Punctuality Pays--ATTN Kalush

[Asfaloth]

It had been eight days since Shawn had started training Kalush. The first day they had reconciled their differences from their initial meeting on the docks and she'd picked out her weapons and he's assigned her a fitness workout. In the six days between Shawn himself or one of his friends had been up hours before dawn to ensure that she was doing her assigned workout. In the future he might be able to trust her enough to do it on her own but for now he had to make sure. They had also trained together everyday, working on the forms and occasionally sparring so she could see the value of what she was learning. So far he was proud of her progress. That is until today.

 

They weren't scheduled to meet today until after lunch as Shawn had served a late night shift on the wall, but during lunch he'd gotten some rather disturbing news. A fellow Guard had found him and informed him that his newest mentee had shirked her duties that morning and skipped her workout. Shawn was livid. She couldn't even go a whole week without slacking off. And she was supposed to be the daughter of a blademaster? Hermother obviously hadn't gotten around yet to teaching her discipline.

 

Very well, Shawn would teach her that himself. So far their training sessions had been conducted with an air of friendship and comraderie but she was to see a very different side of her mentor today. Or at least, she would if she ever showed up. Shawn glanced up at the sky again, marking the sun's location. It was nearly an hour past the time she should have been here. Where was she? Shawn's anger was reaching a boiling point, the longer she kept him waiting the worse off she'd be when she finally showed. If she'd just showed up on time he could have reprimanded her, and increased her assigned workout and then they could have gotten on with her training. But this tardiness on top of the other was inexcusable. She would regret her choices this day.

[zie]

Anger, no no that was not strong enough, Rage? hmmm that was better but still not really close to what she was feeling at this point. Running though the baracks and then though the yard for the first time since training she was late and it was all his fault. If the scruffy looking nerf herder had kept his mouth shut and not said any thing to her then she would not be running past startled faces on her way to meet her mentor. Sure there might have been a little fun in what they did to Aran but it should not have taken her all morning and past lunch in order to get away from the man. This ment that she would not be able to eat until dinner if that depending on how upset Shawn was with her. She had missed her morning work out with made her even madder because she enjoyed the work out, there was some thing about the movement and strain on her form that eased her normally high temper. Livid.... was that even a word, well if it wasn't then it should be because that was a good discription. What was going to be worse was if Shawn questioned her having not having any weapons on her, she was not even sure she could explain it. Thinking she had enough time she had left them in her room when she had left to do her morning routeen, but after being detained by Aran she had not had time to go back and get them.

 

Rounding a corner she jumped over one of the benches and landed in a roll comming up running again, it did not take her long to get to thier normal meeing place for training. One look at Shawns face told her he was angry not even braking stride she picked up two lathes and skidded to a stop infront of him. If any one else was looking at them they would have thought that they were about to come to blows, there were sparks flying from Kalush at least. Even though it was not completely her fault that she was late she still would not use that to get her out of any punishment she was going to be asigned.

 

" Whats my Punishment?"

 

She knew that he would have one and hoped that it was hard enough on her that she could work off her emotions and be able to be atleast a little calmer by the time she was done. Her own face showed no emotions but her eyes were alive with it, a fire that seemed to be burning out of control was easily seen there. absently she wondered if he had noticed a change in her temper when she was training, realizing that she had only been training with him for a little over a week she doubted that he would have. The longer he stood there looking at her the more the signs of her temper being out of control were becoming visiable. It was some thing even her mother had been working with her on, using her work out to control her temper, she was getting better at it now that she had come to train with the warders but today was not turing out to be a good day.

[Asfaloth]

Shawn was seething. Normally in complete control of his emotions, letting nothing show unless one could read his eyes, he purposely let his anger show. Kalush needed to know just how dissapointed he was in her behaviour this day. She was so full of pride she didn't even try to explain herself, obviously assuming that her reasons were good enough and that she was high enough above him to not need to share such things. Well, he would change that. She would learn humility if it took all he had. Even if it took years longer than most he would make sure she learned it before he'd present her for inclusion in the Guard.

 

Her eyes were alight with flame and anger, but what had she to be angry about, when she was the one in the wrong? Perhaps someone else had caused her tardiness, and if so he could actually respect her reticence to explain. She knew she was in the wrong and she was willing to pay the penalty even if it wasn't wholly her fault. Truly her mother's Ren Shai training was responsible for that. Very well. He stared into her eyes, knowing the power that his could sometimes have over people. She held up longer than most trainees would be capable of, but she did back down.

