A/N: Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
Two weeks later Kemp came up to her and told her she'd been assigned into active duty. Scouting. Faolan grinned- no surprises there. It was evening, after the day's exercises. Faolan had just spent six hours digging new latrines and throwing dirt into the old ones- a smelly job, but physically exerting, and Faolan enjoyed that.
Kemp's expression was unreadable as he took one of Faolan's hands and put a piece of parchment in it, then growled, "You're reporting to her from now on. Good luck, Faolan- and may you get true control soon."
"Thank you, sir," Faolan said with a nod, taking the parchment and giving him a salute.
She felt taller than she had when she came- she probably was, she'd been growing like a weed in the last year, but she felt taller in the older sense. The Faolan that had come to the camp had been a confused pup with too many memories in her head. This Faolan… Fao had never felt more like Carry Rolf in her life.
"Yer stuff's already been moved," Kemp added, "Ursula expects you. Don't shoot yer eyes out with her."
Faolan grinned- in the past weeks Faolan had proved her skill in archery, and managed to impress several of the werewolves, Kemp included. With a nod, she turned around and unrolled the parchment. The first thing on it was where her group was now located. It was closer to the edge than Kemp's- so they didn't disturb others coming in and out, she supposed. Just as she was making her way towards one of the main paths through the camp, she heard a shout behind her, and then felt strong arms wrapping around her tightly, and lifting her up.
"Roscoe!" Faolan yelled, turning around to stare at her attacker, "Put me down! I've been assigned!"
"I know," he answered, setting her down with a uncharacteristically unhappy expression, "Why couldn't you have been worse at scouting and gotten assigned to something more on the Roscoe level?"
"Uh…" Faolan laughed and shoved him, "Because I can't control what I'm good at? Don't worry Roscoe, I'll still see you. Just get true control real quick and we can go home."
His grin returned and the werewolf paused, then hugged Fao, whispering in her ear, "You be careful, okay? Don't let any of those silver blades and arrows touch you!"
"I'm immune," Faolan replied, poking him away, then added seriously, "Don't worry. They know what they're doing with their assignments. I have a Scout Captain to meet now. Try better at scouting, maybe you'll be assigned into her group too!"
"Yeah right," Roscoe rolled his eyes and then yawned, "I'm a hack and slash kind of werewolf- no sneaking in bushes for me."
"I know," Faolan answered, then waved and said, "I'll be in touch!"
She turned around and kept walking, feeling Roscoe's eyes on her the entire way. The chain mail draped over her shoulders didn't feel so heavy anymore. She was getting used to it, and to boots. She was getting used to war camp life. On her way to meet Ursula, she passed the healer's tent. None of the werewolves were Healers in the Valdemar sense of them, but there was a Karsite priest, a very dark eyed man that most of them avoided, and some of his magics worked in healing. For everyone else, the 'hack and slash' healing method had to be good enough. She barely noticed the smell of blood from it anymore, nor heard the moans of wounded soldiers.
A few minutes later she entered a bunch of tents that she knew belonged to her new scouting group. Standing by the fire ring, in the center of the tents, was a woman whom Faolan assumed was Ursula. She was short, with a lot of bushy brown hair confined to a ponytail. Her chain mail hung on her like she slept in it, like it never came off, and a sword hung at one hip.
Her back was to Faolan, so she stepped forward and said, "Excuse me? Are you Ursula?"
The woman turned around. Her face was a series of hard lines. She glared at Faolan for a few moments, then said, "That I am, and that's sir to you. Faolan right?"
Faolan nodded, then added, "Yes sir."
"Welcome to my scout group," she said with a tight smile, "I hope you're as good as Kemp says you are, because if you're not we'll soon be one Scout short."
"Yes, sir," Faolan answered, not sure if there was anything else she could say of this comment.
"After dinner, report back here," Ursula instructed, "And I'll introduce you to your new brothers and sisters. Tomorrow morning we're leaving, so you'd better know all their names by then. Dismissed."
Faolan nodded, but Ursula was already stalking off. Feeling a little disgruntled, she turned around and headed to the cook tent and fire, her stomach rumbling. Already many werewolves were milling about, wearing variations of the same outfit- some cleaner, some dirtier. Faolan looked at the many faces as she was eating and thought, We're all werewolves. We're a pack, fighting together to live.
When she was done eating she went straight back to her camp area, where, to her surprise, one of the scouts had procured a recorder and was playing a lilting, haunting tune on it. Three others were sitting nearby, in different positions of relaxation. One of them was in wolf form, sprawled on his side.
The one playing the recorder stopped as Faolan stepped into the ring and put down his instrument with a friendly grin, partially hidden by a half inch growth of brownish beard. Above his smile was a pair of twinkling greenish eyes. He wasn't wearing his chain mail, so his white undershirt hung loosely over his body.
"Heyla," he said cheerfully, "You must be the greenie."
Faolan nodded, feeling shy, and sat down across from them, saying quietly, "Faolan."
"Good ta meet yah, Faolan," he answered, "I'm Alistair."
"You play well," she said, motioning at his recorder.
"Thanks," he said, his grin broadening, "Figured we need a little entertainment around here so I whittled this in my free time."
"Be better if he played more cheerful songs," a woman growled from her position to Alistair's right. She had a bush of blond hair sprouting from her head, and bushy eyebrows to beat, arching over blue eyes.
