::Making Choices::


Disclaimer: What ever is not mine, is not mine. So bite me.

A/N: A lot of Daleria and Rapieratce mental bashing here, so if you are one of the invisible supporters that do not review, try not to kill me if you like any of the afore mentioned characters. Grinz.

*

Daleria got up from the damp cell floor in a dizzy daze, dearly hoping that whatever had happened did not really happen. Blinking a few times to clear the stars from her vision, she realized that she was truly in the cells below grounds, which had not been used for as long as she could remember, and that she did not have anything with her at all.

Her wrists hurt, and she had slammed her head onto the cell floor pretty hard while she was being shoved in. Daleria winced at the memory at exactly whom had shoved her in.

What was happening to the world?

She was being thrown into a cell by a fellow Long Patrol hare, under orders by the same badger lady that she was serving. This was insanity. But somehow, Daleria felt that it would have come down to this one way or another, as she had repeated herself enough times for Consellariel to know perfectly well what she was about to do, and was nimble enough to set a fellow hare, the colonel in fact, on her tail to make sure that she did not place a single footpaw out the doors of Salamandastron.
Daleria knew the lady had told her that she would not be holding back in the measures that she would be taking to keep her in the mountain, but Daleria never expected Consellariel to stoop as low as this.
Mentally cursing herself for being to obstinate when it came to badgers, she realized that she had more contact and closeness with the badger lady than many other hares that had been in the mountain thrice as long as herself. It finally dawned on the captain that she was beginning to forget how powerful Consellariel really could be when she wanted to, angry or no, as this occasion clearly proved.

Knowing that it would be no use trying to yell her lungs out to the colonel to let her out, Daleria crumpled back down into a small heap, knowing fully well that the matter was out of her hands, and that she could do nothing about it. So it was that the matter that her own family, or more specifically herself, had started was not finished, and that it had to be wrestled out of her hands. Why didn't they just let her go? Giving herself would be twenty times easier for everybeast on the mountain.

Stop it, Daleria, you know that even if you throw yourself out there that there's not going to be one chance from here to Sampetra that the vermin are going to back away. Not now, not ever. Vermin will be vermin, mindless, battle intent, gruesome vermin. Nothing more, only less.

Bringing her head down to her knees, Daleria shivered slightly, unused to the unnatural cold in the cellars. She felt so useless, locked away down there, unable to do anything at all that could possibly help, even in the tiniest ways. And this matter was her fault. It all started, so long ago, with so many lives lost, just because of her, and that accursed white vixen. A silent tear rolled down her cheek, and everything that happened, and the harsh reality of it all crashed down on her. So long had she tried to live without thinking of what had happened before, but now, she could not escape the past.

She needed to get it out of her head, she could not take it very much longer...

*

The colonel practically stumbled and crashed up the staircase, refusing to think of what he had just done so short a time ago. The bright and deceptively cheery sunlight was almost blinding, even though he had only been in the dank cellars for barely a few seconds, he still had to blink a few times to clear his muddled sight. Steadying his step as much as he could, he made his way to the forge, of which he was meant to report to after he had for filled his job, thinking of the consequences he was going to face when the captain was going to be let out from the dark abyss below grounds. Rapieratce's usually emotionless face contorted at the very thought of that. Daleria was probably going to firstly give him the cold shoulder for three seasons, then yell her head off at him for doing that for a further two seasons, attempt to throw him off the mountain when the Lady wasn't looking, then attempt to severe his head off after doing all of that.

The small key in his pocket seemed to grow in weight with every step up that he took, as if willing him to just simply turn around, unlock the cell, and leave his conscience clear. Forcing his eyes shut for a moment, the colonel took another step forward, knowing fully that in whatever direction he now turned, he would end up not stopping until he got either Daleria out, or the Lady Consellariel the key. Either way, he would be facing the wrath of either one. Neither was a pleasant thing to go through, as he had learnt over the past seasons. Forcing another step in the direction of the forge, he told himself over and over again that after all this riff-raff was over, he could apologize to the captain and get the matter over with, but at the moment, Consellariel's orders ruled supreme. He hoped with all his heart that the captain would understand what he was doing this for. However, a nagging little voice that was not his came from the deep recesses in his head started going off,

'Of course DALERIA would understand WHY you THREW her into the cellars that have never held a hare for so long that they most probably have never been used. I'm suuuuuuuree that she'll understand just why you simply shoved her into a cell and just left her there without voicing ANY reason whatsoever. Riiiiiiight. You are only talking about the most hot-headed, obstinate, unmoving, stubborn, single tracked, short-tempered captain in the ENTIRE Long Patrol here, 'Atce. You are in for it now...'

The colonel was going crazy. Clenching his jaw in determination, he walked briskly forward, putting his eye on the now visible forge door, refusing to turn around. Half walking, half running, he screeched to a halt outside the massive wooden door, knocking half heartedly onto it.

'Enter, colonel. Yes, I know that it's you.'

The annoying voice chose then to make a reappearance.

'There's no turning back now, 'atce. Daleria is going to skin you alive after this.'

Forcing the thoughts out of his head, the colonel entered the forge, albeit more stiffly than usual, removed the key, which now seemed like a dead weight to him, and near slammed it down onto the table in front of him. The lady Consellariel nodded, raising an eyebrow.

'So it is done, Rapieratce?'

The colonel's conscience was complaining loudly at that point in time, but in the end, he had to force his head down in a curt nod in front of the ruler of Salamandastron.

There was nothing he could do now. The matter was beyond his reach, highest ranking hare or no.