The day had finally arrived for Grunth to take his leave from the dormitories. Although

he had come to feel welcomed, he didn’t feel sad when it came time leave, only excited.

The sight of a dozen or so boys congregating around the Town Square greeted Grunth as

he prepared for his travels ahead. “Listen to what they tell you and you’ll do fine,

Laumak Grunth” that was all that the knight said to him before he had left.

A stocky, rugged looking man in uniform ordered the boys to line up and ready

themselves to set out from town. “Right you useless lot, we’ve got a two day march

ahead of us and I don’t want any talking in ranks, any slackers will get a right beating,

do I make myself clear?”.

A resounding “Yes sir” arose from a few of the boys in the ranks followed by a feeble

muttering from the rest. “When I ask for a reply all I want to hear from you miserable lot

is a ‘Yes sir’, do you maggots understand?”. This time everyone responded.

Satisfied, the Legionnaire proceeded with the march to the next town for more recruits.

Two long, hard driven days of nothing but marching in total silence had left Grunth a

little disgruntled, however the beguiling sight that he saw before him more than made up

for the last couple of days.

He had never seen a city (or anything else so big and beautiful) before in his life, and he

was so awestruck by what he saw that he didn’t even notice the soldier walking up behind

him until he felt a cuff to his ear. “Eyes front, runt” was all he finally heard, along with

a loud ringing in one ear.

All manner of things were happening around him once they passed through the city gates.

The markets, where merchants were buying and selling their wares, small groups of boys

trying their best to steal from the merchants, people hustling and bustling everywhere and

an enormous stadium that dwarfed the shops and tenements…“Who knows what goes on

inside there?” Grunth thought to himself.

In the distance Grunth could see a huge castle behind massive walls, towards which they

appeared to be marching. Upon passing through the gates and being led into the

courtyard, they were ordered to stand at attention so they could be counted and sorted

into groups. After being pushed and shoved around a bit, Grunth was finally settled into

a small group of boys, two of whom he had traveled with.

The first was a very tall, broad shouldered boy who seemed to be enjoying himself, his

name was Lothar. Next, a rather stocky boy, who was a little taller than Grunth, named

Nico. The last lad Grunth concluded was probably a slave or convict because he was

bought out in chains, shackled to several others. He was almost as tall as the first boy,

but slimmer in build, and went by the name Sylud.

If Grunth had thought the march from their hometowns had been hard, the continuous

exercises the soldiers ran them through that afternoon soon drove them to the brink of

exhaustion. At dusk, only a few of the boys went to the mess hall for supper, the rest had

gone back to the barracks to rest or just to sleep.

The morning after they had arrived in the bustling city of Coranan, Grunth and the other

boys in the barracks were awoken from their deep slumber by loud banging and yelling

from the Senior Legionnaire who had been marching the boys around until late the

previous evening.

It was earlier than Grunth was used to, however working late at night at the Raftmans

Inn, and then early starts at the stables had ensured Grunth was accustomed to having

little sleep. Feeling relatively refreshed after sleeping in a bed (which he hadn’t done in

such a long time), Grunth dressed then raced outside, following one of the boys in his

group.

“Right ya good for nuffin’ lazy bags o’ shit, if ya think yesterday was hard work, wait till

ya see what I got for you piles of horse sloop today” the Sergeant screamed at the cadets

even before they had finished lining up.

As they shuffled into formation, a small, weasel-ish looking man stepped out to observe

them with an air of disdain. “Greetings recruits…” was that a sneer he had shown as he

looked down on the company? “Today for breakfast you will march double the distance

you did yesterday, for lunch you will do it while carrying one of your fellow cadets on

your backs and then for dinner . . . you can run it, do I make myself clear?”

“Yes sir” chimed the parade of boys, and those who didn’t were swiftly reprimanded.

“Take them away sergeant, and show them what it means to become a Legionnaire”

Captain Ostardas stated with a sneer of arrogance, or was it cruelty?.

They were pushed hard, and then pushed harder again the next day. So hard, in fact, that

one boy died from the rigorous training. Although he himself felt like dying sometimes,

Grunth kept going, determined to prove to himself that he could handle what they dished

out.

One night, when things were a little quiet in the barracks, one of the boys in his squad

approached Grunth. “You got any pennies, I’m going to start up a game, thought you

might be interested, Syluds’ da name, by the way” he said sticking his hand out in

greeting. “Grunth is mine and no I don’t” he replied, looking the other boy over.

“Well, ‘ow about ya come and watch my back, I might need a strong arm to help keep

some people in line, an’ I could cut ya in for part of the profits” This Sylud was

definitely one to watch thought Grunth. He was already moving things along, and they’d

only just gotten into the Legion. It only took a moments thought before coming to a

decision. “Sure, why not?” Grunth replied.

