Chapter 15 (Josephs POV) Get Down!

It felt like we had been walking all day at this point. My body was really starting to wear down on me. I shivered thinking about what it would be like when I actually started my training. You might think, that the fact that I was living in the wild and hunting for my prey, would mean I was in good shape, but I really wasn't.

I was in fairly bad shape indeed... I may hunt from time to time, but that was usually the only time that I would leave camp. Most of my days were usually just sitting in my tent, and thinking about what could have been... What could have been, if none of this had ever happened of course.

What could have been, if my uncle would have never been killed, and my fathers life had not gone to shit. Or what could have been a life with Julia and my sister at least. But no... They were all gone, and they were all dead now, by father was included in that practically...

I looked at the ground a bit sadly, but I just kept on going, even though it felt like my leads were going to snap in half right now. That was all I could do, this was my life now, and I hated living this way... I hated seeing everyone all around me all weak and depressed. That did not help the mood in the air at all as well.

I shook my head and then I just kept on walking, staring down at the ground still, and not enjoying any of the scenery that was around me either. There was no reason to enjoy that, there was no one to enjoy it with for one thing, and another, none of this would matter the way things were looking as well.

I saw my fathers foot right in front of me, and I stopped myself as I nearly came crashing into him. I looked up at him as I saw that he had noticed it as well, as he had his eyes squinted at me. I put my hands up as a way of apologizing to him, and he just shook his head and looked away from me.

I looked at what it was that he was looking at in the first place, before I had nearly walked right into him. I saw that John was standing still, and he had his right hand up to stop us from continuing on with our extremely long trek as well.

I looked at each of them a bit confused as to what it was that was going on. I could tell that they were just as confused as I was as well. I thought that maybe I had missed something, partially due to the fact that I really was not paying any attention to what was going on around me at the moment.

I looked through the heavily wooded area that was in front of us as well. It was normally where we spent most of our day, just walking through some usually heavily mudded wooded terrain half the time. It was kind of shitty, but it was what is was.

It kept us safe, and there was no complaining about that I suppose. Though sometimes I had this feeling that I did not want to be alive. There was nothing left for me in this world any more. I felt like I had lost every single thing that I had ever cared about, all at once.

Nothing seemed to be getting any better either. I shook my head thinking about things like that, I really hated those sort of thoughts as well. Maybe I could get all of that off of my mind when I started my training as well. If I was always busy doing a certain task, than that meant that I would be thinking about what I was doing a lot more than thinking all of these negative thoughts that were swarming through my head right now.

My mind went off all of that right away, as I looked up at John. He turned his head over to all of us, and then he nodded to make sure that all of us were paying attention. Which was meant at me mainly for the most part as well. He knew that I was lost deep in my thoughts a lot of the time.

I looked at him for a few moments, just to make sure he knew that I was going to listen to what it was that he was about to say to all of us. I looked at him for just a bit longer, and then I nodded, and then waited for him to begin to speak to our little group.

After he knew that I was ready to hear what it was that he was about to say, he looked over at the others one last time, until he nodded to himself. Then he looked back down at his map for just a few more seconds. Once he thought of what it was he was going to say, he looked back up and then began to speak to all of us, so that each of us heard what it was that he had to say.

"Alright... So, it is getting a bit dark right now, and there is a field right near us, so we were going to walk by that and get to the wooded area ahead of that. We are going to stay the night there, did everyone understand what I just said? It should be no less than an hour from now." He said to us. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I looked at the others to make sure that they had heard what he had just said as well.

Each of us then nodded to him, to let him know that we had heard what it was that he had just said. I wondered if he was just looking at the map to do what it said, or if he had actually been here before. I really was not too sure, it seemed like the world that we lived in was practically endless.

There was so much unexplored land, and no one knew what was past the oceans. People had been on boats before, to go try and find what was on the other side, but a lot of the time they never came back. Which led to people believing there was a flat earth, and that they had simply fallen off the edge.

I was not too sure about that though, if there was just a flat earth, than they would see that from quite a long ways away, and they would be able to turn the boat around before they fell off the edge... And what happened to all of the water that was there as well?

I shook my head, because none of that really mattered right now. I was not sure why that was even in my thoughts either. I looked back up, as I saw that John was waiting for someone to say something, to at least let him know that we had heard what it was that he had just said to us.

Padre was just looking around, and I could clearly tell that he was amazed at the scenery that was in front of him. I felt a bit bad for him, his whole life he had practically been living on the streets. I had seen a lot better than this on trips with my family when I was a lot younger.

