Wednesday morning came a lot more quickly than I expected, even with nothing to do. I barely remember what Gilgal looked like and I've been itching to go back. Looking at my watch, it's only noon, an hour till my first meeting. I take a deep breath to calm myself before continuing to practice on the equipment I set up in the backyard. I practice my backflips, jumps, ledge grabbing, and landings.
It doesn't take long before I can't wait any longer and I go to pack some stuff into my backpack, expecting to jog my way there.
I'm wearing the same thing I wore a week ago. The bright colors clash enough to make any sane person believe I'm insane, but my dad told me they looked happy on me. With him gone, I just look insane, yet I literally have no other fitness-like clothing to wear.
Just as I sling my backpack on and pull as much of my short brown hair I can get into a ponytail, Noel walks in.
"You're really going to do this, huh?" She asks.
"Yup."
She sighs and pulls something out of her back pocket and hands it to me. I look at what it is. It's a pair of black fingerless gloves. They're made of a material I can tell will bend easily but wont rip, this way I won't get rope burn when I decide to slide down a pole or slip from sweaty palms.
"Oh? What's this for?" I ask.
"It's my gift of approval. Ava, I want you to believe in yourself and choose your own path, even if your friends, family, or sister tell you otherwise. I was testing you, and you passed. I just want you to have fun, alright?" She tells me.
This is really strange, my sister never acts this way, but I let it slide and put on the gloves to see how they fit. After I find them to be just right, I embrace Noel.
"Thank you." I tell her.
"Okay, I understand that you're happy, but could you please not touch me? You know how I hate that. It's gross." She teases me.
I let go of her.
"Oh yeah, sorry," I apologize as I head to the front door.
"Call me if you need anything," Noel says as I slip out the front door.
I take a deep breath and can't help but start jogging towards my destination. My legs and chest tingle with excitement as if a sixth sense is telling me that I will meet with destiny today.
I take illegal shortcuts by jumping a couple fences here and there, eventually getting barked at by a dog. I decide running along the top of the fences is safer after a close call with a giant German shepherd.
As I make my way through yards, I try to think of what it will be like when I get there. It's not yet time, there's about twenty minutes till one o'clock rolls around. I guess I'll just have more time to look around. I bet that I will be the only girl there. I probably won't laugh much, everyone will probably be straight faced and serious. I wonder how heavy the swords will be. Maybe they'll have a whole range of weighted swords so I can find one that works for me.
I eventually find myself in front of a black gate between two old, crumbling houses. On the right side of the gate is a sign with the words "Gilgal" written on it. I check my watch and find that my shortcut seems successful since I arrived at the Garden before thirty minutes had passed. As a bonus, I probably avoided a couple of hobos. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
I walk down a concrete path lined with dark brown wood chips. There are hedges that line the path to my left and to my right is about a three yard distance to a fence. Trees are randomly planted and there are concrete benches between them. I note the many birds, chirping loudly. Eventually they are all I can hear now that I was farther away from the road.
As the trail comes to an end, wood chips replace the concrete path before turning back into concrete. I stop with the concrete and look to my right. There's another path that goes a short distance before coming to an end with a blue port-a-potty. To my left is a small stone path leading into a garden.
I decide to keep going forward. On my right there's some sort of long stone table in front of a willow tree, too short to be dined on but too tall to be a bench. It has some sort of stone oven on its right side and a large stone bowl shape closer to the center.
I keep walking and find a clearing to the right after the table. There's a smaller version of the sphinx, almost as tall as I am, sitting across the opening after the table and to the left is a sort of flat rock with a carving of a man holding a sword. His head seems to have been cut off since the rock wasn't long enough and was replaced by a small boulder.
I now start to remember what is farther ahead, so I go back to the table from before and sit patiently. I glance at my watch, it's ten minutes till one.
In the end, curiousity gets the best of me and I walk over to the Sphinx and touch it. The stone is cold against my fingers, even though it's directly in the sunlight. I run my fingers along its roughly carved head and look at the picture on its chest of the Salt Lake temple and stars in the shape of the Big Dipper.
Before I have the chance to turn around, a shadow covers me from someone taller than I am. They put a hand on my shoulder and I turn around to face a girl, not much taller than I am and about the same age, if not younger. Her hair is a blonde a-symmetrical bob. She wears chain mail and framed glasses that make her round face rounder.
"Hey, we reserved this park, you know," She tells me.
I look around to see who "we" is, incase I missed someone come in. I spot a boy with messy red hair, about the same age as the girl, sitting in the same spot I was in earlier at the table. He wears an orange sash tied around his waist on top of some chain mail.
