6. Chapter 5
6
Chapter 5
Dacias
Beads of sweat trickled down Dacias’s back as the summer sun roasted his shoulders. Times like this made him wish he could transform into something aquatic. At least then, he could join the navy and cool off in the sea.
Dacias Validar came from a long line of combatants, and he and his brothers were a famously fierce mix of creatures: Ferrean, an anaconda, and Klorin, a cougar. Their father had been a general, so joining the ranks of Rugiria’s Fighting Forces had been preordained.
“FALL IN!”
Cadets gingerly strolled to the line, royally pissing off the sergeant. “FALL IN! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!”
Their pace accelerated as they fell in formation. After a long and tumultuous history with their neighbors to the north, Rugiria’s Fighting Forces became the pride and joy of the territory. Especially after Morab, who had made great strides in mending the relationship between the two territories, was overthrown by Haligran.
“ATTENTION!” The sergeant walked down the line, examining the men with an offended sneer. “All right, you slugs. You want to slack off? You think it’s hot now?”
Uh oh. Here it comes. Sergeant sounded mad. Dacias knew what that meant.
“We’re gonna do shift-slams. TWENTY OF THEM!”
The cadets groaned in unison. A shift-slam required scaling three hurdles, then, after the third, slamming your feet into the ground, launching yourself into the air, and shifting mid-flight. Anyone could change under perfect circumstances. Shift-slams trained how to shift under duress.
“TAKE POSITION!”
Dacias bent forward and ground his back foot into the field. He closed his eyes and began box breathing: Breathe in four counts, hold four counts, breathe out four counts, hold four counts…
Dacias’s ability to tune out the world around him and focus on the here and now made him a formidable warrior. Battle is a mental game, he told himself. If you can control your mind, you can control anything.
He closed his eyes to empty his head of the world around him, but he couldn’t. Dacias couldn’t stop his racing thoughts. Focus. What’s the matter with you?
The sergeant stepped to the side and crooked a wicked grin. He just loves torturing us. “READY. STEADY. GO!”
Boots pounded as they raced forward.
Focus. Focus. Focus.
Dacias scaled the first hurdle with ease. He steadied his pace so he wouldn’t exhaust himself early on.
His right foot smacked the second hurdle, tipping it over. What’s the matter with you?! He’d have to do another five shift-slams if he knocked over another. It must be this Vexforsaken heat.
He narrowed his gaze, braced himself, and scaled the third hurdle. His feet slammed into the ground, and he launched himself skyward.
His spine elongated, the vertebrae snapping like cracking knuckles. The skin on his face burned as his mouth and nose began to extend. A prickling sensation enveloped his body as fur sprouted from his skin. His scalp itched as his hair transformed into a flowing mane. His paws hit the ground just as his human form—clothing and all—vanished, and the animal form took over.
The world around him expanded as his pupils dilated. He could smell everything, particularly the overpowering stench of the sweaty cadets around him.
He darted about the field, zig-zagging around training equipment.
With his head back and mouth ajar, his roar echoed over the land, and his fellow cadets cowered before him. Dacias always intimidated everyone in lion form, but this roar possessed something fiercer than usual.
Frustration and need tinged his roar. His animal mind took over, and the world around him vanished, soon replaced by soft, brown curls and bright green eyes.
He wanted to nuzzle those sweet curls, lick the freckles on Arlo’s neck, and thrust his hips into—
“VALIDAR! What in the fuck are you doing down there?”
The sergeant’s voice sounded closer. Dacias, still in lion form, looked up to see the sergeant wearing a confused expression. He was still pissed off, of course, but his confusion was evident. It took Dacias a moment to realize that his bounding about the field had evolved into lying on the ground, nuzzling and gyrating his pelvis against a bag of gear.
He quickly shifted back into human form, scrambled to his feet, and saluted the sergeant. “APOLOGIES, SIR! I… I was—”
The sergeant finished Dacias’s sentence. “Humping the gear, Validar?”
The cadets at the line fell to the ground laughing. Dacias could feel the heat on his cheeks; it wasn’t from the sun.
Dacias thought he saw a slight smirk on the sergeant’s face, but he quickly schooled his features and said, “Get back in line, boy, and focus.”
He looked down, thoroughly humiliated, and Dacias wished he could disappear into the ground beneath his feet. “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”
???
Dacias’s breath hitched as he dumped the bucket of cool water over himself. The cadets were back in the changing room, and half the infantry had already run to the lavatory to puke their guts out. Relief settled over the men as they sponged icy water on their weary limbs. Their skin glistened under the glowing crystals hanging above as droplets of water snaked down the curves of their muscular bodies. Sighs of relief gave way to the playful banter that usually filled the room.
“Hey! Someone lock up the gear, or Dacias might try to fuck it again!”
Laughter echoed from the changing room into the adjoining area where Dacias sponged himself. He rolled his eyes and walked out fully nude to confront the culprit. “All right, which one of you said it?”
A cadet named Max said, “We’ll tell you who said it if you tell us who you were thinking about when you started humping the bag.” Max ran up to Dacias and started humping his leg. The cadets cackled.
“Get that little worm away from me! I definitely wasn’t thinking about you , Max. I wasn’t thinking about anyone; I just got caught up in training.”
Max shook his head in disbelief. “ Caught up? Who gets horny during shift-slams?”
Dacias narrowed his gaze at Max. “I wasn’t horny. Does your dumbass need some sense knocked into it next time we spar?”
Someone called out from across the room. “Ohhh, the battle of Max vs. Dax! Someone’s gonna get a beatdown!”
Then another cadet screamed, “OR BEAT OFF!”
The laughter intensified as cadets tossed their towels at Dacias, covering him in an avalanche of white and green cloth.
