Cǽrvelle-The Journey

Day 13, 1st Day of the Month of Hunting

It was more than a week later, and the station was looking nearly brand new. The generator was running, every light was fixed and filled with light, every piece of metal was shined until it was a mirror, and every room had been swept and cleaned, with all the rotting wallpaper and insect infestations remedied, and every mattress reupholstered and plumped until they were practically pillows. We woke up again that morning, getting dressed into our suits and quickly buttoned our jackets up, ensuring they were perfect. Then, we ran out of our room and down to the kitchen, fixing ourselves a quick breakfast, sure that we were going to be doing more cleaning today. However, when we arrived at the table, the rangers were sitting around it, feet up and relaxing, sipping their tea and mindlessly rocking back in their chairs.

"Winfrey?" I asked, uncertain as to the sudden change in attitude.

"Mm?" he asked, looking up from the book in his lap, an inquisitive eyebrow raised.

"Uhh... what are we doing today, sir?" I asked, puzzled as I sat down.

"Training." He replied, before looking down at his book and continuing to read.

I looked over at Holly, and her eyebrows shot up in anticipation, rejoicing that we would finally be able to begin our training. I envisioned myself leaping from rooftops, landing on unsuspecting enemies before driving my knife deep inside their throat, or perhaps lunging out, invisible, from the shadows and striking down ten men before anyone even saw me. Better yet, hiding on the rooftops and sending invisible bolts at my enemies, watching them fall to the hand of the invisible marksman. However, I was struck from my dreams, as Winfrey said, "We'll get started on the clothes after I'm done reading."

It turns out, the clothes aren't actually as bad as I had thought. Originally, I assumed we would be folding laundry, but instead we were simply introduced to a set of unique robes, fairly tight fitting and given a strange, dark and grey mottled pattern.

"These are the robes of a Ranger." Winfrey began, shrugging one on. "The fit is designed to help you conceal your weapons without being too loose to get in the way. The pattern is a little something called camouflage, it breaks up the outline of your body to make you harder for your enemies to see. Gillian, show them."

Gillian grabbed one that was obviously his, pulling the cloak on and then moving into the shadows until he started to look more like a part of the wall than a man. I closed my eyes and when I reopened them, I could barely see him. I focused as hard as I could, and still only see the vague bump of his body against the wall. He stepped back out, and it looked as though he had emerged from the wall itself.

"So, as you can see, it's quite effective." Winfrey continued, before grabbing two sets and tossing them to us. "Those should fit you well enough Collin, but you, Holly, may need to alter yours a bit to fit. After all, Ranger's aren't women typically. Now, go change into those and we'll continue after that."

Holly and I walked back up to our rooms, getting changed into our outfits. Mine fit me surprisingly well, and I found hidden sheaths for a variety of weapons, with throwing knife sheaths behind the shoulder and large dirk sheaths in the leg, covered by the matching boots, made of soft, supple leather and dyed jet black. However, Holly was having a wee bit of difficulty getting into hers, with the chest being too tight and the leggings too loose. Despite this, we both finished up by tying the cloaks on, as well as the attached rope around our waists, holding the cloaks close to our bodies. With that, we went back down to the remainder of the station and were met by the rest of the rangers, all wearing their own matching outfits, only theirs were adorned with a small silver pin on their shoulders. However, before I could get a glimpse of Winfrey's pin, he shrugged the cape over it, and the others mirrored the motion.