The Obstacle Course I
Gale was woken up by his master again, much to his dissatisfaction.
He couldn't understand why his master always woke up so early. Shouldn't one sleep until they are satisfied? He always felt that his master wanted to sleep more through their connection, yet for some reason, he never did.
Then came the way he would always cover Gale with water before taking some strange-looking brick and rubbing it over his body. Gale didn't like getting wet. Sure, he could dry himself almost instantly whenever he did, but the sensation of his feathers being wet was something he deeply disliked. At least the strange brick smelled nice.
Then came his feeding. This was probably the only part of the morning that Gale enjoyed. After all, despite his small size, Gale still burned through an extreme amount of calories, boy to mention that as a baby, his growth speed was quite shocking, so his food intake was startling, to say the least.
But his master didn't seem to mind and always him until he was content, though, Gale often wondered what the food his master made tasted like, it always smelled nice whenever he did what he did with those items he brought from the strange metal box.
When they finished eating, they left his Master's nest.
Gale also wondered why they always had to leave the nest to go to that strange place. Not that Gale was complaining. He had a lot more freedom there due to how open it was, but still, he was curious. At least the journey to that place was nice.
He could play around a little bit while enjoying his Master's company. Gale especially liked it when his master rubbed his back between his wings. It always sent a strange tingly feeling through his body that felt nice.
Soon, they reached the place, and Gale saw many beings that looked similar to his Master. However, some were shorter and some were taller, some were dark like him while others looked pale.
Soon, his master went to the same empty field as before and Gale felt unhappy again. Yesterday had been filled with all sorts of activities which left Gale tired, but Gale didn't like being tired. He didn't see the point. Yet for some reason, his Master seemed inclined to make him move and fight until he was tired, and not just that, it was always hard as if it was designed to make him tired. His childlike mentality stopped him from grasping the logic behind it.
However, despite everything, Gale always felt a deep trust for his Master. No matter what they did, even if Gale didn't like it, there was always this certainty that came through their connection that assured Gale that no matter what, there was a reason for whatever was happening, and that he would benefit from it.
So despite not being a fan of everything he did, Gale trusted his master, and that was what mattered.
***
'What the heck is this?' Osho felt his lips twitch when he stared at the contraption in front of him.
It wasn't just him as all his classmates stared at what looked to be some sort of obstacle course. Granted, that sounded like a gross understatement for the metallic contraption in front of them.
From the beginning to the end, there were all sorts of things that made one think that whatever it was, it wasn't for a human being to even think of accomplishing.
There were the usual things like monkey bars, ropes, unstable platforms, platforms that required one to jump between them, and so on.
Then there were the unusual things like the wall that was straight vertical and seemed to have no arm holds whatsoever. Then the opposite of that was a drop that didn't seem to have anything to cushion the fall of whoever fell. A wall that seemed to shoot out blunt metal spikes, spinning hammers, slopes with large metal balls rolling down them, and more.
Osho slowly turned his gaze to the side to see their teacher Mrs Jane staring at them with her arms folded. On one hand, he wanted to be impressed and wondered how she managed to create something like this in the span of one night. But on the other hand, he wanted to run away.
Moreover, with how he was certain she was staring right at him, he wanted to run away even more.
"She has it out for us this time huh?" At some point, Ellie had slipped beside him and whispered, her eyes looking at the obstacle course warily.
"Yeah. You think she's trying to find an excuse to kill us?" Osho asked back.
"At this point, that's not even a crazy thing to consider." Ellie sighed. Mrs Jane seemed to take that opportunity to approach them.
"Morning everyone." She spoke calmly and there were a series of responses, but they all felt hollow as most people still kept their eyes on the obstacle course. Osho thought he saw the ghost of a smirk on her face, but it was gone before he could be sure.
"In case you are wondering, yes, this will be the next part of your training. I decided to take a different approach today." She looked at all of them and explained.
"It's clear that only a few of you showed some progress when it came to giving your beasts commands. I notice the reason behind this is a lack of pressure. None of you feel pressured to improve fast, so you aren't improving fast. This obstacle course will change that." Her words caused them to shudder and Ellie couldn't help but ask.
"Um, Mrs Jane. With all due respect, we can't exactly improve if we're all dead." She spoke what was on everyone's mind and there was a series of agreeing nods.
However. Mrs Jane just stared at them with a deadpan expression and said flatly.
"You won't die." That was that. Then she continued.
"Besides that, this is also in preparation for our first outing the day after tomorrow. Remember, we will head out of the Citadel to enter the wilderness every three days. Beasts aren't the only things you should be wary of in such situations. The environment also tends to be extremely volatile, and more often than not, you will face a situation where you have to run away from something which usually involves crossing all sorts of obstacles, like the ones you are currently staring at." She said while gesturing to the obstacle course.
As Osho tried to figure out how the thing was working without any electricity, probably Mana, he couldn't help but agree with her words.
Many of his peers believed that when they entered the wilderness, the beasts would be the only issue. They couldn't be blamed for such an assessment since most of them had never left their Citadel before, including Osho.
However, after years of being untouched by humans, in addition to the saturation of Mana, the environment tended to undergo some extreme changes, and while it was a bit calmer closer to the Citadels due to regular cleanup and scouting operations, the further away one got from a Citadel, the worse it got.
Osho didn't think he was invincible with Gale's capabilities. On the contrary, he wanted to be careful so the two of them would be able to grow as much as possible. If the situation ever came where he was in the wilderness and something forced them to run, he'd need to be as Adept at running as possible.
Jane seemed to have seen what she wanted to see as she nodded and led them closer to the obstacle course.
The closer they got, the more they realized just how big it was. However, they were still sharing this large field with other students, so Jane structured the obstacle course in the shape of a circle that looped around itself. So instead of going in a straight line, whoever completed the course would just end up where they started.
On the bright side, it seemed to be capable of handling multiple people at once, so they didn't need to wait one by one.
Well it was meant to be a good thing, but they didn't see it that way since that meant it would only be their turns faster.
And that's assuming it took long in the first place since it was bold to assume that anyone would be able to get through the entire course in one go without failing.
"So here's what's going to happen. Anyone who enters the course is going to be timed. You have a maximum of five minutes to cross each area, and the faster you cross one area, the more time you will have in the next. But if you take longer than five minutes, you're out." There were some mixed reactions to this, with most people feeling like 5 minutes wasn't enough time at all. But Jane didn't care.
"Besides that, you will have to move with your beast. None of you have a beast space yet so you'll be moving with them. It's up to you to figure out how to make that work, because if any of you even think about abandoning your beast, not only will you be eliminated, but you will be punished after." Her voice was stern at the end and everyone nodded, but their dissatisfaction was still there and Osho could understand why.
There were people there who had some pretty big beasts which made moving around quickly a hassle, so asking them to cross an area in five minutes without abandoning their beast seemed almost impossible.
However, Osho didn't see it that way.
'To be frank, there are some obstacles here that can't be crossed without the aid of a beast. Instead of seeing them as burdens, we should see Tham as an opportunity to complete the challenge faster.' He thought.
"Alright, just like before, I'm going to call your names in alphabetical order. Four people will go in at once. So Ana, Adam, Amy, and Ahmed, come up." The four students flinched upon being called and stared at the obstacle course with a reasonable amount of terror.
However, refusing to step up would likely result in Mrs Jane being unhappy, and it was hard to say if the obstacle course was scarier than their teacher. So in the end, they all went forward.