The Alfheim Archives

Recruited and Ready...

We loped into the village of Farandar, as people turned to watch Moonshine and I fly down the street. I pulled a bit on her hair and we came to a slow canter as we approached the office of the White Elf military. I slid off Moonshine's back and told her that I would be back. I straightened my back and put on a strong face. Pushing the door open, I looked at my surroundings to see who was in the building as I strolled in, hoping that I looked a lot more confident than I felt. I approached the counter where an elderly woman looked up, not really enthused that someone had come inside. "How may I help you today? If it's another complaint about the Dark Elves who came and wrecked your village, I am telling you, we are doing what we can to get it under control..." She seemed really tired of complaints. "Ma'am," I interrupted, "I am here to sign up not to file a complaint. I have come from Adasqueil to join the military." Her face was blank, as what I had said registered to her. "Wait, how old are you boy? What makes you think it's in your best interest to join? Don't you have somewhere else to be?" 

She seemed genuinely concerned for me. "No, I don't. I am here for a reason and that is to join the military. So what will it take to get enrolled?" She looked at me for a few minutes more as it clicked. "Oh, first I will need your name, your age, and your Town of Birth. We also need someone to notify us if things go wrong. If you know what I mean, young man." All those questions were easy, well, except for the last one. I had no known relatives and my dad was a hostage. It was then that I remembered my neighbor, the old and kindly Mrs. Arenoti. She would more than likely know who I was. She would also know that I would want to be cremated just like my mother. With that, I answered the woman at the desk. "My name is Nicholas Rune, I am seventeen and I am from Adasqueil. And the address would be for Mrs. Amilli Arennoti. She is my neighbor and I am sure she would know what to do." She typed it out on her computer while she snuck glances at me from time to time. As she sat filling multiple forms out, with nothing more than a question every other moment such as "Are in the habit of drinking?" Or "Have you ever been in combat before?" I tried to guess how soon I would be out in the field. Suddenly I heard the woman clearing her throat. "Sir, you are now signed up but before you are accepted, you must pass a simple physical test of your skills. If you would just follow Major Drofyn here, he will take you to the course." 

 I looked to my right to see a man who had to be in his early twenties standing by a side door beckoning me. I strode up to him and stood in a straight position as I saluted the man. "That's how to do it, soldier. You at least know how to respect an older veteran. Now you have had some experience in combat before, correct, young soldier?" I replied with a proper, and brisk, response. "Yes sir, I have. I am skilled in the magic of a battle mage and am also very good at the art of Close Combat fighting and Guerrilla Warfare. I am also capable of using multiple weapons and watching my own back at the same time." He started unlocking the door behind him. Drofyn looked surprised as his face turned to that of a man facing a good challenge. "Well, we'll just see how capable you are as a soldier." Right as he finished his sentence, we stepped into a large arena. There were machines to fire bullets at you, cannons, machines that could send real magic spells hurtling your way, mechanisms that maneuvered sword-wielding dummies, etc. The major walked to a space in the arena and pointed to space in front of him. "Come here, soldier. We will begin here." I made my way to the spot he was pointing and seen a few targets that I had to hit, is my guess. "Hit those targets with your main attack.", ordered the major. I focused a ball of flame on the target to the left and threw the fireball, hitting the target dead in the middle. I hit the second one with a wave of water that knocked it over and the third one, I asked to borrow an elven pistol known as an Archineo (ARC-In-A-OH) which the major handed me. 

I aimed the gun and fired feeling a sense of righteousness as the bullet hit dead-on in the middle, blowing the middle out of it. "Perfect score. Now for the next test. Dodge the bullets as they come at you. You have to make it to the end of the strip with as few bullets hitting you as possible. Ready, set, go!" I beelined it down the strip, dodging every bullet that came out of the machines. When I got to the end of the strip, the major was waiting for me with a smile. "Well done soldier. Now onto the next test. This one you have to dodge cannonballs. Let's see how well you do now." I stood at the end of the strip once more, waiting until the signal to move. The major made the signal and the cannonballs started flying everywhere. I hurtled through them, ducking and pausing before any hit me. I once again made it to the end and the major was grinning even wider. "Alright, new scenario. You are in a battle with just you against multiple of your enemy. They have you circled. What do you do?" I turned away from the major to see the sword-wielding dummies circling me, closing in like rabid wolves. I decided the best course of action was to just take them all out in one sweep. I summoned a water magic spell and I washed them all away in one tsunami. I glanced at the major to see him apparently considering a new strategy.

 "Soldier, are you able to do anything without your battle magic?" I gave him a quick grin and stood up. The dummies stood back up and surrounded me once more. I whipped out a pair of haladies and cut half of the dummies in half. The other half, I blew holes through their heads with one of the Archineo pistols. Once I was sure I had taken out each and every one of them. I risked a quick glance at the major. He was doing nothing but shaking his head and chuckling. "Boy, you have some talent. Where and how you got it, I have no clue, but I have one more test for you. That there ring is for a battle between you and your best ability, your magic. That there machine will hurtle all types of magic spells at you and your goal is to make every one of them miss you, whether you dodge them or use a magic skill. This is your final physical test, so make it good. Now get out there soldier." I grinned and raced into the ring where the machines started immediately casting spells and hurtling them at me. I could tell a couple of them were completely harmless such as a crazy hair spell, a long fingernail spell, and so on. But there was also a couple of more effective spells such as one that would have turned me into a frog, temporarily of course. But as I dodged every one of them, I wasn't worried. I walked over to the major, out of breath but without a scratch or nick on me.