Dragon Tongue

5 - They Can't Yell At Me If They're Too Busy Putting Out The Fire

Once I reached the end of the hill I had no idea where anything was. Granted, everything was huge and kind of hard to miss, but still. I looked around. There were quite a few people scattered about. I don't think any of them noticed me, though. Why would they? I continued forward.

I had no clue where I was going, but eventually I stumbled across one of the obstacle courses, and it did not look easy, nor safe. So, I did the only rational thing: I went ahead and tried it out. Let's just say, mistakes were made. I was knocked out before I could even make it past the first obstacle (how was I supposed to know they had flamethrowers in there?!). I'm pretty sure it even burned a little bit of my sleeve off...

I heard laughter coming from behind me. 

"Wow. That was bad. I didn't know it got any worse than those stupid snakes!" I turned around. There were three guys, each one wore a T-shirt with black sleeved and collar, and a sandy color torso. The design on it was a "V" with three upside down triangles beneath it, and on top it said "12 Legions". The guy in the middle had black hair, dyed if I had to guess. Mainly because his eyebrows were blond. His eyes were completely brown, and it freaked me out. He had no white in his eyes at all, except when he looked from side to side, you could just barely see it. The guy to his left had an upturned nose, which made me have to go through my head before I came to the conclusion that there was not, in fact, a pig legion. The guy to his right had huge ears. I felt sorry to be these guys. The must freak everyone out.

"Who on Earth let a newbie in the obstacle course?" Scary-eyes said, looking over to the pig-nosed guy. "Hey," he gestured to me, "what legion are you in?"

I stood in silence.

His eyes widened, not even that was enough to let me see the whites of his eyes. "You're kidding! He's that new?! No wonder he sucked!" He looked at my arm. "Hey, hey, dude..." He started chuckling. "You're, heh, you're missing a sleeve there!" He broke into laughter. "Don't let the other one drop, too!" He wiped his eye as if he were tearing up from laughing too hard. "I can't believe they even bothered to take this one in!"

"Who said I wanted to be taken in?" I said angrily. 

"So he speaks. Then tell me, Newbie, what is it that you wanted?"

I froze. "I- I just... I want to go home and  live a somewhat normal life."

He laughed. "We all have, Newbie, but I'll tell you this, I would prefer this life over any other one you could give me. The power is nice, Newbie, but I don't think you will ever get to know it like I do. I suggest you learn the power  pyramid, though. Because you are below me. You will always be below me."

"And what if I get placed in a better legion than yours?"

"I still have more experience than you. I'm stronger than you, and I know that just from seeing your pathetic attempt over here. This is your role. You are nothing more than a newbie, and you will only get in my way."

"You're wrong. Even if you are stronger now, that doesn't mean that I can't grow. I can see that you're one to scare your subjects into submission. You make them afraid so that they won't fight back and you can retain your "high" position. I've dealt with guys like you. He almost lost his arm."

"Is that a challenge?" He raised an eyebrow, almost intrigued by what I was saying.

I sat there. I didn't want to get into another fight.

"Are you backing down?"

"No," I said, and immediately regretted it.

"Good, because I'm going to enjoy this."