Do You believe in fate?

The dog days

Now the first week of officer training was hated. Dog days our instructor called them.

I arrived in the middle of the afternoon two days after leaving the estate. My father stayed in the carriage while the Earl followed me into the barracks. He went straight to the main building, noticing that all the soldiers we met looked at him curiously, he went straight into the colonel's office without knocking.

"I said it, knock and wait for an answer Hugh!" The Colonel sounded irritated, I looked at the young man in uniform next to the door, who looked somewhat pale. He had only just managed to get up from his chair before the Earl had opened the door. I guessed he was some kind of secretary to the colonel and had the job of preventing unwanted people from disturbing the colonel.

"As if I'm wasting time by knocking!" It came grumpily from the Earl. The colonel looked up in surprise just as Hugh came in through the door.

"Sorry Sir Colonel, that gentleman did not stop to give me his name!" Hugh was not only pale, he was sweating now too!

"It's okay Hugh!" The colonel waved at him. "Get some tea and bread!" Hugh nodded his head in shock, turned on his heel and shouted a Yes sir on his way out the door.

The colonel got up tired from his chair, walked slowly around the table, and stood in front of the Earl.

"You've always been a pain in the ass Bill!" He said with a twinkle in his eye before he and the Earl embraced each other. (Yes, I was well aware that I was named after the Earl, his name was also William). When the Colonel and the Earl had greeted each other, they began to talk about old days and mutual acquaintances from that time. Only when Hugh knocked on the open door, to bring tea and bread in, did they stop talking. While Hugh purred us a cup each, the Earl pulled me forward from the wall where I had been waiting.

"This is the boy I've told you about, William Nate! Billy said hello to my old friend Benjamin!" I stepped forward and took the hand from the colonel.

"An honor!" I greeted politely. But the colonel let out a loud laugh.

"It’s a pleasure! Bill here has been telling meabout you since you as a 9 year old could find yourself sacrificing your queen just to take his tower!" I smiled a little awkwardly.

"It may have seemed wasteful sir, but it secured me a chess and mat!" The Colonel nodded and laughed at the Earl.

"Yes, that was Bill's interpretation too ... He has since said that a stratek like you will be worthy as an officer in the army!" The earl sat down happily in an armchair and took a cup of tea.

"That was the day I started planning your military career my boy!" He said with a twinkle in his eye. The colonel sat down in the other armchair, took a cup of tea and nodded.

"It was the year after we learned about the inhuman!" I looked around as I got up with my cup of tea. The two gentlemen began to talk about the war that was going on against the inhuman. The Colonel told about the great advances that happened with witches and vampires.

It was easy to find the witches if one first found one, since they lived together in their own small communities. Vampires were easy to recognize on their pale skin. So there were great advances that gradually went on for a very long time between reports of the two species. Worse was it with the werewolves, they were hard to recognize. But for several years they had been successful in training large strong dogs to recognize the smell of a werewolf, and with the help of silver spears, arrows, and fire, they made small advances at regular intervals. I was getting a little tired of their talk back and forth, so I put the cup away from me on the table.

"If the gentlemen will allow it, I'll go out and ask Hugh to show me where I should be!?" The Colonel looked up at me in dismay, he almost looked as if he had forgotten I was there.

"You better call him lieutenant!" I nodded,

"But thank you for the reception, it was extremely kind of them!" I made a bow for both the Colonel and the Earl, before turning on my heel and heading for the front office.

"Wait a minute Billy!" The earl got up and came after me. He handed me an envelope, gave me a warm handshake and smiled at me.

"Here's a little until you get your first paycheck, now go out and make me proud!" I smiled gratefully at him and nodded seriously.

Hugh was very accommodating when I asked to view my living quarters.

Along the way, he showed me where the dining room and bath house were. We had not walked many steps from the main house before entering one of the barracks. Hugh looked at a piece of paper in his hand before unlocking a door.

"This is my lord's private room!" He handed me the key and was about to leave when I asked him to stop.

"My private room?" Hugh nodded calmly.

"I don't understand, I thought we slept in common dormitories?" It had not occurred to me at all that he had called me by Lord. Hugh shook his head.

"It's only for those who are without funds!" I frowned.

"That must be due to a mistake I have no funds worth talking about!" Hugh laughed,

"Your father, the Earl, has already paid ahead of the first year.” I shook my head.

"It's very nice of the Earl to think of my comfort, but he's not my father, just my mentor." Hugh raised an eyebrow.

"If you say so my lord!" Was all he said before going back to the front office.

The first week was called the dog days because we had to live like dogs. Everything happened outside. We slept, ate and exercised outside.

It was early summer and it was not unusual for it to rain that part in the summer, but this week seemed like the wettest in my life. It rained more or less nonstop seven days in a row!

We huddled together when we were allowed to rest, hoping to get some warmth from each other. We sat almost on all fours when we ate, hoping to keep any of the rain out of our food, rain is cold and would make the food cold, and hot food was our only source of heat! The fire was not for us, but for our commanders, the only time any of us got close to the fire was when we threw firewood into it.

The training was hard, it was hard enough to walk twenty-five kilometers with packing one summer day, but to do it in pouring rain, in mud when one's clothes and packing are soaked and heavy was almost impossible.

We were on day six before it dawned on me that there were three others with private room on my team. The reason it dawned on me was that they left the rest of us when we were allowed to sleep at night. They each went to their room and slept in a dry warm bed. I briefly considered going into my own bed, but then one of the others crawled closer to me and I decided to stay. The earl might have brought me comfort and made it possible for me to skip where the bare was lowest, but I had never done that before and I would not start now!

We all survived the dogs the days and when the rest of the team found out that I had stayed despite my private room, all the days, I got more respect from the start. Even though there were a few who thought I was stupid!