A Rat Turned Wolf

Our table is corralled back through the castle, outside the city gates, and off into the fields until we reach our encampment. We spend the next couple of months here. At first it starts off easy, with basic training and exercises. We learn how to use a sword, how to utilize our armour effectively, and handle different weapons including our
hands. But as time progresses, each day grows harder. Waking up before the dawn
of each day, sleeping after each dusk. Everyday heralds new intensive exercise
regimens and different training schemes. I knew this would be hard, but I wasn’t
expecting this. This is grueling. Many of us started to break down. ‘If the training is
this hard, how bad will the actual fight be?’ I too started to lose faith, but I was
reminded of my will to fight when I wrote back to my family. That’s what these
people need! They need to be reminded of what they’re fighting for.

Anytime I see someone breaking down, I walk over to them and ask. “What’s your
reason for fighting?”
They look up at me and give me different reasons. Usually, I say something about
disappointing whoever or whatever they’re fighting for, and I say something like
‘What good will you be, if you’re dead? We must train and become the best
fighting force there is if we want to return to our reasons'

It’s not long after I begin raising some spirits that I was approached by Gore with a
proposition. “Listen up worm. You’ve proven to be a step and a half above these
other maggots as well as a natural leader. As much as our commanders would love
to lead your filthy friends into battle, we know their combat effectiveness would rise
greatly with one of their own leading them. You have what it takes. We’re sending
you to an officer’s school. You’ll be trained on leading the elven front line and basic
strategies.”
I started to ask questions, but I had forgotten that questions aren’t tolerated here.
“Why are you still here? Get moving!”
He points in a vague direction and sends me off.

There’s a large circular tent in between the different race’s encampments. I assume
this is where I’m supposed to go? When I duck my head inside, there’s at least ten of us. One other elf, two dwarves, a jarcobian, and a saurian. There’s also three human
students who look uncomfortable being surrounded by so many demi-humans. One of the dwarves is trying to be friendly with them to little effect.

Then there are a few humans here that teach us the basics about tactics. Although... They’re not exactly right. Thinking about it logically, it would stand to reason that
these strategies would work well against opponents your size, but I thought we were gravely outmatched. I try to ask question but am denied or ignored. I keep forgetting how bad humans are at answering questions. They did say something that peeked my attention though. Apparently, we’ll be training against the other races in mock skirmishes. With us at the heads of the groups.

They dismiss us and we begin to meet with the other captains. I head over to who I
assume are the front-line captains. “Oi, boy. Elven lad.”
The dwarf noticed me first. This is the dwarf who was trying to be friendly with the
human students. He looks ancient. His white beard almost reaches the ground
despite be braided in five different places, and the parts of his face that isn’t
covered in facial hair, is instead covered in wrinkles. His voice speaks with the
authority of a king with an accent I'm unfamiliar with. It’s kind of off putting,
coming from someone so short. I greet him in return.

“I’m assuming these are the front-line captains?”

“Aye. The youngins call me Elder Naz-Karak. I know they mean well, but stones curse it all if the damn formalities don’t get on mi nerves. Naz’ll do.”

“Kar’Desh. I agree about formalities. A waste of time in my opinion. Just call me Kar.”

He reaches his giant hand up, staining to reach my shoulder with a decrepit smile. “I already like ya better than that other elf bastard. Bloody lad’s too proper. Lil’ slack
never hurt anybody.”

The saurian introduces himself next. His voice carries with it a constant low growl.
“Zuwald’Xith. Just call me Wal. It’s fast and easier for warmbloods to pronounce.”
This lizard is terrifying. Most saurians skin is some combination of green, yellow,
blue, and light grey, but Wal’s skin is a deep red with dark grey on his underside
and horns. He’s massive, even for a saurian, with the top of his head reaching mine
and an incredible bulk. His eyes stare at me with two slitted islands in a sea of ice.

I nod to him and repeat, “Wal.”

The jarcoba smiles at me with a grin that reminds me of a rat more than a dog.
When he speaks, it comes out as more of a hiss than regular words. “Maheed.”
His fur is almost pure black, save for random spots of a light brown. Most jarcoba
have mohawks that run down the length of their back, but Maheed’s falls in the
middle, draping over what I can see to make a blanket of fur. It even covers his eyes.
He's bulkier than most Jarcoba but still thin compared to the rest of us.

I nod again and echo “Maheed.”

Wal speaks again. “Excellent. Now that introductions have passed, let us get down to business.”

Naz speaks up. “Aye. I’m well aware of dwarven strengths and fallacies, but I ain’t got no clue what the dagger ears can do.”
The discussion progressed from there. Dwarves of course, have almost no reach, but are rock solid when holding a line. Saurians have insane strength, but no sense of
self-preservation and no dexterity. They can only use clubs and maces and they’d
just as soon charge straight into an army alone as if they stood a good chance.
Jarcoba are fast, but a stray wind would topple their line. Elves, generally, have
slow reaction time on account of our life span being so long. Which is also why our
archers are unmatched. We just don’t panic. That does make for a... Passive
melee opponent, however. Then again, our reach is greater than most races.

