[IC] Castle Grimm [A Fantasy Drama]

[Vashonn]

As the fair Esmerelda finished her speech and the great horn blared, Geoffrey stretched his arms up to loosen his tense muscles. He had taken the last watch during the night, and as he was already used to waking quite early, he already felt a good deal of energy rushing through his body; though he supposed that could also be due to the now-present fear of death that had dropped over the Confederacy's men like a thick blanket, causing a good number of them to look around in a senseless manner. Gazing about as there was a surprisingly low number of authoritative figures in the room, Geoffrey barked out a few commands to the rallied soldiers to organize into parties - just as they had taught him to do back in officer's training, all of his jovial emotion drained as his already ice-cold eyes pierced through the air of the room. He felt his left hand shudder a bit with excitement, and let it rest once again upon his sword's pommel - a habit that was beginning to really irritate him.

"Each party will be assigned an officer as a commanding unit, and no man should find himself wandering these halls without at least two other companions at his side, lest he wishes to end up skewered and sliced like a hog," the lieutenant made notice of a few other officers that seemed to be commanding their own separate groups of mercenaries and auxiliaries, letting the minor annoyance of different orders being given slip past him; though he hoped they would all quickly sort into a collective force - no doubt the Onyxians were well on their way toward this end of the castle already, thanks to their apparent military organization. Geoffrey pulled two officers aside, pairing them with scouting parties, and gave them instructions of where in the castle they would be spotting, then shouted to another pair of officers as the scouting parties left to have their brawnier squadrons follow the same routes. By the spirits, the tactician thought, maybe they would be better organized than he had figured.

Geoffrey took a moment to gaze about the large room for Kehah, feeling a cold glare land on him as his eyes passed over the green knight beside Lady Esmerelda. There was a fairly good chance the dark elf had an interest in him, more than likely due to his connection with Kehah, who he had assumed was still up in her makeshift hammock. He hadn't a clue to her true whereabouts, but knew better than to check for her with the green knight's gaze fixed on him. With a coy grin fixing upon his lips, the lieutenant nodded in jest toward the dark elf, then turned to continue his work. Hopefully, he pondered, he could gather up a deal of talented soldiers and influential nobility for a sort of specialist group, but none of the Confederates he had come across thus far had caught his attention, with the exception of Kehah.

@IceHeart@AnaSilan Sunja

[Aces Away]

Kehah had woken earlier than almost everyone; despite Geoffrey having taken the last watch, Kehah still did nothing much but doze lightly, one ear still on the goings on of the soldiers' quarters. As the others awoke and Geoffrey slipped out of his own hammock and to the ground, Kehah simply blew the hair out of her eye before reaching up and hefting herself back atop the rafters, balancing her way to where the end meets the wall and leaning against it. She'd taken perch there, arms crossed and hair falling across her face as she looked down, just in time for the Lady Esmerelda and Green Knight to enter. She watched from above as Lady Esmerelda gave her statement, and kept stock still as she watched the Green Knight search the crowd; no doubt the Corrupted one was searching for her.

At the horn's blare, she tilted her head to watch as Geoffrey began his orders to the faction he chose. It was quite interesting to her, the way he changed and went cold while in the position of command. The way his eyes turned to ice, and his words a bite that held no friendly tone, reminded her of how Maar'von has seized command of the Band when Talul had been taken down by their targets. It had taken the halberd wielder almost a month of recovery, and in that time the Band had worked seamlessly under Maar'von's leadership. Letting Geoffrey's commands take up a sliver of her attention, Kehah tuned out all else and pulled a page of parchment-as well as a well of ink and featherless quill she'd stolen from a commander- out of her bag. Sitting down, she began her letter to the other auburn haired west-forester in her life.

