A wide blue sky domed the pleasantly mild day, rather atypical for the usually dreary and cool Northlands mid-autumn. Bandon inwardly thanked nature for granting this respite today, as it was most fitting for the occasion.
This was the day he was going to be made a captain.
Lord Urthblood's army was camped near a lake in one of the hilly regions so common in this part of the Northlands. About two hundred of his fellow troops were present for the ceremony, mostly ferrets, stoats and weasels. Assembled in loose ranks, they left a narrow gap in their midst for Bandon to pass through. At the head of the gathering stood Urthblood himself, his crimson armor resplendent in the noonday sun, and Machus the Sword, his black uniform freshly washed to look as regal as possible.
"Bandon!" the Badger Lord called out, his mighty voice echoing over the landscape. "Come forward!"
Obediently, the stoat left his position at the rear of the assembly and marched up the passage between his comrades-in-arms, making his way toward his badger master. Bandon wasn't accustomed to being the center of attention like this, and having every face turned his way as he passed between the columns – coupled with the heightened expectations of his imminent new rank – made him a little nervous. It helped that the generally supportive and congratulatory expressions on most of those faces bespoke of a willingness by these soldiers to accept him as their new commander, infusing him with confidence and composure befitting his elevated station.
Most of those faces, but not all. And if some of those smiles of encouragement seemed a little forced and disingenuous, such an undercurrent of jealousy was to be expected. Bandon wasn't the only the one who'd actively campaigned for this post, opened by Urthblood's decision to add another captaincy to his expanding stoat brigade. Several potential candidates had been weighed, all good warriors and respected among their fellows, any of whom could easily have been in his place today. He hoped his selection wouldn't create any lasting resentment or rivalries with the other candidates – that sort of thing could be very dangerous, both for himself and for the coherence of the army.
But in the end, regardless of the others' ambitions or desires, Urthblood had chosen him, and no other. Any rivals who contemplated nursing a grudge or harbouring ill will towards Bandon for this honour would do well to remember that their badger master didn't look favourably upon those who challenged him or questioned his edicts – and that Urthblood only made such edicts after long deliberation and careful thought. Bandon's skill, dedication, loyalty and ability to lead his fellow stoats in battle had convinced the badger that he, and he alone, was the most worthy choice for the new stoat captaincy.
Or so Bandon liked to believe. One could never be too sure about anything regarding Urthblood. His prophetic vision and intimate understanding of the forces of destiny might well have allowed him to see some special quality or potential in the stoat beyond the ability of ordinary beasts to discern.
If so, that prospect made Bandon a little uneasy – what Urthblood considered a "special quality" or a "potential use" wasn't always something that boded well for the beast in question.
Approaching the badger, Bandon passed some of the more important beasts gathered here for this ceremony. Callahan and Felim, the other two stoat captains presently serving under Urthblood's command, stood at the forefront of the crowd, summoned to witness the promotion of their new peer. Callahan was the senior of the pair, having joined up with Urthblood not long after Machus himself. While all captains were officially equal, that being the highest rank awarded by the Badger Lord, some carried a great deal more authority and respect than others due to age, skill or sheer force of personality.
At their side, his squat shape a sharp contrast to the mustelids comprising most of the assemblage, stood Odhran the hedgehog, a scholar from a nearby woodlander settlement. Ohdran had been teaching Bandon, and quite a few of the other newly appointed officers, to read and write, and Lord Urthblood had seen fit to include the hedgehog among this otherwise all-vermin gathering. Officers in the Badger Lord's army were often required to take messages and reports, and to compose their own dispatches to communicate vital information. Since most of his soldiers, vermin and woodlander alike, were illiterate, Urthblood had engaged a number of learned beasts from the surrounding homesteads to instruct his commanders in the ways of the written word. Odhran and Bandon had struck up something of a friendship during their sessions together, and the hedgehog beamed at the stoat as he saw his student step forward to receive the promotion he'd so clearly earned.
Finally coming to stand before his master, the sturdy stoat looking small and weak compared to the towering mountain of red-armoured muscle staring down at him, Bandon locked gazes with Urthblood and awaited the next part of the ceremony.
Regarding the stoat with probing, penetrating scrutiny, as if searching for some deeply-buried sign of treachery or unworthiness that he'd missed before, the badger then spoke. "Bandon, will you retake your oath of loyalty?"
Lowering himself to one knee and bowing his head, he readied himself for the questions to come, although he knew he would answer "yes" to every one of them.
"Do you swear to leave your old life, and whatever crimes and shameful misdeeds you may have committed in the past, behind you for good?"
That part of the oath was worded with mostly vermin in mind, although a few woodlanders had less than wholesome backgrounds as well. In any event, Bandon had no desire to return to the impoverished existence of his old robber gang.
"I do," he answered.
"Do you swear your loyalty to my standard, and the ideals for which it stands?"
"I do."
"Do you swear to conduct yourself as a loyal and committed member of this army, to take your training in the arts of honorable combat, to be a true and faithful comrade to your fellow soldiers, and to show courtesy and respect to all non-fighting beasts of the lands?"
"I do."
"Do you swear to devote your life to the vanquishment of tyranny and villainy, and to work toward the goal of a free and prosperous land where all beasts live in harmony, regardless of origin or species?"
"I do."
"Do you swear to serve dutifully under my command until death relieves you of that obligation, or until such a time as you merit an honourable discharge from my forces?"
"I do," the stoat said, though he knew that only death could ever release him from Urthblood's service – any other life was unthinkable to him now.
"And do you solemnly swear," the badger intoned, reciting the special part of the oath reserved for captains, "to be a just and courageous leader to the beasts under your command, to stand as an example and inspiration to all those who follow you, and to lay down your life for your troops if such proves necessary?"
"I do so solemnly swear," Bandon recited as he'd been instructed, doing his best to tone down his Northlands accent for the occasion.
Urthblood turned to Machus, who produced a sword recently forged by the Badger Lord himself - his customary gift to all his new captains. It was not dissimilar to the swords wielded by the foxes who served under Machus; the fact that every member of the swordfox brigade was granted a weapon normally reserved for captains spoke of their skill and the clout they held in Urthblood's forces.
The badger motioned for the stoat to rise and held out the sword for him. "Then I appoint you Captain Bandon of the stoat brigade. May your service be long and successful, and may your deeds be many and great and long remembered."
Bandon accepted the sword and then turned toward the two hundred beasts assembled here for this ceremony. His ceremony. His heart sang with pride at the very thought of this, and of what he had achieved. Doing his best to maintain a proper officer's composure rather than break out in the happy grin that was trying to escape from inside him, Bandon raised his new sword to let the sunlight gleam off of it. The crowd erupted in cheers and applause, and soon a clearly intoned chant arose from the massed troops, a single name echoing across the landscape:
"Bandon, Bandon, Bandon, Bandon, Bandon…"
What we have here is a first for me, and for the Urthblood Saga as a whole: a dedicated flashback sequence written in italics. As an inspiration for this, I'd like to cite the wonderful Nievelion, who uses this technique regularly in his own stories. You'll be seeing more of these in this story (some of which will be decidedly less pleasant than this one) and I hope you'll find them enjoyable rather than confusing.
Most of the particulars of this scene - the ceremony, the oath Bandon has to swear, the names of the other stoat captains and the tradition of Urthblood presenting a specially made sword to all new captains - I had to come up with myself since they're not mentioned in Highwing's works. From my discussions with him, though, it seems they're the kind of things that could fit into Urthblood's army, and I'm glad I included them.
