Road to the Legion

--Begin Chapter--

The Major walked past O'Connell's and Vassilij's dorm room. He opened the door slowly and saw the two friends asleep in their beds, lightly snoring. The Major let a tiny smile of pride form on his lips. "The little sneaks. I can't believe I'm doing this for you two troublemakers. Especially after all the trouble you gave me. It was still nice to raise you two."

The Major chuckled lightly and quietly closed the door, and walked down to his dorm. He got six bags and walked to the kitchens. He took the longer way through Great Hall instead of going through Cavern Room to the kitchens so the Abbott wouldn't see how many bags he carried. Upon arriving in the kitchens he started to fill the bags. He put some pies in a box and put it in the bag. And some grayling, chicken, apples, pears, bananas, scones, in different boxes and put them in the bags. He filled up two bags. Then he used one for deserts, more pies, candied chestnuts, nuts, roseleaves, honey. Then he used the other three for storing extra food for snacks, and tea time, scones, turnovers, pancakes, and used them to store drinks. Bottles of water, cordial, and what not for their journey. He was about to leave when Friar Bernard saw him.

"Uh, would ye like some help to carry those bags, ye food pincher?" He asked in a Irish/Scottish accent mix. The chubby friar walked over to him, shaking a ladle at him, as if he were a naughty child. "What are ye doing with so many bags full of food, Major?"

The Major just remained calm, straightening up he said in a clear voice, "My nephew and O'Connell are out on the ramparts doing sentry duty. Father Abbott told me to take some of the feast up to them. So that's just what I am doing. And I do not need your help. I can certainly manage, though thank you for the offer."

The Friar nodded, "oh, my apologies to ye sir."

"It's alright, your just doing your job, Friar Bernard. After all, you worked so hard to cook this meal with your helpers that it shouldn't be stolen from you. Well, I must go now. See you later."

