Part 10 --The New Trainee--

*Unlike any other morning, my dad woke me up. It was 7:30 AM. "Hey Arthur, wake up, your in the academy. I signed you an hour ago. now we need to go there, get ready quick" Dad said to me. I replied in a sleepy voice "(moans) I will get up (yawns)". It was hard getting up from bed because I slept on that terrible hammock on a noisy ship for so long, now I was on my own bed, in a perfect place with no noise and comfort. I got up from bed, pulled the door, walked downstairs and washed my face with a water from the bucket in the bathroom. Then the old maid helped me dress up the same clothes I wore in that voyage. And then I was ready to go to the academy.*

*I needed to go to there fast, so instead of a good breakfast, I quickly ate my breakfast which was the usual poached egg, a small piece of beef, and two thick slices of toast. After that, I went with dad to the academy. We mounted our horses and started riding to the academy.*

*The academy was far off from our home. It was past the civilian apartments and houses, past the shops, bars, taverns and such. It was even past the shipwright and dock master's buildings.*

*At long last, of 14 minutes of riding a horse. We arrived at a ginormous building, even bigger than a large mansion and a public school combined. It had a very very big open field surrounded by tall stone fences with only a few windows to look into. The building was made of hard bricks and wood and there was a large board on it saying "Ferriston's youth academy of His Majesty's Navy"*

*We went to enter the building, but we where stopped by 2 guards with muskets outside the building. Dad showed them a piece of paper with his sign and some other stuff that is always in an identity card, and the guards let us in. There was a thing that looked like the place where you get your hotel room key. We went in the lanes and the man there asked*

*"So is this the Arthur that saved Yorkston by being the cause of the demise of the 12 of the remaining Seraphine soldiers in Yorkston?" "Yes he is" Dad answered. "We will take some information of this aspiring young sailor in the recruitment room which is on the right, and then he will have his real identity card and will be in the youth. Please take this ticket to get past the watch woman" The man said. "Understood" Dad told him. "Arthur, come with me" Dad told me. "Okay" I replied. We went to our right to the recruitment room door where a very old woman was sitting, around age 80. That somehow was still able to speak in RP. Dad handed her the ticket and we went inside where a man greeted us.*

*"Good morning Mr. Frank Jeremiah" "Good morning" Dad replied.*

*"You are here in the recruitment room is where your son is getting his Identity card. Continue to that gentleman over their, he will hand you a paper where you will fill in the identity and then you will have to go to that person over their and then you may hand them the paper. Then you may sit in the waiting room over there until the official identity card is made and after that, your son will get recruitment training for an hour, after recruitment training comes training that everybody does until they are enlisted in the navy. In addition he will acquire a room" "Understood, but I have question" Said dad. "Yes what is it?" The man asked.*

*"What do you mean by a room? is my son moving away from our family and live in here like in a college?" Dad questioned. "Yes you are correct your son is moving away. But he will return every Friday." The man answered.*

*"Arthur, you may have heard that all, so instead of talking about the room, let's go to the man with the paper" Dad told me. "Okay" I understood. We went to the "gentleman" that looked more of a criminal than even a normal man. He greeted us and gave the form, a quill and a bottle of ink.*

*Instead of dad filling the paper and me saying what to write, he gave the quill to me and the decisions.*

*The paper asked a full name, called/short name and surname. I filled in "Arthur Nelson Jeremiah" on the full name and just "Arthur" on the short name. And on the surname "Jeremiah". The paper asked my date of birth, 29th February 1772 was it. Then the paper questioned my address. I don't want to show you that, so let's head on to the rank I want to train up to. It included the rank "Midshipman". And I checked that immediately. It read "2.5 years of youth training". Basically meaning that I would have to only see my parents and siblings for just one day of the week for the next 2 and a half years and for the rest of the 6 days, I would have to live with 3 possibly very disgusting roommates and train hard until I become 15.*

