Recruited Mage (8 page)

9 combat training

The next morning
a bell being rung in the courtyard and wakened me. I lay on the bed for a few moments savouring the warmth as I felt the air was cold and frosty.

As I sat up I saw that Donal was already down from his bunk bed and he looked like he had been up for a long time. To my surprise I saw Oldross standing with him and as I climbed down and Rador got out of his bed they shook hands then, together all four of us opened our rickety room door and stepped out into the court yard. It was another frosty day and our breath had started cloud
ing before we had stepped a metre.

The bell
was being rung by an Engineer and there were four other engineers around him so we also hurried around him. It took about a minute for everyone to come out and the engineers quickly got annoyed. They told us to get into the groups we were in the day before.

“Good morning everyone.” The E
ngineer who was taking my group spoke in a loud cheerful voice that got our attention. “Now this morning we have a team building exercise.” Then the Engineer paused for dramatic effect whilst we wondered why. “This will be your first exercise where you could get hurt. Now it may only be wooden balls but we’ve got another group of junior engineers like you lot with crossbows, and they will be firing them at you. They will definitely bruise! The rest I will explain to you when you get there. Follow me.” We did not know what to think so we followed him in silence out of the compound. As we walked along to my utter surprise went I saw hundreds of other engineer boys like us doing training on the surrounding hills and I wanted to know more but I followed the engineer obediently.

I
t was not frosty outside the compound but as we walked along a path towards the woods, uphill from the compound I felt the ground was frozen solid.

We walked up among the pine trees and up ahead I saw a large clearing.
In the clearing going uphill was a channel about fifty metres wide, which stretched about one hundred metres to the top of the hill.

The channel went up in gian
t steps that had around ten metres between them and varied from two metres to half a metre high. The Engineer stopped at the bottom of the channel and we grouped around him.

“As you may have guessed already, you have to reac
h the top of this channel. Not only will you have to get to the top but you have to take these;” He pointed to seven short but thick logs with leather straps nailed into them to hold. “And you also may want to take these;” He then pointed to a pile of metre high and wide wooden shields. Donal and I exchanged nervous glances.

This is not going to be fun.

“Ready? Go!” All thirty of us leaped at once for the logs and shields. In the mad scrabble there was nothing left for me. We set out jogging towards the first step, which was a large one about two metres high. Everyone stopped behind it as struggled to do anything. Then Donal stepped forward and raised his voice.

What is he doing?

“Everyone; we are going to have to work together for this to work. We need a few people who are not carrying anything to climb up and then we will pass up the logs.”

Everyone agreed and I stepped forward to climb up to the top. A few other boys with nothing to carry came beside me to climb up as well
. A few others who were also not carrying anything came behind us to push our feet up.

I jumped up and grabbed the ledge at the same time as everyone else then pulled myself up as the other boys pushed our feet.

I pulled one leg over the edge and rolled over on top. I then got onto my hands and knees and turned to pull the boy who helped me up, onto the top. But, before I could grab him something whistled passed my ear and I ducked and spun around.

All across the top of the hill were boys with crossbows and each of them
, apart from the one who had just fired had a stone to a string, had their backs turned and had not noticed. I turned back toward the group at the top of the hill just as they released their hail of pain.

“Get back down now!” I yelled and they looked at me before understanding I was serious and started turning to jump down.

It was too late and I saw the ground around me erupt in puffs of dirt then I felt a shearing pain in my back and I yelled in pain, falling backwards.

I rolled on the top, two more wooden balls striking my stomach. 

Suddenly I was falling and I smashed to the ground. My head erupted in pain and my vision went blurry. My head, where the wooden balls had hit, throbbed with pain.

My headache seemed to envelop my mind and I curled up as tightly as I could, whimpering in pain. My head stayed throbbing but slowly I tried sit up.

Donal and someone else was standing over me; asking if I was ok.

What happened?

“Hey Samuel?” said Donal. “Can you hear me?” I nodded a reply. “You just rolled off the top, are you ok?” he asked but then suddenly ducked down and dived next to the step, pulling me with him. Once we were up against the step I tried to stand up but my vision broke into many colours and I felt a wave of nausea rush through me. After a few seconds my head started clearing and I looked around. Our entire group was cowering behind the step barely daring to do anything.

I tuned to ask Donal, “what is happening?” .

Donal turned to me and spoke back. “What do you think? Everyone is scared of being hit by those wooden balls so no one is going anywhere. I mean look what they did to you.” I looked at the back of my shoulders where the wooden balls had hit and huge bruises were already forming there.

“But we need to do something!” I said to Donal.
We can’t just sit here until we are punished.

“
Well I am all open to ideas.” he replied. “I can’t think of any.”

“Well you could just hold up the shields whilst we climb up and then take turns with the shields to get to the next step.”

“Ok then, let’s do it.” Donal then spent the next few minutes explaining the plan to everyone.

I was chosen by Donal,
a
“great”
friend, to be the first. I spent a few moments preparing myself then took a shield and placed it on the top of the step. Then, careful to keep the shield upright I was helped up onto the top behind it.

Almost instantly the shield was peppered with shots, each one shaking the shield. I crouched behind the shield and looked to see who I should help up. Donal took the lead, stepping forward and grabbing the hand I stretched out to him. As I pulled him up I accidentally rais
ed the shield and a wooden ball scratched my leg.

