The small group of boys had become the talk of the barracks. Their exploits in the depths

of the wild forest of Coranan would be repeated for many nights to come, to the

astonished crowd of eager listeners. They told of how Senior Legionnaire Polus had been

ripped apart by the huge bear and how it had stalked them wherever they fled and the

almighty battle that ensued once it had finally caught up with them. Each boy had his

own spin on the story but was soon corrected by the others if they started to exaggerate a

little too much. It was a good time for this small band of adventurers; they laughed and

joked about how lucky they were not to have been killed.

As things started to get back to what had become normal, Grunth and the rest of the

group realized that they still had a long way to go to becoming a Legionnaire. Weeks of

basic training and exercise had passed by before they had even picked up a weapon again,

but this time it wasn’t to cut down trees or slash bushes with, it was what Grunth had

been waiting for, real weapons training. “Swing your sword like this, thrust that spear

here, throw that javelin over there, now this is more like it” Grunth thought to himself as

he practiced his sword work on a straw dummy. The months just flew by as Grunth

perfected his fighting skill with the Legion weapons; he couldn’t wait until the day that

he could use these skills in a real battle.

One day, during morning call, all of the recruits were told that they were to accompany a

cart (that was being brought into the square as the Captain spoke) to the town of Ostenor

and then on to Fort Helost. “All of us to guard one lousy cart, there must be something

pretty valuable in those boxes” Grunth whispered to Sylud as the cart was loaded up,

“Must be the payroll” Sylud whispered back. Grunth noticed a funny gleam in Sylud’s

eye when he stated that. As they headed out of the city, the Red Guard that had been

escorting the company of cadets had stopped at the gates of the city. Then they

proceeded to the first stop on their journey, Ostenor. Grunth was given the laborious task

of Oxen handler, something he had thought he left behind on the farm, grumbling to

himself, he did his job like a good Legionnaire should.

Three days later, they arrived at the town of Ostenor around mid-day. Dirty and travel

worn from the long journey, the weary company was looking forward to a decent nights

sleep. After the cart had been unloaded, Grunth unhitched the Ox and led it to the stables

where an Ostler was cleaning up. “Stick im’ in da end stall” the man instructed Grunth.

He struck up a conversion with the man, asking him what had happened in the last few

weeks before the group arrived, “Nuffin’ much, same ole’, same ole’” he replied, so,

leaving him to his job, Grunth thanked him and left.

Once he arrived back with the group, they were all ordered to take up perimeter guard

duty. A table and chair were bought out and set up to accommodate a Sergeant who

carried out one of the boxes. The soldiers in the Keep were receiving their quarterly pay

and were eager to spend it. Later that evening, after resting and cleaning themselves up,

Grunth and Sylud were treated to a game of Two-ups with a small group of soldiers.

Having no pennies to play with, Grunth decided to watch from the background, “Hey,

ewes’ want a drink?” a soldier invited the boys. Not one to turn down a free drink,

Grunth accepted the gracious offer and drank the refreshing liquid. A few hours later,

finding no way to out do the soldiers, Sylud left the game only a couple of pennies richer

and so Grunth thanked the men for the drinks then decided to call it a night as well. A

few hours before dawn, Grunth and the rest of the group were awakening from their

slumber for guard duty. Daybreak, saw the whole company preparing for the trip to Fort

Helost, a days travel from Ostenor.

After the long days trek, they arrived at Fort Helost and once again the group were

ordered to stand guard whilst the garrison were paid their wages, but that was all the

guard duty they had to do for the day, for it was their night off. Staking the Ox to a pole

in a grassy field before returning to help with the pitching of the tent, Grunth found that

he had a few hours spare, so both he and Lothar asked Nico if he could continue his

teachings of the written word. “After I have cleaned my armour and weapons, I will be

ready to continue your lessons” Nico replied. “Good thinking comrade, I think I’ll join

you” responded Lothar. Grunth left the two men to their cleaning while he and Sylud

went to see what kind of trouble they could get themselves into in this pokey village.

“Ahh, Orr, my balls are aching” moaned Sylud, “If I don’t get me a bit of crumpet soon,

they’ll explode”, “Mmmm, sumfin’ smells nice, might get me sumfin’ to eat as well” he

added.

