21st Hematite, 222
Screams cut through the night, nearly hiding the roar of the flames beneath their noise. Kiume galloped towards them. This was not Shadytrails, he knew that. This was where he went wherever he doubted himself, whenever someone reminded him of the lives he was responsible for. This was the place of fear. This was home, once. The relic weapon that his family had presented him a week ago to mark his first scouting command lay in the dust behind him, abandoned. His father had taught him that it was the greatest dishonour to drop your weapon, for it had been used by hundreds of ancestors before you. Kiume knew this, but his father's fury was a distant fear, barely remembered in the panic that engulfed his thoughts. In his mind, the screams became accusations. He should have found incoming threats to the tribe and alerted them in time to respond. He had been in charge. He had failed.
Kiume's eyes snapped open, his breathing still heavy after the training he had been forcing himself through since dawn. The sun had started to dip towards the horizon now, yet he was certain of two things. The first was that he hadn't done enough to prevent his history from repeating itself. The second was that he was going to drive himself insane following the path he was on.
This was a new thought for the zebra. Ever since he'd met up with a group heading to create a new settlement and decided to join them, he'd trained near-incessantly. But as far as he could recall, he'd barely talked to any of them since then aside from a few brief commands or tips to other soldiers. One of the recruits had smiled at him the other day though, after a particularly grueling workout. It was so long since Kiume had done that, it was nearly an alien gesture.
He sighed, stowed his equipment on a rack, and left the barracks. He could feel some of the tension leaving his body as he walked through the evening glow. Perhaps even deciding to attempt to fix his mess of a life was helpful in its own way, Kiume thought, knocking gently on the door of Isolde's home. The griffon's eyes widened slightly when she saw him, then she gave what Kiume thought was a smile. He wasn't much good at reading avian features yet.
"Kiume!" she said, a slight hint of worry in her voice. "Is something wrong?"
"Everything's good as far as I can see," Kiume assured her. "I just wanted to talk about the military."
"Ah, of course," she nodded, opening the door and gesturing him inside. "Do you need more recruits? Is your equipment up to standard?"
"Our numbers and equipment are both very fine," the zebra said, shifting uncomfortably. "The problem is... well, I wish to resign."
Isolde looked at him for a moment, then gently asked "Kiume, is everything ok with you?"
"Absolutely," he lied. "I've just never been in charge before, it's turning out to be quite a chore. Since I came here my conversational skills have become very rusted, I'm sure the others would prefer their leader to be someone they trusted."
"Well, I can't force you to stay in charge if you think there are better candidates," Isolde said, shifting her wings. "I'll try to find a replacement. In the meantime, I hope you'll mingle a bit more with the rest of us? Some of us have barely seen you when there's nothing to fight."
Kiume's mouth twitched. It looked like something that might develop into a smile if it didn't have something weighing it down. "I'll speak to anyone that I can find and let them know what's on my mind," he promised, opening the door. Perhaps with someone else giving the orders, he'd be able to move on from the ones in the past.
The day after Kiume’s resignation, Isolde takes it upon herself to quickly get this lapse in leadership resolved. There weren’t exactly a lot of choices to be had so she pretty much already knew what she wanted to happen, but it wouldn’t do to make a decision about this without consulting the other guards first.
It was still early afternoon when she sets out toward the training grounds past the foundation of the guardhouse, hoping to find everyone present. Hopefully this distraction from their schedule wouldn’t disrupt things too badly.
Fargo would be sitting at the training ground, sharpening his weapon as the rest trained. He really didn’t care much for this part of the job and much rather be out on patrol actually keeping people safe and doing his job. He’d then get up once he saw Isolde walking towards the grounds, wondering what she had to talk about.
Shooting Star was on the look-out, as always. And spotted the Lady coming over and thought that maybe she wanted to talk. So she brought her cloud down low , almost landing it next to Fargo before hopping off of her impromptu watchtower to face the Griffoness. “My lady.” She greets with a friendly pony smile.
Oh, good, the two Isolde was hoping to speak with were there and it seemed that Kiume and Lucky were nowhere to be seen. Out on patrol maybe. She waves to them and stops just short. “Good afternoon you two. I hope I’m not interrupting, but there’s something I needed to speak with you about.”
