I followed the other new recruits to where we were supposed to be gathering. We stood in front of a large totem, adorned with various faces of animals found in the woods, including the face of a bear, eagle, deer, and others. The faces, which were carved from wood and painted over with some kind of adhesive substance, looked as though they were staring at me intently. At least these had heads. Then again, they were missing bodies, making them similar to the horseman from my dream last night.
Degamux stood in front the totem pole talking to the new recruits which also included me. He was already speaking to the new recruits and getting them better oriented. I tried moving forward a bit so I could listen better.
“... and the bear represents the more violent and vengeful part of the wild,” the clan leader explained. “Never underestimate nature’s true power, lest you encounter one of her more... wrathful creatures.”
He continued talking about the various creatures and their role in nature. Each animal represented a trait of the rangers. The eagle, which stood at the top of the totem, represented the all-seeing eyes of the rangers in the woodlands. Degamux emphasized on how it important it was for a ranger to know his surroundings. Plus, the eagles were very swift to descend on their prey. Valen and Howard’s raid on our escort convoy, in which the Andoan troops were helpless.
The deer represented the swiftness of the rangers. Deer were graceful creatures that could trot through the forest at great speeds when uninhibited. They were also very aware of their surroundings, like the eagle, but in a more defensive manner. The deer can pick up even the smallest of disturbances. A ranger must be able to pick up on the presence of his enemies and be able to flee if need be. Like before, Valen and his kinsmen had clearly demonstrated this trait when they had turned heel in the face of a much larger crowd of hostile townspeople. They were also very enduring when they traveled, taking little to no breaks.
Finally, there was the bear. This totem represented the ranger’s ability to unleash his wrath on his foes. While this didn’t usually mean facing them out in the open, they were expected to train their brutality into their techniques including their primary method of acquiring food - archery. Valen was able to dish out the appropriate amount of strength when he knocked me clear off of my feet when we first met two years ago.
But the bear also had another interpretation. The bear was fiercely protective of its own, emphasizing on family and kinship in the ranger lifestyle. Learning about ranger ideals under Degamux was like being tutored on Andurovian geography and politics under Charleston, which was long and hard, but worthwhile.
There were other animals on the totem that represented ranger ideals, but there weren’t as important as the eagle, deer, and bear. Degamux also said that three was a very powerful number that would constantly repeat itself. Birth, life, and death, were only one set of many.
After learning about the totem and the faces, along with their meanings, we were told to group up amongst ourselves. Most people had found their grouping fairly quickly, having already established some form of group or another in the past. I had just arrived to the camp yesterday, so I wasn’t able to get into a group. That was my first problem of the day.
“Hage Daunderfell of Crossroads,” Degamux said, singling me out in front of the other recruits. They laughed at me, like I was it was okay for everyone to laugh at the person the instructor singled out. “You have failed to find a group in the allotted time I gave you all. A ranger on his own, is a ranger for dead.”
In other words, I had already failed his first trial - finding a basic group to be paired up in.
“Will everyone with a group please sit down,” Degamux requested. I stood out like a sore thumb. The clan leader was to quick to descend on me, like the eagle with its prey. Now I was to be made an example in front of everyone, including that one guy who I had not gotten along with. “Except you, Hage.”
Degamux took me back to the totem, where a young boy, who looked around my age, was. He was sitting with his back up against the pole. He had short blond hair and dark eyes, dark like mine. He reminded me of someone, but I could not place the name. He stood at attention when Degamux and I approached him.
“Lloyd, this is Hage and vice-versa,” Degamux said, pushing me toward him. I think I could see where this was going. “You two will be paired up for the duration of the trials.”
There were a couple of snickers going around the recruits when Degamux had decided our fates. He left us on our brief introductions to go back and teach the rest of the recruits. Like me, Lloyd had not been picked for a group, which gave us some common ground to start off on.
We were ordered to the archery range, where most of us were waiting to get our hands on a bow. This gave us a perfect opportunity to get to know each other better. Unfortunately, I was a little hesitant with introducing myself to him. There was a reason why he wasn’t able to get with a group, which may or may not be harmful to me. But it was something I was wary of.
“You’re the new kid, right?” he asked after a moment of silence. We had been waiting around without saying a word for some time until he had gone ahead and broken that barrier.
“Yes, I am,” I answered. I wasn’t feeling quite comfortable to exchange a question for a question.
“Where are you from?” he asked. Lloyd was not feeling odd by continuing his inquiry. I was beginning to be okay with him, but I still kept my guard up. I wasn’t sure who I could trust in this camp now that Elena was relocated. Valen was a special case. Sure, we had faced death together and he helped me get out of Crossroads alive, but that didn’t mean I could exactly trust him. There was still something preventing me from doing that, but I just didn’t know what.
“Crossroads,” I said. Now it was my turn to ask the questions. “What about you? Where are you from, Lloyd?”
“Its a long story... ” he began to say, which was something I could very easily relate to. But I wanted just a bit more details if I was going to establish some kind of acquaintance with him. “But I’m from Mentings. Its kind of why people here don’t like me much. They think I’m some Andoan spy.”
Bingo. Now we did have something in common. Nobody here at the camp liked us. I told him about Elena and how she was also from Mentings.
“Oh, I must have missed her,” Lloyd said. I didn’t hold it against him. “Well, I guess we should go and see what Degamux has planned for us.”
We headed back over to the main group. After waiting around, we managed to get our hands on a bow. We were told we would have to return it as soon as we were done, because each bow was unique.
“Each ranger is supposed to make there own bow,” Lloyd commented when we were up at the firing range. He was a much better shot than me. Then again, this was the first time I laid hands on a ranger bow before. Besides, Lloyd had been there much longer than I could have been able to. It made me feel like I was going to survive here a little longer, which was good. “Its like the perfect fit for just the individual who made it.”
“Do they have a separate bow for hunting?” I asked as we continued firing.
“No, its all done with the same bow,” he said as he almost hit the bulls-eye of the dummy. “Yeah, its used for people and deer.”
After we were done with the archery, we returned the bow. Lloyd must have made his own, because he was too good of a shot to not have been practiced. Degamux then had us construct our own bow. The only catch was that we had use materials from the surrounding woodland with just a knife. Each of us was given a knife, in order to give us some sort of start. But as luck would have it, only one knife remained when it came time for Lloyd and I. That meant we had to share one between the two of us.
Great. One knife, two ranger recruits, up against everything else that crept in the woods. Just great.
