conscription-chapter 2
there was a low rumble of a cart and the sky was grey, little droplets of water falling down onto the passengers in the convoy causing discomfort for most of the people there and decreasing the generally low morale further. one of the carts went over a pothole in the dirt road creating a loud bang and jolting duke out of his unconscious state. Duke let out a loud groan as he rubbed his head his hands going through his hair feeling all of the sweat, grease and blood in the birdsnest of ginger on his head. He took in a deep breath and looked at his surroundings his face darkening as he realised he hadn't just woken up after a nightmare and the events of last night really happened and the bastard responsible for killing one of his best friends was sitting to the right of him, his chainmail damaged revealing a nasty looking wound on his hip bringing duke a brief moment of happiness amongst his grief.
"Oh our feisty little friend is awake," chuckled fox face stirring the goliath from his trance.
"Morning sleeping beauty no hard feelings about the whole killing your pokemon thing right!" Boomed the goliath causing dukes head to pound even more than it already was.
"Fuck off you fat bastard," spat duke glaring at the giant sat next to him.
"Hey mind your language boy i said no hard feelings," boomed the goliath again trying to intimidate duke.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO HARD FEELINGS YOU KILLED THE POKEMON THAT I HAD RAISED FROM A CALF, TOOK ME AWAY FROM MY FAMILY HOME WHERE I WAS HAPPY AND WORST OF ALL YOU DRAGGED ME AWAY FROM MY FIANCE SO AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED YES THERE ARE VERY HARD FEELINGS!" shouted duke before head butting the goliath and causing blood to trail out of his nose."hahahahahaha," echoed the goliath surprising duke who was expecting him to hit him back "After all of that you've still got some fight in ya we'll make a soldier out of you yet lad,"chuckled the goliath taking a handkerchief and wiping up the blood. "You're taking being hit in the face very well you've killed men for doing less to you," remarked the fox faced man "he shows potential and don't worry he hasn't got away with it i'm gonna make his life hell in training," said the goliath sized man cryptically smiling making duke feel nervous.
"i've just realised in all of this we haven't given our names to the lad nor him to us," stated fox face a smile still plastered on his face from ear to ear.
"well i'll go first i am grawon bearclaw," boomed the goliath his face twisting into something that looked like a failed attempt of a smile
"and i'm rusgon frosthide," said the fox faced man holding his hand out towards duke causing duke to take it and shake it out of courtesy instead of actually respecting rusgon.
"i'm duke ," spat duke looking at the forest both in front of him and behind him seeing a big green oak tree with mature looking kakuna hanging from the branches causing panic to spread through his body. "what's wrong kid you look like you're about to shit yourself," laughed grawon loudly.
"could we just get out of here quickly those kakuna look ready to evolve and i don't want to be around when they do," whispered duke nervously.
"what you're scared of little bugs," laughed grawon deeply making dukes nerves grow.
"it's not the kakuna that scare it's the swarm of human sized beedrill that follow the annual mass evolution." replied duke trying his best not to look at the kakuna.
"these beedrill will evolve 3 days from now so don't worry," murmured the cloaked figure sitting next to duke surprising him as this was the first time they had spoken to him.
"oh she's at it again," sighed rusgon rolling his eyes and causing grawon to chuckle.
"duke this is thiassel the lord's master of psychics i think all of her predictions are lucky bullshit but lord drakebane thinks that she may actually be able to see the future." complained rusgon giving thiassel a dirty look.
"it's a pleasure to meet you duke i know that you have been taken from your family and lover but i sense that you will have a great part to play in the fate of the world," hummed thiassel in a monotone voice that sounded almost inhuman. "how so?" asked duke surprised by her prediction.
"it is unclear to me at this point but one thing is certain to me you will have a great task but you will not have to face it alone a fellowship of people from far and wide will be there right by your side," hummed thiassel again the hood on her dark robe being blown down by the wind to reveal a woman with bright blue hair and pale skin marked with acne scars, her eyes were big and mismatched one of them being a beautiful deep blue and the other being a mystifying emerald green. Duke stared in disbelief at thiassel's strange appearance causing her to look uncomfortable and pull her hood back up over her head.