 

When she did look away he kept the smile from his face, she had earned her respect and he couldn't enjoy punishing her. But she needed to learn. "Your punishment? Well, in a way that depends on you. Do you know why I'm upset? Do you even know what you've done wrong? Do you have any idea of the consequences of your actions? Answer these questions and then tell me what you think your punishment should be."

[zie]

Looking in to his eyes was hard for her to do since she knew that he was disappointed in her, in all honesty she was disappointed in herself as well. She had agreed to train and the first distraction that came along caused her to be late and miss out on her morning work out. The urge to look away became to much and she finally did look away from his all seeing eyes, some times she thought that he could see to much in her.

What he asked was the last thing she expected, she wanted to work off some of her anger before talking about any thing. It seemed that he wanted her thinking while she was angry and in most cases she would have been fine to do just that but some thing about today made it harder than normal.

 

"Your punishment? Well, in a way that depends on you. Do you know why I'm upset? Do you even know what you've done wrong? Do you have any idea of the consequences of your actions? Answer these questions and then tell me what you think your punishment should be."

 

She took each question in turn, and had to spend a few moments choosing her answer, did she know why he was upset? The first answer that came to mind was her being late, but she knew that there was more it to than just that. She had seen others watching her and knew that Shawn did not trust her to do what she was suppose to each morning before he met up with her. In all honesty she could understand that one because of their first meeting and two because she was new to training and he did not know her that well. She tried to find her center and calm her temper just enough to get though answering his questions.

 

" Your upset with me because I was late and missed my morning training, nothing should interfere with what I need to do while I am here training with you. I know that I deserve punishment because I allowed there to be some thing that got in the way and kept me from doing what you have asked of me. Doubling my normal work out would be a start and other chores that need to be done."

 

It took all her will not to start scuffing her toe in the dirt like a little kid who was in trouble, she was training to be a tower guard she should not be acting like that. It was still hard not to do since she really did feel like a kid with her hand caught in the cookie jar. The urge to cry was suddenly there and she bit her cheek to keep any tears from falling, she was stronge and would make it though this just like she did when she lost her mother. Using the little pain from the bite she was able to focus some more and calm down a little more, Shawn still had not said any thing but there was nothing else that she could add to what she said. Not with out seeming to be trying to apease him, and she was not trying to do that she had been honest in her answers.

[Asfaloth]

Well she was close but she didn't have it fully right. "Aye, you're right, that is a part of why I'm mad at you, but it's not all of it. Yes, your training is important, so yes I am upset about that. Your workload is doubled from here on, as I said it would be when I first assigned it to you. And of course, if you miss again it will again be doubled."

 

She stood there looking for all the world as though she were patiently awaiting her sentence, but her eyes were still on fire. There had been more to this and he was determined to find out what it was. "Missing your morning workout would have been bad enough but aside from doubling it for the remainder of your training I would not have been as upset as I am. You see, while I expect my trainees to never miss a day it has yet to happen so I was not too surprised to hear you'd missed it. Everyone does and we move past these things. If that had been your only mistake today we would have moved on and put this little incident behind us in no time.

 

"However, you were also late meeting me, and not just a few minutes but over an hour late. As a trainee you have nothing to do with your time but train, I can think of nothing that would keep you from meeting me. But, before I can decide on your punishment for that, I need to know where you were and what kept you."

 

OOC: hey, how 'bout you actually bring Shawn to where you left Aran and show him what you did instead of just explaining?

[zie]

"However, you were also late meeting me, and not just a few minutes but over an hour late. As a trainee you have nothing to do with your time but train, I can think of nothing that would keep you from meeting me. But, before I can decide on your punishment for that, I need to know where you were and what kept you."

 

She felt like she had just been punched in the stomach, he wanted to know where she had been and what she had been doing. Her mind turned to where Aran was and the condition that the three of them had left him in, her first reaction was to refuse and run, but that would not do her any good. Several emotions washed over her face in a short time, shame, fear, but mostly emotions that caused her face to turn several shades of red before going deathly pale. Her hesitation only lasted a moment before her shoulders dropped slightly and she knew that she had to show him. If her reaction was not what he expected she did not notice, slowly she turned and started to lead him towards the trainee baracks. To any one looking at her she was composed now at least, but inside it was completely different every emotion was fighting with each other but her anger still out weighed all of them.

 

It was not a long walk that they took but it still seemed that way to Kalush, all to soon they were standing in the hall way. All of the mess and clothes were cleaned up and it looked as if nothing strange had happened here. Taking a few more steps she stood outside of the closet that was holding Aran, she waited until the few people who were in the hall had left before grabbing the door handle and opening the door. The note that they out on the door was still there but she paid it no mind before taking a deep breath. Pulling it open she turned and stood to the side so that Shawn could see inside the closet. It was hard to keep a streight face since Aran was right how they had left him, he was standing all tied up with nothing but his small clothes on. She started chewing on her lip the moment that she looked up and saw Shawn's face, it was not every day that some one of Aran's skill was found tied up in a broom closet.

