After another full day of training, I placed the training sword into the wall mount, heading for the baths. At first I was rather shocked at the lack of gender seperation, but the logic behind it makes sense, we are all kin before the Father, and brothers and sisters in arms under his banner. Gender really dosen't matter in the face of our Father.

It's true the majority of women can't keep up with the guys of the same race in raw physical output, most of them can hit and move faster. Obviously there were also major differences based on species, especially the difference between an orik to a kinderfalk. Kinderfalk excell at magical arts, with an inate gift with illusions, while the powerful build of an orik gives them strength defying their already large frames, making them perfect for most forms of physical combat. By the same token, however, kinderfalk can get to places the orik wouldn't be able to, and those same powerful muscles found on the orik can prevent them from being very flexible, an issue the kinderfalk can mostly ignore.

But, being a new recruit, I still find difficulty sharing a shower with any form of girl... heck, being raised in the castle, I also have difficulty with the guys, most of my baths being private, only occasionally joining others in the public baths near the training grounds. This is more an issue of not being used to it, rather then a wavering of self control... though I will admit that some of the girls being taller than me by a fair amount, and others below waist height does make things more difficult then it should be.

I threw my shirt and pants into the laundry shute, walking into the baths in my under cloth. The room was almost entirely marble, except for the wooden floors, which are set with the grain facing upward to allow proper drainage, giving better grip even with wet feet. Really it was a bunch of trees cut into hexagons and set about like tiles... Alright, quit distracting yourself, and look around for an open spot...

Looking around, I saw everyone talking with eachother with ease, the baths consisting of marble hexagons about seven men wide, the water steaming from a heat source far below. Aside from some people entering the baths from the room I just came from, really everyone was in a bath, or sitting on the rim of one. From child-like figures that are largely androgynous, to large adult figures that are very clearly one or the other... I looked as fast as I could to avoid any potential rudeness...

Apon finding an open seat, I walked to it, eyes locked to the location, and sat down without a word. While I was cupping water to pour over my head, someone spoke, though I couldn't tell if it was directed at me, so looked up.

"Hey, what's your name?", this was from one of the few orik in this program, unsurprisingly their natural tendency to violence made them largely unfit to be a holy warrior.

"Azrael Aventus", I replied, leaving out my last name, that being of my clan, so solely mentioned in official enviroments for identification purposes.

"Glore", he held out a massive hand with fingers like sausages.

Shaking his hand, we slipped into silence, observing the others as they discussed something about whether or not a mountain folk woman could kill a minotaur. By the laughter, it was all in good humor, but the woman in question was getting very loud about how she would be able to do so while black out drunk, both hands tied behind her back. Honestly, for such small people, mountain folk could rival a dragon in volume.

I smiled, this scene being fairly similar to how father described his days as a town guard, or uncle about his time as a soldier on patrol. Quickly looking down once the mountain folk girl stood up, I returned to cleaning off my sweat, and the dust from the training yard. Oddly, I never really got all that dirty, or wet... also for some reason my hair never strayed from this hairstyle. Definitely saves time bathing, so I'm not complaining.

On the way to the barracks, mother stopped me, a rather surprising visit since for the past month she hasn't visited once.

"Azrael, have you been informed of the incident in the lowest levels?", the mines were the lowest level of the fortress, those tunnels still being expanded.

"Something has happened? A cave in perhaps?", I asked, but she wouldn't have mentioned something like that.

"No, the miners broke into an underground cave system, and were immediately attacked by a humanoid insect with a pale shell, and hands like sickles", she shivered, clearly leaving certain details of the event out.

"Has the creature been delt with?", raising an eyebrow, I asked an obvious question in an attempt to calm her.

"Yes, though that shell gave the knights sent to deal with it some difficulty, covering the creature like full plate", she gave a soft smile, realising what I was doing.

To make a long explination short, the cave system was extensive, so the area has been closed off until a battalion can be organised to explore it properly. The cave system was a rather odd find, since there were no other such instances, that I knew of at least. For the most part this mountain was of solid rock aside from the lava bubbling up from below. Incidentally that same lava was redirected to power the main forges, and heat the baths for the whole island.

After she had left once again, I pondered as to why she would bring something like that up... Kara might be able to guess, since she has read more books, being as I focused on trying to locate certain artifacts via legends and myths about them. It's likely mother held back alot of the information as to why this subject was important.

Once inside the barracks I checked the current bunk assignments. Tonight I would be sleeping next to Aran, Lucy, Daniel, Derrick, and Horus. That's both bunks either side, and the bed below mine. Though usually most of the women were kept to the right side of the room, tonights bunk assignments seemed a bit more scattered. The gender balance was pretty equal, but due to characteristics certain races were more prominent.

