I was taught everything from various parries to different blocks. I was quickly getting the hang of it. At one point I was even challenged to a duel by the Emperor himself. Of course, I lost, but it didn't bother me.
The time for the second training eventually rolled around and it went just like before, without the flag ceremony. I made it through the quiz and was able to continue the training. We did a listening part where we were told to do something and we would do it to see how quickly we would react. Then we were taught the positions for raids.
There are three positions, two flag guardian positions, which defend the flag; five inner guardian positions, which take down anyone who gets through the gate; and everyone else is positioned on outer guard, which prevents the enemy soldiers from entering the fort. We learned that once we tag our target, they must walk with their sword in the air to the designated graveyard, where they must sit for one minute before getting up for a second chance. If all enemy targets are in the graveyard or we hold the flag for ten minutes, we win. If all ally soldiers are in the graveyard or the enemies hold their flag on our post for ten minutes, we lose.
We were supposed to start a game, but some soldiers of a different army came in, there were about ten on them and seven of us and they declared a practice raid.
"Who wants to do a practice raid, based off of what you've all learned?" Saheim asks.
I raise my hand with the majority of our soldiers.
"Alright. Head to the pavilion for a quick briefing. Sir Paul, stay and brief the visitors of our raid rules."
We obey and march to the pavilion.
"I'm assigning posts, so listen up! Ania and Ava will take flag guardian. Dante, Davis, and Lev will be taking inner guardian positions. It will be the three of you, since the others aren't here. Everyone else will be outer. The graveyard is the parking lot on the East side of the block. Now get to your places!" Saheim orders as I watch everyone scatter.
Ania and I lock eyes and we head to the flag together. "You make sure they don't get their flag on the pole, I'll back you up from behind," she tells me. I nod and hide behind a bush behind the flag while she hides behind a giant rock on the hill.
There's silence for a moment before a loud yell is heard followed by the clanging of metal. It had begun. Ania and I sit there for what seems like forever before we finally hear footsteps. She steps out before me, pulling out her sword.
"Not today, boys!" She taunts as I jump out from the bush.
There's two of them, both about our age. One holds a purple and gold flag, hiding behind the other with his sword drawn. I watch him take on Ania first, but I notice how she doesn't run at him, she stands there, waiting for him to advance her. He runs at her, leaving the boy the with the flag unguarded, and I take my chance, pulling out my own sword and lunging at him. He spins to his right, a move I recognize from flag football, and I miss. I hear a grunt as Ania is hit, though I keep my focus on my current target.
I hear Ania's footprints marching on the gravel as she makes her way to the graveyard. Then I hear the footprints of her attacker coming at me from behind and I duck, rolling to my right. I stand up, but too quickly, and he hits me on my left shoulder, hard. It hurts and I know I'll have a bruise there in the morning. I put my sword in the air and run to the graveyard as quickly as I can. I pass Lev, noticing for the first time that he now wears a High Rank sash. Then I run past Saheim and he yells to me.
"Thirty seconds, Ava!" He informs me.
The time for graveyard must've been lowered since we have small numbers. I turn the corner and see Ania in the distance, watching a large LED clock, the kind you see in gymnasiums, that sits above a garage entrance. It marks the time, including seconds. Ania, along with a couple of other soldiers, watch it closely, a few of them run off at random times. I finally get there and note the time: 19:38:29, military time.
"They got you too?" She asks me, a little bit nervously.
"Yeah, I never saw the sword coming. They probably have their flag up by now." I say.
I watch as Dante, the boy who came in late yesterday, comes up to us, his sword in the air. "The enemy flag is raised!" He yells.
I am suddenly filled with a feeling of anger that I've never felt before. I can't believe they've already raised their flag. I watch as the two soldiers in our uniform that I don't recognize run back to the fort.
"The inner guardians are backing you two up till you get back," Dante continues as Lev appears around the corner and Ania runs off.
"Back from the dead!" She yells.
"I was able to tag those two soldiers, they went off to their designated graveyard, but there were two other enemy soldiers coming to replace them and I got tagged. We were able to get their flag back down, but we were unable to get ours back up," Lev informs us.
