Ch. 9

  Hawthorn’s outer road seemed so different from just a month ago when we were here last. It was full of people from the festival last time and now it was much more barren. Granted, there were still people moving in and out, but nothing like it was. As we got closer to the main entrance to the city, we saw a large group that looked out of place.

  Half a dozen people that I identified as warriors in full armor stood casually—casually—with weapons that looked far heavier than I could lift. Swords, warhammers, spears, and polearms glittered on their backs and sides. With a few whose armor was glowing faintly blue. A trio of mages stood nearby, robes trimmed in colors similar to the armor wearers. Their eyes looked serious and they looked vigilant.

  John elbowed me. “Try to identify one.”

  I focused on the closest warrior.

  Nothing but three question marks.

  ???

  John’s grin widened. “Same here. They must be a way higher level. Like… really high.”

  Dad stepped forward to shake hands with one of the escorts: an older woman with an ornate looking spear strapped across her back. Her armor glowed with that blue light. Now that she was closer, I could make out a few runes etched near the neck, meaning there were probably far more inside.

  “What do you think? About level forty?” John asked in a whisper.

  “Probably higher.” I felt a cold thrill run up my spine.

  These were people who fought real monsters.

  Monsters that made the one that I saw on the farm look like a small fry.

  Once Dad had finished speaking to her, she turned away and he turned back towards John and I saying,

  “That woman, Angela, is the leader of the group that will escort you to the capital. Listen to her, she is someone you can trust. They are leaving in a few minutes, I guess we were some of the last ones to arrive. Remember, don’t compare yourselves to others too quickly. You haven’t even learned what your abilities can become. Work hard and just know that we are rooting for you all. John, I know your parents probably already told you this, but watch out for Jude. Jude, watch out for John. Have each other's backs as much as you can because although it is just the Academy, the other kids can be ruthless.”

  We both nodded and Dad smiled, flexed his arm and started jogging back down the road back to Briar.

  It was a strange feeling being away from my parents. There really hadn’t been a time where I had spent time away from them at all. I looked at John and he had a grin on his face. He was looking at the other soon to be students in the group. There were around twenty other kids in total that would be traveling with us. I identified them as a pretty close mix of warriors and mages, all Level 1. Right before I was going to ask John who he thought was the strongest, one of the mages stepped forward and clapped his hands a few times, getting all of our attention.

  “My name is Samuel and I am one of the ‘chaperones’ who will be taking you a lot to the capital. If you listen to myself and the others around me, you will be just fine. We are going to do a roll call and make sure that we have a final count of everyone. If we get going in the next 30 minutes or so, we should be able to make good time and get to Acacia in about 2 days. The pace will be fast, but we won’t kill ya.” Samuel said with a smile that didn’t quite match his tone.

  “Just behave, listen to us and there won’t be a problem. We have supplies for the road, so no need to worry about food or water.”

  I hadn’t even considered or questioned what I would eat or where I would get water on the way. It just showed how little I really understood about being on my own and being away from home.

  Our escorts started calling out names, grouping kids by region. After a few names we didn’t recognize, they called us.

  “John Hale! Jude Summers! Step forward.”

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  We both shared a look that was filled with a bit of fear and excitement all tangled together. This was it, our road to Acacia had begun.

  One of the warriors who called himself Felix cleared his throat and shouted, “Alright, let’s get this show on the road. We are going to jog for a bit until we start seeing some stragglers. Do your best to not fall behind.”

  John and I started to jog. We were in the middle of the pack of kids with several in front and behind us. I was thankful that we had been working on our agility and cardio endurance. I expected having to push my body hard at the academy, but not on the way there…

  We jogged for about an hour and I was starting to wonder if we were going to bring the pace down to a walk because I couldn’t do this for much longer. Luckily, a few in front of us had already dropped behind us, not holding the pace Felix set for the group.

  A shrill whistle cut through my thoughts and Felix shouted, “Walk! Enough of you are starting to drag and fall behind, so we will drop the speed to a walk for a while before picking up the pace again.”

