Prince in the fright zone

chapter 1 the promotion

The Fright Zone, home to Hordak and his evil Horde. An army of faceless war machines hellbent on conquering Etheria, but to Drystan it was home, it was unforgiving, brutal and most of the time unfair in nearly everyway, but it was home nonetheless. He never knew anything else than the cold halls of the Fright Zone and the chaotic battle fields. At fourtheen years old Drystan was an examplary cadet, but he lacked the favoritism of a certain blonde haired deserter to rise up to the top. Not that he minded, Drystan wasn't hoping to ever become a leader.

Having the lives of other people under his responsability wasn't something he ever wanted. So he didn't bother trying to shine all that much in his training sessions. Speaking of which, an alarm suddenly blared instantly snapping Drystan out of his half sleeping state. He jumped out of his bunk and immediatly started changing into his uniform. His older teammates took a little longer to get ready. While Drystan was already done getting dressed and saluting even before his team's force captain came in. He learned early that if you want to have a minimum ammount of prosperity in the Horde you have to be a people pleaser. Drystan knew his teammates hated him for it, but he didn't really care. It's not like they were actual friends, it's not like Drystan had any friends period. Friends just get you in trouble is another lesson he learned the very hard way.

Octavia walked in with a clipboard, and already started taking notes on how disciplined her cadets were so early this morning. When you're ranked as low as a cadet every moment is a test that might determine you're future. Regretfully his teammates all got a bad mark for they're lack of order. Which is what the Horde strives for in every possible ways. So the day didn't exactly start right for them.

Next came the daily hour long run. It didn't matter if you couldn't feel you're legs in the middle of it. It didn't matter if you accidentally twisted you're ankle tripping over you're own feet or by a piece of metal. You ran or you wouldn't get a nutrition bar. The eldest of the squad Eliot didn't waste time to take the lead. He was human like Drystan and a lanky pale 17 years old teenager, with blonde hair. Skinny, but fast. Which was arguably the only thing he had going on for him. Drystan only came second in the excercise. Even with his nearly numb leg he was still ahead of gemi and gemo. Two twins of the Tauryus species. Tall and bulky Gemo, the boy of the two had red skin while Gemi, his siter had blue skin. Both had a big noses hooves instead of feets and sharp bull like horns comming out of either side of they're heads. They could definetly sprint faster than him though, but Drystan had more endurance. The only thing bigger than they're muscles was they're competitive nature with pretty much everyone that wasn't they're superior. In last place came Worak, unlike the rest of their squad they were born and raised in Horde instead of being "liberated" from they're respective Kingdoms. Although it didn't get them any form of favoritism. They were the brains of the squad and had a hard time running because of the heavy shell on their back.

Worak was a Tortoisor, a tortoise like humanoïde with green skin three toed round feet and three fingered hands that were surprisingly agile. Their shell was pretty strong and even though they weren't as physically capable as the rest of their squad Worak's intelligence saved them all from quite a few unforgiving situations. Like being stuck in the middle of the whispering woods with only a broken down skiff and half a toolkit.

After this brutal exercise, a five minute break was in order before battle simulations. With new princesses joining the alliance everyday the Horde had to keep up in someways. Plans were made in case a soldier or they're squad met a princess on her own. If it was the alliance fighting all as one, the regular squads were ordered to retreat. Today they were learning how to fight the princess of Plumeria, who for a pacifist was surprisingly powerful. Drystan had the rare displeasure of encountering many of the princesses on reconnessance missions with his squad.