Chapter 214: A Day in the Life of a Pup (Patreon)

Chapter 214: A Day in the Life of a Pup

I didn’t have a chance to talk to Konstantin before we were shuffled inside the fort. The fort, or castle as they called it, was small and sparse; it was just a large tower surrounded by high walls. A dozen soldiers and support staff looked at us as we entered the bailey. Konstantin moved off to the right and was talking to the soldier who hadn’t let me in when I arrived early. Of course, he played a role in that.

We followed Cato into the stone structure that could have been better maintained. The salt air had chewed away at the mortar between the stones. One of the pups beside me said, “Neptune’s beard, how old is this place!”

“It was here before the First Legion,” a blond-haired pup answered in a haughty, know-it-all tone. “So at least two thousand years. It is just a watch tower for the ocean passage. Maybe before the First Legion, it might have served as a summer home for the nobles, but now it just watches the waves.”

We entered to find an open floor plan that served as the kitchen and dining. A few soldiers playing cards and dice looked up dispassionately as we entered. Cato took us down the steps, the powerful scent of mildew in the air. We passed the lower store rooms and descended deeper inside the small castle. The dungeons were as advertised, dark and had rotting doors and rusting iron bars where on the cells. It was obvious they had not been used in a long, long time. I turned into the first cell that only had one bed.

A new straw mattress and blankets had been placed on the stone shelf. I even had a small window to the waves below. “Cozy,” I muttered. The walls had a thin layer of salt, probably from violent storms getting salt water through the tiny window over the centuries. I touched the three bars on the tiny window, and they crumbled with a little effort.

Hound Hearne was behind me, “Don’t worry. Most nights will be spent in the wild. If you need healing, head up to the kitchens. Dinner will be served soon. It is the only hot meal given every day, so I suggest you don’t miss it.” He ducked out to tell the men in the next cell.

I worked the bars out of the window and widened it slightly by removing the stone with my space. The outer wall was over a foot thick, but I could stretch my neck out to look down. It was over two hundred feet to the sandy beach that was quickly being swallowed by the incoming tide. It looked like some soldiers were down there among the rocks, probably harvesting crabs, clams, and oysters.

I looked at my cell’s door. I had some bacon grease for the hinges, not that they did much to hold the warped and rotting door. At least the salt-crusted walls prevented mold from growing. The mattress was scratchy, with fresh straw poking out of it.

Sighing, I headed up to the common room. I sat at a table alone with my bowl of thick seafood soup. Konstantin sat across from me. “Supplies are tight, so the soldiers here are getting what they can from the sea.” He spooned a large serving into his mouth, a tentacle dangling on his lips, before he slurped it in. “It is actually quite good.”

“How is the company? And why are you here?” I found the tentacles in my own soup and pushed them to the side in favor of the crab meat—at least, that was my guess by texture and taste. It was not bad overall.

“We finished our tablet testing rotation with the Magistrate, and Castile was assigned to Icland City to reinforce the Displacement Mage’s legionnaires there.” He shrugged, “One of the safest cities in the Empire and as boring as Pluto’s Realm. Cornelius sent me a message asking if I would be interested in training this litter of pups, and here I am.” He smiled while stuffing a slimy tentacle into his mouth and chewing louder than he needed to.

Another trainer, Jansen, sat with us. “Cornelius is riding back to the capital now. He said you were in charge. Grant is not going to make it. He needs him in the south.”

Konstantin grunted. “Didn’t have the balls to tell me himself. I said I would help with the martial training, and that was all. Now I have to track all the pups and ensure they are competent enough not to get themselves killed on their first assignment.” He pushed away the seafood stew. It was mostly gone anyway. “Fine. When are the Truthseekers due?”

“They could only spare one in a week. He will be escorted from Telha. Stay the night and return the next morning.” Jansen said, starting in on the stew.

Konstantin stood abruptly, “Don’t touch your bowls! Dinner is done. You need to learn to eat your meals quickly and on the move. See the healer if you need it, and get to sleep. The beach run starts at sunrise, pups!”

Everyone started scuffling and bitching about not being given time to eat. Konstantin waved over the other four trainers, acting irritated. But I knew him too well, and he would savor being in charge.

I was the first one down the stairs and worked my door closed. Then, using my dimensional space, I made some stone wedges to push under the door. I pulled out a blanket from my storage and laid it on the bed so the straw wouldn’t bite into me. I entered the dreamscape briefly to manifest ten tomes of knowledge. I was going to have more trouble remembering which books I hadn’t added yet soon. The amulet returned to my storage and I pulled out a meat bun and chewed on it while listening to the waves crash below. The sand must be completely covered with the incoming tide by now.

The noise drowned out the other men talking in the prison cells. Cornelius told me to act the loner, and I was doing my best. I was already getting annoyed glances from the other pups. As the light from the window faded, I pulled out two essences: my only power essence and a displacement essence. The fogy sphere with a blinking light bouncing around inside entered my mouth first. I felt it expand that aspect of my core, and once it settled, the apex power essence was next.