For several nights everything went fine, until one evening a boy started accusing Sylud of

cheating. Grunth moved forward, determined to earn his share of the profits, and

intervened. “Calm down, eh?” said Grunth in his friendliest tone, but the outraged boy

was not about to be told what to do. Without warning he lashed out, hitting Grunth in the

neck, but Grunth just shrugged it off. Thinking to demonstrate to the other boys that he

wasn’t prepared to take any nonsense, Grunth let loose with an almighty punch to the

young lads face, forgetting for the moment that he wasn’t fighting drunken, full-grown

men anymore.

Grunth didn’t hold back his punch, but even though the boys’ nose caved in, he was a

little surprised when the lad didn’t get back up. The silence in the barracks grew, and

everyone who had been attracted to the game now dispersed and scurried back to their

bunks.

“What da ‘ell are we going to do now?” Grunth said, turning to Sylud. “’Ang on a

minute, I gotta plan” said the taller boy. With that, they moved the boy into his bed,

then smeared some of the blood all over the corner post of his bunk. “He tripped, hitting

his face on the corner of the bunk, that’s our story right, stick to it and we’ll be alright”

Sylud told a nervous Grunth.

“Oy! Guard!” they called out, silently bracing themselves when a bored looking sentry

walked in. Seeing the bloody mess, the guard called for a trolley and soon the boy had

been moved off to the surgeons’ quarters.

At morning parade, Captain Ostardas informed the company that the boy who had been

injured the night before had died, and he wanted to check the facts of the ‘incident’

“Yessir, that’s ‘ow it happened,” declared Sylud. “Yea, I saw it too” added Grunth.

Later that evening, Grunth was called in and questioned in more detail about what had

occurred. After a lengthy interrogation Captain Ostardas had advised Grunth that the

matter would be investigated further. “That was strange…” thought Grunth. He

considered the questions he had been asked, as well as the tone they had been asked in,

“…wot are they askin me for? Someone musta squealed” Grunth decided.

Thankfully he had taken Syluds’ advice and stuck to the story denying everything. He

could only assume it had worked because he heard no more on the matter. Relieved, he

put it behind him and pushed forward through his basic training.

With barely restrained enthusiasm he worked hard, waiting for the day when he would

finally get to feel the weight of steel in his hand, looking down the length of a spear at the

screaming face of the enemy. Unfortunately, the reality turned out to be somewhat

different.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“Six ‘ole weeks of training just to lead to this, cutting down trees, slashing undergrowth,

making bloody tracks in the bush…” Grunth wiped the sweat from his brow, “…this

‘ain’t wot I signed up for” Grunth did, however, keep his muttering quietly under his

breath.

Hacking through the forest, setting up a campsite, up at dawn, then more marching and

chopping…The same thing had happened for the last two days, monotonous work, day in,

day out, with nothing but building camp and patrolling to be done.

“Get yor gear together boy, we head out soon” Senior Legionnaire Polus squinted down

at where Grunth lay in his blanket, already dressed and armed. Nearby his fellow

squadmates groaned from where they too had been resting, obviously shaken from their

slumber by the man above him.

“Appears we done got ourselves a runner, an you lot is gonna help rope im in” Polus

gave an unpleasant little smile, “…yor gonna like seein’ what we does to deserters in the

Legion”

Polus was an experienced woodsman, and was soon showing the new recruits how to

move and scavenge while in the wilds. If nothing else it relived the tedium of hacking at

the undergrowth each day, and for that alone Grunth was more than happy to tag along.

Thinking that this would be an easy chase and grab, Grunth was surprised it had taken

two whole days just to catch up. Along the way evidence of the man tiring was starting

to crop up regularly, a discarded piece of armour here, and a sandal with a broken strap

there.

However, later on the third day, a loud scream followed by an even louder roar from over

the ridge ahead told them that they weren’t the only one’s who had caught up to him. By

the time they reached the top of the ridge, a very large bear had finished mauling the

missing boy and was about to dine on its latest catch. That is, until it noticed the group of

men coming over the hill and turned to charged them.

“RUN” screamed Polus to the group of stunned boys. Obeying, Grunth turned and ran

away from the marauding bear. Not even turning to look behind him, Grunth could here

roaring, ripping and then screaming, his imagination filling in the blanks for him as he

headed further up the ridge. It wasn’t until he noticed the silence that he stopped and

returned to find that the bear had disappeared and Polus lay in the glade with his chest

ripped open, dead.

“What da Hell are we gonna do now?” Grunth asked as they all congregated around the

bodies. “We’ll bury them and then take their gear back with us” stated Lothar, glancing

at the torn cuirass and gore spattered leather. “Yea, good idea, only if we knew which

way” Nico replied.

The boys looked around and, staring into the eerily silent shadows beneath the trees that

surrounded them started to wonder how they were ever going to find their way out. After

removing the equipment from the two unfortunates, the group of boys set about the

gruesome task of burying what was left of the mutilated corpses, taking a few moments to

rest once they had finished.

