Chapter 3: warrior basket pt. 3

Later down the day we were eating tortillas, waiting near the entrance’s stone gates. Earlier Helen suggested buying me a southern Delivery Quetzal because then I can send letters to my sister. I rejected the suggestion because I really didn't feel like taking care of an animal in my stay so she just bought one herself. Honestly I got a little jealous of her seeing her play with her new friend in its little birdcage.

“We're opening the gates.” My eyes lit in excitement.

“Finally, Helen, let's go.” I got super excited and quickly grabbed my baskets. We rushed to the entrance, a beautiful moss garden, running on the wooden-track “path” to get to the actual Sun Academy building. I rushed to the entrance to get ahead of everyone but as I did, a priestess was blocking the entrance.

“Halt, wait for your name to be called to get in” More waiting?! FUCK!

Me and Helen sat besides one another on some mossy stone benches, feeling the approaching night’s cold air, Waiting for our names to be brought up with the rest of the other tired newcomers. After a while an old looking priest went out the entrance to call names in.

“...Dave son of Marlo step forward if you’re here …Cal jr son of Cal step forward if you're here …Val daughter of Alice the spark …”

“THAT'S ME!” I called and hopped off the rock, almost elegantly falling on my sandals and stepping forward. I got a few uncomfortable stares since everyone else was busy listening if it was their name, but they weren't mean just a little confused.

Sadly Helen's name wasn't mentioned so that means I had to move on without her… We were brought into the academy and into one of the closest rooms left to the entrance. We Were assigned shoes with our name and priest number(mine was 0D.EF), a basket with equipment and we were then brought to the fitting room to get the warrior priest’s CU(ceremonial uniforms) sizes and try them on. Naturally having tried the uniform before getting to the academy I quickly put it on, went to the priest watching over us and offered to help the rest with the belts, and tieing the back. It was a good idea because now the other newcomers saw me as a source they can rely on.

After everyone had their new uniforms fitted, we were taken to my disadvantage, the interview room. “We're going to give a short few questions, please don't linger too long on the question. If everyone is struggling please raise your hand.” The priest said as another two started handing everyone amatls¹ with basic questions and brush pens. I raised my hand, the newcomers turned their heads to look at where the priest was looking. “Yes?” From the way the priest tilted their head they didn't expect someone to actually have a problem.

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“Uh… I struggle with reading, can someone help me read the questions for me…” This is so embarrassing, I really wish Helen was here… the one from the village and the new Helen.

Everyone gave me blank stares of “no” until a guy with beautiful golden eyes, killer jawline and curly hair rose up. “I wasn't planning on standing up, but the way the room frooze, it was just the right thing to do.” He grinned with gentle confidence and got closer to me. “Don't worry, I can read pretty fast” Oh and his uniform fitted him pretty tightly… oh wow. I very quickly discovered this was a terrible idea. … I really wish the ceremonial uniform had sleeves because his firm and toned left arm leaned against my right arm the entire time that he was reading questions for me with his calm and soothing voice. I actually had to ask him to repeat the questions multiple times… The embarrassment… Zond, please forgive me… The questions themselves were pretty generic though, asking about our income, personality and any troubles we might need help with throughout the stay, obviously reading was one of them so I added that.

One of the equipment we got was a macuahuitl, well specifically a mock one so the obsidian was replaced by blunt smooth black rock but everyone still got pretty hyped about it. A lot of the newcomers were trying it on their belt’s sheath, I admit it looked badass as fuck. When I came back to the garden Helen wasn't there, probably called in just as i got out. So I just stuck with the hot guy. I discovered his name was Daimien.

“Wait… why is Val familiar to me…” Damien thought out loud. “Are you from Chioxtot?”

“Yes… wait” It clicked suddenly ,like a charcoal being incinerated my eyes lit up “are you… Damien son of Edward?”

“Yes! I can’t believe we get to talk again” That’s right holy shit, he’s the childhood friend i lost when i was 7. We started immediately matching up severed connections, why he had to leave, etc… though to be honest most of the time I couldn’t really focus because I was looking at his visible muscly chest through the male CE’s big V they had on their collars.

“Did you struggle to read because you were illiterate?” Damien asked while looking down at me.

“What?” I didn't concentrate on what he was saying, shit.

“I said, are you illiterate?”

“Uh no, for some reason when i read and write i always get the letters mixed up” Back home I had village Helen and Abigail read me scrolls of the fables I wanted to read and help in schoolwork so I already knew I'll have some difficulty when I entered.

“Interesting.” He said and placed his hand on my shoulder, yessssss. “Well, every time you need help, just make sure to call me, I think I'd wanna stay in touch with you~” He said in a way that made it feel like he was flirting, was he?

“Hey Damien, you're coming with us?” A couple of guys came, his supposed friends asked.

“Oh yeah” He waved me to myself to sink into my own thoughts. I HAVE to tell Helen about this, holy.

[1. A type of bark paper]