Mountainfolk and humans were the most common, being of a fairly similar demeanor and build, though mountain folk were denser. Next common were Faea, but that was more due to a general laziness as a result of their long lives, and Kinderfalk, mostly the ones that couldn't cut it as wizards, which considering magic was largely natural for them, was very few indeed. Despite this barracks bunking eighty people here, however, there were only three orik, only one of them male, again, due to their natural agressiveness.

I headed to my bunk, and inspected it for anything the previous person may have left out of line, or forgotten. Finding nothing, I headed back out to enjoy the time after training, and before dinner left to us for free use. I usually used this time for resting, and really had no reason not to, but this time I am getting a book to read while I rest, something on advanced combat methods, hopefully get ahead in my training a bit.

Compared to the library in the public spaces, this one was much more specialized, and by consequence much smaller than most. This made finding the desired topics much easier as well. Infact, the books I was after were right infront of the door way.

Once dinner rolled around, I made my way to the mess hall, to find the full class of twelve-hundred already making a calamity of sound in the underground space. Lining up to get my meal, I watched the tables all fill up, same groups over the past month, with a general grouping by race, the kinderfalk placing themselves as far as possible from the roudy orik and mountainfolk, both being very loud while bragging. It wasn't really a hard seperation, but more one where the like grouped with like.

Honestly it kind of reminded me of a gradient, since the kinderfalk were a very dark, earthy color, the orik shades of green, the mountain folk a pale tan to dark tan, the humans and faea being very similar shades of pale as heck. Still, out of all the pale people here, my white skin was by far the palest... also I seemed to be the only blonde here. Ah well, not really important.

Grabbing a food tray, I grabbed a bowl of soup, some salad, and a pear. The majority of the meals here are heavily meat oriented, with roasts, soups, hams, fish, ect. I know a meat heavy diet leads to better muscle growth, considering my instructor has slammed that into my skull for the past month, but I don't particularly like meat... I am unsure as to why, considering mother, father, and Kara all seem to enjoy meat greatly. Especially Kara.

Generally I prefer fruits, so I suppose it has something to do with the sweetness.

After grabbing a flask of water, I went to find a seat, finding a spot around dead center of the room, more due to being near the end of the line, than actual intent. Oddly, I found myself next to Gora.

"Hey, Azrael right?'

"Yeah, doing alright Gora?", I smiled, pleasently surprised he didn't mispernounce my name as azle, which most of the other races slip into.

"Ah, glad you remembered me as well, we didn't get much of a chance to speak back in the baths", he smirked.

"Well, few people can out shout a mountainfolk", I smirk back before drinking some of the soup, which was little more then boiled pork and salt, sadly... I miss Daniels cooking already.

"Well, that is true. So what kind of paladin you planning on being?", Gora also turned to eating his meal, consisting of three bowls of soup, barely any salad, and no fruit.

"Frontliner, lead from the front!" I smacked my fist into my other palm, smiling confidently.

"Same, though my choice is more because I'm a crap shot, and animals don't like me", a common problem with orik, their race has a wide set head, and eyes, making their forward vision suffer a bit, unable to see things a foot infront of their face without going cross eyed.

"Hey, don't let your limits be limits if you don't want them to be", I nudged his arm, which looked about as big as my leg.

Gora smirked at that, but apparently wasn't a big talker, as he went silent once again, focusing on eating. Doing the same, my food was soon all put away. Before I left, I heard that same mountain folk girl now very passionately declaring her ability to pull an orik womans head out of her rear with her teeth. Quite a braggart that one.

After dinner, we are to report straight to the barracks to sleep, before waking up and cleaning the barracks from top to bottom around our bunks, and the garderobe if you were assigned to. If the instructor found one stray hair stuck to your pillow, they had other people come in and dump dirt and mud onto the floors and walls, so we can clean it again. It is really annoying, but I figure it is meant to teach us to pay attention even to something seemingly unimportant...

As I layed down, I took off my boots, and massaged my feet. These boots were cheaper then the ones I have grown used to, and I'm on my feet for alot longer. In short, my feet are killing me.

Placing the boots so that they hung by the headpost, I relaxed into my bed, and drifted off into sleep... Only to wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night after a dream of a world of shadow, being attacked by what looked like a zombie horse, with the cold slashing at my skin whenever I moved. I have never had nightmares before... was this...

"Kara...?", the darkness of the barracks seemed to devour my voice into the oppressive silence within.