“Trust me, it is of no concern. Neither of us were busy.” He was curious as to why she chose to come out here though. This wasn’t normal. “Regardless, is something the matter? Are we needed for something?”
“Nobody’s in trouble, I hope?” Shooting Star added her concern as well.
Isolde waves off Shooting Star’s concerns. “No, no, nothing to worry about. It just seems that we might need to have a bit of a restructuring of the guard here due to… unforeseen circumstances.” She chances a glance back to the shelter, pondering if this should be more private. “Have either of you spoken to Kiume recently about any concerns he’s had about being in charge?”
“‘I’m afraid I’ve not spoken to him about such things.” He raised an eyebrow as he tried to make sense of the situation. “Why is that of importance though?” If it was because of what he thought it was then Fargo would be particularly interested.
“I don’t think Kiume have talked to us much. If at all. I thought he’s just being quiet? did he have a problem?” Shooting Star asked with even more concern.
Isolde sighs. “Yes and no.” She points back toward the shelter. “We should probably continue this in a slightly more private location, if you don’t mind?”
“I don’t mind at all.” He said, before waiting for Shooting to reply.
“Not a problem.” Shooting Star replied afterwards.
“Thanks, come with me then.” Isolde leads the two back toward the shelter, whereupon she goes to verify that it was empty so they could have this discussion in private.
As the door opens, it reveals a certain unicorn that had been late to the meeting. She doesn’t seem to immediately recognize the group, backing up. “Uh… Sorry…” Lucky mumbles.
Fargo was rather surprised to run into her here, but decided not to get at her for being at the shelter instead of patrolling or something. “Good that you're here, we’re about to talk about something regarding the way we’re running the guard.”
Lucky suddenly jerks to full awareness at hearing Fargo. “Damnit…” She mumbles to herself. “Uh… Yeah!” She quickly springs to attention. “Apologies for the uh… Wait. I thought I uh… Heard something here and went to look.”
Lucky’s diligence wasn’t at question here, so Isolde decides that whoever got the position after this discussion could deal with that. “Don’t worry about it. This does concern you too, so come join us, please.” She motions to the seats across from her usual seat at the table that she’d been using as a temporary office.
Shooting Star trots over to one of the empty seats and climbs onto it, settling down and getting ready to hear what’s up.
Fargo took a seat as well, and rested his halberd on the ground next to the table. He’d then wait for Isolde to inform them about what’s going on.
Lucky trots over to the area, however she chooses to stand, choosing to stand a bit to the side, facing Isolde. “I assume something is wrong?”
“It’s nothing urgent or vital at the moment, but in a sense, yes.” Isolde sits back and crosses her hindlegs. “Yesterday, Kiume approached me and expressed his desire to resign as captain of the guard.”
Shooting Star tilted her head, confused. “Did he say why?” she asked.
Lucky quickly nods, staying silent.
Fargo got a big smile on his face before he realized it. He’d then go back to a more stoic look. “Oh... so I take it you’re needing someone to fill his place, eh?” He liked where this conversation was going.
The griffoness nods back to Fargo. “He’ll need a replacement as soon as possible, yes. I’d hoped to get some guidance on that now.” To Shooting Star she says, “He was a bit vague about it, but the impression I got is that he simply no longer felt comfortable trying to be a leader. He wants to remain in the guard, but not in a position of authority. In truth, I believe he’s felt uncomfortable about it the entire time he has been here, so I don’t think it’s anything that happened recently that brought this on.”
Lucky nods again. “I’ve heard of his resignation from leading. I suppose you’ll be needing someone with… Experience?”
“There are a few factors I’m going to consider, and that’s one of them, yes,” Isolde confirms.
Shooting Star adjusts her seatings, perking up at the thought, having caught on the conversation already. “What’s the other factors?” she asked.
“I’m not going to rule anyone out completely, but… ‘existing loyalties’ might be a problem,” Isolde says, hoping Lucky would get the hint. “I’d also rather not have a repeat of this problem if I can help it, so if any of you aren’t interested in it then please say so now.” She’d be fairly surprised if any flat out rejected the position since in her experience almost everyone was ready to grasp at power if given a chance.
Fargo didn’t say a word. He was indeed still planning on leaving as far as Isolde knew, so that might be surprise.
