I didn’t hear from Torlan at all the next few days, though I occasionally caught him eyeing me with disdain. I opted to look somewhat cowed, hoping it would mean he’d be satisfied with what he’d already done. Combined with making sure I was never totally alone, he left me be.

  Classes were fine, pretty much exactly what I expected. We continued working on tactics in PTT while ensuring we kept up our physical training and shooting skills. Our practicum continued as before, going over the various ship roles and training on the equipment. Of course, Poldays were spent studying and relaxing with friends.

  It was two weeks into the term when things changed. We arrived in PTT as normal and did our warm-ups. We were then marched to a new part of campus, and I could see the looks of surprise on the other cadets faces, mirroring my own internal state. Our sergeant gave us no hint as to what was happening, just commanding us to follow him.

  We arrived at a wooded area where more marines were waiting. Our sergeant turned to us and stared us down.

  “While uncommon, occasionally our sailors need to evacuate ship. Usually, they float through space in an escape pod for a few hours or days until rescue, but rarely, they must make planetfall. It can be difficult to control exactly where an escape pod falls, and you can be lost in the wilds. In that situation, you may need to fend for yourself until your escape pod is located. For this reason, we teach basic bushcraft to cadets so that you all won’t die the first time you see a tree.

  “These fine marines in front of you will be leading you in small groups through the forest. Your job is to learn survival basics. This includes orienteering, fire starting, foraging, and hunting. Over this term and the next two, we will take short field trips to other biomes to learn the differences. You won’t be learning about specific plants or animals, as those vary between planets, but you will learn the basics of finding and preparing potable water and ways to test if food is safe to eat.

  “Later on, you will learn the Compass and Detect Toxin spells, which will help, but it’s important to understand the fundamentals before relying on spells. Now, each of these marines will call out a series of names. When your name is called, join your mentor.”

  One-by-one, the marines called out names in groups of six. When my name was called, I was surprised to see my instructor was a gnome! They weren’t common in Erythralia, let alone in the military, so it was unexpected. I joined my group, slightly disappointed to see none of my friends were in it, though I was loosely acquainted with most of them.

  “Okay, group. My name is Corporal Differdon, and I will be leading your group in basic wilderness survival tactics. Now, by a show of hands, who here has experience in the wilds?”

  Only one of our group raised his hand.

  “Hmm, unfortunate. Tell me, Cadet Eris, what experience do you have?”

  “Yes, Corporal. I have participated in traditional hunts with bow and spear.”

  “Did you spend multiple days living off the land during these hunts, or were they day trips?”

  “Mostly day trips, Corporal, though we did have one excursion that lasted three nights.”

  She nodded, her gaze unfocused as if pondering something. “I can work with that. Now, come, cadets. Try to be quiet as you walk—pay attention to where you step, avoiding sticks and the like.”

  She led us a bit further in before stopping. “The first thing to know about the wilderness, especially forests, is that it is incredibly easy to get lost. If you are not careful, you will end up walking in circles and never finding your way back. Having the Compass spell will help somewhat, but it only takes a few minutes of getting distracted to lose your direction.

  “There are a few strategies to mitigate this. Following rivers or streams gives you a clear landmark. Marking trees in some way helps you retrace your steps. Focusing on a tree in the distance and walking directly to it before finding another tree and doing the same can help keep you walking forward, though Compass is a better solution for that on any planet where it works. We’ll go over these strategies and more in the coming days and weeks.”

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  She continued on, talking more about navigation in an unfamiliar environment, until she finally stopped and asked us how to get back, sounding like she didn’t know. We all stared at her incredulously.

  “Important lesson—do not rely solely on one person to navigate. Everyone should be aware of how to get back to a safe base. Yes, I can lead us back, but you all should be able to as well. As punishment, drop and give me twenty.”

  We all immediately fell to the ground and began doing push-ups. Once we finished, the corporal led us out of the forest and handed us back to the sergeant.

