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"We have work to do!"

I pondered these last words. They didn't seem to fit with the mood of the rest of the night. I looked up and down the line. Then a door banged open. A group of older cadets came out and started shouting. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I got the gist of it and ran towards them. They lead us down a side corridor and into a sort of locker room. There was a line of tubs on the ground and we were instructed to stand behind them.

"You will place you're cloths neatly in the crate in front of you!"

I began pulling off my suit. This was difficult to do considering my hands were shaking so much from the unexpected adrenaline rush. All of the cadets commanding us were very tall, very strong, and very loud. I had a bag shoved into my hands by a particularly intimidating stag.

"You will put on the sweats. Your bags also contain three sets of PT uniforms. Those will be your uniform when you are woken in the morning."

I pulled on the gray sweat suit. My name was printed on the back of the jacket and on the pocket of the pants. To my left, Teague was doing the same thing. I was about to say something when one of the cadets in charge walked up to me.

"Eyes forward BASIC!"

Basic, what is that supposed to mean? I wasn't sure and I defiantly don't like it. The way he said it sounded derogatory, like a racial slur. We left the locker room, and were joined by smaller group of female classmates. I quickly appraised their appearances. Oh the whole, not bad. I wasn't given any time for a more in-depth study because we were all shunted outside.

The cold air served to clear my mind. We began running again. One of the drillers informed us we were going to the dormitories. That was good and all, but we sure did take a roundabout route to get there. Soon enough though, we were inside. The girls were lead down one hall, and we down another. Luckily, that Lytle kid was supposed to be my roommate, which meant Teague was my new roommate.

I entered the room and was immediately surprised by how big it was. The two desks and beds took up a large portion of the floor, but there was still a lot of room in the middle. There was also a large window overlooking a courtyard surrounded by four floors of living quarters.

I dropped my bag on the ground and crashed on one of the beds. I wanted to talk to Teague. I looked over at his bed and found he was already asleep. Figures. I checked my watch and saw it was almost one. Where had the night gone? I closed my eyes and was soon asleep.

All too soon, we were woken abruptly by the sound of pounding on the door. By the volume of the banging, it seemed as if they wanted to break it down.

"Wake up Basics!"

I heard the muffled sounds of this occurring at several doors down the hall. Looking at my watch again, I saw it was only five o-clock."

"What the hell?" asked Teague.

Someone started banging on the door again.

"Basics, are you awake!?"

"Yes," I called back.

"Good. Dress quickly and report to the hall immediately with your roommate."

I finished putting on my PTs. The outfit wasn't exactly what you would call the peak of fashion. They comprised of a blue t-shirt with reflective lettering and Yellow shorts which barely extended past my boxers. I ran out into the hall to find a falcon waiting for me.

"Where is your roommate basic?"

"Getting dressed."

"Your instructions were to report to the hall WITH your roommate. Front leaning rest position!"

Front leaning what? I had no idea what he was talking about. He seemed to figure this out.

"Do you know what a pushup is?"

"Yes."

"Front leaning rest is the starting position of a pushup."

I immediately dropped to the ground and got into position. He stood above me and proceeded to lecture me on the importance of following instructions, ocationlay punctuating his statemens by having me do a pushup. Soon enough though, Teague had exited the room and I was relieved.

"That is a terrible position of attention basics. Your legs should be together, hands in fists, thumbs on the seams of your pants, elbows tucked in, chest out, head up, eyes forward, and for god sake, tuck that gut in."

I corrected myself and the cadet left us. We stood there for a while longer. Our room was the first on the hall, so when a cadet, this one a lynx, came around the corner, we were the first to be past. I followed him with my eyes as he walked by. Then he stopped and walked back to us. He stood in front of us as if he was waiting for something.

"Front leaning rest basics."

I dropped to the floor again.

"Basics, you do understand that I am a higher ranked cadet."

I nodded.

"Good, at least your eyes work. However, you failed to pay me proper courtesy. All higher ranked cadets should be greeted with a good morning followed by sir or ma'am. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir!"

"Better, let's try this again."

I watched him motion to the corner he had come from. A second cadet walked out and down the hall.

"Good morning sir!"

"Very good."

"Permission to recover sir!"

"Recover."

I got up and stood at attention on the wall again, arms shaking a little. He left us. I heard other cadets being dropped and instructed similarly. I tried to listen to what was being said so I could learn not to make their mistakes. My eyes were heavy from lack of sleep and I twitched from excitement induced adrenaline.

A setter arrived and led us out into the campus quad. It was an expansive space. To the south, directly across from the dorms, lay the mess hall and the library. To the east were buildings that housed classrooms and offices. To the west, looking towards the mountains, sat the building we were in last night, and a large chapel. Behind us, the barracks took up one whole side. They were made of a series of the courtyard structures I had observed from my window. The edge of the quad was paved thirty feet in with concrete, the center was a large grassy parade ground.

We were brought to a halt facing a line of eight cadets. The setter stood in front of us and explained that these would be our squad leaders. We would be put into two platoons, each containing three squads of six and one of seven. He started calling out the names of the cadets in each squad. They ran out of our line and formed new ones in front of their leader.

