Ferenike 9 - Scorplings
The smells of the Trainee Barracks in the an hour before Dawn brought her back to memories of Lu Zhiang, Liao Bu and Cassandra, her trainers of years ago. Sweat and blood and Qi and the greenery supported by the Clan's arrays. And that effervescent scent of newbie misery.
She wondered where they were now? Lu Zhiang had probably ascended to a Centurion position at this point, becoming an expert of Foundation Establishment. Liao Bu, that spear man, might have as well and been sent somewhere on the recommendation of Dragoumis.
She didn't know where Cassandra Agata was, no news had reached her ears. She blinked slowly... perhaps she had died in the raids with the Devil Bees.
Her Maniple, the 40 men and women who made up half of a Century were buzzing about the Dawn Fortress on an endless number of tasks about the core territories in their squads of five. Everyone but her under-strength squad, and how that thought was sore, was covering for those being sent to the Night Devil Fortress as raids slowly began to increase in intensity.
Her mind whispered in the murmur of gears and flame, war was coming. Soon. And the small flames she nurtured would go out and die. Consumed. She sighed, rubbing her aching left hand. The bones were still healing, fractures sealed by glass lining them, some glass rising to the surface of her skin and leaving it lined with pinkish cracks. Her breath was a rasp still, small glass grains acting like soldiers repairing her lungs like they were a dam, slowly healing the scarring.
Enough melancholy, Dragoumis had given her four squads to train and she had just the
idea to start their day.
She walked casually to the Third Barrack, hands behind her back and hidden in the sleeves of her travelling robe. It was a small building all things said and done, only four stories and meant for twenty people to live comfortably, built as a long rectangle with arrow slits for windows. Other fortifications dotted it, the door recessed and small enough to only fit two people shoulder to shoulder. Above it would be murder holes.
Around one side lay its assigned garden... she paused to examine it. It was dying. The beets looked sickly and the grain was stunted and brown. Sweet gods Lu Zhiang would have murdered her for this sacrilege.
Right. Slight change of plan for these hopeless juniors. They'd be gardening today.
A moment of rummaging around in her storage talisman later and she produced a massive silver gong hung suspended from a frame of beast bones. On its surface was embossed a design of a fearsome Screech Bear. Some favor trading and the passing of Spirit Stones into the right hands on Gallius's advice had landed her this little beauty. A few moments pushing the gong around and tweaking its position had it perfectly aimed at the doors of the training hall.
With a flourish she produced the Striking Baton, its fabric covered head covered in the woven thread design of an eagle.
"Hup." She grabbed the handle in both hands, a painful grind in her back and hand as she raised the Baton high. Investing it with Qi she then brought it around in a single swoop to strike the Gong!
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
The thing howled like a dying scream, rising in pitch till her ears rang from the teakettle shriek. Waves of sound hit the doors and blew them open to bounce against the inner walls, blowing in a cloud of dust in its wake.
There was an enormous ruckus, cries of alarm rising from within the building as she watched doors fly open, clan juniors rushing out of them and down the stairs, trailed by a horrific mass of feathers, pillows, blankets, and clothing in a panicked stampede. A quick hop relocated her to the top of the peaked roof to watch the courtyard in front of the door before any of them could notice her.
"ATTACK! ITS AN ATTACK! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" A trainee yelled from inside and the cry was taken up the others as they pushed and rampaged towards the doors.
She sighed.
When the first trainee popped out, a boy of maybe 16 with bright pale hair and embroidered robes, she stepped off and fell onto him in a flash of gold. There was a squeaky grunt and then he faceplanted under her, lightened, weight. The trainees behind him stopped dead and eyed her in terror.
"Well if we were under attack you'd certainly be dead Trainee Pleminon." She said sardonically as she sat crouched on his back. Her pipe popped into her hand and she took a pull of some sweet leaf. "Though I do have to wonder who would be foolish enough to attack
the Golden Devils in the heart of their own territory, and why I didn't know about it."
There was a weak, sand muffled groan from the boy beneath her feet. She stood up and stared at the motley mess before her from beneath the wide brim of her hat for an eyeblink. All of them were young, less than half her age at best, children. None of them were above the first Heavenstage, though none were still mortal. Their names and faces and families flashed through her mind as she assessed their ability, comparing them to the documents Dragoumis had handed her. They stood in a loose crowd, mingling like confused birds as they tried to avoid her gaze, still stunned.
The moment passed and she clapped her hands as she stepped off of Trainee Pleminon, and credit to him he had the presence of mind to scuttle away from her back towards his friends.
