::Blazing::

Disclaimer: You know it, don't ask it.

*

Daleria had just about enough. She had been in the small, dark, cold cell for almost a full day without anybeast even poking their head down the stairwell. Not even the lady had come to give her a rational explanation. It was madness. She highly doubted that any other beast in the mountain besides Rapieratce and Consellariel knew that she was stuck in here, for reasons even she did not know.

Let me out! Please, just let me out of here...

Daleria wanted so badly to get out. Daleria needed to get out. The longer she was in here, the more time she had to reflect on all that had happened in her life, and the amount of misery and bitterness it had brought to so many others beside her. It was sticking in her head, and she had nothing to occupy her. Sleep was wandering in the faraway lands that nobeast goes to, and it did not show any intention of coming back any time in the near future. It was driving her crazy. Already slight hallucinations had begun to return, and she saw the flash of the blade again, and again, and again. Only now, it was worse. Daleria could just pick up the tiniest faint trace of a scream of pain in the background, no doubt Clandestine's.

Clandestine.

Daleria winced at her memory. She needed to get it out of her head, before her head got her. It drove her beyond pain. Pain would be helpful here, just to take away the pain going on in her heart.

Let me out... Let me out, oh please just let me out! I don't know how long I will last down here. Throw me onto a battlefield and I would survive longer...

Cursing herself for not looking around when she had snuck out to investigate, the captain stood up and kicked the rusty cell door, browned with age and creaky through lack of use. The metal clanged and shuddered, but the framework remained true to Salamandastron standards and held firm, not even budging an inch from it's fixture on the wall. It was too dark to find any other alternative way out, so Daleria could only continue trying to kick the door open, even if her actions were in vain. At least they kept her thoughts away from Clandestine, away from Seppak, away from what had happened, and away from what could happen.

*

Muscles aching, Rapieratce sheathed his rapier as he strode silently out of the training hall, absent mindedly making his way up to the third floor where his dormitory was. The sun had already set, dipping down below the horizon, and the last rays were now vanishing, throwing everything into a very dim atmosphere. The hares on lighting duty had already put up lamps all over the mountain, keeping the place well illuminated.

He had barely even managed to concentrate on training that day, as his mind was so obviously elsewhere at the time. He was reflecting on what Consellariel had said, and what his conscience was telling him. He was also pondering on how long Daleria would possibly survive locked down in the damp and dark cellars. She needed only some time to reflect, but the things she would be reflecting on would no be at all pleasant. Her emotions might cause her to break down and send her into a fit again, and goodness knows what she might do if she did. She was in as much danger below as above, and the colonel was beginning to have second thoughts about whether listening to the lady's orders that time was such a good idea. His mind, however, was forcing his conscience to back off, telling him that he had to listen to Consellariel.

Every was so confusing, and so immersed in his own thoughts was Rapieratce, that he did not even notice that his feet had brought him to his dormitory door at all. Setting his rapier down on his table, he went over to his bed and lay down deep in thought.

The rest of my day is free now, lest it be that Consellariel needs me again, which is doubtful. I had better make a reappearance down below, then. Mossflower knows what Daleria might have done to herself down there. She needs food too. The last thing one wants is a hare to starve down there due to neglect of food.

Shaking his head out of grimness, the colonel got up again and went down to the kitchens, grabbing a plateful of scones and a flask of water, then made his way downstairs. An awful racket met his ears.

'Clang! Creak! Crack!'

Not breaking his stride, the colonel lit a lamp that he had brought down with him, setting it onto a hook on the wall, and calmly stating to Daleria, who had chosen to ignore his presence by bashing the door twice as hard as before, venting her stress and anger on the unmoving steel cage.

'Kindly do not try to break down the blinkin door, m'gel. It will not be getting you bally anywhere.'

Giving the stubborn door one final, hard kick, Daleria stalked to the edge of the bunk in her cell, gazing in anger at the colonel before her. Her voice rose as she spoke.

'Get me out of here, colonel! Why on Mossflower am I here in the first place? Let me out!'

Rapieratce shook his head as he slipped the foodstuff under the bars of the cell, speaking softly but firmly.

'You know I cannot do that, m'gel. It is beyond my power now. Only the Lady can say when you'll bally well get out of here. As for the blinkin reasons, it is simply for your own bally safe being, and you jolly well know it.'

'What do you mean my safe being? There is a vermin army coming in no less than two more days up there with five hostages in their hands! And who is the cause of it? I am! So let me out and I can go out there and hopefully solve this problem.'

'You know I cannot, wot. And you know that you jolly well also cannot get the blinkin key. I will talk to the bally Lady, but I cannot promise anything. Take the food, you'll bally well starve if you don't.'

'I cannot eat, not at this time.'

'You've always been the blinkin stubborn one, haven't you, captain?'

'Yes, sah.'

'Well, I cannot jolly well force the food down your throat, so if you do not want it, leave it.'

With those words, the colonel simply turned and left, leaving Daleria in the relative dimness of the lamp light, which would go out soon enough. Daleria thought to herself,

Why on earth did he just walk out like that? Something must be going on here...