Traveller

Nine

Rebel sat down on a boulder in front of the great oak, bouncing her knee impatiently. Rezonate followed, sitting beside her.
"So, who all is on patrol?" She asked timidly.
He hummed in thought. "Tristam, Noisestorm, Puppet, whom you haven't met yet, and you and I. I think it'll be fun." He flashed a small smile at the end of his sentence. Rebel brightened a bit. This may not be so bad.
"O-Oh, alright!"
"They should be up soon. Brendan usually takes the longest," He chuckled. "the lazy skin-tapper."

'Skin-tapper'

She'd heard the word before, used as a derogatory term, but she couldn't remember who called her that.. or when. She searched her foggy mind, diving dangerously deep into the past with no rope to keep her tied to the present.

'Hey, skin-tapper! Get over here and show us how good training has been to you!'

That's it! That's what they used to call her at the HQ. But why..?
"Skin-tapper?" She asked Rezonate, just to be sure she knew what the word meant.
"He's a drummer. A pretty good one at that. Call him that to tease him cause he taps the skins." He chuckled. "Supposedly, he can't stand being called that."
Rebel chuckled a bit as well, trying to hide the confusion swimming throughout her mind. Yes, she did drum. And yes, she did try to hide it at the HQ, but she was successful. So how'd they know..?
"Hey, Rebel. How's it going?" She heard a deep, Irish accent greet. Looking up, she saw it was the one who saved her, Noisestorm. She smiled.
"Hey. I'm doing alright. You..?"
"I'm doing well, thank you! Glad to see you up and running." He replied cheerfully. Rebel murmured a quick thankd before she noticed the entrance to one of the tents swaying. She wondered who would be next.
Answering her question, Tristam stumbled out, rubbing his eyes and yawning. The whole thing was pretty comical.
"Morning sleeping beauty. Did Prince Charming finally decide to pull you out of your rest?" Noisestorm jeered at him playfully.
"Oh yes! And he was even more beautiful than I ever imagined!" Tristam swooned mockingly, his face falling, unamused, as soon as the words left his mouth.
The three warriors laughed, Rebel joining in quietly and shyly.
"Now all we gotta do is wait for puppet-boy in there to stop preening and get out here." Noisestorm said, his voice rising with every word.
From out of sight, Rebel heard someone call,
"Alright, alright! Shut it or you'll wake the whole camp!"
"Yep. That's Brendan for you." Rezonate huffed. She couldn't help but chuckle.
Brendan stormed through the opening of his tent, hair messy (though it seemed to be styled that way on purpose), the strings on his arms and legs tangled.
Realization struck Rebel. Puppet was actually a puppet. They weren't kidding.
The blonde-headed boy growled and shook his arms, for the most part, untangling the cords attached to him. Rebel heard Tristam chuckle from his place beside her.
"He has this problem every morning." He murmured next to her ear. She shivered as his warm breath on her cheek contrasted with the frigid winter air.
"Really?" She giggled quietly.
"Yep. Usually one of us has to come and help him."
They both stifled laughs as Puppet tried to untangle his leg strings, but to no avail. Eventually Rezonate untangled them for him, and they were on their way.