Normalcy

Waking up in the night, safe and sound in my bed; I relaxed for a brief moment before I tensed as the impact of the man's words hit me.

He was the person that I had to learn under for the next few years? Liam Campbell? Sir Galen's only disciple?

Letting out a huge sigh, I shook my head as I tried to think of the positives. After all, since he was Sir Galen's disciple, he wouldn't be so bad. Right?

Rising out of bed, I paused as I took in the feeling of power that coursed through me.

Looking at myself critically, I saw that all the blood had been cleaned up, and all the wounds opened up from the pressure before had healed.

Flexing, I was about to laugh out loudly, when my laugh turned into a miserable cry as I saw the pile of dirty clothes that were again laid out in front of the three tubs.

Mumbling to myself, I got to work, and soon another gleaming uniform was drying on the armor stand.

Looking outside the door, I saw that night had just fallen and, for the first time in a long time; I decided to be lazy.

I dove onto the mattress, and rolling contentedly; I closed my eyes and went to sleep. Deep sleep.

Broken only by my body waking me up in the morning with a rumble that signalled it's need for food.

Unwilling to get up, I lay there as fragments from my dream flitted across my mind.

Then, with a sigh, I rose and checking the time. I donned my uniform and headed to the kitchens for my morning work.

Finished, I paused as I remembered the lady chef's words from yesterday.

"10 fish pond."

Wondering again what it meant, I was soon shaken out of my thoughts as I realized that there was no food given today as well.

I was about to ask when I swallowed my words as I sensed this was another test in the making from the Academy.

My thoughts were proven correct as the rest of the students haggardly gathered around while rubbing their bellies.

Understanding that I was not the only one to be going through the trial did make me feel better, but even more, it made me curious.

Curious as to what the trial would be this time.

The rest of the morning was standard work.

Surprising that I would regard cooking and weaving as standard work in an Academy, but it was what it is.

However, I must have jinxed things, because hardly had we finished weaving when we were handed a small map.

Examining it, I saw it had a section blacked out, with the rest of it extending out into an expanse of open land before it opened out into a forest that was marked in zones.

Raising my eyebrows, I looked at the familiar forest as the corner of my lips twitched.

This.

This wasn't a joke, right?

A few minutes later, my suspicions were confirmed as the man, Liam Campbell, coughed and said, "You have six hours to run to the forest, and hunt as many animals as you can for food. The food that you obtain will have to last you till the next time that you are allowed to go to the forest. For those who want to opt out, you can always fish in the pond marked on the map."

Pricking my ears up at the mention of the pond, I suddenly realized the trap that the Academy had set.

After making sure that all of us knew what we were supposed to do, Sir Liam clapped his hands, and off we went.

Passing by a small gate through what I now knew was the east side of the Academy, we found ourselves on endlessly stretching plains.

As the rest of the students blinked, I jogged over to Sia and, grinning at her, I asked, "Would you like to accompany me, Madam?"

Snorting, she said, "With pleasure, blockhead."

And off we went.

Eating up the ground at a steady pace, we talked freely about our time since we had come to Yamal Academy.

I found that Sia's experiences were mostly similar to mine, and that she had seen Ares, Damon, and Celine multiple times since she was acting as an attendant while I cooked.

Asking her how they were, I was gratified to hear that they were apparently at the top of their batch, and showed strong signs of breaking through to the next star.

Enjoying the feeling of talking to her after such a long time, I lost myself in the moment until we reached a large pond.

Taking out the map, I saw that we had just run for a few kilometers, and that the pond was the same one marked on the map.

Sia glanced at the pond before she said with a smile, "I'm in the mood for some fish. You want to try it?"

Shaking my head, I quickly told her about the words of the lady chef.

Frowning, Sia spoke. "You mean to say that there are only ten fish inside this pond?"

Nodding, I spoke as Sia looked dubiously at the large pond. "I'm positive. There's no way that the Academy would give us such an easy mission."

Decisively, Sia said, "Then the forest it is."

Agreeing, I said, "The forest is the forest of death, by the way. And apparently, we're headed to the outer zones."

"Outer zones? When you fought the Direwolf and the spiders, which zone were you in?" Sia asked.

"Outer zone," I responded grimly.

Falling silent, Sia looked down at herself and at the lack of armor and weapons.

"You noticed, huh?" I said as I looked down at myself, too.

"We don't have anything with us that'll allow us to survive in the forest." She said tersely.

"We'll have to be creative, I guess." I said wryly.

Exchanging glances, we once again set off toward the forest. Pausing only as we saw that out of most of the students, only the extremely slim boy and a few others had ignored the pond and struck out for the forest.

Pulling up beside the boy who looked at us once before he fixed his eyes on the forest, we fell into a comfortable run at his side.

Trying to make conversation, I was met by silence and I sighed as I thought.

Just another normal day at Yamal Academy.

Then a roar shook the forest that we were heading towards, and I thought of the words I had just said.

Definitely just another normal day at Yamal Academy.