Training Camp

16th of Hearthfire, 4E 205.

Rikke watched with displeasure as the young men and women she had brought from Whiterun finally got out of their tents for the morning. This was the first time since they had arrived outside Riften that she hadn't rudely woken them up. Apparently, they took that as a sign that they could take the day off.

Aetius was doing his best to hide a smile. Tulius had trained both him and Rikke. He knew where this was going. He winced as Rikke started laying into the young adults. Only a few of them had the decency to look ashamed. Lars had been the first up that morning and had actually started on his tasks so he was sort of left out of the scolding. Frothar looked like he wished he had known better than to think he wouldn't need to do anything that day and Braith who seemed to flourish under the strict guidance of Rikke's leadership looked ashamed. They didn't whine. They didn't complain. They just did what they were told.

In seconds Rikke had them all back on track and working on the day's chores and training. One-third of their original number had already been sent home. She saw potential in the remaining youths, but some of them might be going home still. Frothar did the best he could. He wanted his father to be proud of him. He didn't want the High King to be disappointed in the Heir to his throne. Frothar had realised that he would be the one taking over if something happened to Balgruuf. It had been Nelikr that pointed that out. It had been an eye-opener. He had thought Katla would do it, but that wasn't tradition. If the High King died his eldest child would take over. That was a scary thought to Frothar. He listened intently as both Rikke and Aetius spoke. He needed to be a good leader. He had to do this. He had to succeed. His people would never follow him otherwise.

Aetius walked between the teens and gave them pointers. He was kinder than Rikke. They had a good balance going between them, a balance that Frothar had sometimes seen between Katla and Balgruuf too.

"How are things going?" Ulfric asked that evening as Rikke watched her soldiers build barricades. Ulfric had been appearing more and more often as of late. Rikke wasn't sure why. Maybe he was just feeling lonely.

"They are lax. They got up late this morning," Rikke said.

"I have a feeling they won't do that again," Ulfric said.

"Hopefully not," Rikke said.

"How's the High King's son?" Ulfric asked.

"He is trying his darndest to prove himself, but he doesn't quite know how to. He is a bit clumsy," Rikke said.

"Sounds like his father," Ulfric said. He walked over to Frothar and sat down to speak with the young man. It could be good for Frothar to know that his father had been much the same as he was once upon a time.

19h of Hearthfire, 4E 205.

Frothar lay on his stomach on top of a cliff. In not-so-nice terms, one could say they were playing war. He was commanding one group of soldiers and Braith was commanding another. Their goal was to defeat the other team. His team was quite close to the border. That hadn't mattered at first as they took outposts and moved forward towards their goal, but then suddenly horns of battle sounded all too close for comfort.

"We should help them," one of the other boys called out.

"No," Frothar said. "We should regroup with Braith and the others and get back to Legate Rikke."

"Eh, you are just scared," the other boy said as he drew his sword and started heading towards the fighting.

Frothar pulled himself up to full height and roared in a way similar to how he had heard Katla do it once or twice. "On me and follow closely. Our orders are to secure our fellow soldiers and return to command!" He didn't sound quite as impressive as he had wanted to, but most of the other young men and women in his group followed him as he headed towards where he knew Braith should be.

"Some morons headed off to the wall," Braith said as he joined her.

"For me too," Frothar said. "It can't be helped. We need to go back to Rikke."

"I wish we didn't," Braith said as they started walking.

"Me too, but we would probably just be in the way right now," Frothar said.

Braith nodded slowly. Frothar was right. He tended to be right in situations like this.

Rikke was waiting for them with her arms crossed over her chest. She counted them in as they came back. "I see you lost some," she said.

"They chose not to listen to orders, ma'am," Frothar said.

Rikke gave a small nod. It would see some more people were heading home. That was if they made it out of the battle alive.

Only a short while passed before Ulfric and a few of his men turned up with the disobedient little soldiers. "I'm guessing these are yours," Ulfric said angrily to Rikke as he reached her.

"They were participating in a drill out in the forest and decided not to follow orders," Rikke said.