I notice my thirty seconds are up and I run back to my post, blocking and dodging the outer enemies as I go. I tag one of them and feel accomplished. When I get to the flag, I notice that Ania has the flag raised. I assumed the other boy on inner defense, Davis, helped her. He runs past me and through the tree tunnel, chasing the two soldiers.
"Alright, I have a new plan," Ania says. "You hide behind that soldier carving, the one with the missing head, and I will hold off anyone who comes. Once their backs are towards you, come out and hit them by surprise."
I nod, thinking it was a good idea, so I hide behind the large carving and watch Ania. She stands there and taunts the enemies fighting the inner guards. Eventually I hear more footsteps and watch as two more young boys, about seventeen years old, charge at Ania. She blocks the one in front as I see the other going for the flag pole.
I quickly jump out of my hiding spot and quietly get behind the man attacking Ania. I pull out my sword and swing it at his left hip. I tag him successfully and he turns around, a little bewildered, before putting his sword in the air and walking off. Then Ania tags the man at the flag pole and he follows close behind his comrade. I high five Ania. "We make a good team," she says. I nod, smile, and get back to my hiding spot. It's a good strategy and it seems to be working. Ania and I really do make a good team. Two more enemy soldiers come and we accomplish the task quickly, more so than before. I smile to Ania and get back behind the statue.
The strategy works for a very long time and I realize that we haven't died for a while. Suddenly I hear a whistle and everyone stops, and puts their swords back in their scabbard. Did we win? I follow the others who are heading to the clearing.
"Shoulder to shoulder!" I hear someone yell.
I stand with Dante on my right and Ania on my left. Up close, I notice that Dante has a small scar on the left side of his neck that stretches from behind his ear to a point that's about half way from his ear to his chin. I'm about to ask what it's from but it quickly gets quiet.
I notice that the opposing team is lined up facing us. They bow quickly and say together, "The Empire of Noitanigami thanks you for your time," before standing up straight again.
Noitanigami? What kind of a name is that? It sounds like complete gibberish.
Their leader tells them to face left before they all march out, leaving us alone.
We have a quick flag ceremony to take it down then head back to where we stood before the Noitanigami Empire left.
"At ease!" I brush my hair out of my face. Saheim is speaking. "Great job, soldiers! You all did well. I'm very proud. Now, we have refreshments in the pavilion, but before we get to them, I have something to inform you. Pioneer Day is coming up," I know this, it's a holiday celebrated only in Utah for the pioneers that crossed the plains. It's celebrated like the Fourth of July. "We have been invited to a party by the Dark Blood Empire of Memory Grove Park. It will take place on the 23rd of July at seven o'clock on Dark Blood territory. There will be no evening training that day. Dismissed!" We head to the pavilion.
I find boxes of doughnuts on the table and some cartons of milk. I wonder who bought them, since I was with the three Commanders all day and I never once saw them go out. I take one and head down a rocky path behind the flag pole and bush I hid behind. I come to a fire pit and some logs as benches; I take a seat. The fire is already lit, but I don't know who lit it. The sun is not even down yet, but it is getting chilly, so I thank whoever did.
Someone sits next to me, it's Ania. Lev sits on her other side. a few more soldiers I don't recognize join us and the man with the pinstripe fedora sits to my left. He looks scary, like he gets what he wants when he wants it. He doesn't wear his chain mail and instead, wears a black pinstripe suit to match his hat. His outfit looks like something I would see a businessman from the 60s or 70s wearing.
"You guys did a good job defending that flag," he says to Ania and I.
"Thanks," Ania replies.
"I believe your name was Ava, right? I'm Antonius Leonardo. Most people just call me Tony," He holds out his hand for me to shake.
"Nice to meet you, Tony," I take his hand and shake it twice.
I finish off my doughnut quietly, as I notice Tony has no interest in me anymore, instead he talks with the person next to him, Paul. Eventually, everyone is around the fire.
Nobody talks to me, so I sit quietly and watch the fire as it dances to the birds that chirp with the crickets. Eventually I get an idea.
"We should tell scary stories... Unless someone's a wimp," I say boldly, almost out of my comfort zone.
I spoke quietly but everyone seems to have heard what I said and they quiet down. A boy I don't recognize with blonde hair, a little older than I am, stands up.
"I'll go first..." He says as a creepy smile twists onto his face.
