Chapter 2: Theater

Albert stretched his body as he walked out of his room. It was time for his evening practice session and he did not want to be late. His instructor, Mr. Lokan did not take kindly to people who wasted his time. He increased his pace considerably as he made his way to the practice area.

Lokan Jehag, a retired war veteran in his early fifties, always wore a chilling gaze. His red eyes only made his already menacing face even scarier. The man was six feet tall and towered over anybody in the village. His short blond hair was always well kept and his clothes were impeccable, not to mention his shiny black leather shoes. Sporting a thick blond mustache, Lokan was a symbol of masculinity that brought nightmares to the children who were training under him. While the adults knew that his face traits represented his character unfairly, the children did not care for a reason, his face simply terrified the young ones. Albert, on the other hand, was on really friendly terms with the geezer. Lokan was a frequent visitor to the Mayor's manor. He might have retired, but Lokan had earned a big name in a war a few decades ago, he had retired as a captain. With the ability to lead as well as fight, Lokan had become the mayor's advisor when it came to anything related to the military. The two along with few others would frequently hold discussions in the study for long hours. The discussions were always accompanied by laughter and merriness, Lokan's was always the loudest.

By the time Albert reached the practice area, Lokan was already read at his position. There were a few other kids too, 11 of them to be exact. 7 of them were boys and 4 of them were girls. The town of Reylgar was located at the base of Var-gatium sharing the vast lands 3 other sister towns. While they were called towns, each of them sported a population close to a million, not including the numerous villages and towns that came to be with these mega towns as their centers. These 4 mega towns were collectively known as the Border towns and had well paved roads connected one another. The road networks were so extensive that it connected with most of the sub towns and villages. The border towns were sterched over the plains of Var-gatium, running a few thousand kilometers. They had amble forest too which provided them the resources they need to build themselves up. While the area was called a plain, half of its area had dense forests, a few major rivers passed through these lush jungles. Hunting was a major source of food along with agirculture. The villages towards the costal sides would tranport fishes but they could not transport for long distances and hence not many could enjoy it.

Beyond the plains was a landscape which the people called the land of death, endless golden sands greeted any who dared to turn towards it. Agar-htark or golden death was the main reason the kindgom refused to elevate the status of the border towns to cities. The desert would take a few months to cross even with a mount and a guide who knew his way, and one would dare to venture through it without a guide. The so called border towns were initially fortresses built during the ancient war with the magis. But a disaster during the war had seen Ishlak lost a good chunk of its fertile lands to the golden waves. The initial residents of the towns were soldiers who were now cutoff from the capital, and then the tribes who had inhabited the forest. The military forces as hears passed and the population increased, slowly morphed into towns. After the war, when the kingdom of Altia came to being, they had tried hard to pave a safe path between the now seperated parts but in the end things did not meet expectations. They were able to develop vehicles that could cross the vast dessert both by land and air, but the cost of keeping them running turned to a huge burden that the kindgom had to put them to a stop. Ever since the kindgom had partly given up on the border towns. While they enjoyed some privileges, the border towns remained loyal to the throne and paid their taxes on time.

Henry Freeman was the mayor of the town of Reylgar, and was quite the figure in the plains. Albert as his son hence garnered some of the attention. That might be why the gang of 11 made him the boss. Albert had only got into these practice session only because his father forced him to. The other ten were actually chosen after an initial assessment. Every three year, the town conducted few tests that assessed the potential of kids of age 15 on various fronts. The main things tested were their magic aptitude, their brain skills and a good physique. The rich families would so employ tutors so that their children would be one of the ten. Those who had undergone Lokan's training held prominent places in border town, especially in the military, it was like a certificate of competence. Henry being the mayor found it easy to get Lokan agree on taking Albert too. The ten had initially been cold to him for getting in through unfair methods but when Lokan published the performance ranking after three months, Albert ranked third. While he wasn't the best, the ranking helped Albert winover the friendship of the other kids. Albert's vast knowledge of things was another factor. The party had got into troubles a few times and it was Albert who had saved them. Once they got lost in the forest but they reached home before midnight thanks Albert reading the stars for directions. They had from then on crowned him as their boss. Almost a year had passed since then, Lokan had specifically told them not to be late on that day. So by the time Albert reached the dedicated training area, almost all of them had already assembled. Albert was the tenth to come but there was still enough time before the session started.

The training area for the chosen were outside the town wall. Lokan was a veteran who had retired when he was in his middle thirties. He had made a name for himself during the last war and had retired as a captain. His partihad specifically asked the setup to be so The previous mayor, Henry's father had accepted all of Lokan's conditions and a training area the size of a few hundred of football fields was built. The training area too had fortifications as it had plenty of buildings erected. The ten would have to spend months training without able to go home during the year end assessments and hence there were various facilities made avilable to support the kids. The training area had turned into a theater of war when the army began to involve itself. When the first few graduates started holding power in various areas, the government began to provide even more support. Over the years funding had increased by many folds, the army even dispatched personnels and officers. As the number of graduates increased and their abilities began to be targets of envy, Lokan had turned into one of the most reputed people in the town. Now, one of his students held prominent position in all disciplines around the town. As the training area warped into a war theater, the area it covered soon increased another ten fold or so. It had grown so big that it was twice the size of the town of Reylgar itself. A decade ago, the other towns too had send a regiment of 1200 soldiers each. An agreement was made between the border town to develop the war theater as a joint effort. Reylgar was given exclusive rights for training session for ten years and that exclusive rights were going to end that year. Once Albert's batch graduated, the next batch would have 40 kids, ten from each. Each town had promised to send some of their experts along with kids. These experts would live in the war theater and would dedicate themselves to grooming the future generations. The war theater would from now on become border town's war theater.