Lucky chuckles, ignoring any implications from Isolde’s speech. “I’d be happy to take over.” She pauses for a moment before continuing. “That was a joke. Whatever you decide to do.”
“Well, I’d be happy if the ladyship would entrust the responsibility and duty to me. And that’s not a joke.” Lucky built that up so well Shooting Star simply had to pounce it.
“I’ve eight years as a soldier and eight as a guard my profession.” He said plainly. Regardless of what he said though, it’s not like he had any proof to back up his claim even if it was true.
Isolde nods. That was two possible takers then, which had reasonable credentials. “Naturally, since Shooting Star has been here for the longest and because we’ve already verified her history I’m keen to favor her here.” She turns her attention to the mare in question. “Although… I don’t think you have as much experience. Do either of you have leadership experience?”
“I’ve limited experience as a leader, but I do think I could make a decent one.” Fargo then looked over to Lucky, and forced himself to speak a little more. “You could ask Lucky to be honest about if I’m competent as a leader from our time on the road with the migrants.” He was going to regret this, but in the end it’s not like this could do much harm. best case scenario she doesn't screw him over.
Lucky chuckled. “The big bad griffon’s trusting me to be honest?” She paused for a moment before continuing. “On a more serious note, it’s debateable. Seeing as, in my knowledge, he put a military logistics officer in a full time guard position without prior knowledge of her skills while also neglecting to speak with his guardsmen, I’d say it’d be my recommendation to consider him only if there are no other options.” She explained, being as honest as she could, smirking slightly as she finishes up.
“She was hired separately by the migrants and I had no say in her appointment. I had to hold her hand like a father does a toddler through the bad side of town.” He tried not to snap at her, but muttered “Her with a sword is like a two year old running with scissors.”
“I just would like to bring up that I had no idea their alcohol in the pub was that strong.” Lucky replied, almost trying to one up Fargo. “Apologies for the interruption, Miss Isolde.”
Shooting Star watches the exchange between the two who she assumed to be lovers, does a little shrug, turns back to Isolde and says “I’ve been a corporal and was assigned to lead the recon squad in our platoon.”
The passive-aggressive arguing between the two was definitely cementing Isolde’s decision here. Already she could tell that giving the position to Fargo would result in endless complaints from Lucky and she might even be openly defiant of his authority. As if she held any loyalty to them anyway. Isolde holds a talon to her temple and frowns. “No experience in a commissioned officer’s position, but it’s better than nothing.” She rubs her temple a bit. “In that case, I think that barring new information, I’d like for Shooting Star to take over. At least on a trial basis.”
The griffoness looks back up to them. “If it turns out you don’t want to command after all, or if it’s not working out for some reason or another, then Fargo can take over. He’ll be second in command for now.”
Lucky simply sighs, staying quiet to avoid anymore arguments with Fargo.
Fargo frowned for a moment. “Very well. This is for the best. I’d just like to let you know that if I were to be given captain, by first recommendation would be to take away Lucky’s position before she gets another pony killed.” He said, before standing up from the table with a fake smile on his face and picking up his weapon. “Eh, again it is for the best I didn’t get the rank though. This way when one of your ponies is bleeding out, it won’t be my fault. It never is.” He said, before turning around and starting to walk off. “I’m sure you can handle the rest with the new captain.”
Isolde taps a talon on the desk, considering whether she should try to say anything to put some sugar on Fargo’s sour grapes, but decides that it’s likely to be something he was going to have to work out on his own. Instead, she says to the ponies and griffon gathered, “Remember, I may not strictly be in the chain of command here, but I do expect you all to remain professional and obey your superiors.” Her eyes flick to Lucky again in particular for a moment.
Lucky sighs, nodding. “I understand Miss Isolde, however some ponies and or griffons here are… Less than tolerable. ‘Twould be a shame to not be able to respond to their oh so clever comments. I leave my comments in this professional setting at that.”
He stopped for a moment, and banged the end of his halberd on the ground. “If you have anything else to say, we can bring this outside my dear and we can settle this like adults.” He turned around for a moment and looked Isolde in the eye. “This is of course if duels are legal here, eh?” It wasn’t clear if he serious or not, but regardless he started to walk out again before Isolde replied.
“They’re not,” Isolde insists, loud enough that he could hear her no matter how far he might have walked. More and more she’s sure she made the right choice here. “I do recommend you all behave like adults though.”