"Are you two part of the sword fighting group too?" I ask.
"Oh, you're here for that?" She asks as another man walks in. He looks around the age of 18 and wears a crimson ribbon around his waist, also on top of some chain mail. He has dark blue hair that actually works with his face and I'm surprised to see how collected he is.
"Uh... yeah. I was told about it by someone on Facebook named Saheim?" I explain.
"Ah, you must be a new Scout then. I'm Ania Praskovya, Senior Scout; that's Captain Lev Makari,"She pointed at the boy on the stage. "And that's his good example, Sir Carson Roddy," She says, pointing at the man with blue hair.
"It's nice to meet you. I'm Ava Kinsley, apparently a new Scout," I introduce.
After I say that, a dark skinned man, probably in his 20's, walks in wearing blue boots over light blue pants, chainmail and a blue cape with his hood up. He carries with him a bunch of swords that appear to be very heavy. As he walks in, Carson suddenly jumps to attention, soon followed by Ania and Lev, their feet placed shoulder-width apart, hands behind their back, and their heads focused straight ahead. I feel pressured and do the same thing. After all, the quiz I took online did ask what to do when the Emperor arrives. I assume this is the man.
"At ease, soldiers. Sir Carson, could you go back to the truck and grab Ardor's flag?" The man asks.
"Yes, sire." Carson replies as he makes his way out along the trail.
[WN: These photos line up with each other to create a panoramic photo starting from the left]
"Sir Lev, you're going to be hosting today, is that alright?" The man in blue asks as he walks along the trail, past the Sphinx. I can't see him for a while as the path disappears behind trees and a hill of carved rocks that are next to the Sphinx. A loud clanging noise tells me that he probably set the swords down on one of the tables under the pavilion. He then returns from behind the artwork, just as Carson returns with a yellow, green, and black piece of cloth, folded neatly into a triangle. He heads to where the man in blue was before returning quickly to the man's side, no longer holding the cloth.
"Aye." Lev replies to the blue man's question.
I make my way back over to the stage and sit down a slight distance from Lev. Ania joins us on the other side of him. Judging by the distance they're sitting at, it seems like they are very good friends. I notice three more men walk in, two of them wear crimson sashes and one wears an orange sash. They greet Carson and the blue man then split up. The man with the orange sash comes to sit next to me, but doesn't say anything to me. I notice he has brown hair. The other two men go to the pavilion.
Carson then walks up to me and says, in a stern voice without showing any emotion, "Introducing his most kind and just majesty, Emperor Saheim Saab of Ardor."
The man in blue walks up to me and takes off his hood to reveal his face. It looks strong, like a leader's. His eyes are a color of brown that sparkle with hints of gold and his hair is black and wavy, making it look messy but not like Lev's.
"Might you be Miss Ava Kinsley of Facebook?" He asks me, very seriously.
I try very hard not to laugh. I can't take it seriously, he's an excellent actor. I tell myself I want to be a good actor like that, too. It seems like fun to me.
"Yes!" I reply, standing up.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Scout. Welcome to the ranks," He says, holding out his hand for me to shake.
"The pleasure is mine, sir," I say, taking his hand and shaking it twice.
"Please call me Sire or Father when we're on duty," He tells me.
I blush. Was that something I should have already known? I don't remember reading it on the webpage, but the last time I looked at it was a week ago.
"Shoulder to shoulder," Saheim orders.
Quickly, Lev, Ania, the brown haired boy and I line up.
[WN: This picture and the characters in it are created based off the appearances of the original people that the story is based off of. Ava would be the one on the left.]
"Right face," he says.
I learned this from the website and turn to my right. Ania, Lev, and the other boy do the same. The Emperor positions himself in front of us. I hear him about to yell another order but he is interrupted by the clinking of titanium chain mail coming from the entrance. I look to see what is happening.
Three men come jogging in, each wearing chain mail. Two of them wear the same crimson sash that I saw Carson wear. I didn't notice Carson move, either, but now he was standing behind me, giving no heed to what is going on.
The man in the front wears a crimson sash, the man in the middle also wears a crimson sash and a pinstriped fedora. The last man to come in wears an orange sash.
I notice Carson instinctively take a step back as the man with the orange sash takes his place. The other two stop to talk to the Emperor about something I can't hear. Then they run off towards the pavilion. I realize that all the people who marched off that way were wearing red sashes. I wish I knew why...
"You're late, Dante," says the Emperor.
"My apologies, Father. Sir Antonius held us overtime today," the man I presumed to be Dante replies.
