Jesper was the first boy to arrive at the small field on the first day of brotherband training, not that anyone noticed. As his small hut was about a thirty minute walk uphill from the rest of the town, he was not confident enough in his ability to stay out of trouble on the walk downhill and make it to the field on time. So yesterday he had snuck into one of the storage houses, spending the night there, and then took a path through the trees in order to reach the small field undetected. There, he watched the twenty seven other boys begin to filter in through the branches of the tree he was perched in. The first boy arrived alone. He had darker hair than most of the other Skandians, and was not as muscular. Jesper searched for his name. If he recalled correctly, his name started with an E. Edward? No, it was Edvin. That was right. The others arrived shortly after him. Hal and Stig arrived together. Jesper had expected that. Since they were 12 years old, they had been inseparable. He didn't really know what had transpired between the two. Whatever happened, he was glad of it. Hal seemed to be able to get Stig to calm down, at least sometimes. It was a good strong friendship, and he knew that it helped the both of them with their insecurities, whether they were aware of it or not.

Unsurprisingly, Tursgud's group was the loudest when entering, as well as the last. Jesper's lip curled in disgust as he watched him. Tursgud was a bully, and was all too confident in his abilities. Jesper knew that he had deliberately cut it close, to show that he was not at all affected about what was about to happen. Jesper slipped down the tree he was in and stood at the fringes of the group of boys. He figured that there would be three brotherbands. As long as he wasn't put in Tursgud's group, he didn't have a preference. Tursgud and Rollond would undoubtedly be elected to be two of the leaders. He figured Hal would be the third. Although Jesper was not close with anyone in Hallasholm, he did watch the people there, and had determined that there were 8 "outcasts", including himself. Out of those eight, Hal had the most qualities of a leader. He was a brilliant inventor, though he did have a lot of failed inventions. Jesper had watched as he had brought his ship, the Heron, into the harbor the other day. Hal's voice had a note of authority in it as he had commanded Stig, Ingvar, and the twins on what to do to bring the ship in safely. And, though he was nervous, he didn't lose his head when he found that he was bearing down on the Oberjarl's ship, the Wolfwind.

Jesper frowned as he noticed Erak walking with Sigurd, who was in charge of the brotherband training. He knew it wasn't normal for the Oberjarl to be there for the start of brotherband training. He had no idea what was different about today. He moved slightly closer to the cover of trees. Better to be prepared than to be caught with his pants down. A flicker of movement in the trees caught his eyes. Waiting a few moments, he casually turned his head in the direction the movement had come from. Standing amid the trees was the one handed Skandian Thorn. He was watching Hal, and didn't notice Jesper looking at him. Jesper turned his gaze back to the front before he was caught. Thorn was a bit of a mystery to him. About six years ago, Thorn had turned away from the tankard and become a bit of a father figure to Hal. Doing a little digging, Jesper had found that Thorn and Mikkel, Hal's father, had been on the same wolf ship before Mikkel was mulled. He had also found on the rather untouched dusty records that Thorn had been Maktig three years in a row. Even accomplishing the feat once was impressive, but three times? Jesper still wasn't sure whether or not he believed it.

The group of boys crowded closer to the platform where the two now stood. Not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to himself, Jesper reluctantly moved with them, but made sure to stay on the edges of the group. Tursgud and three of his cronies thrust there way to the front. Jesper watched Erak nod to him in greeting. The bully nodded back, and Jesper noticed that Hal, who was now in the back row, had seen the exchange as well. Hal's lip curled in annoyance at the confident way Tursgud held himself. Jesper wouldn't mind getting to know the half Skandian a bit further. With any luck, they would be put in the same brotherband, with Hal as the skirl. But Jesper didn't want to give the Fates any ideas and kept his hopes to himself.

"All right! All right! Settle down and pay attention!" Sigurd called out across the field. "Everybody here? Sing out if you're not here." Jesper snorted. Apparently the no nonsense Sigurd had a sense of humor. Or, at least, Sigurd believed he did. "All right," Sigurd said, "let's get underway." Jesper supposed he shouldn't be surprised. An experienced fighter knew how to make a quick headcount when facing multiple opponents. It only made sense that they would use this skills in other settings.

"Today, you're going to be selected into your brotherbands." Sigurd paused. "That's in case any of you thought this was the Hallasholm Ladies' Needlework Society. If so, you may leave now." Jesper raised his eyebrows. That was more than a little pathetic. But, he supposed not everyone could have good humor. Sigurd continued, "First thing we do is select brotherband leaders. Any nominations?" Jesper rolled his eyes as the boy on Tursgud's right side called the bully's name. The boy on Tursgud's left was quick to second the nomination. As Jesper had predicted, Rollond was also nominated as a brotherband leader. Rollond was a fair person, he knew, and Jesper was well aware of his popularity. Both he and Tursgud seemed to have an equal amount of followers. Thankfully, Rollond didn't bully those he felt threatened by like Tursgud. He was a bit surprised when Hal seconded Rollond's nomination, but figured that Hal knew what Rollond was like and appreciated his personality.

Unsurprisingly, Stig nominated Hal as a brotherband leader. Jesper watched with slight amusement as Hal blushed and cursed silently. Stig repeated the nomination, leaning slightly to one side to allow Sigurd to see him. Jesper narrowed his eyes in annoyance when Sigurd called out "Hal who?" Really, he thought, how hard is it to remember the one person who lost his father at see and is being raised by his Araluen mother? He already has a hard enough time fitting in, Jesper thought angrily, and Sigurd just made it even worse. He felt Hal's embarrassment at Tursgud's derisive tone, and watched as Hal tried to get Stig to shut up. Jesper closed his eyes as Stig's temper got the better of him, and listened with a grimace as the majority of the boys mocked him for it.

