The Kingdom of Etherna: Return of the Prophesied Queen

Chapter 8- The Challenge

She woke up with the loud sound coming from a horn. It made her ears teared down. The sound envelopes the whole place, making every other girl woke up from their deep slumber.

Then the captain entered the house.

"Morning ladies, time to start our daily routine", he clapped his hand, counting from 1 to 5 signaling the girls to stand up and get ready.

After that, other warriors hand them clothing which they had to wear while the captain is standing proud at their front.

They had no choice but to strip off and wear the clothing. But Khaliana has her own way to deal with the situation, she used her oversized shirt to cover herself and in just a couple of second she had changed into the clothes that where handed to them.

Other girls who saw what she did, and was amazed by her quick way of changing, and others despise her calling her attention seeker and other offensive words. She can hear it, even they just whisper it to themselves. She gave no reactions about the other girls rattling, she just wanted to save herself from the eyes of their captain which is now boring to her. She saw her captain smirk at her, but she didn't gave a damn on it.

"I think everything is settled now," the captain said.

"Everyone get out and follow me", he said and start marching outside the house. The cold wind of the dawn touches her skin as they run towards the forest.

Their first morning exercise is running. They run for almost two hours inside the forest before they went back at the camp. They were all covered with sweat and panting from the run they did a while ago. She saw Lily at the corner of her eyes, she's panting and has difficulty in breathing.

She walked towards Lily and assess her, she gave her a cup of water. Lily uttered a small "Thank you", before Khaliana could go back to her position.

Despite of being hard towards Lily, she found Lily amusing and friendly. Even she doesn't want to have friends with anyone, she cannot stand at the side without helping someone in need, it's her nature. They heard the captain's voice again and everyone got up and positioned themselves.

"All right ladies, rest is enough", it is barely a minute when they arrived, she didn't even sat down for pete's sake, she thought to herself.

"Line up, you are 45 in total, so I think a line must have 9 members, now line up." Everyone started lining up, the girls which are close to each other, line up instantly. But Khaliana have difficulty on finding a line, other girls don't want her on their line. Then Lily rescued her, calling her attention at the side.

"Khaliana, here, we need one here", she called out. She instantly line at the last part of the line. Thanking Lily in a whisper way. They smiled to each other. She was relieved that Lily didn't abandoned her. She is now doubting herself about the promised she said to herself of having no friends. The captain started talking again and everyone's attention were on him.

Now that it is morning, she acknowledge the uniforms they had. It is a training uniform, the shirt is fitted and is dirty green in color and a loose black pants that made them more comfortable, they were also given a pair of black boots. She hid her own boots, thinking that it is safe to hide her necklace in there.

"Ladies, we need to train your body resistance that is why we need to run first hour in the morning" he started speaking.

"You will do that for two weeks' time, after running, breakfast will be served and another set of training will follow". He is now walking towards the line of women in front of him.

"In this training, you will learn to be a soldier, I don't want to hear any complain or any flirting with the men soldier when you are here", he said eyeing every girl and landing his blue eyes to hers.