Chapter 8 Ghost

~There are three basic fronts when it comes to the art of hiding. First is terrain. You have to place yourself in a favorable position that gives you a view of your prey but still leaves enough room for an easy escape,~ he thought as before jumping at a shrub.

"Ah, not here."

~Second is mental warfare. You have to have a grasp of your prey's mannerisms, habits. Most of it is assumption when you don't have any information, but it's still important. Thinking ahead and outwitting your prey will drastically decrease the chances of you being caught.~ This time he jumped out behind a buttress root where he thought he had seen a leafling.

"Hmm? Not here either?"

~And lastly is movement. Staying in one place too long is the second best way to get caught easily, the best way is moving carelessy,~ as he thought this he jumped at a leafling that was stalking behind a nearby tree.

"Found you! Nice try though," he said with a smile.

"S-Sorry savior, I was just taking a quick break," replied the leafling. Though he wasn't entirely sure how, he could tell that this leafling wasn't part of the group he was hunting down.

"Huh? Then where's the final leafling?" he whispered to himself as he went back to the main camp. Granted, his only source of light were the few patches of moonglow that managed to fall to the forest floor, so it was astronomically hard for him to spot them.

"You can come out now. You won!" he shouted towards the forest area.

"Right here." The voice was female, it came from the area right behind him, where the injured leaflings were resting.

~But all those fronts don't matter when it's built into your brain. When you were born destined for the art, when you were born a ghost,~ thought Lucius with a smile, his blood, or whatever leaves had, rushing in excitement.

"Well done. Choosing to hide amongst the injured, huh? Not exactly mind blowing, but I guess it was my fault for underestimating you," he said as the leafling walked towards him.

"You praise me too much Luci," replied the leafling with a smirk.

~I did say I didn't care if they called me Luci, didn't I?~ Lucius thought to himself in regret.

"I'm guessing your name is leafling too?" he asked, to which she shook her leaf up and down.

"From now on you'll be called Ghost. A little over the top, but it will do. Whenever we have training you will report to me."

"Very well," she replied, following him as he went back to where the squads were training.

"This concludes today's session. However, before we all go rest, I have an important announcement to make. The tests I was conducting today were for the formation of a new squad, squad 4. This squad will act as a scout's division, moving ahead of the main group to survey the area ahead," he announced. All the leaflings sat in exhaustion after he had concluded the exercise, but still listened intently.

"That's to say, this is a very risky squadron and will require even more training than the emergency squadrons. From what I can see, only she-" as he said this he used his foot to point at Ghost "- has potential to be in this squad. Though through your own individual training, I'm sure some of you will grow into it," he finished before looking over some of those that showed a bit of potential.

"Anyway, Ghost will be the leader of this new division and I will helping her. From now on Alpha will be in charge of the main group, and will handle training when I am busy. Understood?"

The leaflings grunted in affirmation, too tired to even speak properly.

"You can all go rest now."

The leaflings shuffled to the center of the camp, slumping to the ground like sacks of potatoes. Alpha was just as merciless when it came to training as Lucius was, and though they seemed to be a little more energetic than yesterday, the cries of pain they gave out as they laid down to rest proved that the intensity hadn't lessened.

"Keeping out watch, Captain?" It was Alpha, and behind him were three other leaflings.

"Care to join me?" Lucius asked, inviting them to take a seat right beside him.

"These are leaflings from the other squads. They asked if they could take watch with us."

~With us, huh?~

"There's no need to ask. Anyone can take watch if they want to," he replied.

"What are your names?" He was fairly certain they would all say leafling, it was honestly surprising how slow these things were to grasp certain concepts. Why they couldn't start giving themselves names was beyond him.

"You haven't named us yet," replied one of the leaflings, his eyes slightly downcast.

"Why don't you guys just name yourselves. It isn't that hard," Lucius tried explaining, but the leaflings quickly shook their heads in response.

"Giving ourselves names would mean nothing. What difference would it make from just being called leafling? No, your names always seem to have some thought put into it," replied Alpha, before quickly realizing that he was being too forward.

"It's okay, Alpha. You're right, I guess that they want to prove themselves too," replied Lucius. It was human nature to want to work hard to earn something, it seemed to be leaf nature as well.

The group lasted for a few hours, but by midnight Lucius was once again the last one standing. Like the previous night, he waited to wake up from this dream, though it never happened. He was beginning to doubt his theory, perhaps this wasn't a dream, perhaps this was now his new reality.

***

Just like the previous day, the group set out on their march at first light, though this time, Alpha led the formation. Lucius was preoccupied with teaching Ghost the ropes of scouting and the different tactics she had to employ in certain situations.

"Never move in straight lines, that's too predictable. If something spotted you and you aren't aware of it yet, they could easily set up a trap for you," he instructed as he zigzagged in between shrubs, Ghost in tow.

"When you've got the movement down, you need to broaden your field of vision. Since we're scouting for a moving company and not for intel, we can't afford to sit down and properly analyze everything. So you need to take it in as it comes," he said, looking from side to side while simultaneously avoiding the shrubs in his path.

*Thud*

"Ouch! This is hard," Ghost cried out, her body covered in scrapes from all the tripping she had been doing this morning.