My first night in Dauntless was easier than I expected it to be. After being shown around the compound and settling into the dormitories, we were shown to the cafeteria where we ate dinner. I sat with Nina and a few other people who transferred from Candor and Erudite. It wasn't a large group, just Max and Ben, Candor transfers, and Candice and Lori, Erudite transfers. Both Max and Ben were tall and well built, but Max had short blonde hair and green eyes while Ben had longer black hair and brown eyes. Candice and Lori were similar in stature as well, both girls having healthy curves and long hair, but Candice's hair was red and curly whereas Lori had straight black hair.
We were up early in the morning the second day and taken to the training room where Eric and Four were. "Alright listen up." Eric's voice boomed. "There are three stages to Dauntless initiation: physical, emotional, and mental. In the physical portion you'll have the pleasure of either getting the crap kicked out of you or winning a fight against someone. You'll also be learning how to throw knives and shoot a gun. At the end of the first stage, you'll be ranked according to how you do in each part. Lowest ranking initiates will start off low in the next stage and believe me you do not want to start on the low side of things in stages two and three."
"Why not?" Nina asked.
"You'll find out soon enough."
Four stepped forward. "We'll be splitting the group of you in half. One half will train with me and the other half will train with Eric. There won't be any fighting against one another for a couple of day yet so right now focus on what your strengths and weaknesses are in combat." He told us.
We were given our groups and I was in Eric's group with Ben and Candice and five other Initiates. Eric taught us the basic stances and techniques and then put us into pairs of two to practice how to block kicks and punches. I was with Ben and he was the first one to throw the punches and kicks for me to block. He wasn't using full force so it wasn't too hard to block them, but as more time passed, it got a little harder. He started sending stronger kicks and punches and I had to move faster to block them. When the time finally came to switch, my hands, arms, and wrists, ached from all the hard contact.
It was easier for Ben to block my blows and I tried to pick up the pace to make it more difficult for him. There was a short struggle, but he quickly got a handle on it. On one of my last kicks he grabbed my ankle and my other foot slipped out from under me, causing me to fall onto the mat. "Stand much know it all?" Ben teased as he held a hand out to me. I smiled and took it, allowing him to pull me up. At the same moment, Eric walked by. I looked over at him and met his cold eyes with mine. He studied me for a minute as if he was trying to remember who I was. I doubt he'd remember me though; we barely ever spoke in Erudite. He occasionally lent me a pencil in class or we saw each other in the halls, but nothing about me stuck out from others. I was very unextraordinary and plain in my opinion.
After a few moments, Eric looked at Ben. "Keep working Initiates." Was all he said.
Ben and I both retook our stances and resumed what we were doing.
The morning passed by slowly and I quickly realized how all the Dauntless were in such good shape. The initiation alone must have whipped them into shape and in order to survive you had to keep up with the fitness. When we were walking to the cafeteria for lunch there were two or three small groups watching to others fight it out. I was worried about who I would have to fight a couple days from now because I wasn't tall, but I wasn't short and I didn't have much of an advantage against anyone. Most of the boys had a few inches on me and weighed more and the girls seemed stronger than I was. If I moved fast enough I might be able to get the jump on someone, but then again that would mean I would need to be faster than the other person.
After lunch, we picked on the fighting again and this time we were told to try to pin the other person on the ground for at least ten seconds. Both Eric and Four said not get too rough and keep it clean. "This won't count towards your rankings so don't worry if you get pinned down ten times. Just learn from what you're doing wrong." Four added. After that we were split back into our groups. Ben and I went over to the one mat and took our stances across from one another. Even though it didn't count towards rankings, I was still nervous about going up against Ben. He wouldn't hurt me intentionally, but he was a lot stronger than I was.
Ben lunged at me first and I easily moved out of the way, but he grabbed ahold of my arm and pulled me to the ground. I tried to squirm out of his grip, but like I said he was strong. He got me on my back and pinned me for ten seconds. Once the ten seconds were up, he helped me to my feet. First problem: I wasn't fast enough. I had to be faster.
The second time I was pinned I didn't put up a strong enough fight when Ben got me on the floor.
The third time I was pinned I didn't have enough leverage.
Every time I was pinned, I made sure I didn't make the same mistake again. Even though I didn't make the same mistake, I was making different ones and I just couldn't win against Ben. Eric walked over and watched us for a few minutes, walking away with a bored expression in his face. I don't blame him though. By the end of the day, Ben had pinned me ten times with me not even coming close to getting him on his back.
When we were dismissed for dinner as well as for the rest of the night, Eric's voice stopped me. "Ben always steps out with his left foot first." He said. I stopped and turned to look at him. He was near the one wall pulling his jacket on. "Use that to your advantage. You also leave yourself too open."
Eric walked closer to me and I watched him as he did. "When we get to the kind of fighting where punches and kicks are being thrown, you don't want to leave yourself open like that. Today was nothing compared how the days coming up will be." At this point he was standing right in front of me.
"Noted." Was all I managed to say. I really didn't know what else to say in all honesty.
Eric looked down at me and I felt my heart beat faster. "Anything else?" I asked. He shook his head and I turned and left the room to meet my friends for dinner.
When I got to the cafeteria, Nina asked where I was. "Eric needed to talk to me." I said as I put ketchup on my cheeseburger. "That guy is scary." She replied as she took a drink of water.
"So guys, Candice and I had an idea." Lori spoke up. "We're in Dauntless now, so shouldn't we get some tattoos?"
"I'm down for that." Ben said.
"Same here." Max seconded.
"Nina? Ellie?"
It was a good idea, but I wanted to wait a little longer to get a tattoo. I wouldn't know what to get and I wanted to start off with something less permanent first. Then I had an idea. "I was actually going to wait to get one." I told them. "But I think I am going to change my hair."
"Sounds good to me." Nina retorted with a smile.
After dinner Nina and I went to the hair salon while the other four went for tattoos. Nina already knew what she had in mind for her hair which was changing her blonde hair to dark brown with streaks of purple in it. For me I settled on cutting it so it reached down to just past my shoulders and changed my original light brown color to a shade of blonde with the tips dyed blue. When Nina and I saw our new hairstyles, we were both pleased. It seemed like every day we were becoming more and more Dauntless.
That night in the dorms, Candice, Lori, Ben, and Max all had new tattoos on their skin. Candice had the Dauntless symbol on one hip with the Erudite symbol on the other. Lori had flames going up the top part of her left arm, Ben had his chest done up with different patterns and designs that the tattoo artist said were "tribal", and Max had a lion's head between his shoulder blades. Overall, the tattoos looked amazing.
"When are you going to get one?" Lori asked me.
"After we're through stage one." I told her.
"Same." Nine added.
"Well you're hair looks awesome." Max told both Nina and I, playing with a lock of my new blonde and blue locks. "I like the blue, Ellie."
"I like the lion." I replied.
"Well I'm spent. We have more fighting tomorrow so let's get some rest." Ben suggested as he jumped into his bed.
Feeling the exhaustion from today creep up on me all at once, I changed into sweatpants and a tank top before slipping under the covers of my bed and closing my eyes. the last thing I thought before falling asleep was Eric telling me this: "Ben always steps out with his left foot first. Use that to your advantage. You also leave yourself too open."
I'd pin Ben tomorrow.
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