[center][h2]Welcome to the Artack[/h2][/center]

	At four in the morning, it is cold and it is snowy. Outside the stone barracks of the 23rd garrison, a great howling wind was carving up the tundra. Without any forest of pine to break the storm, it only gained speed as it blew through the flat land, freezing everything in its wake and leaving a sheen of ice wherever it touched. From the wells to the training posts, to the stone piles, everything was glassed under a thick layer of the stuff. Worst still, at four in the morning, the day started.

	No light filtered through the windows of the 23rd, and no light itched Peral’s eyes open. It was the dark season, a strange arctic time when the sun refused to rise and as such Peral hadn’t seen it in months. Instead, the gentle clap of a wooden rod against a hollowed wooden ball with a hole woke him up. It was one of the few compassionate sensations he was allowed as an Artack Elite in training, but it served a military purpose like everything else.

	Now, his eyes snapped open, the energy in his body not matching the slow alarm. He jumped to his feet and drew his sword (which had been placed in his sheets). Spinning, he pointed it towards the center of the long room — his bunkmates doing the same. There at the end of every blade was a tall man with a long blue cape. He stood with his arms behind his back and an unimpressed look in his eye.

	“Too slow,” Drillmaster Calvin announced without a speck of thought or surprise. “Three strikes of the rod is much too slow. And you!” He pointed at one of Peral’s bunkmates, the woman in question, Lana, furrowing her brow. “You didn’t sleep nearly as deep as you should have, you must make the most out of resting time.”

	Lana let out a puff of frustration but before she could defend herself, Calvin tapped a training rod against the floor. “Two hours of deep meditation.” Everyone started to scramble to the floor, but then the training rod tapped again. “Outside.”


[hider=Trivia]Artack training isn’t all about martial skill, but bodily skill and endurance. That’s why Lana and Peral will have things such as old vegetables, snowballs and even stones pelted at them while they attempt to meditate in a battle stance. If they can keep a stable mind under fire, they will be one step closer to being an elite.[/hider]

[hider=Summary]Fluff about the Artack and how strict they are. The Trivia hider pretty much says anything important[/hider]