Soldier - 213 - Welcome to the Hounds (Patreon)

Chapter 213: Welcome to the Hounds

I felt naked, leaving the mage tower not wearing my armor. The gaudy ceremonial armor Zyna had made for me was left behind. However, I still had the resin-hide, and fancier armor Duchess Veronica had made for me in my dimensional space. I adjusted my belt so the black blade rested better. The man with Cornelius walked behind us. We walked through the city in the dark, legionnaire patrols seeming to ignore our breaking of the curfew. I was surprised as our path took us to the Eastern Legion Hall.

Cornelius turned to his companion, “Jansen, you can have the honors. In my old age, I seem to be getting rusty in surprising these pups in their sleep.” He looked pointedly at me. The Hound trainer nodded and smirked devilishly as he moved silently into the Legion Hall.

After he disappeared inside, Cornelius spoke to me quietly. “When the training starts, do not make friends with the others. You must be a lone wolf so we can assign you where we want you.”

“Don’t you make the final decisions?” I asked. I had already been the odd man out during my legion training, and it had not been fun.

“No. I will not be there during your training. My duties require me elsewhere.” He said it like I was thoughtless. “The trainers will decide who ends up on each of the three Packs and who ends up being the Lone Wolves. We need you to serve as a sentry in the Western Empire under the command of Centurian Sergius. He commands the Hounds in the Western part of the Empire, where the archives are located. He is fiercely loyal to the Emperor, so you must stand out in your time serving him.”

A short commotion inside the Legion Hall had Cornelius listening for a moment. A soft thud-thud echoed, and he relaxed. “How do you know I will be assigned to the archives eventually?” I asked skeptically. How they would put a foreigner in such a position made no sense.

“Don’t worry about that,” he said dismissively. “Things are in play to make sure it happens. You need to earn Sergius’ trust and find out where the archives are located.” That caused me to go silent. Cornelius didn’t know where the secondary archives were located? I had so many questions, like how this was supposed to make a difference immediately if it was going to take me years to be in a position to learn the location of the archives.

I was left contemplating while Cornelius moved closer to the sentries at the building. Two men came out in their nightclothes, and Cornelius congratulated them on being selected. Eventually, four more men joined us from the Legion Hall, and then we went to the Eastern Legion Hall, also called the Perfectus Legion. This was a slight against conscripts like myself, as the Perfectus Legion Hall only trained volunteers.

Three more men joined our group; these men had on common guard, and maybe they were given time to dress or expected to be recruited tonight, so they were more prepared. We exited the city and it appeared the patrolling legionaries were aware of our group’s purpose. Outside the eastern gates, our numbers swelled to twenty-one recruits and four Hound trainers. We moved a distance before Cornelius stopped our procession. “Welcome to the Hounds, pups. We will not be travelling to Gnoll Gardens as it has been compromised by the enemy. Instead, we will be traveling to Fort Vesta on the Hiryan River.”

A short man looked around, “That is over forty miles. Are we riding or getting into carts?” I could understand his confusion as half of us were wearing sandals, and four of our number were barefoot.

Cornelius smiled ruefully, “Hounds are the most fit men in Empire. We can cover forty miles in half a day fully equipped. Since you are just starting your training, all you need to carry this time is a canteen.” The trainers dropped their packs and started handing out the canteens. I took mine and sniffed it, lemon water. A little taste and it had sugar or honey in it. Some other men took a long pull, and Cornelius shook his head disappointed but didn’t say anything.

“I don’t have my boots,” A youth with black hair noted.

One of the trainers turned on him, “You should have been prepared to move out at a moment's notice, pup! Now you will have to run in barefeet!” The intensity of the rebuke silenced everyone from further questions.

Cornelius was smiling, “If you get to the fort before noon, you can have tomorrow off! Now run pups!”

Our group started running down the paved road at a slow pace. I moved closer to one of the trainers, “How do I find this fort if I get ahead of everyone?”

He laughed, “You think you can outrun me? Cato, does this pup think he can outrun me? You will be foaming at the mouth when I am finished with you. If you don’t keep up, I will have you running the beach twice a day until you can.” The Hound trainer immediately began to increase his pace, thinking he could tire me out.

I wasn’t sure how my 70 attribute in endurance compared to his but this was an opportunity to separate myself from the others. I fell in next to him as we outpaced the group in the dark. It probably was not too smart to travel the roads in the pre-dawn like this. Even though the weather cold, there were still creatures about.

After an hour, the road turned to dirt and gravel, and those men who were barefoot were not going to have an easy time of it. It was clear I was going to be able to outpace the man. “Where did you say Fort Vesta was again?”

Breathing a little heavily, he replied. “There is a marker stone for the turn-off in some forty miles. The small castle overlooking the ocean.”

“Thanks,” I said, increasing my pace. The Hound trainer tried to keep up, but I soon left him behind. To be fair to him, he had a decent-sized pack on, and his Hound clothes and weapons looked heavy. All I had was my small pack, my black blade, and my skinning knife. I was soon running alone as the sun rose. Being alone and moving so fast, I was constantly alerted to threats as I passed farm after farm. It looked like these farms had been battered by the summoner’s unnatural weather. Skinny livestock and flattened and rotting fields were a common sight.

The Hound trainer hadn’t lied to me. A large stone with the words Fort Vesta was clearly at the fork in the road. I turned off here and began a slow incline to find a black stone castle at the top of a bluff overlooking the ocean a few miles later. The salty air and crashing waves were invigorating. There were stairs down to the sandy beach a few hundred feet below, and I assumed this was the running beach the trainer had mentioned.