I yelled and lowered the shield back to the ground, suddenly feeling tiny behind it. As Donal climbed onto the top I
realised there was barely enough room for both of us.

Donal crouched behind me and I nodded to him before we ran. I held the shield in front of me, trying to keep it between
the whizzing wooden balls and us. We reached the next step, which was this time only a metre high, and we had to crouch down on our hands and knees to avoid being hit.

The next part of the plan was for Donal to go back with the
shield to get someone else, which he did. As he ran back, the other boys with shields were helping others across.

The plan seemed to be working and soon there were ten boys by my side. Then came the hard bit of getting the logs across;
three boys with shields formed a shield wall as another two boys dragged one of the logs behind them. They way to the step when one boy holding a shield was hit in his legs twice and fell down, leaving him and the boy behind him dragging the log exposed.

The boy on the ground was hit five times in the stomach and cried out loudly before another boy c
arrying a shield protected him. Then another two boys ran back and helped them get across.

Getting the next log to the new step was even worse because when the bo
ys were climbing the first step, the boy holding the shield was hit and dropped the shield leaving the boys open to a hail of wooden balls, which drove them back behind the step. Then for the next few minutes the boys were unable to get on top before being hit. Finally someone managed to climb up behind a shield but he was hit, like the first boy, and jumped back down under a rain of wooden balls.

“We have to draw the boys with the cros
sbows attention to other things,” said Donal and I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms.

I really hate him, why can’t he do it himself?

“We need someone to go up ahead and draw all the attention to him” he said.

“And I guess you suggest me don’t you?” I sneered.

“Well, yes,” he said smiling slyly, “was it really that obvious?”

I ignored his question and asked one myself.
“So why won’t you go?” I complained.

“Well I have to help ever
yone else by leading them and this way you have a way to help to.” he stated bluntly before his smile turned to a grin. “And, you don’t want to be a selfish boy who does nothing now, do you?” he said in a patronising tone and I was about to punch him when I realised how much like Billy he was. I turned away, my body suddenly feeling heavy and I was shocked to feel tears rush to my eyes.

To avoid letting Donal see my face I grabbed a shield and ran. I left myself no time to think about anything but getting to the next
step, which was a relieving two metre high. I ran as hard as I could over the short distance and only two shots flew past me before I dived under the step.

A few shots hit the ground behind me but they could not get me.

I peeked over the step towards the second last step we had to cross over but as I was closer now the boys with the crossbows were more accurate and almost instantly a one hit right next to my face and I ducked down. After another few seconds I peered over the edge and the boys were waiting for me, they all fired in unison and the dirt above the step was thrown up into the air as at least five of the wooden balls hit.

There is no way I am going now.
I thought but then I had an idea; I crawled slowly along behind the step to the other side, trying my hardest not to be seen.

Once I was at the far side I had to make the choice of going or not. I could not look to see where the boys were as that would give me away.

I took a deep breath and grabbed the edge of the step before throwing the shield onto the top as it would slow me climbing up.

I rolled onto
the top as quick as I could, grabbed the shield and pulled it up in front of me just as the first shots were fired; they were deflected painlessly away by the shield.

The size of the shield still left me exposed
, so I had to run.

Suddenly one of the wooden balls hit the shield where my hand was and broke through, hitting my hand. I yelled in pain and accidentally dropped the shield and stumbled over it.
Every boy with a loaded crossbow saw me with no shield, took aim, and fired. In a final burst of strength I leapt forward towards the step, which my mind only now registered as being half a metre tall. As I leapt, for a moment time seemed to almost stop, and I saw every shot mid-air seemingly still as if suspended but then, in another moment, I crashed into the bottom of the step.

I pressed myself against the step, spreading myself out as much as possible. Shots rushed past, landing just in front of me and I heard many hitting just above my outstretched body on the top of the step.
None of the shots hit me but I still pushed myself into the step as much as I could to stay away from them. I could not see anyone following me at all.

Where are they? I am only one step ahead.
Then suddenly I saw a shield poke above the step then a boy climb up behind it. Then all along the step shields were raised and boys climbed up behind them.
They must have got across.

A boy ran forward with a shield and I saw it was Donal. He ran up and grabbed me urgently.

“We have to keep going” he said, so I scrambled to my feet behind him and grabbed my shield with shots flying past me only inches away. We ran together to the next step, which was the second last, but as it was only a metre high Donal rolled on top of it and kept going. I hesitated for a second but then I realised that at the range of the archers we would have difficulty to move forward and I vaulted with one hand on to the step. In one movement I was on my feet and running again beside Donal but suddenly he cried out and tripped over, rolling on the ground in front of where I was running; I tripped over him and fell to the ground myself. I rolled onto my front and pulled my shield over me and it was simultaneously hit by a shot. A shot was fired at my exposed legs, where the shield did not cover, hitting right in my shin, and I sharply drew my leg back gasping in pain. I knew I could not stop though and rolled onto my front before crouching myself behind the shield and looking over at Donal. Shots were hitting all around Donal and some hit his legs. Donal was crying out in pain and struggling to hold up his shield as his arms were shaking.