On the advice of a reviewer I will stop putting dreams at the start of every chapter. I had trouble finding new ideas for those anyway.
The exam's location is inspired by the place where Frodo and Sam are at the start of LOTR 2.
I never thought that writing could take so long, I've worked 6 hours without stopping for this chapter.
As they entered the shop where James's prothesis could be found, they were greeted by a literal wall of clockworks and gears. But through some miracle of engineering, not a sound was made by it, and they watched it silently for a while before being reminded of their goal here.
" Greetings younglings, how may I help you on this fine day ?" Asked a portly middle aged man, who was apparently the shopkeeper.
"I am looking for a replacement for my arm, and I was told one could be found here."
"And you weren't lied to, but before going to business I will have to take some measurements, if you will."
The shopkeeper approached him and with a strange device, along with other, more commons measuring tools. As he started meddling with both of James's arms, he asked more questions.
"So for what purpose will you need this arm ? Military or civilian ?"
"Military I suppose."
"Interesting, do you have any peculiar specifics for it ? For example should it be made with a special material, or have a gun in it ?"
"A standard one will do for now." Answered James as the shopkeeper took his last measurement.
He than disappeared in the back of the shop for a few minutes, before coming back with a white steel forearm.
"It's a very basic one, but it should old out against almost anything you put it through. It's also easily customizable, but I would advise against modifying it too much as it may become unreliable."
"Thanks Sir." Said James before trying to put the prothesis on his stump, keyword being tried. After many unsuccessful attempts and Griza's unhelpful intervention, the shopkeeper finally came at their rescue and personally attached the machine.
"Now let's talk money, it shall cost you 600 Lien, or maybe you are part of the army ?"
After James gave a small nod, the shopkeeper sighed and took out a sheet of paper.
"I'm gonna need your name, birthday, age, parents names, rank, specific place in the army, the name of your superior. The way you lost your arm, if you lost it during army duty, the name of your superior when you lost it, and don't forget a way to contact you if the process fails."
Filling all those papers took an eternity, and was made even longer by the fact that James was right handed but didn't have a right hand anymore.
This meant that Griza had to basically write everything for him wich took even longer. But at least like that it was actually readable unlike when James wrote with his left hand or mechanical one.
When the paperwork filling finally ended, they both leaved the shop to head to the specialist exam. During this James tried to familiarize himself with his new arm, birthing some very funny moments as the prothesis always seemed to do the exact opposite of what it was supposed to.
"All of sudden I'm not sure if doing the exam now is a good idea." He confided to Griza.
"Don't worry Jimmy, I'll be there to keep your safe." She said barely containing her laughter.
When they finally reached the designed meeting point, a small crowd was already there and a person who seemed to be in charge was already talking.
"... drop you into the mountain, you will have 5 days to get back without exterior help. Grimms will be present and you will be monitored, but no one will interfere with the exam."
"You will have access to your weapon and there is an armory should you need anything before leaving, be sure to take an adequate amount of supplies. You may join forces with another examine, it is in fact highly recommended."
"Any questions ?"
"..."
"Then we shall leave immediately" The instructor said before heading to another airship, this one in steel. The others followed, soon enough they were all on the airship and it took off.
This airship changed Griza's opinion on flight, she didn't disliked it, she hated it. And while most of her colleagues were anxious about the upcoming exam, she was in fact impatiently waiting for it to start.
As James watched her suffering, he tried to distract her by suggesting that they took a look at the onboard armory. Unable to think, Griza nodded when he started talking and followed him in the same state.
When they reached the armory, you could say that the one knowing what was going on was disappointed. For the armory was in fact only a standard barrack armory, with rifles aligned on the wall, some melee weapons on the side, and a knife next to each rifle that could be used as a bayonet.
The only difference was a box on the ground wich seemed to contain all sort of unregistered weapons, from makeshift dust grenades to a modified RPG.
Griza and James both picked a rifle, James then took a pistol and a knife, his comrade already having got the former by... requisitioning their dead squad's equipment, and had kept the knife she used to kill her first Grimm.
They both started fumbling through the box in search of something potentially useful, picking a few grenades, two dust infused knifes, and for some reason James insisted on taking a demolition bomb.
After this they headed to the next room to take the supplies deemed necessary, mainly food and water but also things like alpine equipment and clothes more suited for the mountains.
In the end they both had a massive backpack, and were slightly worried about the weight, they nonetheless headed for the back of the airship where they would be dropped.
By the time they arrived the instructor was already handing parachutes and peoples were jumping down. The instructor gave them two of those and attached a special parachute to their backpacks, and shoved them to the exit.
As they fell, Griza noticed that for one reason she wasn't sick anymore, she then tried to approach her backpack, but before any significant progress could be made, all of their parachute opened at the same time.
The world stopped making sense, she couldn't recognize anything, everything was turning in front of her. She felt as if her guts were being pushed over her head.
After what seemed like an eternity, her vision stabilized, and she didn't feel like throwing up anymore. The ground was worryingly near now, and she again tried to approach her backpack, this time with more success.