He was glad when Sigurd got the boys back under control. Jesper may not have been close to either of the two boys, but he knew what it was like to be bullied and ridiculed, and felt bad for them. Jesper silently huffed as Sigurd defended Karina Mikkelson. So he was a good friend of Mikkel's, but he couldn't remember his son's name? Some friend he was. Jesper gritted his teeth in anger when someone called out "The mongrel?" Unfortunately, Sigurd couldn't determine who had spoken, and they went unpunished. When Sigurd asked for a second for the nomination of Hal, Jesper almost spoke up, but he stopped himself before he did. He knew that there would have to be three brotherbands this year, and he wanted to see how things played out. Worst comes to worst, he could always second Hal as a brotherband skirl later. Jesper met Sigurd's gaze evenly as he called out for more nominations. No one was willing to draw attention to themselves or be placed on a losing team.

Jesper watched with interest as Erak stepped forward. "Alright," the Oberjarl began, "we'll start with the two skirls we've got and see how we're doing by the time we're down to the last nine or ten." Well, Jesper thought, it will most likely be the last eight. It made more sense if there were two groups of ten and one group of eight. The two nominated skirls called out names quickly in the beginning, slowing down as their friends joined them and picking teams required a bit more thought. Jesper pursed his lips as Rollond called Stig's name. Stig hesitated. He knew, as Jesper knew, that Tursgud would pick Hal, and make his life miserable for the allotted time for brotherband training. Jesper allowed a ghost of a smile pass over his face as Stig passed. His loyalty to Hal was admirable, and Jesper hoped that the two adults had enough sense to keep them in the same brotherband.

He was pleasantly surprised when Erak interfered with Tursgud's picking of Hal. Jesper watched with no small amount of amusement and satisfaction as Erak turned on Tursgud and put him in his place. He rolled his eyes as Rollond said he wouldn't take Stig either. Gods, these people were annoying. He knew it would mean that it meant that Hal and Stig were going to be part of the third brotherband together, but really, how petty can a group of teenage boys be? As the two skirls continued choosing people, Jesper glanced around. The remaining people were exactly who he had thought they would be. The twins Ulf and Wulf, who wore twin scowls across the small field from him. The mimic, Stefan, the giant Ingvar who Jesper had noticed had terrible eyesight, Edvin, who had shown up first after Jesper, and, of course, Stig, Hal, and himself.

Sigurd looked uncertainly at the leftovers that had been determined as the third brotherband. Jesper understood why. Apart from Ulf and Wulf and Stig and Hal, they were scattered across the field on their own. It was clear that they were not the closest of groups. Jesper snorted at Tursgud's stupidity as he began to argue with Erak. for some reason, Tursgud couldn't seem to get it through his thick head that Erak was the Oberjarl and the Oberjarl's word was law in Skandia. He was slightly surprised when Ingvar stepped up and said they should be called the Herons, then remembered that that was the name of Hal's ship. He laughed with the others when Edvin was the one to point out that sharks were, in fact, fish, turning Tursgud's statement about the only things to be feared by herons were fish around to use it against Tursgud.

Jesper was glad that the rest of the boys all agreed that Hal should be leader. Well, all of them but Hal. It was good that Hal was humble, but there was a point that he needed to accept that he was going to be skirl so that they could get a move on with their shelter. So, when Hal said, "Don't rush into this. Tursgud hates me. You all know that. If you elect me as leader, he'll hate you as well.", Jesper made a disparaging gesture and responded, "So what? He hates us anyway." It wasn't long after when Hal officialy became skirl of the small brotherband. Jesper watched as Hal gained more confidence once the materials were all laid out and he began to instruct them on how to build a shelter for the night. While they worked, Jesper saw Sigurd and Erak watching them through the trees, but he thought he saw approval in their eyes. He didn't mention it to the others, and shook the fanciful thoughts from his head and focused back on the task at hand, though he made sure to keep an eye on the two adults until they turned around and headed away form the brotherband.

They had the basic structure of the building complete by late afternoon. Hal told the group his plans for the roof, and Jesper had to ask about the roof. He figured they would use the canvas, but it wouldn't hurt to ask. At least, not this time. Turning to Hal, he said, "What about the walls? There doesn't seem to be enough timber for them."

Hal nodded. "More canvas. We've got plenty of that. In effect, we're building a big, timber-framed tent." Jesper nodded in acceptance. The analogy was a good one, and he could see understanding dawning on the others' faces.

Jesper looked at the sky and noticed the dark clouds were much closer than before. Before he could speak up Stig said, "We'd better get a move on with the roof. It'll be raining in an hour."

Hal frowned. "We'll have to rig something temporary." he paused for a moment, thinking. "We'll set up a ridge pole and stretch canvas over it. The rain will pool in, but most of it should run off. Just don't anybody touch it where the canvas sags."

Jesper smirked slightly to himself as Hal gave them new instructions and snarked with Stefan. It was always nice when you were proved right, he thought as he and Stefan began to nail the floorboards in. his smirk got a little bigger as Hal dealt with the twins. Stefan looked at him questioningly, and Jesper jerked his head toward the dumbfounded twins. Stefan understood immediately and smirked as well.

The group finished in just over forty minutes, just as the rain was starting to fall. Jesper watched with amusement as Hal once again dealt with the twins, and then slight exasperation as he watched the Wulf pull the rope Hal had put on his wrist and give it to his brother, who promptly put it on from inside the tent. He shook his head slightly, a slight smile on his face. They were growing closer, and, Jesper knew, it was a first for many of them.