Hiibel Talcen; The Fortress
It was a hot day, as usual, and the sun was beating down on Aethes, cooking all the inhabitants and causing general discomfort. And speaking of generals, one was making a speech today! Mr. Tenko Kieran, the big boss himself, presenting something-or-other or maybe it was that-other-thing-that-couldn't-be-bothered-with... or was it the public-speech-of-all-is-well? Well, at any rate, whatever the speech may be about, he, Hiibel, had been assigned to keep watch from within the crowd...
But it was too hot for that, too ugly of a day for such trivialities. It was a speech, and there was little more than that. Sure, there were supposed to be rebels around, and they may or may not be there, but was a speech really what was needed to bring them out? And would they really wish to come out of their den-of-hidingness that would definitely be cooler than the great outdoors? Ah, a den... that would be nice... Hiibel was in the mood for a nap, and it would be so much better to do that than listen to yet another not-quite-original, of-course-it-couldn't-be-boring, amazing speech by the sure-he's-great-and-all-but-does-he-have-to-sound-so-rehearsed leader from up above?
But orders were orders, and from Liron no less... But Liron expected less than perfection (or was it no less? It was good enough, anyway...), so that was what he would get. He could watch, listen, do whatever to monitor the ceremony from above on the roofs, right? And if it was just too hot, too cool, too loud, too quiet, that he just so happened to fall asleep, could he really be blamed? Or at least, could he really be blamed that much? He'd be paying attention, at least as much as he could. They could ask for little more than that from him!
Hiibel quickly scaled a building near the fortress, near the performance spot, a building just high enough to make him just-about-level-with-the-speech-platform but not quite high enough to make him above-the-leader-and-thus-a-rebel... He scaled it quickly, finding footholds, handholds, and making his way up methodically. He was up in little time at all but was quickly down again in the shade, shaded by the sloping of the roof, the only one down there with some protection from the increasingly hot heat from the sun.
He gazed up into the air, watching the kestrel-who's-not-just-a-kestrel in the air, wheeling around and keeping watch. Ah, Liron. He grinned up at him, purposefully showing a little more teeth than would be expected for a smile. See what his reaction for him being on the roof would be. Well, he could always do what he would instead be doing down there up here, right? Left. All that's left is to make it seem like he's actually doing something, at least from above. He crawled near the edge and propped his head in his hands, watching the crowd form below, watching the smaller residents mingle, chatter, talk about oh-how-are-you-I'm-hot and whatever else was meaninglessly important... And just for the enjoyment (surprise or fear, really, but they amounted to the same thing, and at any rate, he'd be enjoying it!) of those below if they just so happened to look up and see him, he began to look, almost hungrily and licking his lips. See what they make of it!
Ah, this could be fun, but he probably shouldn't fall asleep. But lookout duty was so boring, and there were other spies situated every-which-way and who-knows-where, keeping watch on the probably-normal-but-maybe-not happenings of the crowd down below. Well, he could always make it more exciting for them, give Liron something to laugh about in their reports! If there happened to be a boring point in the speech (there always was, it was a rule with speeches, rule 37, wasn't it?), he'd jump down from his hiding spot and make a grand entrance, figuring out what to say as he needed to and then reacting in response to whatever their response was. What use was a plan if you had no idea how they would respond? And what fun was a plan anyway?
Hiibel leaned forward on his hands and continued to watch the scene unfold below him, awaiting the speech of that oh-so-awesome-leader-of-ours-who-always-appears-above-the-gates-of-the-fortress-for-his-speeches-and-could-beat-any-of-us-in-a-fight. Ah, this would be fun!