3. CHAPTER 3 #2
I briefly closed my eyes, took a few deep, steady breaths, then reopened them to evaluate the scene.
We faced a mud pit identical to the one we had crossed earlier, but this one was deeper—oh fuck.
I understood why the dragons were so enraged.
The eager ass who had started running, laid in the middle of the mud pit, his back pant leg caught on jagged, charred barbed wire.
The cadet was visibly trembling, and I suspected he had vomited, based on the food clumps scattered nearby.
“Did you learn your lesson?” I asked.
“No. Yes. Um, um, um. Can you help me?”
“Maybe. Stay still, ground yourself, and don’t look them in the eyes.”
Two smaller dragons stood on each side of the pit—one silver, the other grey.
I had never seen dragons this small before, standing only about ten feet tall, nor had I seen a silver dragon.
They exhaled steam and occasionally spat streams of fire across the pit, so I kept my distance to avoid provoking them.
I kept my eyes lowered, avoiding their gaze.
The rest of the squad smoothly climbed over the wall, appearing relaxed and at ease.
“What are we going to do?” Callum asked, looking around the squad.
“I believe we are supposed to crawl through the mud pit, stay under the wire, or we become dragon lunch…”
“You…you… you think they will eat us?” the timid, shy girl stammered.
“I can’t say they won’t, dragons do what they want, although dragons don’t typically pass judgment during the basic portion. Like this morning, it’s to toy with us, work our nerves.”
Callum turned around, looking at the cadet stuck. “What’s your name?”
“Beau.”
“Alright, I am going to go first and untangle Beau’s pant leg, and then once we start moving, two people can crawl in and start across. Don’t lift anything above the barbed wire, or they will burn you.”
Callum got on the ground and started crawling through the mud toward Beau. He reached out to him and pulled his leg free. “You’re free, maybe you will stick with the team for the rest of the course.”
Beau and Callum continued through the mud.
Another cadet and I climbed into the pit and started, and just as we got fully in, I heard a loud grumble and felt blazing hot heat go over my body.
My entire body froze, and I realized I held my breath.
When the fire ceased, I turned my head to see if the other cadet remained in the pit with me.
I drew a breath and decided to get the hell out.
I crawled as fast as I could. Cadets sounded behind me, and I closed in on Callum.
We crawled out of the pit on the far side. The silver dragon turned its head, eyes narrowing, and exhaled a heavy blast of sulfur straight at me .
The stench scorched my throat, the heat blowing my hair back in a rush. My skin prickled under its stare. It wasn’t random—it was measured, deliberate, like it wanted to see if I’d flinch. A test.
The rest of our squad climbed out of the mud pit.
Another wall stood ahead, about eight feet tall.
We crossed as before, except the cocky cadet stayed with us this time.
I climbed over and exhaled in relief. No living surprises waited on this side of the wall.
Instead, a twenty-foot wall rose with boards for climbing up, and on the other side stood another wall with three ropes for climbing down.
One by one, our team made it over the wall.
By this point, we were cheering each other on to keep going.
The following section involved logs placed in a muddy area, just like the others.
An instructor watched as we did it. A few of the guys started running and jumping over the logs smoothly and in coordination.
The four of us girls finished it, though not quite as fast as the guys.
My legs were aching, my arms throbbing, every single joint screaming, my stomach roaring, and my throat parched.
I silently prayed to anyone who would listen that we were near the end.
I thought lunch might be over at this point.
We came to another wall to climb over. This time, I let the shyer, calmer cadet, Ophelia, climb over first.
“Ahhhhhh!” She screamed, startling me, startling all of us.
“What’s going on?” Callum called over, now motioning for Beau to go next.
“I… ummm… I… I… I…” she stuttered out.
“Oh Shit,” Beau let out as he made it over the wall.
“Well, don’t leave us hanging over here?” I called over, preparing to go next.
“Griffins,” he shot out.
“Shit,” we all said at once. I knew three types of creatures served in the Rider’s branch.
Dragons were most prominent, but griffins and firebirds also flew among them, though I knew far less about those.
Griffins carried the head of an eagle, the body of a lion, and wings that spread wide.
