The Jungle Frontier: A "The Novice" Tribute Story

Part 4: Routine

After that bizarre introduction to the camp Dustan, Rico and the other new recruits were introduced to their sleeping quarters by a jittery and high-strung man by the name of Dex who muttered with fervour, for several days, about how his inventory check of the medical supplies came up short. Their first night at camp Dustan and Rico found beds where the male/female dividing wall had a hole they could talk to each other through and they talked.

"Why would that woman have a Dwarven tomahawk? I thought they were sacred" Dustan had asked her while discussing the day's events.

"You can talk about odd weapons, carrying that thing you call a knife around" Rico had retorted, pointing to weapon Dustan had clipped to his belt.

At Vocans Dustan, like all the other summoners, had been given a large, green scrying stone for the purpose of seeing through the eyes of his demon. In a moment of ingenuity, Dustan had taken the stone to a gemcutter in Corcillum, who fashioned the large stone into a knife blade. If scrying in combat, Dustan could use the stone itself as a weapon to defend himself.

"I wouldn't call the stone a very useful weapon" Dustan had retorted "The gem would probably break if hit the wrong way and then I would be without a weapon or a way to see though my demons eyes"

Rico still thought it was pretty genius.

In the passing weeks the new recruits settled into life on the frontier. Every morning at six they would all, save for those who had pulled night watch, be woken and set to work around the camp. The red and white of the kings solders uniforms blurred with the blue, red and gold of the battlemages as the new recruits rushed to their scheduled duties. Rico one day overheard Sakina bluntly breaking the news to Dex that she was responsible for the missing medicine over breakfast one day, with Dex's reaction being something she considered a highlight for the week.

The woman Sakina, strangely enough, did not speak to either Dustan or Rico again after the first night. Keeping to herself and avoiding attention. Dustan didn't concern himself much with he issue but Rico constantly prodded him with questions and theories about the woman, each one more outlandish than the last.

Life for the most part was slow and tense for those few weeks. Dustan, Rico and the other battlemages would work side by side with the regular soldiers; cleaning out the trenches surrounding the encampment, doing sentry duty at the large watchtowers or along the camp perimeter and keeping the muskets, cannons and other weapons clean and functional.

Weeks stretched on and Rico had trouble adjusting. Rico had never enjoyed routine, not here or at Vocan's. Back at home, in the north, Rico didn't have any schedules or any of this pompous crap to deal with. If she was hungry she would eat something, if she was tired she slept, if she wanted to hunt or explore the forests and snowfields, Rico would do so.

Rico missed the north. She was so uncomfortable here in the steaming hot south. To warm and humid for her liking.

To take her mind off the homesickness she messed with peoples heads, she joked and acted like a fool. But Rico enjoyed it. One thing Rico enjoyed was having people try to figure out her gender. Rico was female, but her appearance was so gender neutral that most people couldn't tell what she was. Most mistook her for a guy due to her more reckless, outgoing nature and general fooling around.

Dustan knew, but no one else other than her fellow Vocans students knew exactly what her gender was. She liked it that way, gave her another way to screw with peoples heads. But downsides were it added to rumours that she was a freak.

Rico had hoped to escape that once she graduated from the Vocans. The constant looks from strangers, the underlying air of judgment that surrounded her constantly. A heavy fog that sometimes clouded genuinely nice people from view. She had driven away those who could be good friends before.