"Don't believe her bullshit, you won't save the world, you'll be lucky if you survive training especially now that you are stuck with grawon," chuckled rusgon causing thiassel to glare at him and grawon to let out a large hearty chuckle.
the convoy carried on along the road for another 30 minutes grawon and rusgon having a loud conversation and sending loud laughs echoing through the hills while duke and thiassel sat there in silence duke answering the odd question asked by rusgon, grawon and very rarely thiassel.
"good news kid we're nearly there," boomed grawon just as the cart went over the top of a steep hill to reveal a giant grey structure carving through the hillside. it had a massive metal gate that was raised as well as a big wooden drawbridge and crenellations across the top of it all around the grey structures stood massive towers standing tall like trees made out of stone there were archers stationed along all of the walls and huge catapults scattered around the towers. Duke hadn't ever seen anything so big and he couldn't help but let out a gasp of amazement causing rusgon, grawon and thiassel to laugh. "that's how most people react when they first see drakebane keep me included," chuckled thiassel.
"holy arceus how did humans build something so big i thought this would only be capable of something like regigigas,"gasped duke trying to count the number of towers and wondering how they managed to carry the heavy bricks to the top of the towers.
"you don't keep to the pokemon gods do you?" asked rusgon sighing
"yeah i do, is that gonna be a problem?" asked duke also sighing as he realised rusgon was another person who viewed him as a heretic.
"He doesn't like us, he regards us as a crazy cult," spat thiassel a sharpness to her voice giving rusgon a dirty look.
"hey if you want to worship a bunch of stupid animals that's fine by me but please do it when i'm not around," chuckled rusgon receiving more dirty looks from duke and thiassel making him laugh even louder.
"what gods do you worship then duke?" asked thiassel
"i'm part of the church of arceus, the church of regigigas,the church of xerneas, the church of the three birds," stated duke
"the church of xerneas, i thought that only existed in kalos and the east of hoenn," questioned thiassel.
"my grandparents were from kalos but they left after their home was destroyed during the battle of geosenge but they built a shrine to xerneas in the farm and we carried on praying to xerneas for a successful crop growth and successful animal births and so far we haven't failed once," exclaimed duke his mood slightly increasing although his head still hadn't stopped pounding.
Duke and thiassel carried on talking for 10 more minutes while the wagon got closer to drakebane keep until eventually they made it to the gate and stopped in the middle of a courtyard. the gigantic grey stone walls stood around the courtyard casting a giant shadow over 1 half of the gravel on the floor. guards clad in the same armor that grawon was wearing when he killed daisy.
"Fine Young men from various towns and villages around kanto," came a large voice causing everyone to turn their heads towards a man who was 6 foot 3 inches tall with dark black hair and wearing red silken clothes, a rapier strapped to his waist barely visible apart from a small glint of sunlight reflecting off of its handguard.
"i am lord drakebane and you young men have been selected to join my army and leave behind your peasant lives, some of you may have been taken against your will and some of you will have left family behind, but remember you are now part of my army and there are only 2 ways to get back to them either go back after 20 years of service or go back in a coffin. the best thing for you to do would be to willingly throw yourself into training and work your hardest and when the time for war comes battle your hardest and do not fear death on another note anyone caught leaving the castle without authorisation will be hanged as a deserter. You shall now all be sorted into battalions and you shall train with and report to your commander and there orders are absolute any trouble makers can expect a night in the dungeons or a trip to the stocks now everyone off of your carts and stand shoulder to shoulder and the commanders shall choose you and register you as a new member of the illustrious drakebane army!" echoed lord drakebane from upon his balcony. the boys on the carts were all ushered off by various knights, generals and other men of importance then the important looking men all walked up and down the line inspecting the boys occasionally pulling a boy out of the line and telling them to go stand in a group of other boys that they had selected. thiassel, rusgon and grawon also started to join in. rusgon stood in front of a short scrawny blonde boy with blue eyes "boy name, age and occupation if you please" barked rusgon in a tone that sent shivers down dukes causing the boy to start whimpering "well boy are you going to tell me or do i have to beat the information out of you" snapped rusgon before raising his hand as if he was about to backhand the boy.
