The group enters the large double doors to the chow hall and is greeted by various different smells from within. It wasn't an entirely glamorous or exotic smell to the food made for the soldiers here, but it was enough to remind Rin's body that it needs nourishment and growls in anticipation. There was a simple order to the way the base handled giving food out to the soldiers. One only needed an index card that was specially handed out to the Hunters with the days of the week along with meal times. With it, the chefs of the day punch a hole into the appropriate time slot for that day to grant you that meal’s ration. If one didn't have a card, they didn't eat; which means it's entirely the responsibility of the soldier to make sure they renew their cards. Trisca and Shel made sure Rin got her card and lead her to some nearby seats with food.
Rin tried to make some process of eating the food given to her. It was a difficult task for a multitude of reasons; as an example one could say she’s not used to being stared at still. For another reason being that the food given to her was more than simply bland, it was borderline unbearable. She almost couldn’t believe it was food if not for the fact it felt as if she had just consumed several rocks just for the sake of living and breathing. Shel giggles at the face Rin was making and shoved down her own food with a unique practice of acquired taste with Trisca following suit not long after.
“It doesn’t get any better, Rin.” Trisca spoke in between chewing her bites in a polite manner. “Be bold in what you’re given.”
“I never thought I would eat something worse than the food they gave me in training.” A nervous laugh from Rin. She took a deep breath and released before scarfing down the food. A couple dry coughs afterwards and a gulp of some water brought a few tears to Rin’s eye. “Chaos have me.” She looks between the two while blinking away the waterworks. “I don’t think I ever took the time to ask what your fighting styles were.”
“Blade work, particularly up close and personal. I work best with cycling my Aura for Air.” It was as if Trisca was used to firing off these words to other people. “Because of this I don’t operate in direct combat, preferring my mobility and speed to confuse my enemy.”
“As for myself,” Shel pushes her now empty plate a bit away from her as she leans forward to prop her chin into a hand. “I’m probably the only human left that still uses a bow and arrow in combat.” She winks to Rin. “I also prefer the Aura of Water and use it to debilitate my foes.”
Rin had found herself staring in awe for a few moments.
“Say,” Trisca leans over to get a little quieter, “Your sword is rather ornate for a simple recruit. Your fighting style is also rather defined and practiced…” Trisca trails off the sentence a moment before locking eyes with Rin. “Shel mentioned your family is important across the sea. Learn from them?”
The question caught Rin off guard. Deep down she was hoping no one recognized her fighting style, much less her family name.
“Ah.” Rin tries to swallow her food without coughing once more. “Aye. I’ve been training since I was young.” She stood up straight and proud as she spoke. “It is my honor to carry on the Kazashi name. As such I carry my family's sword and a necklace with our symbol.” The air grew silent and awkward as she stopped speaking.. She shrinks down a little bit afterwards and goes back to picking at her food. “I’m… told my family’s fighting style dates back to the second war.”
“The second war?” Trisca blinks. “Shel when you said, important Hunter family, I didn’t think you meant that far back!”
“Well the little I know is more within the last few centuries, not so far back as two millennia.” Shel scratches her cheek while grinning.
“I have rumors and myths of my Family’s history, yes.” Rin seemed to look down at her food in more focus so as to avoid eye contact. “Mostly lost due to time, so even to my family it’s all still rumors and myths."
"To be on the fair side, just the knowledge of there being a Kazashi here in the base is going to cause a ruckus. Jae, for example, wasn't from the mainland like me or you and will probably not treat the name with respect."
"Hm." Rin huffed a little at Shel. "I want to do honor for my family but not drag their expectation into the eyes of my peers. He may judge me for who I am as an individual, freely, and not for my family heritage." The girl seemed to have a burst of energy to scarf down the rest of her food.
"A noble sentiment." Trisca responds with a light laugh. "But the way your superior is talking about your family name suggests to me your wishes will fall on deaf ears."
The truth in Trisca's words seemed to deflate Rin a little bit. Considering the majority of Hunters come from the Mainland certainly made keeping a low profile hard for the rookie Hunter but it did empower her more to prove in her own name what she's capable of. She shoves aside what was left of her food with a resigning sigh.
“One final question I have.” Rin sits upright with a newfound curiosity. “The… storms, how are the scouts planned around them?”
“An excellent question to bring up.” Trisca nods as she brings out a round, ornate object from her pocket. Her hand glows a moment and with a click it opens up to reveal many different labels ticking around. One circle represented what seemed to be the current time of the day while another, unmoving circle, revealed the current day of the week. Through this complicated amount of moving parts there was another label representing some state of weather, or at the least to Rins imagination is what it seemed like. “A lot of the planners of missions have modified pocket watches crafted here in Commerce, the majority of others just wait on their superiors notice or for the sirens. We have a dedicated officer that keeps track of the time and weather pattern for that day so the siren can-“
The watch made a clicking noise. One of the labels spun over to reveal only the wording “Hurricane”. It wasn’t a word Rin was familiar with but before she could ask any further questions a low, ear shattering noise rumbled through her head. WHHHRRRRRRRR. All of the Hunters in the building with them simply stopped for a brief moment of what they were doing and seemingly shrugged it off to go back to their business. After the siren's long note it was followed by three other separate notes at a slightly higher pitch and far shorter in length.
“Three hour storm is here finally huh?”
