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Chapter 8: Nero Chapter 8

"Yes, Eiren Adonis."

"Well, you and your friends may now eat dinner and eat as much as you want. Bear in mind the more you eat the less there is for the others. The dinner is inside the barracks just traveling further South."

"Yes, Eiren Adonis" I repeat.

I look back and see Nikolaos and Georgios taking a beating from the teenagers but they don't whine from the pain instead they smile. Knowing that this is something none of us will ever forget. The teenager then looks and eyes me for what feels like a minute.

"Fine job boys, you all did a great job." The teenager then stops his beating and walks away acting as if nothing ever happened. Georgios and Nikolaos then run and we all hug each other then jump into our prickly beds.

"That teenager was gonna lose if we had just one more rock! Ain't that right Georgios!" Nikolaos laughs and slaps the back of Georgios.

"Not a rock, just a pebble you hard-nosed brute!" Georgios replies, returning the rewarding slap.

"That's genius

, you red-haired devil!" They both laugh together and even I join in.

"Great job boys and Eiren Adonis says we get to feast for our victory!" We all chest bump each other and spit out and snot out any blood we gained from our bout.

I tell them the directions given by Adonis and we venture off for what felt like an hour until we arrived while carrying our beds and regaining our bags. A half dozen helots direct us to our living quarters and so we place our beds in the corner but I make sure no one leaves their bags in the room. Then the helots show us to the dinner while an older Spartan stays standing watching over us.

"I take it you boys took your chances with directions instead of waiting for everyone else?"

"Yes sir" We answer while gouging ourselves with the plain dinner. The dinner consists of 100+ pieces of plain bread and 100+ blocks of feta cheese. A dinner that equates us with what meals we are going to expect.

"Are we able to venture out before the others arrive sir?" I wonder if there is any opportunity to find fruits and vegetables in the wild as night approaches.

"Ideally no but if you want a wolf to kill ya then be my guess."

"Why would we do that Damon?" Georgios whispers before Nikolaos is to likely scream the same thing.

"Bread and cheese isn't a complete diet, we need greens too. Yet before we leave we need to stuff our bags with the feta cheese and bread to keep us full since we don't know how much we will be fed in the upcoming days and years." I tell them this as in Ancient Sparta the youth were given just enough food to always be a little hungry to encourage discipline to hunger pains this idea of course is stupid as I don't want to feel hungry.

"What about the others? Isn't that less food for them and wouldn't they be angry towards us?" Georgios whispers as Nikolaos already follows the plan.

"Yes there would be less to eat for them but we need it ourselves too don't forget that. Also, they would never know we took more than our fair share as they never saw how much food there was at the start. Just make sure none of you take too much food from one location." I then follow in Nikolaos's steps also taking food into the bag and Georgios also joins with lots of hesitation.

We then all walk out hiding our bags inside our cloaks turning our backs on the older Spartan but he seemingly couldn't care less as he blinks slowly and seems to be able to fall asleep any minute. Once we leave the simplistic dinner hall we first enter our living quarters and place our bags under our beds, even digging them a little into the Earth to mask any potential scent.

Then after we venture outside we search for any edible foods. I teach Nikolaos and Georgios about many edible species as I was a boy scout in my past life which helps a little and my dead father taught me much about nature here. We search continuously until any other kid arrives and we find many olives, grapes, pomegranates, and even peppers. We eat many and enjoy them thoroughly and bring as much as we can back to our living quarters to place in our little food stash.

Finally, others begin to arrive, and Eiren Adonis heads in the middle of the group of 100-plus boys.

"3 of you paides youth have fallen today, dying not by sword but instead by water... Water! Paides, all of you performed poorly and have made your fallen Spartan brothers ashamed... Yet I promise all of you that you will grow into proper Spartan youth in our year together!" Eiren Adonis makes every Spartan boy quiver and place their gaze low.

"You all will eat for 10 minutes and then enter your sleeping quarters. Any one of you Paides that get caught being late can expect to be punished.. with no leniency."

Leander adds on and every boy races to the dinner rations. Eiren Adonis takes his place next to the older Spartan while Leander hovers over many boys eating the same, holding true with the teenagers. The teenagers constantly take bites out of many boys' bread and smash in their feta cheese.

"Well, what should we do?" Nikolaos waves his hand in my face for my attention.

"I reckon we make friends and allies. We can't just be a group of 3 for 13 years."

Georgios answers his question and Nikolaos makes a confused face.

"We don't need anyone else, the three of us can do anything Georgios," Nikolaos tells him and I shake my head.

"You both are right but overall Georgios has the right idea, we need to make allies. We don't want to limit our future social standing by having no connections." Both Georgios and Nikolaos make a confused face as I have revealed too much and forget they are only 7 years old.

"Scratch that it's just what else are we going to do? just stand around?"

"Well, shoot ain't nothing stupider than just standing around!" Nikolaos immediately showcases himself as not the type to stand around by doing jumping jacks.

We all then start to walk around analyzing essentially our classmates. Many of the boys chomp down any food they are able to as no food is left on the table. I look over to see any boys not eating and eventually spot one.

"Hey, what about that guy?"

"Him?" Nikolaos points at the boy I spotted. "Why him?"

"He is lonely. I would hate to not know anyone.." Georgios answers Nikolaos allowing me to just walk over with both following behind.

"Hey, what's your name bud?" When the boy looks up his face shows dried tears on his cheek.

"Name's Nero.."