"I'm aaron sir im 12 years old and my father's a fletcher i sometimes help him make his arrows" squeaked the boy causing rusgon to lower his hand back down to his side "a fletcher's boy? You should know your way around a bow then you're coming with me," stated rusgon before moving the boy to join his group which now consisted of 15 small boys none of them looking strong enough to ever become a soldier.
Thiassel walked down the line her mismatched eyes scanning the crowd of boys pulling out the odd one or two and sending them towards her group not saying a single word to the boys as she did so. After sending a boy with brown hair towards her group that was smaller than that of any other commanders or atleast thats duke thought they were. she carried on walking down the line and stopped in front of duke staring him in the eyes causing an unnatural shiver to crawl down his spine. Then all of a sudden thiassel's eyes rolled back in her head and her skin went paler than snow and she collapsed to her knees causing duke to fall down beside her trying to stop the only person who was nice to him from hurting herself and also causing several other boys to run over while the important looking men carried on their selection processes acting as if nothing was happening.
A few seconds later thiassel's eyes returned to normal and she looked at duke in a worried expression "duke, i've had a vision, you have to join my battalion and i have to talk to you later" wheezed thiassel before rising and dizzily returning to her selection process duke walked over to the group of boys not noticing any reason why thiassel would pick these boys in particular.
By the time every boy had been sorted most of the groups consisted of around 50 people each some of them bigger but thiassel's group was way smaller consisting of 20 boys making duke wonder what was happening. Grawon glared at thiassel as he saw duke in her group but he knew better than to start an argument in front of lord drakebane,"these men are now your commanders remember there names and faces you will be expected to report to them at the crack of dawn and you shall work your hardest for them until they tell you that you can stop!" lord drakebane barked from where he'd watched the selection process in his balcony. "Gentlemen if you'd be so kind as to follow me," thiassel said quietly to her group leading them towards a big brown door in the castle. Duke took one last look at the courtyard noticing rusgon and grawon smiling at him maliciously making him feel nervous before he disappeared into the dark halls of the castle.
Duke followed thiassel and the group of nervous boys in front of him some of them as young as 10 none of them older than he was they all looked scared and walked in silence none of them daring to break it. Thiassel stopped the group in front of a massive doorway with a guard either side of it holding a halberd crossed in front of the doorway crossed over the other guards blocking the entrance. "In a minute you will present yourselves in front of lord drakebane! You will kneel in front of him until he tells you otherwise and only speak when spoken to, anyone who fails me will regret it don't think for even one second that because i'm a woman i'll go easy on you because i assure you i am worse than the men," she barked in a tone that made duke scared of the seemingly easy going woman, she walked towards the guards causing them to uncross their halberds and point them upwards as the doors swung open revealing a large throne room with stained glass windows running along the walls depicting various different scenes from the bible a stairway started 3 quarters of the way into the room and led up to a platform with a big golden chair in the middle ornate charizards had been carved into the sides of the chair and either side were two similar chairs but in silver, lord drakebane the man from the balcony sat in the golden chair, duke could now see that his hair was starting to turn grey and his face was scarred from various years of battle but he still looked strong and dangerous an air of experience surrounded him. A woman with long flowing blonde hair sat next to him wearing a midnight blue gown, she smiled towards thiassel who smiled back, thiassel led the group of boys into the room all of them staying silent as they felt the duke's eyes burning into each of them thiassel reached the bottom of the stairs bowing her head before standing tall the boys all kneeled behind her apart from the 10 year old who didn't seem to understand what was going on "lord and lady drakebane, these are the men i have picked i request that the chamber be prepared for the ritual," she said glaring at the young boy. "You may stand," lord drakebane boomed none of the boys moved except duke who stood upright. The older man laughed at the response "what's wrong lads? Is this one the only one with a backbone?" he joked laughing very loudly "boy what is your name?" he asked looking at duke. "It's duke my lord," he replied feeling uncomfortable.
"Thiassel this boy is to go first for the ritual i have a good feeling about this one," the lord said loudly "that will be all," he said before walking out of a door behind his throne his wife following closely behind