base and the day after the caravan will leave.” Leah then left to organise some things.
‘What a nice girl.’ Raph thought as he watched her leave.
After breakfast Raph joined his squad for training, to start they ran a few laps around the compound. This took them around two hours, they were also all carrying the weighted bags which made it significantly more challenging. Next onto hunting with Mac, they kept as close as they could to the camp and Raph managed to find himself a small pack of dire wolves. He dealt with them with a relative ease, not necessarily up to Mac’s standard as of right now but he was getting better. After that was combat practice again, this time Raph was paired with Fitz. He had never actually seen Fitz fight before, even when they were escaping from the hostage situation Fitz hadn’t done anything.
His class Cursebearer revolved around de-buffing, Fitz would use spells and contact to create weakness in his opponent. This was Raph’s first time fighting someone like this, most of the enemies he’d come across so far had been physical types. While Fitz obviously out leveled him massively he made it clear that the level difference was irrelevant. Fitz was in complete control throughout the whole fight, all the while Raph was getting slower and weaker. Raph didn’t even touch Fitz once during the whole sparring session, by the end he was slumped on the floor looking sorry for himself.
“Cap, couldn’t you have gone easier on him?” Mac asked as he looked at Raph on the floor.
“Eh, he brought it on himself when he decided to leave the squad behind” Fitz said with an evil smile.
Raph managed to move his head and look incredulously at Fitz. “You know?”
“Of course I know, who do you think I am?” Fitz said contemptuously.
“Know what Cap?” Mac asked.
“This little idiot’s leaving tomorrow to go play with girlfriend.” Fitz said again.
Raph looked pretty offended, even though it was somewhat true.
“What, you’re leaving?” Cook looked betrayed.
Saxon was just staring at him with a neutral expression, he could have been thinking anything.
Raph sat up. “Uhh, yeah. Le- Major Raycraft asked me to go with her on the recruitment mission.”
“Well I’m sure you’ll have a great time together.” Fitz said bitterly.
The squad spent the rest of the night giving Raph some more combat practice. Basically they beat him black and blue while trying to teach him anything they could. After the commotion of the day had died down and everyone else had gone to sleep, Raph was left awake and alone. He was sitting outside of the bunkhouse staring up at the night sky, looking at all of the unfamiliar constellations. Once again he was reminded that this was not his world.
‘No, that’s not right.’ Raph thought as he looked up. ‘It is my world now, it’s not like I left anything behind on Earth. It’s so strange.’ Raph recalled his last few days on Earth; his crappy day in work that led him to the odd antique shop. ‘That medallion. I wonder. Anyways it’s no use. I am here now and even though I have less, I have so much more than I did on Earth.’
---
The next morning Raph was once again up nice and early, drinking his covee alone in the mess hall. It was truly wondrous how one small thinking could make such a big change in Raph’s day to day routine. Leah came in not long after and found Raph sitting by himself so she sat with him.
“Good morning Raph.” Leah said as she sat down.
“Good morning Leah, is everything ready to go?” Raph asked as Leah sat down.
“Almost, just a few last things to do before we set off, could you help me move some things onto the carriage after we finish here?”
“Yeah of course, helping you is my job now isn’t it?” Raph chuckled.
“I guess it is, yeah.” Leah smiled.
They both finished up their breakfast, which mostly just consisted of Raph savouring the covee for far too long for Leah’s liking. They made their way over to where the carriage was stationed, it was the same one he had seen Leah in the first time, Raph only just realised what was actually pulling it. The beasts were very similar to horses, however they were stockier and had a shaggy coat. His old memories had them named figuin’s. There was already an officer sitting on the carriages driver seat, Leah had informed Raph their driver was one of the support staff in the main army, his name was Lincoln.
“Raph, come with me to the office and help me carry some of the boxes out.” said Leah as she started to walk towards the main building. Leah had Raph carry over a few crates and trunks of personal items and some documents into the carriage.
“Alright Raph, the carriage is ready, have you got everything?” Leah asked after they finished loading.
Raph grabbed his military issue bag off the floor and shouldered it, he had most of his things stored in the ring and the bag was just for some military equipment.
“Yeah I'm all ready to go.” Raph said as he began to step onto the carriage.
“Haangg on.” Leah held up her hand. “You don’t think you can ride with me?”
“What?.” Raph paused. “Oh no. Not again Leah. I’m a Lieutenant now, you can’t make me run!”
Leah just stood there with a sly grin. “Oh, but I can.”
“Ugghh.” Raph sighed and resigned himself to his fate. Leah pulled out a large backpack from inside of the carriage, this one was significantly heavier than the last time.
“Why don’t you set a good example by running with me?” Raph said.
“I’m far too important to run with the likes of you.” Leah moked Raph in a haughty voice.
“Oh, forgive me your majesty.” Raph bowed, going along with the joke.
Raph eventually gave in and swapped his bag for the heavy one that Leah had produced, he stored his bag on the carriage and they finally set off for the main base. Leah was clearly busy with whatever document she was looking at in the carriage which left Raph with all the time to think about the weight of his bag. It took them a few hours to get to the main base on the front, when they got there Leah dragged Raph to another briefing in one of the buildings. There was an imposing looking man standing at the front of the room giving details to everyone about the route the caravan was taking and where they would be stopping along the way. Leah and Raph ended up sitting near the back of the room, looking around Raph only recognised one other person; Commander Whitlock whom he’d seen last in Langreth.
The main stop on the route was a city called Adaes, the second largest in Ustral after Langreth, it was situated up in the mountains in the North on the border with Vorenth. Vorenth was where Clark had left to go, as he was looking for the other beast tamers. Raph had found out that the city of Adaes specialized in mining and had a larger than average population of blacksmiths, with some of the best in Ustral working there. The caravan was set to leave the next morning, so after the brief, Raph ate then he decided to go for a run around the base. Even though he’d been running all morning he was finding it much harder to tire out hence all of the running. It was once again a long night for Raph with sleep eluding him until the early hours, he spent most of the night in an empty combat area practicing his movements.