"Oh shoot, not Nathan Connors the Creepypasta king!" Someone shouts. "I'm gonna pee my pants..."
"Last spring, just before school got out, there were a group of four boys from Bountiful that were reported dead of overdose, or so the newspaper article reported."
"Oh my gosh, I heard about that!" Tony bursts out. Everyone quickly tells him to be quiet.
"The thing is, the students at the school were told it was LSD, however when the drug report came back, it was undetermined what exactly killed them," Nathan continues. "The media hid some things, but I only figured that out because I live in the same neighborhood as those boys. They were happy boys with good grades, some were even on the Football team.
"On closer inspection, the boys had their intestines overheated and burned till they were dry of any fluid. Their noses were dry and bloody, and their eyes were rolled back into their head. They had scratches, tested as self inflicted based on the skin found under their nails. It wasn't bleach, though it almost seemed like a relative of the cleaning chemical. Bleach would have made them cough up blood, however no blood, other than from the nose, was found on the victims.
"The police have yet to figure out what exactly killed these boys. Neither do they know where the drugs came from... But the friends of the boys claim that there was no reason for them to take the drugs. There were no containers for the drugs found on the scene, and it was discovered that the last thing they had consumed before they had passed away were donuts from Smith's, the same donuts we just ate... Well, you guys ate them. I decided to save myself from the chances. Don't go dying, now..." He sat back down and many of the soldiers decided to toss their donuts into the fire, not sure if they should continue to eat them or not.
"Can we tell jokes now? I'm really scared..." Said one of the younger soldiers.
"Yeah..." Said another.
"Jokes?! Oh my gosh! I've got a brilliant one!" Davis laughed and stood, about to speak but laughing all over again. A few of the other soldiers laugh with him, the ones who don't seem too scared by Nathan's story.
Once the guy gets a breath, he begins, "There's a doughnut on a cruise ship, okay?" And he breaks out laughing again, this time he gets everyone laughing. We finally stop and he continues, "and he goes up to the captain and he's like 'Hey Captain, can I drive the cruise ship?' and the captain goes 'No, you can't,' so the next day the doughnut goes up to the captain and says 'Hey Captain, can I drive the cruise ship?' and the captain replies 'No, you can't, and if you ask again, I'll throw you over board!' so the next day the doughnut goes up to the captain and he's like 'Hey Captain, can I drive the cruise ship?' and the captain says 'NO!' and throws him over board," and he breaks out laughing.
I stare at him like he's an idiot, even though some of the younger soldiers are laughing a little sarcastically.
"I don't get it," Lev says.
"That's the point!" Says another soldier.
"Okay, okay, me next," Saheim stands up next. "If you ever get cold, just stand in a corner for a little bit."
There's a long silence as everyone thinks for a minute.
"Why?" asks Davis.
"They're usually around 90 degrees," Saheim finishes and takes his seat.
There are weak laughs all around and then Ania stands up. "Me next. Why was six afraid of seven?"
"Oh my gosh that's so lame. Everyone knows that one. It's because seven 'ate' nine," says Lev.
"No, it's because seven was a registered six offender," Ania finishes.
This joke gets Lev laughing so hard that he has to roll into a ball on the floor. A few of the other boys found it funny too, but I didn't really care for it, even though I do agree it's a dang clever joke.
"I've got one," I stand up. "Knock knock."
"Who's there," Everyone replies.
"Daisy."
"Daisy who?"
"Daisy me rollin', they hatin'!" I finish of my sad but good joke.
I get a couple of laughs, but not as good as what Ania got. The boy who said the joke about the doughnut on the ship stands up again.
"I got another one," He says and everyone groans. "No, no! This one's really good, I promise! So a duck walked up to a lemonade stand and he said to the man running the stand, 'Hey, got any grapes?'" Again, everyone moans.
"Spare us, please," Dante says.
"Okay, fine. Then let me tell a different one. Alright, so one day this man decided to ask his girlfriend to marry him. He was really in love with this girl, and asked the jeweler for the most expensive ring he could find. He bought this girl a ring covered in huge diamonds. He took her out on the peer and right as he was about to give her the ring, a giant fish jumped out of the water and swallowed the ring up. The next day, to make her feel better, he took her to a restaurant. Out of spite, she ordered fish. To her amazement, as she began cutting open the fish, inside was the-" He pauses and we all sit there like the world just paused.