*I guess training up to midshipman for 2.5 years isn't that bad because the payment is a sweet 23 doubloons per journey. Crazy that I would earn more money in a month than an average farmer does in a whole year. Now all boxes and lines filled we to that "person over there". We handed him the paper and we to waiting room.*

*Only two people where sitting in the waiting room, and they where me and dad.*

*After 20 minutes of a long wait they called us and we went inside the recruitment room. They handed us the ID Card which was very hard and looked like a permanent ID card which I would forever use to enter this academy.*

*The man that greeted us to the waiting room was still standing there and he then said this to us "Hello again, now you have done your ID card I'll tell you what to do. You have to take the card to that big door over there in the entrance hall and then enter it, you will then be greeted by another guide". "Understood, sir" Dad said.*

*We exited the room and we went to the big door that was even larger than the entrance door. Just before entering we saw a sign that read "Parents or Guardians not allowed". That ended the purpose of my father and now I have to go alone.*

*When I entered the room, the guide we just heard about greeted me and checked my ID card. "Now you can have starter training, just pass this large door a metre away from you".*

*That door was heavy to push, so it took some time for me to enter the room. When I entered, I found out that it was not actually a room, it was a field. With various things. I got "greeted" by a bald man with a stubble and a black eye.*

*"Good Morning, Arthur Jeremiah, you where the last boy we where waiting for to start the training, I will explain on what you shall do. So first, you will be given a couple of discipline and fitness commands, and then you will be given some basic rigging practices, this will help you warm up for what has to come next, so first, you shall follow my orders, even if you might not want to. And also you will be competing against others. Whoever does this first will get some marchpane. So the first order is to run across that muddy terrain over their and grab a bag of sugar, and you shall do it now, go".*

*As you may have read already, every single thing he ordered me to do was absolute insanity. So I did what he wanted to, and obeyed orders. And there I ran, covered in mud, like swine, disgusting. Then grabbed a bag of sugar, which was probably the heaviest thing I have ever had to lift, I came running back, and I thought I did it quickly, until I found out I finished last. I went back to the bald man for my next drill, and he told me to do the rigging of a mast.*

*I went to a mast that was on the ground instead of being on a ship. it looked easy at first, but after I tried it, it was just as hard as doing the sail-job on the Starlight. I needed company to do the job. But it seemed like I had to do it alone. After a couple of hard struggles. I finally did it, and I really don't think I will ever use this skill of dropping and raising the sails all alone ever in my life.*

*After I completed the drill. I came to the bald man and asked what is next. And he completely screwed me up on the next task. "Repeat the previous drill 34 times more now".*

*So I went back, and did the sail-job 34 times more again and again. The task took like 40 minutes to complete, and I became extremely sweaty and tired by doing it.*

*I went back to the bald man and asked for the next drill. He said that I should rest now for a bit because other people where doing the same drill. He said that I finished it "earlier" than the others. I looked far and wide to make sure he was not lying and I saw just what he said. A lot of trainees doing their drills.*

*I found a place to rest and sat. After around 20-30 minutes. Everyone finished. And it was time to go back to the bald man again.*

*He said "Hello everyone again. You have now finished all of your drills of this time period. Now go to your rooms and stay their for a couple of hours. We will all meet again after the hours have passed. Goodbye!"*

*That was kind of good. One, that I got to rest, and two, I have a chance to make friends.*

*Number two would be kind of difficult. But I would sure try.*

*There was a problem though. We didn't knew where were our rooms and where was our key. Thankfully, a man came and solved our problems. He showed us where the place was for the rooms and gave us the keys. I, and 3 others, where given a terrible room number and key. Room no. 666. Usually this country especially the Guinean kingdom where Ferriston is located in skips this number in hotels, apartments, college hostels and pretty much in general. But this time it was not. I hope no spook comes in the room and kills all of us.*

