The Agoge
Well, today was the day. I would be taken from my mother to begin my agoge. I was given the luxury of a final breakfast with my mother before such, and my mother for once made quite a bit of food, enough to truly satisfy me at least.
"Marcus, I expect to hear great things from the council about your agoge. Make me proud."
"Of course mother." She allowed herself a small smile at my words, before gesturing for me to finish my meal.
The rest of my last breakfast was spent in silence, but not an uncomfortable one. I quickly finished my last bit of boiled pig leg and got up with my mother towards the entrance of the home. There I found two spartan warriors waiting for me.
Rather roughly they each grabbed one of my arms and nodded towards my mother before carrying me away. I took one final glance at my mother and allowed my gaze to linger. This may be the last time I see her for over a decade. At this moment, I realized that no matter how strained our relationships may be, I still cared about her. I broke my gaze after giving her a stern nod, one she returned with a smile.
With that, I turned and let myself be carried by the two warriors towards where I would spend the next 13 years of my life. Not one word was spoken between us, it was a simple silence.
---
The barracks I arrived in was filled with 15 kids my age, a single group, known as an Agele. Contrary to my calm demeanor many of the kids around me looked quite nervous. I honestly couldn't blame them, unlike me, mentally these kids were just that, kids.
It seems that my fearless visage attracted the attention of both the Paidonomos and the Eiren, who looked at me with interest, however, they quickly looked away after letting their gaze linger for a few seconds.
The Paidonomos took a step forward and stomped his foot on the ground, in response to his presence many of the kids instinctively raised their backs.
"Children! You are the next generation of Spartan warriors, but you are still children. You will be tested for any signs of weakness, any who shows such will be thrown out! Now, as you can see you are all a single agele. You will each fight for the position of agelarche (the group leader) among your group." He then gestured for us to begin.
No one understood what was to be done, I did, however. He wanted us to fight for the position. I looked over to the kid standing next to me and stared at him for a few seconds. Our lack of action seemed to anger the Eiren, who quickly screamed.
"Are you all daft!? The Paidonomos said begin! Now begin!"
I took no further and quickly raised my arm and with all my strength, punched the one standing next to me square in the jaw. My punch caused him to fall, and the arena went silent for a few seconds. I could see from the corner of my eyes both the Paidonomos and the Eiren staring at me with approval.
The silence after my first attack was quickly broken by another in my group punching his neighbor, and soon all of us were fighting amongst each other. I didn't hesitate to pick out my next target, a skinny boy, around 30 kondylos (3 foot 10) by my estimation. He looked confused at the happenings around him, foolish.
I took a step forward and put my strength into another punch, this time in the temple, dazing him and causing him to fall to the ground.
A couple more punches and quickly it was only two left standing. Me and the second one to throw a punch in the group. He was quite tall, only a little shorter than me. Our few seconds of inaction were interrupted by him releasing a scream, and running towards me.
'Brave, but foolish.' I thought to myself. While the boy was not lacking in courage, his form was sloppy and his charge idiotic. Then again, what could I expect from a seven-year-old child?
I sidestepped his punch, before throwing my own at his exposed liver. He quickly fell to the ground, groaning in pain. I looked down at him, and the other injured children surrounding me, before looking back at the two instructors. They looked at me with appraising eyes, before slowly clapping their hands.
"Children! Marcus is now your agelarche, and you would do well to respect him as such! You will now be escorted to your bunkers, where you would spend the rest of the day getting to know each other. Tomorrow your true training will begin!" With his words done, he gestured to a few soldiers and they started leading us to our barracks.
---
As we entered the barracks it was silent and many of my group mates were glaring at me and my earlier opponent. Me and him were given beds next to each other.
"What is your name?" I asked him, he looked at me in silence for a second before responding,
"Aristarchos." I smiled and reached my hand out to him and he took it in a warrior's grip, the standard greeting of Sparta.
"Well met Artistarchos, you fought well today." He scoffed and replied,
"Clearly not well enough." I chuckled and said,
"It was closer than you think, you nearly caught me off-guard with your courageous charge. Next time try to study your enemy before charging in like that." He seemed a bit off-put by my words but gave me a nod. I smiled at him before looking at the rest of my group mates. "You guys do realize we will be together for the next 13 years. Don't you think it would be good to get to know each other?"
With that, the glares seemed to stop, and my group mates began to introduce themselves. I gave each a small bit of advice about their earlier performance, and while not quite earning their loyalty as pack leader, I seemed to have received their respect.