Life In Training -Chapter 1 - The beginning
#1 of Life In Training
Author Note: This is a story i have long since given up on so there arn't any more than the 4 chapters i'll post up. Later chapters will contain yiff.
A dragon stood surrounded by men and animals of all shapes fighting each other, their howls and screams of pain piercing the mind. He was wearing a dark green vest and shorts that were coated in mud and blood. His scales were the purest black while his red eyes glinted in the light.
The dragon was wielding a shining silver sword in both hands; as a hyena with a short sword in each hand came running at him, he ducked and swung smoothly, the sword shearing through flesh and bone, severing the hyena in half.
Without slowing, the dragon stood up, his sword swinging to block a strike at his side. For several minutes he danced, the sword moving in a constant fluid movement; foe after foe charged towards him all falling to his blade.
The flow of enemies eventually faded to a stop, and the dragon sheathed his sword, panting heavily. The air was still, no screaming or the sounds of fighting, just silence. But as the dragon looked around he noticed he was the only one standing. It struck home then, that even though they had won, he was the only one left, his friends, his allies, all gone.
He fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face, "my friends..." he whispered sadly. Moments later a cruiser which was hundreds of feet long and painted a dull grey colour, descended from the sky, the engines slowing it down and keeping it hovering above the ground.
Someone slowly approached the dragon, who was staring at the ground, "are any alive?" he asked, his voice wavering. The wolf, who was dressed in a black jump-suit, shook his head slowly, "I'm sorry, no, you're the only one left."
I woke up suddenly, sweating feverishly and breathing in short gasps. Sitting up in my bed I looked around and saw the same black dragon sitting in a chair next to me; his face was gentle, and showed a deep weariness from old age.
"It's ok son, your safe," he said to me. After a couple seconds my breathing calmed down and I looked at my hand; unlike my dad who was a dragon, I'd taken after my mother who was a human and like her I was also human.
My dad sat on the bed next to me, "the same memory I take it?" he asked.
"Yes," I said, clutching my head, so many strong emotions; the dream hadn't really been a dream but a recollection, "How could you cope with that, all your friends, everyone you'd known...."
"You know I took it bad, I put down a promotion and resigned two days later. Anyway I didn't lose everyone that night, just.... A few of my closest friends. I'm sorry, its been a effect of my family to pass down a memory or two to our kin, I just regret that it was that particular memory."
"Dad, I'm 19 years old, I can handle that memory, its like a bad dream is all."
"Yes, you may be 19 but you're also about to do your required year of training on a cruiser; that saying, you need to get some sleep. I'll talk to you in the morning."
I woke surprisingly early, despite having woken up halfway through the night. Rummaging through my room I found the pale blue jump suit that symbolised trainees and the green vest that was standard with all military personnel. Only 4 years ago a law came in that everyone aged 19 or 20 would spend at least one year in training with the armed forces. Today I was leaving everything I knew to spend over 10 months stuck onboard a spaceship with the impending threat of attack every living moment.
Making my way downstairs I bumped into my twin brother Odai, who like my dad, was a black dragon; he stood only slightly taller than me at 6ft tall. "Hey Shane, ready to start a year of servitude?" he joked. My stomach growled violently as I smelt the fry up being prepared in the kitchen, "After breakfast, sure, I'll be ready."
"Think you'll be ok?" he asked.
I chuckled lightly; the logs for attendees and what species they were had become public knowledge, and out of almost two hundred there were only 6 humans, me included, going on the cruiser. "I'll be fine, don't worry yourself."
Odai wrapped an arm around my neck and started ruffling my brown hair, "I'll stick close to you and make sure no one decides to pick on you bro."
After breakfast, we were ushered outside by my dad to a bus waiting outside. The bus was full of people all wearing the same clothing and heading to the same cruiser and was a mix of species from wolfs to lizards to various types of birds. The bus was heavily crowded but I managed to find a seat next a black wolf with a white patch of fur on his forehead.
