Etraon slept soundly almost every night, tired out from the increasingly strenuous exercises that Karina put them through to improve their stamina, their flexibility, and even their reaction time to various events. The stretching he had promised to do every day after a bath was already beginning to produce results, and he found himself now able to at least touch the tops of his toes with his fingertips, a previously unattainable feat.

The other Kites were beginning to show varying levels of improvement as well. Catherine, never one to allow others to think lesser of her for being a girl, had proven capable of keeping up with the boys and Karina eventually changed her regime to match theirs. Sirena had improved as well, only pausing between every three laps instead of every two. Damon, while not the fastest in the band, possessed the highest level of stamina among them. Etraon couldn’t help feeling just the slightest hint of jealously when Damon appeared next to him, seemingly never out of breath whenever Karina called a halt. Aurelius was clearly the strongest among them; his legs pumped him through the laps more steadily than the others’, allowing him to occasionally pass the others by the second or third lap around. Etraon was the most reliable performer amongst them all, improving at a constant rate that pushed the others to progress with him in an effort to maintain some semblance of a status quo within the band. Windsor, however, had shown the most improvement among them. Karina’s advice to him had been related to his breathing patterns, Windsor had said. Now that he had adjusted accordingly, he was by far the fastest among them, often performing as many as three more laps than the others before the end of the exercise.

Many mornings passed, and Etraon was sound asleep when he awoke with a startled yelp at the sound of clanging from the direction of the common room. It was sharp, metallic, and very irritating. Still bleary-eyed from sleep, he stepped out of his room barefoot and moved towards the sound. The doorway to the common room proved quite hazardous as the six members of the Kite band stumbled in, half-awake, tripping each other as they entered. They landed in a disgruntled heap on the ground in front of the man who stood in the shadows of the room, barely visible in the faint rays of morning sun that seeped in through the windows.

“For goodness sakes, Kites, aren’t you a sorry lot!” a jovial voice cackled. “The sun’s awake, the roosters are crowing somewhere in the village next door, and you all come stumbling in here like a bunch of blind old ladies.”

A sea of startled blinking eyes stared up at the man, and as the realization hit that Douglas was in their common room, appearing quite comical with a wooden ladle and metal pot in hand, they struggled to stand, though without much luck as they were so bunched together that they continued to trip their bandmates in their attempts.

“All rise!” snapped Karina’s voice from somewhere behind them.

The Kites, much more responsive to the commanding tone that they had learned to react to at a moment’s notice, stood fast and snapped to attention, scrambling into a straight line. Etraon waited till Karina passed him before slapping at his cheeks, hoping to bring a healthy color to his face before some chance comment from Douglas to his mother brought about unwanted and embarrassing attention. Karina smiled faintly as Douglas grinned wickedly at them.

“They’ve almost got it,” he commented proudly, setting down the pot and the ladle on the table next to him before drawing a chair for himself.

“Indeed, they do. Tea for you this morning, Grandfather?”

“A trifle weak for early morning parties but thank you. I had a nice steaming mug of coffee before I came.”

Etraon found himself staring at Karina in disbelief. Not a hair was out of place in her braid and she looked clean-faced and properly dressed, very much unlike her six trainees, all of whom had yet to even brush their hair or wash their faces. He imagined that if anyone else were to enter the common room at that point, the Kite band would look much less like trainees and more like the peasant children from the neighboring village. The girls wore the simplest of long tunics, which, in other company, might have been considered immodest. He and the other boys had simply stumbled out of their rooms shirtless. In the beginning, they had all been rather awkward about not appearing fully dressed in front of one another; however, one can hardly spend so much time with another person without developing a sense of comfort and closeness. The six of them had quickly outgrown the awkwardness as there was just too high of a chance that another band member might walk in on them. Whether it be in the middle of their morning exercises or on Karina’s orders to fetch someone performing strenuous activities that might require them to be more simply clad to avoid sweating in all their clothing, it was all part of the training.