"Ah," Ulfric looked at the other young soldiers around him. So most of them had returned to base as they were supposed to. Well, that changed some things. Mock drills were important. It was even more important to do as you were ordered especially when the orders were clear. "These five young men have caused several near-lethal injuries to our own forces this day. We could have made it with nearly no injured if they hadn't clumsily stumbled into the fray so that trained soldiers got hurt in their stead. "If anyone of you do this again. I will personally place you on the front lines and leave you there," Ulfric said. His tone was short and he glared at the youths.

No one said anything that evening. Some people were kind of scared others were angry. Frothar knew that no one wanted to listen to him so he just didn't care about them. He sat with Lars and Braith by a fire a little to the side of everyone else. Lars wanted to go home, but he was a good ally. Braith wanted to prove that she was a good warrior. Her dream was to become the guard captain in Whiterun.

Lars just wanted to survive.

23rd of Hearthfire, 4E 205.

Rikke shouted orders and Aetius corrected the soldiers to be as he walked past them. They were learning formations. Most of the youths weren't very interested. They were slacking and talking despite all the corrections that Aetius was giving. Rikke was getting angrier and angrier.

Before she got the chance to explode Vivianna showed up on her chestnut steed. "I need some brave volunteers to help me clear out a cave," she stated. "As a matter of fact…" she looked at the gathered teens. "I believe that if we split you up into three groups we can take care of everything we need done."

Rikke gave her a grateful smile. She wanted as few troublemakers as possible in each group. That was how Frothar ended up in a group with two of the problem boys, two girls and another boy that didn't say much. Frothar was pretty certain he was Jason's little brother. Nathan? Could be Nathan. The girls were two imperials that Dagny had talked fashion with a bit before they had grown tired of her. Celia and Vera.

They were sent off with Vivianna. She led them to a small cave called Broken Helm Hollow. Bandits guarded the door.

"Go ahead," Vivianna said as they got closer. "Show me what you can do."

Halvdar and Ulf ran straight up and started fighting the men without any warning.

Frothar held an arm out and stopped the rest. "We don't know what is up there," he said. He looked down at the ground. A lot of footprints overlapped back and forth up the hill.

Up by the door, Halvdar and Ulf defeated the bandits and headed inside. They grinned down at Frothar before they closed the door behind them.

Frothar wanted to run after them to show how good he was in a fight. He didn't do that, however. Instead, he led his small group up to the doors and made sure the bandits were dead.

"This one is still breathing," Vera said.

"Good point," Vivianna said as she sent off a spell to finish the man off.

Frothar opened the door slowly and looked inside. Lanterns lit up a long tunnel. Water ran quickly at the end of the path. He could hear shouting from further in. "Vera and Celia you know how to use bows, right?" he asked.

"We do," Vera said.

"Bows at the ready," Frothar said. "Nathan on me. Shield raised." He moved down as quietly as he could. The bandits had beaten Halvdar and Ulf. The two boys were laying on the floor. Pain showed clearly on their faces, but Frothar couldn't tell how injured they were. He signalled to the girls that he and Nathan would move around the pillar they were standing by and rush the bandits and they were expecting backup.

Frothar led Nathan into the fray. He positioned them so the girls could easily hit the bandits instead of them with their arrows. "Vivianna we need some support," Frothar called as the bandits fell. "Could you use some kind of frost spell against the leader?"

"Will do," Vivianna said. As soon as she saw the bandit leader she cast an ice spear right at him. Frothar blocked the man's strike and dealt his own. He pushed the leader back and pierced his armour. Vivianna walked up behind the man and grabbed his head between her hands. She froze his head solid. She looked Frothar right in the eyes. "Good job Frothar," she said. "You took command and you performed well. Now you just need to prove that you can follow someone else as well," she said.

"I have done that before so it shouldn't be a problem," Frothar said.

"We will see," Vivianna said. She didn't doubt him that much though. "Now let's make sure your friends are still alive."

Frothar had already turned to Halvdar and Ulf so he could check on their injuries.

Vivianna let him take the reins and just helped out when she felt it was necessary. It wasn't his fault these idiots got hurt and he shouldn't need to take any blame. Hopefully, Rikke's charges would take her teachings more seriously now. She would make sure that everyone got to know what had happened.

It was time these children grew up.