[Mkguild] Earning His Stripes: Chapter II

[Mark Ewing]

Here's the second Chapter.

Chapter II

Five day later in the late evening the three of us came to a halt on a small
stone outcropping overlooking a small barren valley. Crouched in the middle
of the valley was a foreboding pile of black basalt that seemed to exude and
aura of malevolent evil that even I could detect. I turned to Misha and with
a quick flurry of gestures told him, "This will not be easy sir."

He glanced out over the barren valley floor before he concurred. "Easy
really isn't part of our job description Oberon."

I chuckled quietly and looked at Tcukendra, he could probably slip into
there much more easily than either Misha or I could because his species was
allied with the lutins. However that wasn't the cases for either Misha or
myself.

We spent the next two hours observing the fortress and its defences before I
pointed to a group of wagons coming down the road towards the castle. With
my hands I gestured to the wagons. "If we can sneak our way into that
place's supply wagons we should manage to get inside that place."

"Good thinking Oberon."

"I've done it before Misha, 'bout ten years ago."

"Experience is always the best teacher."

I nodded my head before we shuffled back from the ledge and I said, with my
hands, "We might want to wait until after night-fall before we move out."

He nodded. "For now we should stay here and observe our target to see if we
can learn anything more about it."

I nodded my head and looked out towards the castle again.

More than two hours later Misha turned to me and pointed out a group of
wagons that was making its way down the trail towards the castle. "If we
could get onto one of those wagon trains then perhaps we could get into the
castle without being spotted."

I nodded my head. "That sounds like a good plan Misha." I replied "Now we
just have to find a good place to sneak aboard." He nodded and then the
three of us slipped away from the outcropping back into the trees behind the
ledge.

I turned to Misha and gestured to him. "Perhaps we should leave our
projectile weapons here in a cache. They will only get in our way in the
castle."

Misha shook his head "I don't like to leave anything behind. Besides they
might be useful." The fox gestured in reply

"How will we manage to carry them in that case?"

Misha took his bow, and without unstringing it slung it over his head and
shoulders. "Like this." He answered.

"Well my bow is a good deal larger than yours Misha."

"All right we can cache your bow and excess gear like my sleeping bag and
most of our food. The less we have inside the better."

I nodded my head and then removed my quiver quickly pulled out the arrows
and gently wrapped them up along with my bow. I can keep my atlatl with me
since it is not over-sized and it can fling spear-darts without a sound.
Other than it I will have to rely on my knives if I need a projectile
weapon."

"In there our best tactic is to avoid a fight as much as possible. Stealth
is our best ally."

"Misha I do have some experience on assassination missions, but being
stealthy now is a little bit more challenging for me to pull off now. After
all now I am not the easiest person to forget."

"Those that we can avoid we will avoid. Those who see us we kill, as quickly
and quietly as we can. Now how are we going to get inside that place?"

"Well I was thinking that we could use one of those caravans to get us
inside. Sneak into the place inside a crate or barrel of some kind."

Misha nodded and his tail indicated to me that he was a little dubious "How
do we get into the caravan? Those caravans are notorious for being well
guarded."

"Well in my experience even the most diligent teamster, or guard has to stop
for the night at an inn or a rest stop. At that point in time they tend to
get a little in-attentive."

"That will work! All we will need is one sleepy or drunk guard."

I grinned at Misha. "We just have to be careful that we don't kill any of
the guards or teamsters. The people in the caravan will notice something
like that and become suspicious."

"Agreed. They can't even have the slightest suspicion that we are in their
caravan." The fox added.

"Therefore we must travel light and fast."

"Let's not start that argument again. Let's get our stuff cached and find
ourselves a suitable caravan to join."

"Certainly sir."

"Sir?" Misha commented.

"Well you are my commanding officer."

"Now where can we burry our stuff?"

I pointed to a prominently tall elm tree nearby with a small group of rocks
at its base. "Sir how does that look?"

"Perfect! We'll cache our things under those rocks."

"Ok so how much do we bring with us? Besides our weapons."

"Water and two day's rations. We can't afford to bring more because space in
the barrels and crates will be limited."

"Understood sir." I replied with a little flip of my tail.

We quickly dug a deep hole at the base of the tree and carefully wrapped and
place the things that we would be leaving behind. Then we refilled the hole
and very carefully camouflaged it, removing all traces that we had been
here.

When we were finished Misha stood up and brushed his hands off on his
breeches and said, "Now let's go find ourselves a caravan to attach
ourselves to."

I laughed as I carefully brushed the dirt off of my hands and stood up.

Tcukendra looked at the two of us and gave a low whining bark that
transmitted his eagerness to be off.

Misha laughed. "Now can you remember this place for me Oberon, just in case
I forget."

I nodded slowly at the other implied meaning in that phrase. "Yes sir. I
will not forget this place now."

He pointed down the hill. "The main road is that way. We can find a caravan
there if we wait."

I simply nodded my head and looked around carefully before I followed my
friend down the path towards the road.

Four hours later we approached a small caravan that had pulled up into a
clearing by the side of the road for the night.

Misha looked at me and nodded before pointing to a small group of rocks that
were perched at the edge of the clearing "We'll wait till it's really late
and the guards are tired before we sneak in and join the caravan..without
them being the wiser." He gestured to me.

"Yes sir. Now how about having something to snack on while we wait?"

"Misha nodded and settled down with his back against one of the rocks and
pulled a trail ration from his pack. "Yummy trail rations!" he exclaimed.

"I can barely contain my enthusiasm." I gestured to him as I pulled one of
my oversized trail rations out of my small assault pack.