Lucky chuckled nervously, nodding. “Hehe… Ah… Yes. Boys… Acting all tough, ‘Rawr I’m strong, mate with me’.” She said, obviously frightened by Fargo’s display.
“Well.. I was going to say that as long as everybody does as their responsibilities requires of them, then nopony should be bleeding out any time soon. But now I really can’t help but suggest that you two get a room already.” Shooting Star said, unable to help joining in on the foalishness fun and failed to stifle a little giggle.
Fargo kept walking out, and right as he reached the door he heard lucky make the comment. That damned mare knew exactly how to hit his buttons and get the right reaction out of him. He even knew she was doing it at this point. He took a deep breath, and slowly opened the door. He’d then hold there for the next couple of moments. “I’m too old for this.” He muttered under his breath, “She says this stuff to me, and cuts like a knife.” He said, this time louder, enough for them to hear. before stepping outside and taking another deep breath and closing the door behind him.
The old bird knew he made the right choice to take the loss walk out of the building. He’d made a fool out of himself, and everything he did made it worse. He’d tried not to explode at the mare for months and here he did at the worst possible moment. Even worse he let her have the last word, and it was the one thing that made him more angry than any other. He’d been played, insulted, and couldn’t do a thing now.
No, Isolde was going to have the last word here. “Lucky, I’m very serious about everyone acting like adults here. I’m willing to accept you in this town and even trust you to work with the guards, but only if you can work with them. I expect this won’t become a recurring issue.”
Lucky nods, still a bit shaken however. “Yes ma’am. I apologize for my personal matters getting in the way of this… My associate is grating on the nerves.” The unicorn explains, returning to a professional tone after her outburst. “I may not have had the best judgement there and I apologize.”
The griffon nods. “Thank you. I hope the two of you can learn to get along a bit better in the future.” A brief silence falls, which she breaks with, “If there are no other concerns, then you can get back to what you were doing. Kiume is still in charge for today, but I’ll follow up with him on when to transfer command to Shooting Star.”
“I hope that he’ll rest easier tonight. I’ve always wondered why the poor Zebra always looked so tense..” Shooting Star said sympathetically.
“So do I,” Isolde agrees. “Remember, if you feel like you can’t handle it either then I can find someone else. I know it’s not what you signed up for.”
“I’ll try my best until then!” Shooting Star beamed brightly and salutes.
Isolde uncrosses her legs and picks up a quill. “Thank you. You can all get back to work then, and I’ll let you know if anything changes.”
After the talk with Isolde and her promotion, Shooting Star head out to find the Griffon that had stomped off earlier.
Fargo was doing the same. He felt like he needed to talk with shooting star about things as well, and at least explain himself and apologize.
With the two of them looking for each others, it didn’t take long until they ran into each other. Shooting Star perk her ears when she spots the Griffon and waves. “Fargo! Over here!’
The Griffon looked over to shooting star before starting to walk over to her. “Eh, I was looking for you.”
“I was looking for you too! Are you okay today?” She asked with concern.
He made a sigh. “I was alright, until the talk.” He was frowning, and wasn’t trying very hard to hide how he was feeling. “I’d still like to apologize though, for how things went down.”
“You really don’t have to, you’ve got it pretty bad it there.” She commented.
“You know eh... I was getting up to leave because I wanted to get out before things between me and lucky got to dramatic.” He then made a small groan and looked away from shooting star. “Made things worse though.”
“You were challenging her to duel.” Shooting Star pointed out.
“I wanted to shut her up. I know she hasn’t the honor or the courage to actually except such a thing, and even if she did I’d have disarmed her in a few seconds and let her walk away. She’s about as capable with a weapon as a toddler running around with scissors.” He didn’t actually know how competent she was, but he assumed she wasn’t much so.
“Then what’s she doing with a weapon?” The Mare asked questioningly.
“I do not know. I tend to avoid asking her too much, or conversation in general with her.”
“You know, at first I thought you two were feuding lovers. It were kind of cute.” Shooting Star said, giggling a little.
He groaned again and tried not to seem a little angry that she thought that, even though he was.”Eh... eh... yeah, no, I would never even think of romance with someone like her.” He paused for a moment and tried to change the topic. “You know, when I said she’d gotten someone killed before I was serious.”
