Re: The Dawn Chorus
"Why do you carry a robe?" Asha had emptied her pack out onto the bed, looking for matches to light a fire for cooking. She stopped to strap her twin swords to her -- one on her back and one to her belt. This formation meant that the unsheathing of blades could be used as a defencive manoeuvre, creating a wall of metal between your opponent and yourself as you could spin with the movement, creating a sharp pirouette of imminent pain.
"Disciplining the body. Y'know... cold showers, chewing roots, hours in dark caves wearing nothing but a yak hide... that sort of thing. Makes you a stronger person." Pausing, she stuffs the garment back into her bag. "Bit conspicuous here, though."
"You mean that wearing a skirt makes you a bett--" CRASH
Asha twirled round to meet the incoming threat -- she knew before it hit her that it was a bear. Her swords raised in an X-block, the sheer might of its charge knocked her to the floor. Looking round, she knew they were about to get Turu. She scrambled to her feet, but the bear knocked her easily back down to the floor with one paw. Turu shrieked as two men got her from behind. The raiding party was five strong, two of which were on Turu, another two were guarding the doors and the bear was slowly circling Asha. She saw him swipe out at her, and jumped out of the way. She dropped her swords -- There is no way I can get past that armour. The bear swiped again, grunting in suprise at her impossibly quick reactions.
"...grau?"
Something clicked. The swords, and the bear, and the voice so deep it made your gut feel strange.
"Jhans Frenn." Asha spoke the bear's name quietly, and then tried to figure out why. The room fell still. The bear stopped, racking his brains for where they had met before. "I... shall come quietly?" Asha unhooked her twin scabbards, sheathed the blades and laid them down before the bear.
"You made these. Remember?" The bear's eyes rose to meet hers for the first time. They blazed blue in the half-light.
"Asha." Said Jhans. Asha smiled.
"That's right."
-----
Astidu stood as the party entered the room. Four guardsmen, clad in leather chest armour with chainmal pleats, flanked the two captives. One of which was Iccio Turu as myth knew her -- tanned skin, long dark plaits and a determined expression. The other was dressed up in a practical venturing tooled greatcoat, grapple slung across her shoulder. She talked freely to Jhans, his Panserbjørn officer. Turu reached the desk first, and stood with her arms crossed. Astidu thought: They came quietly? Astounding. There must have been an unforseen factor.
And then all five stood before him. Astidu was a well-built man, with a mat of blond hair which is rarely seen this far north. He placed both palms on his desk, and adopted a serious attitude.
"Welcome back, men." He turned to the captives. "Iccio, lady." He nodded to each respectively. "Klatcher, hand miss Turu your wallet."
"Me, sir?"
"Do it, Private. Thank you. Now, miss Turu -- do you swear to obey the law in all its forms?"
Iccio glanced at Asha. "I... do?"
"To uphold and revere the king's peace?" Iccio looked confused.
"Um, yes. Yes I do."
"Do you give you alleigance to this noble cause?" Suddenly, the penny dropped. If I was being poetic, It would have been a shilling.
"Yes I will," Iccio said, smiling broadly.
"To obey like the others who follow in your stead?"
"Of course!"
"To obey and excecute firmly and to the fullest extent of your skill?"
"Yes Sir!"
"To let a pregnant woman pee into your hat if she is, indeed, caught short in the marketplace on April the Third between the hours of nine and ten?"
"Damn right, sir!" Astidu's eyes were on fire. He'd been looking for the right one for the job for well over a year. And Iccio was all too enthausiastic.
"You're hired! I want you here and kitted out at eight tomorrow, to begin work by nine. It's all legal, the offical shilling's in that wallet." He turned to said officer. "Show private Turu to her room, and sort her some uniform. I want her to command the evening watch when Isaac retires. She'll make a fine guardswoman, if I'm any judge."
A lightening fast change of temprement followed:
"Which, I hasten to add, is more than you layabouts are showing me! Don't you have anything better to be doing? Clayton! Get on patrol!"
Guards jumped, and swarmed around the hall like bees in a hive. Turu melted into the crowd.
Astidu sat down moodily at his desk, swigging coffee from his tankard. Wiping his mouth with a sleeve, he froze -- and brought his eyes up sowly to meet Asha's. He opened his mouth to speak -- and stopped short as commotion bloomed at the door. It was flung open, and guardmen spilled in, a stretcher carried between two of them. Astidu hurried towards the hubbub, and met a youth running the other way.
"A dead man, sir. Found him on the road to Fenhei, sir, looks like a crossbow to the gizzard, sir --"
"Cut the 'sirs', lad, who is he?" The young guardsman looked disgruntled, and tried to move his face as far away from Astidu as is possible without actually moving.
"One of the men found his papers in his cart, sir. He called himself Harper."
They heard a yelp from the back of the room, and both turned to behold Asha -- pale and shaking.