“Made it just in time to this building then. Good time to relax before scouting.”
“Like you’ll be doing much scouting right after the three hour storm. Admit you’ll be relaxing for half the day already.”
A separate group of Hunters had struck up a conversation that picked up in Rins ears after they stopped ringing. She flinched when Shel tapped her shoulder, actively fighting many reflexes from the action.
“You.. alright Rin?” Shel had a concerned expression towards Rin, until rapidly she seemed a bit drained. Her eyes grew wide and she rapidly detached her hand from Rin’s shoulder. “By chaos name… I forgot. Sorry.” She took a bit to recover, the color slowly returning to her face as she continued speaking. “Suppose you slept through the last alarm. You’ll get used to the ringing in your head eventually. ”
“Chaos have me..” Rin tries her best to hide how pale she had gotten from the noise.
“Like that essentially.” Trisca continued her explanation that had been interrupted earlier. “We have dedicated teams and coordination on when to be out and about for safety reasons. The downside to this is it only accounts for the time zone of this base alone so depending on how far one direction we travel we have to account for delays of our own timers or even an increased pace of the storms. Most cities are on the outer regions of the continent and bases were scattered more towards the regions between the split of factions. Most no one dares go towards the center of the continent.”
“Is it because of the decrease between the time of storms?”
“Well it’s one reason.” Trisca gathers all of the finished plates as a soldier working this building comes to collect. The girl stoically bows to them all, though Rin couldn’t get a weird feeling the eyes lingered on her longer. She shoved the thought aside based on other events that happened today as she continued to listen to Trisca. “It’s also the extremity of the storms. Rumored they’re so bad even the Air Kraeka can’t navigate them.”
“Oh.” Rin blinks in surprise. That’s quite a feat if the beings that control the air and storms freely can’t even navigate safely. “Noted then. Don’t go too far inland. So this means every squad that goes out has to have a leader with a pocket watch.”
“Correct.”
“Understandable differences in tactics here from what I was trained for…” Rin nervously laughs while looking around. They had finished eating but she wasn’t exactly sure what they would do next.
“For now I suppose this ends our tour for you, Rin.” Shel smiles as she gathers her stuff. “Get into a routine while you can, whether it be training or studying up on tactics. As we’re your Officers to report to in the chain of command, you’ll have to wait on us to give you new orders moving forward. People aboves us that may give you orders are Jae or the Commander himself, but those instances will be rare.”
“Shel and I will be running an information run for the next week to gather intel from the city and another base in that direction. As an Order from us, get used to training with a squad. Starting tomorrow we’ll assign you two other Hunters to help you run the squad drills to sharpen your fighting style.” Trisca’s gentle sternness bore into Rin’s being and the girl saluted her superior.
“Aye Ma’am!”
“Then you’re dismissed. We’ll send for you when we return.”
Shel and Trisca leave Rin behind at the cafeteria as they have their own preparations for the long road ahead of them. The rookie looked about her. The cafeteria, the other Hunters, the multiple doorways leading to protected pathways to other areas of the base. Each had their labels above them indicating the buildings and cardinal direction.
Rin eventually decided that she wasn’t exactly ready to relax yet and headed through the doorway that led back to the training grounds. Her superiors were praising her but there were many faults in that fight she had with Jae. Her footwork was terrible. Her center of balance was off. She allowed Jae to get far too into her circle of reach. She hoped there would be someone willing to spar with her some more to focus on all of these aspects in her style and got a little bit excited from the thought.
Behind Rin, back within the Cafeteria, a pair of violet eyes watched her in silence. None of the other Hunters paid any heed to this stoic person as she dumped the dirty plates she gathered earlier onto a counter. Eventually the eyes broke the link that seemed to bind them to Rin’s back, and the woman began to look towards another direction. Her attention had been pulled into the distance, far past the trees and the howling winds, as if seeing an event none of the others can see yet.
“The Great General has arrived.” A mumbled whisper was spoken. It was soft, monotone, and seemed to echo around her.
“General? What nonsense are you talking about?” A Hunter had walked by locked in conversation with a squad mate of his. He seemed puzzled a moment and stopped in front of a counter.
“I never said anything about a General. Weren’t you listening? Commander has us on longer watch shifts is what I said.” This man seemed irritated he had to repeat himself.
“Ah. Strange I could have sworn.. Nevermind. Right. Longer shifts. Chaos have me if I survive them.” He groaned a bit and noticed the dirty plates someone had left on the counter. “Oi. Which asshole left these here? Does no one remember what happened the last time the head chef caught dirty plates just laying about?” As he picks the plates up faint whispers cause him to look around. Other than other Hunters eating back at the tables, there was no one there other than him and his squadmate. He shakes his head to clear it. “Come on. Let's get these put up and head back to the Wall.”
The increasing strength of the storm signaled the stronger parts were passing over and drowned out much of the noises of the area. The clanging of training weapons, the shouts of orders being given for drills. The base lay there in an ever growing silence to the world around it, unknowing of the events transpiring elsewhere on the continent. Lightning lashes out to cast light onto the surrounding forests, revealing a lone figure walking into the brush. Her dark hair flows in multitudes shifting dark purples and the black of her eyes contrast the violets of her iris. She continues to walk unfazed by the hazardous rains into the direction of Tehla, a nearby city. Soon she’s swallowed by the growing shadows, another thing in the scenery ever watching the events unfold.
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