Most stood seven to nine feet tall at the hindquarters.
Unlike dragons and firebirds, they didn’t breathe fire, which gave me some comfort.
They could, however, manipulate the weather, as well as being extremely fast and having a beak that would snap your head off.
We all made it over the wall and took a look around.
Four griffins stood there, two on each side, all four of them making chuffing sounds at us.
Between them was another extra-large, muddy pit with two ropes spread out about five feet apart, spanning the pit.
I wasn’t familiar with this either. Shit.
Callum confidently led our squad, immediately stepping onto the rope with purpose. He leaned forward, gripping one side firmly while balancing on his ankles on the other, inching steadily forward. The air grew frigid as sleet began to cascade down, intensifying the challenge.
I studied each griffin carefully, while I waited.
One was solid black, while the other had black feathers faded into shimmering gold.
The third was light brown, and the last was a deep, dark blue.
Interesting. I had only seen shades of black, brown, and golden griffins before, but I hadn’t spent much time around them, following my dad from fort to outpost. This was going to suck, but I had no choice but to keep going.
I climbed up and imitated Callum, my bones aching as if they might crack from shivering.
My hands felt raw from all the wall and rope climbing.
I sensed my body stretched to its limit, balancing between two ropes as I shimmied across, gripping as tightly as I could.
I reached the midway point, took deep breaths, and tried to stay grounded.
Moving one arm over, then the other, I shifted my ankles over, falling into a rhythm. But when I tried to move my left arm again, it slipped. My right arm slipped, too. I tumbled into the cold, icy mud below. It hit like solid ground, and damn, that hurt.
“Damn it!” I screamed out.
“What did you tell me earlier? Take a breath and refocus.”
I inhaled deeply, climbing out of the mud on the other side to start over. Instantly, the sleet turned to rain, and the sun rose.
BOOM!
Lightning and rain with the sun. Nice touch there, griffins .
I climbed back onto the ropes and made another attempt.
My arms and ankles were screaming from rubbing on the ropes.
I would do this. I was doing this. I had this.
I repeated these three lines to myself over and over as I kept going.
I crossed over and stood with Callum as we waited for the rest of our squad.
“So what branch are you planning to join?” I asked him.
He let out a little sigh and low laugh all at once, which made me raise one of my eyebrows at him.
“Are you going to keep it a secret?”
He sighed again. “It’s just that the day you walked into our platoon, you saw some of the Drusearons and your eyes nearly bugged out of your head—”
I cut him off, “are you Drusearon?”
“No… I am a Shapeshifter,” he said with his voice low.
I stepped back and observed Callum. He was handsome, standing at six feet two with golden-brown skin and jet-black hair tousled from the challenges.
A deep scar ran across his right cheek, matching his stubble.
His eyes shined vibrant green streaked with light brown, contrasting against his dark hair.
“Oh, okay, no problems there.”
“Wait, so you’re telling me that a Drusearon gives you worry, but someone that can transform into a wolf doesn’t startle you?”
“Well, when you put it that way…” I let out a sigh. “Can you transform now? Orrrrr?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” he countered.
The last of our squad made it over the ropes. We made our way to the next wall.
“Please don’t be a firebird, please don’t be a firebird, please don’t be a firebird,” I chanted to myself quietly.
I decided not to be the first one across the wooden wall this time, because I didn’t want to see any more surprises. Beau decided to go first this time, and within a couple of minutes, he yelled over, “we’re done! ”
I went over the wall, and about twenty feet forward, a female Historian sat at a table, writing down our time and completion as a squad of ten. She motioned us forward to the large squad across the field.
After all the squads in our platoon finished, Pascal stood in front of us and told us that our squad was the only squad that finished as a group, but we were the slowest. For the next four days, we would be running this obstacle course in the same squads.
With eleven squads, the slowest eight to finish as a group would be rucking up Watch Tower Two, down the hall, and back down Watch Tower Three.
I looked towards our squad in a “we have to get faster” look. Callum nodded at me, like he knew what I was saying. He dismissed us for dinner—wait, what the fuck? We skipped right over lunch. Did this mean we would skip lunch the whole week? Damn, that fucking sucks.
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