The recruits that followed after Wren in the speed test had all done well. The speed test was by far the easiest of all the tests that they would partake in that day as they only had to run from one line to the other. However, that was not to diminish Wren’s performance, he had outclassed and outpaced all of the recruits. His speed far above the rest of his class.

There were only a few recruits left to do the sprint. One of them was Liam. Where Wren had excelled in speed, Liam had excelled in strength and Wren was curious to see how the boy would fare in the second test. Wren wondered why Liam had hung back, he thought that maybe the boy would have a trick up his sleeve. Something to wow the entire group and he had purposefully waited until he was the last one left so that all eyes would be on him.

“Finally, Mr Cacas, you’re up.” Lops said, gesturing for Liam to step up to the line.

The large boy nodded in agreement and moved to the chalk line, taking a runners stance similar to Xiao’s. However his stance was much cruder, his bulking frame was hunched over the line, on the edge of tipping over, his body was clearly not made for running. Nonetheless, Wren was sure that the boy would show the group something amazing, why else would he wait to the end. If he didn’t have something to show, it would have made far more sense for him to blend in with the crowd and take his turn somewhere in the middle.

“Ready and GO.” Lops started him off.

Liam rushed off, his arms and legs pumping as he moved across the field. He’d made a good start, nothing impressive, not the fastest the group had seen, but respectable nonetheless. He’d made it about a quarter of the way across the field. Wren was waiting in trepidation for some burst of speed to come. To show the rest of the recruits the speed of a legacy.

The burst of speed never came. In fact, Liam started to slow down. He continued to run, his eyes focused on the chalk line even as his glasses slipped from his nose, but his sprint had become more of a jog.

Liam finally crossed the line and Lops stopped the timer. It had been the slowest time of the group.

The entire group just stared silently at Liam, they had had the same thoughts that Wren did, that the boy had been hiding his speed and he would show them all something incredible.

Liam caught the eyes of Wren, who was giving him a confused and surprised expression.

He raised a hand to the back of his head and started rubbing it, giving Wren and the rest of the class a sheepish look.

“Seems that speed isn’t my forte.” He chuckled.

The class returned his laugh and Liam’s face was plastered in a cheeky grin.

Wren began to return the smile before remembering his words to the other boy the previous day, he turned away and disappeared into the rest of the class.

With that the rest of the class began to disperse into little groups, discussing the events of the test, whispering about who had done well and who hadn’t. Notably, it was both Wren’s and Liam’s names that came up most in conversations. Lops came trundling over to break up the discussions, his clipboard and stopwatch still in hand.

“Your attention everyone. One more test before we break up for lunch.” He said. “The final test is the stamina test. You will have seen other recruits running around the field as we have been conducting the first two tests, that is the third. You will all be doing this test together, the aim is simple, do as many laps as you can until you can’t. The test will finish when you stop running.”

Lops directed the class over to the starting point. It was another white line, chalked in the dead grass of the field. He stood to the side, his clipboard at the ready, the stopwatch absent. Apparently time did not matter for this test, only distance.

“On your marks, get set, GO.”

~

Wren collapsed onto the soft green grass of the cafeteria garden. Every part of his body ached. His legs felt like jelly. Not only from the laps he had done, but also from the walk from the Dead Fields to the cafeteria. They hadn’t been given any water the entire time that they had been taking the tests and his throat was parched. The instructors wanted to push them to their limits it seemed. They wanted to see how they would perform under the intense heat of the two suns, dehydrated, with the added fatigue of two physical tests. Wren had done well, for him. He had done the best he could with the strength test, absolutely smoked the other recruits in the speed test and had done ten laps in the stamina test.

He wasn’t quite sure just how well he’d placed in the stamina test. He hadn’t really paid attention to the other recruits running with him, his only focus being on completing the lap, and then the next lap, and then the next. When his legs finally refused to keep moving and he collapsed to the ground, he had counted ten laps. Other recruits had continued to pass him, running further than Wren had, but he was sure that he wasn’t the first to finish. With any luck, he would place somewhere in the middle.

He settled back into the grass, his head resting softly on a nice clump and he closed his eyes, feeling the heat from the twin suns on his face. He was about ready to sleep, but he knew he had the second half of the testing to come. The day was not over yet.

He felt the ground move around him, and opening one eye, he saw a hulking figure settle down next to him. It was Liam. He had a tray in either hand and set one on the ground next to Wren before crossing his legs and placing the other one in his lap.

“I thought you might be hungry.” Liam said.