After being brought into the school, Gunnar and Cassie were taken to a row of barracks style buildings that already had a few kids their age inside. Girls were on the left going inside and boys were to the right, with a small trunk at the foot of every bed for personal effects. The room was otherwise just an open, wood floored room with two pillars in the middle of the room and five windows on each side spaced out about eight feet.
In the building that Gunnar and Cassie were assigned, the door was already opened and all but four of the beds were claimed. the beds that were still open were two in the middle of the room underneath a window and two at the door, leaving no really good choices and a few boys and girls in arguments about the sleeping arrangement.
Gunnar chose to place his things on the bed right inside the door in the corner of the building, opening the trunk and simply placing his duffel bag inside before opening the bag and pulling out a small pack with his survival gear inside it. By the time he turned around he noticed Cassie choosing the bed across from his and placing her bag on the bed.
Just before he could step away from his bed and walk towards her, Willow, who had lead them in, called into the building from the doorway. "You kids are going to have to pick two leaders, a boy and girl, before the end of the week. These will be your leaders in mock battles, when you guys come back from the camp as well as the advocates for the basic course council that we hold as a precursor to the governmental class you will have to take in the advanced courses."
Cassie looked confused for a moment and Willow noticed. "Do you have a question oreling Kathrine?"
Cassie opened her mouth before hesitating and looking across at Gunnar for encouragement. After receiving his nod she spoke. "Yes teacher. Wouldn't it be better to make these choices after we return from the camp? we would better have and idea who is good at what by then and make better choices than now. We barely know each other for those of us who know each other at all."
Willow smiled "Points awarded for Building 5! This subject will be addressed usually when the orelings return from the camp but you noticed before hand. Good job!" She turned to the other students in the room. "You will choose two students now to be your leaders and we will vote again when you return from camp to see if the two chosen remain the same. Two leaders for the sixteen of you brats in here. Choose wisely."
After concluding this rather ominous sentence with a smirk, Teacher Willow turned and walked out of the room motioning the parents who were waiting outside for the go ahead to go on inside. As the parents outside filtered in through the barracks door they all filed over to their children, while Gunnar met his parents at the door and led them across to Cassie.
"We only have a couple of hours before we have to leave you two, so how about we take a walk around the basic training facilities?" Sheila took a hand of both Gunnar and Cassie and spoke with a slight smile. "It will be minimum of 6 months before we see each other again. We need to spend a little time with each other while we can."
Gunnar and Cassie both nodded and walked with their respective parents and Gramma Sheila out of the building and towards the gathering of building that held the actual schooling buildings as well as the forges and indoors training facilities. the buildings themselves were built out of wood and stone with some being the blue-grey of weathered wood, some being painted in greens or browns, while the stone forge buildings were a deep grey with some blackening from soot.
Gunnar paid particular attention to the forge buildings while Cassie was studying the nearby open drill field that held some training dummies as well as several obstacle courses. Gunnar, noticing as he turned back to his group that Cassie wanted to look at the fields and that there were two teachers standing with several other students and parents at the edge of the grounds, smiled and pulled Cassie towards the field.
"We will walk this way first and see the field and maybe make a practice plan for any free time we have and then we will go see the forges and investigate the facility there. Sound good?"
Mr. Milton smiled having seen both of their interests and shook his head at Gunnar. "You can't just give in little Gunnar or you will be a beaten man in no time! you have to show her-"
Mrs. Milton quickly slapped the back of Mr. Miltons head "Trey, it is far too early to be thinking about that kind of thing, and anyway what's wrong with giving in to your partner when there is something they enjoy."
"There is no reason that we can't do both, and looking at the outdoors training facilities is something that I also want to do. So we will do that first so that we can fully focus on the forges later. Anyway we don't know for sure that there are any teachers in the forge buildings =right now while there for sure are at the field." Gunnar shrugged not bothered by Mr. Miltons teasing.
Cassie's smile nearly split her face as she pulled ahead of Gunnar and nearly dragged him to the teachers at the field and began listening to the introduction that the two female teachers were giving to the students and first time parents who may not be aware of any changes made since their own days in The Forge.
"We are organized by barracks building into preliminary teams that will be lead to compete in survival games, war games, and hunter/killer marches." said the taller of the two, a blade haired woman with a slightly crooked nose, possibly from a break, with scars on her left cheek and four advanced tattoos on her right shoulder. "I teach the hunter/killer basic course this year and will rotate back with the first advancing orelings in six months. My parter here, Kilara, teaches and referees the war games, she is a master sword and shield wielder. Her experience with off world demon incursions as well as mountain combat on the third Forgeworld, Rhya, will be applied in her tour in the basic training as a sample course and will be available as an advanced course when she rotates back in 8 months with the second placement testing."
One of the children, a boy with the brown hair and sturdy build of a Balder, raised his hand and spoke too the second teacher. "Are you two a scout pair Ms. Kilara? I think my older brother has mentioned you and Ms. Jarsa when he spoke of his time on Rhya. He said you two saved a battalion of Stilian soldiers from ambush and found the path that they took to counter ambush the Ratmen beast soldiers."
Cassie's eyes got as big around as the possibly could without popping out of her head as she grabbed Gunnar's hand and yanked on his arm. "It's Jarsa Windstealer, from the Windstealer archer clan!" she whispered at a level that was not a whisper. "Mom served with her and Ms. Kilara off world. I have heard all kinds of stories of the two all my life!"
The much stronger two teachers had no problem hearing the words that Cassie spoke to Gunnar and looked over at the children with a slights furrowing of their brow. upon catching sight of the two kids and seeing Mrs. Milton behind them, Jarsa's eyebrows raised and and a smile came upon the face of Kilara before Jarsa jumped towards them with a smirk and wrapped her in a hug while Kilara answered the boy and continued the explanations of the field work to the students.
Jarsa pulled back from Mrs. Milton and spoke with a noticeable lightening of her rather grim countenance. "Jen! I didn't expect to see you here this soon! I thought it would be a couple more years!"