Ah, yes. Sorry this took a bit to make. I've been somewhat busy. And by that, I mean lazy.

Huey:...

Insert Generic Disclaimer

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Huh. Well, at least the central walls look solid. Saleh stepped back from the wall. It was cracked and worn. The outer walls surrounding the inner sanctuary had been worn by the endless winds of the Sacae Plains. He turned and began pacing back to the center of the fort, where he was relatively sure the ceiling wasn't going to collapse.

When he arrived, he frowned at the head count. In addition to their party, there was an unremarkable young woman talking to Lyn. What caught his attention, however, was when the woman suddenly staggered, her right leg suddenly giving out. Lyn caught her, and Saleh moved closer, feeling a strange kinship. The woman steadied herself and pulled out a piece of parchment.

"Here's a picture of him- If you see him, tell him that Natalie is looking for him."

"If we see him, we will." Lyn smiled, taking the sheet. Saleh moved forward and glanced over her shoulder. It was a rough, charcoal sketch of a solidly built, brown haired man. Lyn took the parchment, rolled it up, and slipped it under her belt. She turned and noticed Saleh.

"Ah, Saleh. Done with your inspection of the fort?" Saleh nodded.

"We're all going to die in our sleep. The ceiling is held up by a single intact pillar. The walls are barely balancing. The slightest tremor could cause it all to collapse. It's located on an active volcano. It's harboring an incurable plague. The-"

"So, all good then?" Lyn laughed.

"Pretty much, yeah."

--

I'm bored. Very bored. Boredboredboredbored-

"Lady Lyndis! Outside the fortress- Bandits!" Kent's urgent call echoed down the hall of the fort.

Saleh shook his head. Looking around groggily, he saw Lyn springing to her feet and dashing for the entrance, green hair streaming out from behind her. Dragging himself from his makeshift bed, Saleh grasped his sword, and began fumbling to attach it. After a few seconds, he gave up, and followed Lyn unarmed.

He looked out the doors to see several bandits smirking confidently as they advanced. Taking a quick head count, he determined they were outnumbered approximately two to one.

"Orders, Saleh?" Saleh turned to see Kent standing at the ready next to him, Sain flanking him in a significantly looser demeanor. "We await your command."

Saleh had to struggle to keep a grin from his face. In his previous jobs, he had always been the one asking orders of the knights. It was all he could do to keep a straight face at fate's unusual hand.

"Keep back. No need to rush away from good fortifications- It gets ugly, trust me. Say, how thick is your armor? Actually, don't answer, it's stronger than anyone else's. You two, dismount- in a static position, cavalry are pathetic. Just hold the central doorway, it's the main chokepoint."

The two cavaliers dismounted. Saleh paused, thinking. "Um… Right. Lyn, there's a back door to the east. Stupid as they may be, they'll probably send a few units in there. Think you can take care of them?"

The plainswomen crossed her arms. "Do you doubt it?"

"Well… no. Just checking." Lyn shook her head, grinning, and loped off to cover the back.

"What about us?" Wil and Florina appeared from the central room.

"You two?" Saleh frowned. The Pegasus knight, timid as she was, would probably not be well suited to working in tandem with the two cavaliers under pressure, especially Sain. On the other hand, Lyn was probably able to take care of herself at the back. "Florina, why don't you stay in the central area. If either front falters, you move in to assist."

Wil was much easier. "Okay, let's see how good you are at sniping. Climb up onto the ramparts- there's a section still standing on the west side, and you can climb on the rubble to reach it, if memory serves. Shoot anything that moves outside the fort."

"Sure thing! I'll be up there in a moment. I won't let you down!" Wil nodded and-is he skipping?- headed for his position. Florina, by contrast, nodded meekly clutched her lance, her Pegasus by her side.

"Do not crease your sculpted brow with worry, fair Florina! Your guardian and protector, the gallant Sain, shall protect you, come hell or high water!" Florina shrank back from Sain, seeming to grow even smaller.

Saleh steadied himself with his left hand against the wall, glancing around for something, anything, that might help their chances of survival. His eyes fell on an old, but sturdy looking, oaken table. "Hey! Kent! Sain!" The two cavaliers glanced in his direction. "Put that table on its side and use it as a barrier!" Glancing at each other, the pair quickly complied, dragging the table to the doorway and kicking it over, forming a barrier that came up to their waist before settling into defensive positions.

This was the part that he hated. The wait before the first blow. In battle, you had adrenaline and survival instincts to distract you, but in these few moments, all he could think about was that they could all die if he had forgotten something. "I wasn't that bored…" he mused to himself.

A Twang! broke the calm. A lone yell sounded, followed by several outraged cries. Saleh smiled. Wil. He could hear the rasp of metal on steel as the two cavaliers drew their weapons, and then chaos reigned.

He could only watch on the wayside, a bystander with no real role in this conflict. Kent would strike out at a brigand, then pull his blade back to continue warding off blows. Sain, in contrast, seemed to adhere to the mantra of "the best defense is a good offense." Surprisingly, his wild, seemingly uncoordinated blows wove a pattern of death, forcing back the slower axe wielders and preventing any attack.

Neither was pulling back to regroup an option for the brigands. With Wil stationed on the battlement, the thick air of battle, with the grunts of men and clash of blades, was pierced by the distinctive twang of a bow.

The sound of blades clashing reached Saleh, drifting not from the bloody chokepoint in front of him, but from the rear entrance, where Lyn was stationed. Swearing, he glanced at the cavaliers. After confirming that their defense was holding, he rushed towards the back of the fort. As he drew near, he saw that not only had Lyn engaged a sword wielding mercenary like himself, but it seemed that two of their axemen were locked in a struggle against each other. As he watched, one of them staggered back from a blow, then planted himself, goading his foe to come closer. The hand axe smashed his head in as Lyn disarmed her opponent- literally. Noticing him, the Sacaen girl called out to him.

