All before One (WIP)

The Beginning of the End

Chapter 1 – Frost 1st 476

The beginning of the end

The season of Frost was upon them and it was making the recruits shiver if they stood still for too long, something the chief ranger liked. The ground had a blanket of ice over its head and it crunched beneath their boots as they moved.

It was the third week in basic training and Gaylia was beginning to regret it already. Her first two weeks were in a classroom for eight hours every day. She learned about Elven history, their uniform, their peers, their territory and their oath. Gods above, the oath. Gaylia felt like she could never forget it. Sometimes if she closed her eyes, she could see it being written on the board again.

"I, Ranger of the forest and lands of Saire, hereby promise to protect these lands to the best of my ability and to lay down my life should the need arise. It is my duty to protect and serve the Elven Queen at all costs. I will keep my promise or face Amadeus in the pass-over."

No-one took the oath completely serious until you mentioned Amadeus. Meeting him in the pass-over would either be really good or really bad and none of the recruits wanted to meet him under bad circumstances. He was a very scary Elven mystery. The recruits learned that he stood eight feet tall with four legs and sharp horns. His appearance alone would freeze any of them in their tracks, although no-one alive had ever seen him before. He was a folk legend, albeit a scary one.

This week, new recruits were completing physical training and circuits to see how capable they could be at traversing Saire. The best of them would become elite rangers, given secret missions, while the rest would be given ranger status and put onto various missions around Saire. Gaylia wanted to excel, to make her Mother proud. So far though, she had not been doing well and the other rangers were not short of letting her know.

"You know you suck right?"
"Girls can't be rangers"

Gaylia didn't pay them any attention. The second one was stupid anyway since one of the high up officers was a woman.

The Chief Ranger was watching the recruits with beady eyes as they tackled huge logs and walls along the assault course. The walls were covered in vines which made climbing easier and colder since the vines might as well have been made completely from frost due to their low temperature.

The Chief would shout at the recruits if they failed, took too long and sometimes even when they did everything right. It became hard not to dislike him.

Aravae was the only other female ranger completing the training this year and right now the Chief was lashing down a verbal storm to the backs of her pointed ears. Gaylia wasn't sure if they were only red from the cold.

"You might as well give up now if you can't beat this part of the training, Aravae!" he walked along the outside of the assault course watching her like she was his next meal.
"You know how many female rangers have completed the training?" he continued harassing her with a volley of words, words that she had no defence for.

"Seven. That's it compared to hundreds of males. Why are you even continuing?" he trailed off to watch another recruit. Some of the recruits may have begun to think he was sexist and simply didn't want any females infecting his Rangers, as if they were some kind of disease, he was protecting them from.

Gaylia watched on from the sides and was getting increasingly annoyed with his attitude. A sense of justice came over her and she did something stupid. She tried to tell the Chief off.

"Sir. I think you're being way too hard on Aravae and I feel that you don't even want us in the Rangers just because we're female." Gaylia took a breath and the carbon dioxide cloud she exhaled went into the back of the Chief's neck. Gaylia felt pleased with herself. She had stood up to a bully and confronted him. She wanted to note that she hadn't shouted and she had put her point across in a fair and professional manner. At first, the Chief didn't say anything. He didn't even flinch and then he slowly turned around to face her.