Winter was soon coming. Three months of grueling winter. There was hardly a month left and the town was busy on stockpiling. Henry was having a meeting with the other mayors regarding the same. The towns would exchange commodities so that they could survive the harsh winter, they would make sure that every family under their jurisdiction would live to see the spring. The huge consumption was a burden but luckily they had enough people work and enough resources to make use of. The resource department was one of the most sought of all divisions as the benefit was not small. The officers of resource department would always get a 'claim' of whaterver came to the town. The town of Reylgar had enough stocked to last a year all the time, the mayor had to make sure that was the case. But that did not mean the workers could relax as they needed to fill the quota for the other subsidiaries, not to forget the exchange with other border towns. The town was hence bustling, the path to the war theatre had many warehouses and hence the roads were flooded with carts unloading goods.

All of this was new to Albert even when he had the memories, he felt refreshed as he walked through the busy streets. Being the second son of the mayor, many recognized him and would greet him with smiles. Albert had travlled most of the distance by carriage but since the road through the warehouses were jam packed, he had decided to get down and walk. It took him 20mins or so to reach the gates that lead to the war theatre. The entire town had a colossal wall that surrounded it. Standing 15m in height, the walls were 5 meters wide. The walls had specialized defence mechanisms that drew power from the town's core. But its specifics were a secret and only the higher ups knew what exactly these mechanisms were. There had never been a seige attack on the town ever and thus nobody ever saw those mechanisms in action. The war theater too had similar walls and defense systems, and also had watch towers that reached twice the height of the walls. These towers made use of indegenous magi tools that could see as far 15 to 20km.

When Albert reached the entry to the war theater, he was greeted by a couple of soldiers. Only a very few had the clearance to go inside the theater. A pass wass issued to those who had the clearance and they had to submit their pass at the check post. Albert took out his pass which surprisingly had a very realistic photo of his along with his name, his postion inside the theater and also his guaranteers name. Albert's designation was Class 12, which meant he was the 12th batch of Lokan's trainees. The soldiers were already familiar with Albert who had been coming through the same checkpost for 2 years.

The soldiers let him through fast as they greeted him with a smile, one of them even ruffled his hair as they chatted for a while. Albert couldn't get used to his head being patted, but to his dismay most who knew him loved to ruffle him up. Is it because he was too quiet that they thought physical love was needed? Albert could never figure out but since he didn't want others feel suspicious, he could only bear with it. Albert let a sigh out as he headed towards the stable. The soldiers did not mind when he had asked them for a horse and so Albert borrowed one as he sped towards the training field.

With the help of the horse and due to the well paved roads, Albert reached the training field in a jiffy. He got down from his horse and signalled it go back by tapping at its rear twice. He then turned towards the field and was greeted by a few kids waving at him.

'Hm? All of them are here already? Normaly they dont come even 5min early but all of them are here when there is almost 30min before the meeting time. Am I forgetting something?'

Albert could help but have a bad feeling. He waved back at them but his face did not have a smile on it. As he reached the group of kids, one of them walked towards him. The boy with red spiky hair was wearing a blue shirt and black trousers. The boy slid his right arm over Albert's should and then used his left hand to playfully punch Albert in his stomach.

"Boss, did you wake up at the riveshore today too?", the boy questioned sarcastically with a grin on his face. His red eyes that matched with red hair told Albert that the boy was a really god time.

"Annoying", Albert pushed away the boy's hand from his shoulder as he walked away from the clingy creature.

"Oh no, Wik got rejectee by Albi again. Is your heart broken Wik. Want some pillows to cry on?"

The boy named Wik spun his head towards the source of the mocking voice. He then glared daggers at the beauty who was now making wier faces at him.

"Scarlett! Stop spouting nonsense. Why would I, the most charming boy of this town, go after another boy, that too a dull looking one like boss. The girls of this town would die to become min", the boy countered. His face was saying that he truly believed each and evey word he was spouting. The boy styled his hair as he peeked at Scarlett from the corner of his eyes, a pose which he thought was cool. And as usual the group ingnored him completely.

Before Wik could complain about his friend's for ignoring him, Lokan's voice thundered.

"Attention!"

His sound felt like a roar and immediately the 11 formed a line of two. Lokan walked before them and only stopped once he was right infront of them. He then walked around them as he inspected their uniform. All the kids were in blue shirt and black trousers and had to keep themselves tidy. Lokan would inspect them and if he found even one of them not maintaining decorum, then the entire batch had to run rounds around the field. Once Lokan was done he came back to his original position and then addressed the kids.

"Alright, are you guys ready for the assessment?", once again the instructor's voice thundered and this time the kids to replied with equal power, "Yes sir". All except one that is.

"Assessment?", Albert had a dumb look on his face when he mumbled to himself.