Chapter 24: Second Phase Training

After about three hours of running, we crested a ridge and entered a small valley. The new training base was next to a broad river. It was a delightful base that reminded me of nothing less than Lothlorien in Lord of the Rings. Each Finger had a house to itself that was raised from the ground about three meters on stilts. The five Finger houses were arranged in a semi-circle around a small clearing in the forest. Off to the East side there were a number of other houses that acted as an admin area including store-rooms, a mess-hall and classrooms.

Hand Evans called us to a halt in the center of the clearing and dismissed us. Finger Roberts led us to our house which was the one closest to the admin buildings. I chose the a bed against the far wall in the corner and stowed my kit. S’Alor wasn’t interested in coming into the camp, and said that he would make himself comfortable in the forest.

Settling in took almost no time at at. We simply dumped our gear and then left the house to walk around and take a look at our new home. One of the first things I spotted was a notice board with a series of pages on it listing each Finger, their Finger Leaders, Knuckles and members. We walked towards the river and onto the jetty that stretched out into the river.I looked down and saw that there were fish visible through the clear water. We were soon joined by some of the members of the other fingers.

"Let’s go for a swim," Desrae suggested.

"Great idea" I replied, and we headed back to get our towels. On the way there, I asked Finger Roberts about showers.

"Haven’t you learnt how to warm water yet Cy?" he asked me.

"I’m on to you Finger," I replied with a smile.

Finger Roberts laughed. "Yes, I figured one day in base would expose me."

"Do we have any showers?" I asked again. I was a bit obessed with the idea by now. It was the one major luxury that I had missed during our first phase training.

"No. Maybe it’s time to re-examine that water-heating idea of yours."

"Great idea. All we need is a container for the water and some piping."

With that Finger Roberts led me off to the Admin building, all thoughts of swimming shelved. No matter how nice the scenery, this came first for me.

At the admin building, Finger Roberts introduced me to a guy I would come to depend on. "Cy, this is Mark Knoble. He acts as our quartermaster. He is part of the admin section, and not part of a Finger."

"Hi Mark," I greeted him. Finger Roberts wandered off and I was left talking to Mark.

"Hi Cy. What can I do for you?" Mark asked.

I explained what I needed to Mark and he disappeared into his store with a quiet request for me to wait for a few minutes. When he reappeared, he was carrying a length of piping.

"Will this do?’ Mark asked.

I examined the piping. "That’s perfect. What about the other things?"

"In the back" said Mark and led me around the building to where he had an outdoor shed for storage. In the shed Mark pointed out a barrel.

"What is that thing made of?" I asked him.

"I have no idea. All I know is that it is the standard barrel used to store liquids. It is very durable and can be put on the fire to heat water. We have done that before."

That was welcome news. I went to man-handle the barrel out of the store and found it was made of an extremely light material. Once I had the barrel outside, I rolled it along away from the admin building towards the river. When I got it there, I turned around and found Mark had anticipated my need; he was standing behind me with a two-handed wood saw in his hands.I gathered up a number of large stones and created two piles of them for the barrel to rest on, then I took the knife that Mark offered me at my request, and cut a hole in the top of the barrel and another on the top of the one side. I attached a pipe to the hole on the side for siphoning off hot water and got a bucket from Mark. While I was fetching water to fill the barrel, Mark started cutting wood for a fire.

It took me a while, but I eventually got the barrel filled with water. When we got the fire going I placed the pipe into one bucket and fetched another bucketful of cold water. I waited for the barrel to heat up, chatting to Mark while I did so. once I thought it was hot enough, I poured the bucket of cold water into the top of the barrel and collected the warm water that came out of the other. I would at last have some hot water in future.

Finger Roberts and I went back to our barracks room and grabbed some towels to join the others in the river.

* * *

The next morning we were woken up early as usual. It didn’t bother me; armies since the dawn of time have had to instill this habit in soldiers to be ready for the typical dawn raid, so it was something I was completely familiar with. This morning though we were in a new place and I was unsure of what the routine would involve, so I went with the others down to the river for a quick wash and got dressed. We were called shortly after that to form up in the central parade ground.

We formed up under the guidance of the Finger Leaders into a large formation, but each finger formed two rows of three, with the Finger Leader at the head of the right-hand row. Once everyone was in place, Hand Evans addressed us.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Today we will start your second phase training. We will start with a reorganisation. Your Finger Leaders will now withdraw from you and become part of the training cadre, while those of you who have been identified as potential Finger Leaders will take over in those positions. While you are learning about how to fight as a Hand, these people will be learning what is involved in being a Finger Leader. While they are under training, they will be addressed as ‘Knuckle’ but you will treat them as if they are actual Finger Leaders. Think of them as ‘Candidate Officers’ in that while they do not hold the rank yet, they will have to perform as Finger Leaders and the cadre will back up their temporary authority.