"Get on with it or we're kicking you out of the fort for the night," Said Carson, obviously annoyed.
"It was the donut," the man said as he burst into laughter.
It takes a minute for everyone to get it and we all start laughing really hard at random times, some of us never get the joke and we can't tell them why it's so funny because we're laughing so hard, so they sit there angrily.
"I'm so confused, someone tell me what the heck is so funny!" Lev asks.
I lean over and pat him on the shoulder, trying to calm down, but I can't. I say in a squeaky voice, "The doughnut... the doughnut that the captain tossed over board...!"
Finally everyone else joins in on the laughter. Then we all quiet down and the jokes come to an end, replaced by regular conversation. I go up to Saheim to ask him a question that's been on my mind for a while.
"Will you be able to show me where the Dark Blood Empire is? I really want to go to that party. You guys are hilarious."
"I can show you tomorrow," He tells me. "Right now, you should head home. It's getting late and there aren't very good people around. What part of Salt Lake do you live in?"
"Federal Heights," I reply.
"Lev lives down that way," Saheim tells me. "Actually, so does the leader of the Dark Blood Empire." My eyes must get wider because Saheim laughs. "I'll introduce you to him tomorrow morning. Come early and I'll teach you some stuff about the other Empires, clans and families. If you're lucky, we'll introduce you to the man in charge of the Dark Blood Empire. Lev!" He calls.
"Yeah?" Lev asks.
"Ava lives in Federal Heights. I thought you two would be better off walking together instead of going home alone. Sound good?" Saheim asks.
"Yeah, that's fine," He says. "Do you want to leave now?" He asks me.
I feel a sudden wave of exhaustion come over me. "Yeah, if that's alright with you."
"Alright, give me a minute," He says as he goes over and talks to Ania for a while before coming back over to me. "Alright, let's go."
I check to see if I have all of my stuff, and I do, so I leave.
"Bye Lev!" Ania yells at him. "Bye Ava!"
The others echo her goodbyes and I wave.
~~~
That morning I woke up from a nightmare. I can only remember parts of it, but it felt like I had literally been walking through Hell. There was blood instead of water, and chairs that stood tall with spikes. I was so scared, I must've woken myself by screaming. I don't usually have nightmares like this.
After doing my morning routine, I pick out something to wear. My nightmare put me in a mood where I don't want to wear something too bright, so I pick a plaid red and white shirt and some comfy jeans that I can easily move around in. I skip breakfast, too excited for the day. The clock on the wall reads 10:45 AM, enough time to get to Gilgal. Stuffing my chain mail into my backpack, I leave before Noel has the chance to ask where I'm headed.
I take the main roads, the same path I took last night with Lev. There aren't as many hobos as I saw then, so I'm more comfortable. Most of the people I walk by are just medical students that attend college nearby. I'm stopped by a traffic light so I sit on the barrier that prevents cars from hitting pedestrians that wait for the crossing light to change. The students that wait with me are older than I am, which embarrasses me. Other kids my age would probably be indoors or at the mall with friends by now.
A Trax train comes by and the traffic comes to a halt. I watch the colors of red and blue mix with the white paint and yellow lights that illuminate the passengers inside. At one point, I think I see an ancient looking metallic helmet of some sort with spikes on one of the passengers, but I blow it off as my mind playing tricks on me. I'm still tired and my mind hasn't forgotten my nightmare. I probably had a flash of it go through my brain and put it into the scenery around me. Eventually the train goes by and the chirp of the crosswalk alarm begins with the change of the lights, so I jump off the barrier and continue on my journey.
When I arrive at Gilgal Sculpture Garden and notice the green truck parked near the curb, so I run in quickly, hoping he didn't wait too long. I find Saheim sitting under the pavilion wearing his outfit from yesterday, blue boots, jeans, chain mail, an HR sash, and the blue cape. His hood is raised and he seems to be calculating something on a piece of paper and calculator.
"What 'cha doin'?" I ask him. He looks up at me, startled, and takes off his hood.
