Sorry this one is a bit shorter the last few real life stuff but hopefully you still enjoy it. Also i hope you all have a good Christmas and New Year.
And remember to check below for Character inspiration's. And hope you enjoy.
The next few weeks were a mix of being in class and outside hunts for small pockets of Grimm. During the excursions Beurling and Frenda would keep up their little game of how many Grimm could the two of them get, much to Frenda's annoyance Beurling would usually win or draw with her, not that it stopped Frenda from trying.
Beurling was also busily training Tomoko to fight better in hand to hand, every day for two hours they would practice. It made Tomoko wonder how Beurling learned to do it so effortlessly and naturally like she knew what to do before she'd even done it, like it was second nature to her.
During one such training exercise, Tomoko and Beurling both heard a coughing on the roof, they both turned to see Maple standing by the door.
"Something wrong Maple?" Tomoko asked.
"No, just I want to have a chat with Beurling, in private, if you wouldn't mind?"
"Sure." Tomoko spoke "You don't mind if we call it early do you Beurling?"
"No." Beurling spoke "Just be aware were going longer to make up."
Tomoko nodded and left to two in peace "So how's it going?" Maple spoke as she walked up to the railing.
"Fine." Beurling spoke as she lit a cigarette "She's getting better, still a long way off though."
"Well she has a good teacher, I'm sure she'll be fine." Maple spoke with a smile.
"How are you two coming along?" Beurling asked.
"Frenda and I are coming along well thanks for asking."
"Ok Maple, cut the pleasantries, I know you didn't come here just to talk about the training what is it?" Beurling spoke looking out at the building's below.
"Why the change?"
Beurling looked a bit confused at Maple not understanding the question "With Tomoko, when you first met, you wanted nothing to do with her, now your training her and saying you're willing to die to protect her, I can't help but wonder why the change, so what is it?"
"It's been weeks since then why the sudden curiosity?" Beurling asked a bit defensive.
"Because I'm your teammate and leader, but I also wanted you to feel you could trust me before I asked, hence the wait."
"You might not like what you hear." Beurling spoke.
"I'm not a kid Beurling, I'm worried about you, trust me."
"I do trust you."
"Then tell me."
Beurling sighed "It's to do with my past Maple."
"How so?"
"Have you ever wanted to bury something in you past? Well I want it for my whole past, it's something I wish I could get rid of - if I could put it in a box a bury it, so I could forget it all, I would without hesitation." Beurling said as she gripped the railing with one hand.
"Beurling." Maple spoke "You can't escape your past it's part of you, it's made you who you are, that won't ever change, however much you might hate it." Beurling sighed "I know, painfully so." the brawler spoke.
"I'm still not seeing what Tomoko has to do with this" Maple added. Beurling sighed, she really wanted to go, but she felt Maple would understand a little of what she was going to say better than others, plus she'd started now, so she opened the door a crack.
"Tomoko and Frenda haven't seen how bad the world can be or how hard it is sometimes, I have, I've seen how dark the world is, how cruel it is."
"Oh, and where do I fit in to this?"
"You're in between." Beurling said with a sad smile "You know it's hard sometimes but you're not quite aware how bad it can be, you haven't gone as far as I have to survive at times." Beurling tensed before speaking "I didn't want to be near Tomoko as she makes me remember, something, I so wish I could change so much, but once I found I couldn't be away from her, I swore I wouldn't let my past repeat itself, whatever it cost me." Beurling started to shake slightly "Besides my sense of honour demands that as she helped me, I am indebted to her."
"You can't let the past control you like that." Maple spoke "So what if you have a bad past, you're a good person Beurling, your better than that."
"Am I?" Beurling retorted with a scoff "I'm not a saint Maple, far from it" Beurling sighed "I'm not a hero, despite what Klara thinks, you three are trying to save the world, me, I'm not trying to save the world, its not earned that from me, i'm just saving the bit that matters to me, my team, Sara, Alia and Klara that's it, if I save more of the world while I'm at it, it's just a bonus, i guess." Beurling then dropped the cigarette on the ground before asking "Are we done?"
Maple paused before saying "One more question, are you really willing to go as far as to die to protect Tomoko?"
Beurling walked off saying "I won't let it happen again." while leaving Maple still with a load of questions.