*The roommates I got where mostly familiar. There was Esther Ashford, he used to be an old neighbour of me until he left 6 years ago. He was just around the age of 13. He has black hair, massive ears, and his cheeks are always red. He was very tall for a 13 year old and very thin. Then there was Victor Whitlock. An old school friend of mine. I hadn't seen him for 5 years. That was a bit of surprise. He has ginger hair and extremely white skin. He is a bit chubby and had a big nose. Victor has an entire forest of pimples on his forehead. His lips are pretty normal. And he is just about the size of me, slightly taller. He is kind of fat, but not that much. He and I where extremely happy to see each other again. Then there was this guy nobody knew. He called himself Henry Grayridge. He is from the capital Kingston. He has dark blond hair. He is very tall and quite tough. He is around the age of 14. He has an ugly scar on his left cheek and another massive cut on his right arm which's stitching could still be visible, and I must say the sentence again: He is quite tough. He also has a slight Serpish accent which I noticed, and I really don't know why and how. I really hope he is not Serephinean or else we might have a free kill in our room and I really don't want a fight on who should kill him. And then there was me, who you still do not know pretty well. "How" you probably would ask. Because I am a son of a Baron, call me Lord Arthur when I'm older.*

*The room was decent. It was a 10x10 feet room. Fairly decent space. But there was a problem. There where 4 bunk beds which took most of the space. Plus a small barrel for storage. There was a table and a chair. The table had a little cabinet which contained a bit of paper, quill pens and 8 ink bottles. Between the beds was a table for candles. There was a little door than lead to the bathroom. The bathroom was like any other normal bathroom. A hole in the ground and a bathtub. All of that left us barely any space to walk. Meaning that in a case of an emergency. We would bump into something or each other. And finally, outside of the room there was a little box for mail.*

*We had to stay in that room for like an hour and half or so, which would be really boring, and just terrible.*

*For the first 10 minutes. I and Victor where gossiping. And the other 2 guys where just sitting and doing nothing. Then Esther came and asked me something stupid. "What is fine cloth called in Seraphine?". "The Serpish word for that, I suppose". I answered. He then replied "No, it's called 'Sera-fine". He started giggling at that. I didn't consider it as a funny joke, nor did Victor or Henry.*

*Then there was an awkward silence for the next 10 minutes, no one liked it. So Victor decided to speak something.*

*"Sitting awkwardly like morons is boring, let's actually do something"*

*"Like what" Esther said*

*"Sleeping, We are supposed to take a rest" Henry replied*

*"I guess you are right, we should do that, sounds reasonable" Esther replied*

*So we all did what you read, sleeping. I'm sure I slept for a really until a strange thing happened. I was woken up by someone, I was on a massive ship with Henry and Victor beside me. I first thought I was in a dream, so I pinched my self, and felt pain. I was shocked, scared, how did this happen, was I carried here? If I was, then how did I not wake up in the process? I was confused as heck. Then a Lieutenant came up to me, and asked, "Good Morning Midshipman, Have you checked the barometer, it seems like the winds are blowing high, check if a storm in going to happen in a bit of time". I replied "I haven't even trained properly yet, and you are calling me a midshipman, tell me where am I, tell me how am I here, tell me who you are exactly, and what is a barome..." I got interrupted by the Lieutenant. "You can't talk like that to someone higher than you in ranks. And you also appear to be uneducated. How are you a midshipman if you don't know what a barometer is? Did you cheat your exams? You must be court martialed and hanged by the neck to the death. But we have to wait for that, and I want to end you now, Men, let him walk the plank". I was grabbed by a strong man, and before I knew it, I was on a plank, I didn't jump, they where forcing me to jump but I resisted, I was about to make a run for it but before I could, I was kicked. I was falling down in the raging sea, and the first bolt of lightning struck, officially starting a storm, and before I hit the water, I thought for a split second "Is this a dream", and when I hit the water, it turned out that it wasn't a dream. It was a lucid dream. I was woken up by Victor, and I swear, the relief of leaving a dream like that is one of the greatest things I ever felt. I was shaking and very sleepy. I said to him "When will the training start". He answered "About 5 minutes". I saw Esther and Henry awake too. And now I had to wait, for the training, after a horrible dream.*