Humans Don't Make Good Familiars

Part 35: Boot Camp

Suma's POV

"Up! Down! Up! Down! Up! Down!" Our drill instructor shouted. We were in aerial maneuver and endurance training. Fly up as high as you can in five seconds, then plummet back down as quickly as possible, making sure to stop only a single body length from the ground. "Go Go Go! Faster!" He screamed from his perch located about halfway between the ground and how high most of us could fly. I was a bit on the lower side of the benchmark, but there were a few in our group who double the average height of our group. Someone in the group asked why it was necessary to do this since this was a strictly healing mages training camp, and we were not going to be in combat... because of that question we have been doing this for two hours. "Up! Down! Up! Down! Up! Down!"

"I'm going to kill the guy that asked that question." Someone from behind me complained.

"Not if I do first." Someone else said.

"Is that chatter I hear? I guess that means you all want to do another hour?" The drill instructor bellowed.

"Sir! I need to stop; I am going to throw up." The Neame beside me said to the instructor.

"Do it on your own time recruit. Now get back to maneuvers." The instructor ordered. The recruit did not do it on his own time....

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Jake's POV

I sat on the bench at a local gym, having just finished the last set of my new workout regime. Upon arriving at the training camp, Suma and I discovered that they really didn't have anywhere for me to stay while I was there. Most of the recruits just sent their familiars back as soon as they were done with them. Suma sent me back after I got a copy of the daily training schedule from the camps directors. With little variation, familiar training, that's the training done with both a mage and their familiar, would be every day at two hours past noon.

Aside from strength training, I also have been brushing up on my martial arts and fencing. I even found a teacher who knew spear fighting techniques that worked with a shield. I go to fencing classes twice a week, spear classes once a week, and Krav-Maga classes twice a week at night. I looked down at my watch, 1:50 p.m.; I would be getting summoned any time now. I decided not to rest until then because the summoning will just heal and reenergize me anyway. Actually, because of the fact that now I get summoned every day, and that I work out every day, which shreds muscle fibers, I have put on quite a bit of muscle. I work out and get good and sore, then the summoning makes it so that I skip the post workout aches and keep the gains.

"Okay Jake, are you ready?" Suma asked.

"Yup," I answered.

"I summon you, Sentinel!" I heard as I closed the bathroom door so no one would see me vanish.

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Suma's POV

"I summon you, Sentinel!" I said performing the spell; Jake began to appear. He was wearing strange clothes when he arrived, but it did not matter because he performed his own summoning and was robed in his "Armor".

"Have all familiars been summoned?" The instructor shouted with a brief glance around; they had, and they were varied. Even though we were all healing support mages, we all came from different flights of life. Some of the other recruits summoned borogs, some had salamanders, some had Vedel (mountain cats), and one recruit had a Black Serpent. None of us were allowed to wear any kind of indication of status symbols, but it was clear by the familiars who came from nobility.