Snippet #1523575

Gorred felt a grin cross his lips as he read over the scribes shoulder. His wanted poster seemed more than enough to rally a few people to his cause, but more importantly make it impossible for the princess to walk into her main land as if nothing changed. He stopped every so often to stroke his beard in all of its ill maintained coarseness, for a moment he thought he felt some of his lunch still remaining in his beard and quickly turned away giving it a good shake out only to realize nothing was there. From his lack of personal grooming and over abundance of embarrassment he walked away from the room thinking about his next course of action.

He walked a single step in his proud walk, head up leaned back slightly, never looking at his feet but making his presence known to everyone from the sound of his footsteps. Gorred was a leader, but before that a proud solider his walk was meant to impress those around him showing that clear 'better than you' ego and mind set. As he walked he could hear a younger man screaming to a point he couldn't be understood. As Gorred followed the voice he was becoming more and more familiar with what was being said. Each word flashing back a memory from when he first took the strides to be a solider. He looked at himself now and realized that it was the best decision he made in his personal life. Gorred followed the voice long enough from him to get the them before standing in the distance behind the instructor. At this point in Gorred's life chain of command meant nothing to him because he was at the top of that chain, but that also meant he was lacks where he should be stern.

From the distance the boys spotted Gorred and instantly snapped into full attention against what the instructor was telling them to do. His face boiled red like a lobster, his vein in his forehead in clear view from his anger that he couldn't control a few boys. In his rage he casually walked over to the boys and picked two of the dozen or two by their neck's squeezing as he lifted them. Neither of them completely off the ground but enough for them to barely be touching. Gorred took a moment to take in the situation not sure if he should step in or not. In reality it was his fault for them getting into this mess, but at the same time he didn't approach them so there was no reason for them to stand at an attention. Gorred though off instinct as he neared.

"Stand ready." Gorred bellowed during his approach. The man dropped the two boys with a look that couldn't be phrased any other way that 'oh shit'.He snapped around trying to act as though the situation never happened. "Good afternoon Sir. What brings you out here at this time?" the man's voice was the only thing unconvincing of him. Posture perfect facial expression flawless, but his voice screamed fear without meaning too.

Gorred did his best to ignore the man's fear but couldn't help himself his voice that of a mother that watched her son take a cookie form the cookie jar, "Do you normally punish them for taking the time to show respect to someone above them?" Gorred's eyes looked over the boys looking for the slightest hint of the instructors misguided ways, he saw none, nothing but fear of showing what they wanted to tell. But was it fear of saying anything, or the repercussions after the fact that mad them show no signs to the abuse that seemed clear.

"Sir I train them the same way we all have been trained, they were not -" Gorred chimed in before the man had a chance to finish. "When we were trained our people were getting killed, our woman raped, children to slavery. There was no time to do things by the book, no time to wait for them to mature. We turned boys into men over night, because that is what the country needed. What the land desired for the only thing that it asks form us. Protection. But you have single-handedly pushed into there brains that brutality is the only way. That showing respect to someone WELL above you is a bad thing. And you personally have shown me that you don't respect me. And for that because you believe in the old way so damn much allows me to fight from that respect back. You have a half hour to get ready, unless you would rather not have a weapon so you have a fighting chance."

Gorred knew full well all that he did in that single rant. He beat the man's ego, intelligence, and honor in the same stroke and to make matter's worse he pulled out a honor bound tradition that is rarely used in or outside the military. In the corner of his eye he saw a boy reach for his practice sword that was behind them. Weighted oak with a grease finish on all sides but the blunt end where a blade was. On the blade was a poison that caused mild paralysis of the skin through absorption, this was to give a realistic effect to the damage weapons would do with well maintained weapons rendering the limb useless in a matter of seconds for nearly an hour, a great accidental find. Not only did it encourage them to avoid getting hit but also to fight through the pain, fore they didn't wear protection during training.

The same boy that reached for his training sword grabbed another student's and walked to both Gorred and the instructor placing the wooden toys about a foot away from them each, before returning back to his post in line as though nothing happened. A smile trickled again on Gorred's face, "It seems someone trained the boys in honor, you must be sitting in for someone else if they know that much." A snicker came from the background as more and more people started to show up seeing Gorred at the training grounds. It wasn't a common occurrence and to have him yelling at a solider was even less common. Though not everyone agreed with Gorred's actions, they knew he would do anything to preserve his country, the people in it, and above all Honor.