AN: Hello! So, just a quick note for anyone who read the first chapter of this story before today. If you happened to read the entire thing before, you probably saw that I had written it all in present tense. However, for some reason, halfway through this chapter I started automatically typing in past tense, and it actually became a challenge for me to write in present tense for some reason. No clue why o-o
So, yeah. I changed all (at least I hope all) the verb tenses in the first chapter (but not the intro because I'm too lazy for that xD) to past tense, and that is how I made this chapter as well.
I'm also sorry that this chapter is short and kind of uneventful...I just had to get this out of the way before the plot gets interesting in the next few chapters. :) So thanks for bearing with me!
Glee belongs to Ryan Murphy and FOX
Kurt's eyes fluttered open just enough for the blinding sunlight to cause his already-stinging eyes to ache. His soaking body was sprawled out on what felt like damp rocks, several of which were digging straight into the sides of his spine. The sounds of the rushing river and chirping birds were all Kurt could faintly hear, as his ears were clogged with water from the river.
Though it pained him to do so, Kurt opened his eyes a bit wider to get a view of his surroundings. The sunlight caused his head to throb, but he continued to open his eyes anyway. His head was tilted to his right, facing directly towards the river and to the lush greenery on its opposite side.
Just then, Kurt felt something stick into his back, as is he was being poked by a thin rod of some sort. He would've moved out of its way, but his head was throbbing too much to allow for much movement.
"Ow!" Kurt exclaimed when the object prodded a little bit too hard into his back.
"Holy crap he's alive!" yelled a voice from behind. Startled, Kurt instinctively turned his body around and into a sitting position, immediately regretting it as he felt the strain on both his already-aching head and his bruised limbs. His heart beat fast in his chest from the surprise.
Kurt didn't respond at first, but instead looked up at the man who'd spoken. Before him stood two men, one tall and blonde sporting a deep blue jacket with a high collar, and the other shorter and stockier, a brunette in a deep brown leather jacket. The brunette had a shocked expression on his face, and held a long, thin tree branch beside him.
Kurt watched as the blonde man spoke, smacking his companion on the back of the head. "Of course he's alive, you dolt. He was breathing when we got here."
Kurt painfully chuckled, realizing that the two of them reminded him of Wes and David a bit in that small mannerism.
Wait. Wes and David. The ambush. Blaine.
Suddenly, all the events of the night before came rushing back into Kurt's mind in a jumble of thoughts and confusion. Everything from sparring in the woods to overhearing Dustin's plans and even-Kurt took in a sharp breath-kissing Blaine before the jump into the river.
Hearing Kurt's apparently loud intake of air, the two men suddenly turned all their attention on the lost Warbler, tilting their heads in curiosity.
"What?" Kurt asked impatiently in a raspy voice after staring back at the two men for a few moments.
"Oh, sorry." The blonde began, "We're just not really used to Warblers washing up onshore, you know?"
"Yeah, it's not exactly the norm." The brunette agreed, nodding his head.
"Wait...where am I, exactly?" Kurt asked a bit loudly, regaining the use of his normal tone of voice. He didn't remember anything that had happened after jumping into the river, so he had no idea where he was or how he ended up there. He tilted his head downwards and examined his drenched clothing.
"You're in McKinley, just outside the McKinley Military Fortress." The brunette said proudly as he gestured to the surroundings. "We won't have to ask you where you're from, Dalton Warbler, seeing as you're still in uniform."
Great. Of all the places to wash up, Kurt landed right in the middle of enemy territory, beside their main military headquarters, no less. All he could think about was how far the center of McKinley was from Lima and how many days it would take for him to get back home. Mercedes must've been worried sick after hearing about the ambush, and Blaine...well, he didn't even know if he'd survived the jump.
"Did you guys happen to see another Warbler float by here at all?" Kurt snapped his head back up suddenly, again regretting his sudden movements as pain shot through his head and neck. With a slight whimper of pain, he slowly brought his arm up to rub the back of his neck.
"No, sorry. We just got here a few minutes ago before you woke up." The blonde replied seriously.
"How did you end up here anyway, Warbler?" The brunette questioned as he leaned on the tree branch he was holding, which promptly snapped and almost sent him tumbling to the ground. The blonde let out a sigh, but still chuckled slightly.
"First of all, my name is Kurt." Kurt began, attempting to stand up, but failing upon feeling the aches all over his arms and legs. "And my friend and I had to jump into the river to escape from an ambush on our training camp."
"Whoa, wait. Someone ambushed a Warbler camp?" The brunette gasped. "But I thought there were peace treaties established between all of the provinces. That is, except between McKinley and Dalton, but we didn't plan an attack or anything."
Kurt raised an eyebrow at the brunette's last statement. Were these two soldiers for the ND?
