Dauntless Sweethearts

Chapter 12 (Tobias)

Tris seemed tense as I led her and the Candor girl to the training room.

"Is everything okay?" I asked. The question was meant for Tris, but the Candor girl answered before she could.

"Yeah, just a little home sick."

I didn't have to be a Candor to know that she was lying. I guess that must have been why she chose to transfer.

As we entered the training room, I saw my sister passing out guns to the other initiates.

"Ah, Four," she started, my new name sounding strange coming from her. "Thank you for finding Tris and Chae. You got here just in time."

Elsa passed a gun to each Tris, Chae and I. She explained to us how to use the gun and demonstrated the proper form. Once she was done with the demonstration, we were instructed to attempt to hit the targets.

The recoil of the handgun was far stronger than I thought something of that size could put out, but after a couple hours of shooting, I started to be able to at least shoot straight, if not hitting the target in the center.

I glanced over at Tris to my right, and saw that she was the first to hit the center circle multiple times in succession. Not long after that, I started to manage it as well. It was impressive how fast we learned it, but I guess if you repeat something enough, eventually it becomes natural.

As twelve thirty rolled around, Elsa called for us to stop and put the guns down.

"You may go to lunch now. Be back here by two so we can start knife throwing. Your initial ranks will be posted tonight based off of your performance today."

Once she was finished, everyone left the training room except Elsa, Tris, and I.

"Sorry that I was late," Tris tells her. "I just wanted to make sure Chae was okay because she was crying this morning."

"I understand, Tris, but we're not in Abnegation anymore. Yes, you should take care of your friends, but the leaders take initiation seriously. Max will be sitting in on most lessons until second stage."

"What did they say about making things safer for Tris?" I asked hoping that the Dauntless weren't as careless as they seemed.

Elsa sighed, "Max was disappointed in the development, but he could not in good conscience let there be too high of a risk to your baby. There is only going to be one week of fights compared to our normal three, and everyone, including the Dauntless-Borns will be wearing padding. Any blows to the stomach will immediately end the fight and give the win to the one who was hit."

"Thank you," Tris said exhaling as if she had been holding her breath.

At lunch we sat with Chae and Ally, the other boys having decided to attempt to make friends at the Dauntless-Born table. They were serving the same meat on bread stuff from the night before that Chae told us was called a Hamburger.

Poor Tris only lasted a couple of bites into the food before rushing from the cafeteria. She returned looking slightly pale but perked up when she found three slices of Dauntless Cake added to her tray.

"You three didn't have to give up your cake," she thanked us as she sat down.

"I know you'd do the same if it were me," Chae responded. It seemed like their chat by the Chasm had helped Chae's mood.

"I saw how it helped last night," Ally told her. "I figured you'd need anything that you could stomach to get through training."

"Well thank you," Tris beamed before digging in to the food placed before her.

At one thirty we started to head to the training room so that we wouldn't risk being late. On the way, the three girls chatted about how different things were between Dauntless and their previous factions.

The four of us arrived at the training room before anyone else including my sister. I was glad that Max had agreed to let her train us last minute because I knew that she would be just as protective of Tris as I was.

When everyone else arrived, Elsa passed out throwing knives and proceeded to show us the proper way to aim and throw the knives. Tris caught on faster than everyone else, and once again I wasn't far behind her. The Erudite boy, Eric, seemed to be struggling the most, but by six all of us had at least hit the target center once.

Lunar_Shade I'm sorry, but I won't be thoroughly torturing Jaden this story as I decided that it was best to just have him already be dead. You'll see in a later chapter what I mean.