“Polus said that the company would head North for one more day and then turn due East,

we’ve been heading West for the last two days, so I think we should turn right around and

head East” Lothar stated. Agreeing, the group gathered all the gear they had acquired

from the two dead men and piled it on to Polus’ cloak, which they had slung between two

spears.

Carrying it in turns, they traveled all day in the unfamiliar surroundings and found it was

hard going, but they made good ground none the less. As they prepared their bivouacs

for the night, the boys agreed that they should have turns standing guard.

“I’ll take first watch, I have trouble falling asleep too early in the day” Grunth chimed in

before the others could start to volunteer. Keeping to their training, the boys stood to

attention at dusk and waited until the sun had disappeared before turning in.

As the rest of the group settled down for the night, he took up his position on guard duty,

cursing to himself as it began to drizzle with rain, and preparing for whatever might be

out there in the shadows. The days journey must have been harder on him than he

thought, for one moment he remembered searching with his eyes out into the darkened

woods, the next the slipping sensation as he found himself sliding off the tree he had been

leaning on.

“Oy! Sylud! Yor up!” Not knowing how long he had been asleep for, Grunth decided it

was time for Sylud to take over guard duty. Settling in for the remainder of the night,

Grunth decided to leave his armour on and slept with his shield over him, for it had

started to rain quite heavily. He was still blissfully asleep when a panicked scream from

Nico brought him awake.

“BEEAARR!”

Loud growling and the snapping of branches drew his attention to the approaching

animal, only to discover it was coming up from behind him. Grunth rolled out of his bed

just in time for, as the bear came crashing out of the forest destroying everything in its

path, it started with the bivouac he had just been sleeping in, flattening the helmet he had

forgotten to grab in the process.

Standing up with just his shield in hand, Grunth prepared to defend his follow cadets,

only to find instead that it was he that needed the help. The animal had obviously

decided that Grunth should be his next meal and tried to rip him to pieces with its gaping

jaws. “Sod it! Someone get this thing!” yelled Grunth.

With the bite missing him by mere inches, Grunth backed away quickly, only to have the

creature swipe at him with its massive, lethal paws. A glancing blow to his shield was all

the damage Grunth received from the attack, but it kept the animal at bay long enough for

the rest of the group to move forward.

Grunth used the respite to gather his weapons together, but a few well-placed shots by his

comrades had already driven the bear away into the woods. None of the boys got any

sleep for the remainder of the night, for they could hear the bear in the forest around them

waiting for the right moment to pounce.

Daybreak brought great relief to the boys and, gathering up their equipment once more

they headed east, setting a brisker pace as they tried to lose their pursuer. As they settled

in to finish the last of their meager rations for lunch, the boys were shocked to see that

the bear had not only tracked them down, but was now sniffing the air just down the trail

from them, obviously still hot in pursuit.

“Right, that’s it…” Grunth growled “its time we turn the tables on that thing, lets’ get it”.

After a quick conversation, the boys agreed on a plan, ‘Meet it with pointy spears, poke it

‘til it stopped moving.’

Fighting with weapons that he still hadn’t any idea how to use, Grunth had only grazed

the animal a few times with his spear and missed completely when he threw his javelin at

it. The boys must have done something right though, because after a few shots to its

body, the bear turned tail and ran for all it was worth but not fast enough. Lothar threw

his spear, pinning the fleeing creature to the ground and, seizing their chance, the boys

leapt at the crippled animal; skewering it ‘til it gave up its struggle lying dead upon the

ground.

Skinning the bear, cutting the meat into steaks and extracting a few souvenirs took them

most of the day, but the meal that night more than made up for their troubles, the best that

they had enjoyed in a long while. In the morning it was a much more relaxed bunch of

travelers who rolled out of their shelters, the meat from the night before still heavy in

their bellies.

A half a days travel soon brought the group to a clear track carved through the middle of

the forest in a North/South direction. “This has to be the trail we were working on”

Grunth thought to himself. “Which way now?” Nico asked. Remembering what Polus

had taught him about tracking, Grunth looked around for signs to help determine in

which direction the Company had gone.

Noticing a hoof print in the mud, it appeared that the horse, at least, was heading in a

northerly direction, so Grunth suggested that they should go that way. Trudging along

the freshly hacked avenue for a day and a half, the boys found that it turned suddenly

east, just as Polus had said it would. Continuing on, it was another half days travel before

the group finally caught up to the rest of the Company.

Telling Sergeant Gelak about what had happened to Polus, the deserter and the bear,

Grunth, at least, felt proud when he remembered how they had defeated their foe. The

Sergeant, for his part, looked at the group of boys before him in disbelief, and wondered

how they had killed such a huge and deadly creature.

‘Maybe there is more to them than meets the eye…’, he thought to himself as he watched

them walk away, “…he would have to keep a watchful eye on this lot in the future.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Next Story.

Written By: Gerrard Saunders (aka. Grunth of Callon)