[Training Fields] Learning the Ropes

[Erhıne]

Mid-1st cycle of Winter, Era XV Post Fractum

And the Nimâlni had thought stripping before a group of men was bad enough! But living with them... it had been only a few brightenings, and already the newest recruit of the Sherian Serpents was wishing that the Orcs would get moving, just so that they would all leave the barracks... and some of them, perhaps, permanently!

It wasn't a kind thought. Erhıne knew that, and knew that, in addition to being uncharitable, it showed a remarkable and horrifying lack of patience on her part. Maybe living with Xylle, the dracon boy she'd adopted some eras earlier, had strained her nerves and rubbed something of his short-lived attitude on her. Erhıne bit her lip hard and reigned in her temper, turning her thoughts - when all other methods proved impossible - onto the upcoming war and her lost parents and siblings. She had a duty to them. She had a duty, now, to the Sherian Serpents as well.

And in the back of her mind, she had a duty to Maj, too... but there would be time for that yet. The 'Archarchon' had patience, patience the grey elf sorely wanted at the moment. He could wait some time longer, seeing as he had waited for eons already.

Steeling herself, Erhıne turned her mind wholly to the business at hand. Though she'd wasn't unused to living with others, the level of noise and coarseness in the barracks was positively astounding. She was also unused to working with others - her Nimâlni sense of superiority was strong, and having to deal with the foibles and faults of humans every brightening of every cycle drained Erhı in ways she hadn't thought possible. Working together with these silly men in battle... how that would work, the elf could hardly even conceive!

[Eyvind Redbeard]

Life in the Training Fields was rough. Morning exercises, brutal Drill Instructors and perhaps not the best food made the order of the Brightening. Rumor said that the fish they had ate during Rosyum had been frozen for two Eras and that Pracenda was made of the leftovers of the Ratta that had been captured during the attack on Taralon, leftovers of what the red haired giant that had decided to create the very Provincial Army for the strange Governor had tortured himself. Those would be the rumors regarding the meals Erhıne would listen if she would pay any attention to the men that served with her, there were other rumors as well, some mentioned a massacre of a Legion's cavalry Cohort in the west, others of a great battle between Imperial and Greenskin, one thing was sure though. War had began and they would shortly be sent to it, to replace those that had fell.

Yes, many had fell. Countless throngs, the Nimâlni would have seen some carts pulled by oxes bringing the bodies. Broken bodies, distorted and half eaten sometimes. Reality was brutal, the Orcs made a savage enemy to fight and so made their ferocious mounts, the Worgs. But the Brightening of the mourning was still far for war was still going and it was time to prepare the new recruits. And Erhıne would be well prepared or she would die before entering a battlefield. She was now a member of the Sherian Serpents, a quickly assembled bunch of stinking rats numbering almost one hundred thousand and divided in Regimets of five thousand. Aside from a few special Companies the bulk of the Serpents were composed of Pikemen and Archers, and those used their weight of numbers to achieve victory. They were the anvil in which the Hammer of the Emperor would smash its enemies.

The Elf woman now marched with one hundred others, her Company and its leader. They had received a number but it was already forgotten because the idea of the Serpents was to make the soldiers equal and it was usual to change Company every Brightening if one didn't remember the Officer's face, which was common as well because the Officers themselves tried to change to a new Company every Brightening. This time Erhıne had ended up with a Dwarf being her leader and to her surprise there were some Dwarves joining the Company of Pikemen. Training would start in the middle of the afternoon, when it was warmer but the wind hit stronger so there would be time to meet those near her. Yes, it seemed that this time it was for real, her Company was receiving a name, not a number and some of the faces were familiar to her to a couple Brightenings already. The group was becoming steady, and with Dwarves.

"Halt! Ten minutes break to eat and drink, then we continue marching!"

Barked the Captain of the Company when the group was already some miles away from the Training Fields' Barracks, deep in the true training area. Nearby she would be able to see some woods and movements within, probably the Blades of Carmelya practicing raiding tactics in wooded areas. The soldiers around her started sitting and she ended up in the middle of two groups. To her right some Humans discussing the weather and to her left some Dwarves talking in a low voice among each other, the words "Hiems" and "tactics" were just what the Nimâlni could understand.