<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> Here's number 7.  Took me a little longer, but I got it out.  :P -LurkingWolf _____________________________              Lois found his new decorations before going very far in his run.  In the interests of keeping good relations with his patrol partners he decided to postpone his revenge until they had returned safely to Metamor.  A little fun was still well within what his conscience would allow, so he decided to drop in on them unexpectedly.  He already knew from their equipment drop where they were going to be sleeping, so he stayed hidden for several minutes, watching the rest of his patrol as they moved around.  Alex seemed an easy target; he sat near the middle of the room, sitting on a bench while playing a solitary game with the cards he had shown Lois earlier.  As he worked on his game, Lois silently crept up to him until he was finally close enough to whisper in Alex's ear.               "Move the five onto the six."               Alex jumped noticeably, and managed to catch Lois' hand as he attempted to show his commander the move he had just described.  After a few moments of silence, Alex finally managed to say something.               "I think I'll make it a requirement for you to announce yourself whenever you enter a room," he said, voice sounding more than a little hoarse.               "That shouldn't be a problem.  By the way, thanks for the decorations."               Alex looked at him with a bit of a grin.  "Decorations?"  Lois held up the bow that had been around his tail.  "That's one decoration," Alex noted.               "Well, yes.  The other I noticed when I rubbed the back of my head a while ago.  I know I didn't have any black dye in my fur before my un, and couldn't think of where I could have gotten it.  I figured it out after finding the bow."               Alex watched as Lois circled back around the table where his cards were laid, and verified that most of the dye had been cleaned from the fur, and anything that was left was hardly recognizable as anything important.  Lois wouldn't have to use dye in the field, since his natural coloring and the color of his equipment matched the terrain so closely as it was, so this would probably be the only time on this patrol that he would be dealing with the stuff.  Well, perhaps until after the patrol; further pranks might be a good way to keep Lois off guard while Andywn planted some people on him.               A good bit of the evening was used familiarizing Lois with the card.  They played a few hands of various card games, then Alex left to tend to some final arrangements for the patrol, leaving Lois to alternate between flipping through the cards randomly, and playing solitaire games on the low table.  He moved quickly through the games, but obviously had little skill, and often gave up on an easily winnable game because of impatience.  Alex didn't note this directly, but Gerard noted these tendencies and relayed them to his commander.  It wasn't a major problem, but they had always been told to keep an eye on anything that might be an eventual weakness in the field.  Impatience could be a problem; Alex would have to watch for any sign of it in the field.               For his part, Lois was beginning to get the feel of the cards.  His impatience was based mostly on the fact that he didn't want to be staring at the same rows of cards for several minutes.  Seeing a distinct pattern of the symbols for too long would associate the pattern with the symbols, instead of with their classification.  By keeping the cards moving, he left the symbols and the suits as the only two constant things, and allowed him to associate them in his memory without interference.               Lucy was already sleeping hours before her partners.  She completely and openly realized that it was because of her reduced age, and brushed off any jokes about it.  It was the life she was forced to live, but she worked with it as well as she could, and that allowed her to keep up with her partners.               Lois slept without any trouble that night, and finally woke up when Alex gave him a firm shake.               "Rise and shine, we're out of here in ten.  Up and ready, now."  His words were somewhat harsh, but his voice was low and controlled, almost as though he was already on the patrol in the middle of lutin-infested woods.  They would be in such a state before long; Lois supposed that practicing for that eventual occurrence was not a bad thing, and so he prepared in a similar manner, quickly and quietly.               He was not the only one.  While Alex was already ready and speaking to some high-ranking member of Outpost just outside of the room, Gerard and Lucy were still in the room, preparing without making a sound beyond the unavoidable creaking of leather and ringing of settling mail.  Gerard was the first one ready, finishing his preparation by strapping his massive sword across his back and checking it to make sure it was in good position for a rapid draw in the field.  He left through the door, leaving Lucy and Lois to finish their preparation.               Alex had not been joking when he told Lois that they were going in ten minutes.  