Chapter 16: Chapter-16 What is your type of Weapon? Part -1
Rosa walked on the field one step after another. The steps taken seemed slow and heavy. Around her there were small free areas in front of large tents. This was the place where the important or ranked trainees reside.
She looked at the far left corner of the camp new large white tents were set up in a row. ‘They must be for the new recruits.’ There will be more work in the shop now. She thought about the extra polishing works and sighed it means Babak will order me around again. It will be busy around here soon. She laughed at her thought ‘I am kind of a new recruit myself.’ This made her think of the next morning training session. ‘Will the training be this hard each day?’ Rosa stopped walking for a bit looking at the ground. She thought in fear of what will happen to her.
She heard some trainees came out laughing behind her. “Today’s meal was great wasn’t it?” They kept on discussing about the food while passing by her. She watched them walk by her and continued to observe them till they disappeared from her view. She thought of their words for a while. ‘The food was good?’ Rosa kept repeating some scenes in her head. They were the foods she ate from the time she came to the camp. She did not eat any extra helpings here. No snacks either. The food that was served to her she would finish and leave. She tried to remember if there was any specific taste. ‘I cannot taste food anymore.’ She started walking straight without direction. ‘I cannot feel the taste anymore.’ She tried to think again it was not normal to not taste the food. She tried to find different tastes in the separate elements she ate but none of them feel anything familiar. It was bland.
She could not distinguish any taste. She could not feel any warmth of the food. Her mind reverted back to the bowl of stew she had back in the canteen. The bowl was piping hot. She felt a slight hunger and ate the food. ‘I thought it will be warm for me but why did I not taste anything?’ Rosa at first thought that she could not taste anything because she was worried about Felix and Eugene and did not think anything of the food that is why she could not taste anything but now it was different. She wanted to taste something but still nothing came to her head. She tried to thing how food taste like she only remembered it was delicious but nothing tastes the same now. She tried to think of the smell. She could feel the smell of the food but not strong enough.
Rosa kept on biting her lips. ‘It does not make sense. Why do I not taste anything?’ She raised her head and saw a tree in front of her the barks were not smooth they had a few rough edges. The tree looked old and it stood there, she slowly made her way close to the tree raised her hand and pulled on one piece of the bark on the trunk. The piece got teared from being attached to the tree and came to her hand but it was still attached to the trunk. Rosa pulled it harder this time. It tore and a long yet thin piece of bark came to her hand. She felt the snap in her hand. She looked at the bark for a while. It was rough on the outer part while smooth inside. She took a bite of it and tried to find out how it tastes like. She could feel the rough edge and the smooth inner side. But she could not find the taste. She poked her tongue with the bark. She could not feel anything.
Rosa starred at the bark for a while suddenly she raised her thumb and pressed her teeth on it. The bite felt sharp it stunk for a while then she felt a warm small liquid on her lips. She saw a small amount of blood came out from the tip of the finger. Rosa put the thumb in her mouth to try and taste the blood. It was not even warm enough. It was only liquid that felt a bit thicker than water. She finally let out a sigh and took out the thumb from her mouth. ‘I cannot taste anything anymore.’ It was no longer a question rather an admission to the situation. She threw the bark away from her and pulled up the sleeves of her shirt close to her elbow. She sucked on the thumb for a while to stop the bleeding. It finally stopped with a bit of the red bite mark was left like a trace from her two front teeth. She ignored it and started walking back. ‘I do not need to taste food to stay alive.’
In the workshop:
Rosa reached back to the workshop late. It was almost orange sky when she came back to the workshop. She had a worry that she might be too late to get back and hear a lot of naggings from Babak. She rubbed her neck and slowly walked in the shop. Rosa was ready with an apology to arrive back late to the shop but an empty shop welcomed her instead. ‘This is odd I thought they will be back before me.’ She sighed in relief at least she avoided the naggings.
She quickly took her place beside the cart where she left it and started cleaning the spares. This time it did not take long to clean them up. Maybe it was due to no distractions in the shop she finished earlier. Rosa took a look around the shop it is a mess and the swords need to be polished. She took one of the swords in her hand it fell down from the tip with a clang noise. ‘It seemed so easy in the hands of the soldiers around the place but it was so heavy in her hand she quickly bought her left hand close to the right hand and tried to pull it up. It took a struggle but she could only pull it up a few inches from the ground.
Rosa felt anger building up in her. ‘It looks so simple why am I having such a hard time?’ She still pulled it harder from the hilt to the point her wrist and arms started shaking. She was meeting with disappointment. No matter how hard she tried even with two hands she could only lift it a few inched from the ground.
Finally she gave up the idea and decided to let go and slowly pulled the sword back to its place. ‘Who would have thought it was this heavy? When the soldiers make it look like as if they could move it easily.’ She looked at the sword again these are Baba’s work the iron swords looked thicker and the hilt had the black handle made of rubber coating on a double coating of iron and a silver ending. She starred at the sword for a while. Her eyes shifted to the second type of swords on the rack.
This time she bends down to tie the strings on her boot well enough before attempting to pull of the sword. This one seemed lighter but all the same she could only pull it up to the height of her hips. This one had wooden handles, Rosa knew that the more ranked up you are the heavier and stronger metal is used to create your weapons. She thought of commander Roux ‘He swung that wooden sword as if that was a piece of paper. Then what is the original weight of the weapon he uses?’ She made a mental note to ask Merlin about it.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone