Daylor ran his hand through the remains of his hair, scissors had been brought to his long hair and a razor to his face. His hair was nearly shaved completely which he couldn't help but hate, that mixed with the metal armour that dug into him with each step of the large war horse he rode filled him with annoyance. He had taken a teleport circle to the closest city to his deployment but he still had to ride the remaining distance as the outer towns rarely had their own teleport zones.
He sighed as he looked up at the sky, trying to measure the suns through the leaves so he could figure out how long he had been travelling. As much as he could just use the display from his adventurer menu, he had gotten so used to measuring the time by the sky that out of habit he rarely used it. He figured that it was around midday and he had been travelling since sunrise, which meant that after seven hours of travel he was nearly at the camp.
Within a few more minutes he walked out of the woodland road into a large clearing, where he saw a mass of tents and soldiers moving around. Among the soldiers walked beautiful men and women in scarcely any clothes. Daylor knew that when large groups of soldiers gathered some would bring their partners, and sensing the ability to make money a large amount of prostitutes and gigolo's, even some traveling merchants who sold arms or even better alcohol would follow hoping to make a profit from the the wages and plunder the soldiers would acquire.
Daylors' eyes traced along the camp as he looked for the flag of those that would be under his command. Each camp flew the king's flag but attached to each one at the bottom lay an emblem that resembles each group. However due to the disgrace of the last captain Daylors soldiers where by large the smallest group and their flag was changed to a broken bottle which resembled the man's issues with alcohol, on his last fight he had gotten himself and most of those under his command killed as he had been too intoxicated to fight or think properly. His eyes were drawn to his group at the edge of the camp, on his way over he heard people talking about him and snickering about the group he would be leading.
He walked into the campsite of his soldiers and his hopes dropped as those he could see barely acknowledged his existence. Two of them, a well built human man with mud coloured messy hair and brown eyes were playing a card game with a woman with purple eyes and pink hair, her beautiful face would make most men and some women drool, her pointed ears stuck out from her hair giving away her elvish heritage. By description he identified them as Brander the berserker and Bray the archer.
Sat on a crate beside them was a man with a bold head and piercing blue eyes who watched Daylor, as he brought a bottle to his lips. He was a very muscular elf with scars covering his hand which meant he was most likely Gurok the monk. Two of the group were missing but judging by the sounds coming from the nearby tents it was obvious that they were entertaining some of the working ladies and men.
The sixth member was a short woman who was asleep against a tree, a hat covering their features with a staff laying beside her, giving away that she was the group's main caster Flair. The seventh was a lady who was above him in the branches of the tree, one of her legs dangled down as the other rested on the branch, she had a book in one hand in front of her face and a half eaten apple in the other hand. The only defining features he could see from the distance was her long purple hair flowing slightly in the breeze, the purple hair gave away to him that this was Aife the cleric.
The eighth was a human man who while wearing a set of dark leather armour, his mid length flowing hair was blue, his back was turned to Daylor as he was too busy flirting with one of the gigolo's, He knew this to be the groups ranger Ulric. The ninth team member was a very a androgynous elf with long blond hair and forest green eyes, they where Aisling the fighter and they where sat next to the fire sharpning their blade.
The tenth soldier was a knight named John who stood at the camp watching Daylor with a well hidden look of distaste. Daylor knew that the black haired man whos amber eyes were filled with hatred was the second child of the Purefel household and a known bastard son, his sister was the oldest child meaning she would inherit the house instead of him so he instead joined the army, after clashing with most generals however he was put into this group as punishment. Daylor knew this meant that Harald the summoner and Sasha the Knight must be the two in the different tents entertaining company.
"You must be Daylor" John said as he watched him with well hidden hatred, if it wasn't for the fact that Daylor had learnt to read people so well he would not have noticed the man's true feelings, and when fighting together his hidden contempt could result in one of them dying. After all, resentment could lead to you not properly watching your allies back. "Why don't you spend time with the working men and ladies, I hear you love to spend nights with anyone you want. You can leave the rest to me sir."
