Forged in Frost and Fire (Book 1 in the Chronicles of Kings trilogy)

Chapter Fifteen

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

The sound of metal clanging woke me up like a slap on the face. My fellow soldiers must've felt the same way because I heard a few bodies thump to the ground and muffled groans.

I sprung up from my bed and my hand was already digging under my mattress for my dagger. And that was when my eyes adjusted and I saw Foley and Helen standing at the front of the room. Helen was holding what looked like two frying pans. She must've been banging those things together to make all that awful noise.

"Get dressed soldiers," Foley said. His voice brought along a whirlwind of emotions that I had temporarily forgotten about as I had fallen asleep. I resisted the urge to throw the covers over my head as I saw him look up at me.

"You have five minutes before you meet us outside," Helen and him left just as abruptly as they had come in. I would've stayed gaping had the rest of the room not erupted into chaos once the door clicked closed behind them. Everyone was rushing to get dressed, pulling on shoes with haste, whipping brushed through hair.

"What's with the gods-damned five minute readying time?" I asked Callan who I saw pulling on a shirt below me. I changed out of my sleep shirt, thankful that Mason and his group, who had catcalled me the first day I was here, were now just as busy as I was getting ready.

"I think it's part of their fun," he said, his voice thick with sleep. I changed my pants under the safety of my blankets before hopping down to the ground. I pulled on my boots, then sprinted out of the barracks with Callan as our five minutes was coming to a close.

It was dark outside, the stars were twinkling in the black expanse of the sky. Which was strange. Foley never woke us up until at least five in the morning, when the sky would be just barely turning into a dark shade of gray. But now...now it looked to be the middle of the night. Not to mention, none of my fellow initiates looked as if they had gotten any good sleep. Did they wake us up in the middle of the night? And for what?

"Follow us," Foley barked out to those of us who had made it out on time. Those who didn't, were not allowed to go to wherever Foley was taking us. The future soldiers stayed silent as we marched towards where we had done capture the flag the other day. We were walking into the forest, but instead of turning left, as we had done for the game, we kept moving straight.

No one spoke, not even to ask questions. I was sure that all of them were too terrified to. I didn't blame them. Everything about what we were doing felt ominous. It felt like we were marching off to war, nothing but the sounds of our footsteps crunching on the ground to bid us farewell.

We walked for a long while, long enough that my muscles were starting to ache and my head was starting to pound. I had skipped dinner last night, instead spending my time with Lason as he cleaned the infirmary, labelling vials before putting them in their designated drawers. Now, I was starting to regret skipping the meal. I had no idea what we were doing but it couldn't have hurt to have had some more fuel for it.

We walked onwards some more. Callan stayed silent beside me, as did Mason, though he was further up ahead. It was a strange thing, all that silence. I wasn't used to it anymore after living in a noisy barrack for nearly three weeks.

It was a few minutes later that I heard something about a mile away. It was strange, almost like a fuzzy noise. It wasn't anything I could've made out. So I kept walking. The noise only increased. With every footstep though, the noise got clearer. I recognized it a moment before everyone else did. Water. Rushing water.

"Is that-" a voice was cut off by the murmurs floating around the group. We weren't stupid, we knew that Foley had brought us out here for a reason, not for a simple late night nature walk. What he intended to do though, was the question.