The next day Maple was summoned to the Head teacher's office, Beurling, Tomoko and Frenda were all lazing around, usually when this happened, they had a mission out in the field, Frenda and Tomoko were quite looking forward to it. Beurling by contrast was less enthusiastic, saying that they shouldn't be over confidence.
"Oh relax." Frenda spoke "We've done this dozens of times, it's just a rinse and repeat."
"It's never a rinse and repeat." Beurling spoke defiantly "If you think that, it will bite you eventually."
"Wow, captain doom with you isn't it?" Frenda retorted.
"Frenda." Tomoko cut in "Calm down, Beurling's just being cautious."
Frenda looked at Tomoko with a cheesy smile, but whatever comment she thought was killed off when Maple walked in and brought the girls to attention.
"Right, tomorrow we're off on a clearing mission." Maple explained.
"See rinse and repeat." Frenda cut in, Beurling was ready to retort but Maple put up her hand to stop the two.
"Not quite Frenda." Maple spoke "We're to go with team shade and we're to go and check and clear a sighting of a large group of Grimm reported by a settlement."
"This has to be some group to send two teams of students." Beurling spoke, Tomoko had to agree it was a quite out the ordinary, it was normally one team.
"I don't like it." Beurling continued "This sounds very out the ordinary."
"Stop worrying Beurling, it'll be fine." Frenda spoke, Tomoko had to agree with Frenda they wouldn't send them in to something they couldn't handle. However, but by the look that Tomoko could see on Maple's face, their leader was of the same mind as Beurling.
"Look, whatever it is I'm sure we can handle it, just play it smart like always and we'll be fine." Maple spoke trying to reassure the teams brawler.
Beurling was on edge the whole rest of the day, Maple tried to settle her, but it just seemed to annoy her even more. Late in the night, Tomoko woke up to Beurling sharpening her Kukri at her desk, with her back to Tomoko. She turned when she heard that Tomoko was awake "Did I wake you?" Beurling asked putting the knife down.
"No, it's fine." Tomoko looked around to see the time, it was four in the morning "Hold on, I didn't hear her have a nightmare, has she not been to sleep?" Tomoko thought.
"You should get back to sleep, I have a feeling you'll need it." Beurling spoke standing in front of Tomoko.
"Yeah, but what…" Tomoko was interrupted by Beurling doing a light chop on her head, she then pushed Tomoko back to laying down position.
"I'll be fine, I'll finish up what I'm doing then I'll go back to bed ok?" Tomoko wasn't convinced but she was too tired to argue so nodded, Beurling then went back to her knife.
Tomoko woke up to find Beurling not in her bed, but as per usual sitting on the sofa, she seemed tense again, Tomoko had hoped that a night's rest would settle her down, but it seemed to have done nothing to help her, if she'd even been to sleep. Beurling was also looking slightly different, she usually had her jacket opened so her jumper was visible, now it was all done up. Her hair that was usually lose, was tied up in a bun at the back, to the side of her on the coffee table next to her tea was her beret but the badge was missing, which she was looking at.
"Beurling you ok?" Tomoko asked nervously.
"I'm fine." Beurling spoke curtly.
"Are you worried about the mission?" Beurling didn't answer, she just put the badge back on the beret and sighed.
"It'll be fine Beurling." Tomoko tried to reassure her teammate. It was then she noticed that Beurling had her leather backpack again "What's that for?" she asked.
"You have more magazines then you can carry, so put the ones you can't in here and I'll carry them."
"It's a bit much to take all my mags don't you think?" But one look at Beurling's face, one of stone-cold resolve told her Beurling wouldn't drop this, so Tomoko relented.
After the team had breakfast, they met up with team SHAD, they too were a bit tense. On the way SHAD sat off to rear of the craft while Beurling was up near the cockpit door, Tomoko, Maple and Frenda were in the middle a few seats down from Beurling.
Their pilot was the same pilot who took them back during the initiation, Hannah Blau, she had the music on again just like last time.
Tomoko and Frenda were busy checking their weapons per Maples instruction After a couple of hours a call came over the speaker in the aircraft, it was Hannah saying they were 5 minutes out from their destination.
Tomoko looked over at Beurling, in time to see her walk up to the cockpit. "She still worried?" Tomoko heard Frenda ask.
Tomoko nodded "She's been like this all day."
Suddenly, the white light in the passenger area turned a dark red and the music cut out, Tomoko suddenly got the feeling Beurling might have been right as this wasn't normal routine and the air suddenly became very think and heavy. Beurling came running from the cockpit and shouted "Maple, Sgàil get up here, you need to see this!"