John was still looking at all of us, and mainly at me, as I saw that he had his eyes squinted at me as well. I sat there for a few more moments, as I thought of something to say to him. Once I thought of it, I then began to speak of what I had just thought.

"Okay... So how far away are we from meeting up with the legion?" I asked him. He looked at me for a few moments, and then he nodded gratefully, happy that one of us had finally responded to what he had just said to all of us.

He looked back down at the map for just a bit longer, which told me all that I needed to know. He had not been in this area ever before, so why was he telling us to enjoy the scenery? I shook my head trying not to think about it too deep. He most likely was just trying to get our minds off of all of the thoughts that were swarming our heads.

It seemed fairly smart as well, so I should just let it be. After a few moments longer, John finally looked up from his map, and then he coughed to get all of our attentions once again. This time it was not meant at me, though he was responding to the question that I had just asked him.

Each one of us then turned our head to him, as I saw that Uncle was looking at him with 0 expression on his face at all. John noticed it as well, though he did not say anything about it. He tended to be like that a lot of the time, so it did make sense as to why he said nothing.

Once John made sure that all of us were listening to what it was that he had to say again, he then nodded to all of us and he began to speak what it was that was going on through his mind at the exact moment in time, and what our plan was as well.

"Uh... That is going to be nearly 100 KMs away from us, so don't get your hopes up... Not that you should be doing that anyways..." John said to us. Rolling his eyes at the same time as he saw the look on Padres face begin to light up. I was not sure why Padre was so excited either.

John had told us several times, that none of this was going to be fun. Maybe Padre was just happy to finally have some sort of use in his life. I was thinking the same sort of thing as well, so now that I thought about it a little bit more, it really did not surprise me all that much.

My father looked at John quite a bit surprised about all of this, which confused my quite a bit. He knew that this was coming at some point, so he should not be surprised at it happening to us right now. My father looked at him for a few moments, which John did not seem to notice at all.

John then looked back down at the map, clearly wondering if he had calculated all of what we were about to do correctly. My father was still staring at him for a bit longer, until he finally decided that he was going to speak up on all of this.

"We are going to meet the legion now? Should you have not taught us some things before we got there?" He said to John. I looked at my father, and then nodded to him, even though I knew that he could not see me do that. It was a very good question though, and I must admit, I really had not thought about that until now.

John, once again, like he usually did, pretended as if he had not heard my father speak at all. It really did annoy me when when he did that as well. Maybe he was a bit embarrassed that he had not thought to do that at all, it sure did make a lot of sense.

He could have at least taught us how to shoot a bow a bit better, or hide from the dragons... That was the whole point of the legion I had heard from his legion mates. They were meant to be well hidden, and shoot as accurately as they could when they had their chance.

That is what really gave them such a big advantage on the dragons. The dragons did not have long ranged combat. So it made sense as to how that would work to our advantage. I also knew that they did not have the best eyes in the world as well.

One of Johns legion mates had told me about my Uncle beating one of the most well astounded red dragons in a might with his sword once. I shivered just thinking about how I could ever be possibly as strong as my Uncle was. Everyone expected me to be so great, and they did not know, that aside from my visions that I had, I really was just a normal young adult.

I shook my head, trying not to worry to much about that right now. We had not even met up with the legion yet, so I did not need to have all of my thoughts pointed on that all of the time. I knew it was going to be rough, but I would get through it.

I looked over at John, as he finally looked up, as he clearly had spent a fair amount of time just thinking of what to say back to my father. He squinted his eyes at him, as if he was trying to scare my father a little bit, though I knew my father was not the best fighter ever, I knew that he did not get scared easily.

John sat there for a few moments longer, as I could tell that the others that were with us were starting to get a bit antsy with just sitting in this same spit for such a long time. John realized it as well, as he finally decided to speak back to what my father had just said to him in the first place.

"Um... Well that is the whole point of what you will learn in the legion. I simply cant teach you shit on my own, you need them to help you... You guys wont be alone, there are several others that will be there too learning with you." He said to us. Not meant at my father at all. I nodded to him, it was a smart response, and it also made a fair bit of sense too.

I did not expect it to be all apart of the same legion without any new people. John had told me that there were less than 50 people from the original legion in the first place. Which also led me into a new question that I felt like I should ask John as well.

I looked over at John, as I saw that he was once again looking at the map as he had been doing for quite a while now. As if he was expecting it to change shape right in front of his face. The others were also looking around quite a bit surprised, and a bit confused as to what he had meant as well.

