Disclaimer: Not mine. Not yours either. :P
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Rapieratce had barely slept. If he had, he did not think he did for more than an hour. He was waiting in the infirmary, hoping dearly that Daleria would wake up from her slumber. The hallucinations had seemed to stop, so had the twitching, but the hare captain had not reawakened yet. It was getting him severely worried. It was almost dawn already, and the colonel knew that he was going to have to report to Consellariel soon. Taremin had woken up, but no other beast had stirred. He and Longrunn had decided to keep the matter as quiet as possible. Everything was already overly sensitive, and matters were going overboard. Instead, Rapieratce and the sergeant had settled for waiting in the infirmary for Daleria to waken, which seemed as if it were not going to happen any time in the near future.
Getting up, tired as he was, Rapieratce left the sergeant on his own and made his way to the badger lady's quarters on the fourth floor, dreading the conversation that was to come. All around him, everybeast on the mountain was reawakening in anticipation, as the vermin were only one, single day away from the mountain. Everybeast was arming up, but Rapieratce was starting to doubt if he would even be able to lift his rapier that day, so tired was he. Shutting his eyes for a split second, he forced himself to walk faster. The days were getting agonizingly long and tiring of late, to no surprise. There was a limit as to how long the colonel was going to survive, and he was already being worn down under the load that had been placed on his back. Just as he was on the second floor, his conscience came back full force. The annoying chatter at the back of his mind was starting to feel like some sort of a plague following him wherever he went, and Rapieratce had to stop himself from groaning out loud in frustration.
What now, for crying out loud?!
I toooolllddddd you to get her out before.
I thought this bally matter was blinkin behind me now?
Not a chance, 'Atce. Did you really think that your own conscience would let you off that easily?
I think I should have known better.
Of course you should have.
Leave me alone!
Not one chance. You need to understand.
I already do.
In a way, yes, but you are seeing things through your militaristic point of view right now, 'Atce. What ever happened to your compassion?
You should know. You're the bally blinkin conscience here, not me.
You are the hare here, not me.
Argh. Compassion? I suppose it flew out the window the same time that Consellariel's did.
Consellariel. The root of the problem here, no?
In a strange, odd blinkingly confusing bally way, yes.
Consellariel is under worse conditions than you, and you know it, 'Atce.
I suppose I do.
You are not showing it. You should help her.
The badger lady? Accept help? That would be the flippin day.
Do not try and predict others, 'Atce. Consellariel needs some right about now.
Pride will not let any blinkin help through right now.
Isn't that more on your own side?
What do you mean?
Pride, 'Atce, pride. You are letting it get in the way as well.
Do not go there.
There you go again. Denying the facts. Face it, 'Atce, eat the pride.
Thankfully, Rapieratce made it to Consellariel's quarters just in time to make his annoying conscience go 'pop' and disappear into sweet oblivion, or wherever disturbing voices in one's head temporarily disappear to. Knocking loudly, he was answered with a quiet 'enter', then strode in silently, coming to attention in front of Consellariel. The badger lady raised an eyebrow at him from her sitting position at her table and asked,
'At ease, colonel. What brings you here so early in the morning?'
'The captain, marm.'
'I thought we had gone over this matter, colonel?'
'Not that, marm. She got another bally hallucination attack last night.'
Immediately listening intently, Consellariel sat there hearing the colonel out as he went on a full scale explanation on what happened last night, conveniently leaving out the parts about the key, simply stating that Longrunn had coincidentally been awake at the same time as he, and giving a shady cover up on why he was even there in the first place. Finally finishing, the badger lady then questioned him again.
'Where is she now?'
'In the infirmary with the sergeant, marm.'
'Very well, dismissed. Get the rest of her patrol informed. I will come down in a while.'
Giving a quick salute, Rapieratce swirled around and headed for the door, wearily heading to the second and first floor dorms to break the bad news to Daleria's patrol, who were probably getting sick at the amount of injuries that their patrol leader was getting. Moving quickly, Rapieratce managed to take a quick peep out of one of the sentry windows. What he saw nearly froze his blood. The first signs of the vermin were breaking in the horizon like a black wave.
Those scum have very, very bad timing.
I should say so.
For my blinkin conscience, you are bally well annoyingly irritating, even by my standards.
I am your conscience, so live with it, 'Atce.
Nearly panicking at the prospect
of the vermin breaking onto Salamandastron earlier than proposed, Rapieratce
quickly issued orders for double sentry, asked for word to be sent around
the mountain informing of the vermin's current position and then scuttled
to hurriedly inform the rest of Daleria's patrol, eager to head back to
the infirmary, in order to make sure that if Daleria had awoken that she
was not going to take a step out the mountain. He might not be going to
throw her into the cellars again, but he was not going to let her
risk her life by trying to run away again. Gritting his teeth in determination,
Rapieratce tried pushing his weariness away, and tried to go about his
duties as steadfast as he could.
