Marrick stood with the other A ranks, 16 in total. Only 4 made it into S ranks, 23 B, the majority in C, 37 in total. And finally 10 in d rank.

  They were in single file with the D ranks in front, followed by C and so on. The S ranks stood in the front with the D ranks.

  "Your training begins NOW!" A man in light leather armor began pacing down the line, giving them instructions. The town gate slammed shut behind them, punctuation his sentence. A reminder that Derrin's Hollow was closed to them, no longer home for the foreseeable future.

  "Your evaluation was about you! During this very long, very gruelling trek, you will learn to work as a team! You will support one another. You are only as strong," he paused and stared daggers into each and every individual D rank, " as your weakest links!"

  Marrick looked ahead. He was trying to see where Kerrik's fiasco in the water had landed him. He had kept up well until that point. He thought he saw him in the C ranks, but couldn't be sure as everyone was facing forward, toward the instructor.

  The S ranks stood just to the side of the D ranks. Two men brought a cart to the front of the line, between the S and the D ranks. "Alright, D ranks, in the cart. MOVE!"

  Hesitating for a brief moment, the d ranks looked at each other, unsure of what was happening. The instructor moved to the front of the line and turned toward the D ranks. He looked each of them in the eye. He didn't yell. He calmly repeated his instruction.

  "D ranks. In the cart. Now." If a look could kill, and Marrick had heard rumors that some monsters had the ability, the D ranks would have collapsed then and there.

  They shuffled to the cart, sitting side by side on small benches. "Good. Nice and comfortable? S RANKS! it is YOUR JOB to make sure the D ranks make it safely to Hothstead. You WILL NOT allow a pretty little hair on thier soft little heads to be harmed OR SO HELP ME!"

  He didn't need to finish his threat, it was pretty clear that the consequences would be drastic. The instructor turned and a smile slowly crossed his lips. "Now. As for the rest of you."

  ———

  Everyone, Marrick included, was issued a shield and short sword, a light leather vest with pockets and pouches for supplies, and a pack. The pack was filled with river rock.

  "Your pack contains 60 pounds of rock. You will not remove a single rock until you replace its exact weight with something else! You will notice you have not been provided with anything else!"

  He paced the line as he continued his instructions. "Now, you have been conscripted into The Concord of Blades Military. This is a mandatory five year service. You will not be seeing your home for some time!"

  Several people groaned, moaned and said expletives. "Good, some volunteers! You! You! Aaand...you! Back of the line! Move!"

  Two C ranks and a B rank moved to the back of the A ranks. Marrick could start to see where this was going. Not being as strong, they would begin to fall behind, and it would be thier responsibility to make sure that didn't happen. Suddenly he wished he'd been a C or a B rank.

  "As I was saying! Five! YEARS," he reiterated, yelling to make sure everyone heard. He paused. Marrick could feel the hope radiating off the Instructed, daring someone to make a noise. No one did.

  "On this journey, you will learn basic survival, how to navigate, how to work as a team. You will be evaluated, every step of the way. Your rank may change at any time. S ranks and A ranks will be selected for Hunter training once we arrive in Hothstead while the rest of you will proceed to more rigorous secondary training. But you have to survive that long, so don't even consider it. Some of you will not make it."

  He turned toward the D ranks, pausing. Staring. And then moved on. "Why are you still standing here?! MOVE OUT!" He barked the order and the S ranks, 2 pulling and 2 pushing started to jog forward. The Instructor just giggled to himself.

  ———

  After about six miles the S ranks were no longer in sight of the rest of the line, turning to a bend in the river along a hill, keeping where it was fairly flat and even save for the river rock.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Once out of sight the Instructor called a halt. "Now I'll let you in on a little secret, recruits! The S ranks ALWAYS pull ahead. And they ALWAYS regret it. I think we'll take us a little stroll! What do you think?" He turned sharply to face a C ranker. He stood, shaking, unsure of what to say.

  "I asked you a question! Back of the line! Let's go!" The instructor led the line away from the river, to the left and up the hill, rather than around the way the cart tracks went.

  The packs full of rock made the climb much more difficult. The grass was slick with morning dew and several recruits slipped. A few took down the person behind them, sliding down the hill.

  By the time Marrick had gotten to the top, almost everyone had made it. A couple c ranks were struggling to make the steep climb. He was unsure of what to do. The Instructor hadn't stopped moving and was gaining distance, with about half of the recruits falling back into line, following him.

  Marrick frowned. The Instructor had said this excersize was about team work, but the rankings, the segregation of the D ranks, the S ranks forced to care for them. It seemed designed to drive them apart more than bring them together.

  "Hey! Hey, gey back here! There's people still on the hill!" One or two looked back, but when no one else left the line to help, they just continued on with the others. Frustrated, Marrick turned to the ones that remained.

  "Here," drawing his sword, Marrick drove it into the ground and extended his hand to another recruit. "Grab my hand, well make a chain and pull them up, then we gotta move."

  Several recruits nodded and clasped hands, one or two just turned and began to walk away. "If they're too weak to climb a hill on thier own, they'll never survive the trip anyway. Let em go back home." One said as he left, waving a hand to brush them off.

