Eight – The Basis Part Two

Major Quinn and his guards lead them to the arsenal. Here they have to stand behind each other in a long line, before they can enter one by one. Once inside, a series of clerks ensures that everyone gets a harness. When Raidon enters, his eyes grow large. Row after row of armor is ready to be used. Most of them look very different from the familiar equipment of the regular army. These harnesses are made of metal! Those must be heavy, Raidon thinks. With some fitting and measuring, the clerks manage to give everyone a harness. These harnesses ensure that not even a single piece of gray uniform remains to be seen anywhere. Last they get a helmet with hinges on the sides to open the cheeks. When the helmet is closed, only a small opening can be seen through which the recruits can see. If the helmet is open, however, the entire face can be seen.

Because of all that iron, Raidon is soon proven right with his reservations about the weight of the harnesses. They are very heavy!

Finally, they have to go through the armory, where they are given a short sword that can be attached to the right leg and a rather large rectangular shield. They also receive a booklet in the old language. Oh well, that’s no problem either, Raidon thinks. Then the recruits have to go back to the square to line up.

Here they receive a short instruction on how to put on and take off their harness. As they have already noticed in the arsenal, the harness consists of several pieces that get stuck together with leather straps. All these parts must be put on and off in the correct order. The clerks who just put the harnesses on the recruits now show how they can put the different pieces on and off themselves. At the end of the instruction, the recruits have to march again. This time they have to go to the training field.

At the field are several men waiting for them.

"I'm instructor Morris and these are my assistant instructors," the middle man introduces himself. "We are the ones who will teach you everything you need to know about fighting. You will also receive information beside fighting from us. Other things you will learn from the handbook you have been given. Be careful with that, because they still come from the old empire."

Then the recruits get their first lesson on sword fighting. The lesson mainly consists of listening to the instructors. Most recruits can hardly move in their heavy armor. Raidon himself finds it extra difficult to remember all those different blows with the sword, because he cannot test them himself.

When the lesson is over, the guards come once again to guide the recruits. This time they have to march around the square twice. At least that is the intention. Almost half of them give up before they have completed the first round. Raidon is determined that he will make it, but halfway through the second round he can't take it anymore. He also falls forward on his hands and knees.

Totally exhausted, the recruits are told that they can go back to their barracks to take off their armor.

"I don’t care how you do it, even if you have to undress here and now and carry everything one by one, but store your equipment, you will!" Shouts the captain of the guards.

When everyone is finally done, including a few who have crawled to the barracks on their hands and knees, they must line up in front of the barracks again.

"Now you can go back to the training field," says the soldier who spoke to them earlier, "but you will march there neatly. That's a good exercise."

Fortunately, marching without the harnesses is a whole lot easier for the recruits. For Raidon, it feels like he's as light as a feather. Unfortunately, it is only short-lived. When they arrive at the training field, they are immediately put to work. All of them get a wooden rod that is as heavy as their own sword. They are tasked to hit a wooden pole, but only the way and in the order indicated by the instructors. Every mistake is a reason for the instructors to scold the recruits. Raidon also has to endure a lot. Because he is the youngest, he is soon picked out by one of the instructors. This instructor pays extra attention to Raidon and every mistake is immediately punished harshly by the instructor. Within an hour, it is almost impossible to proceed with the training. The recruits are so tired that they can hardly lift their arms anymore.

Only when even the strongest recruits are exhausted, are they escorted to the canteen to have lunch.

"Unbelievable that it's only noon now," Raidon says to no one in particular as they walk to the cafeteria.

"I feel like I've been running for two days straight," the man next to him replies. "I think that harness is just as heavy as those crates that we normally lifted on a cart in pairs."

Once at the canteen, they get an extensive lunch. There is loads to eat, which they really need with these exertions. One of the guards scattered here and there among the recruits explains that they get better meals especially for this training camp. This is because the recruits have to develop quickly to be able to wear their armor.

After lunch, the recruits are allowed to hit the poles again for another hour, followed by a run. For this one, they go out of the gate and run around the entire training camp. They have to try and do this as fast as possible. After their round they have another break.

"You have fifteen minutes of rest," tells the soldier who supervised while running.

Raidon takes the time to talk to his neighbor. The man seems to be about ten years older than Raidon, but is already starting to become bald on top of his head. He says his name is Gareth and that he is the third son of a leather worker. As the third son, there was not much to do with his father in the company, which is also the reason why he seized the opportunity to join the legion.

After the break, they are escorted to the canteen. This time not to eat, but to learn to read and write. Most recruits can't, but there are a few who can. The recruits who are able to read and write, including Raidon, are given another difficult task. They have to learn the old language. Since the recruits are very tired from the first training sessions, it is not easy for anyone.

