Excerpt: The Captain of the Dammed

Chapter 27: Nov 25, 2008

“So this time, you didn’t go charging off like an idiot?”
He did not exactly agree with his Aunt’s phrasing of the situation but he nodded his head, “Yes, I recognized the thief, she was dressed differently but I recognized her. And, I didn’t go chasing after her. I wanted to but I didn’t.”
“Well, at least you learned something. So how was she dressed?”
“How was she dressed?”
“She was wearing clothes when you saw her, again. What kind and type of clothes were they and what colour?”
“Uh, they were clothes. They weren’t a uniform.”
“Ugh, men, you can go to great lengths talking on the differences between a and but you can’t describe the difference between one pair of sandals and the next. How were her clothes not a uniform?”
“Well, she was wearing a dress, like women wear. And a scarf! She had a scarf covering her head; so, I just caught a glance of her face before she turned away.”
“A dress? What kind of dress?”
“I don’t know. It was brownish red with yellow.”
“Brownish red with yellow spots, stripes, diamonds, top, bottom?”
“I don’t know. I don’t remember.”
Greatfully, he spotted Falchor arriving from checking on the troops to see how their work in building new sandals for themselves had gone.
“So, Mel, what did I miss?”
“The Captain, here, was proving that he is a credit to your male species.”
Falchor seeing the expression on his Aunt put on a big grin and decided to proceed with caution.
“So, what kind of trouble has our Captain been up to?”
“I haven’t done anything.”
“No, he hasn’t done anything. In one afternoon, he has managed to obtain an almost worthless mount, brought back a drunken stray, gotten us several baskets of hard bread but not a drop of meat, and a few bolts of cloth. Oh, and he spotted his friend the thief again but can’t tell me if she was dressed like a Queen or an Alley Girl.” The last sentence was directed at Torrin.
He blushed under her gaze.
Falchor spent several seconds processing this information. He then glanced around where Torrin and Mellilian were seated on a reed mat. He spotted the mule. He then looked at the lump of rags beside a small pool of red and black blood mixed with dry heaves. He then looked at the several baskets and bolts of cloth.
“Well, we have been busy. Does that find mount of yours, Captain, have a name?”
“Roccic.”
“Roccic? Rock? I hope that refers to the mule’s sturdiness and not its stubbornness.”
“It was either a mule or a scroot worm and personally, I preferred the mule.”
“Well, I guess we won’t have to worry on you turning tail and riding quickly away.” Falchor then raised his hand to stop his retort at the idea of him turning cowardice. “I was just joking, Captain. Now, who’s this drunken stray that you’ve brought back?”
“That’s Panitor. He’s the mage that was with me in the Fourth Scout Company at the battle in Whitec Pass.”
“That’s him? He sure doesn’t look good. I thought he was part of the Magi Corp. You didn’t just go and kidnap him?”
“I found him nearly passed out in a cafe sprouting non-sense of how I was dead and he’d tried to kill himself twice already.”
“That can’t be good. Either he’s a deserter or he’s been drummed out of the corp. Likely, he’s been getting some of the same blame you have Captain for the death of your father.”
“How was he to know the consequences of the flooding of the pass?”
“I’m just saying that people tend to feel the need to blame someone. People probably felt he was already drinking himself to death; so, they didn’t need to do much more to get rid of him.”
While Falchor was going over the mule and Panitor, his Aunt sat quietly fuming.
“Are you done discussing the moon, the weather, and the stars?” his Aunt demanded.
“Sorry, Mel...”
“That’s Mellillian to you. Only people that care call me Mel.”
Falchor stopped and choose his next words carefully.
“Okay, I’m sorry. So, how has our Captain been showing he is a credit to male kind?”
Torrin noticed the nice side step of not using either Mel or Mellilian. Using Mellilian was an obvious trap to be turned to say that the user did not care. Still, he had to think that he would likely have fallen for that trap in the heat of the moment.
“Like most of his apish kind, he can’t tell if a woman was clothed or naked.”
“I can tell that much!”
He wanted to say more but one glance from his Aunt silenced him.
“She’s right Captain. A Captain in the field needs to be able to spot the small details. You have to see whether a person’s equipment is bright and shiny because it is brand new and never used or if it is bright and shiny because it is well cared for. It is the little differences that will tell you if you’re facing a veteran or a raw recruit.”
“I’ve been taught to do that. I was number two in the Academy.”
“Just because you’ve been taught something doesn’t mean that you know how and when to use it. For example, Mel here was wearing a white dress that came to just above her ankles. The dress had a print of dolphins playing with mermaids along the edges. The belt was leather with two pearls in the clasp. It hung from her left shoulder. She had a long scarf used as a wrap that she had wound around her right arm. Her sandals had two cross straps and an ankle chain made out of silver. Her necklace was silver with a picture of...”
“That’s enough Fal. You’ve proved your point.”
“When was this?”
“Never you mind, nephew. It was a long time ago when we were much more foolish.”
He was going to ask more details of the puzzling relationship between his sergeants but Falchor made a slight motion warning him off.
“So, Captain, what woman have you been chasing that you can’t remember her clothes?”
“I didn’t chase her, this time. It was the thief from before.”
“What’s your attraction to this thief, Captain?”
“I’m not attracted to her. She just embarrassed me and now I keep seeing her in my dreams.”
“In your dreams? What kind of dreams?” his Aunt asked.
“They’re not dirty or anything. She’s part of the crowd laughing at me.”
“Don’t tell me this is a dream of you being naked. I may have bathed you as a baby but I don’t think I want to have the image of you naked and standing before a group of laughing girls.”
“The Captain naked? Sounds yummy to me,” said Annassai arriving to the group.
“Will you stop?” he asked.
“Where would the fun be in that?” she replied sitting down.
“Look, I wasn’t naked in the dream. There is no naked.”
“Well that’s a relief. So, why was the crowd laughing?”
“Because I was leading a group of scroot worms on an attack against a giant.”
“Scroot worms, Captain?”
“Yes, scroot worms. Obviously, the attack is a disaster and people are laughing.”
“People?” his Aunt asked.
“Yeah, people.” There was no way he was going to say what faces were in the crowd.
His Aunt and Annassai suddenly turned and looked at each other for a moment like they were sending secret messages to each other.
“Well, go on, tell us the dream,” encouraged his Aunt.
Suddenly he felt really foolish for having mentioned the dream, “Well, the attack is a disaster. The crowd is laughing and then the giant picks me up and eats me.” He rushed through the last bit of the dream.”
“The giant picks you up and eats you?”
“Yes, he grabs me and swallows me but I wake up just as he is munching on me.”
“So, it is because of this dream that you want to hunt down this thief?” his Aunt asked.
“No, she is just one of the laughing faces in the crowd. I just feel that if I could catch her then I could eliminate her from the faces in the crowd.”
“So, you couldn’t recognize any of the other faces?”
This talk was again going where he did not want it to go. “Uhh, not at the moment. There are many faces and they really are blurry.”
“But you can clearly see the face of the thief in the crowd?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
He looked around at the other faces and saw barely restrained chuckles, “What!?”
“Nothing, Captain. We’ll just need to make finding this thief a priority mission. We can’t have her disturbing our Captain’s rest, now can we?”
“Look, I was being honest here.”
“You certainly were, dear. Don’t ever change.” With those words, his Aunt got up and planted a kiss on his forehead.