The blonde noticed Kurt's confusion. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Jeff Sterling and this one right here is Nick Duval. We're the current leaders of the McKinley Military Fortress and commanders of the ND, which I assume is safe to tell you right now, since you probably don't have any other Warblers to come and attack us or anything."
So not only had Kurt woken up on the banks of a river in the middle of McKinley, he'd also managed to be found by two of the highest-ranking officials of the rival country. Just his luck.
Kurt finally managed to summon up the strength to painfully lift himself out of his sitting position and to standing on two feet on the damp and slippery rocks. He took a few tentative steps and was pleasantly surprised that he was actually able to move around without collapsing to the ground.
"Well, it was very nice to meet the both of you," Kurt began, walking with a slight limp in the direction up the river. "So I'll best be going home now."
Kurt trudged up the river bank for a few steps before more pain shot up his right leg, causing him to stop for a moment and breathe heavily before taking a few more steps.
"Wait, where do you think you're going?" Kurt heard Nick shout out from behind him.
"Back home to Dalton." Kurt calmly replied as he continued limping.
"First of all, you're a well-trained enemy soldier. We can't just have you running loose around McKinley. Second of all, there is no way in hell you're making a trip all the way back to Dalton in that condition." Nick responded.
Kurt felt a hand firmly, but not harshly, grab his wrist, turning around to look Jeff in the eyes.
"Look, Kurt. We may be enemies, but we're not unreasonable." Jeff gave him a small smile. "We'll give you a place to stay and recover for a little while, then we'll let you go back to Dalton when you're fit for travel. Also..." Jeff gave a once-over of Kurt's uniform, "You're going to have to tell us what happened at that ambush. Something seems off about it, so I want to hear the whole story."
Desperate to return home, but too tired and weak to argue with any of Jeff's logic, Kurt forced his legs to turn him around and scuffed his feet along the ground as he walked behind Jeff, who had let go of his wrist and was whispering something into Nick's ear as the brunette glanced back at Kurt for a split second.
"Wait." Kurt suddenly stopped his zombie-like walk right as they were about to leave the riverbank. Something seemed strange, as if he was missing something. He ran a hand to his back to realize that his staff was gone, holster and all.
"What's up?" Nick stopped as well and turned to Kurt. Jeff, however, kept walking at the slow pace, turning so Kurt could see the impatient look on his face.
"When you got to the river, did you happen to see a staff lying around somewhere?" Kurt asked. It was a long shot that the staff had actually washed up beside him on the riverbank, but it was worth asking in case it had.
"No, we only found you, but you never know. It could be in the bushes or something." Nick said as he ran back to the river, inspecting the ground.
Jeff finally stopped walking and turned to the other two. "It's highly unlikely that it would've washed up-"
"Found it!" Nick yelled from the river before Kurt could reach him. He held up the staff still in its casing, the leather straps hanging off its end.
"That was fast..." Jeff murmured as Nick swung the staff over his back and headed back to join him and Kurt.
"Thanks, Nick." Kurt said, reaching for his weapon off the back of the McKinley general.
"Oh, no. You're technically our prisoner, Warbler. I'm not giving you this baby back 'till we let you go." Nick stated as he stepped to put the staff out of Kurt's reach. Kurt would've argued against him, but he simply didn't have the energy or strength to do so, so he settled with pouting and continuing his walk.
"The Fort isn't too far from here." Jeff turned and began walking backwards so he was facing Kurt. "It's only about a ten minute walk or so."
Kurt groaned. It was only a short distance, but his aching limbs pained him a bit more with every step he took.
"So, do you mind telling us exactly what happened to you up at your camp?" asked Jeff as the three walked down a narrow dirt path in a large field of grass. Since McKinley was mostly made up of farmland, the majority of the landscape was flat and open, with a few woodsy areas scattered here and there, as well as the occasional small body of water.
Kurt debated whether or not to tell the two men the entire story of the previous night. Whether he didn't want to tell him because they were technically the enemy or if he simply didn't want to remember the night's events was beyond him. A minute of thinking led him to the conclusion that he really had nothing to lose. After all, all Kurt wanted to do was get back home to Lima and find Blaine, and telling his captors the information they wanted would help him to gain their trust enough to be freed earlier.
Kurt told the two ND Generals everything he remembered, watching their eyes widen in shock when he mentioned the part about Dustin planning the entire ambush on his own troops. The men stayed silent, only nodding their heads and frowning slightly during the rest of the story. Kurt concluded his story with his and Blaine's jump into the river, omitting the kiss, of course.
"Wow...I mean, I'd heard rumors about Dustin before but that is just..." Jeff commented once Kurt had finished his tale.
"Evil. Just pure evil." Nick finished seriously.
"It looks like we'll have to prepare the troops." Jeff sighed. "If Dalton thinks that we ambushed them, they're bound to attack us any day now."
