Alt Much?

D2 Goal: 3334
Word Count: 2309
69% of target

Something I forgot to mention before – the working title for my novel is “For Lack of A Letter”.

“Oi, Burn, there ye be! Git over to the tents and knock Meirien in the head will ya? He was supposed to send me relief hours ago.” The duergar held the Captains shaving kit in one hand and a platter of breakfast in the other.  The image of the stout warrior trying to shave the commander while shoving rashes of bacon in his face made Burn chortle. Granis turned to enter the command tent and shouted back over his shoulder, “Don’t just stand there guffawing like a mindless git, get Meirien lad!”

“Alright Granis.” Burn waved then turned to head to his squads section of the company area. Aside from Granis none of his other squad mates seemed to be awake.  Burn folded back the flap of his squad leader’s tent to let in some of the morning light.  He spied his squad leader, Corporal Meirien, at the back of the tent hunched over a camp desk.  He was scrawling something by the light of one small candle.  Meirien shared the tent with another squad leader but the Nightstalkers were out on patrol so the other bunk was empty.

“Sir,” Burn said softly, still unwilling to break the early morning peace, “the El-Tee is on his way and looking for you sir.”

Meirien looked up from is work. He was in his late twenties and had been pushing his squad, dubbed Meirien’s Marauders, for a good ten years.  His temples were whitening prematurely giving him the distinguished look of a man decades older.  The corporal’s cuir bouilli armor creaked a little as he stood up from his work.

“Good Good.  Burn, see to it that the rest of the squad is up and started on their chores.  I should be back momentarily.”

Meirien walked to the rack that held his sword and strapped it into place.  Like his armor, it was standard issue steel with little in the way of embellishment.  Burn held back the flap as his squad leader exited the tent.

“Oh, and Granis is grumbling about a replacement.” Burn said as the corporal strode past.  He had almost forgotten the poor duergar and would have paid for his slip during weapons training.  Granis was once a member of his Thane’s High Guard and knew how to best deploy his axe even when not trying to kill.

“Ok, let Decklan know he’s to relieve Granis as soon as he gets something down.  He’d better not tarry too long over breakfast or Granis will have his head.”  Decklan was the youngest of the squad at 16 years.  He was also the newest recruit so bore the brunt of the one off assignments that came the squads way.

“Wilco.” Burn replied and hurried off to do as ordered.  He was glad it wasn’t him this time.  While he like the Captain, having to play batman after being shorted sleep and standing watch for two hours wouldn’t have been at the top of his list of ways to start the day.

The squad tents were on the other side of Nightstalker squad and took a dozen or so strides to reach the first one.  Slapping a hand on a tent flap and clearing his throat to announce his entry, Burn went down the row waking up all his squad mates.  He had to rouse a couple stubborn ones by dumping them out of their bunks completely.  One squaddie in particular had made sleeping in a regular habit and Meirien had dubbed the unfortunate soldier ‘Sloth’.

Reaching the women’s tent, he noticed that the flap was already open.  The women in the squad were usually up well before the rest and pretty much did everything together much like their civilian counterparts.  Unlike their civilian counterparts they were more likely in the fields drilling than in the baths.  The Outlander army didn’t discriminate when it came to soldiering.  If you could carry a sword and wanted to fight you could.  It made for some awkward moments when you stumbled into the baths at the wrong time but on the whole fighting side by side with women wasn’t as big a problem as some might propose.

One by one the other squad members stumbled out of the their tents some still buckling on armor and armament.   Sloth of course, was the last to emerge, yawning and tossing his great two-handed sword over one shoulder.  While Sloth relished any opportunity to sleep, he had a slow, steady strength and had never let his squad down during practice skirmishes.

Burn spotted  young Decklan in the back ranks as the squad was forming up to head to the company mess.  “Oi! Decklan! Get some grub and go relieve Granis at the commanders tent.  Meirien’s orders.”

A short, dark haired youth nodded and walked briskly from the formation toward the company mess area.  While each squad had it’s own campfire or two they weren’t used for cooking anything other than a quick snack.  Mostly they were used for warmth on cold nights after a days training and the troops were dismissed from duty for the day.

Burn caught the scent of the elf maid before he felt her gentle touch on his elbow and heard th soft lilt of her voice. “Tamis, how did watch go?”

Talia was the only one in the squad that didn’t call Burn by his nickname.  Burn wouldn’t have it any other way.  Turning, he caught site of the three other women from the squad passing behind Talia on their way to joining their respective teams in formation.  Burn and Talia were two of the three team leaders in the squad.  Each was responsible for mentoring four recruits which brought the total squad strength to fifteen soldiers.

As Burn shifted his focus on Talia, his breath almost caught as the rising morning light caught her platinum blonde hair and created an shimmer, ghostly aura around her head.  He always marveled at the sight of her.  She was indeed a lovely creature, more so in his opinion, even for an elf.

“Tamis?”

Burn realized that he hadn’t replied to her and struggled to hold back the blush that was surely spreading over his cheeks. “Oh, right, no … it went fine.  There was report from the other side of camp that some kobold mounds had been found.  Probably a scouting party trying to determine our strength.”

“I see.” Talia replied.  She winked at Burn which made his blush even more pronounced.  Burn started to stammer a reply, anything to fill the growing void of silence that was building between them.

By now the squad had formed into two rows of four and one back row of three.  Granis was the other team leader.  Grey, his second sidled up to Burn and Talia with a smirk on his face.  It was common knowledge amongst the squad that Burn had a ‘thing’ for Talia that he was desperately trying to hide.

“If I may be so bold as to intrude upon such obviously deep and philosophical a conversation, I do believe the troops are getting a little restless.”  Grey pointed over his shoulder with his chin to indicate the rest of the squad who were standing around in various poses resembling nothing at all like ‘Attention’.

“Right Grey, I get your point.”

Bowing, Grey turned about and rejoined his team.  Talia gave Burn one last wink and hurried to join her team.  The rest of the squad were all trying to stifle their laughter behind their hands.  Even Sloth had a huge grin on his face.

“Ok, OK! Enough.” by now Burn’s face was crimson and the squad knew better than to push him any further.  They all put on their best ‘professional soldier’ face and stood at rigid attention.  This almost prompted another round of laughter when Burn lowered and shook his head.  He knew his mates were just giving him a well deserved ribbing.  He didn’t hold it against them.  Laughter was what helped them face the horrors of their chosen profession.

Burn issued the commands that moved the squad through the company camp area at route step.  The mess was on the other side from where they were located and it took a few minutes to maneuver through the other squads tents.  The mess area was full of Wolf Company soldiers diving into a simple morning meal of sausages and biscuits.  The smells wafted over Burn and he realized that it had been a really long time since his last meal.  Directing his squad in front of him he took his place at the rear of the line.  As the the leader he would eat last to ensure all the squad had adequate time to eat.

Talia swayed in front of Burn, coyly ignoring him. She moved to a song which only she was privy.  Her leather armor was of elfin manufacture and the creek it made as she moved reminded him of branches rubbing against each other during a summer rain.  Looking back over her shoulder she gave him yet another wink then turned back to speak with a member of her team.

This time, Burn’s blush wasn’t quite so pronounced.  It also helped that the rest of the squad was facing forward in line.  Still, it wasn’t all a loss.  He was able to admire the fine artisan work on the back of Talia’s armor.