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The Tales of the Scarlet Suns - Ch 2: Blood and Honor

The month at the tower had been good for the little otter as everyone had taken to him as if they were his family, with Juniper becoming his adoptive mother. The decision had been made with the tower's captain to bring Irving back to Ampwick when the next battalion came to take their place. Katia and Mark had been looking forward to the day, as they wanted to spend some time with the little otter and Juniper after having been sent off on so many missions to check the surrounding area.

At the present time, Mark stood at the top of the tower and looked out over the horizon, seeing one of the suns setting as day slowly turned to night. Katia stood near him and kept her eyes peeled on the road while Juniper had her hands full feeding the otter. His diet of mouse milk wasn't exactly what an otter should have, but it had to do at the time as none of the female guards could even lactate, or else Irving would have had a buffet of milk to drink.

Katia's words broke the silence, "Not long now before we can return home to Ampwick again. I really miss sleeping in a comfortable bed rather than leafs and twigs." Mark knew the feeling, but he didn't speak up for it, "It is nice of the captain to get us a wagon so we don't have to walk back." Katia gave him an agreeing nod, "I do not mind walking, but this is for the little guy, so it is more a duty to escort and protect him." The cute yawn was heard as Irving finished his meal and fell asleep in Juniper's arms, "Sweet dreams, Irving." Katia and Mark smiled, "You really make him feel like he has a mother, Juni."

As the night had pushed the day away before, the day had soon begun to push the night away as the first glimpse of sunlight poured in through one of the windows in the tower and hit Katia in the face. She got onto all four and stretched like only a feline could before standing up, noticing the others had already awoken and gone to do their morning duties, "Oh no, I overslept!" Quickly pulling on her clothes and grabbing the daggers, Katia was out of the tower in less than three minutes, her eyes adjusting to the morning sun before she could see the wagon had arrived and a whole battalion of guards stood ready, led by a tiger wearing the same armor as Mark, only bigger.

Katia quickly found Mark and Juniper with Irving in her arms, standing in front of the tiger as he looked at the otter boy, "He is truly a miracle kid. Be sure to let him grow up well there, Juniper." The mouse girl nodded, "Yes, sir Padhama." Katia walked up next to Juniper, rubbing the back of her head as the tiger looked at her, "Well, if it ain't Miss Oversleeper herself. Still sleeping on duty?" Katia rubbed the back of her head some more, "I just had nightwatch, that is all, sir." The tiger laughed, "I know, just teasing you. It is good to see you, Katia. Now if you three excuse me, I got my duty to perform and so do you. Get on the wagon and travel back to Ampwick. And protect Earwing." Juniper corrected him, "It is Irving, sir." The tiger looked at her, "That is what I said." Katia stopped Juniper from saying anything more, "You sure did, sir." Juniper looked annoyed, but didn't say a thing before she climbed onto the wagon with Katia, leaving Mark with having to climb on with his armor.

It wasn't long before the wagon was moving and as they watched the tower slowly decreasing in size, Katia leaned back in her seat, "So, how long is it until we reach Ampwick?" The rider answered quickly, "If there is no trouble on the way, we should arrive by the next sunrise." Katia sighed, "I will get bored to wait so long." Mark laughed, "Maybe find a prowler to play with then." Katia hissed at the implication of what he said. Juniper just giggled as Mark had to hold back Katia, "I was just joking."

The rider had planned it very well as instead of traveling the lakeside, he had steered the wagon north to the islands, showing them an alternative route to get back to Ampwick and cut travel time down a bit. Or so he had thought at least. When they arrived at the second island, the rider growled in pain when an arrow had wedged itself in the opening on his right lower arm, giving Katia and Mark the time they needed to draw their weapons as a band of thieves approached from the shadows, "Lookz like we hit gold here, boez. Gruhb de womeen uhnd de buhbe, but kil de meen. The womeen wil muhke nice zluhvez for uz uhnd de buhbe cuhn be chreuhted uhccordiengle wheen it growz up."

Katia smirked, "Well, here comes the entertainment. Sorry boys, but you are in our ways. Lets go, Mark." Mark raised his shield with a smirk, "Ladies first." Katia jumped into the air before drawing ten daggers, "You are too kind." The bandit leader growled, "Forget uhbowt duht uhe, zhe iz not word keepieng uhlive." The archers took aim at Katia as their fellow thieves fell around them, but their luck wasn't any better when Mark charged right in with his sword and decapitated every archer one by one. Juniper could just watch this while Irving was crying.

What none of them noticed was that a bandit had snuck himself up behind Juniper and soon a muffled scream was heard when her maw was covered and in the struggle she dropped Irving into the hay, listening to his cries as she tried to break free from the bandit's grasp, but he wasn't having that, "Hold ztil, weench." Juniper quickly attempted to hit him with a close range spell she had learned during her training, but the hand got shoved down and the spell struck Irving's face, making him cry louder.

The cries of the infant otter soon filled Katia's ears and Mark soon noticed it too as the feline drew her final dagger and skillfully threw it into the bandit's forehead, making him let Juniper go before she grabbed Irving and proceeded with healing his wound. The bandit leader was furious at this, "Yow imbecilez! do i huhve to do everedieng mezelf?" Mark had the answer for him, "No, because you won't do anything." His shield slammed the bandit's face hard as he fell back and Katia's agile movements allowed her to grab two daggers before appearing behind his back and slitting his throat.

With the bandit leader dispatched of, Katia moved up the rider that had pulled the arrow out of his arm, "Hey. You okay there?" The rider looked at Katia and nodded, "I am fine, but I think they took my right arm out of duty." Katia took a seat next to him, "Then let me help. I used to be a stable hand back in Ampwick before I joined the guardsmen." The rider didn't deny her request as he handed the reins over to her and took a seat back with Mark and Juniper, allowing the mouse to heal him up while Katia set the wagon into motion again, "Well, as long as you can tell me where I need to go." All laughed softly as they could see the next bridge coming.

As the sunset had begun, the village of Ampwick had begun to appear in the horizon and as when the moon appeared above the mountain tops in the northeast, they stood outside the gates of Ampwick, waiting for the old badger monk to approach them as he smiled, "Ah, my children. Welcome home, Katia, Mark and Juniper. And who is the little fellow? Did someone give birth?" Juniper began to explain the story of how they had found Irving, the elder's face slowly growing more shocked as it kept going, "May the ancestors keep him safe. So why bring him here?" Mark spoke up, "Father Gregory, we would like him to grow up here. Your village is the safest for him right now." The elderly badger thought for a second before he nodded, "Okay, but on the condition that you at least give him the rite of elemental cleansing. The boy needs protection." Katia, Mark and Juniper nodded, "We will let him take the rite, Father Gregory." Soon the cries sounded loudly and Juniper smiled, "I think he agrees with you." They laughed softly before the gates closed behind them.

To be continued in chapter 3: Growing by the Sword.