At the end of the lesson, Raidon can only remember a few words of the ancient language. The recruits who have yet to learn to write have only practiced a few letters.

This introductory lesson ends when suddenly a whole bunch of guards walk into the canteen. It turns out that all recruits have to get their hair cut, and the guards who just came in are their hairdressers.

Within an hour, each recruit has a head with short hair and clean-shaven face. The hairdressers say that this is the norm for a soldier in the New Legion.

After the haircut it's time for dinner. While the recruits are instructed to run around the camp one more time, the canteen is swept and the tables are set. Again, there are piles of food for the recruits. Raidon and Gareth speak some more during dinner and when they are sent back to the barracks after dinner to clean their equipment, they do so together. That is very useful, because soon after, the guards report that the light has to be turned off and they have to go to sleep.

The second day in the camp starts the same as the first day. At sunrise, the recruits are awakened. They all have quite a bit of muscle ache from the first day. Raidon has never had so much pain in his muscles. At first, he's not even sure if he can get out of bed.

When everyone is finally ready, they have to run around training camp twice to wake up. Also, they need to do some exercises like push-ups and things like that. The instructor who supervises them says it's morning gymnastics.

Fortunately, they can have breakfast afterwards. The morning gymnastics has made everyone hungry.

"If this continues, we'll be well muscled," Gareth told Raidon. "Then the females will be easy to get."

"If we ever get time off to meet them, you mean," Raidon replies.

"Surely we will?" asks Gareth worriedly.

"Normally we should, but we hail from the poor classes. So who knows what they'll come up with."

"Hmm, you might be onto something," Gareth replies. "But if it gets too annoying, we can always stop."

"You'll have to wait and see," Raidon says. "I think they won't just let us go when we've done our training. That cannot be their intention. They want to send us to war."

Then the bell rings to signal that breakfast is over. Their next lesson is on the training field. Here, the instructors show how to use several weapons such as spears and axes in combat. They also do some practice fights to show them in action.

After that the recruits have to hold the weapons and imitate some simple blows. Especially the spear gets a lot of attention. After that, they once again tell them what the advantages and disadvantages are for the weapons. For example, the long spear is said to be very effective against riders thanks to its length, but that you get into trouble if someone gets too close.

After class, they have to run two more laps around the training camp before they can go to the canteen to eat their lunch.

After lunch there is another writing lesson. This time, the recruits are less tired, so they can absorb the information a little better.

"The intention is that starting next week you will be able to read in your handbooks," says a clerk. "If you don't know the old language, it's going to be very difficult."

Raidon doesn't understand how the recruits who can't even write yet will manage to learn to read and write in one week and also have to learn a whole new language. Even Raidon and the recruits who can already read and write will have a hard time learning to read the ancient language within a week.

Hopefully we'll know enough to understand at least something about it, Raidon thinks.

After the writing lessons there are a few more laps around the training camp, followed by practicing with the swords against the poles. Apparently, these two things are something they have to do over and over again.

Then comes dinner. That evening they get some kind of stew with meat and various vegetables. During dinner, the conversation between the recruits gets going a bit more than before.

They're starting to know each other a little bit now. It turns out that the men Raidon is in the group with all have different backgrounds. There is someone who has been a beggar, two men whose family have always been carriers, someone whose father is a roofer and four men who were city cleaners. In addition, Gareth's father is a leather worker and Raidon's mother is a seamstress.

At the end of dinner, Major Quinn has an important announcement:

"Tomorrow morning there will be an inspection. You will put your rooms in order tonight and muster tomorrow morning in your full gear. If anything is not taken care of, everyone in your group will be given extra tasks. So make sure you have everything neat and tidy."

Raidon and Gareth look at each other.

"Let's make sure we don't get those extra tasks. We really can't use that, the days are difficult enough as it is," Raidon told Gareth.

"Tell that to John. We could have guessed that the slob was a beggar," Gareth replies. "It's already a miracle that they were able to cut those hairs properly."

His concerns were soon proven valid. Back in their room, everyone starts cleaning and tidying up their things, except John. He is already lying on his bed.

"John, if even one of us doesn’t have their stuff in order, then we will all be fucked tomorrow. So please go and tidy your things," someone says to him.

"It's neat enough. Everything is in my chest, my clothes hardly smell and that equipment can never break. So I’m okay with it and I’ll stay put. It was a tough day," John replies.

The others leave it at that. You can't talk to John when he doesn’t want to. When the guards come a little later the guard to turn off the lights and the men rush to their beds, John still hasn't done anything.