We spend the next couple hours pondering various strategies involving all of us
working together and every possible combination of combatants. At the end of every week our races converged to play these war games. The first war game was a
free-for-all. We just had to be the last race standing. When I remembered that we
had a second elven captain, my heart leaped for joy. We had the whole archer unit.
The other races could barely use bows, so it would be a waste of time to train them on it. This is going to be delightfully easy. I felt a quiet sadistic laughter escape my
mouth.

My mood quickly went south as I carried on a discussion with Toross Carnorin, the
elven archer captain. He’s enviously handsome with a thick head of auburn coloured hair and golden eyes that almost glow. He’s already probably the tallest person in
Solaris, but as though to get some extra height, he turns his nose up at anyone he
talks to. And he constantly insisted on me calling him by his full name... With his title. Captain Toross Carnorin? As if I’d ever call him that.

“I have noticed that you have had extended interactions with our enemy. I demand
to know their weaknesses.” Demand!? On what grounds do you have to demand
anything from me? I complied anyway.

“Well, Ross.”
His whole head whipped around to glare at me. The pure annoyance on his face was intensified to fury when I grinned.

“Captain. Toross. Carnorin.” He corrected.

With exaggerated sympathy I said “Oh, my mistake. Well then Ross, the dwarves are defensive and slow. We can focus them last. Jarcoba are your unit’s biggest threat,
because they can sneak around and decimate our forces. The saurians are big and
can be easily pelted with arrows.”

I could feel his stare trying to burn through the side of my head as he said, “So if
your spears can hold them back, we can win this?”

“And so long as you don’t underestimate their speed. We can escape from saurians
and dwarves with ease, but the jarcoba will mow us down if they’re not taken care
of.”

“Understood.” That’s it? I let out a sigh of relief as I made my way to our troops only
to have my hopes viciously crushed by Toross going on about something
pretentious, I’m sure. What else would he be saying?

He addressed the troops first. Laying out the plans in a fashion that suggested
everyone was a child. A mature child, but a child nonetheless. He tried to order my
men around, but I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
“Thank you, Ross, I’ll take it from here”
His golden eyes tried once again to burn a hole into the back of my head, but he
knew the problems that could arise from two leaders fighting in front of their
subordinates.

Little less than an hour later the war games began. The horn blared and all the other races raced towards us. Looks like they realized the danger of so many archers. As
planned, the archers fired volley after volley at the approaching jarcoba. They ran
out of the way of the falling sticks but Toross adapted. He ordered them to fire on
either side of them. Some of them tried to run out of the wooden rain by moving
towards the middle, but smashed into each other as they panicked. Others who tried to run out got caught in the rain and just like that, our biggest threat was halved as
another volley hurled towards the middle. They then scattered. Dogs spreading out
into every direction, but even our meager front line outnumbered them now.

I almost relaxed in our victory when I heard someone cry “Behind us!”

Sure enough a decent amount of Jarcoba had snuck up on us. Maheed leads the
pack. I rush back there to duel him. It was the least bloody blood bath I had ever
seen as their wooden short swords smacked our archers all over. They put up a
fight, but a poor one. I smashed into Maheed with my shield following up with a
thrust from my training sword. He wasn’t there for my sword to stab though. He
danced around me trying to get a good hit with that rat-like grin sprawling across his
face. I felt my own lips twitch into a sick smile.

We fought for a while, but eventually an outside force intervened. One of my troops tried to ram into Maheed. He failed. Maheed danced around him and got a good hit on his back. But, that gave me a chance at his neck. I didn’t miss. We managed to
fight off the rest of the jarcoba, but we had sustained substantial losses. Without a
leader, the jarcoba were quickly eradicated. I found the soilder who tried to save me and put my hand on his shoulder. “Your sacrifice left our enemy afraid. Good job.
Next time, ram with your weapon out first and your shield protecting you.” He
nodded and ran off.

The rest of the war games progressed as we expected. We we’re able to move away
from the terrifying army of lizards while arrows hit them again and again. We almost ran out. The dwarves gave us more trouble than we thought. They set up in
defensive circles that no arrows could get past. We needed our spears to get close
enough to stab the gaps, but when we got close, they jumped out at us with spears
of their own. They also had some archers of their own, but our superior range
eliminated them before they had a chance to shoot at us.

We won the day, but just barely. That was fun. Although I already noticed something missing in my command skills. I didn’t command. I gave the plan at the beginning
and then became a regular solider. I need to survey the field better to help out
more. After our victory I made my way over to the other captains who were already
in discussion. I slid in like I belonged. We each were able to point out what the other
did wrong and where we could improve ourselves. As our conversation continued,
Toross showed up. “Well, now do you other races see the might of elven archery? I
am sure you have often gazed upon our splendor with awe-“

We all stared at him with blank expressions waiting for him to finish. He didn’t.
Before too long we turned back towards each other and continued our discussion
with Toross saying something in the background. What was he even on about? We
spent the rest of the day sparring with the other races.

