Game of War (Cashby)

Chapter 2

The rest of the day was spent taking a shower and milling about. I got some training in with our assigned general and sparred with my team. Dinner had just ended, which had been pretty fun actually. It was the first night back, so we had a sort of cook out. We stood under the trees of the forest outside our cabins and had the cooks make a fire pit in the center. Mostly we spent the meal wandering around and talking to everyone, getting reacquainted and just having an over all good time. After that everyone retired to their cabins and slept.

-

The next day everyone slept in late. It was nice to not have to wake up when the sun did for once. Eventually everyone got up and ate before meeting at the practice grounds. The practice ground was basically just a large flat field with weapons and such scattered about. We got there a few minutes early, so I decided to begin warming up.

I walked quickly over to the weapons shed and got a sword out. Usually I'd use my trident since I'm always offense, but I wanted to try something different while I could. I spaced myself away from everyone and slowly swung it around, trying to get a feel for it. It was a bit heavier than my trident, since it was pure iron. I got used to it quickly, and began to expertly try out moves.

"Hey, Austin. Already going at it, I see." I turned around and smiled when I saw it was Mike.

"Oh yeah, what else am I gonna do?" I laughed. He shook his head.

"Not sure, man, it seems like this is all we ever do."

"Is it?" I frown, thinking about it. Was that a bad thing?

"Don't think too hard on it," He said, swinging his own sword about. The field slowly started to fill with people. Then at last Jeremy walked out. He flicked his hand and a lightening bolt crashed down, striking the ground a foot away from him. He was a son of Jupiter, meaning he could do that just as easily as slipping on his shoes. Once he had everyone's attention he began talking.

"Right, let's get started. I hope everyone picked up a weapon they don't usually use. If you haven't, do that now, then get into lines." I guess I was ahead of the game, then. I moved over to get into line next to Mike, then the training began. We spent two hours being critiqued down to the smallest things by Jeremy and his generals, and let me tell you it was exhausting.

-

When it was finally over, I was completely soaked with sweat. Jeremy never was one to go easy on us. Shay stumbled over to me and collapsed onto the ground, panting.

"I seriously need to appreciate the time I have not doing that. Every time we do this I feel like I'm gonna die after," he said, sitting cross legged on the ground. I laughed.

"Come on, dude. How many times have we done this now?" I slapped his shoulder, and he gave me a glare.

"Shay, c'mon! What've you been up to on patrol? Sitting on your ass? Get up!" Jeremy called. I laughed at him along with a few others.

I watched as he got up and wandered away mumbling something about water. I looked around, trying to spot Phil or Tino. It was already late in the afternoon and I wanted to talk game plans for mock battles before dinner. I found them near the well, filling up cups of water and laughing.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey, what weapon did you pick today?" Phil asked.

"Sword. You?"

"Spear," he smirked and I raised my eyebrows then turned to Tino.

"Dagger." He said.

"Seriously? You?" I joked.