"That would be Alayne," Alistair introduced, "She's our resident sniffer of trails."
"Humans stink," Alayne retorted to this comment, staring with a broody expression at their lack of a fire. Faolan could tell it was good natured though with her empathy. She wondered how many people thought Alayne was a grouch.
"I'm Joras," the third humanoid formed werewolf introduced solemnly, sitting on Alistair's left. His hair was cropped very short, just to a buzz. What was there appeared to be black.
"And this," Alistair toed the dozing wolf formed werewolf, "Is Seath."
"Hi," Faolan said to all of them in general, thinking about the scouts she had worked with as Carry Rolf, and missing Raleigh. She hadn't seen him in a few weeks.
Alistair picked up the recorder again and started playing a new tune. Faolan had never played a recorder in any of her lives, nor had she ever been passionate enough about it to want to be a Bard, or even a Minstrel, but she had a feeling he was mostly making up what he was playing as he went along.
The light was slowly fading out of the sky, and before Faolan noticed, it was almost dark. The music had put her in a kind of trance, and she broke out of it suddenly, noticing that more werewolves were milling about, talking in quiet voices, listening to the music, or dozing, like she had been. Faolan looked around and counted about twenty heads, wolf and human. Did Ursula really expect her to get to know all these people by morning?
But as Faolan started making eye contact, werewolves, one at a time, or a few at a time, would wave, grin and tell her their names. As the conversing slid her through all the werewolves, Faolan realized what a tight bunch these all were. What did they do when they returned back to their own villages? How much influx and outflow was there in this group?
When Ursula stalked in later, when the stars were coming out, and ordered everyone to bed, reminding them that they were going out the next day, Faolan was surprised to realize she had learned everyone's name. Ursula pointed her to her tent, and Faolan, feeling comfortably tired, retreated. Berit was already inside, a young woman only three years older than Faolan. She was the kind of person that, if not a werewolf, Faolan would have pegged for a snotty high born- she seemed like the kind of girl who would scream at the sight of a cut. But as a werewolf… Faolan smiled as she slipped under her warm furs. Berit was already asleep and in moments, Fao was as well.
Faolan was woken by a kick at their tent flap, long before the customary horn that would wake the entire camp. She sat up, blinking confused, and Berit grinned at her as she pulled her thin black hair into a ponytail.
"Time to go," she said in a low voice, pulling on her chain mail and buckling a sword at her waist before slipping outside.
Faolan quickly copied her, putting a dagger at her waist and a quiver of arrows across her back with a bow in one hand, instead of a sword. Outside the moon hovered near the horizon, brightly casting light over the camp. Faolan noticed it was almost full, but not quite. She could feel her fur itching to come out under its rays and fidgeted her chain mail into a comfortable position.
They met at the campfire, huddled around with quiet clinks of metal.
Ursula stood at the center, looking over everyone with a sharp eye. When it was clear everyone was up, she passed out pieces of sausage wrapped in heavy bread to everyone and told them in low voices were they were going, and who was in what group. Faolan was with Berit, Axel, Joras, and Wray- who'd be in charge. They were scouting out a pass about thirty miles away and they'd be there for a week. If they saw any small activity, they'd kill it- if there were larger movements, they were going to call in reinforcements. In this kind of warfare, every soldier was part scout, part warrior.
In a few more minutes, they were setting out, hiking quietly through the sentries and out into the woods. For the first twenty miles they'd hike in human form- probably take them a day. When they got closer, half would go into wolf form and the others would stay as human, going about half and half in each group.
It turned out to be an uneventful week. The first hike was long and hot and slightly tedious, but she got to know those she was working with a bit better as they talked in hushed voices. In the valley they were scouting one scout group encountered some of the Valdemar's scouts, and their was a skirmish, but all Faolan's group saw was eagles and deer. To maximize the capabilities of scouts in both human and wolf form, three of them went into wolf form, using their better senses to do all the rough scouting work, then coming back and telling it to those in human form, who passed the information on, kept hold of packs, and held an armed line, weaving through the ground already scouted by the wolves, and doing battle when those in wolf form encountered trouble. Faolan was placed in human form all week, carrying a pack on her back and hiking along behind those in wolf form, her bow ready- for nothing, it turned out. She quickly realized that all the action was for those in wolf form- those in human form really acted more as back up and pack carriers. She wondered how long it'd be until she got to take wolf form scouting.
A few days in, the full moon did come about. It didn't really change anything, just that Faolan and Axel, who stayed with the packs, stayed with the packs in wolf form instead of human form. When she got back to the encampment, Roscoe told her excitedly about the fun of the full moon there. Apparently those not on sentry duty did a lot of running around and romping- no one wanted to sleep, or needed too. He actually saw the Commander stalking among them, growling and holding his tail high. Extremely fun, in Roscoe's terms. Faolan hoped she'd be around for the next full moon, but as she remembered from her scouting days as Carry, time spent at camp was very irregular.
A/N: The next chapter is promised to be very exciting, so please keep reading and reviewing!
Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter!
GinaStar-Wow! I'm glad you like this story- also impressive reading it
all at once! I know its been getting longer and longer and longer...
StormyPhoenix-Thanks! I hope you like this chapter as much- though it's mostly an over view of Faolan's assignment.