"Well, we'll have to get started immediately, since we're here." Nick pointed out as the three stopped in front of a large wooden wall.
Nick and Jeff led Kurt along the wall until they reached a gap, through which they were admitted by several guards, all greeting their generals with a courteous tip of their hats.
"I will never get tired of that." Nick laughed, stopping in front of the large building confined within the walls.
In front of Kurt stood a large, wooden building that reminded him somewhat of a mansion. The building only had two floors, and the second floor had a balcony that ran along the front, passing underneath a large red and white flag. Around that were several tall watchtowers facing outwards over the large wall surrounding the perimeter of the military base's grounds.
"Welcome to the McKinley Military Fortress." Jeff gestured to the building and its surrounding grounds.
"But we just like to call it The Fort for short." Nick added, proudly gazing up at the red and white flag hanging in the center of the main building.
"Come on, we'll take you to your cell where you'll be staying." Jeff began to lead Kurt up to a large set of double doors beneath the building's balcony. "I know, it doesn't sound very comfortable, but I assure you that you'll be fine in there for a few days."
"You are our prisoner, after all." Nick mentioned as he pushed open the doors.
Kurt didn't really care where he was made to stay. He would sleep on the floor if he had to. He just needed a break from the walking and somewhere to rest his bruised body.
As Kurt stepped into The Fort after Nick and Jeff, the first thing he noticed was the sudden cacophony of noise, which didn't help the throbbing headache he'd had since he'd woken up at all. Men, women and children of all ages, shapes and sizes crowded the room, some standing and talking, others running about from place to place. In one corner, an older soldier was demonstrating some movements with a sword to several younger boys, who Kurt assumed to be pupils of some sort. Across the room Kurt spotted an area that looked like a bar, with men and women drinking happily at several small tables lined up against the far wall. The place looked more to Kurt like a huge party as opposed to a military base.
"I'd like to say that the place isn't usually this chaotic," Nick began, yelling over all the noise, "but then I'd be lying!"
"This way, Kurt!" Jeff yelled from Kurt's left, weaving a path through the crowds of people. Most greeted and Jeff and Nick as they walked by, saluting them, giving them a wave, or in one woman's case, practically tackling Nick in a giant hug.
"Where have you two been? I was worried sick!" the woman yelled as she cut off Nick air circulation. It wasn't until Jeff pulled her off of the frazzled brunette that Nick was able to breathe again.
"Calm down, Rose. It's all okay." Jeff said as he gently hugged the older woman. Kurt assumed her to be around fifty years of age, with a few gray streaks in her long, wavy black hair.
"And who is this here? A Warbler?" The woman who was apparently named Rose asked, focusing her attention on Kurt, who stayed silent even as she sent him a questioning glance.
"Oh, right. Rose, this is Kurt, a Warbler whose camp was ambushed and was washed up along the river." Nick introduced. "Kurt, this is Rose, who I like to call our residential mother."
"Really, she's just supposed to be in charge of the bar, but she likes taking care of everyone a little too much." Jeff added.
"Ambushed? By whom?" Rose questioned Kurt, ignoring Jeff's comment.
Just as Kurt began to open his mouth, Nick interjected. "We're having a meeting later. An important one with the full military force. We'll explain everything then."
"Okay, I'll spread the word." Rose nodded, slightly worried, and began to make her way back towards the bar. "Oh, and Kurt, deary, please get yourself some rest. You look absolutely exhausted."
"Will do." were the only words Kurt managed to mutter out, suddenly realizing how surprising it was that Rose hadn't been hostile towards him in the least, despite him being their enemy. He supposed it was just some sort of McKinley thing, to be hospitable. He watched as the black-haired woman walked away into the crowd.
"Your cell's going to be right through this door and down the flight of steps." Kurt placed his attention back on Jeff, who had just opened up a door in the side of the room that led down to darkness. "Nick and I will take you down there so you can get some rest while we gather up the meeting. Everyone's going to have to hear about the ambush so we can prepare for a possible Dalton attack."
Kurt nodded and followed the two men down the stairs to a room containing three or so unoccupied jail cells, dimly lit by a lamp in the middle of the room. Jeff pulled our a ring of keys and used one to open the cell directly to the right of the stairwell and led Kurt in.
The room was scarcely furnished and small, as all jail cells were expected to be. However, Kurt didn't really care about the room at all, but just about the bed in the corner that was looking comfier by the second. Without a word, Kurt stepped into the cell and heard the door lock, then promptly fell onto the bed for some well-needed rest.
"Sweet dreams, Kurtie-kins!" Nick jokingly yelled as he headed back up the stairs.
"Don't call me that, or you'll have hell to pay." Kurt muttered to himself, barely audibly, right before he drifted off to sleep.