Valour

Ahhhhh....

Sweet Torture....

Sweet Hell...

I almost want to cry!

The last couple of days have been.... memorable to say the least.

It all started the morning Vince showed up for 'Training', he had the two of us jog all the way up to the park he chose, a full 22 mile jog!

On the way there I noticed some more bizarre looking landmarks.

Bizarre is an understatement though!

I saw floating golden pyramids, upside down towers and a laughing diamond Sphinx!

According to Vince those were the banks, libraries and Casinos, they were also under an illusion spell like H&H, they were really paranoid about the Tainted prince invading, huh?

If the illusion is different for each person as Vince told me, does that mean the prince would see something more.... horrifying? maybe something mind melting?

Cuz I'm getting plenty mental damage from looking at those structures, and the damage didn't stop there.

The park.... Newberry park, at first glance I thought it was some sort of boot camp, Shaolin boot camp, if such a thing exist really.

There were tires and towers and fire pits and swinging spiked logs and shit!

What's worse was the gravity!

I fell flat on my face the moment I stepped into the camp, it was like my body just stuck there, craning my neck to even look forward was a pain in of itself.

"You're gonna have to do better than that if you wanna survive rookie!" Vince roared, "This isn't even the beginner's class!" he added.

I heard some laughter in the distance, I zeroed in on the noise to find.... a small group of people with Barney and Pedro in the middle, the hybrid was laughing his ass pointing in my direction while Pedro was making bets.

Bastards the both of them....

"Best you get on your feet rookie you've got a long few days ahead of you!"

He wasn't wrong....

It started with getting on my feet, according to Vince, the gravity here always multiplied your mass 3 times than it actually was... that explained my sudden hefty dirt nap.... yeah, bad joke I know.

Getting to my knees was a bit difficult and my feet were even worse, but my body started to adapt to the new mass, though my bones were screaming all the while.

Next was the walk.... the farmer's walk to be exact.

Vince handed me over some weights, they looked like 10 ibs.... but I was wrong, they were 30 thanks to the gravity, he order me to walk all the way to the other side of the field with them, the point where a white pole stood, the field was the size of a soccer stadium, it was hard but doable until...

"3 feet per sec, that's your pace, no more no less, you fail to keep that pace you start your journey all over again!"

It took me 2 hours to complete.....

Barney laughed so hard I almost threw the weights at him frustration!

Vince was a bit miffed but he allowed me a break, Barney and Pedro weren't just here to spectate, he had them bring our refreshments, Boiled beef, potatoes and some Veggies..... Not the most mouth watering but it did it's job.

Vince allowed me a 20min break and immediately dragged my ass out to continue the training.

Next was the fire pit skip.... in short, what I had to do here was basically jump ropes while walking on a 5m long fire pit.

Sounds awesome right? Nope! it wasn't!

Firstly I was barefooted through the whole ordeal, secondly I needed to do the 'jump and jog' Style, have you ever tried that!? That's bloody hard in of itself now try doing it over a fire pit while your ass weighs 3x it's normal mass!

I got through it somehow.... on my first try no less, my feet were a smoldering mess though, Barney healed them as best he could but the pain still registered with every step I took.

Next was the tower.... it was a 10m tall thing, big but not that big, it had carvings in it despite being made of stone, they were for easy access to climbing.

All in all it looked pretty tame, I clim the ladder and grab the flag.... was what I thought until I put my hand on the first carve, it was cold! I'm not talking the type when you grab a block of ice, no this is the flesh burning kind of cold you get when you sit in an ice bath for too long, Wow.... me and Cece did a lot of stupid stuff growing up now that I think about it.....

Vince gave me a clap on the back to motivate me, Barney was insisting I needed a break while Pedro for some reason was cheering me on.... Those two are up to something....

I almost cried but I managed to get to the top in under an hour, for some reason Barney looked worried, he kept insisting on me taking a rest but I shrugged him off, there was one more task afterall.

"You can do it," Pedro chimed, "All you gotta do is push those slabs to the other side of the red oak tree," He continued pointing at festive looking tree in the middle of the field.

There were 5 slabs of rock where I was standing, they were all 2m tall and felt like they weighed a ton, it was a short distance I needed to push just 13m.... it might as well have been a couple of miles though.

My muscles screamed and begged as I pushed the first slab, I barely made it towards the edge of the tree before I went on my knees.

The second was worse, my arms and legs started to feel like butter, my eyes were bloodshot and my breathing became haggard!