When he reached second squad, second platoon, my and Teague's names were called. I ran to the indicated cadet. It was the red panda from last night. We were soon joined by a friendly looking bird of some sort, a brutish black bear, and an attractive female marten.

"Alright, are there any questions from the squad leaders?"

Ours raised his hand in a sweeping gesture over his head.

"Yes Cadet Lewis."

"I am missing a basic."

The setter looked down at his list.

"Ah, Bradbeer, he quit last night." He raised his voice so that everyone could hear him. "We've already had one cadet drop, are there going to any more quitters?"

"No sir!" I cried out with a few of my classmates.

"Are that many of you going to cry home, or do you just not know how to talk? Are there going to be any more quitters?"

"NO SIR!"

"We'll see about that. This is your first day of Cadet Basic Training."

"CBT! The Beast!" chanted the older cadets around us.

"For the next six weeks, we will be training you and preparing you for your time both here, and your carrier in the military. For the duration, you will be known as basic cadets or simply, basics. At the end of the six week period, those of you who make it will be promoted to cadet privates. Your training begins today. Squad leaders, prepare your squads for PT."

Our leader turned and spaced us out, explaining the PT procedure.

A cougar lead us through the morning PT. We started with stretching followed by pushups, sit ups, flutter kicks, jumping jacks, and more exercises than I could remember. We finished by running three times around the quad. The sun was now well above the horizon and I was dripping with sweat, as were the rest of my squad mates.

Our squad leader formed us back into a line and we ran to the mess hall. Good, the Moring exertions had made me hungry. We stood at attention as Cadet Lewis explained the mess procedure.

"We will enter the hall and I will lead you to our table. You will each stand behind a chair. You will remain standing, at attention, until the senior cadets have taken their seats. I will then give the command for you to do the same. You will find a plate in front of you. On top of the plate is an image of an eagle. You will look at this eagle throughout the duration of the meal. When you eat, you will take a bite of food, set your knife and fork at the ten o'clock and two o-clock positions on your plate. You will not chew until your knife and fork are set down, and your hands in your lap. When you are finished with that mouthful, you may then take another bite. You will not talk."

He continued talking. This sounded like an awkward and slow process of eating. After the flag was raised, we were lead inside and stood in silence for a while. I twitched, stomach growling. Finally we were seated and food was passed around the table.

I looked at the bacon, grease sitting on top of it. My stomach said no. The next dish was eggs. Still hot, no. Finally a tray of assorted cereals came around, that sounded good. I opened the top and poured on my milk, staring at the printed eagle atop my plate. I finished the cereal, and was about to bite into an apple when we were ordered to stand and leave the hall. That was extremely un filling.

Breakfast was followed by a classroom session where we learned the cadet and military ranking structure. We then went to lunch. I learned to eat faster and got a little more food down. Still not enough. Then afternoon PT and back to the classroom. After learning basic cadet knowledge, our squad leader ran us back to the barracks and took us into a sort of lounge. I saw a group of overstuffed armchairs, a couch and a TV. Better yet, we were allowed to sit down. We pulled the chairs into a circle and I collapsed into one of them.

Everyone was fatigued except for our squad leader who was smiling at us.

"This is squad time. This is where I'll be teaching you drill and ceremonies, uniform wear, room procedures, and we'll have various team building actives. Today will be a kind of informal session. I'd like to begin by introducing myself and then let all of you do the same. I am Cadet Sergeant First Class Andrew Lewis. Since I'm not an officer, you can just call me Lewis. Why don't you start," gesturing towards Teague, "Tell us your name and something interesting about yourself."

He sighed, "I'm Teague Simmons and I barely managed to get in last night."

I gave him an odd look. He wasn't still hung up on that was he? It was my turn now.

"My name is Kirian Harper and I won the state biathlon championship last winter."

"Good deal," said Lewis. "If you want, when we're done with BCT, I can get you in contact with our athletic director, though he probably already knows you're here."

Next was the bear. He wasn't particular tall, but he had a broad chest and his arms were like barrels. All his fur was black except for a brown spot on his nose. He had black hair, and black eyes. He introduced himself as Chris Thomas.

The marten said her name was Jessica Curry and she claimed to be an expert in all things computers. She was rather attractive. Her fur was light gold brown. She had a gold cram collar around her throat which continued down towards her breast. She had a short length of dark silver brown hair worn in a ponytail. Her eyes were beautiful blue violet. I looked over at Teague to find him staring at her avidly.

Last came the raptor. The undersides of his wings were gray as was his chest. His back was brown which became yellow on his wings and tail turning to green at the tips. He had a crystal blue throat, the same color as the short tuft of hair on his head. His eyes were piercing amber.

"I'm William Trestan," He said and then looking around at all of us added, "and I can fly."

I laughed as did Lewis and Jessica. I saw him smile at the warm reception to his joke. As Lewis led us in conversation I felt I was in a good group. Everyone seemed to get along except for the bear who didn't talk much.

We finished the night with retreat, dinner, and some personal time. Taps was sounded and I went to bed with Lewis's assurance that tomorrow would be the same.

Next morning I woke and looked at my watch. 4:59, 3, 2, 1...

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Get up basics!"

Right on time.