Past Meets the Present

Chapter 5: ROLE

We followed him inside the mansion. It was what you would consider today as medieval. I can't remember what it looked like enough to describe it further, so have fun imagining it.

He gave us a quick tour, some other beings were roaming around the place, doing miscellaneous things. We were dropped off one by one at our correct rooms. We were conveniently ordered by our importance in the Pentagram: HABIT, me, Nightmare, Cordelia, and then our newest member, River.

My room was almost exactly how it was in Zackery's place, minus the training room. Instead I had a wardrobe of melee weapons to replace it.

A few hours later, he called us outside to the woods.

"Alright. Now that you belong to me, I need to know what you can do for me. What jobs will fit you best." Samuel drones.

"So what exactly are you wanting us to do?" HABIT questions.

"Just basic training things: agility, weapons skills, testing your powers. All of that." He responds as if it was nothing. "Understand?"

We all nod.

"First, agility. You will run two laps counterclockwise around the perimeter of the woods, try to be the first one here." He says. "And one more thing, no powers."

We all line up and he counts us off. "Go."

We all sprint through the woods and turn left once we hit the edge of the forest. I was in the lead with HABIT and Nightmare not so far behind. Cordelia was a ways away and River wasn't even in sight.

I could tell everyone was starting to feel the effects of fatigue settling in half way through lap one, but I hadn't even broken a sweat.

I let out a cackle and doubled my speed, leaving them in the dust.

On my second lap, I blew passed them just the same.

Rounding the corner one last time, I turned another sharp left and ran toward the mansion. About 30 yards from the front door, I skidded to a stop and caught my breath a little.

Samuel looked me up and down with a puzzled expression. "Impressive." He mumbles, sounding the exact opposite.

About 7 minutes later, the rest jogged to a stop in front of me, Cordelia and River slightly wheezing. I smirk at those two and Cordelia glares at me, her breathing extremely labored.

"Catch your breath. Next is weapons training." Samuel says, his concern more directed to Cordelia than anyone.

He leads us to a different side of the mansion and we find an array of different weapons: cleavers, throwing knives, javelins, maces, bows and arrows, etc. About 20 yards away, were target dummies. They were big enough to represent a full grown human.

"You will use each weapon, some more than once, to show me your skill in each." Samuel explains. "Any volunteers?"

HABIT immediately walks up the weapons, grabbing a cleaver, a few machetes, and a few knives. He throws each one with accuracy. He does this with each weapon. Then heads up to the dummies and chops one into splinters with the cleaver.

"That's enough. Next?" Samuel barks.

I step up to the plate and use all of them with some sort of skill. Except the damned mace. The mace can go rot in Hell. I excelled mainly with the knives and javelins, I hit every mark straight on the bullseye.

"Next." He orders.

One by one, they all play around with the weapons. Nightmare was the best out of the girls. Cordelia couldn't even hold them right, she broke her wrist trying to throw one of the spears. River outright refused. She said she didn't want to hurt anyone. Samuel didn't take that well.

He dismissed us to our rooms. We would continue training tomorrow first thing. Everyone was there, except one.

River.