My muscles burned as that essence worked. Power was a combined aspect of strength and quickness, allowing you to move heavier objects faster. That brought my thoughts to the great sword and armor of the elven wight. Both artifacts were buried under the tavern in Caelora. Maybe one day, I will be able to reclaim them.

I took a short nap as dictated by the ring of sustenance and then went through a stretching routine in the dark. My time with the Hounds was going to be trying as I would be isolating myself from the group and unable to use the amulet for long periods. After stretching, I meditated using the exercises Castile had taught me, but my focus was on the spell form for purify self. I paused a few times to sneak into the dreamscape and refresh my memory. It was much more difficult doing it this way than just spending hours memorizing the spell forms in the dreamscape.

A scraping sound by the door broke my concentration. It looked like the first of my litter was headed up the stairs for the morning run. I pulled on my boots and followed. It was the blond-haired pup who knew about the fortress’ age. He looked back as he climbed the stairs and smiled, “Name is Castian, fifth son of Baron Romus Helvia.”

“Eryk Marco.” I replied halfheartedly expressing disinterest in conversation.

“You know our instructors?” He asked, trying to make conversation as we ascended together. He must have noticed Konstantin had sat with me.

“Just Konstantin. We served in a mage company together.” We reached the bailey and headed toward the gate. Two exhausted soldiers from night watch cracked the gate for us to exit. 

We soon stood at the top of the bluff. The stairs down to the beach were narrow and worn but didn’t look dangerous. Others of our litter joined us slowly. David and Konstantin stood behind us, and I recognized the grin on Konstantin’s face.

Konstantin barked, “I said we begin our beach run at sunrise. I can see the sun cracking the horizon, and you are not even on the beach!” The group scrambled down the stairs to the beach two hundred feet below. When we reached the bottom, Konstantin barked again, “Not fast enough! Try again, and this time, I want you at the front.” He pointed to the slowest pup on the descent. The young man was from the regular army and had not been through legionnaire training.

We climbed and descended twice more before Konstantin was satisfied with our speed. At least we were not in armor or wearing packs. Several of us had struggled with stairs, and I could tell they were going to have lots of difficulty in the future as they were bent over, sucking wind. The tide had retreated and left seaweed strewn across the long beach.

Konstantin had a smirk, which was not a good sign. “This morning, I painted twenty rocks with numbers, one to twenty. I thought they were very nice rocks and would like them placed at the bottom of the stairs here.” We were all looking around for the rocks. He started to assign each of us a number as realization formed. When he finished assigning numbers, he said, “Bring me your rock. They are that way. You have gone too far if you reach the two triangular rocks side by side in the middle of the beach.”

We all took off at a steady run in the sand. I moved to the breaker because the sand was too difficult to run in boots. Off the shore were dozens of protruding rocks as we ran. Landing a ship here would be difficult. I started to outdistance the others as I looked for marked rocks in the sand.

After two miles, I slowed as I noticed a field of rocks under the bluff—hundreds of rocks of all sizes. I got off the breaker and moved into the rock field, searching. Soon, others were with me. No one could find any marked rocks as we moved. Another man in the company pointed at a sandy patch with exactly twenty rocks, and we moved together, but no one found any numbers. The others were swearing at the pointlessness of the task. I bent over and turned over a rock. The number eleven was clearly marked on the bottom. Then, I noticed the difficult-to-see tracks in the sand. We should have been looking for tracks and not rocks to find them.

“Number eleven here,” I said as I moved to look for number eighteen, my rock. When I found my rock, I cursed Konstantin as it was clearly larger than the others, easily ninety pounds. Others were already carrying their load back to the waiting Hounds. Even with the heavier load that I shifted from shoulder to shoulder, I finished fifth among us, but it was challenging.

I dropped my rock where Konstantin had wanted them. Other rocks thudded, and many men winced as they tested their backs from the awkward load. I noticed the healing mage had joined the two instructors. When everyone reached us, Konstantin gave the last man a breather by inspecting each rock. He pointed at two men, “You two brought me the wrong rock. You had fifteen, and you have five.”

“They all got here!” One of the men rasped angrily.

Konstantin shook his head. “And if you are given orders to arrest the fifth son of a farmer, and you bring back the fifteenth, have you done your duty? What if the fifteenth son is innocent?”

“How many farmers have fifteen sons?” Another man questioned Konstantin. That was the wrong thing to do as we all had to carry our stones back to where we found them and bring back the correct stone this time. It was an effective lesson to pay attention to details.

As men fell into the sand, the healer went to each of us and checked us out. I had healed all my minor injuries already. Konstantin stood over us as we rested. “Now the Hounds of Empire are fabled for their cunning and fitness. What I am about to share with you is unknown to many.”