  Marrick ignored them and crouched low, anchoring himself to the ground. The others lowered themselves onto the slick hill, careful not to fall themselves. They were able to extend about three quarters of the way down the hill.

  The last recruit turned out to be Kerrik. He extended his hand down. "You'll have to make it this far but we got you. Use your swords to dig in, just don't cut yourselves."

  The recruits at the bottom of the hill panted from thier exertion on the hill. They rose up as one, and began to ascend the hill, using thier swords as make shift walking sticks, sheathing them once they reached Kerrick and grabbed on.

  Pulling them up wasn't really an option. Marrick told the next guy to pass on a message. "Have them climb up using us as a rope and the last guy follow em till we're all up. We need to hurry or we'll have a hell of a run to catch up."

  By the time they had all reached the top of the hill, the formation had already moved out of sight. "Let's move!" Marrick yelled to the others. Most of the recruits began to jog in the direction they last saw the line, but a small group of four C ranker, none of the ones who couldn't make it, stood.

  "Who died and made you boss?" Marrick turned to look at the man who spoke. And laughed. "OK? Stay here then, that's your choice. Everyone made it up the hill." He turned and began to jog after the others. After a moment the four began to move out.

  ———

  The formation had stopped at the top of the next hill. While taller, it wasn't nearly as steep. Not from this side anyway. The cart full of D ranks was stuck in some mud at the bottom of the hill. Because they had not been explicitly told to do so, they did not leave the cart.

  The S ranks cursed and shouted as they tried to free the cart from the mud. The instructor watched and smiled. "Well, while we wait for them to catch up, it's time for a lesson!"

  The Instructor produced two bags and dropped them at his feet. He then separated the line into two groups, the ones who followed him, and the ones who stayed.

  "In this bag," the instructor nudged it forward, small gold star pins falling out, "is the good boy badges! And this bag," he nudged the other and red star pins fell out," is for the bad boys. The ones who don't listen. The ones who don't follow orders. The ones who will be losing ranks IF THEY DONT SHAPE UP!"

  He swooped down and picked up a hand full of red stars and threw them, hard, at the line of men who had followed him up the second hill. He then began quickly walking down the line, yelling in thier faces.

  "GRAB A RED STAR! MOVE! GO, GO GO!" They all scrambled at once, moving to grab a star and pin it on thier chest. Once they were back in formation, the Instructor did what he called a "Pin Attachment Security Check", which meant he went along and slapped thier red stars, hard, driving the back of thenpin into thier chest. Ya know. To make sure they were secured correctly.

  "You all get your goody two shoes stars and form back up. And YOU!" He looked Marrick dead in the eyes, unblinking. He held his gaze for a moment.

  "What is your name recruit?" Marrick jumped to attention. The Instructor had taught them basic drill and proper etiquette when addressing a superior before they left. "

  "Marrick. Marrick Havleth. Sir." He added, remembering to address the instructor as such. A small smile crept across his face. "Good. I'll be remembering that."

  Marrick was unsure how to feel about this, but he was confident it was not good for the Instructor to know your name, specifically. "You get two stars, for organizing the rescue effort." He then turned on his heel and moved to the small group of C ranker who got stuck at the bottom. "Grab you some red stars boys. And girl. One each for needing to be rescued. There is no place for weakness here. Get strong or get dead, because being weak gets others killed in this line of work."

  "A line we didn't choose," Marrick thought bitterly. Five years of his life, down the drain. At least. And he had no idea what Hunter selection meant, provided he kept his A rank status.

  "Now. Five gold stars gets you a nice pretty rank. Can anyone tell me what five red stars means? One of the B ranker spoke up. "It means we lo-" "IT WAS RHETORICAL!" The Instructor cut him off.

  "Everyone, pushup, now! On my count! WHAT THE HEL- DID I TELL YOU TO DROP YOUR PACK?!" An A ranker this time. "WHAT DID I JUST SAY ABOUT FOLLOWING ORDERS?! RED STAR!"

  After about forty five minutes of various excersizes, the S ranks came panting and heaving up the hill, cart full of D ranks in tow.

  "Glad you could join us! Alright everyone, move out!" The instructor began down the hill from where the cart had come. The S ranks looked like they were close to mutiny.

  ———

  The next three months were absolute hell. Mile after mile they trekked, in brutal heat and freezing rain. Up mountains and through ravines and canyons. Over rivers, or usually, through them.

  They learned team work, how to hunt and forage for foods, what plants and animals were common all over the Accorded Lands. How to build shelter and stay hidden, even in large groups.

  They learned the new laws they were expected to follow as members of the Accorded Lands and the customs and hierarchy of The Concord of Blades.

  They even learned about basic monsters, minor threats the military usually handled without the help of hunters. Formations and battle tactics, navigation, how to use the terrain to thier advantage when dealing with certain beasts.

  By the end, everyone who had made it were hardened by the trip. Thier bodies forged into iron themselves, prepared for the brutal tasks ahead.

  A B rank and two C ranks had fallen ill over the course of the trip. A couple more were lost crossing dangerous terrain, two of them D ranks. At some point when the terrain became too unstable, they abandoned the cart, but the S ranks were no less responsible. Two of them lost thier S rank and were demoted to A rank for the loss.

  In total, seventy six of the total ninety made it to Hothstead.