"Five minutes!" A voice called. I groaned as I pulled the blankets closer to me. My eyes sprung open as my blanket was ripped from my bed. I looked up to see Benedict standing over me.

"That was Erik! We have five minutes to be at the obstacle course or we get latrine duty all week," he said, grabbing me and pulling me to my feet. "Get dressed in clothing you can move in," he said before grabbing Alakay and pulling him off the top bunk sending him sprawling to the floor. "You should have been up by now you know the drill," he said to Alakay before going to finish getting ready.

I glanced to where Alakay lay sprawled on the floor at my feet. "Good thing I let you take the top," I said, reaching out my hand to help him up. He nodded with a yawn.

"I hate morning torture runs," he mumbled, as he dug around for clothing.

I hesitated. I didn't have time to get to the latrine and change. I didn't have time to wait for my brothers to leave. I glanced around and saw that they were all busy getting themselves ready. I took the chance and prayed no one would notice as I pulled my nightshirt off and slid into a simple shirt. "Thank you, Ally," I thought as I adjusted the tight tank top covering the strips of cloth around my breasts. If it wasn't for the tank top the guys would at some point see the cloth and question why I had my chest wrapped. I quickly pulled on my boots and ran over to the door where the guys were waiting.

We jogged in silence to where Erik stood with arms crossed and a grin spread across his face. "And I was hoping you wouldn't make it," he said with a chuckle.

"We got stuck with latrine duty last early morning run. I wasn't letting it happen again," Benedict said.

Erik laughed. "Someone has to do it and I thought with having Sam here you'd like to introduce him to all the aspects of Red Dragon life," he said. He didn't wait for a response as he walked over to the start of the course. "Brooks' group started five minutes ago. You start now. You have to complete the course without being caught and until you do no breakfast. Micah's group will start in five minutes. If they catch you then you start again. Go!" he said. None of us said anything as we started the course at a run.

I was kept in the middle of the group as we ran. The obstacle course consisted of six obstacles.

The first we came to was a belly crawl under fifteen feet of rope intertwined with thorns. We all quickly finished this section and headed to the next one. This one took us all a bit longer, but we made it. First, you climbed a net then crossed logs. Here you climbed a slanted ladder up to a thirty foot net. After that, we got to the four-level tower. The first level you had to get to was only a little over five and a half feet off the ground, then it increased between each level. Some teams tried to do it on their own, but the more you help one another the faster it went. The fourth obstacle was a thirty foot field with varying sizes of stumps in it. You used them to cross the field. It didn't matter which route you took, as long as everyone stayed on the logs. The next obstacle looked simple enough; it was a wooden structure with three ropes hanging from it and a log rail on the other side. You had to grab on to the rope and swing yourself onto the log rail over a ditch filled with foul-smelling water. If you failed to cross you'd fall in. This time none of us did, but we could hear Micah's group gaining.

We had one more obstacle... the wall. It was simply that, a twelve-foot wall that the entire team had to make it over. Just like the first time we did it they waited until Alakay and I were the last ones. Alakay had the best jumping ability so he needed less help getting up to where those at the top of the wall could grab him. I could jump fine but not high enough and that is where Alakay came in. He cupped his hands and as I jumped into them he hoisted me high to where Benedict and Louis could grab me and practically toss me down to where Shepherd was waiting at the bottom. Once Alakay was over we sprinted for the finish line. As we crossed we looked back to see Micah's team just reaching the wall. If we'd taken a minute longer we'd have to start over. We all looked at Erik to see if we succeeded. I thought we had done decently. I didn't fall into the ditch at all. I fell in every single time last time.

Erik tilted his head and looked at us. "Well none of you are wet so that's a good sign," he said. He chuckled when none of us responded. "Micah's group is still behind you, so you get breakfast!"

There was a collective sigh of relief as we headed for breakfast. There was already many groups eating. "So what exactly was that?" I asked as we approached the food line.

"That was one of Erik's six favorite days," Alakay said.

"Every month on unknown days Erik wakes three brother groups and they have to complete the course before breakfast. Each time it is a different order of groups," Benedict said, leading the way to their table.

"This is the first time in three months we completed it in one go. Don't get used to it, I wouldn't be surprised if he adds a time limit," he said. My eyes widened.

"But we hardly made it!" I exclaimed not wanting to imagine having to do it in less than forty-five minutes that didn't even seem possible.

"He's been harsh enough to go down to thirty minutes," Louis said shaking his head. "That was pure torture. I don't think any of the teams completed that for weeks," he said sipping on his coffee.

"But normally the teams that he wakes for the torture run, don't have as hard a day," Alakay grinned.

After breakfast, we were given a short period of time to get cleaned up and ready for practice drills. This time Erik wasn't present. "Where's Erik?" I asked looking around the training grounds.