I approached the small castle to find the doors locked. A man peered down from the portcullis, “Whatchya be doing here?”

I immediately got worried the trainer had tricked me. “I am one of the new pups for Hound training?”

“Wheres the rest of ya?” he barked back.

I pointed behind me. “They should be along shortly. Can I come in and get some water?” I held up my empty canteen.

The man paused to talk with someone behind him before turning back to me. “No. You can wait for Centurian Cornelius if you are truly one of the new litter of pups.” He then disappeared over the wall, ending the conversation. I shook my head, filled my canteen from my dimensional space, and waited on a rock sipping cold blood orange juice.

The group arrived an hour after mid-day, looking terrible. The trainer I had outpaced was with them, I noted smugly. As the group collapsed, one of the pups with bloody feet cursed, “Pluto’s ghost. That had to be fifty miles! I never thought I would make it.”

“Forty-seven, give or take a mile,” Cornelius smirked. “Looks like we didn’t make it before midday, so no day off tomorrow.” The group of men whimpered a bit, and I think some cried but hid their faces.

I interrupted, “I made it before midday.”

Cornelius turned on me, mirthful glee in his eyes, “Oh, did you now! And if you were part of a pack, would you leave your comrades behind?” I didn’t answer; I just gave him a hard stare. “Thought so! Since you have so much energy, you are tasked with collecting cockles, mussels, and oysters after every morning run.”

Cornelius turned to the group of exhausted men. “We have one healing mage at Fort Vesta so try not to get too injured during your training.” Cornelius paced in front of us. “Half of you came from the legion and the other half came from the army. Now that you are all pups, you are all equals. If I hear of any harassment due to someone coming from lower birth or because they were only a soldier and didn’t qualify to be a legionnaire then I give your trainers permission to walk you off that bluff. Am I clear?” Grunts of acknowledgment from the slowly recovering men echoed over the distant waves.

Cornelius nodded. “You are going to receive the best training in the Empire, and you have the most important duty. You are the first line of defense against our enemies both outside and inside our borders. You fail in your duty, and all the people you hold dear will be in jeopardy.” He let that sink in.

Cornelius seemed to have exhausted his speaking voice and nodded to a trainer to continue for him. “The fort behind us is manned by the army. They were gracious enough to let us stay here, and we don’t want to put them out, so we will be using the holding cells in the dungeon. Don’t worry, for Hounds these accommodations will feel luxurious! If you don’t like them, then you are free to sleep on the beach below.”

Another trainer sought to add, “Be careful sleeping down there. Giant crabs, mermen, and even the occasional water elemental come ashore at night.” He wore a smile as he stepped back.

Cornelius took over the welcome speech, “Now, I will introduce you to your five trainers for the next months. They will teach you all six aspects of being a Hound. Fighting, tracking, survival, monster lore, and magic. Yes, magic. A viable spell form is required to become a Hound because of the tools you will use in your duties.” The men perked up, finally seeming eager after looking like they regretted their decision to join the Hounds.

“Don’t get excited, pups. Not all of you will be given artifacts. They are too expensive to artifice for every Hound to have one. There are four devices the Imperial Artificers supply the Hounds.” He sighed, “You look more interested in the artifacts than being introduced to your trainers.”

Cornelius produced something that looked like a silver pocket watch and flipped it open. “The blood compass. A sample of blood placed inside,” he snapped it shut, “and you can track a target anywhere on Desia!”

The compass disappeared into his clothes. He produced a small leather-bound notebook. “A sending notebook. These notebooks are paired. Whatever is written on one will show on the other!” The notebook disappeared.

“If you can learn to channel your aether through your feet,” he rested his foot on a rock, “silent boots.”

Murmurs among the men at the possibility of being given artifacts excited them. I had plenty of artifacts, some of which I still needed to learn what they did. The belt coiled in my backpack for one. Cornelius pulled out thick goggles that reminded me of aviator goggles, “Night sight spectacles. They will allow you to see almost perfectly in the dark. They are fragile and expensive and only issued to the most competent Hounds.” He put away the last artifact, all eyes following it.

“Now, back to introducing your trainers. With the state of our borders, our numbers are stretched, so we only have five trainers for you instead of the ten we normally have, but I have assembled the best for your class. I have brought back retired Hounds and a few who have left us to serve elsewhere in the Empire. But once a Hound, always a Hound.” Everyone was now standing, no matter how much pain they were in. They wanted to appear tough because of the men who would be teaching us, even though a number looked old enough to be our grandfathers.

He indicated the first man who had been with Cornelius when he came for me, “Hound Jansen. One of the best stalkers in the Empire, whether it be rural or the wild.” He pointed at the man I had outpaced running this morning. “Hound David. He will ensure all of you are fit enough to do your duties for days without rest if required. Hound Cato is our survival specialist. He will ensure you can find enough food in the middle of a blizzard while not losing your manhood to frostbite.”

“Our master tracker is Hound Hearne. He will also teach you everything he knows about beasts and monstrosities. You should hang on to every word that comes out of his mouth as what you learn from him could save your life and your packs one day,” Cornelius stressed.

“Your last trainer is our martial specialist. He will make sure you are efficient with your bow and blades.” The door to the castle cracked, and an older man walked and all eyes turned to him. My jaw became unhinged. Standing with the four Hound trainers was Konstantin. “Hound Konstantin will join us while his company is quartered guarding a Displacement Mage.” While the other men nodded appreciatively at the skilled men about to teach them, I knew better. I could see it in Konstantin’s eyes as his eyes traveled over everyone before settling on me and a smirk forming.

The only thing that could escape my lips was a single word, “Fuck.”