The third had me back aching and begging me to stop! my shoulders lifted up and down erratically as I reached the tree.

The fourth made me hurl everything I ate that day and my neck was messed up and my vision became blurry and I could barely stand.

The final one was.... I don't really remember, I blacked out for a few seconds and by the time I awoke it was night.... according to Vince I passed out immediately I reached the tree.

"You did good rookie, better than Barney and Arthur and their first day.... even better than Georgie! Hah!" Vince bellowed.

Barney cursed in the corner as he fetched me some food, an assortment of meat and mushrooms with warm cheesy bread.... it melted in my mouth like Fondo! I washed it down with some beer!

"Not too much rookie! Georgie still needs to take you riding tomorrow!" Vince cautioned.

"Pay up Barney, you lost fair and square," Pedro chided him, Barney cursed and forked over some cash to him.... I couldn't see how much, honestly didn't care either just focused on attacking my meal!

"Congrats again Rookie.... you finished the first part of your training,"

I gulped loudly and not because of the meat stuck in my throat!

"First.... part?"

He grinned maniacally.

"Why yes! You didn't think this cake walk was all I had too offer, now did you.... ah but Georgie has you for tomorrow! So we'll have to wait till Thursday to continue,"

Barney snickered while Pedro looked at me pitifully..... Awesome more hell! I wanted to curse but the earnest look Vince gave me was too.... I sighed and finished up the rest of my meal.

We dyed my hair next....

"Don't look so down, it's a right of passage, all orcs go through it!" Vince said with a fatherly look on his face.

"But..... I'm not an orc..." I cried whilst fingering the Blueish silver plague that had become of my black curls.

"All the more reason I wanted to do it, I wasn't sure about you when Georgie brought you into the fold.... honestly thought you'd be lazier than Barney,"

"Hey! I ain't lazy!" Barney protested, "I just like taking my sweet ass time," He added.

"That's.... the definition of Lazy though." Pedro chimed in.

The two of them got in a spat but soon ended it when Vince clapped his huge meaty hands.

"I'm proud of you is all I'm saying.... it's not every day you see a human thay can finish A 'Veterans Journey' in under a day!" He said while clapping my shoulders.

According to him, Orcs loved wearing bizarre outfits and dying their hair outlandish colours, the brighter and wilder they looked, the more prideful and brave they were perceived as.

They shared this culture with people they greatly respected.... it was kinda heartwarming to know he began to see me as a comrade.... even though his way of showing it is a bit too spartan for my taste.

"Oh kid.... before I forget, Arthur wants you after Georgie finishes your riding lessons tomorrow, You're to be his 'Second' he said, you'll help him with his inventions and stuff," Barney said.

Inventions huh.... so kinda like what I was doing with Kelvin before I came to this world, I think Arthur's own would be wilder than steam powered jetpacks though.... maybe they won't end with me being in the hospital for a week too.... I hope.

I slept soon after, Barney and Pedro had set up camp, 4 tents each, I got the yellow one, hopefully my dreams would take away my wary heart.

It did the opposite....

I had another of those bizarre dreams.... not the ones involving Eureka, no.... this was another one about Jamie.... her and the blue dude.

They were in some sort of abandoned building, there was blood everywhere, on the walls, floor, their clothes, everywhere. Holes were littered all over the bodies and surroundings too.

They were dressed differently than before.... wearing tactical gear, kinda like a swat teams... they also had sub-machine guns, The blue man had his ready, equipped in both hands, while Jamie had hers set on the floor, she was crouched over the orc bodies.

They were surrounded by bodies of Orcs, they were rifling through the deceased green giants, looking for something, anything of value I think.

Jamie cursed as she finished searching an orc, She didn't seem to find what she was looking for.

"No need to rush love, That fool Darius... we'll find a way to get past him soon enough," the blue man said.

"I don't have much time Wanpoko!" She cried, "My body's already starting to...." Jamie was saying until one of the orcs started to stir.... Jamie grabbed her gun and walked over to him, she pointed the barrel right at his head.

His eyes shot open, his mind was at a loss, first confusion washed over him then understanding and finally annoyance, going on borderline irritation.

"You.... the boss will come for you, Grazer's been too lenient but the boss won't be so forgiving," The orc spat, Jamie cursed at him before pulling the trigger.

I woke up immediately afterwards....

I don't know what that was.... I won't mention the dreams about Eureka but I gotta tell them about Jamie at least....

I sense something sinister is about to go down very soon...