GUESS WHO's BACK? It's me. Yes, almost all of this story is written, no worries. Enjoy chapter 1 yall.
My village was a cold place to be if you were different. It was hell on earth for me, but it was better than war, anything was better than The War. I sat up in a sitting position, dusting off my brown pants and white tunic. It didn't do me any good, the dirt still stuck to my clothes. We were fighting a losing battle. The War was against our long-time enemy the Noah, honestly, I knew we didn't stand a chance, not with The Earl leading his army into battle. The War has been going on for years, so long that we have days like today, called the Drafting Day, where everyone who didn't have a job was forced into the army. Unfortunately, that meant me. The villagers never offered me a job, I was different, and they shunned me. The Church was the main cause of it, they took one look at me and deemed me an outcast for the rest of my life.
I got to my feet and licked my cracked lips, The Drafting would begin soon, and the rest of the village was already lining up, walking over to the stage in the center of town. I'd been on that stage many times in my life, I was their main source of entertainment, ranging from beatings to burning me. I hated them all for it, no one had even thought of helping me. They found pleasure in my suffering. I found a seat quickly, preferably away from the crowd, but there were so many people that I was soon squished next to two unfortunate men. I gave them cold glares and watched the stage in front of me. I didn't want to go to war, even though that meant three meals a day and a place to sleep. I would rather die on the streets, than risk the chance of being caught by the enemy and tortured. The heat bared down on us relentlessly, but I didn't even break a sweat, I was used to the heat. I waited for the ceremony to begin, ten minutes passed, then twenty before the Soldiers finally blocked off any exits and Kanda Yuu, the most powerful of three Generals walked onto the stage.
His raven hair swayed as he turned to the crowd in front of him. His cobalt eyes were almost colder than mine. "Ladies and gentlemen." he said, his voice deep, reverberating in my chest, "You've gathered here today to witness Drafting Day," He was going to say my name, I was going to die. I stiffened as he clasped his hands behind his back and cleared his throat. A Soldier walked over to center stage, where Kanda stood and handed him a slip of paper. "Johnson Smith, Viper Bose, Bradley Ludwig…" It was difficult to keep my face neutral as he neared the end of his list, I was definitely going to get called. After minutes and minutes of waiting, I thought maybe I'd be spared- "Allen Walker,"
My heart dropped like a dead weight in my chest. Oh, dear gods, if any of them were listening, please, please let this be a dream. I prayed to Rhys, the god of Warfare, Arcane, and Chaos, but the crowd cheered loudly, applauding, not out of respect. Out of hatred and gratitude that I was no longer their problem. I rose from my seat and placed a mask over my emotions and facial expression. Angry and cold. I walked up to the stage while the people yelled curses and gave me vulgar gestures. They even threw food at me, and it took all my self-control to not eat anything that fell at my feet. Instead, I kicked a tomato that landed in front of me and it sailed through the crowd, hitting someone in the face. They screeched and I tried not to crack a smirk. "Thank you for your patience and respect. Drafting Day is concluded." Kanda said, before turning on his heel and we all followed.
He lead us behind the stage to where at least a dozen horses waited. He ordered us to mount one, and I gave the black stallion an apprehensive stare, I've never ridden a horse before, but I climbed on anyway. I bit my lower lip, as my horse began moving at a slow trot along with the other horses. I watched the others handling their horses, we came to a turn and they turned their reins in the direction they wanted to go and the horses went in that direction, I followed suit and my horse did the same. We followed the dirt roads through the village until we left. The dry, cracked earth changed as we continued on. It changed into beautiful green pastures, and the temperature dropped, so now it was comfortably cool. "I didn't know you could ride, homeless boy," Viper said, with an evil smirk. I ignored him. His bronze hair fell right above his eyes wildly, he looked like he was the homeless one.