The duo tracked down where the aroma was coming from, a shabby little shack on the

edge of town. A soldier walked out of the shack doing up his tunic, he walked past the

two boys and said, “She’s got what ails you boys, Ha ha ha”. In the doorway stood an

aging woman who called out “Are you boys hungry or are ya just looking for sumfin to

eat, eh?”, “Both” replied Sylud. Grunth looked the old lady over a couple of times and

whispered to Sylud “No way man, not me, she’s older than my ma”. “Three pennies

love, a penny for the pie and two for the ride, sonny” proposed the woman. Waiting for

Sylud outside, Grunth could hear everything that was going on inside and decided to have

a peep through the window. He wasn’t there long, when surprisingly Sylud jumped out

of bed and headed for the door. Thinking his comrade had seen him, Grunth quickly ran

back to the front door and saw Sylud walk out with a large pie and an even larger smile

on his face. “All done eh? lets head back” Grunth said as Sylud started gnawing at his

pie. Upon returning to the campsite, Grunth meet up with Nico and Lothar, who were

just finishing preparing for Nico’s literary lesson.

Just before dusk, the boys readied themselves for last call and then a good night’s rest.

By the breaking of dawn, the whole company was ready to take their leave from Fort

Helost. A full days march brought them back once again to Ostenor, but this time

Captain Ostardas did not order them to break for the night. Instead, they continued on for

a couple more hours, until it was almost days end, and then were ordered to make camp.

Night was already upon them by the time they had finished. The boys grabbed a quick

meal and an early night so they could be refreshed for their turn on guard duty. Their

watch came and went without incident, except for the Senior Legionnaire checking in on

them halfway through their watch.

It seemed like Grunth had only put his head down, when he was roused from his sleep by

loud yelling and cursing. By the time he reached the stand-to line, he could see why

Captain Ostardas was screaming. Someone had broken into the payroll boxes and

disappeared with all the money. Of the three men who were on guard duty after Grunth’s

rotation, two remained. “A hundred pennies to the man who finds the culprit” the

Captain barked. “You four”, he indicated to the boys in the group “You managed to

track down the last runaway, go find that money”. “We’ll check the perimeter fence to

see where he got out” Lothar stated.

After a thorough search, the group found nothing, not a track or a single scrap of

evidence that showed where he had escaped. “Maybe we’ll find his tracks on the

outside” Grunth suggested. Making a small hole in the fence, the group made their way

through to the outer perimeter and after another extensive search, again they came up

with nothing. While the others continued the search, Grunth decided to interrogate the

two remaining cadets, for he felt that they must know something. Both of them denied

either seeing or hearing anything. Grunth had misgivings about the tale these two were

spinning but couldn’t prove it. Arriving back to the group, Grunth could over hear

Lothar asking the Sergeant “Why don’t we check the ground, he must still be here…”

“Don’t be stupid lad, the boy is one of dem crims, he’s just run off wif da loot, dat’s all”

Sergeant Gelak barked back. A couple of hours had passed, Captain Ostardas was going

crazy by this time, so the boys tried their luck on the road just outside the encampment

with what tracking skills they had, once again they came up with nothing. By the time

they had finished, the rest of company had torn down the camp and were ready for

departure.

As a last resort Lothar approached Captain Ostardas and put the same question to him as

he had to Sergeant Gelak. “Your joking aren’t you, if you want to go digging around in

the dirt like a pig, be my guest, Cadet Dickhead” he screamed at Lothar. Undeterred,

Lothar went about his task and had been digging only a few inches when he discovered

the corpse of the missing cadet along with the missing box of pennies. Seeing this, the

two boys who had been on guard duty with the victim separated and ran in different

directions, but to no avail. One was skewered in the side with a spear from Sylud as he

tried to run pass him, Grunth kicked the other in the groin as he tried to get away.

“String them up Sergeant Gelak” the Captain ordered. “ I’ll help, sir” Grunth chimed in.

After both of them were strung up, Grunth hung off each one’s legs to make sure that

they were good and dead, after all the trouble they put the group through he wanted to

make double sure. On the march back to Coranan again, Grunth thought to himself “If

this is what happens every time we come out, he couldn’t wait until next time”.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Next Story.

Written By: Gerard Saunders (a.k.a Grunth of Callon)