Chapter 52: New comrades.

In the middle of a forest, two kids of about ten years old were walking leisurely chatting idily pointing out from time to time different kind of facilities.

They were of course the two childhood friends Edam and Zaz.

They were currently going to their camp and as the two of them were in the same camp, Zaz just thought that he would introduce the surrounding area to Edam.

"...And this is the arena of our camp..." Zaz point out a certain place.

"Okay..." Edam looked it briefly before saying. "This island is really big, is the camp still far away...?" They had walk for a long time now but they didn't seemed reach this camp at all.

"Hum..." Zaz pondered a bit and then said. "A bit yeah..."

"Haaa..." Edam sighed but then decide to just admire the surrounding landscape.

As he was admiring the different places Edam said. "...so if I understood it well, we are going stay here for three long years to study before passing a test that will determine our ranks in the Navy, is that it ?"

"Hum... mostly, but of course we won't just study you know... we will do some activities or even go to some special place to train or so that's what I heard."

"Hum..."

...

They then walked a long, long way... till they finally reached a normal looking camp with a lot of tent around. The place was however quite filthy and unclean with a lot of dry and dead leaves left there on the ground.

Edam "..."

At the side just below a sort of opened circus tent, there were about ten girls and boys each sitting on a chair with a table, while what seems to be the instructor was standing in front of them with a black board behind him.

"...Alright, today the lesson will be on..." At the content of the lessons it was clearly and simply no more than just a normal lessons being given to by a professor to its students. Nothing more, nothing less...truly...

However...

"..." However Edam's face twitched slightly when his gaze swept across them all and then turned to Zaz.

"Hey you really omitted a lot of things you know..." Edam gaze at his buddy and then the people.

"Well..." Zaz shrugged his shoulders plainly. "Surprise...?" looked at Edam with calm demeanor.

"A bit, yeah..."

Looking closely at the "class", everything seemed to be normal at first-... no even at first sight there was still something weird going on... because...

The majority of the class were in fact... Minks tribe people !!!

There were two humans and four fish-men but every other ones were just minks.

And weirdly enough they were only ten while outside there were so much people who had entered this training camp so why were they only ten ? Edam considered the question before thinking.

'So we are the section "Monsters" huh... hum...well in my case, i'm a monster indeed...'

Anyway when Edam and Zaz arrived, every students heads apart from the teacher's head turned to the two arriving boys.

"... Zaz sit..., Edam come here..." The professor then by who know how call their names without even turning around to look at them.

"Hello... Uncle Salm-... ?" Edam then greet the teacher but was interrupted by the said teacher.

"It's Vaughn-sensei here..." The teacher glared at him a bit. Obviously this Vaughn knew Edam personally and that was because he was in fact...

Zephyr's adopted son Salmon Vaughn...and so Zaz uncle. As Edam grew up with them he too came to call him Uncle too.

Vaughn was physically speaking... really handsome... He was silver haired and had a somewhat frosty pair of eyes as well as a light-blue hair color long enough to reach the middle of his back.

Anyway, Edam just replied. "Yes..." And then turn to greet with a little nod of the head the fellow comrades that would be with him from today onward for three long years as he then began to observe everyone while they did the same in return.

Then Edam's eyes wondered about to first rest on four guys or so he speculated that they were boys though he couldn't be sure because the four guys were actually...

Four turtles kid guys...!!!

One of them for god's sake and devil's damnation had the uniques and distinctives traits of an Aligator !!!

Aligator's claw, Aligator's razor like-teeth, a small protruding mouth, an Aligator's tail, he had them all...!

But not just this one, all the other turtles had some stranges caracteristics that didn't belong to their species.

Overall there was a turtle Cat, a turtle Aligator, a turtle Bird and lastly a turtle Chameleon.

If they didn't have their turtle shells on their backs as well as their skins color, Edam would have had a tough moment to say what races they were from.

"..." Edam was completely stunned about what he saw... the hell was that ?! There was actually a turtle cat in this vast world...

His gaze even seemed to embarrassed the youngest guy that is the turtle cat and was going to piss off one of his brother who was about to open his mouth as Edam broke out of this stunned-state in the next moment.

"Ah sorry, it was rude of me, it's the first time I see a turtle cat..." Edam scratched his head embarrassedly as he laughed a bit.

"Oh uh, uh it's nothing..." Turtle cat replied shyly as he then looked down. he was clearly the timid one of them.

"All right present yourself first and then you will take a seat." Vaughn-sensei said as he began to write what they were going to do.

"...Hum... Alright, so first of all my name is Monkey D. Edam, I love to eat all kind of foods, especially meat-based food... my grandpa is a marine officer and as I do not have a precise objective for now I was send here to learn and to be contro-... anyway and...Ah right I have a monkey tail." He was going to say "to be controlled." but it didn't seemed to be a good idea in fact.

Instead he then showed his long and black and cute monkey tail to the class drawing out stunned expressions out of them while suddenly...

"You're the same as Zaward ?!" Two voice rang out powerfully as two girls, minks girls who were at the first row stood up abruptly at the same fraction of a second while yelling the same sentence.