Strapping in I noticed he was purposefully avoiding looking at me, I shrugged this off as natural, ever since humans joined the ‘federation,' a coalition of races and planets that defended each other, they were picked on for being one of the weakest and less technologically developed races in it.
As the bus moved on, making only two more stops I noticed my brother had quickly made several friends and was talking loudly with them. The wolf I was sitting next to seemed to have some sort of urge to look at me then quickly turn and stare out of the window again; when he noticed I was watching him he actually seemed to blush, all the time remaining silent.
Once the bus reached its destination, a massive hanger spanning at least a thousand feet width ways and stood at thirty stories tall. Outside we were made to stand still as a stocky brown bear wearing a general's uniform inspected us. After giving several people sharp commands to stand up properly, stop slouching or stop talking, he addressed us all.
Looking at a clipboard he read off it in a loud commanding tone, "You will be split into groups of four; you will eat, sleep, work, and live in these groups. They are your comrades, you will be working with each other and against all other groups. And for those slackers or whiners, if your group comes falls behind I will personally stick you on bathroom duty and half rations! This is the same for anyone who disrespects any superior officer and anyone who I think is being an idiot."
Dad had warned my brother and me about being split into groups and made to compete with each other; this was apparently to raise teamwork skills with people you've never met and to keep it active. But it came as a surprise about the punishments for falling behind and by the stunned look on everyone's faces I guessed I wasn't the only one a bit surprised.
He then started to bark several names out and four people stepped forward, he motioned to a door in the side of the hanger and started to call the names of each group. My brother was placed in a group with a lioness, a chameleon, and a black bear. The numbers of the crowd thinned and eventually I heard my name called out, "Shane Draken," stepping forwards, I joined a bird that resembled a golden eagle, his name was Skara. As I stepped forward the bear looked at me softly and said quietly so no one else could hear, "I knew your father, I pray it doesn't happen to you."
He turned back to the clipboard and called out "Morton Tangula," the wolf who had sat next to me on the bus stepped forward and, being careful not to make eye contact with me, stood next to Skara. The general read off a final name, "Ventrell Sky," this person was a emerald green dragon.
When we entered through the door into the hanger, we entered a large steel corridor and a man dressed in a lieutenant's uniform motioned without speaking to follow him. After stopping at a store cupboard to give us bedrolls and a spare uniform, he led us to a large room with two bunk beds. "Tomorrow night you'll move into the cruiser, use this time to get aquatinted and get some sleep."
With that he left, closing the door and locking it behind him.
I was fairly surprised to see Ventrell drop his stuff on one of the bottom bunks and say happily, "Ok, lets get aquatinted a bit then; what are your strengths and weaknesses?"
I smiled, "Let me guess, you're a tactician?"
"Yep, trained for tactical and planning in military terms for two years, I'm good in unarmed but please don't ask me about engineering or how to make something, as long as I know it works and what it does I'm good."
Gaining confidence from him I said next, "My dad taught me how to use a sword and I can handle almost any rifle, preferably something heavy calibre with a scope. I'm not the strongest though, so I'm not the best at heavy lifting or unarmed. Morton?"
Morton jumped slightly at me addressing him directly but regained his composure and spoke in a soft voice, "I'm an engineer, if its broken I can fix it, I can design and make most objects but I can't fight very well and I'm a wreck with a gun."
Skara spoke lastly, "I'm a medic, trained at my families clinic since I was 10; apart from that I'm an all rounder really, not the best when it comes to a fight either though."
"Well that's quite good, we've got tactics, engineering, medical, weapons of both guns and swords and unarmed combat; this should work out quite nicely."
The bus ride and the time to finish talking had left it almost late afternoon and after we had been given tea on a tray we rolled out the bedrolls and lay down on our bunks. I was quite surprised how friendly my group was, but I doubted everyone I met would be like that. By now I'd decided Morton wasn't avoiding me because he didn't like me but for some other unknown reason.