More Training

Nat watched Varrelle literally sway off with groggy eyes. She was strange. Stretching, Nat stepped out of his tiny tent and pulled a shirt on. She was very strange and very pretty...he would have to be careful around her. Dyl clawed his way out of his tent, panting as he reached the surface. Nat sympathized with him. The tents were barely tall enough to sit up in and seemed to close in on you.

They had rejoined the main army but by that time the Siltinians had withdrawn and left the area. Scouts reported them heading back North, towards the border of Siltania. At least according to Lieutenant Stuntson. Nat handed Dyl a loaf of bread, "Good morning."
"Morning," Dyl grunted rather grumpily. He wasn't a morning person. Good thing Varrelle had given him the bread instead of Dyl. Otherwise Dyl might have scared her off with his ill-tempered attitude.
"Would you like some breakfast? Courtesy of the gracious Varrelle," Nat asked as Dyl noticed Nat eating a delicious, hot loaf of bread. Dyl quickly helped himself. Nat scratched at his brown hair and began discussing the last couple weeks. They hadn't left Surdilea and, if the Sergeant would give them Thursday off, they could go see the sights. Surdilea appeared to be nothing like Chiriath Mul. While it did have a huge wall, the wall enclosed only the inner city. The outer city was really multiple open-air markets. They were filled with all sorts of wonders and Nat had never seen a city so full of trade and so busy as Surdilea. Chiriath Mul was a fortress city. It was big and everything was designed to help defend it. Surdilea was wild with disorder compared to Chiriath Mul. The reason they hadn't been able to visit town though, was because of training. Between Sergeant Bullion and Lieutenant Stuntson, they were training all day. Bullion was perfecting their basic skills with spears and axes etc, while Stuntson focused on swordsmanship. He had even begun taking Nat out for evening practices. Just the lieutenant and Nat, fighting it out to see who was the most skilled. It was always the lieutenant but Nat noticed that he could hold his own. The Lieutenant seemed to enjoy the bouts and went so far as to tell Nat that he would make a good swordsman if he survived long enough. Nat took it as a compliment.

"Hey Dyl," Nat began. "Varrelle asked if we could go to town with her on Thursday. She says she has the day off. I guess she figures we have nothing else to do and a break from all this training would be nice...what say you?"
Dyl mulled over the question for a minute and then replied, "Well as long as it gets us out of training for a day, anything is fine with me. Well anything short of a battle. I might even welcome that to training. Bullion's hand combat techniques are quite painful..." Dyl trailed off leaving Nat to silently agree. His muscles still ached from where he had been pommeled from Bullion's fists. The man had a habit of walking up and socking you to demonstrate different hand combat techniques. Like keeping your arms in the ready position at all times and other techniques that soldiers forgot or hadn't mastered yet.

Shrugging himself into his coat, Nat headed off to go clean up for inspection. Another day of training to look forward to. Great! he thought. I wish it was Thursday already. Then maybe I could have some fun and explore town... First he had to get permission though. That didn't prove to be so hard. After inspection Nat and Dyl began their next day's worth of training while looking forward to Thursday. Only the rest of the week until their break.