"Forward... March!" Yells the Emperor.
I start walking forward starting with my left foot, along with everyone else. It's exactly how my dad taught me when I was younger, back when he was alive. The man who told us the news actually said he was MIA, so I like to believe that he's still alive somewhere with his squad.
We are walking farther up the path which turns to the right slightly. We pass the flag pole to my left which I notice is lowered and some ancient ruins buried in the hill behind the Sphinx. Finally, we come to the pavilion.
"Company... HALT!" We all stop. "Left face!" We turn to our left and I notice that the four crimson sashed men are lined up, facing us.
"At ease," Saheim commands.
I comb my fingers through my hair and look around. There's only eleven of us here, even though I was told there are around thirty soldiers. I wonder where the others are.
"Today, we have a new soldier. Ava, please step forward," I am instructed by the Emperor.
I blush and step forward, looking at my feet.
"This is Ava Kinsley. Her skill is not sword fighting but parkour. Would you like to tell us anything, Miss Ava?" I am asked.
"Well uh... I'm sixteen years old and I recently moved to Federal Heights from New Mexico..." I whisper quietly.
"Speak up, soldier!" One of the people behind me yell. The others chuckle.
I blush deeper and wonder if it's really worth it to be here. I obviously do not fit in.
"You can introduce yourselves to her during break. For now, Ava, how about you put your backpack on the table over there and put on that chain mail as well," Saheim points at one of the round wooden tables in the corner that holds chain mail.
I walk up to it and place my backpack on the table, slip the heavy chain mail over my head, then come back to my spot in line.
"We will now have the flag raising ceremony," he continues. "Left face! March!"
We head back to the flag pole. I notice the men with the crimson sashes follow behind us.
"Company... Halt!" We are instructed. "Flag, advance! Salute!"
I raise my right arm up to my right temple to salute the flag of Ardor as it is unfolded by the crimson sashed men and clipped to the wire under the American flag and raised. I now notice that the symbol on it is the same as the one from the website, a green Celtic knot with black swords. Once it is at the top, Lev steps forward and we lower our hands.
"Let's get started!" He says. "Last man armed and in line at the battle field is platoon commander!"
I suppose being the platoon commander is something bad so I follow the others who run back to the pavilion. I grab a belt from the pile and strap it on. Already, people are running off. I then grab a sword and realize I have to undo my belt to slide it on. After doing so, I look around and I'm already the last one. I grumble under my breath and run to the clearing. Everyone is lined up facing the Sphinx and they watch me walk in, some with a look of pity and I wonder why. I slow down and stand next to the man with the pinstripe fedora.
"Ava," he says to me. "You're platoon commander. You need to stand up front in the middle."
I gulp and take my spot in front of Carson and Ania. Still unsure what a platoon commander is, I look around, everyone is staring at me and I feel pressure land on me like an anvil from an old Disney cartoon. I'm clueless.
Lev then stands to face us all. "We'll start with our quiz. Permission to speak is in effect. First off, how do you refer to your superiors?"
"Permission to speak!" yell the people behind me, simultaneously. I repeat it, last.
"Granted!" Lev says.
"Sir, ma'am, sire or father!" Respond the others. I repeat it.
A series of questions are asked after that. I continue repeating the answers but I quickly get the hang of asking for permission to speak.
"Who are the soldiers?" Lev asks.
"Permission to speak!" We finally say in unison. I notice Carson smile a little bit.
"Granted!"
This time I'm pretty confident in my answer and I say it out loud. "A soldier is anyone on the battlefield!"
No one says anything for a while. I realize I must've done something wrong and I see Lev look at someone behind me and nod. A lot happens very quickly and the next thing I know, I've got two swords in my face. The offensive one belongs to Lev, the defensive one belongs to Carson. I fall back onto my feet, my face is most likley as red as my medium skin allows and I can hear my heart beating adrenaline into my system.
"Fall back, Sir Carson. The Emperor himself approved of the punishment," Lev says.
My hands buckle and I let myself fall to the grass. I rub my eyes and see the Emperor hovering over me, looking at me with a face I haven't seen before. It could be described as pity mixed with disappointment.
"Help her up, Commander," he tells someone.
A hand is extended to me by a brown haired man with a crimson sash. He looks to be the same age as Saheim. I take it and he pulls me up before I ready myself. He's strong, really strong, and I stumble once I'm on my feet. I'm not sure why Saheim didn't simply help me up himself, but I don't ask.
"My name is Frank. Frank Burk, Miss. Second in command." he says. "Are you alright?" he says without much of a sincere look.
