literature

Fentuary 13th - 50th entry (Keeping Pace)

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Fentuary 13th

-I am a joke at the training camp. It does not matter how much I try to keep in step, under the weight of this armor, I cannot keep pace with the rest of the soldiers. Each step I take is either too quick or too slow. I either step on the heel of the soldier in front of myself or fall back and am stepped upon by the soldier behind.
Zamorak seemed to have given up on me. Today he put me under the watch of another Legatus and walked off in disgust.
Canif is not nearly as upset about me as Zamorak was, but I could tell by the way that the werewolf’s nose twitched that he was displeased that his finely organized ranks were thrown off by my missteps.

Canif took me aside and asked me why I could not keep in step. I had to admit that I did not know. I told him that I believe that the difficulty for me come from the way the armor feels on my body and how different the way of marching is from the way that I was taught to walk.
Plebeians must have no difficulty becoming soldiers and learning to march. Their practical steps are not that different from the military march, but such things are a far cry from the elegant stride that is demanded in the Temple. Students walk as smooth and quiet as a peaceful river, we do not clatter about like rocks in a landslide.

It was after Canif sent me to go practice marching alone that Akthanakos rode into the camp. With him, he had a whole group of new recruits coming in for training. Most of them already looked tired by the time they reached the camp, but Canif put them in with the other troops regardless. There was some minor arguing in the ranks as the newcomers found their places and were made to keep in step by the veteran soldiers.
They made it look so easy, yet I still cannot master the march after so much practice. It makes me feel a bit hollow inside. What a bitter defeat, what a personal failing. I am amazing that Palkeera has never shunned me for this.

Akthanakos noticed that I was marching alone and came over to be. I answered all this questions. He thought it was funny. He found my explanation of how elegantly disciplined temple culture did not mix so easily with abrasive discipline favored by the military to be amusing.
His thunderous guffaws were startling, making me jump.
When he finally stopped laughing, he offered to help me learn to keep pace. When the troops were off on their march around a long circuit, Akthanakos stayed behind. He went over a few methods for keeping in step, having me test each one before we finally found a method that worked for me.
We practiced the decided method all afternoon until the other troops and Canif finally came back from their march.

As a reward from having shown such a drastic improvement, Akthanakos allowed me to fire a great arrow from one of the ballistas that some soldiers were practicing with.
It was difficult to aim by myself, Akthanakos advised as I went along, but when I did release the great arrow, I had almost hit my target way out in the field.
Akthanakos was impressed. He said that, for my first try, I might make a good ballista handler.

Zamorak now seems almost pleased with me. When I turned around from firing the ballista, he was standing nearby observing. He seemed to almost make that deep rumbling noise in the chest that Mahjarrat use when they approve of something.
New laptop, and it has already given me some trouble. Now it's almost 3:30am and I am finally done with this chapter and posting it~!
Thank Zaros for Akthanakos and his pity on the small human.


:>-NOTE-<: The lorefails. There WILL be lorefails in this series. Please remember that this is a fanfiction and touches on many subjects either very loosely mentioned or not mentioned at all in the game. Assumptions will be made.
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Pupppyy's avatar
Either Zamorak is proud or he is just relieved Zarafinn won't keep on messing up in his training camps any longer :P