Warrior of the Stars- Book one of the Jay Shang Chronicles

Chapter 20 - Into the Woods

Chapter 20 - Into the Woods

"Do you have everything you need?" asked Serena as she helped Jay fasten his quiver across his back.

"No. I need at least another day's worth of food and fresh water, and probably some climbing gear. Some tinder that's already bundled and ready to light would be nice too." he muttered sarcastically as he exited his tent. The frigid air made his arm hairs stand on end. The novice camp was empty, as the rest of the boys were on their morning ruck.

"Well Jay, it wouldn't really be a wilderness survival training mission if you had all of those things, now would it?" chided Serena as she followed him across the snowy ground.

He sighed. "No, I guess not. But I would just like to point out the fact that I would never be stupid enough to get myself stranded in the woods with no supplies."

"Yeah, that's what they all think." chimed in Damon, appearing beside them as he came in from his march. His clothes were stiff from the frozen sweat that had soaked into them.

"What are you doing back so soon?" asked Jay, "Rucking makes you so tired that you usually take forever to make it all the way back here." he added with a cheeky grin.

Damon glared at him as Serena giggled. "Big talk for someone who should be wetting his pants right now!"

"And why should I be doing that?"

"Because you are about to go into the woods with a bunch of much older boys, one of which you have humiliated many different times?" answered Damon.

Jay rolled his eyes, "Who, Lynwee? He's all talk. I'm the General's golden boy right now. He wouldn't dare do anything to me."

"Whatever you say." Damon shrugged, "Hey, when you're dead can I have your bow? I'm hoping some of your skills rubbed off on it, and I sure could use the help."

"Oh shut up!" snapped Jay as they neared the edge of camp where the other boys had already begun grouping up.

"You know Jay, he has a point." warned Serena as she followed along behind the two boys, "If he wanted to hurt you, this would be the perfect time to do it. They could just make it look like an accident."

Jay was about to tell her that he was much too skilled for someone as stupid as Lynwee to best him, but he was interupted by the glares of the fifteen boys he was about to venture out ino the wilderness with. Their displeasure at his presence was visibly etched upon each of their faces.

"Scram, trash." ordered Lynwee, nodding his head at the two children who were now cowering behind Jay.

"Uh, bye Jay." squeaked Damon as he scurried off.

"Goodbye, Jay. Be careful please. Watch your back." whispered Serena as she patted his arm before following after Damon.

A wave of loneliness flowed through Jay's body as he watched his friends walk back into the hub of camp.

"Keep up, little fiereo. If you get lost, no one is going to look for you." said one of Lynwee's comrades, bending low to Jay's face so that their eyes were level. They had the same glint of malice within them as Lynwee's did.

He cackled and joined back up with the others, who had begun to march into the thick forest.

Lynwee turned his head and shouted back at Jay, "Yeah fiereo, and we sure wouldn't want that, now would we?" his voice was dripping with unbridled animosity.

Jay looked back one more time towards where his friends' silhouettes were disappearing into the rapidly increasing snowfall. He looked up at the darkening sky before following after the group of squad leaders.

A storm was coming, and he wasn't sure that it was going to be the only one.

***

"Stupid fiereo, you'll never get a fire started with that wet tinder." said the older boy whose name Jay had recently learned was Teemo.

This was the first time anyone had spoken to him since they had left camp, and Jay hadn't had anything to do besides eavesdrop on their conversations. So far, the only thing that the older boys had talked about were their plans for becoming officers and inappropriate jokes about girls that made his cheeks flush.

He had almost begun to think that they would spend the entire training mission pretending he didn't exist.

"What do you mean?" asked Jay, "It isn't we-"

He was cut off as a stream of stinking yellow shot past his face and onto the pile of tinder he had been trying to light. He scrambled backwards as the other boys cackled.

"Oh really? Sure looks wet to me." shrugged Teemo as he pulled his pants back up and sauntered away.

Jay stared at the soiled pile of twigs. He wanted to try and make up some kind of witty comeback, but he knew it would only bring him more trouble. He dejectedly covered up the mess with some clean snow and began searching for some new tinder.

He should've known that they weren't going to ignore him forever. If he was lucky, maybe this would be the worst they could come up with. None of them were particularly intelligent, and he was sure that peeing on his would-be fire was probably the most devious of plans that the majority of the boys would be capable of coming up with.

A sharp cracking noise halted his train of thought and he wheeled around to look for the source of the noise. He was expecting to see one of the older boys attempting to scare him, but there was nothing there.

He glanced around the trees one more time.

I'm guess I'm just imagining things....

He eventually found enough supplies to start another fire and returned back to the others.

They had created their own fire by now, and were roasting chunks of some animal they had struck down. The smell of roasting meat made his stomach growl.

Jay cleared some snow away from their group and started up his own tiny campfire. He huddled in his cloak and opened up his emergency rations. He speared a salted fish on a twig and held it near the flames to warm it a little. He chewed on the tough meat for a while before curling up on the ground.

For a long time he listened to the other boys laugh among themselves before they too, set up for the night. They assigned sentry shifts and the rest went to sleep. None of them said a word to Jay.

Soon the night became filled with the sounds of forests nocturnal inhabitants and the snores of exhausted teenage boys.

Jay too, eventually fell asleep as the flames from the bigger fire finally went out. All that was left were a few glowing embers, glowing in the ashes.

If Jay had still been awake to watch, they would have cast just enough light to illuminate the shapes of several boys quietly packing up their gear before disappearing into the night. 

A short chapter, but leading to exciting things!

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