Disclaimer: You know it, so don't ask it. Bite me.
*
Rapieratce simply looked at Consellariel, asking through eye contact whether she was serious. It looked as if she was. Daleria's argument must have had great effect this time to change the badger lady's mind so easily. With no way of saying no, he simply stood there in silence. But groaning mentally, Rapieratce thought to himself.
Argh. They just had to do this to me, didn't they? Why on Mossflower do they do this for? Is tormenting ex-colonels their favourite pastime? For Daleria for one it most probably is. Same should go for that confounded brigadier. I never knew Remora could be so annoyingly stubborn. Longrunn should learn to let go one of these days.
They seem to like doing that, 'Atce. Well, I like to, if nobeast does.
If groaning mentally had volume, Rapieratce would have groaned four times louder than before. It looked like his conscience had decided to pay him a friendly visit that day.
I thought we had parted ways already.
Not a chance.
Sighing, Rapieratce nodded, and an
all out applause broke out from the door. Rapieratce swore he was going
to blush. Daleria was acting hardly like a captain right then, and Remora
had a look on her face that badly needed to be wiped off, in his opinion.
Longrunn, at least was keeping his face straight. Consellariel had placed
the rapier back in his hands, and finally the four let him leave.
The minute he had managed to get
past the crowd outside the door, which resulted in much pushing and shoving,
he ran all the way up to his dormitory. Repacking most of his stuff and
gladly throwing his pack back into the storage cupboard, he threw his old
rapier off in relief.
Sitting down on the bed and lying back, the hare took a moment to gather his wits about him and analyse the situation properly. Though not exactly happy that Consellariel was going to risk more than one hare in the mission, he was still greatly relieved that at least one matter was off his back. Startled out of his thoughts by a knock on the door, he quickly jumped back up and answered.
'Who is it?'
The door slid open slightly and a head poked its way through,
'Sah?'
'Ridgefur?'
Ridgefur was one of the sentries, and if Rapieratce was not mistaken, was the sentry for the current shift at the moment. Motioning for him to come in, the colonel asked,
'What is it?'
The sentry slipped in and stood to attention, as was regulation with those not as acquainted with the colonel as some others. Waving the sentry to ease, the colonel raised an eyebrow and signalled for him to continue.
'Sah, there has been a delay with the vermin. One of the patrols managed to find out that they had been pulled back because of some injury or another. To the hostages or not I do not know.'
Not good. Hopefully nothing has happened to those five.
Not showing his anxiety, the colonel asked again.
'Anything else?'
Nodding his head, Ridgefur continued,
'Lady Consellariel wishes to see you in the forge along with the brigadier, sergeant Longrunn and captain Daleria, sah.'
Nodding, Rapieratce dismissed Ridgefur, who turned and walked away. Pondering on why Consellariel would want him up in the forge he walked towards the staircase leading up, meeting Daleria there by chance. Nearly groaning out loud, Rapieratce had the urge to turn and walk away there and then until she disappeared, but too late. The captain had already spotted him and would no doubt be teasing him to no end. Pay back was not the nicest affair when it came to Daleria. She was already grinning.
Save me now.
Hoping that the captain would let him off easy, Rapieratce knew, however, that Daleria would do anything but let the matter rest.
'So, Rapieratce, looks like you are not going anywhere now.'
'Let the matter rest, captain, please.'
'Acting uptight and righteous so quickly already?'
'Don't do this to me, Dale.'
'Revenge is sweet, sah.'
Rapieratce was practically itching to say This is one of the times when I would gladly kill you, captain, but shut his mouth and walked ahead. Daleria was only too happy to catch up.
'What does the lady want us for?'
'I do not know, m'gel.'
'You should lighten up, 'Atce.'
'Lighten up, captain?'
'Take a break, sah, you look like you need one.'
Not that I can afford one at this time.
They had made it to the fourth floor by then, and found that Remora and Longrunn were only just ahead of them. Quickening their pace to catch up with the sergeant and the brigadier, the four made their way to the door. Daleria had decided that she had had enough fun in teasing the colonel and finally let the matter rest, deciding instead to discuss random matters that Longrunn and Remora had brought up. The colonel kept silent in thought, as he usually did. They all arrived at the huge forge door simultaneously. Rapieratce knocked softly. Consellariel's voice responded, telling them to enter. Moving themselves into the massive forge and standing to immediate attention, they awaited for her orders.
'Since you few are already at the heart of this matter, I have decided on you four to go on this errand. Even you, Daleria. Since it is already such a risk trying to attain the cure, I might as well send you as well to make sure that these three do not get intercepted on the way back. I dare say that your swordmanship will be on par with all here, even the colonel.'
Resisting the urge to grin at the colonel again, Daleria nodded.
'But I am still not taking any chances, even if the vermin are being delayed by three days or no. There will be a one on one training session in an hours time for you four.'
Nodding, they all stood silent.
'Very well, dismissed.'
Leaving the forge, nobeast spoke. One on one training were known to be the most intense of all the known types of training provided on the mountain. Not everybeast got these trainings very often. The amount of aggression and hazard put into it required extreme reflexes and fast reaction time. There were many known cases of injury during these the one on one training. In fact, Taremin had stated that she got more injuries out of one on one training than any other. And since the situation they were going into was not the most simple, the training was most definitely not going to be a very easy one. Rapieratce was grim again. Having been on his own fair share of individual expeditions such as this, though not as serious, as a captain, he knew how gruelling the training was. Remora too was also grim and silent. Daleria, having the least experience in the area, saw from the others looks that the day was not going to be the most easy going she had ever seen. Swallowing, she followed them down, breaking away at the second story to make her way back towards her own dormitory. So the four made preparations for that day. Intense training indeed.
**
A/N: In the next chapter: The most
fun chapter on training I am ever going to write. Prepare for a
few nice titbits there...