“I am going to annihilate you all during the next sparring challenge! Just you wait!”
Klorin stood, stretching his lithe body to reveal ropey muscles. His red hair, closely cropped to his scalp, complemented his well-groomed beard. Arching an eyebrow at Dacias, Klorin remarked, “I know who you were thinking about.”
All eyes turned to his brother, and Dacias clenched his jaw at the smirk across Klorin’s face.
“Tell us who, Klorin! Is it one of us?”
Klorin continued, “Nah, it’s someone he met at Cupidor.”
Max’s eyes widened. “ Cupidor!? Is it a hooker? ”
“Will you all shut your traps! I’m done having this conversation,” Dacias bellowed.
He strode to the rack, about to snag a towel when his brother, Ferrean, spoke, “Wait. Cupidor? Are you serious?”
The playful clamor died down as Ferrean stepped forward. Great. My shitty brother . Ferrean was an insufferable pain for the entire infantry and Dacias’s primary rival. He detested Dacias’s reputation as the fiercest warrior in the Validar family.
Never one to back down from a challenge, Dacias squared up with Ferrean as he spoke, “It’s none of your business.”
Ferrean’s face twisted with rage. “If you mean that little Lapistrean pissant you were making eyes with at the Crag, I’ll spar you right here,” he stepped forward, shirtless, and flexed his chest in a way that made Dacias’s eyes roll, “right now.”
A murmur of whispers broke out among the cadets. One of them approached Dacias and asked, “Lapistrean? You were with a Lapistrean, Dax?”
Dacias glanced at Klorin, who mouthed, “Sorry.”
The looks of betrayal on his comrades’ faces made Dacias’s stomach drop, but he masked it with his usual bluster.
He folded his arms over his chest. “It’s nobody’s business who I did or didn’t make eyes with . If you have an issue with me, Ferrean, let’s do this. Get your gear on and meet me in the sparring ring. Now.”
Ferrean raced to Dacias, fury emanating off him in wafts. “Fuck that, I’ll fight you right here!”
Ferrean sprouted scales, and his body began morphing into the tube-like shape of his anaconda form. Dacias fell forward, ready to rip this fucker to shreds, but Klorin leaped up, positioning himself between them.
“Hey! Both of you, knock it off! We’re brothers. We’re on the same team. Remember?”
They shifted back to human form to continue their verbal sparring.
“ He’s fucking the enemy!” Ferrean yelled.
“I’m not fucking anyone!” Dacias screamed back, his rage boiling and turning his face bright red.
The two started to go after each other again, but Klorin pushed them in opposite directions. “Both of you shut up! Now!” He breathed and shook his head, looking for something to say. “I was joking before. Dacias wasn’t flirting with anyone at Cupidor. A hooker did flirt with him, and I’ve been jabbing him about it for days.”
Ferrean shook his head and shoulder-checked Klorin. “You’re covering for him. I saw him making eyes at that guy in a Lapistrean Battle Tog. ”
The gasps from the other cadets sent nerves prickling down Dacias’s back. He knew he had to say something. He ran the risk of alienating the troop. Many of them despised Lapistra.
Dacias pointed at Ferrean saying, “You don’t know what you saw. You were too busy being a dumbass and getting into bar fights!”
It wasn’t like Dacias didn’t feel the same rage as his fellow cadets, but Haligran denied Rugiria access to the medicine they needed. Territory relations improved under Morab. For a moment, it seemed like Lapistra and Rugiria would sign a peace treaty. It wasn’t Lapistra’s fault that this was all happening; it was Haligran’s.
Dacias wanted to tell these dimwits that not everyone in Lapistra was a monster like Haligran and that some of them had it pretty bad there. People like Arlo.
He thought about how nervous Arlo looked when they danced. He wouldn’t be afraid if he lived here.
But Dacias knew this wasn’t the time for a lecture. These cadets wouldn’t understand. Anger fueled their hatred, and rage never produced a productive conversation.
Ferrean narrowed his eyes on Dacias. “You weren’t making eyes with that Lapistrean?”
Dacias responded, his voice deep and low, almost a whisper. “No. I wasn’t.”
Ferrean’s slimy smile made Dacias’s gut clench. “My mistake, brother. I must have seen something else then.”
Ferrean turned and walked back to his station. An awkward silence filled the air until a cadet broke it with a crude joke. Everyone laughed and carried on with their business.
Dacias bent down to get one of the many towels around him, then Klorin approached. “Dax, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything; I messed up.”
Klorin and Dacias’s bond ran deep. They had always been close, but after their mother’s death, their father’s devastation rendered him incapacitated. Klorin became a second father to Dacias. Haligran’s mineral embargo killed their mother. She had battled a disease called spirarex, which corroded her lungs, for years. The deprivation of the minerals her body had become dependent on ultimately ended her struggle and took their mother away from the Validars.
As bad as Dacias’s father took it, nobody was more crushed than Ferrean. He had always been a pain in the ass, but the death of their mother took any last bits of pleasantness he had and replaced it with vengeful wrath.
Klorin and Ferrean had left Cupidor before the dance court, so neither had seen the extent of his connection with Arlo. Thank the Mother Planet. It didn’t surprise Dacias that Klorin had picked up on his yearning for Arlo at the Black Crag; that’s just how well Klorin knew him, but Dacias hadn’t anticipated fucking Ferrean noticing, too.
Dacias patted Klorin’s back. “No worries. We all make mistakes.”
Dacias scanned the room, aware that nearby cadets could be eavesdropping. Klorin noticed and gave him a knowing look before nodding and returning to his station.
Dacias dried himself off. His mind returned to Arlo’s soft brown curls, wide green eyes, and lithe body. I’m in trouble.