"Yeah.... yeah. I'm fine," I reply.
I notice that Carson and Lev have begun sword fighting each other for some reason. I return to my spot, stumbling from the shock.
"Whoa there, Scout," I find Saheim to be the voice speaking to me. "Go take a break."
Obediently, I head off towards the pavilion and put my hand on a round wooden table to steady myself. I grab my water bottle and sit on the floor to take a drink. Once I'm quenched, I put my bottle down. There's a shadow of a figure coming towards me so I look to the body attached to it. It's Ania. She sits next to me.
"Aren't you supposed to be standing in a line?" I ask.
"Father put us on break soon after you walked off. The boys are sparring so I thought I'd come check on you," she tells me.
"That's kind of you," I say.
"Pretty harsh, what Lev did to you."
"Why did he do that?" I ask.
"The platoon commander takes the punishment when a mistake is made. The answer you gave was wrong, so you were given punishment. Lev is harsh when he's commanding the trainings. He's not always like this," Ania assures me.
"Uh huh..." I say as I see the boys running about. Ania stands up as Lev runs by yelling "Come back here you cowardly fascist!"
"It'll get better, I promise. Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna catch a fascist," She says as she pulls out her sword and takes off after Lev.
I'm not quite sure what a fascist is, but the way they use it makes me think they do. I'll have to ask someone later.
I lean my head against the wall. I can still hear my heart thumping out of my chest. I would love to know more about what I'm supposed to do when I'm supposed to do it. It would make this a lot more easy on me.
"It's two o'clock!" someone yells. "Meeting's over. Now get out!"
I stand up and put my bottle back into my backpack and onto my shoulder, then I head to the tunnel of trees to get out. At least I left an impression. They're not just going to toss me aside, right? Of course not. I might not have seemed impressive, but they definitely won't forget the time Carson blocked a fatal blow to the new girl on her first day.
"Ava," someone calls. I turn around, it's Carson and he's walking next to Saheim and Frank, the guy who helped me up earlier. The rest of the soldiers are talking behind them.
"Yeah?" I gasp, exhausted.
"Would you like to come with us to Teavana at City Creek? We wanted to discuss some things with you," Saheim tells me.
"Oh, I didn't bring my wallet," I use it as an excuse as they walk to a rusty green pick-up truck.
Everyone begins piling their swords in the truck bed, so I do the same. "I call shotgun," Carson claims.
"That's alright," Frank tells me. "I'll get you something."
"Oh shoot, the tea expert's making a move!" Carson teases as he takes off his chain mail and sash and throws it in the back.
"A-alright, I'll come," I say bravely.
I climb into the backseat and pull the chainmail off me. I notice some shoes sitting next to me, probably belonging to Saheim. He takes off his cloak and chain mail as well, putting it next to me. I stuff mine into my backpack so I don't mix them up. Saheim then takes his blue boots off and trades them with the sneakers.
"Aren't we forgetting the flag?" I ask.
"We have a meeting at seven so we keep it up," says Saheim. "You can join us if you want. It'll be the same thing."
"Alright... but I honestly dont think this sword fighting thing is meant for me," I say as Saheim gets into the drivers seat and Frank climbs in with me, adding his chain mail to the pile.
"How was your first meeting Ava?" Saheim asks me as he starts up the car.
The sound of the engine makes me regret saying I'd come along. I'm the only girl and it's already getting awkward.
"Not boring, that's for sure," I say.
"You're really tense. I hope Lev didn't scare you for a lifetime. We're nice people, we're not going to let you get hurt," Frank says.
I relax a little. Maybe this won't be as bad as I thought. I comb my hair back with my fingers and cool my neck off. The truck doesnt seem to have air conditioning, but the wind from the lowered windows feels good.
~~~
"So you wanted to talk to me about something?" I ask as I sit in a seat at the table. I sip my warm tea slowly, so I don't burn my tongue but it happens anyway and I wince.
"Not just something," Saheim, who sits across from me, explains. "Anything."
"We thought that what happened today must've scared you since it was your first training. We want to know if you have any questions or comments, anything that will help us grow as a group," Says Carson.
"Are you guys part of the Society for Creative Anachronism? What are the ranks? Who was the guy in the pinstriped fedora and why does he wear it? Why do some of you wear orange sashes and some wear-"
"Slow down, kid," Frank says. "You've got four and a half hours to ask all the questions you want or tell us anything. One at a time and start over."
I take a deep breath and start with a double question. "What are the ranks and when do I move up one?"
