Curse of the Crystals

Chapter 8: To The Edge of the Forest - part 2

Ambrose was caught of guard. He had still been worried about whether to get involved or try to back out of things. However, it was clear that he wasn't going to get an easy way out of it. He figured the best option for him would be to accept the task and make the most of it. After all, he'd at least get to see and do things that no ordinary Human would ever have a chance to. After a little thinking, he decided on what his next move should be. "I'd like to visit the region and talk to the local authorities."

Frode nodded. "Very well, I'll try to get you into contact."

Only a few days after that, they set out towards the autonomous zone. The journey was pretty uncomfortable, although not due to their means of transport, which were comfortable wagons. They had even been assigned a few guards. No, it was due to the tension between Itzal and Maiara. The latter had decided she'd be unable to get a grasp of the situation if Itzal would be running around to mess things up and that she'd have to forsake the idea of making thorough preparations. While those two avoided each-other, the people they had brought along seemed a bit more talkative. It's why Ambrose decided to let curiosity get the better of him and approached them.

Ambrose managed to strike up a short conversation with Luna, after she had asked him how he'd gotten involved in all of this. He wasn't entirely sure what to think of Forest Elf. She had quite a charming appearance and the mannerisms to back that, but something about her automatically put Ambrose on guard. It wasn't just the fact that she murdered someone. There was something else about her that told Ambrose to be weary.

The same applied to his contact with Qadir. The Desert Elf mostly avoid interacting with the others, but on a few rare occasions, he'd approached Ambrose to ask him for help with food preparations. It seemed like Qadir had automatically decided that Ambrose was the safest person to interact with in this odd group of people. In turn, Ambrose had been able to pick up a surprising amount of tricks when it came to cooking food. All in all, he respected the Desert Elf a fair bit, but the respect was tainted by a sleight fear. The Desert Elf was constantly on guard, shown by his alert eyes and the curved sword that never left his hip. It made Ambrose feel like he could be struck down by Qadir for making a single suspicious move.

In a shabby attempt to get to know her better, Ambrose had offered Maiara to help out with some of the papers she'd brought along to study. She'd brushed him off with the excuse that she worked better whenever she could look over everything on her own. He felt like it was just an excuse, and that she didn't really trust him enough, but he decided not to pursue it further.

To his surprise, the one he got along with the most was Hedgefield. While the fact hat Ambrose had saved the man's life probably played an important role there, his personality was also genuinely more pleasant to be around. The Corporal was surprisingly open about how he rolled into this situation on accident, but he was planning to stick around. He was also pretty open about his motivations; a promotion into the army. In general, most people who wanted to join the army started off as guards in one of the cities. The guards had only four ranks, Corporal, Sergeant, Sergeant Major and General Guard.

Corporals either had a small team of other guards to watch over or they had been given some special permissions and duties to justify their rank. Sergeants were often in charge of a particular part of the city, often a few blocks or streets. Sergeant Majors were in charge of one or more districts in the city. A city as big as the capital, for example, had a Sergeant Major for each of its five districts. The title of General Guard was reserved for the guard overseeing all other guards in a city. In practice, their rank was lower than that of an actual General in the army, especially when they were in charge of a relatively small city.

Hedgefield wanted climb the ranks among the guards to transfer to the army and to start climbing the ranks there as well. He was from a long tradition of warriors with many high ranked ancestors, and he wanted to surpass them all. That's why he'd been working with the guards for most of his life, becoming a Corporal at a surprisingly young age. However, he'd been stuck on getting promoted to Sergeant. Having been able to work directly under Sergeant Major Rockforte showed some promise, mostly due to the Sergeant Major being a retired army veteran. Hedgefield once hoped to join the army through a recommendation by Rockforte. The current situation had utterly destroyed that hope. That's why he figured he'd try his luck again, but this time through the aiding none other than prince Frode himself. After all, there were few better people to get a recommendation from than an actual prince.