"Is that how you address your captain?" Daylor said in his best attempt at a stern voice as he gave the man a cold look, making it obvious that he was not happy with the man's words. "I hear you are the second so what are you doing cause it sure isn't your job, no one is even in armour."
"Captain is here, everyone at attention!" John yelled while he stopped trying to hide his dislike towards his new Captain. The group assembled in front of him, out from their tents came Harald whose eyes were a deep blood red, and his hair was a fiery ginger. And Sasha who was a fairly short woman, her hair was silver and flowed all the way down her back, she had emerald eyes that seemed to follow the group in confusion.
Daylor walked in front of the group of misfits that stood at attention, they all watched him walk past them, silent and judging them. Some of them watched him with hatred, some annoyance, some indifference, Brander seemed almost bored in the look he was sharing, and Bray's eyes seemed to show what could only be said as hunger.
"From today for the next two years you will all be under my command and care, I ask only that you show respect and follow my orders, in return I will return your respect and will do my best to keep you alive." Daylor told them, he watched as they stood there not caring or not listing, he was not dumb and knew it would take time to get their respect, but he needed them to follow his orders. "You will do as I command, or you can go home right now, do you understand!?"
"Sir yes sir!" they replied, annoyance and anger flashing through most of them, but he knew they would not want to go. For them to still be serving in this dishonoured group meant they had nowhere to go.
"Alright then, Dismissed. But suit up Soldiers, we are waiting for deployment, I expect you ready in ten!" Daylor yelled as Bray came up to take the reins of his horse from him, usually a job done by a squire but none in this company had one. He then carried his bag into his own tent. He gently placed the bag down before taking out the egg, ensuring it was safe and undamaged, smiling as he gently put it back into the bag where it had been wrapped in blankets with a heat stone to keep it warm.
Daylor had been sitting for only ten minutes before he was called for the war council. This annoyed him greatly because he had arrived hours before he was due because of a shorter wait than expected for the teleport circle, which meant they had planned to have the council before he had turned up to ensure he would look bad in front of the region commander, the generals and his fellow captains.
He stood his armour creaking as he left his tent and made his way through the camp. He looked through the camps as he passed, seeing each was lively, some soldiers spending their first wages with working men and ladys, others spending at the makeshift markets, a fair few also seemed to be playing games for coin and some where even spending time with loved ones.
While the other captains controlled a Dìonadair. Which is a force of between fifty and a hundred and fifty people Daylors men would only barely make a Sgioba, a force between ten and fifty people. To his knowledge he was the only captain to lead such a small force as usually they would be led by a Lieutenant instead, He had found out this was because other Sgioba's refused to form with his soldiers, which made his company the smallest in the known world. He had found out by inspecting his paperwork that he had indeed been labelled as a captain, and while he was not allowed to order other Sgioba's to join him, he did actually have the authority to find volunteers to join him if it was deemed necessary.
While in his own thoughts he walked into the tent and his eyes moved over the other captain. Each wore an armour that resembled the name of their Dìonadair, like the captain of the wolves had a silver wolf engraved into her breastplate, the only one with a plane breastplate was his own. The men and women watched him enter, some with indifference but most with a look of disgust. However the first general, the most renowned and highest ranking general and the commander watched him instead with interest.
A man whose golden carved armour was adorned with a gryphon spoke up upon Daylor's entry. "Why is he here? He runs the ten delinquents of the army who we cannot remove, which isn't even a Dìonadair. Not to mention he is a Demon kin!" the man spat with disgust, emphasising his hatred and words in the last part of his sentence.
