Lunar Flare Book 1: Crimson Moon

Chapter 12

Cassian was not the type of man to lose his temper. Beowulf realised he had never really seen the officer angry before. Usually, his response to his men acting up was groans of weary disappointment and then quickly but calmly telling them off. And most of the time that would work, as the men liked Cassian, looked up to him and didn't want to disappoint him.

But this was something entirely different. Cassian was actually yelling at them for once, had them all lined up and was walking up and down the line, pointing at them and shouting. But when Beowulf looked at his face, the training officer didn't even look that angry. He looked tired and disappointed still, but even more than usual. There seemed to be dark circles under his eyes, like he hadn't gotten a lot of sleep.

Cassian was however being quite cruel with his words. He was going on about why this was the reason they had been held back from the main armed force and given castle guard duties, because they couldn't be trusted and couldn't work properly as a team. That this is why he had been stuck trying to train them, because they were all stupid and useless, as evidenced by the fact that the whole group of them couldn't take down an unarmed Beowulf together.

Beowulf was lined up with the rest of them, but on the end, and Cassian wasn't looking at him while yelling except when he gestured to him for emphasis for a point he was making to the others. Near the end, Cassian pulled Emil out of the group and started yelling at him individually, and Beowulf noticed his expression had changed. Now he really was mad, and Emil seemed to feel it too as he cowered under his superior officer's screaming.

Then Cassian outlined to them that for the next few days, outside of their guard duties and sleeping hours, they would all be running drills non-stop. Except for Emil, who he had taken off guard duty all together and outside of running drills would be washing dishes in the kitchen. Beowulf thought he might have been kicked out of the army all together, but perhaps Cassian couldn't do so due to his family's wealth and influence. Though if they had sent their spoilt brat son into the army to be straightened out, it wasn't working so far.

The main drill Cassian liked to use as punishment was doing laps of the castle in full armour carrying weapons and shields. He sent the soldiers to begin, then turned to Beowulf and said, "and you too," with a nod of his head.

Beowulf looked at him in surprise, and then pointed to himself. "But I didn't do anything wrong sir... they attacked us..." he protested quietly.

Cassian sighed wearily. "I know, I'm sorry Beowulf, but if I had you watching them all get punished from the sidelines that would probably only make them hate you more. Group punishment is a good way to build camaraderie. They'll see me as the bad guy rather than you, since I'm the one punishing you all," the officer explained apologetically.

Beowulf let out a sigh of defeat. "I understand, sir," he said reluctantly.

Cassian gestured for him to get moving. "Come on, let's go," he said, taking off running after his men. Cassian was not the type to make his men run drills without doing at least some of it with them to set a good example. Beowulf started jogging after him, his larger stride allowing him to quickly catch up until he was running beside the officer.

"Look, I know I told you to stay away from Thedrick but... now I am kind of glad you didn't," Cassian said as they ran together behind the rest of the group, Beowulf keeping his pace steady with the older man. "If you hadn't, and they had hurt or gods forbid killed him, Balthasar would have torn me to shreds."

"Why does he care so much about Thedrick?" Beowulf asked.

Cassian shrugged while jogging. "Hell if I know. Why do you?" the officer threw the question back at Beowulf.