“At ease, Kites,” Douglas said. There were two claps this time; the first when the Kites shifted as one to stand with feet slightly apart, the second when they clasped their hands behind their backs. “We are holding your assessments today, a sort of pre-test, if you will. There’s no need to panic,” he added knowingly, scanning the cluster of surprised expressions before him. “Karina has done a marvelous job so far of preparing you for your final destination.”

“Our final what?” Damon asked, much more awake by this point.

“Your pre-test of your training will be held today and one year from now, you will have your posttest. Now that one, you might want to worry about. Just a little,” he specified, holding his fingers an inch or so apart. “Panicking is a bad idea though.”

“Sir?” Sirena interrupted him hesitantly. “Why weren’t we given advance notice about these assessments that you’re talking about?”

“Consider this advanced notice,” Douglas chuckled.

Karina launched into brief explanation regarding the specifics of what would happen after their posttest. She used lots of words that both excited and silenced the band members, words like ‘Master’, ‘Commander’, and ‘Elite Force’. It was to these advanced leaders in the army that they would be assigned eventually, and as she continued, Etraon’s eyebrows furrowed at her latest words, as he wondered for one terrifying moment whether he had misheard.

“I train you personally for a few months,” Karina clarified. “Someone more qualified than I continues your instruction in the finer details of the posts to which you will eventually be assigned given your individual skill sets. I conduct regular reports on you along the way to ensure that you’re progressing. I am allowed to give you advice on how to improve during your training with your various commanders, but they are the ones who eventually decide if you pass. Your assessment today was what I was specifically supposed to train you for. It will determine where and with whom you will train for the next year.”

“But the other bands have already begun training with weapons,” Windsor interjected. “How can we expect to keep up with them if we haven’t even so much as touched a practice sword?”

“Other trainers have their methods, I have mine.”

“But what of the assessment?” Windsor demanded. “It wouldn’t be fair if we weren’t all tested on the same thing.”

“Karina isn’t wrong to avoid teaching you all the basics of weaponry,” Douglas explained, “because in truth, your assessment has nothing to do with it. The advanced training that you will begin to receive after your tests today will make up the bulk of your knowledge from this point forward.”

“Is there anything specific that we need to prepare for today?” Etraon asked, bewildered by the details about his training that had somehow escaped his notice until this morning.

“Dress appropriately. You’ll be moving around quite a bit in your tests today, and I won’t be the only one watching you. The higher-ups of your future stations will be monitoring your progress as well,” Douglas replied. “Bring your basic toolset with you. I assume you’ve all assembled one by this time?” The last sentence ended on a questioning note, and he looked expectantly at them for an answer. When all six heads nodded in unison, he sighed in relief. “That’s something at least.”

“One last question, sir, if I may?” Damon cut in. “You said our stations will be decided for us by the end of the test. Do we have any choice in the matter?”

Douglas looked puzzled. “Whatever do you mean?”

“I mean,” Damon continued awkwardly, “what if we don’t like the station that we get assigned? Can we change stations?”

Karina laughed now. “You don’t have to worry about that, Damon. The stations assigned to you take your strengths and your personality into account. You’ll like whatever you get assigned to. It’s simply a question as to whether it will be a basic, advanced, or specialized post.”

“You’ll like your job,” Douglas promised with a wink. “I guarantee it. Now if you get assigned to an advanced or a specialized post, the only thing you’ll really have to worry about is whether your superiors like you enough to accept you into their program,” Douglas finished with a flourish of his hand. “I expect to see you all at the barrack gates before the afternoon bell. Now off with you.”

Etraon hurried out the door, pausing briefly to apologize to Windsor after he accidentally caused him to knock into the doorframe in his excitement to leave the room. Douglas was not going to be the only one monitoring them during the tests today, which meant that there would be several who have never seen them before; therefore, Etraon concluded somewhat grudgingly, his appearance today would carry importance.

A bath would be unnecessary, as he would probably be doing quite a bit of sweating before the day was over, but a quick wipe-down should remove any unpleasant body odors. He reached in the door, and, grabbing a clean set of clothes and a towel, whistled his way to the baths.

-----

Author's Note:

xoxo,

Elfarine