Not Forgotten

Training Hell

This chapter, I had the pleasure of cola bing with another author I am a fan of. The author of Forever Yours; pinkkdragonns

"Did I get a bunch of babies on my squad or what?!" Levi shouted from in front of them as they followed his instruction.
Today was Petra's first time working out with the squad. She'd expected it to be difficult, yes, especially after seeing how he always treated his squad. But this was a whole other level from what she'd anticipated.
He pushed them far with one workout and then even further with another. He tested to their limits again and again. He found their comfort zones and then exiled them right out of it.
Petra's legs almost seemed to scream in agony as she pushed herself to keep running. Strands of her soft hair stuck to her face and her lungs stung painfully inside her chest.
To her absolute dismay, no matter how hard she propelled herself she was still marginally behind the others. She knew she was later than the others in joining this squad so she couldn't hope to catch up just yet - but it bothered her that the Captain was almost definitely going to pick up on her for it.
"Uh...no sir!" Eld replied, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand.
"Oi! That's disgusting. Use a towel or a handkerchief, you moron." He shot back, visibly disgruntled by his actions. "Go inside and wash up. NOW. I expect you back out here in five minutes, Jinn."
The other three of them watched Eld jog back inside with envy in their eyes. The heat of the day was not helping in the slightest and they wanted nothing more than the insufferable torment to end.
"The rest of you are permitted to stop until he returns. But don't you dare start slacking later on."
Petra breathed a long sigh of relief and bent down slightly, her hands on her knees as she caught her breath. Gunther and Oluo came to a halt next to her after a few moments.
"Petra dear, I do hope you're holding up well." Oluo managed to get out between breaths.
"What? Her holdin' up well? Please you're practically fallin' apart yourself." Gunther grinned at him. "Leave off of her."
"No, that's okay..." She found herself smiling back. "I'm not, really. Holding up well that is. "
"It'll get easier, I promise. Captain isn't always like this, believe it or not."
"I guess I just didn't expect to be working this hard. Even Shadis never gave us practice like this." She muttered miserably.
"Sometimes when he has to go the headquarters he leaves Annie in charge." Gunther said. "That's always great."
"Hey, where is she right now anyway? I mean, if it's okay to ask."
"She's at a meeting right now. Word has it the Sergeants are putting together a training exercise for the event of another Wall breach." Oluo informed them. "Of course, I don't know if that's entirely true."
"Oh, wow. I hadn't even thought about that. I hope if there is a training programme we never have to put it to practice."
The others nodded back. There was a moment of delayed silence and Petra wondered in her usual worrying habit if that had been the right thing to say.
It wasn't long before Eld made his way back out hurriedly. He jogged back over to the group, eyes trailing over to where the Captain was leaning against a tree.
"All of you, it's time for endurance drill!" He shouted, before beginning it himself quite promptly.
"Guys...what's endurance drill?" Petra asked apprehensively.
"If you struggled with the rest, you're going to find this really hard, sweetheart." Oluo laughed.
"Once again, you literally almost passed out just now." Gunther rolled his eyes. "It's a set of different muscle strengthening excersies. Squats, planks, lunges, and more. It's called endurance because we have to do it until he tells us to stop. We could be here for ages."
"Just copy us and hope that Annie gets back soon." Eld added reassuringly.
'Oh well. Here we go again.' She thought.
------
The exhausted Squad flopped down onto the dining table, each of them nothing more than a sweating, panting, aching mess.
Being out of the heat was a relief, and the cool of the wooden table soothed Petra's stinging arms and hot face. The most relieving thing, however, was that the workout was finally over. She wasn't sure if she should still be excited about making this squad. So far it hadn't shaped up to be all that it had seemed.
The Captain emerged from the bathroom looking as pristine as always with his signature scowl on his face.
"Are you idiots planning on lying there all day?" He asked darkly.
"Yes please..." Petra half-whispered, her head down against the cold table still.
She heard the others murmur in painful agreement and almost sighed.
"What the hell was that, PFC Ral?"
Her eyes widened from where it was hidden and her heart began hammering again. She hadn't meant it to sound rude in anyway, but she could see now that it was never going to have gone down well with the Captain.
She pulled her head up from the table and sat up, anxiously gazing over to him on the otherside of the room.
"Oi! I asked you a question!"
"Uh...I'm sorry sir, I just meant-" she started, panicked. Her hair was more than a little ruffled at the front, sticking both to her face and upwards from the awkward position, giving her a half-bedhead sort of dishevelled look.
Captain Levi couldn't help but grow even fonder of her in that moment, to his absolute dismay. Something about the way her soft looking, messed up hair was framing her face gave her an adorable look that only amplified her pretty face. Frustrated, he raised his voice a little more.
"Shut it. Get up and get yourself cleaned right now. You look absolutely pathetic." He found himself saying.
Petra felt the familiar lump in her throat rise. Tears swelled in her eyes, blurring her vision as she rushed to push back the chair and hurry away. She hid her face from him by turning her head as she pushed past. Her shoulder briefly brushed against his in her rush to get upstairs, panicking her further.
When she was gone, Gunther and Eld exchanged glances from over the table.
"Don't you think you're being a little harsh on her? I mean, she's only-" Eld started.
"I'm leaving for a meeting." Captain Levi interrupted. "I expect the housework done and food ready when i return. Sergeant Vgovska will return shortly."

Sooooooo... it's been a while. I have been debating if I should even keep writing on this site or not. I'm not sure when, but I think I will still try to update. Let me know your thoughts! Once again, make sure you check out pinkkdragonns