Glyph

Chapter 15

Later, Dirk and the Sergeant were required to give the news to their men.

Formed up in ranks, the missing men were conspicuously absent. Sergeant Bridds stood in front of them, ready to deliver his speech.

"Men," he barked. "We, the Third Company, have been assigned to the war front. We must be ready and train hard in the time we have remaining. We move out in one month. Dismissed."

After the dismissal, men meandered off to their separate activities, but all of them ended up near the fire when it got dark. Out here, after a battle, imagined enemies seemed all too real.

All of the men seemed to react differently to the news of their impending departure.

"I'm ready. In fact, I'm surprised they didn't send us out sooner. All those king lovers will die. Painfully."

Dirk glanced over and was unsurprised to find the speaker was Falens. How very bloodthirsty of him. And probably untruthful. For all his physical prowess, his bluster seemed painfully obvious to Dirk. Of course, he could be wrong. But probably not.

Another man was obviously terrified. He laughed maniacally at Falens and any other remotely humorous sentence. Dirk had no doubt the ensuing months would be hard if not lethal for the soldier.

But the military was a tough place. You learned not just to grow up, but man up. Dirk knew he would be okay once he had more time to think about the situation and get used to the idea of relying on others in his squad.

The only man beside Bridds Dirk could see that was actually confident was an older man who had worked as a merchant. His name was Jeref.

"Been pert near on twenty years since I been in a real fight. Gonna be hard to slip back into that life, but I'll manage, I will. I were a glad'ator when I was a young'un. Gave it up for my wife," he told Dirk languidly. He chuckled. "Not that it matters now. Seems the fighting finds me where'er I run."

Groaning, Dirk stood up and stretched, feeling his sore muscles twist.

Lumbering to his tent, he found Cordan already in his blankets, snuggled up against the autumn chill pervading the air.

***

In the morning, Dirk woke to the familiar bugle announcing the start of the day. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he reluctantly crawled out from under his blankets and exposed himself to the nip in the air.

Assembling together with the rest of the squad, they marched down to the parade ground, where they joined the company formation. In the next five minutes, the rest of the company showed up.

From the front came the call. "Forward march!"

Like a great beast of many legs, the company all raised their legs in unison and slammed them down. Moving forward mechanically, Dirk allowed him to sink into the morrass of of rhythmically beating feet and monotonous commands. 

Despite the complaints often uttered by the other soldiers before and after marching, dirk found it an easy way to start the day. Being fit, he found it fairly easy and no one could say to was not simple.

The only other problem one might have is obeying the commands quickly enough and always being in unison. 

Dirk picked up the unison quickly enough and as a child he had been taught to obey his father quickly or be punished.

He smiled grimly at the memories that evoked.

His father had been a hard man. This had caused no problems for Dirk when he was a child, eager to please, but as he grew up, he began to question his father's orders.