The New Hope Players
Chapter 7

--December 19th ( night) cont'd again, New Hope--

Knick-knack-knock, the quiet knock at the door rang through the front room of the guest house where Daine, Numair and Raoul were sitting, waiting.

Daine walked over to the door, "Who is it?" she whispered through the key hole.

"The smallest are the ones who call." was the reply. Daine opened the door to reveal Gydo and Irnai, who scurried in, carrying a big pile of paper each. They dropped their load on the table and nodded to the group, saying "Tobe and Loey will be here in minutes, but Tobe ran into Kel on the way out... you know how curious she's been getting lately, especially since we've had Sir Merric start taking her out for patrols with him. She's starting to really believe something is up… I suppose that shouldn't be so surprising, she ain't stupid… but anyway Loey and Tobe have to throw her off the trail."

"And how will they do that?" Raoul said smiling at the young'uns cleverness, "Oh and have any of you seen Buri? She said something about going to see Alanna?" He was facing Gydo, so he didn't see Irnai's face turn red with embarrassment behind him. Daine did however, and she barely concealed a laugh.

"That would be telling wouldn't it?" Gydo, trying to cover up for Irnai, responded to Raoul's first question, "And as for Buri," she added, "She'll be here with Alanna in a few minutes I assume."

"What The?!" Numair yelped, pointing to two figures just outside the window, gesturing wildly, they obviously wanted in. Gydo and Irnai rolled their eyes at their friend's theatrics; they marched over and flung the windows open, Loey and Tobe dropped in from the tree outside.

"You couldn't have used the door could you?" Gydo complained after she shut the window and pulled the curtain, quiet as a mouse.

"No we couldn't!" Tobe gasped, as he shook leaves from his hair.

"Yeah!" Loey agreed, as she stood, shaking out her skirts, "Kel is watching the door, she left us after we started our fifth game of checkers, so we snuck over here, only to find her sitting on the well edge pretending to read reports, but every so often she looks up at the door.--"

"Very good of you to notice that," said Alanna, making the group jump, she closed the door behind Buri, and threw an silencing spell over the room, "If you ever want work as an agent you should really talk to George. Anyway the now no one can hear us from outside the room. Sit down Buri!" She suddenly snapped at the ex-commander, who was white as a sheet and oddly green.

Ignoring, Buri's oddities (probably because she herself had had some fault in them) Irnai looked at Alanna, "Where is lady Yuki?" she asked the Lady Knight.

"Oh that," Alanna sighed and snapped her fingers, the Purple shadow that none of them -except Numair- had noticed before, lost it's shadowiness, and became Lady Yuki.

"Nice one Alanna," Numair muttered sarcastically, "I didn't even notice her there until about five seconds after you walked in."

"Hey!" Alanna said, hand flying to her sword hilt, "I was trying to fool Kel, not a black robe---"

"Uh, Lady," Tobe said politely, " You do remember her griffin feather--"

"Ack! Was she wearing it?!" Alanna whirled around to face Loey, who nodded sadly, "Ah well," sighed Alanna, "We tried, and the room is silenced, anyway."

"Okay," Said Yuki, "Let us begin. This meeting is to bring you up to speed, and to tell you what's going to happen so you don't bug out on us."

"Will there be reason to bug out?" Daine asked conversationally as she set out a tray of cookies, "Aside from everything that's already made some of us bug out I mean." She smiled wickedly to Buri, who made a rude hand sign back at her and laughed rather weakly. Raoul watched the two looking a little worried, and lot puzzled.

Seeing this (and having been told what happened that morning) Yuki began her speech, "Ok, ok stop it! Now the agenda for tomorrow, is as follows, the rest of everyone arrives... this includes, " she glanced at her paper, "Rider group seven, who includes Rider Miri and riding with them, Commander Evin--"

"Wait, why are they coming?" Buri sat up straighter, she didn't like the fact that she no longer knew the goings on with the Riders, the lack of insight took some getting used to.

