“What is it with damned trials and proving yourself and all this shit?” Thiel yawned as watched his brothers pacing up and down. They were all trying desperately not to fall asleep. They weren’t allowed to for some reason, and no one was quite sure why. The room itself was pretty bleak, cold stone walls, dripping puddles of water but also somehow stuffy and humid as well.
“Because deep down, Thraki are racist bastards who hate anything that isn’t a Thraki. Doesn’t seem like it at first glance, but they’re a tightly knit circle. Everyone knows everyone, and they dislike strangers who get in the way of that,” Kayel explained. “You guys are getting it easy, because you’re family.”
Ayel, who had been pacing for several hours now, seemed slightly panicked by Kayel’s words. Maybe it was just the tiredness. “You… you had to do more than this?”
“Wait Kayel, didn’t you already do some sort of trial or something?” Enel butted in, leaping up with a sudden burst of energy before abruptly realising just how tired he was.
Kayel nodded. “Yeah, I did all this nonsense. Once I’d been nursed back to health. I was pretty much starving and half dead when they found me. Made me clime a mountain while fending off razor-beaked pterosaurs and carnivorous moufflon.”
“But-” Ayel’s question was interrupted by a particularly large yawn. “Sorry… But I… I thought we’d already proved ourselves? None of this makes any sense.”
Ksiel sat in the corner, sighing. Resting on his shoulders were Deeyel and Veeyel. While Deeyel seemed alright, Veeyel was struggling a little, and constantly cursing under his breath.
“You signed up to this,” Ksiel tutted. “Kayel told you all that weird things would happen on this path. You all understood that.”
“We know,” Emel grumbled. “It’s just that already this makes no sense, and I will be honest, Kayel has warned us what will happen, but not why. Why, brother, are they forcing us to stay awake for so long?”
Kayel grunted as he leaned against a wall. “I’m not really sure. Last time I saw someone have to prove themselves like this, the Thraki mentioned something about purging evil spirits. By that, they don’t mean any silly ghosts. It’s more… like a personal cleanse. They want us to empty our minds so we can better focus. Look past the pain and all that.”
Some of the other Rethans sighed.
“We’ve already been through a ton of pain and stuff!” Arel protested as he kicked pebbles across the room. “We’re Ksa, we’re trained to push past pain.”
“Yeah, yeah… I’m sorry…” Kayel sighed. There wasn’t much he could say. He knew the Thraki wouldn’t make this easy, but he didn’t know how hard they’d make it, or how far the L-Class would be willing to go. He glanced at Veeyel, who was still muttering to himself. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought them here.
“I think you’re all just being whingy bitches,” Zitel suddenly exclaimed. “Come on, it’s just a bit of sleepiness.”
The rest of the L-Class looked at each other. They felt somewhat ashamed.
“He’s right, you know,” Ksiel shrugged. “We got fat and lazy, being semi-off duty. Any little thing and we whinge and moan. We’re supposed to be better than that…”
Just as Ksiel was about to go on a rant, a door behind them opened. A light flowed into the room, obscuring the being standing in the doorway.
“Come now, L-Class. We have things to learn…”