"Time to get up Gilan." Horace said cheerfully. Gilan groaned and rolled over
"Why?"
"We have to go see the Guard headquarters!" Will said grinning. Gilan looked at him balefully
"There must be some law about being that cheerful this early." He decided "And I've already been, why do I have to come?"
"So you can show us round." Halt said. Gilan looked up in surprise
"You're going too Halt?" he asked. For some reason, he'd expected Halt to stay in the conference "Doesn't the king need your help?"
"Duncan will be fine." Halt said "He has had a bit of practice at this, you know."
"Yeah, but..."
"Are you going to stay in bed or get up? Need we repeat the events of your apprenticeship here?" Halt asked. Gilan sprang out of bed
"I'm up! I'm definitely up." He said quickly, backing away from Halt "Give me a moment to get fully dressed and we can go." Halt smiled evilly
"Good." Will looked from one to another
"Do I want to know?" He asked. Gilan was buckling on his sword belt and grabbing his cloak
"No." The older ranger replied shortly "Come on!" Horace waited until Gilan was out of the room.
"So what did you do?" He asked Halt. Halt maintained his evil smile
"Sleep in and you'll find out." he invited, before slipping out of the room after Gilan. The two younger men looked at each other
"I'm never going to sleep late around Halt again." Horace decided and Will nodded in agreement. Then they both realized they were being left behind and scurried after Halt and Gilan.
Outside the sun was filtering through the leaves. Wolfpaw stood leaning against the balcony.
"Good morning." He said smiling. Gilan glared at him.
"There was no need to get us up so early." He said
"Just what are you accusing me of my friend?" Wolfpaw said, "I merely proposed your friends woke this early so that they could see the head quarters and training grounds in action." Gilan pointed a finger at him accusingly
"You know I don't like mornings, you enjoy watching me suffer."
"I seem to remember someone enjoying watching me suffer whilst i was in his country." Wolfpaw said "Now, are we going to stand arguing about the time or are we actually going to do something today?"
"Lead on." Halt said
Thank you for reviewing, Tiptah52 and Willow Treaty! I'll write as fast as I can, but stupid school tests keep getting in the way. Wish they'd just test us on our ability to write stories instead of 'The benefits and disadvantages of tourism in an MEDC'.
Viridian was a little based on an Elvish tree city. Just because I absolutely love treetop cities and because it would actually make sense. If all your city was off the ground and you were used to fighting like that you'd have quite the advantage. The Guard uses this quite a lot, another reason they like staying beneath the trees.
In Horace's position... I would either not fight (because I'm a bit of a coward, and seeing Erak go down like that would SERIOUSLY de-moralise me) or try and attack as fast as possible. Hayate's style is more of a cautious, figure out strengths and weakness first, kind of style. A quick strike first... I think that's exactly what Horace did actually. Possibly a defensive strategy? If the person was quick and patient enough to block all of Hayate's strikes, and to wait for an opening they could win.