His hazel eyes never left me as he said. "Who taught you to ride? Your dad? Oh wait, that's right you don't have one." I stared straight ahead. I tightened my grip on the leather straps I was holding, but otherwise, I kept myself in check. "Shut up," I snapped. His name was Viper for a reason. No one commented on his insult, like usual. The War wouldn't change a thing. Getting Drafted wouldn't fix the injustice in my life. I watched the cows graze lazily around us as our horses trotted on. I would've smiled at the sheer beauty of the land around me, but anything could be used against me. So I choose to look bored, bored of the bright green grass, and moss growing against the dark brown bark of a tree. Bored of the colorful blue sky, that was slowly changing colors. No one paid their surroundings any attention, except for the soldiers that surrounded us in a circle, they were on high alert. Kanda was riding in front of me, he gave Viper a curious glance. Kanda didn't even bother with me, and I didn't particularly care, I was better off if he didn't notice me at all. "You monster," Viper snapped, once he realized I wasn't going to react. "With that arm and scar of yours, it's no wonder The Church labeled you demonic,"
I suppressed the urge to kill him, it was an effort. My hands shook with rage, and I gritted my teeth so hard that my jaw ached "Is that all you can come up with?" I asked, "You're not very creative." We passed a cottage full of laughing people, and I could smell the food they were cooking for supper. Viper opened his mouth to say something, but ultimately thought better of it and closed it after a soldier glared at him. The rest of the group picked up the pace, and soon their horses were galloping, I urged my horse to do the same. An hour or two passed before we finally reached camp, and I finally got off my horse. The camp was pretty big, with tons of tents set up, and horses saddled up. There were many soldiers loitering around, sharpening their weapons and cracking jokes like old friends, rather than killing machines. Kanda adjusted his shirt before he turned to us. The katana strapped to his hip flashed menacingly. A man beside him handed each of us a new pair of clothes. Everything was spectacularly black leather. Black and white were the colors of our flag. I changed out of my brown pants into the black leather pants and tentatively took off my tunic and gloves. All chatter stopped, and I willed my body to have no visible reaction. I kept my head up, and my shoulders back as the others stared. They all had a look of shock on their faces. I was covered in brutal bruises, burn marks, my hair was whiter than the snow in December, my eyes were unnervingly silver, an ugly scar marred half of my face. My arm was red and deformed, how could they not stare? I didn't blame them at all. Viper was laughing hysterically, I put the black vest on and gave him the finger.
He growled at me, and I bared my teeth at him. Kanda took a step toward me his warm fingers barely grazed the skin on my throat as I swallowed and swatted his hand away. "Don't touch me,"
"He'd let you touch him if you paid," Viper said, "Not that anyone would pay for that." I lunged, but not before I grabbed the dagger in my boot. I tackled Viper to the ground and he screeched. I grabbed a fistful of his bronze hair and slammed it on the earth, holding my dagger to his throat.
"It would be wise to keep your mouth shut before I shut it for you," I
snapped, leaning close to his face, "It'd be sad if you died before you even reached the battlefield." I got off of him and kicked him in the ribs. Kanda didn't even blink.
"Give me that," he ordered, holding out a hand. I clicked my tongue, but placed it in his hand, giving him a cold stare. "As I was going to say, before you idiots interrupted me, everyone will wear the uniform every day, and will not possess any weapons until I say so." He gave me a pointed look. "You will meet me in the Clearing over there-" he pointed to the left, where there were no tents, "-and train, we'll start with hand-to-hand combat first and work our way up. Please hand me any weapons you have."
He grabbed everyone's weapons and when he got to me I smirked. I pulled out two other daggers from my other boot and crossed my arms. "That's everything?" he asked me. I nodded. If I hadn't changed clothes I would've had to pull out twelve. He looked me right in the eyes, searching for any signs of a lie before sighing and continuing on. He pointed at me, Viper, and two other men I didn't recognize, "You four will be in a tent together," he pointed at two others, "and you four are together, and you four..." I glared at Viper, and he glared back. Our two other tent-mates didn't seem to notice as they introduced themselves. "I'm Apollo, and this is Leo," said a blonde teenager, probably two years older than me. He smiled holding out his hand to me. I didn't recognize him, or his friend Leo from our village. I shook his hand with my good hand and he smiled broadly.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Allen Walker," I muttered, never taking my eyes off of Viper as I spoke. Leo smiled at me gently.
"He seems, charismatic…" Leo said uncertainly raising an eyebrow at Viper.
"The name's Viper," he hissed. He truly was a snake. His dark hair was still wild, he ran a hand through it. The uniform made him look more menacing than I thought possible. It was tight across his broad chest, showing off his muscles. Viper was much stronger than me, I realized. He had let me tackle him, but I had no idea why he'd let himself be humiliated like that. If he was trying to provoke me, it was working pretty freaking well. The four of us were ushered to a random tent by an officer, "Hurry up you four, you'll need your rest for The Testing tomorrow," I had no idea what "The Testing" was but from the grim look on the officer's face, it was something to be concerned about.
"What's, The Testing?" Apollo asked, trailing after the officer.
"It's a test, obviously," Leo told him.
"Well duh, but what kind of test?"
"Kanda will push you to your limits, and test how far you can go before he breaks you," The higher up snapped, "It's a brutal test of your physical and mental health...no one has lasted an hour through his tests, he never really gets a chance to even test their mental strength."
"Is it painful?" Apollo asked apprehensively, the color drained from his tan face. I tried to look bored, but internally I wasn't fairing too well either. I had amazing physical endurance and I never tired, but mental would be the challenge. The offer shook his head and the four of us walked into our tent, and I was surprised. It was much bigger than it looked, and it wasn't too hot or too cold. The moment I crashed on my cot I was blissfully asleep.
Warning: this will be very graphic at some points, I hope you will be prepared. More chapters coming soon. I have about thre chapters or less left to write of this story. :) There it might be eleven or twelve chapters long in total!