"Saleh! This is Dorcas… Natalie's wife! He's with us now!" Saleh turned and gave the axeman another look. His expression was neutral, though his stance was determined. While he looked relatively unexperienced, he was a cut above the majority of the brigands attacking them. He sauntered over to the body of the bandit he had felled and retrieved his weapon before greeting Saleh.

"Ah, you must be Saleh, the tactician. Lyndis has allowed me to aid you; just direct me." He held out his bloody hand.

"Nice to meet you. That was disgusting, by the way." Saleh nodded towards the mutilated corpse in the doorway. "Good aim, though. Anyways, head down that corridor to where our other friends are fighting, and go past them. Wil, our archer, may need backup if the enemy zeroes in on them. Got all that?" Dorcas nodded and moved towards the main conflict, Saleh turned to Lyn. "You holding up alright?" She nodded.

"That seems to have been the last of them attacking here- I can help out if you need backup by the main entrance."

"No, we're holding up fine-" A cry of triumph echoed down the halls, as well as an increase in the noise. Lyn shook her head and loped in the direction of the sound. "We were okay!" Saleh called after her as she rounded a corner. Saleh groaned. Why me? He followed her resignedly.

--

"H-here's the vulnerary…" Saleh grabbed the clay vial from Florina's hand and looked at her as she stood there fidgeting.

"Sorry, I don't have a carrot with me, so you'll have to make do with one of your donkey's, think you'll be okay with that?" The lavender-haired girl flushed with embarrassment and scurried away.

"Be nice to Florina!" Saleh turned, tossing the vulnerary to Sain before facing Lyn.

"What? I'm just-" Lyn cut him off.

"It's enough that she's afraid of men- you don't need to bully her, too!"

Saleh held up a hand defensively. "Hey, I just think she needs to grow a spine! I mean, if she's scared witless by eighty or so percent of all her allies, how the heck does she plan to make it as a mercenary?" Lyn continued to glare at the mercenary, but it lost some of its venom.

"You don't have to be so mean about it, though." She shook her head, sighing, before brightening. "Oh, and by the way, those were amazing tactics last night! We all owe you, I think. In fact, Dorcas just offered to travel with us- he wants to thank us for defending Natalie." Saleh leaned back against a wall and laughed.

"Well, thanks, though I didn't do much. Just told you guys what to do, and you did it while I watched. I just planned it while you guys did the heavy lifting." He grinned. "I could get used to it, actually. Ordering people around, sitting back and watching others doing the dirty work… Kinda like what you'll get to do when you become a noble, eh?"

Lyn's face lost it's good cheer. "What!? Do you really think-" She stopped seeming to struggle for words, before spinning around and stiffly striding outside the fort.

"Hey, Lyn, wait… ah, why do I bother…" Saleh slumped against the wall, then turned to Sain to distract himself. "Hey, Sain, how's your arm?" The green-clad cavalier looked up from applying the vulnerary to his right arm.

"'Tis but a scratch! Indeed, I have received a far more dire wound but an hour ago." Turning to Florina, who had retreated to the corner of the fortress' inner sanctum, he cried out, "Fair Florina! How cruel must you be to spurn my love! And yet, in your cold demeanor, I can only hold tighter and hope that the fires of my love can melt the frosty fortress-"

"Uh, Sain?"

"-that you have built around your heart, and conquer it that it may be mine. For no matter what defends it, I will surpass it, and free your love that you may unite it with my love. Then, a consuming blaze of passion will-"

"Sain, you're scaring her…"

"-erupt forth, consuming all that dares attempt to stop it, until all that is left to gaze upon is your beauty, for that alone is enough to sustain any man. Such beauty and grace, even in battle! Elimine herself hath detailed your face to the point of divine perfection, causing even the moon to appear but a ragged crone in comparison to you!" He paused, and looked at Florina, awaiting her reaction.

After a moment, her eyes rolled into her head, and she slumped to the ground. Silence.

"You know what? I'm going to go see if Lyn's okay…"

--

"Lyn." The plainswomen turned at the sound of Saleh's voice. "What's wrong? Was it something I said?" She took a deep breath.

"Saleh… If I become a noble… do you… really think I'll change?" He opened his mouth to respond, then closed it, looking thoughtful. "What if I become a different person? A nomad like me… I wouldn't fit into court life. But… I just don't want to change… I… I'm a bit… scared."

"You're joking, right?" Lyn looked up from the ground, surprised.

"What?" Saleh sighed and looked her in the eye.

"I haven't known you that long. Heck, it's been what, a week at most? Even so, one thing strikes me above all others. You hold to your convictions. When someone, like Natalie, is in need, you don't hesitate to defend them. Heck, you could've left me out there, but you attacked armed men for a stranger. If axes and murderers can't deter you from being who you are, I severely doubt a few pompous chickens can." He paused, and then continued. "Lyn… you're the strongest women I've ever met. I don't mean as in combat prowess, though you're certainly up there, but strength of character. I guess that's why I came back. I've been feeling a bit… vulnerable, and it's comforting to be able to help someone as strong as you." He stopped, and took a breath.

"Well, I've never really been all that good at the whole pep talk thing, but I hope that helped. Anyways, I'm going back in. Kent was saying we should leave early tomorrow, and I need to get to bed. You should too." He turned and walked back. As he entered the door, he heard Lyn call out from behind him.

"Saleh?"

"Yeah?"

"…Thanks." Saleh allowed himself a small grin before heading off to the corner he had claimed as his bed.

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Reviews appreciated, as always.