Maple and Sgàil ran up to the cockpit, Tomoko noticed the rest of team SHAD making ready "I hate it when she's right." Tomoko heard Frenda speak, knowing she was talking about Beurling.
Beurling and Sgàil came back down, with faces of serious concern and looks Tomoko hadn't seen Beurling or Sgàil put on before.
"Team SHAD, make ready, we are going in to a hostile area, form up on the door on the left, Argent, take charge till I'm back!" Sgàil spoke as she ran back.
This immediately got the team to stand up and Tomoko suddenly got a cold chill to run down her spine.
Beurling got to the others "You might want to stand up."
"Whats going on?" Asked Tomoko as she and Frenda stood up.
"Settlements burning." Beurling spoke.
"What?" was Tomoko's response, Frenda just sighed "I really hate it when your right."
"You're not the only one." Beurling spoke.
Maple and Sgàil soon came back together forming up on the left door, team SHAD set up right in front of the door, Argent set up his shield with his revolver, Horatia was kneeling behind him, her hand gripping the sword, Dorcha was to the side of them, by the edge of the door, with his rifle at the ready and Sgàil stood between the rest of her team.
Maple stood to the other side of the door that SHAD was in front of before barking out orders. "Beurling, Frenda get next to me, Tomoko lay down and aim your gun out the door" Tomoko set the gun up as Frenda and Beurling hugged the wall Maple was at. "You two go with Horatia when she runs, got it." Maple spoke too which the pair nodded.
Tomoko felt her mouth suddenly get rather dry from nervous, she looked over at Beurling who gave her a nod, Tomoko let out a sigh before looking down the sights. Suddenly the door opened and Tomoko could see smoke and fire from every building as the transport descended, she could then see people running from a pack of a dozen Beowolf's "Open fire!" Sgàil ordered and Tomoko instinctively squeeze the trigger and soon the air was filled with rounds going off as well as a trio of Sgàil's black spears, slamming into the Grimm.
"Let's go!" Horatria spoke as the transport neared the ground, Beurling and Frenda followed her and they laid in to the Grimm. The civilians hit the ground in terror screaming.
Once the Grimm were all killed the teams grouped around the civilians, the transport took off and flew off into the air.
"That's three." Frenda boasted.
"Your napping clearly, five." Beurling countered.
The two teams then form two lines, kneeling down, on either ends of the street with the civilians between them.
"What happened here?" Maple asked the civilians.
One man stood up shakily "Bandits!" he spoke "The Grimm came in and then bandits followed them, they just started shooting all over the place."
"Ok, calm down." Maple spoke to the man as she laid a hand on his shoulder. Tomoko glanced over at Frenda, they'd never dealt with bands before. Tomoko started to tremble slightly; she started to tap the side of her gun with her trigger finger, looking over she could see Frenda spinning her hammer in her hands. Tomoko then felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up she could see Beurling standing behind them "Breath you two, and don't worry, just remember what you learned, follow Maples orders, and you'll be fine, ok?" Frenda and Tomoko nodded.
"Don't worry i got your back." Beurling whispered into Tomoko's ear before going back to check the civilians.
"Nice to hear her being reassuring." Tomoko spoke, her nervous settling slightly at Beurling's words.
"Yeah, it is." Frenda spoke rather subdued, though she had at least stopped spinning the hammer.
Sgàil then asked the man that Maple was talking to "What's that building over there?" Tomoko looked to where Sgàil pointed, it was a tall square mud brick building, it was damaged but it wasn't too bad.
"The leaders house." spoke the man.
"Ok, we'll bunker down there, Maple once we get there my team will head out and guide survivors back there, your team will hold that position and make it secure." Maple nodded and the group started to move, the civilians all huddled together with team MSFT in the front and SHAD in the back facing where the Grimm had been chasing them earlier.
"I have really got to listen to Beurling more often" Tomoko thought as she ran.
So today's character is Tammy Eda Laurent.
Her inspiration was T. E. Lawrence or Lawrence of Arabia if you prefer. Also is a hint of the World War Two SAS and Long Range Deseret Group or LRDG for short. As well i couldn't think of anyone better to be the headmaster of combat school in the desert.
Now i would give more but that will spoil things for a later chapters.