He turns and continues walking across the training grounds toward the hedge he pointed out at that weight area.
I let out a sigh.
That really wasn’t helpful information and yet the most fatherly ‘don’t care what others think’ advice I’ve ever gotten. Now, that’s not going to stop me from looking over my shoulder to see who’s staring at the freak.
I keep following silently behind him, not wanting to miss anything.
“Also, in two weeks, Queen Luna Anne has requested your presence at the castle.
You have been excused from training that day to prepare and she will send over your wardrobe.”
“Wait, What?” He just threw that out like he was telling me the grass was green.
“You said ‘requested’, but it sounds like I don’t get a choice in going.” I laugh a little.
“Do you know what she wants with me?”
“I was not given that information.
I was just told to let you know you will be spending most of the day and evening with her.”
I nod wondering if she wants to check up on me for Luna Ava.
I hope being excused from training for the Luna Queen or the Alpha King is a thing that regularly happens around here.
I don’t need another reason for the rest of the warriors to look at me like a freak.
And why in the hell do I need a ‘wardrobe’? Is there a dress code for being in the castle? Ugh, too many questions.
“This is our weight center.
As I said you will get your schedule by the end of the night.
We have all of our warriors staggered around the grounds during training, this allows us to constantly evaluate skills in asmaller, more concentrated group.
Your groups will rotate as well so you don’t get comfortable with certain people.
We want you to be versatile and able to join any warrior group for any type of mission.
You will eventually have specialties that you will focus on as you move up through the program and you will notice some of our seasoned warriors are more focused in their skills.
We have recon teams, extraction teams, computer and tech specialists, and weapons experts on top of our very skilled fighters.
You can start to specialize once we have turned you into an amazing warrior.”
I just keep nodding, this is the most amazing thing I have ever seen.
I must look like an over excited bobblehead at this point.
Everything he just said has me almost jumping out of my skin.
I can’t wait to get started.
We continue walking through the hedged weight area and back to the ropes course.
“Oh hell yes! I can’t wait to get on this thing! It’s gotta be at least three times the size of what we have at Blue Crescent.” I walk past him, I can’t help myself.
This is going to be my new playground.
This course has to be at least two football fields long and runs in a big oval around the perimeter so you make the trek down and back.
It is full of your basic climbing ropes and cargo nets, except nothing seems to be closer than ten feet off the ground and there aren’t safety nets to catch you if you fall.
There are also various sized wood planks and pillars to climb across or over.
There is a rope bridge that has to be 40 feet in the air and it is a makeshift bridge so there is only a signal one inch thick rope to walk on and a rope above to hang on to while you climb across.
The distance between these obstacles tells me it’s set up for guys like Warrior Osiston to struggle.
I’m going to have to get creative with some of them to get through, considering I’m barely tall enough to come up to his elbow.
“I’m glad you’re so excited Little One, because this is your first test.
Your training starts now.
We will gain a baseline for where your body is at after being in the hospital for a month.
This will also determine how your training schedule will start.
Over there please.” He points to a set of three logs lying parallel to each other.
The end at the starting line is in the ground, the opposite end is elevated to about ten feet in the air making them look like complicated, rounded ramps.
Getting closer to the course the obstacles are spread out too, so there is a fair amount of running in between.
“Is there an objective or a goal I’m trying to reach with this test?”
“For now, just run the course and complete it, once I have a baseline we will talk objectives.”
I fight an eye roll, he must get some weird satisfaction at not giving straight answers.
It bugs me to not know what I’m working for.
‘Completion’ isn’t really a goal, that’s the idea with any course.
Once I am set up where the startline has been worn into the dirt, I look over my shoulder to let him know that I am ready and then back at my target, can’t let him catch me off guard with anything.
I have to assume every interaction is some kind of test here.
“Go!” Was all I got.