"FORM UP! Four ranks, five each!" She shouted at them, her lungs twinging. She was glad she had those Contribution Points from killing Zu Jing and wrapping up his cult, she would love for the healing to complete quickly, though she was willing to wait. It'd come when it came and she'd done what she could.
The trainees bunched up and shouts rose as they tried to organize themselves. About a minute of jostling and shoving occurred before they stopped in a
... facsimile of proper ranks. The lines weren't straight, they were slouching with only a few straight backs amongst them, and some squads were mixed up. Plus they had no uniforms on, but she wasn't going to blame them for something
that far beyond them. Yet.
This time she let them hear her sigh.
"Absolutely disgraceful!" She shouted as she approached them. Her hands reached out and she started smacking chests, kicking legs, and snatching people by the shoulders to push them where they needed to go.
"Stand
straight!"
"Feet
shoulder width apart!"
"You are
not in squad 1! Go to squad 2 you idiot! Get more sleep!"
This went on for about two minutes until she was satisfied. Multiple trainees were smacked with a crimson glass pipe as she poked and prodded them into place.
Now the lines were basically straight and each five man squad was standing together and they were straightbacked and as proud as they could be in their night clothes.
With a huff she returned to her place in front of them and shook her head in disapproval. "Terrible. To you helpless juniors I am
Ferenike of the Golden Devils! Eighth Heavenstage cultivator of the Clan, and one of your new trainers. Don't go complaining to Centurion Dragoumis, he will not care."
The trainees all flinched at her proclamation, cries and sighs of despair echoing over the front yard.
"We'll have a long and useful relationship over these coming years, I'm sure of it," She said ominously, more despondent expressions and noises emerging from her rapt crowd. "But let it never be said that I am not generous. The two best amongst you, and who I like best, will become a part of my squad and receive commensurate status and cultivation resources." She said with a smile.
"Oooooh, damn do you think..."
"...is she serious..."
"Imagine it!"
Like she planned, that got them talking. She let them have a few moments of that before she clapped and shouted again. "Enough jaw wagging! Run that way!" She said and pointed to her left.
To her happy surprise they took off immediately, the idea of rewards driving their brains into gear. There was pushing, shoving and almost a few trips on their night clothes in the darkness, but they gave an admirable effort at running.
Then she lit up bright red behind them and screamed at them in the voice of a horrifying blast furnace. "RUN FASTER! RUNNING WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE!" She roared, and then jogged after them at an easy pace. For her at least. For these poor juniors it was enough to have them screaming in fear and pushing themselves to their limits as they moved at a dead sprint.
Some started to straggle, slowing, panting with effort. "Faster! Stay in formation!" She roared at them as she prodded those who fell out with a blunt stick. One person almost fell before they caught themselves, and their squad kept going without them.
She howled in rage. "LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND! GRAB THEM AND CARRY THEM IF YOU MUST, BUT DO NOT LEAVE THEM AND DO NOT STOP RUNNING!"
The stragglers were snatched up, supported by their fellows and with red and sweaty faces they pushed themselves to their utmost. And to her delight she saw the formation speed up as a whole.
"UNITY!" She screamed.
"UNITY!" Her little trainees screamed back.
"DUTY!" She yelled.
"DUTY!" They yelled back.
"FOR THE CLAN!" She roared.
"FOR THE CLAN!" They roared as loud as they could.
And by the hells even in night clothes and covered in dust and sweat, with red faces and tired eyes, she could actually see some promise in these juniors. Except for their garden.
By the time they stopped, the Sun was high in the morning and they were all completely exhausted. Some were teetering on the edge of collapse and held up by their fellows, while others were blankly staring, uncomprehending beyond the simplest instructions.
"Right then!" She said as her light show dimmed and she clapped her hands as she stood before them. Looking at them haggard and weary, holding their fellows and covered in scrapes, bruises, and dirt she was proud to see them standing as tall as they could with faint expressions of stubborn defiance on their faces. She fixed this scene in her mind. It would serve as the core of her Oasis.
Stubborn defiance. Stamina and perseverance.
Within, there was a shift, linkages unspooling between her vision and her small and still growing Dao of Patience. Yes, this was a good work.
"Now that you are all warmed up properly here are your Spirit Stones for Cultivation! I took the liberty of retrieving them from your rooms last night while you slept."
There were looks of
intense dismay that flashed through their faces as they realized what she meant. Those looks were quickly replaced by mixed relief at her next words. "Take a break to cultivate and rest. Drink some water but do not eat your ration now, you will puke." she said from painful experience as she watched them collapse to the ground and huddle together in their squads, some leaning against each other.