"Once that has taken place, we will start with the drills that you already know from Finger training, and how they apply to fighting together in the Hand. Finger Leaders, carry on."

Finger Roberts turned to us and called us aside. "In case you hadn’t guessed it before now, you lot are the new ‘Knuckles’ for this training Hand. Cy, you will take Finger One, Desrae two, Lian three, Elaine four and Geraint Five. Go to the barracks and move your kit to your new barracks rooms, your new Finger members will join you there shortly."

I looked around at the others and realised that they were just as surprised as I was at this latest development. I shrugged and went to do as I had been ordered.

Chapter 20: Luxury

One of the things that had irritated me beyond belief was that in spite of all the progress we had made in the more esoteric arts of meditation and mind communication, I still could not get water heated up to have a decent bath or shower. I had spent three weeks bathing every day in an ice-cold stream, and I was sick of it. Every time I queried Finger Roberts on the issue, he just grinned at me and told me that it was still an important lesson for me to learn.

As we walked away from the infirmary, I decided to ask Lorraine about it.

She burst out laughing. "I cannot believe that they are still doing that." she gasped out.

"Doing what?"

"It’s a game. The Finger Leaders who act as instructors during first phase training always pick up on something practical and say it is only possible to do it using ‘magic’ of some sort. They have learnt that it introduces a wild-card element. If you think that it must be possible, then you will strive to get it right and often find you can do some other things that others haven’t thought possible. Obviously it worked with you."

"Damn! You mean you can’t heat water?"

"Nope. If you think about it, you will realise that everything you can do is bound up in how you can affect your own body and mind. There is nothing external that you can do. No telekinesis, no levitation. Although, that jump and twist thing you did in your first fight today almost looked like it."

"Dammit. That’s true. I guess if I had thought about it properly, I would have realised that! How do I get a hot shower or bath then?"

"You mean you haven’t been shown? Follow me."

I turned to give Desrae a rueful grin as we walked along with Lorraine. She knew how much I had bitched about the lack of hot water. She just shrugged at me and smiled.

"Oh, by the way, there is something that you can do about the cold now that I think of it." said Lorraine.

"What’s that?"

"It is possible to raise the temperature of your skin slightly if you have enough control. If you are in still water, that does have the effect of warming a tiny layer of water close to your skin, sort of like a wetsuit. It also works for water trapped in your clothing. It doesn’t help much for bathing, but if you are hiding in a wet, muddy marsh or something, you can stop yourself freezing to death."

"Excellent. That is something I will definitely practice. Thanks Lorraine."

"No problem. You should know that once you have joined the Fight, and been accepted by the veterans, you will pick up a lot of the little tricks like that.."

"Yeah, sounds like the art of soldiering in general; experience counts for a lot."

"Yup. Here we are."

We were standing outside one of the doors in the main base building. Lorraine pushed open the door and we followed her inside. As I walked through the door, I could feel that we were in some sort of of ‘bath-house’. There were long lines of wire lockers with place to keep your clothes.

"Pick a spot." Lorraine said as she started to strip out of her clothes. "You are going to enjoy this."

I wasted no time and was soon joined by the rest of the finger. We picked up towels from a stack on a table and walked through another door. I walked behind Lorraine and couldn’t help admiring the view. She turned her head to talk to me and smiled slightly as she told me "There are showers here to get the bulk of the muck off you. The hot baths are in the next room."

I blushed when I realised she had caught me looking.

Lorraine laughed. "I don’t mind you looking. I think you need some education in more private aspects of life in a combat Hand though. We can chat about that later, maybe tonight?"

I mumbled a faint affirmative and climbed under a shower, grateful both for the warm water and for the fact that I could hide my embarrassment.

The water felt glorious on my skin. I looked down and say that the water was running red from the blood I had got all over me in the battles. There was a dispenser on the wall that I figured out was liquid soap from watching Lorraine use it. I turned to check on the other members of my finger and saw that they were also luxurating under the hot water. Desrae had a funny smile on her face when I looked at her, but she just shrugged and shook her head when I raised an eyebrow at her in query. I wanted to ask her what she was thinking, but I was still unsure about just how private the mental communication was, so I decided to leave that discussion for later.

After we had all showered, Lorraine took us through another set of doors to the the bathing room. There we found a series of pools filled with water. Lorraine explained that they started at the one end with extremely hot water and then the water got progressively colder from pool to pool. The idea was to start in the hottest pool and work your way, by floating, from pool to pool until you got to the cold one and got out. The pools were arranged in a circle and you ended back where you started.

We all eased ourselves into the hottest pool and then spent the next hour or so soaking ourselves as we moved around.

Once we were finished with that, we got dressed and went looking for food.