  I was breathing heavily and thankful we were moving a little slower. Sweat dripped down my brow. John still looked as if we hadn’t been running since we left Hawthorn. He noticed me looking at him and said, “Jude, you’re looking a little tired. Do you need me to hold you?” he was smirking as I pushed him a little and said, “Watch out John.”

  John looked confused until he tripped over the Barrier I formed in front of his right foot, making him fall right on his face.

  “John, are you ok? What happened?” I asked, putting on the most concerned expression I could muster, holding out my hand for him to help him up

  “I’ll get you for that one later Jude, don’t worry.” He said, pushing my hand aside. I knew that I needed to watch my back for how he would get me back. He might put bugs in my pillow or in my boots, I would need to be ready.

  We ended up walking for a few more hours before stopping for dinner. Now, it was Angela who spoke to all of us as we pulled off on a clearing next to the road.

  “You may be wondering what kind of food we have for you on this little trip of ours, but I don’t want you to worry one bit, we have the perfect food for you.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a paper wrapped rectangle, “This is an MRE, short for Meal Ready to Eat. It has the exact amount of nutrients you need. Each of you will get three of these to use on our trip. This is what most military and Monster Hunters use when they are on assignments. They are the most efficient and non-perishable food resource you can bring with you in the wilderness. We will be passing these out right now.”

  All of our chaperones passed out these bars and I was excited, “Real food for adventure”, I thought as 3 white paper wrapped bars were placed in my hands. I put two of them in my bag and looked at the one I kept to eat. I was hungry and could not wait to try this.

  I unwrapped it and it was brown with very little else going on with it. I smelled it and it did not smell like anything. I went to take a bite and I almost broke my teeth trying to break off a piece of it. “Aghhh!” I said as my face scrunched in pain. John was trying to gnaw on his, but seemed equally frustrated.

  I tried scrapping a bit off by trying to use my front teeth to trim off a thin layer of it. That worked and I got a small shaving of the bar on my tongue and… it tasted like sawdust. Maybe sawdust was the wrong term, but it had a woody flavor. It wasn’t sweet and dried out my mouth right away. I realized quickly I had no water. I was already pretty thirsty from all of the running and walking, but I didn’t have any water in my bag or a bottle.

  “John, did you bring any water? I just tried the MRE bar and not only was it super bland tasting, it sponged out any moisture I had left in my mouth.”

  John had gotten a little chunk off of his MRE and had started chewing when I saw Samuel, the Mage that spoke to us back at Hawthorn, use an ability on the ground and a large pool of water began bubbling up until a fountain of water about 3 feet tall was shooting up from somewhere deep underground.

  “The water fountain is over here, children. Take turns and wash down your delicious meal. It will be here for about 15 minutes before my ability ends.” Samuel said with a slightly condescending tone.

  I was feeling a little disappointed with the attitudes of these adults leading us, but I was just hoping it was to begin to get us ready for the Acacia Academy. Maybe they were looking down on us already as they probably all came from the capital… but then I remembered “Think the best, prepare for the worst.” I thought, remembering what Dad had said. I am going to just believe they are trying to train us right now and go with the flow.

  I stepped up to the fountain and it was actually some of the most refreshing cold water I had ever drank. John and I came up with the best method to actually eat the MREs with success: scrape a few shavings off with your teeth, grab a sip of water, and then wait for the water to absorb into the MRE. It made the dry, woody “meal” taste a little sweeter and bit easier to chew. John and I finished our bars, but it felt like my jaw was cramping from how much I had to work the food around chewing it so much.

  We got back on the road and walked for about 2 more hours before it was time to set up camp. There was a small cart that one of our escorts had that was carrying bedrolls for all of us. They set up a large fire in the middle of another large clearing we settled on for the night. I was hoping we would have tents or more fires, but it was clear this would be the only fire for the night. It was a cloudy night, there were no stars in the sky and it felt like there were rocks under my bedroll. John was already asleep a few feet next to me, snoring away without a care in the world. I closed my eyes and couldn’t help, but miss home. My brain felt like it wouldn’t shut off, but my body was so tired. Eventually, sleep took me.