 

If he asked her to explain what happened she was not sure she would be able to actually voice what caused all of this to transpire. Its not every day that you and two other women gang up on one man and show him that women can do what ever they put thier minds to. With Shawn standing there she started to fidget slightly there was no telling what was going though his mind as he stood there looking at a bound, blindfolded and gagged Aran. At that point in time she wished that she could hide some where or even go start her work out any thing would be better than just standing here waiting for some responce from Shawn.

[Asfaloth]

Standing there waiting for a response he wondered what she'd say. Would she tell him the truth or try to evade him again? What was the truth for that matter? He read a multitude of emotions cross her face in rapid succession and then she simply turned and walked away without saying a word. Shawn assumed she would be showing him the answer he sought rather than try to explain and followed her toward the barracks.

 

He thought she might be taking him to her room to attempt to blame her predicament on a roommate or something that had happened there to hinder her leaving. But instead she passed right by the room he knew was hers and stopped instead in front of a storage closet. Interesting. What could this mean? Why would she stop here to explain her tardiness?

 

When she opened the door it took all his strength of will not to laugh or even smile. Instead he kept the stern frown that he'd had on since she met arrived late and paused to consider how to proceed. he hadn't known what to expect from her explanation but a Tower Guard bound and gagged in nothing but his smallclothes and left in a closet was certainly not it. He also knew that there was more to this than what it seemed for there was no way that this half-trained girl would be able to overpower a man like Aran. What to do, what to do? Well, first he needed more information and he decided to get it straight from the source.

 

"Kalush, return to the yard and start running laps. I want you running until I get there, no matter how long I take. Since I no longer trust you to tell me the truth yourself I'm going to see if Aran can shed any light on what happened here."

 

As she walked away Shawn pulled a dagger from the band on his arm and cut the ropes securing his fellow Guard. Pulling the gag out as well he stopped Aran from following the girl, "No, let me handle her. Why don't you go back to your room and get some clothes and you can tell me what happened so I can devise a proper punishment?" Reluctantly Aran agreed and Shawn followed him back to his room. Once inside Shawn spoke again, "So, mind telling me what happened? I know that girl didn't do that to you herself. Or was it some strange bed-game gone awry? You know they frown on that between Guards and trainees."

[Wayfarer]

It was a long wait in the closet, in the darkness and alone. Well, not really, Aran found it easy enough to drift off in his own mind and he was interrupted every once in awhile as someone opened the door to see what was behind it. Resigning himself to being amusement as anything he could have used to free himself had been removed, he was even offering winks to the people who opened the door. All the while he was marking the face of every single person who opened the door and didn't set him free. Not that he would've been any different, but he couldn't let it slide or otherwise everyone would be given to doing such things to him. He had a reputation to maintain after all.

 

Blinking as the closet door was opened to reveal Kalush and Shawn, he winked up at the man who was trying his best not to laugh. Watching as Kalush was sent away, his bonds were off a moment later and Aran was straight on his feet. Shawn misunderstood it for an intent to follow Kalush, but what Aran wanted was to stretch his legs after they had been bound for so long. Clothes did sound like a good idea, and it was a minute or two later that they were walking out of the training barracks towards his own. Getting a few whistles of appreciation and comments that would have made most blush, Aran just grinned as he strutted. No doubt Ginae would hear he had emerged from the trainee barracks in just his smallclothes, he thought he might as well enjoy the calm before the storm.

 

His room was unlocked and his clothes were on his bed, folded at least so they'd been kind enough to do that much. Sitting those clothes ontop of his chest as Shawn asked his questions, Aran threw the covers back of his beds and crawled onto it, treasuring the softness as he pulled the covers back over himself. It was probably the first time Shawn had been in his room, so no doubt the beds being pushed together was a slight surprise.

 

"A bed game with her on my part would result in frostbite to begin with and then a good whipping from Ginae, and not even the good sort." Wrapping his arms around the pillow his head rested on, Aran continued. "I just got off watch and decided to take a shortcut through the trainee barracks back to here. Cairma was mopping up there for some reason, she decided to ask where I'd gotten the shiner from. As I was explaining, Kalush ran straight around the corner into me and bounced off. I decided to leave the pair to discuss their common ground, that is trying to kill me, and Lyssa turned up, I think she was using the same shortcut. One thing led to another but the three managed to strip me, tie me up and put me in there with that sign on the door."