That had gotten the mare’s attention. “Oh? please do tell me more.”
“When me and her were protecting the migrants coming here, one of them died when he walked away from the group when we were resting. It was her shift after I’d been awake for far longer than I should because she couldn’t be bothered to do her job and I had to be her foreman. Anyways, an hour or so into her shift her armor bearer got ambushed and she lost all of her gear aside from a sword when all she had to do was make sure everyone kept together.”
Shooting Star’s eyes widen as she gasps from the tales. “That’s horrible! how’d the armor bearer even get ambushed anyway?”
“He was a little distance away from where we set up camp. He got pounced upon when he was away from everyone and we only had lucky on guard. We couldn’t watch everywhere and whoever attacked him must of been following us and been prepared and waiting for an opportunity.”
The mare frowned. “Did he at least get a proper burial?” She asked.
Fargo frowned as well. “Eh... we chose to run out of the area as quickly as we could. We had no idea if whoever killed him would come back or if whoever did it had numbers. I wasn’t going to run the chance of someone else getting killed for the sake of a ceremony.”
“Well, do you at least remember his name to make a memorial slate for him?” Moonlight asked further.
“You’d need to ask lucky for his name. I do not know if a slab was made.”
“Hmm.. we should go ask Lucky sometimes. It doesn’t feel right to leave a poor stallion ro rot out there without even a memorial.”
“Yes... regardless though, I doubt she’s seen too it that a memorial was made even though she knew him better than anyone else in the group. She seemed to see the poor sap with little regard and showed more grief at the loss of her armor than at the loss of a life under her protection.”
“That’s.. that’s just wrong..” Shooting Star sighed.
“She even said that it was likely even inevitable that someone would die on the road. Like, walking from town to town is some great exodus. Hell, if that were the case she could have at least done her job and taken the arrow in place of her servant. But no, she has no respect for her job. You saw her in the meeting hall today? she sleeps on the job, goes AWOL, and disrespects her coworkers when she’s supposed to the only thing out here between someone and a bandit.”
“Are you sure that she isn’t a bandit herself?” Shooting Star asked suspiciously.
“No, she’s a mercenary. Which barely any better, but still... she’s not going to attack us at least.”
“Right.. I just hope we can count on her when things goes down and we really need ponies with pointy stuff to drive back something more than a few badgers..” Shooting Star hmpf’d.
“Did you know, I’ve been keeping her from slacking off? I try to make sure she stays up during night shifts, nagging at her trying to keep her from going and doing something else when she should be on duty. It’s okay though because she makes sure to repay the nagging by constantly insulting me.”
“Why don’t you make her do the morning shift instead and you do the night shift? Your eyes are probably better than a pony’s at night anyway.” Shooting Star suggests.
“Because, I can’t do the night shift every night or else I’ll be falling asleep during the day... regardless though, you need to make her work and do her job, or tell her she’s going to lose her job.” He couldn’t do it himself. Without a rank above lucky his corrections to her were just annoyances as opposed to orders. “She’s going to get someone hurt if you don’t.”
“No no, you do the night shifts, and sleep during the day, Lucky and Kiume can do the morning shift and I can take over the afternoon shift. Each one of us will be doing their shift for 9 hours a day, which will overlaps. And then we’ll have the rest of the day free to help out around the town, sleep or whatever we want. Of course I’ll have to make sure Lucky doesn’t naps during her shifts.” Shooting Star explains.
“Alrighty. We should still have our gear on or around us though when we aren’t sleeping and are off duty, though.”
“Yeah, I agree.” Shooting Star nods to that.
Fargo nodded before looking away for a moment, before looking back at shooting star. “I feel like I should let you know that I do feel I should have been given the promotion. I don’t have any ill thoughts of you, but please understand I’ve been doing this for years and I do my job best when I have few people telling me how to do it.”
Shooting Star nods understandingly. “I have no doubts that you know how to do your job, so that’s why I feel that it’ll be safe to let you take the night shift without risk of sleeping off and allowing some thieves to sneak into our town.”
“Yes...” He said, before nodding. “Anyways, I wish you luck with your new position.”
“And I hope that you’ll enjoy your shifts, free of anypony to nag at you.” Shooting Star beams.
“Heh, I’m plan on it.” He said, chuckling a little.