So! This starts off a drabble challenge from the Reviews Lounge, Too! It's the 12 days of drabble, and each entry has to relate to one of the days from the 'twelve days of Christmas' song! Each one has a word count that corresponds to its day, so this one, 12 drummers, has 112 words. I decided to approach these as being flashes from holiday seasons, but not necessarily Christmas fluff.
Twelve Drummers - Setsuna
Frigid air seeped in around the neck of Setsuna's coat. Snow flitted across his vision and he couldn't remember being so uncomfortable in a climate before; this mission unfortunately called for it. It was late December and all around he could hear a drum beating to indicate the time.
Twelve beats for the hour, but more than that.
Twelve beats, one per year.
Twelve years ago.
It had been twelve years since he'd heard the beat of a different drum, the drum of war. Twelve years ago it had rung so loudly in his ears that it drowned all else. That's the drum he heard now.
The beating drum of Krugis falling.