It took him about five minutes to finish preparing, and the rest of the patrol was ready to move by the time he left the door.  After ten minutes, they were already walking down the main road that led to their exit gate.  They headed through the east gate, following the road for a few miles before they once again left the beaten path.               "This is probably the last time we'll be on an actual road for a while; what few good paths exist north of the Dike we will be religiously avoiding," Gerard noted quietly.  "Get used to the underbrush; it will be your path and your best friend for the next couple of weeks.  Get ready; this is not friendly terrain."               The patrol cut through the forest, going more slowly now than they had traveled earlier.  Alex was clearly being more cautious now that they were beyond the Keep's immediate vicinity.  They were still technically within the Keep's sphere of influence, but Alex knew that lutins were pretty common in the area, and he had no desire to announce their presence before they had to.  If they could avoid lutins on this side of the Dike completely, he would not be disappointed.               Early afternoon found the patrol within sight of the Dike.  Every now and then, they could see glimpses of the ruins through the trees.  The trees stopped short of the area by design, giving any defenders the advantage of a wide open area in which they could see an enemy advance.  With the fall of the wall, however, there were no regular defenders about to take advantage of this fact.  Still, Alex called a short while they were still well within the trees.               "We'll wait here for a little while; the Dike has plenty of places where someone could hide out and try to stop us, so we're going to wait for dark to make our crossing.  For now we take some rest, get some food, and do a little bit of preliminary surveillance.  Gerard and I will be doing most of the scouting when the time come; you'll be coming with us for part of the way so we can cross if the opportunity arises, or to reinforce if either of us are engaged."               Several hours were spent in their position.  Everyone watched as the sun dropped in the sky, slowly dipping farther and farther.  The trees on the other side of the main path began to cast long shadows, until much of the main path was obscured by their shade.  Alex watched until he felt comfortable, then motioned for the rest of his patrol to follow as he finally moved out of the forest's cover.  For the first few minutes after they left the tree line, it seemed as though the cover followed them.  The long shadows fell, deep enough to give them satisfactory cover until a few feet short of the Dike itself.  As they reached the border of this shadowed area, Alex motioned for Lois and Lucy to stay back in a slight decline in the terrain.  He and Gerard moved up into the light silently, and soon had reached the wall.               For some time they both disappeared into the ruins, each exploring different passages.  Alex disappeared first, checking the other side of the Dike, then Gerard stepped out of view.  Lois stayed prone, watching to see if any flares were set off; beside him, Lucy kept her eyes just barely high enough to see the wall.  To anyone on the walls, she would disappear into the terrain because of her posture.               As they waited, the long shadows lengthened even more until the surrounding terrain began to fall into similar shade as the sun fell out of sight a little bit at a time.  Soon, the sun itself would be completely hidden, and they would have only a little while longer until the entire ridge was covered in darkness.  Just before the sun disappeared, however, Gerard and Alex appeared beside the wall, their silhouettes signaling for the others to move up.  Lois and Lucy wasted no time, and they had soon rejoined their commander at a breach in the wall.               "We're in the clear.  Let's go," Alex whispered.               No one had any argument; before the fading light had disappeared, they were entering the forest on the opposite side of the Giant's Dike, ready to begin their mission in earnest.  It took them about another hour before they found a good campsite, and everything was set up quickly and efficiently for the night.               "Lois."  The ermine turned as he heard his commander's voice, and saw the lynx looking at him, with that peculiar fire that felines possessed at night.  "I want you to take first watch.  Gerard will come and relieve you in a few hours.  Good luck, and good night."               "Yes, sir," Lois responded, voice barely audible.  He wasted no time finding a good post, and had settled in before the rest of the patrol was ready to rest.  He spent the rest of his shift letting eyes and ears work together through the darkness.  He found that it was very easy to carry out his responsibilities.  His form had improved his vision in the dark, and his hearing was wonderful at picking up and interpreting sounds quickly.  He had no doubt that anyone that tried to enter the camp would be caught.  It was just another one of those odd things that came with the territory; one of the strange blessings of the Curse. !DSPAM:4df1b336242341804284693! </body> </html>