Maar'von,
I should have known such a pain in the ass would hail from your blood.
I've recently entered Castle Grimm and, upon taking notice of a boy too youthful to be a representative on anything but skill and prowess, befriended the one named Geoffrey who bares your familial-line tattoos. Of course, I decided that with all you've done for me, I would protect your kin to the best of my abilities in the oncoming battle between White Rock and the pigs of the Empire.
He is too much like you, you Bane of the Spirits! The same sun from our journey into the valley had not even lowered before his drunken ass chose to squabble with one of the Onyxians. Right in front of those who would kill us all without a second's hesitation.
Though I do commend him for his way with words, as that was all he needed to rile the pig up...
I require your advice; how do you wish me to keep him safe? We are about to be bathed in blood for the days-maybe weeks and months- to come. Shall I train him in the underhanded tactics you and the rest of the Band trained me? Or should I simply stay by him at all times? I do still intend my own revenge and he seems competent enough to not need me babysitting him; he did become a representative after all and I believe him to be more youthful than myself by at least a full earth's cycle.

It seems as though you'll never stop being my teacher.

->Kehah

She stared at her signature and the inch and a half left on the page before blowing her hair out of her eyes and tacking on:

Ps: I haven't told him about you, I'd rather have more information on your relations first. Tell me in your response whether you wish me to let him know.

With her letter done- she decided that she would find one of the servants later to find out how to send it- she tucked it away before dropping down to land behind Geoffrey, who had thrown something akin to a smirk at the Green Knight a few moments prior. With a mocking smirk of her own, she tapped him on the shoulder and fell into a mocking military stance.

"Where do you need me, Lieutenant?"

[IceHeart]

The loud one who instigated the first 'fight' between the two factions was easy enough to find for the dark elf, but the elf-touched was nowhere to be seen. The man certainly had not lost any of his 'charm' as he noticed her gaze and nodded in jest. She snorted under her helmet and tried to find the female but she was keeping herself hidden. In any event now was not the time for her to attempt anything in the presence of her mistress, also there was the plain fact that she was part of her liege's 'forces'.

Still, a chance would open up eventually.

Lady Esmerelda made her rounds through the ranks to encourage them. Everyone was quite interesting in the young lady but her escort made sure no one got too close. A few minutes more and it was time to leave, but as they left, the dark elf's sensitive ears picked up a light thud as something fell from above. A quick glance back showed it was the girl who had been helped by the elves. Unfortunately, as they were already starting to leave, the glance was all that she managed to get before they departed.

The White Rock Confederacy quickly mobilized into several small groups. While they got a decent look around the previous night the fact was there was a lot they still did not know. They needed to keep an eye on as many areas of the castle was possible so they would not be taken by surprise. They quickly came up with a system where, if a certain group was outnumbered they would quickly retreat to a fallback point where they could signal an alarm for the others. The biggest problem was there were only so many combat ready troops so every man mattered in this war. As the Empire would no doubt be better as a military a big engagement was not to the White Rock's advantage, their best bet was to chip away at the enemy forces one by one.

---

The Onyx Empire was up and ready for action, very quickly they had mobilized for combat even before the horn had blown. They were pleasantly surprised when they too, got a visit from their patron, Lady Primrosa. Like her sister, she was also accompanied by a dark elf, the red-armored sister. From the get-go she seemed pumped and ready to go. Her energy was infectious to the troops as they watched the lovely young woman give her own pep-talk to the troops.

"Thank you all for being willing to fight for me! It is my honor to fight by your side-" The red-armored dark-elf turned to look at her as if questioning her words which Primrosa quickly noticed and quickly added, "-in spirit! As the rightful heir to the castle I will do everything in my power to aid your cause! I would join you on the battle in a heartbeat, if my father approved but since they are forbidden from killing me I suppose it wouldn't quite be fair to my sister's side." That got a few chuckles from some of the knights who knew how hard it would be to fight someone without killing them in combat.

"May the great dragons watch over your every step!" As if on cue, as soon as she finished the horns blew, signaling the start of hostilities. The empire quickly went into motion. They split into four groups, two spearheads, a reinforcement group, and the back defenders. The spearheads would go in and probe enemy territory, attempt to locate any traps and see if they could catch any confederates off guard. The reinforcement group would keep themselves as inbetween the two groups as possible and would rush to whichever required aid should the time arrive, they would not engage the enemy on their own however. The last group was to make sure the enemy could not infiltrate their camp and sabotage their sleeping quarters, also they would continue to do recon in their own territory to see what they could uncover.

Lady Primrosa watched as the fine tuned machine marched out, leaving behind many of the noncombatants at the home base. Time would tell which side would be victorious, but she was sure the Empire would be the winners in the end, even if she had little to go off of at this time.