He produced a minor dark blue essence. “This a lesser essence of endurance.” Everyone sat up, and it was clear this group knew what essences were, even if some had never consumed them. “When you consume this, it will fortify your endurance attribute. This means you could spend months never exercising and remain relatively fit. Consuming it will also help you raise your endurance attribute. With these lesser essences, your potential will never change, but you will see the benefit as we train.”

“Who gets it?” Castian asked, getting to his feet. I think the pompous son of a Baron thought he would be entitled to it since he asked.

Konstantin smiled, “All of you.” He held up a bag and jingled it. “Every day, as long as you complete the training, you will get another physical essence until you have consumed one for each attribute. This is one of the benefits of being a Hound.” I admitted it was a strong motivator to work hard and stick it out. Most of these men would never see an essence in their lifetime.

When I got my essence, I pretended to consume it and sent it to my storage since I had consumed a physical essence recently. A much happier group climbed the steps back to the fort. “Where are you going Pup?” Konstantin barked at us. We all turned confused as we had just been dismissed.

David had a wicker basket and a three-pronged spear in his hand and approached me, “Cornelius said you get to harvest from the shoals for everyone.” I looked incredulous, not thinking he had been serious.

“The rest of you can go. Hearne will be starting his morning lecture in an hour.” Konstantin waved the group up the stairs. As the group moved slowly up the stairs, Konstantin and David approached me. “We will show you where and what to collect. Take off your boots as we will be wading in the tide pools. When the basket is full, you can bring it up.”

This additional task was better than I thought, as Konstantin and David helped me fill the basket. I learned to identify the various shellfish, locate hidden octopus and fish in the pool, and catch them on the fishing trident. A large sea turtle taller than me came to sun itself in the sand, and the two Hounds paused and argued about whether they should attempt to kill it. In the end, they decided the harvest in the tide pools was enough.

I had sand in every crevice, and the smell of fishy water clung to my clothes as I carried the seventy-pound haul up the steps. David snorted, “We were lucky nothing dangerous came out of the ocean this morning. Two soldiers disappeared last week on the beach.”

Konstantin grunted and encouraged me to hurry, “Move a little faster pup. You don’t want to miss any of the lectures. You might miss something that could save your life one day.” Of course, I was the one who had been hauling a rock up and down the beach this morning and now carried the load up the steps.

I did get some sympathetic looks from the others who waited on benches for me. David took the basket into the castle to be processed. We had a two-hour lecture from Hound Hearne on goblins when we reached the bailey. The three primary species of goblin, each one’s preferred habitats, fighting styles, and how best to track them. When he was finished, we were allowed to ask questions. He finished the lecture by informing us that we would be learning about slimes and oozes tomorrow.

Our lunch was water and as many common ration bars as we cared to eat. It was beyond filling and calorie intense, but the men still complained. I thought that Maveith might volunteer to be a Hound just for the unlimited ration bars.

After lunch was weapons training. We didn’t fight each other; we just got familiar with the weapons of the Hounds. Hounds carried two silver wire garrotes—a silver-coated short sword—two silver-coated throwing daggers, and a hand axe. We would eventually be given a composite legion short bow and silvered arrows, but for now, it was about the martial weapons against dummies.

All the Hound trainers participated in correcting our weapons training against dummies. The focus was on achieving killing or disabling blows as quickly as possible.  A lot of the instruction was focused on attacking from behind with surprise. Getting yourself in such an advantageous position would be part of the other training.

The evening was spent in the woods with Cato, Jansen, Hearne, and David. Moving silently, identifying plants, recognizing animal tracks, and following them. I found this the most relaxing part of the day, as one trainer would shadow five of us as we worked on a particular objective.

The evening dinner was the worst part of the day as Konstantin would stand up in the common room and ask each pup three questions while we ate our only hot meal of the day. If you answered all three questions correctly, you got a candied dry fruit and nut bar as a reward. If you got even one question wrong, you got nothing. After each question, right or wrong, a Hound would explain the answer in more depth to ensure everyone understood. Perhaps I was the only one who noticed the food reward system was a way dogs were trained, but I didn’t reveal my thoughts to the others.

Of course, my questions were the most difficult and obscure and everyone knew it. They all had questions from today. All of Konstantin’s questions for me focused on things he had taught me months ago which I did not think was fair. The first night, I managed to get two questions correct.

This was how each day progressed for the next week—seven days of training for seven essences. My performance in just about every task outperformed everyone else. This alone got me some resentment from the others. As they formed their cliques, I remained aloof.

On the seventh night, a cold rain had been persistent throughout the day. We were all soaked and shivering from being outside all day while we ate venison stew, courtesy of Konstantin. We were waiting for the evening questioning to begin while Jansen worked on getting a large fire going to warm the room. The door to the common room opened, and six legionnaires entered. A young man in white and gold robes entered after them. The robes of a Truthseeker, and I happened to recognize this boy. He was the one who had questioned me in Castile’s Tribunal.