The two minks girls were twins, they had the same faces with the only difference being their hairstyle.

As for them, they had the features of a lioness, they were golden-furred, blonde-haired, quite curvaceous for their ages, and well-endowed with brown eyes, lioness ears, and a long fluffy tail.

One of the sister's hair was tied up into twin tails while the other one's hair was tied into a pony tail.

They wore a simple and plain Marine's uniform, in fact all of them were wearing the same uniform as a dress code.

"Hum Yeah but...Nope, I'm not a minks, my grandpa and my doctor told me that I was not a minks..." Edam replied to the two girls questions and then thought. 'As for what I am truly even I don't know."

At this, the two lioness girls seemed to doubt a little as they began to sniff him. They were near so their nose were about two meters away from him.

"It's true, you don't smell like our kind, but you do smell familiar..." They looked at him with an unbelievable expressions on their faces while Zaz said suddenly gazing at them.

"Oy, stop that, Kyara, Cyera it's impolite..." At his "scolding" they immediately stop sniffing Edam.

"Ah sorry Zaward..." They sat down and kept quiet while apologizing to Zaz instead of Edam.

"No worry..." Edam smiled faintly and waved his hand as he just kept silent while Vaugn-sensei opened his mouth.

"Edam go take a seat we will begin, you will have to caught up to the lesson on your own."

In response Edam just nodded slightly and sat beside Zaz as the lesson began.

...

Two hours later, the lesson was finished as they were allowed an hour of break before they return back to it.

Meanwhile Edam was still sitting on his chair as he was talking to Vaughn about something.

"Uncl-...Sensei... what about the canteen is there one or..." Having called someone Uncle for most of his life, it was a bit difficult to change.

"No, you will have to eat the food that you will find on the island, don't worry it is big enough even for you but if push come to shove then there's always the sea." Vaughn replied indifferently.

"You will also have to make your own tent or search for a cave or something." Vaughn explained to him everything.

The thing was that they had to stay on this island for a whole week and could only return back to their homes for two days off.

"Well you know how to cope on your own right ?"

"Hum... Alright... it should be easy..." Edam replied leisurely clearly showing that it wasn't much for him.

And at this excess of confidence Vaughn really did want to say something but even he knew that Edam really wasn't boasting. Having been throw in a forest since a young and tender age has forge him a sort of survival instinct.

Though this method wasn't advisable it was effective indeed.

Without stating his immense innate strenght, it would be tough for him to find a challenge on an island of this level that didn't offered up the strongest beasts but only those supportable for an average boys and men.

And the thing is that Edam is not a human to begin with... and that Vaughn knew it.

...

After talking for a good twenty minutes, Edam decided to sleep below a tree. He sat down, his back on the trunk, with his hands acting as a cushion as he looked at the sun's rays shining brightly despite the tree's myriad of leaves blocking it before slowly closing his eyes for one hour or so he thought but...

Just as he had sink deeply into sleep's embrace, the sound of footsteps came to his ears making him open his eyes slowly.

"So you were here..." His buddy was standing in front of him with the two twins girls just behind him.

"Oh it's time to go ?" Edam asked with heavy eyes even thought he didn't sleep for a very long time.

"No, no we have about half an hour again." Zaz shook his head lightly.

"Oh~..." He replied leisurely but then, his face twitch in anger as he said in an annoyed tone.

"Then why did you wake me up...?!" A grieving expression on his face as he then muttered under his breath.

"My delicious buttered steak, my hamburgers, my dear thousand gonny fish..." he muttered a dozen of dishes in a sentimental voice before lifting his head abruptly to look at Zaz with a weird but deep voice.

"I hope that you do have a good excuse because even if it's you Zaz, prepare yourself..." Edam's voice was emotioneless and devoid of any humanity that were still present earlier. Cold Edam was back...

Zaz began to sweat profusely knowing that Edam wasn't joking. "Uh, uh wait I..." At his face he was clearly searching for a made up excuse as his eyes suddenly went to the corner, making an idea arise.

"Oh right, I've come to present them, here is Cyera the oldest and Kyara the youngest. They are my fi-...uh my...my cousins..." Zaz replied with a sweat as he was then relieved but this excuse for a reason didn't pleased the two sisters as they protest against it.

"What...?!" Cyera exclaimed followed by Kyara who exclaimed next.

"What are you talking about...we're not your cousins..." Cyera said with a pouting mouth.

"That's right we are your-...." Just as Kyara was going to say something, Zaz began to make a lot of noise.

"@%#*$&%*#^..."

...!$@^!#^#%!^..."

It continued for a good half a minute till...

"You shut up..." Cold Edam calm but annoyed voice rang out suddenly shutting Zaz's mouth on the spot.

Zaz "..."

Edam then looked at Kyara and asked. "Sorry what were you saying again ?"

"I was saying we are his..." it seems that Zaz still want to stop the thruth from coming out but a glare from "Cold Edam" calmed him down.

"We are Zaward's fiancées...!" The two of them replied smilingly.

...