I figured that I should go ahead and ask my question before we went ahead and began walking out into the field, looking for the woods ahead of us that we were going to stay the night at. I looked at John, and he looked up at me as if he was reading my mind and he knew that I was about to ask him a question.

It kind of caught me off guard, I was not going to lie to myself. But I steadied myself, as I nodded to him as well. He nodded back to me and he waited for me to go ahead and speak what it was that was on my mind. Though I was not sure how he would respond to it. I began to finally speak to him.

"So... You never told us how many people were in the legion in the first place." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, squinting his eyes at me. As he normally did when I asked him a question. After a few moments he then nodded to what it was that I had just said to him.

I looked at him for a few moments, as he just sat there, and he looked back down at his map. I wondered if he was going to respond to what it was that I had just asked him. The others were too busy lost in their own thoughts to even notice the interaction that had just happened between us as well.

I shook my head, and I was just about to lower it to the ground as well, that was until I saw that John lifted his head up and he nodded at me in specific to get my attention. As if the others were not ever paying attention to what it was that we were saying to each other anyways.

I looked back up at John, and then I back at him as well. I wondered what it was that he was about to say to me too. He always took a lot of time to respond to what I said to him. I wondered if it was because he was thinking of a response, or if he was just trying to get on my nerves, which would not surprise me at all of that were the case.

John sat there for a few moments, and then he turned his head to the trail that we were walking upon. I looked at what it was that he was looking at, though I could not see what it was. Finally, after a few more moments, he then turned his head back towards me, and he began to speak.

"Umm... Last time there were at least a thousand of us... This time there might be a lot more. We will just have to see about it... That is a lot of the reason I told you to be ready... Yes the work will be hard, but kid... You are going to have to step up, and it wont be easy." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I gulped.

I then lowered my head to the ground, because I knew as well, just as much as my father did, though I was not sure if he was paying very much attention in the first place, was that I was not very good with speaking in big grounds. I most certainly was a lot more of an introvert.

I guess if I wanted the human race to live though, that was going to have to change however. It put a lot of stress on me as well, when John told me the entire humans species was in my hands. He did know that it did not make me feel any better about anything, surely right?

I looked back up at all of the group that I was with, as I saw that Padre surprisingly stepped up. It was a surprise to me because it seemed like just a few moments ago that they were not paying attention to what we were saying to each other at all.

John looked at Padre, and then squinted his eyes at him as well. Though Padre was used to it at this point, and him, much like my father, was not scared very easily at all. A lot of that had to do with the gang related life that he had grown up on, I was sure.

Padre sat there for a few moments, and then squinted back at him, it came as a bit of a surprise to John, though I did know that it did not scare him one bit. He stopped squinting at him, and then he just looked at him to hear what it was that he had to say in the first place. After a few more moments of silence, Padre stepped up, and he began to speak his voice.

"So... If it is hard for him, than why were you saying it to us, as if you were trying to scare all of us?" He said to John. I looked at Padre, as I was a bit surprised to what he had just said to John. Though I knew as well, that it was a very good question too.

However, I was a bit surprised this time to see that John was very quick to respond to him, which now made me think quite a bit more that the only reason he took so long to respond to our questions, was to annoy the hell out of us.

As I looked over at John, he then again had his eyes squinted at Padre as he began to speak to him. Though this time I could tell that it was not to try and scare him like he normally did when he squinted his eyes at us. I listened to what it was that he had to say to him though.

"The training will be rigorous... You will have it easy compared to him, if you want to think about it like that I suppose, now its getting very dark, so enough talking and lets start walking." He said to Padre. It was short and sweet, but it got straight to the point, and I could tell that it got Padre to shut up as well.

I looked at John, and then I nodded, though I shivered as I thought of what that could entail for the future of me. He did not pay attention to me, though I knew that he had seen me nod from the corner of his eye. He looked at everyone in the group to make sure they had heard what he had just said to us.

Each one of us in return nodded to him, as we waited for him to take the first steps out of the woods. As I looked a bit closer to what was ahead of us, I saw a small part of the clearing. If he said that it was going to take an hour to get to our next camp site, I knew that it had be a fairly big clearing that we were going to walk into.

I shivered thinking about what that might mean for us. I knew that usually once per week, while we were in a camp site in the woods, we would hear the extremely loud flaps of a dragon fly past us. I shivered thinking about there being several dragons walking in on us...

There was only so much that we could do with our bows in the end against a large group of dragons. I shook my head though as I saw that John began to walk towards the clearing that was in front of us. Each of the rest of us looked at each other for a few moments, and then we all nodded.