"Oh, Ava. You scared me. I was calculating some stuff; trying to figure out how much it would cost us to get new gear, maybe some shields," he tells me and rubs his eyes. "You wanted to meet the Dark Blood Emperor, right?"
I nod. "If you're busy right now, I can wait," I tell him.
"No, no, it's alright. We can head out now," he says, picking up his stuff and heading out. "Let's go."
I follow him out and to the green truck. He opens the passenger door for me and I hop in, then he closes it. I respect him for that, he's a true gentleman, but I could have done that myself. He gets in, starts up the truck and we're off.
"Did you two get home safely last night?" He asks me.
"Yeah, we did," I reply.
I realize that I'm alone with Saheim and it makes me uncomfortable, so I sit quietly, even though there's lots I would like to talk about, such as my nightmare.
"Do you have any questions?" He asks as if he read my mind.
"Uh, yeah... How come there are so many of these groups of people?" I say.
"You mean the Empires and clans? Well, it started with two groups called F.E.A.R. which stands for First Encounter Assault Recon and R.A.T. which stands for Responding Assault Team. When they started out, they were against each other, trying to be better than the other. They use bb guns and are more modern than we are, but after a while, the guns started to scare people and they gained the attention of KSL News and other media organizations. People thought they were the real deal, like a more localized version of S.W.A.T., but they cleared it up and told everyone they were just a bunch of bored college students playing around.
"Eventually more groups started to appear such as the Vaktovian Empire and the Vazi's. Eventually there was a break out in historical groups and the sword and bow groups began, mostly from SCA members that didn't have the money to join the SCA meetings. This included the Empire of Ardor, the Dark Blood Empire, the Secundam Empire which Nathan is in charge of, and many Asian themed groups, most of which were centered around Japantown.
"Then the geeks wanted to do it too, so there are groups for Attack on Titan, a popular Japanese anime; The Queen's Navy, which likes to think it organizes the other Navy based groups such as the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Carribean and One Piece; Starfleet Federation, which organizes the groups USS Enterprise NCC-01 and other Star Trek or sci-fi genre groups."
He finally pauses after what I thought would be forever. "Holy freakin' cow. If there's so many groups, how can there be enough people for each of them?!" I ask as we turn down Gravity Road. I try not to look down the cliff to my right, I'm terrified of heights. Instead, to my left, I notice some torches with ashes on them and a large sign that says "Dark Blood Empire Fort" on it with dripping red paint.
"Heh, Utah was the best place for a trend like this to take place. We're the geekiest state in the U.S. and more than 4/5 of the people you walk by are in some sort of group. Of course, there's not just war groups, there are spy groups that are hired by other groups to infiltrate the enemy and get info, we had trouble with one of them at one point. Exiled a lot of our members.
"There are also mafia groups that are less organized. They call themselves families, so no one is really in charge, but they're more tough and secretive. They don't infiltrate, though. Tony, Dante, and a couple of other members of Ardor are a part of the Benedetto family. I hope I'm not boring you," he says. "Am I?"
I shake my head as we turn into a parking lot. There is a large brick wall and a black iron gate blocking my view of whatever is inside. I get out and close the door before Saheim has the chance to do it for me.
"You might want to put on your chain mail. It claims you as a group member rather than a random citizen," Saheim says.
I pull off my backpack and pull out my chain mail. After putting it on, he hands me a sword and belt from the back of the truck so I put it on too. He already has his on, but I notice it's larger than the ones we use to practice with. I put my backpack back in the car before I'm ready to continue.
We both walk up to the entrance and he pushes the gate open, it squeaks. I walk in and he closes it behind me till it hits the opposite gate with a clang. The atmosphere is different here, as if I walked into a graveyard on Halloween night. A pathway leads straight to a rusty playground that sits at the end of the park, almost hidden by a giant statue of a man on a horse, probably a pioneer. I can see stairs leading up to the large pavilion. It has a slide on one side, and a flag pole on top. The pole goes through to the inside and I guess that's how they put their flag up.
The grass out front has equipment scattered everywhere with sandbag walls, spears laying on the ground, and scarecrows made of wood, probably for practice. There's an old playground to the left with the bark completely removed and replaced with a rubber floor made of tires. On the right is tennis court with faded, ripped black cloth weaved in and out of the tall fence. There's a sad willow tree behind it that gently strokes the top of the fence. The whole scene looks eerie in the morning light, as if I walked into the apocalypse from another world. I don't like it.
