Follows:
Four days out of Specularum, and 2 days north and east from the border of The Barony of Ferk, the group had stopped at a small lake to fill their waterskins and take a few minutes rest. Brendon had been sitting on the edge of the lake, plucking reeds and absently stripping them and plaiting them together, making an ever lengthening rope out of it.
“You are good at zat, Monsieur Du Lac,” Wyn said, pointing to the coin at Brendon’s feet. “You have will-der-ness skills, non?”
Brendon sighed. “Some. Learned, not born with it sadly.”
Abraxas took a drink from his skin and then bent to fill it again. “What did you in the real world, Senor Bergman?”
“Lately? Been doing some scout work, had a spell with the Silvermeadow Rangers for a bit, a fair hand as a fletcher.” He looked over the water. “I will say this, I do miss the water though.”
“You a sailor?” Abraxas smiled, “I know many of them. I know you before this?”
Brendon laughed. “Not for many a year, Abraxas. And if you did know me when my father’s boat came to dock, you were on the wrong side of the law.”
Lannis’ raised a brow. “Rich boy? You a Captain’s son?” Brendon nodded. The magic user chuckled and waved a hand at the rough countryside they were trekking through. “What the hell you doing out here if you’re a man of means?”
“I’ll always be my father’s son, but I hold no traction with the name he made for himself or his actions.” He drew his bow and an oil soaked rag and began wiping the weapon down methodically. “I followed enough of his antics on the high seas and was in danger of following too close to his footsteps.”
“Your dad got a name?” Lyra asked.
“He did,” Brendon answered, pausing long enough before delating slightly and answering, “Ahksid Serpenthelm.”
Abraxas whistled. “Your dad is the Captain of the Sea Serpent?”
Brendon nodded. “Yep, Is. Was. Who knows?”
“Dude,” Lannis said with some disgust, “you’re dad’s a fucking pirate?! We’re adventuring with a Neptune be damned privateer?!”
The taller man caught the magic user’s eye and held it. “I’m not my dad, ok? I’m no pirate and I take great fucking offense to being alluded to being one. Got it?!” His hand had dropped to his short sword and Lannis realized he might have come on a bit too aggressive.
“Whoa, whoa. Relax. I’m just saying, the Sea Serpent, man. That’s pretty big.”
“Senor Lake,” Abraxas asked, “If’n that be the case, who do you not call yourself Senor Serpenthelm?”
“I left that behind me when I broke with my dad. Hard words and the Duke’s own Impressors hunting you down at every port to take you in for fighting, piracy, and it’s just a matter of time before some doxie or longshoreman found out who I was related to and got myself imprisoned.” He sighed deeply. “It would have totally broken my mother’s heart.”
“But, your mom, she’s a pirate’s wife,” Lannis exclaimed. “She has to know.”
“Nope,” Brendon replied. “Mom and dad broke up long ago, left her without a pot to piss in, and I did my best to straddle both their worlds until I couldn’t anymore. So I left following my dad’s work, and needed a skill that would take me away from the sea for a time.”
“I ‘eard zat ze Captain o’ the Sea Serpent ‘ad changed?” Wyn asked. “Twins I ‘ear?”
Brendon nodded, finishing with his bow and putting the rag away. “My brother and sister, Rolyn and Rava.” He shrugged. “They bought his line of shit and followed him out to sea. I haven’t heard from either one of them in years. Neither has, mom.” He checked his arrows in his quiver, “She doesn’t even know what I’m doing now, let her believed I was imprisoned after I had dropped out of seeing her some 8 years ago. I still make sure she gets coin and food.”
“So, if you’re not a rich Captain’s son, and you’re not a notorious pirate,” Lannis looked over Brendon’s clothing, seeing the basic and homespun quality of it, “and it’s obvious you didn’t marry anyone rich…what have you done?”
“I joined the army.”
The group just looked at one another and then Brendon again. “Manling,” Kovid started, “if you are looking to NOT be caught or found out by the Duke’s Impressors, why in Thor’s Kinky Pubes would you join the army?”
“Pubes?” Lannis asked, looking briefly at the dwarf’s crotch before shuddering. Kovid just stared at Lannis, brows beetled.
“I recruited. Joining the army gave me the opportunity to start over, new name, training, to hone my skills, give me the ‘out’ I needed to have a fresh start.”
“Monsieur, why no ze navy? You ‘ave th’ skillz already, oui?”
“True,” Brendon replied. “But the goal was to come up with a life outside of the one that had generated from my father. I wanted a full break. So I ended up as a grunt and plod for the infantry, learning how to hold a spear and training to be a front line fighter.”
Abraxas smiled. “That is good! You fight good with sword?”
“I have my moments. Started out as typical: hauling supplies, digging holes, building things one day and taking them apart the next.” He wiped the travel dust of the bottom of his cloak and looked out over the small lake again. “I wasn’t the strongest or the toughest.” He kicked a stone into the water. “What I was though was fast on my feet. Very fast. I could scale obstacles better than most of the brutes. You hear of the 1 in 6 rule? I was that guy. I was the 1 in 6 who wasn’t just a plod. Years of smuggling and climbing rigging and alley fights and running and dodging, shit, there was a small group of us that were like that. Run around the camp at night, grab an extra ration of grub and grog, and get back to the tent without anyone being the wiser.” He smiled in thought, “Got full of ourselves and called ourselves ‘Shadow Company’. Didn’t scare anyone with that moniker of course, but if we tried hard enough we could have.”
“Sounds like you were reverting back to what your father had molded you to be, Manling,” observed Kovid.