As the weeks pass, with a war game at the end of every week and our teams
changing each time. The other captains and I noticed something. We never fought
against humans. Our enemy, Karvithia, is supposedly an entirely human city-state.
We’ll need to fight against them at some point if we want to be truly prepared. We
each tried to ask a question to the strategy instructor, but in classic human fashion
they denied our questions. Instead, we would each appeal to our race instructors.

Toross and I approached our drill sergeant in the brief window we had at lunch. “I
see some fuckin flies have come to interrupt my meal. You two better have a damn
good reason to be here otherwise neither of you will sleep tonight.” So, we’ve been
upgraded to flies?

Toross replies. “Sir. We’ve come regarding the interracial training. I-”

“Don’t deal with that. Each of you run around the grounds from shut eye to the
morning bugle.”

I embellish Toross’s statement. “Sir. But you do deal with the survival of Solaris.”

He grumbles. “Spit it out.”

I look to Toross, who gives me an approving nod. “We need to train against humans. ‘Know your enemy.’ Sir. We ask that you send an appeal to the human drill sergeants to allow this to happen.”
We salute him. He looks at us while still eating. It’s the first time I haven’t seen an
angry scowl on his face. I didn’t know his face could move in such a fashion.

Finally, he says something. Well. He yells something. “All of you! Run the grounds
with your meals. Thank your captains! You two!”
Our salutes haven’t broken. But his voice fell from a scream to a disgruntled
agreement. “One. Letter.”

“Sir, thank you sir!”

He roars at us. “Are you two giant piles of shit stuck to my boot! MOVE!”

“Sir, yes sir!” We run off.

At the end of the week, we saw our humans. Honestly, I’m not sure what we were
afraid of. Humans don’t have any specialty like we do, but they’re also effective in all
fields. Just. Not enough to overpower any of our squads. The demi-human army
crushes the human army. That made all of us feel pretty damn good. Even Wal,
who's face I've never seen display the slightest emotion, smiled briefly at our victory.

We actually held two war games this week. Each force was split in half. Two identical armies of humans and demi-humans. This battle was much more difficult. Both,
working with the humans and against the other demi-humans made the fight a pain to win. If we were fighting with real weapons, only 20 people would have been left
alive out of the countless trainees. The weeks continued the same. Except now we
had humans in our war games. Eventually. We were done.

The elves are standing in lines based on our class. Lined up like this makes it seem
that there’s a lot more of us than I remember. Or maybe I just can’t recognize the
sickly meek elves that once inhabited the slums. These look like warriors.
Especially me. I had some muscle before from stealing and what naught but now?
The elven babes’ll come rolling in. Sergeant Gore walks out in front of us. That
furious scowl almost looks… Proud?

“I’ll admit, I had no expectations of you dagger ears. I thought you would keel over
and die or quit before I was through with you. Looking at you now, I can hardly
recognize the pathetic elven peasants that once stood before me. I would love to
torture you lot a while longer, but unfortunately Karvithia is upon us. Our scouts
report that they’ll arrive noon tomorrow. I’ll be proud to fight alongside you for this
coming battle. Be grateful whelps! That’s the first time I’ll be proud of anything an
elf does. Don’t let me down! Dismissed!”

We salute. And chant “Sir, yes sir!”
Then we march. We should be celebrating but. I can’t help but feel like I’m marching to my death. And I’m dragging everyone with me. I look around to the solemn looks on everyone’s faces. We need a leader. They need me.

I straighten my back. “Why are we all so gloomy? We’re one step closer to seeing our families! We’re one step closer to proving to the humans that we are their equal!
No. That we are their superiors! Raise your voices! For today we march as true men! We march to victory! We march to our future! Raise! Your! Voices!”

Some cries of victory followed, but some were still skeptical. Toross spoke next.
“Rejoice brothers! For we get to regain our elven glory! Kar’Desh is right. We march
not to prove ourselves to the humans! But to put them in! Their! Place! Display to
them our splendor! We march, not just for the glory of Solaris! But for the glory of all elves! For our families! For your wives! For your children! We march! Raise! Your!
Voices!”
That got them going. Now we were cheering. That’s more like it.

As we’re cheering and celebrating a courier approaches me on a horse. “Kar’Desh?

This is strange. “Yeah, why?”

“Come with me.”

The elves call after me. “Meet back up with us on the battlefield!”

I’m not sure what to say, so I just raise my fist up in the air with ‘a grin straight from
the lord of war.’ The words of another potential employer. It worked. They all cheer. The human leads to the castle and up some stairs. I asked him what’s this all about, but he remains silent. Humans really are bad at explaining things. We get up to the
top of the tower to find a big door. He knocks and it opens. What's behind the door
makes my heart stop. He’s led me to a trap!