"Here we are," Saheim says. I shiver. "Aw, come on. It's not that bad. Let's continue on."
I attempt to take a step forward but I can't. My feet are glued to the ground and the only thing my brain does is show me flashes of my nightmare. I can't go on, I don't want to. "No," I say and turn around, letting myself out and feeling the cool breeze as if I had breathed all the oxygen from the inside of the fort.
Saheim follows me. "Are you alright? I know it's rather spooky, but otherwise they wouldn't be able to taunt their foes."
"I'm fine," I reply. "I think..."
"Well, you reacted better than Paul did. He went on and on about how the place looked like Hell."
Paul has a good sense of what's actually good. I tell myself.
"How did Ardor even get associated with this place?!" I ask.
Before Saheim has the chance to reply, a car pulls into the parking lot and parks next to Saheim's truck. A man steps out wearing the helmet I saw on the train earlier and I let my jaw drop. It has horns decorated in red and black. He wears chain mail that seems heavier and more expensive than ours, a red and gold cape pinned to his collar by two gold buttons. A chest plate covers the vulnerable spots and whatever red shirt he's wearing under it all seems too long and drapes down almost to his knees, but not quite. His pants are Capri length and folded up and he wears brown sandals. He scares me.
I partially hide behind Saheim, mostly because his sword is larger than this other man's, but also because the man looks like he's ready to hit us at any minute, even though it wouldn't really kill me. He gets on one knee and bows to us, holding his cape in his right hand. He doesn't look at us.
"Stand!" Saheim orders. He stands, but looks through us, rather than at us. "What's you're name, Soldier?" Saheim asks the boy. He doesn't look older than 14.
No response.
"D-Did... Did you say something wrong? Maybe you have to give him permission to speak," I say.
"You have permission to speak freely, now tell us, what is your name?" Saheim repeats.
There's still no response, just the sudden sound of feet hitting the ground. I turn to look at what's coming and see a group of eight people marching in a diamond shape. There's a man in the middle that wears less metal and more cloth with a helmet that looks so heavy that my own neck hurts just thinking about how hard it would be to wear it. Behind the nine people are more people following behind them in three rows of five, making twenty-four people in all, more people than I've seen at our meetups.
"Company, halt!" Yells the man in the middle of the diamond. Everyone stops so suddenly that I have to reorganize my thoughts. "Company, fall out!" The men in the diamond shape fall to the side, four on each side. "Company, at ease!"
They put their hands behind their backs and pull their feet to shoulder width apart. It amazes me how synchronized they are, and they don't move a muscle either. It scares me more than I was before.
"How art ye, brother?" The man asks Saheim as he steps towards us, ignoring the silent boy from earlier who hasn't moved a muscle.
"I'm doing well, you?" Saheim replies.
The man looks at me out of the corner of his eye rather than moving his whole head. I tell myself to be strong, so I stand at attention to Saheim's right.
"Fine. Might this be one of ye slaves?" The man says.
"No, no. This is a new recruit. Her name's Ava, she's a low rank. She wanted to know where your territory was so she could find it on the 23rd for the party," Saheim explains
I bow like mother taught me to when I met Grandma and Grandpa in Japan. It must've not been the right bow because I can immediately feel the tension from the soldiers behind him. I blush and decide to stay still until ordered.
"Ava, eh?" I can feel him staring at me and I finally feel a flash of heat from the hot noon sun. "You may call me Samael."
The two men are silent for a moment so I nod to let them know that I understand.
"Don't mind him," Samael points to the silent boy. "He's my slave, he can't speak. He has no tongue,"
I'm speechless again. Does he really have no tongue? That's horrid! I can't find any words to say so I simply stay quiet.
"Ava, there's no need to be silent, he can't give you orders yet," Saheim says.
"Yet?" I ask.
"What?" Saheim looks confused. "Yet what?"
"You said 'yet', what does that mean?" I repeat myself clearer this time.
"Did I? I didn't think I did," he replies.
Hi, hi! This is the end of the chapter. I hope you liked it and look forward to reading more!