The Surprise Siege - Ranger's Apprentice

Report

"So... What exactly should I report this incident to be? I mean, how do we classify it?" Sir Nigel asked timidly. He was sitting in the Baron's office in Castle Redmont, in an official meeting with the King.

Redmont Castle had been carefully cleaned and repaired so that all evidence of the long struggle that had happened just the day before was gone. The support troops from the nearby fief returned to their homes, and everyone was moved back into Redmont within a day. Which was as a good thing, because a day later, King Duncan travelled officially to Redmont to receive reports on what had happened. Halt held the official meeting in the Baron's office in the late afternoon. Will also came, as well as Pauline, Rodney, and the Baron.

Sir Nigel had sat in the corner, frantically writing down everything as the official report was given. After it had all been reported, the King sat back and rubbed his beard for several minutes, thinking about everything. In that silence, Nigel had finished writing everything up on the official form. But he hadn't classified the document yet.

The King glanced up. "I still don't quite understand what you're asking..."

Nigel pursed his lips. "I mean, when I file this official report, I have to put it in a certain folder. For military situations we have only a few file classification categories, such as a battle, siege, hostage situation, intelligence and or espionage, training incident, miscellaneous... But we don't tend to use miscellaneous for anything except some specific types of operations, usually involving Rangers."

He nodded at Will and Halt, who smiled slightly. "I had a miscellaneous once," Will said. "I remember because I had to ask you what I should classify it as when I was doing the report."

Sir Nigel smiled. "Yes, I remember that, Ranger Will."

Halt said, "I've had at least a couple miscellaneous jobs... But most of the time now, I make you do the paperwork, so I wouldn't know." Will scowled at him.

"Back to the matter at hand," said the King. "What did you last classify it as? I think that's how the rule goes. The last thing the operation was officially classified as is how it goes in the paperwork."

Halt pursed his lips. "Well, the last one I remember was Rodney declaring it a standard siege operation."

"Official. Official siege operation," Will corrected, and it was Halt's turn to scowled at him.

"Whatever. So, I guess that means..."

But he trailed off as Will leaned forward, chewing on his cheek. "See, I don't know if it can be classified accurately as a siege... Because for most of the time, it wasn't a siege."

"Yes, but remember the rule. Whatever it was last, that's what you classify it as." Halt sighed. "But I do see your point. It was, for the majority of the time, a hostage situation. Even when you got everyone else out, since you were still in there, Will, you were still considered a 'hostage' in technical terms."

Will muttered glumly, "But I wasn't a hostage... Not really. I was mostly sneaking around."

"Yes, but technically, we had to treat the situation like that. But then, once you got out, it became a siege."

Will glared at Halt, but didn't push it, since he knew that Halt was right.

The King glanced back and forth between Halt and Will. "So... Now that we have established that, we have to get the parameters for the report."

Sir Nigel asked, "So first on the list:  parties. Who against who?"

Halt answered, "Araluen versus seven Genovesans and their men."