Misha suppressed a chuckle and started eating the ration in his hands. "At
least its beef and a liberal dose of spices can make it reasonably tasty."

"Well right now it doesn't taste anything like fresh meat, and it is nowhere
near as good."

"Maybe it doesn't taste like meat because its fish." Misha pointed out, his
single remaining ear bobbing slightly in amusement.

The tip of my feline tail twitched in a amusement as I asked "Why would I
get fish when I ordered venison?"

"Well people do make mistakes Oberon, but it's a ration and they only
occasionally taste the way that they are supposed to."

I nodded my head "In any case do you have anything that will make this thing
taste a little like something that I can eat?"

Misha reached into his pack and pulled out a small leather pouch full of
small packets of various spices. "Try adding lots of spices."

"Thanks my friend." I said before I sprinkled some spices on top of the
ration.

"Beware Oberon. Those are pretty potent spices." He warned me "A little bit
will go a long way."

I chuckled quietly with my tail getting in on the action. "Oh I could show
you hot! Food in my homeland could get decidedly incendiary."

"These ARE hot. Let me explain =96 I used a pouch of those spices to
temporarily blind a warg once. The poor thing was helpless for several
minutes."

I chuckled again before I commented. "You should try Karmek'Dulong."

"What is that?" He asked "Sounds dangerous."

"Oh it is nothing really." I commented. "It is just a rather mundane looking
broth soup that some warriors eat."

"Oh sounds interesting. What's in it? Molten lava?"

"Might as well have been lava for all of the flavour that it possessed."

Misha nodded slowly his ear going back ever so slightly. "I guessed as much
when you said that it was rather mundane looking."

"I only ate it three times."

"I would never try to eat it to begin with. My father didn't raise any
fool."

"Well in fact most Kelmar foods were much simpler but a few were exercises
in bravery like Karmek'Dulong."

"Why? Eating is supposed to be enjoyable. Not something that is to be
endured." The fox asked.

"I think it is because in our culture it was the only way that a commoner
could ever be equal to a member of the Warrior Caste.

Misha's tail twitched a little as he sombrely pointed out. "I see. Well
where I grew up we had too many enemies trying to kill us to waste any time
confronting each other. In other words we all had to stick together."

"Different cultures have different cultures Misha."

"Yes. In Marigund we were always being threatened with attack by outsiders
who hated and feared us. So the result was that we always had to be ready
for an attack...from any direction."

I nodded slowly before I quietly gestured. "Well my clan was always in the
thick of things in the Clanwars back home in my homeland. We always had to
keep our eyes open for the slightest hint of treachery or deceit from our
enemies as well as our allies."

"In our case it was religious fanaticism. The followers never wanted to let
us live in peace."

"I growled low in my throat, though not loudly enough to be heard by anyone
but my companion and commander. "Those idiots have caused me no end of grief
in the past thirty years."

"Well they want to wipe the country of Marigund off of the map." The fox
answered.

I nodded slowly my tail and ears still displayed my displeasure at thinking
about those fools. "Well they tried, on more than a dozen occasions to
convert me to their crazy religion. Of course they didn't understand, and I
doubt that they ever will, that I am never going to betray the gods of my
people."

Misha shook his head vehemently. "Oberon you don't understand. I AM a
Follower. It's just that we do not use the same practices as the regular
faithful. My sect of the Followers believes in slightly different things."

I nodded slowly as I thought the matter through. Finally I gave him a
penetrating look and said, "Misha I will never let your faith in your God
make me feel about differently about you."

"I just wish the rest of the world was as open about it as you are."

"Unfortunately the world we live in is just not that way my friend, even
though we are trying to make it so." I pointed out before I peeked out from
behind the boulder that we were hiding behind.

The two guards that were facing us were leaning, with their backs to our
boulder. Their helmets were down over their eyes and they were snoring
rather loudly.

I slipped back down behind the boulder beside Misha and turned to him before
quietly gesturing, "Misha the two guards that we have to be concerned about
are currently sleeping like the dead. I suggest that we make the most of
this chance and make our way to the wagons so that we can stow away in a
container for the ride into that castle."

Misha nodded and stood up and pointed towards a nearby wagon.

"I hope they have a crate big enough for me in there."

"We'll find something." Misha said.

"I certainly hope so." I gestured before I landed on my feet between the two
sleeping guards. The leather of my harness creaked a little, but neither of
them stirred an inch.

Misha moved past the guards slowly and quietly, keeping his eyes on the
sleeping figures of the guards until we were both well past them.

I grinned at the fox with my tail before I focused on the carts that were
arrayed in front of us. Some were heavily loaded down with provisions that
were destined for the castle. The other carts looked empty and they were
headed out to retrieve more goods from the surrounding regions. "Now Misha
which one would be most suitable for you?"

Misha moved nimbly among the various boxes and barrels that weree stacked on
the wagons until he found one that was roughly the right size.

"That looks about right for you Misha, now we have to find one that I can
squeeze into."

"Try the other cart Oberon there might be something that you can squeeze
into on that one."

I nodded my head and looked at the cases on the cart until I found something
that looked just barely big enough for me to fit into. "I might fit into
this.....but it will be a very tight squeeze for me."

"Well we've really got no choice Oberon."

I nodded and transferred the crate to the cart that was going to our
destination before I looked at the crate regretfully.

Misha looked at me and said, "Now get inside and close it up, we really
haven't got all night to waste."

I climbed into the crate and looked at Misha before I replied, "Make sure
that you cover up this crate properly when I close up." With that said I
contorted my way into the tight box and closed the lid before closing my
eyes.

For a few minutes I heard Misha shifting things around before things went
quiet again.

--
Mark Ewing
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