  “We will be doing this after our warm-up exercises every day until the midterm, where you will have to demonstrate your understanding of the principles and techniques you will be learning. Dismissed.”

  Over the next two and a half weeks, we learned more about navigation, ways to purify water, fire-starting techniques, and more. We also learned the Compass and Detect Toxin spells, as promised. The former was relatively simple, while the latter was fairly complex. Unfortunately, neither spell was perfect. Compass would fail when the magnetosphere was too chaotic or weak, while Detect Toxin kind of had to “guess” sometimes.

  Nevertheless, the time came around for midterms. My lecture classes had exams as expected, while we were given a time slot for PTT where we were on our own with only one of the mentors watching over us. We were given a location and told to arrive there, create a fire, get drinking water, and do a few other things before returning within the time limit. I made it back with ten minutes to spare, a reasonable performance overall.

  The practicum exam was much the same as our previous ones, though I was curious what would happen when we were done covering all the ship roles we needed to learn.

  It was another week after that when Torlan made his move. I was tired and not paying enough attention to my surroundings when one of his goons stepped up behind me and grabbed me, covering my mouth with his hand. He dragged me away from the unexpectedly-empty path and to a hidden corner where Torlan was waiting.

  “I knew elves were below us, but I thought they all at least had the good sense to not cavort with their lessers.”

  It confused me why his elven minions helped him when he spewed such vitriol about them, but I figured money and power could buy a lot.

  “Yet still you continue to surround yourselves with the lesser species. I mean, humans, for fuck’s sake?” He gave a shudder at that, clearly an affectation. “And let’s not talk about the orc. They’re savages.”

  The only savage here is you, I thought angrily.

  “It looks like I’ll need to—”

  As he continued talking, hopefully distracting my captor, I made my move. I stomped down on his inset with the heel of my boot and twisted out of his loosened grip. Without hesitating, I didn’t even try to fight despite the rage trying to drive me to do so. Instead, I spun around and sprinted out of there, relying on the shock to let me escape.

  Torlan let out a roar, though it was pretty weak coming from his elven form. Thankfully, they didn’t chase me down, probably knowing it’d look too suspicious.

  I ran all the way back to my dorm, disappointed to find it empty. I sat on my bed as my energy crashed from the adrenaline high wearing off. I was still sitting there, just staring off into nothing, when Valissa returned, immediately noticing my state.

  “What did he do this time?”

  “Nothing.” She opened her mouth to respond, but I cut her off. “No, really. One of his goons grabbed me, and Torlan started going off about ‘inferior species’ and that sort of bullshit, but I escaped before they could actually do anything to me. I’m concerned, though, about how he’ll respond. I need to pay more attention.”

  “You shouldn’t have to be on guard all the time at fucking NOTA! Are you sure you don’t want to report him?”

  “Report him for what? Like I’ve said, it’d be my word against his and his followers, and they’re going to believe the dragon over me.”

  She threw her hands up in exasperation. “Fine, I know you’re right, but I don’t like it. But you’re not going anywhere without me anymore. I don’t care if I don’t want to go, you can drag me along. You have to meet with a professor? I’ll wait outside the office. Going to the toilet? I’m right there with you. Well, maybe not right there, but you get my meaning.”

  I gave a weak smile. “Thanks, Valissa. You’re a good friend.”

  She shook her head, as if to dismiss what I said. “Don’t worry about it. I’m your roommate, and this is important.”

  I ended up skipping my planned studying in favor of meditating and cultivating, hoping to settle my turbulent thoughts. It helped a bit, but when I finally went to bed, I found myself tossing and turning and wishing I could curl up as a dragon. Then I felt guilty that none of my friends could know my true form, something I had occasionally thought but usually didn’t worry about.

  Eventually, I fell asleep, but it was restless, and I woke up multiple times throughout the night, on edge and unsure why. It was bad enough that Valissa actually woke up one of the times and asked if I was okay. We ended up talking for a few minutes, and finally, with her encouraging words, I managed to sleep the rest of the night.