When she finally landed, the backpack was only a few feets away. Once she managed to get out of her parachute and get her backpack out of his, Griza took a look around her.
The first thing she noticed was the fog, a thick and wet mist all around her, she could only distinguish a few rocky shapes through it. The mist was so thick that light struggled to get to her, and combined with the dark landscape, created a very disturbing and scary environment.
Linking up with James suddenly became way harder than anticipated, for a moment she thought about screaming his name. But a part of her mind that wasn't completely stupid shut it down.
Instead she headed in the direction she supposed James was. The ground was treacherous and every step sent her stumbling.
She saw a high rock through the mist and thought that maybe if she got up there she would have a better vantage point.
Climbing this small rock alone took her almost one hour, falling down and restarting multiple times, but when she finally ended up on the top, to her greatest relief, she was at least partially above the mist.
After taking a look around she guessed that she was on one of the highest points of the mountain range, as she couldn't see a lot of places higher than her. And thank gods she was on the flank facing Atlas. She wouldn't have to climb the whole mountain, she just had to find a way down.
And thanks to being able to see Atlas she had a direction to follow now. For a while she tried to find traces of another participant in the fog, but in the end she had to concede defeat.
Finally getting off the rock, to land on more rocks that is, she started walking in Atlas's direction.
She walked for many hours, but she never seemed to approach her destination. It was as if for each step taken, her destination moved away from her. As she was taking a break and massaging her sore feets, she heard a scream, a scream full of terror.
She quickly seized her rifle and headed in direction of the screams, following them as they sliced through the mist, bearing an untold amount of suffering.
Five minutes of walking later, she found a camping site, marked by an abandoned campfire and an empty sleeping bag.
After looking closer she noticed footprints on the ground, she fixed her bayonet, raised her rifle, and started following them. She didn't had to follow the traces for long before another group of footprints joined, those being clearly animal in nature.
Soon the footprints were soaked in blood, a few feets later she was met with a dead end, the footprints were now mixed with handprints.
The trail was getting messy, as if someone had been crawling, and on the ground sat an empty pistol.
Failing the find anything else, Griza headed back to the campfire to see if anything could be salvaged from it.
After this she walked for a few hours more and when the night came Griza set camp in a recess in the rock. Eating some tasteless rations, she tried to look at the good side of things, at least she wouldn't need a lot of water, as the air itself was humid enough to greatly limit one's thirst.
As she got to sleep, she heard another scream, this one seemed very distant, and Griza turned around and tried to sleep again. However the cold was creeping everywhere, and after a while, just as her finger had became blue, she couldn't bear it anymore.
Clumsily rummaging through her backpack, she finally found it, the one thing that could help get her out of this and make this living hell stop, in her hands she held a grenade.
Quickly disassembling the grenade's dust compartment, she pierced it with her knife, so that the fire dust slowly flowed out of it. Then using the grenade's ignition system she set the small pile of dust on the ground aflame, granting herself a steady supply of burning dust and warmth as she fell asleep.
The second day started without anything fancy, and after picking up her things, she started walking in same direction as the day before. However after one hour of march, she ended up back at the campfire, the same as the day before. She chose another path and continued walking, and after two hours, she found the campfire again. She repeated this another two times, before abandoning.
It didn't mattered how much she told herself to opposite, Griza was absolutely, completely and irrevocably lost. As despair and anger were growing, in her anger and frustration she picked up a small stone and threw it behind her in a recess of the rocky wall.
However something unexpected happened, as she didn't hear the stone hitting the ground. As she turned and approached to take a closer look, what she saw stupefied her.
What she had first took for simple recess had in reality been the entrance of a cave, and not any cave, a cave so dark she couldn't see further than three feets before her, a cave that was abnormally dry and silent.
However judging from it's orientation and inclination it may very well bring her closer to her destination.
Thus Griza sat and pondered, on one side it was an unknown, dark and scary cave, potentially full of Grimm and leading nowhere. But on the other side she was completely lost and didn't had any better plan.
While thinking she took out her watch, she had already lost so much time walking in circles, and the clock was ticking, quite literally this time.
Unable to choose, she ended up tossing a coin to decide, and thus, as the sun was setting, Griza entered the abyss.
1 Lien= 1 USD
I originally planned to do the exam in one chapter but in the end I believe it will be better this way, as the exam has an important afterpart that shouldn't be separated from it, but would bloat the chapter if I had kept it as one.
Atlas actually cares about their soldiers, or try to keep them happy to avoid a coup, choose your flavor.
In case you hadn't noticed none of the examinee have their aura unlocked yet, so no landing strategy.
I forgot to tell this the last time but I'm doing my best to avoid making my mc overpowered or a self insert, that's one of the reasons why I choose a woman, the other being for possible shipping with Ironwood as I'm not into gay things.Tell me if I should start a romance, but Griza will have feelings for Jimmy either way, you get to choose if it will be reciprocal.
I can now proudly state that I've put more thought into this fic than my irl exams.
The rating will probably be raised next chapter.
I'm still looking for a beta-reader, please help me.