"Fare well, Major," the Friar said as he walked back to the feast and the Major walked towards the dorms. The Friar didn't even notice that the Major was going the wrong way.

~~~~Later that night~~~~

The alarm clock rang right in front Rick's face at exactly 1:00 AM in the morning. Rick's eyes shot open and he slammed the alarm clock quiet. He stretched and sat up, he reached over and shook the quarter-awake Vassilij. "Vassilij, Vassilij."

Rick got up and kicked Vassilij's foot, "C'mon, get up!"

"Huh? What?" Vassilij said groggily as he looked at Rick, as he rubbed sleep from his eyes.

"It's time, we have to go get some food."

"Oh, yeah, right," Vassilij said as he forced himself up. He then tripped over something, "Ouch! That cot's metal is hard!"

Vassilij rubbed his shoulder. Rick looked at what Vassilij tripped over, and smiled. There were six packs on the ground a twixt their beds and there was a note on it. The note read:

'O'Connell, and Vassilij,

I know how much you two want out of here. So I'm cutting you a break. I'll let you go. I've decided to save you the trouble of having to pack food. It'd take too long. So when you're done reading this, hurry up and leave. Go by the north wall gate, the sentries aren't over there often enough, because it's near the stream. But be careful, there have been croc sightings. Good luck, and Good fortune be with you. Bless your little hearts.

Sincerely,

Maj. Nikolai Zaitzler

PS Be careful you two.'

"Well, it looks like the Major is letting us go after all," O'Connell said. Vassilij looked over his shoulder at the letter.

"What?" Vassilij asked, he was confused a little bit.

"I said, the Major is letting us go after all. He packed us six packs of food, and drinks. C'mon, he told us just where to go," Rick said, taking three bags. Vassilij jumped up and took the other three.

"Are you sure we can trust him? I mean he told us where to go to escape, why would he do that if he weren't going to trick us?"

"Why would he pack six bags of food if he were going to trick us?"

"I-I dunno," Vassilij said shrugging.

"Exactly, you don't know. We just have to trust him, after he is your uncle."

Vassilij nodded, and they snuck out of the room, not taking any valuables, so they wouldn't be overloaded with stuff they didn't need. The quietly walked down two flights of steps, and quietly made their way through Great Hall, past the tapestries depicting bible stories. Rick took time to take on last look at Joseph, the Hebrew that was sold into slavery by his own brothers. Betrayed by family, made to a slave, thrown to the pit and prison, then rose to be the second most powerful man in all Egypt, only Pharaoh being greater than him. It was his favorite story. He felt like that was his life, at least the "betrayed by family" part. Not wanting to get into the past he barely knew, and the parents that betrayed him, he walked quietly on, Vassilij just behind. Though Vassilij took time to look at the story of David and Jonathan. Vassilij thought himself like Jonathan, and he thought Rick like David. He felt like he was Jonathan because he had more than the other children at the orphanage, and he was the son, of the sister of the Czar of Russia (AN I don't know if Nicholas II really had a sister, but work with me here plZ?) and was a bit more privileged. He though Rick like David because Rick was the youngest of a family that consisted of quite a few people, and he was somewhat blessed, though he was like Joseph in a way, betrayed by his family. And the two were best friends. Vassilij had spent a bit too much time staring at his favorite bible story, so he ran to catch up with Rick. Rick turned to him, "SSHH!!"

Vassilij, stopped, and nodded. They advanced slowly past the kitchens where Friar Bernard was sleeping on some potatoes sacks, his fat belly rising and falling as he snored, his favorite ladle in hand. The silently pressed onward, when they heard footsteps, they hid in the dark corner of Great Hall, near the door. Then they saw a lamp light, and down the stairs from the Abbott's room came the Abbott. He walked by talking silently to himself, "Oh, I hope I can manage to pinch a few apple turnovers before Bernard wakes up. If he caught me, I'd be in deep trouble. Hmm?"

The Abbott turned to a noise he heard, he turned towards Vassilij and Rick, the two scooted back more, luckily the Abbott was a bit superstitious and the lantern did not provide much light, the Abbott, immediately walked back to the stairs, "Oh dear, I knew it was a bad idea to try and pinch a few turnovers. I'd still get some sort of punishment. Oh dear, oh dear…"

His voice faded as he walked back up the stairs. They couldn't hear nor see his light, they waited a moment in complete silence, then they sighed inwardly, and silently walked to the door. Rick took out some vegetable oil he had taken earlier that day, and rubbed it on the hinges, he nodded to Vassilij, and Vassilij gently pulled open the old door…not a sound. Rick hurriedly went through the door, and Vassilij then went after him, and he silently closed the huge oak door. They jogged out across the lawn to the north wall gate. They stayed close to the wall, and listened a bit for sentries. There were some right above them!

"It's a rather chilly night out, eh John?" One of the sentries said, in a British accent.

"Yes, it is. But I bet that stream there has something to do with it. No one would come in from there, there's crocs in there stream. Let's go to the East wall, it's probably warmer there, Will," the other said in an Irish accent. Vassilij and Rick heard the sentries footsteps on the wooden ramparts go to the East wall. Rick nodded and Vassilij grabbed the handle, and waited as Rick applied the vegetable oil. Rick nodded again and Vassilij opened the door…creeeeeeeeek! It made a sound! It creaked, not only the rusty hinges, but the wood on the door too. The door hadn't been open in years. The two boys ran out and slammed the door shut, as Sentries ran over.

"Hey! You there! Stop!" John yelled.

The boys laughed, and Rick shouted, "Which one? Me? Or the one next to me?"

The Sentries got out their rifles, and Will yelled, "Stop! Come back or we shoot!"

John fired a warning shot that barely missed Vassilij's leg. Vassilij jumped the other way, he looked back at the hole in the ground then looked at Rick, "Hey! They're serious!"

Rick smirked, "Don't worry, if they shoot us the Abbott will be on their backs for months! But don't turn back now! We're too far! I can almost see France!"

"I wasn't thinking of turning back!" Vassilij said, and he ran ahead of Rick. Rick smirked.

"Yeah that's the spirit!" He said and ran up to catch up with his friend.

~~~at the Abbey~~~

The Abbott, and half the Abbey, including the Major ran out in their Pajamas to see what the shot was about. They ran all the way to the north wall and went up on the ramparts. The Abbott, sat down on a pile of rope, panting, "What…is…all the….shooting…about?"

John looked down, "Sorry to have woken the Abbey, Father. We were just trying to get two runaways to come back."

"And you fired at them?!" The Abbott yelled. "What an awful thing to do! You could have killed one of them!"

The Major patted his back, "Calm down, Father. At your age you shouldn't be running half way across the lawn, much less scolding a Sentry."

"oh, my apologies. Did you at least see their faces?" The Abbott asked, a little bit more relaxed.

"No, sorry Father."

"Oh, dear. Mother Brenda, get everyone up, we're checking who they were now!"

Sister Brenda nodded and went off to get those who were still sleep up.

---End Chapter---

Okay. Done with this chapter. I hope you all like. And please review! It'd be much appreciated. Now it's time I review YOUR story, Queen Brunette!

Jester