"Simply because, Group 7 is going to be stationed at New Hope until the end of the war, and they're under orders to begin with the New Year, so they decided to come earlier to enjoy themselves. As for Commander Evin... he's coming to enjoy himself too, I suppose," Yuki said, watching Buri closely. Buri muttered something that sounded much like "Sure, and I'll bet he wanted to stay as close to his Miri as possible"

Yuki ignored her and continued calmly, "So they're staying in permanent rooms, in the soldiers barracks, they added a second floor with two rooms: one for lady riders and one for male riders. Okay, also coming tomorrow is, oh, Duke Biard. I told him in detail what's going on, including Neal's reaction and the consequences of same. He says he wouldn't miss it for anything."

Tobe and Gydo smirked at each other, they liked Duke Biard, he was always ready to tell Neal off... and he could do it out loud too!

"Oh and Dom's Squad of course... I was rather surprised they weren't here today actually."

Tobe, Loey and Gydo laughed and Irnai smirked evilly. When everyone stared at them Tobe said with a well placed shrug, "Oh we knew they wouldn't be. We told them not to be!"

"Beg pardon?" Yuki said, obviously confused.

"Ya' see, Tobe, Loey, Irnai and I wrote Wolset a note, with strict orders that they were to leave as late as possible, arrive as late as they could, and drive Dom to the breaking point. Dom will sleep late tomorrow... a raid on Sir Neal's stores guarantees that." Gydo said.

"And then," Loey said, taking a cookie off the tray, "While they are here, they're to do everything they can to keep Kel and Dom from having more than 10 minutes alone at a time. You guys are going to help us do that! This way the play will be the straw that breaks the pack-mule's back."

There was silence for a long minute, and then "You children are evil." Raoul said admiringly.

"We know." laughed Irnai.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

--Decmber 19, (same time) on-road... sort of--

'Not again! why are we stopping now?' thought a very agitated Dom, as he turned around. It was very dark out, and probably around midnight, but after three wrong turns; eleven bathroom breaks, at six of which something of vital importance was forgotten; plus three of his men fainting, they still were about four miles from New Hope. Dom was beginning to think his men might actually want to be late.

'What now?" He moaned to his men, he was exhausted, and hungry.

"Dom," Wolset said carefully, his care was do to Dom's violent tendencies which had increased with the hour, "We're all tired, starving and well, we think we should camp out here for the night and go to New Hope in the morning; we'll still be there on time."

This morning's Dom would've argued with that, but now he half-heartedly said, "Yes."

As Dom pitched his tent, Wolset whispered to Fulcher, "You got the sleepy herbs? Good sprinkle them on Dom's dinner."

"Oy! Dom, dinner's up, come and get it!" He handed Dom a bowl of soup with a smile.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The next morning Dom would not wake up. He wasn't dead of course, just deeply asleep. After confirming this with a bucket of pond water, the smell of bacon and a stick Wolset smirked at the men, "Those kids... they said he'd sleep till noon, I reckon we have 'bout an hour left. One of us should ride ahead, to alert those children that the plan goes good."

"I'll go." said Fulcher, putting on his helm and standing up, "Meet you all there when sleeping beauty wakes up." The men laughed as Fulcher waved, and rode off.

"So have you heard about the new law passing?" Wolset asked the men around him.

"Oh yes!!" Lorfen said "The one about how blacksmiths are no longer allowed to use temperamental steel in their work? I for one--"

"Where do you find this stuff out?" Wolset cut him off, "I was talking about the one about the Kings Own, how now the commanders of companies are allowed to marry."

"You mean Flyn can now marry and stay in the force? But I thought he was retiring?" one man said.

"He is, poor bloke, ever since he lost his hand to a killing machine he's been in poor spirits, but his sweetheart still loves him, so he's retiring to marry her... not much he can do without a hand. But what I'm inferring is that we'll need a new commander of the third company... and he'll be allowed to fall in love freely, won't he?"

At that exact moment, Dom came tearing out of his tent, blinking frantically at the sun high in the sky "Ack!! It's noon already? Why didn't one of you wake me!?" He ran back into his tent, and his squad could hear assorted thumps and curses as he flew around inside.

"Noon on the dot, boy those children are something else." Wolset said with a smile. But the men were looking back and forth, from where Wolset was, and where Dom had just stood.

"Do you mean that Raoul is going to make him---"

"What do you think?"