We then began to follow him through the trail that we had been walking on all day up to this point, until we reached the edge of the woods, and we stood completely still for a few moments, as I looked in front of us at what seemed like a steep uphill slope that looked endless.

As if my legs were not already weak enough as it was. I looked at the ground, just to look at my legs, and hope to see that they would be strong enough to withhold a little bit more pain. It did not seem like they would be, but it is what it is I suppose.

John looked at each one of us one at a time, and then he nodded to make sure that all of us were ready for the hard walk up the steep hill that was ahead of us. I looked up at the hill one last time, and then I nodded back to John.

I was worried for a few moments, but then I thought to myself, what should I really be worried about in the first place? My legs could make it, and I knew that for a fact as well. I was meant to be stronger than even John, so why was I telling myself that it was going to be too hard?

I shook my head and then I turned my head to Uncle, which actually came as a bit of a surprise to me that he finally decided that he was going to respond to all that we had said. It was very rare that he spoke, and when he did it was just a few words, in quite a depressing tone of voice.

"Why are we going to walk up that hill? We are all exhausted, why don't we just stay in these woods for the night and set up camp here?" Uncle said to John. I looked at John, as I was actually quite interested in how it as that he was going to respond to what Uncle had just said to him.

It made sense as to what Uncle had just said as well, so I was quite a bit curious as to how John was going to respond to what Uncle had just said as well. I was also on Uncles side with that too, I felt like I was about to pass out in front of the rest of them.

John turned his head to Uncle, as I could tell that he too was a bit surprised to hear Uncle talk as well. He looked at him for a few moments, and then he began to stroke his chin. It seemed as if he for the first time in quite a long time was questioning his own decision as well.

It did not last very long however, as just as soon as it seemed like he was going to tell us that we could stay in these woods for the night he then shook his head at him. I looked down at the ground a bit disappointed, because I really had no idea how me, and the others were going to make it up that hill in the first place.

John looked at Uncle for a few moments as he squinted his eyes at him. Uncle was the only person that it really got under his skin if you did that to him. It almost looked like John was going to crack a smile on his face at the same time as well. He did not though, as he finally decided to respond after the long period of silence as well.

"Look at it like this... We go up that hill, and when we get to camp we sleep good tonight... We stay here, and we do this in the morning and are tired as hell all day tomorrow. There is somewhere that I would like to check out tomorrow as well... I would like to get there before dark as well." He said to all of us. It now made sense as to why we were going up that hill now.

I doubt that he had thought of it like that at first, but it was a good idea to do that though. Each of us nodded to each other, and he nodded back to us as well. We then sat there and stared at the up hill clearing that was in front of us as well. Not a single one us was excited to walk up that hill either.

He looked at it, and I could tell that for a few moments he was thinking the same thing as well. He shook his head though and looked back at us to make sure that we were ready. After he figured that we were as well, he then was the first one to walk into the very large clearing.

I began to go up with him too, as I walked past the others. They seemed as if they were too tired to even think right now, and I felt a bit bad for them. I was happy for myself to be in at least somewhat decent shape compared to the rest of them.

As we kept on walking up the steady slope, I heard footsteps as someone was walking up close to me. I turned my head around to see that it was just Padre. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I nodded to him as well.

I could tell that he had walked up to me quickly as well, because he felt like he wanted to say something to me too. I slowed down for him just a bit because I could tell he was so tired, and it was wearing on him trying to get up to me so quickly.

Once we were up closer to each other, I looked at him and kept on slowly walking to his face as I waited to hear what it was that he was about to say to me. I could tell as the slower I walked as well, the faster that John was getting ahead of us, as if he did not realize that the rest of us were exhausted.

After a few moments, and Padre sitting there trying to catch his breath from just doing a simple jog up that hill. He then looked at me in my eyes for a few moments, as he then decided that he was finally going to speak to me. I saw Uncle giving him a dirty look as well, though both of us ignored it.

"I don't know about you, but I don't think I can make it up here... It seems like this goes on forever. I don't even see the forest up there either? How much further to we even have to walk if we get up there in the first place?" He said to me. I looked at him and then nodded, wondering the same thing as well.

I looked up the hill, and did not see any woods up there. I thought about it for a few moments, and then I was about to respond to what it was that he had to say. That was, until I heard something from not too far away in the distance.

I knew what it was right away, but I turned my head over to it just to see what it was. I looked, and I saw that there were 3 fairly big dragons heading right towards us. I stopped myself, and we all just stood there, as suddenly John was the fastest to respond as he did a loud whisper to the rest of us.

"All of you! Get down!"