"There are eight groups... he can't show that we are his favorite; so he has to spend time torturing all the other groups," Alakay said, as he started to stretch out. The rest of us joined him.

"Or he may have been called to the castle. He seems to be doing lots of the public relation side of the Red Dragon's as Orion tends to more of the training here," Louis said.

"So... if neither Erik or Orion is with us what do we do?" I asked. Louis, Shepherd, and Alakay all nodded at Benedict.

"As the leader of the group, when we aren't being trained by Erik or Orion I take over everyday training. We'll focus on hand to hand combat today," he said, as he stood from the ground and walked over grabbing strips of cloth to wrap our hands with. "Since you're small, we need to make sure you know how to defend yourself, because as a Red Dragon we aren't going to always get lucky and fight people our size or smaller," he said tossing strips to each of us.

Louis nodded. "And with your size more often than not those fighting you will be much larger," he said.

"So are we doing one on one or are we teaming up?" Shepherd asked, bouncing from foot to foot.

Benedict paused looking around at us. "Let's start one on one. I'll step out and watch the four of you. Louis, I want you and Alakay to partner while Shepherd and Sam partner," he said.

We all nodded and went with our prospective partner to an open area of the training grounds. Now that breakfast was done six other groups were training as well. "Hand to hand is not high on my skill set," I said as Shepherd and I stood in front of one another.

He grinned. "Well it happens to be one of my best," he said.

I groaned. "So that means I am going to be bruised from head to toe by the time we are done?" I asked as I ducked. "Hey! I didn't know we were starting," I said, stumbling out of his reach. He laughed, shaking his head.

"You should always be prepared, Sam, just like getting pulled out of bed this morning you never know when you need to be ready; so always be ready," Benedict said, walking behind me he pushed my arms up. "Always keep in a ready stance. Have both hands guarding your face, unless you are blocking an attack or attacking," he said as he showed me. "Most times it's better to be the attacker, don't wait too long to figure out your opponent or you'll be the one on the ground," he said, then moved on to observe Louis and Alakay.

I kept my attention on Shepherd determined to get at least one or two hits before I was flattened. I'm not sure how long we had been practicing. All I know is that I had gone up against all four brothers. And each time I landed less than half the amount they landed if that. Benedict called a break. I took off my cloth and tossed it into a pile that was used for the purpose of hand to hand practice. Next, we moved to the map room. Benedict ran us through a test of our knowledge of the land. Yet again, another topic I was proving to know little about. I guess coming from a small town I didn't know much outside of that.

By lunch, I was feeling less than adequate. I ate in silence. Not caring to join the conversation. After lunch, we had a half-hour break where I took off by myself. I ended up on the third level of the tower. No one came here during break, most tried to avoid it at all cost. I sat with my legs dangling from the side watching the Red Dragon's moving around below me. I shook my head watching as some practiced hand to hand, others practiced sword drills while others were sitting around talking. "What have I gotten myself into?" I said quietly. "I'll never match them," I sighed, as I stood up. I leaned against one of the large wooden beams for a few minutes before pushing myself off. "Stop it, Sam... thoughts like those won't get you anywhere," I hissed at myself. I was here for a reason. I was here because this is something I was good at. I could learn; I could improve. If I fail, then I let down my family and my village. If I fail, I don't stand a chance to find my brother. My brother... I now have more brothers than I ever imagined. Four adopted brothers who saw something in me that I wasn't even able to see. And one brother somewhere, that was my last biological connection. Why did he leave me if we were family? What could have happened that made it the best choice to leave me with another family? I had a lot of questions but none would be answered until I found him. I took a deep breath and brought my hands up. I spent the next twenty minutes with eyes closed imagining a hand to hand combat. As I was sending a right hook through the air I connected with something hard. I gasped as my eyes sprung open and I saw Alakay holding my fist.

"Gees Sam, you about knocked me off the platform," he said with a grin. "How long you been up here? No one saw you take off after lunch. We about had a manhunt sent after you when we saw movement up here," he said, releasing my hand.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I came straight after lunch... kind of felt like just being alone for a little bit," I said, turning away trying to hide my emotions.

Alakay didn't say anything as I felt him watching me. "Sometimes that's needed. Know that you have all of us if you need to be alone with an ear to listen," he said.

I turned with an eyebrow raised. "How would that be being alone?" I asked.

He chuckled. "Sometimes it's nice to be alone, sometimes it's nice to be alone with just one person, other times it's nice to be with all your brothers," he said, walking over and standing beside me. "You've been through a lot recently and you are going to need all three types at times. Just know that it's okay to not always be okay," he said, then glanced at the training circle. "Benedict said something about sword drills, we should get going," he said before climbing down the tower. "I'll tell them you're on your way," he called back before jogging away.

I let out a deep breath. "Swords I can do," I smiled as I quickly followed Alakay's path down and jogged to the training circle where my brothers stood with practice swords.