"Oh dear. They're on our Google docs page, aren't they? I don't know them off the top of my head," Carson tells me.
"Frank, do you have any scratch paper on you?" Saheim asks.
Frank stands up and pulls out a small, wallet size sketchbook and a pen from his back pocket and hands them to Saheim before sitting down.
"Thank you, Frank," Saheim opens the book and clicks the pen. "Alright, so at the top of the ranks is the Emperor, that's me. He has two commanders, the second in command, Frank; and the third in command, Carson. Below them are the advisory council and head of army who's also the Grand Marshal. I don't think you've met them yet.
"Then we have the high ranks which are Marshal, Count, and Viscount, Marshal being the highest. After that are the middle ranks, Captain, Senior Captain, Junior Captain, and Knight. Finally we have the low ranks, Senior Knight, Junior Knight, Senior Scout, and Scout." He rips out the page and hands it to me, it's a tree diagram of the ranks. Then he continues, writing notes on a second page.
"The high ranks wear the crimson sash. Middle ranks wear the orange sash. Low ranks simply wear their chain metal without a sash. One training results in one promotion. Asking for a promotion is not going to help you in any way. You must earn a promotion by being active and obeying commands quickly.
"To move from Senior Scout, a low rank, to the middle rank, you must learn grammar and discipline. Middle rank to high rank promotions must learn war tactics, training on trainings, and take the high ranking quiz. If you pass, you are able to wear the crimson sash and give orders. High ranks then learn advanced war tactics. Do you have any questions about ranks?" He tears out the second page and hands it to me. I shake my head and take the notes. "Why don't you write the notes, Ava," and he gives me the notepad and pen.
"Alright... Are you guys part of the Society of Creative Anachronism?" I ask.
"We might as well be," Carson comments.
"We're not, which makes the SCA a little jealous," Saheim began. "We're part of something called the Utah Empires Association or UEA for short. Basically, there are a bunch of other Empires that claim other parks as their territory. The reason being is we have war with them every now and then. To list a few of our allies, there's the Japanese Empire on Japantown Street, the Dark Blood Empire at Memory Grove park by the Governor's Building and Gravity Road, and the Secundam Empire that meets at the library. Some of the members of those groups are in our group as well. You're free to join any other groups of interest to you as long as they're allied with us."
"Whoa, they have a Japanese Empire? I didn't even know there's a Japantown!" I exclaim.
"Oh yeah. They like to have a festival called Nihon Matsuri every spring on the last Saturday of April. Are you Japanese?" Carson asks.
"Well, I was born in the United States but both of my parents are Japanese, so I guess I could say that I am."
"Cool. You might want to look into that," Frank says.
"One group is enough for me, so maybe once I'm used to these meetings I'll look into it," I say. I drink the last of my tea and throw the container into the trashcan that's a few feet away.
"Do you have any more questions?" Asks Frank.
"Yeah, one more. Why does Carson have blue hair?"
"Aw man! I told you guys it's obvious!" Carson complains, slouching into his seat as Saheim and Frank chuckle.
"He was trying to dye his blonde hair black with some dye he got from the black market," Frank says enthusiastically.
"The black market?! Are you kidding me? I bought it from eBay!" Carson grumbles.
I giggle in the girly voice I used to have when I was fourteen and liked dresses with frills. To be honest, I still do, just not so much pink.
"Wow, you have a cute laugh, Ava," Saheim comments.
I blush. "I used to be a girly girl before I realized my tan skin doesn't work with pastel colors..."
"Are you kidding me? I think you're still girly, I mean check out the coordination in the outfit you're wearing now! And just because you have tan skin doesn't mean you can't wear pastel colors," Says Saheim.
"I'd like to see you prove otherwise," I tell him.
We all laugh. "C'mon, if there's nothing else you have to ask, we might as well set up for the next training," Frank insists.
I look at my watch and it's only three o'clock. "Do we have to start now? I want to check out the other groups!" I exclaim.
"Nah, we shouldn't bother them. You should learn the long sword before we introduce you to the other groups. Let's go, Senior Scout!" Says Saheim.
We throw out our empty cups and head back to the truck to go back to Gilgal.
Wow! I finished Chapter 2 before my deadline (8/3/15 7 AM MST)! I can't believe it already has a hundred reads, too. You guys are great!!! I know there was a lot of information in this chapter that you won't be able to remember, but neither will Ava, so don't worry, hehehe... I will be making a character sheet available to the public in a separate book called Ardor Extras, along with a cast list, drawings of the characters, and a lot of random info on the story that should be of use to the readers. Please check back for chapter 3!