Training & Patrols

Later on in the day after Cassius found himself maintaining a plank position, with six exhausted men maintaining the position with him.

"Five more seconds!" He shouted through clenched teeth.

The group counted down together, and then immediately collapsed onto their stomachs, completely and utterly defeated by Cassius's spartan regime of 'group training' he called it.

Cassius was the first to recover, as his younger, smaller body had less for his underdeveloped muscles to support and maintain, thus he was much fresher than the men arrayed before him who had donned all their protective layers, and were unused to such brutality.

It was almost noon, and Cassius had ensured that after the incredibly hearty breakfast he had fed them, that their bodies immediately used that intake of calories to good effect.

They had started with a gentle jog around the exterior of the wall, with a total circumference of nearly two kilometres, with a separate workout to do at every tower along the castle wall.

By the time they had reached the main gate again, they were completely and utterly exhausted.

Which is where we find most of the group, collapsed at the gate, completely drenched in their own sweat and filth, regretting any action that had been undertaken to slight the young man and his sensibilities.

The men on the walls themselves who had the opportunity to see the small squad outside of the wall thanked their lucky stars that they weren't the misfortunate ones who had drank on duty, or as rumours would have it, cursed the man in the meal-hall and lived to regret it.

"Alright everyone! Good work today, I feel like we can definitely get our time down to under two hours! Remember team, be at my door tomorrow morning before first light or else!" His tone was entirely peachy and cheerful, condemning the six men recovering men in front of him to a fate worse than death, everyday. For the foreseeable future.

"Go clean up, and remember, your pay and meat filled meals depend on you sticking with the program !~!"

Every single man looked at Cassius as if he was the grim-reaper. Although he was just as exhausted as the rest of them, they had seen how easy he was able to set the pace.

Maron, in the deepest recesses of his soul, regretted his actions now. He'd fought many battles, even as the rear-guard, and that could not be counted as how brutal Cassius's workout had been, how many burpee's had he done in his armour? How many squats had he performed with his sword held outstretched?

He wasn't sure, but he knew that Cassius was ultimately correct; He would have preferred to have been hung.

Horace also hadn't actually performed much better than the others, and had actually fallen to the rear of the squad mid-way. He had tried to race ahead of the group thinking he could impress his new Lord with his physical fitness. He quickly found out however, that maintaining a dead-sprint for longer than 50 metres in full armour is impossible.

Whereas Carmen was surprisingly the least exhausted of the bunch, much like Cassius he had a slimmer build, and possessed less armour than the rest. He struggled initially of course, but after studying Cassius's running form and his breathing, quickly began to lead the pack alongside Cassius who was pleasantly surprised the skinny youth had it in him.

Either way, after they were done their after breakfast training they were dismissed, leaving Cassius with plenty of time before his afternoon meeting with Hektor.

Re-entering the castle with his small crew, he encountered a large party of armed men of varying degrees of arms and armament, of which there were twelve men mounted on horseback, of which at least six bore their own sigil or wore an insignia which denoted them as Knight's.

He stood to the side with confusion as he saw them preparing four carriages, Cassius's old memories told him these weren't the Margrave's direct subordinates, but instead his brother Elrics.

Cassius walked through the warband of 40 or so men, his hands clasped behind his back as he inspected their actions.

He noted he stood out like a sore thumb, but everyone here was quite respectful of his presence. Eventually he spotted his brother, a strapping young man who looked like a younger carbon copy of his father Laurence. Cassius noted with some interest however that the young man's biggest differentiating feature between the two was how pressured he seemed to be right now.

Unaware of Cassius approaching him, Elric was busy reprimanding one of his youthful knights for his consul.

"There's no way, even if we run out of food and firewood, we can always re-stock at Stennsmark! Besides that, we've got four caravans worth of food, water, and shelter with us, the worst that can go wrong with this patrol is that they sit wasted because the weather holds up!"

Cassius turned back to study the 'Patrol' which appeared to be more of a caravan than it was a patrol, not many of these men appeared to be particularly switched on, and had none of the alertness or energy you would expect from a group.

'He's in for a rough time if anything goes wrong' Cassius thought to himself, a nostalgic smirk wedging itself onto his face.

"Brother Elric!" Cassius shouted, startling the inexperienced commander.

"Cassius? What are you doing here? Can't you see I'm busy preparing for a patrol?" Elric said, upset at the delay, and annoyed he was startled by the boy who had just 'appeared' behind him.

"Oh? You're going on a Patrol?" Cassius asked, attempting his best 'excited cutsey curious' voice. Which evidently had the opposite effect, as Elric had no doubt heard about the execution this morning, and had heard from first hand witnesses how Cassius's expression had warped into one full of derision and contempt at the sudden attempt at his life.

A chill ran up Elrics spine as he remembered the way the men had hauntingly described him as cold indifference to the bloody decapitation.

Clearing his throat, Elric continued. "Yes, Father has entrusted me with an armed patrol around Stennmark and the local lands, he wishes for me to rout out a group of bandits that have been plaguing the Caravan routes for sometime now."

Interested, and also doubtful Cassius asked "Don't you think you're moving a little heavy for such a patrol task brother?"

Which briefly stunned Elric before he smirked at his childish question. "No. Of course not, we need to live in the field don't we? We need shelter, food, water, and of course firewood."

Cassius tried his absolute hardest not to look at the man like he was a fool, glancing at his compatriot with a questioning gaze. The man simply looked down at his feet, seemingly having just attempted this himself.

"Then what will you do if they see your company before you see them, and simply choose to stay hidden?" Cassius asked inquisitively