They all flinched and shuddered as she walked between them, pipe in her mouth trailing a pungent sweet smoke and her hands folded behind her. Good, they would learn fear and under her guidance how to cast it away as fuel for their Cultivation.
No one was, miraculously, stupid enough to try eating. They were probably too tired to be hungry.
So she walked amongst them, prodding those who weren't focusing properly because of the pain of cultivation, and opened her senses to the flows of Qi in these juniors. She wanted to see
how their Qi moved, the faint coiling patterns that might emerge in this period of recovery. How did tired cultivators cultivate Qi? What did
they think felt right?
She would try not to make the honest mistake of her honorable senior Xiao Yi when making her Oasis. It could not rely on her or the strong. It was a tool of the weak to survive.
After a few minutes she smacked the baton on the bones of the gong, causing a loud thud to ring out and everyone to open their eyes and look at her. A few twitched seeing her in proximity to the device. "Up! We're gardening today!" She said brightly.
They blinked at her in confusion as they leaped to their feet. Too slow but they'd work on that. Had to get the worst failures dealt with first. Like their pitiful physical conditioning.
One's hand shot into the air. She snorted. "This ain't a schoolyard, ask!"
The junior, a gangly girl as tall as her with red hair asked in confusion. "Master Ferenike, why are we gardening?"
Ferenike pinched the bridge of her nose. "Not a question that stupid. What is the PURPOSE of the Golden Devils?" She roared.
"To defeat our enemies!"
"To grow strong!"
"To protect the mortals and cultivators in our care!"
She got a jumble of responses and clapped, stopping the cavalcade as she pointed at a boy with brown hair and features more like a Third Sea native, with an interesting scorpion brooch on their clothing. "You. That is almost right."
She stared at them. "The purpose of the Golden Devils is to throw down Heaven and bring order to this world. Helping mortals is one result strive to for and a tool we use for that purpose. Now! Go! Get in that garden!"
They got in the garden and she began to direct them on how to repair their faulty arrays, how to water their plants properly and how to repair the decaying beds. As they began their work she lectured them.
"Think of this garden like the mortals and lessers you will have to protect, your family and future. You must nurture it with gentleness, patience, and strength..." She began, trying to impart to them the ethos of the Legions. It'd take a lot of effort to get it through their thick skulls, gods know it took her a while. Negligence of ones garden was not unlike negligence of much more important things, like ones friends and their defense.
She stood easily as she watched them, her lecture having wound down. The sun was high in the sky now, beating down on them as they worked, bent backed in the dirt. Fiddling with a small glass sphere in her hand out of sight she finished inscribing her words onto it and then, flung it.
Clunk! "OW!" The fist sized red orb smashed into Trainee Pleminon's forehead as he stood to stretch from his work. He caught it on reflex and peered fiercely at her for a moment, then seemed to note the weight in his hand and looked down on it. She had carved a message for him, in some paltry imitation of what the Archegetes was said to have done once. Though her advice did not pertain to Cultivation, but instead the Legion itself.
Be Considerate of your Comrades.
His face dipped slightly in shame, remembering how he called an attack erroneously, and met her gaze. He understood. She nodded. With a straightening of his back he nodded and put it away carefully in a pocket.
Similar such scenes played out over the course of the day as she passed on advice to her juniors. She was perhaps fortunate to not be so removed from them as to be almost completely out of their perspective as the Grand Elder or a Core Formation trainer might be.
When she was done with them for the day she shepherded them off to their barrack, watching them clean it and ensuring they more properly secured their rooms against intrusion.
When she was done it was dark, the twinkling stars above her head, and a weighty feeling had settled into her chest. It settled in her stomach, pushed on her shoulders, and weighed her heart. These small flames were now in her care and this weight felt somewhat like responsibility. But even more so.
She stared up at the Third Barrack and pondered the possibility of this building being cold, empty and her trainees buried beneath the sands.
She would do
more than her best for these children.
@occipitallobe another omake for youuu! This training arc will go for sometime and I hope to have a few omakes for it, and fighting the Devil Bees. I'd like to have my Fate supplemental for this specific Omake go either to the clans rolls against the Devil Bees, since its leading into set up of Ferenike training some of the people who will fight against them and takes place in about year 61 before the big invasion, or if that isn't possible to have it be a Fate roll supplemental for Ferenike herself.
This is also my start of setting up the Oasis formation plotline, which will be making appearances for it as she continues teaching her juniors. It won't get primary focus until next turn but it felt right to set it up like this first.