“Yeah,” Brendon agreed. “Didn’t realize it at the time, hindsight and foolishness of youth. We also weren’t fooling anyone. My commanding officer was a grizzled veteran named Vulton T’darkone. He was tough but fair. Had an innate sense about things. Could sus out patterns in the weather and the movements of animals. Man was a genius.”
“Guys,” Abraxas pointed to the west at the sun. “Time to go. Walk and talk, Senor?” The group had filled their skins and started walking off from the lakeshore.
After a few minutes of walking, Brendon resumed his story. “Vulton had a very deep and raspy voice, and he could hit real fucking hard. Remember earlier I told you we were good, well…we weren’t, that’s for sure. Turns out the CO had been watching us for weeks perform our nightly shenanigans. I’ll never forget, it was a cold rainy morning. CO kicked down our tent support and using his baton prodded us into the cold and mud. ‘Time you Shadow fuckers spend some time reporting to Prithi Oaknok for training.’ Damned near pissed myself.”
“Why?” Wyn asked.
“It was little secret that Prithi had some elven in her ancestry but was also one of the Duke’s spies. You never wanted to deal with her as it was assumed she knew more about you than you did and could kill you 5 different ways with just a fucking salad fork.” He rubbed the back of his hand, looking at the faint scar there. “Prithi was a fair skinned lady. She measured her steps and talked almost in a whisper. She took the time to teach us to truly become scouts. The teachings sounded simple enough but were extremely hard to master. ‘Be there without being there’ – ‘Be out as if you were never in’ – ‘Be children, not seen nor heard’ I swear that woman taught me more in those 9 months than I ever learned at my father’s side for 9 years.”
“So, you became a spy?”
Brendon shook his head. “No. Never had the aptitude for it. Our job was to scout for the army and report back. Don’t be a hero, think before you act. The other infantry though thought we were putting on airs and initially were rude to us. That faded though as we showed them respect and the began to respect us for what we did. The entire company gelled and we would always step in and protect each other, even if we were the cause of the fight.
He continued, “There would be barfights over young lasses or the whoopsie pocket lift. Didn’t matter, the ‘NOISE’ would step in and protect us.” He chuckled, “We called them ‘NOISE’ because they were loud with the weapons, armor and heavy breathing. They called us ‘Shadows’ because we scared them with our silence, our sneaking, and our abilities.”
“Army stories,” Lannis muttered, “how endearing.” Lyra reached over and gave him a prod with her club. “What?” Lannis asked crossly. “Just saying what we’re all thinking.”
“You see any bad action,” Abraxas asked.
The scout was quiet for a moment before answering with a slow measured response as if recalling the episode. “We were tasked once with gaining information on the movements of a clan of hobgoblins in the area. Unlike the erratic movements of their smaller cousins,” Kovid spat at that interrupting Brendon briefly before the taller human could continue. “The Hobgoblins are very methodical. The ‘Hobs’ had attacked a settlement, one of those smaller villages to the north; killed most of the people – most of them. When the army arrived, we couldn’t find any woman or children. They were pressing on to the next town and I’m not sure why this time was more time sensitive then all the other times the ‘Hobs’ had done this, but we HAD to locate the missing people. And we had to do it quietly and without alert the entire hobgoblin clan which outnumbered us 3 to 1.
He sighed. “We left the ‘NOISE’ behind and we did what we do best. We went to be…Quiet no matter what or the entire company is killed…So we did…,” he stopped talking, looking down at the grass as he strode along. Brendon closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, “Found them…I could only get two of the children out…Third one…just wouldn’t stop…wouldn’t stop…”
He opened his eyes and they were cold and hard, flinty. Lannis was surprised and jerked back a bit while walking. “If I didn’t…none…NONE of us would have returned.” He squared his shoulders, “So yeah, I’ve done some things and have seen some bad action.”
The party was silent as they walked on, mulling over Brendon’s story. “You no longer in the army?” Wyn asked at long last?
“Not for two years I would think, maybe 3.” He tilted his head back and looked at the sky. “Was there for four and a half years. I could have left when my enlistment was up after 2. Hell they weren’t even looking for me anymore as my father’s son after a year so I was free in that regard. I just stayed, you know? It fit me at that time.” He wrung his hands together in agitation. “I don’t know. I miss the NOISE but I don’t think I have it in me to teach the reality of scouting any longer. I don’t know…”
His voice trailed off as the party walked along. “My dad used to say that life was like the sea. It’s the same thing every day until it isn’t. And you have to mind the current at all times and never turn your back on it because it might sweep you in a direction you never planned on going.” He looked around, “So that’s what this is. The Academy needed a scout and here I am, doing what I do best.”
He looked them all over. “You are my company, and as my company, my group, my party, you can trust that I will do whatever is needed and necessary without hesitation to protect all of you and ensure that we all return home safe and sound. No matter what.”
Kovid nodded. “No matter what.”
“Oui, no matter what.”
“By Aine’s blessing.”
“Senor Lake, not for any whatting matter no what. I swear too,” Abraxas beamed.
“Oh for fuck…”Lannis shook his head. “Ditto.”
“Ditto?” Lyra asked.
“Yep. That should be good enough.”
Brendon nodded his head and kept walking, eyes fixed on the horizon as he strode along. “Good enough,” he muttered just loud enough for his ears only. “Good enough is never just good enough, Master Mage. Going to need you to bring your ‘A’ game as well.”
The group walked onward, the shores of the lake at their left shoulder, there, the Lake watching over them.
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