 

"It was just a spur of the moment thing, Kalush got sucked into along with the other two and you yourself had a laugh." Grinning, Aran shrugged. "I can't expect to play pranks all the time and not have any done to me in turn. I'll just have to prank them all again later to make up for it when the opportunity presents itself."

 

 

Aran

Tower Guard

[Asfaloth]

"Hmm...I see. Well, I was hoping she had a good excuse for being late to our meeting but pranking a Tower Guard with the help of two other Guards is not good enough. I'll let you rest now and go deal with the troublesome brat myself." As he turned away Aran was already rolling over to go to sleep. Shawn had to laugh that the man was able to put it behind him so fast.

 

He had his emotions once more under control by the time he returned to the training arena. Kalush was there, running as he'd told her to. He let her run a few more laps while he thought about what to do with her. Eventually he thought he knew the perfect form of torture for his student and signaled for her to come to a stop when she got back around to where he waited.

 

Once she stopped he allowed her a chance to catch her breath before he calmly explained what he'd decided to do with her. "It seems you were late and without a good excuse. So you don't get the wrong idea, I have nothing against the occasional prank-so long as the victim takes no true harm. The problem was that you allowed such fun to interfere with your training instead of waiting for another oppurtunity to present itself. For this mistake in judgement you will be punished, in the hopes that you'll display more wisdom the next time."

 

He watched as she prepared herself to hear the verdict. "As dedicated as you are there was only one thing I could think of that might actually make an impact on you. I will assign you a task, one that is simple to complete but may yet prove difficult for you. Here's the rub, until that task is complete you will receive no further training from me. I expect you to carry on the workouts I've given you but you will learn nothing new until your task is complete. In the meantime you will spend your mornings working in the stable and your afternoons pumping the bellows for me or another in the smithy."

 

He waited to be sure she understood. Her question revealed that she did. "Your task is to get Aran to do you a favor. The favor can be of your choosing, I don't much care what it is, but you need to tell me now so I'll know when it's complete. Mind you, the task is not just to complete what you choose for yourself, the task is to get Aran to help you. You must seek forgiveness for what you've done. Do you understand?"

[zie]

It took alot of self control not to run when Shawn told her to go run laps, she knew that the two of them would talk about what had happened to Aran. It did not take her long to get back to the training ground and start her laps, she was not about to make this an easy run so she pushed herself hard. By the time Shawn actually showed up and pulled her away from running she was starting to sweat from her work out and had control of her temper. With each word he said she nodded her acceptance to the punishment, it was fair and she knew that she deserved it for what had happened. Although it was simple jobs she had a feeling that the simple part was why the punishment had been set for what it was. His next words almost made her knees buckle, she could not believe was he was telling her.

 

"Your task is to get Aran to do you a favor. The favor can be of your choosing, I don't much care what it is, but you need to tell me now so I'll know when it's complete. Mind you, the task is not just to complete what you choose for yourself, the task is to get Aran to help you. You must seek forgiveness for what you've done. Do you understand?"

 

She knew that her head was nodding agreement but the rest of her was in shock, she had to appologise to Aran and get him to do her a favor. Her eyes seemed to glaze over it that was possible, her temper exploded but seemed to freeze at the same time. The urge to destroy some thing was very strong but she knew that attacking Shawn would be pointless. The last thing she wanted to do was be any where near the man, in all honesty he was the only person that she actually hated. Trying to come up with some thing that she could ask him to help her with as a favor was not going to be easy, the first one that came to mind was helping her kill him but she knew that would not work. The second thought was to see if he would help her kill Shawn for this suggestion but she could not do that either, Shawn she actually liked, well most times. After a few moments she thought of some thing that would work and she was sure that he had no information so it would be simple. She tried to talk but for some reason nothing came out on her first attempt, it seemed to take her a few tries before she was able to tell him what favor she would ask Aran.

 

" The favor I want to ask Aran is for his knowledge on my mother, since I know so little about her past and what she did here."

 

There were two reasons she chose this, one being that she did want to know more about her mother's past and two she knew that he knew nothing about her mother or any thing she did while at the tower. Simple favor that would get her in and out of this part of the punishment with out having to spend any time around Aran. She looked at Shawn to see if he accepted her favor or if he would make her find some thing else that would be a favor.

[Asfaloth]

"One change I'll make to that. I doubt that Aran knows much about your mother so it wouldn't take much for him to say so just to get rid of you. No, I want you to reconcile yourself to him. You need to be reconciled enough that he would go out of his way to help you. The favor you will ask him to help you with is finding information on your mother, not just telling you what he knows but finding more. Now, you've wasted enough of my time for one day, I've got work today and I believe you've chores to see to as well."