"First off Charles this man is another Captain, no matter his race or who he leads you will show him the respect you would any other Captain or you will receive the lashing anyone gets for showing disrespect to anyone who is a lieutenant or higher. Second this meeting is for all Captains and generals" The strong voice of the commander cut in before anyone else could say anything else, Her amber eyes piercing Charles, her blue hair had been pulled into a bun to keep it out of her eyes so she could inspect the map with ease. It only added to Daylor's annoyance when he noticed he was one of the only few who actually seemed to have their hair to regulation length.
"As I am sure many of you are aware some of the orcs and their allied races have been attacking places within Baron Trayar's land, we are unsure of why as we have not been attacked by the mountain folk for a very long time but these attacks seem much better organised than those that our past forces have dealt with according to the records we have from the last king. So we will be putting some of you on key locations to defend, while the rest of you will be striking at their camps and other targets." The commander informed them, after a half an hour meeting they were informed that the larger forces would be on strike details and smaller groups would be the defending ones in settlements with walls.
This was because they feared that as the orcs had not been known to take towns that the larger battles would be on the plains. Daylor however was not pleased with his placement and he knew that his second would not be happier either.
Once the council had finished and Daylor had been dismissed he returned to his camp, By the time he arrived back the bells which informed everyone to pack up camp had been ringing for over five minutes. To his surprise his own group had already packed up their own stuff and had started to pack his tent up as well, John came up to him and waited silently for his assignment, his face twisted up when he was handed the orders.
"This is an insult!" he yelled as he started to shout a string of curses which were unfitting for a noble, even the bastard son of one like himself. He stormed to the others who were rolling up Daylors camp and began to inform them of what was happening, Daylor was busy watching the man he was sure would stab him if he could get away with it, in fact he was so busy keeping an eye on John that he didn't notice the bouncing bit of pink hair to his right.
"Umm Captain Daylor?" Bray said shyly, she was now donned in a set of brown leather armour, which he was sure showed more skin than was allowed by regulation.
"Are her arms embracing my bag?" Daylor thought to himself as his eyes had been brought to the dark backpack in her arms.
Bray blushed as Daylor raised an eyebrow at her armour, and than as it raised more when he saw her arms around her bag "Well sir the bag started to wobble and so I thought I should hold it for you sir" She answered him as her face blushed an even deeper shade going nearly purple.
He nodded his thanks to her and took it from her, she seemed to almost begrudgingly hand it over but her eyes watched with shock as he pulled an egg out of the bag and inspected it, making sure the egg was okay. It seemed to remain still now yet it still emitted warmth, so Daylor figured that it was possibly getting close to hatching from the earlier movement. Especially as it had first begun to wobble earlier that morning while he rode.
"What is it, sir?" she asked with excitement as the others now drawn in by her walked in and inspected the scene with curiosity.
"I have not the slightest idea, Other than the fact that it's the egg of an SSS creature." he told her.
There was laughter from Brander, as he then spoke in his thick accent. "Yeah right Sir, who ever told you it was such a high rank ripped you off, not even a high lord could easily get such a high rank."
"Actually I didn't buy the egg, I found it in a dungeon." Daylor replied as John tusked at him with distaste, most people were not fond of adventurer's, especially not those in the army who saw it as a play time for nobles or a career for the distasteful types.
"Ahh an adventurer then, at least we know you arent green to combat, But still sir I doubt it's even a B rank, I haven't heard of anything rarer being found in decades" Brander carried on while roughly slapping his Captain on the back. Daylor just shook his head with an annoyed sigh as his company threw the rest of the gear into the cart. And started to saddle up.
Daylor was checking each person's mount when he was suddenly shocked by the mount John was using. It seemed to be a war breed Utahraptor, its breeding making it larger than most horses, and swifter than most mounts. The reason this shocked him was because it was very rare a bastard was given a basic horse by their sire let alone a well-bred mount. He gave John an approving nod as he jumped into the saddle of his own horse and took the lead of the group, leading them out of the camp. They rode with the rest of the army but Daylor found his ever growing frustration increasing when the other captains called a stop hours before they would even need to set up for the night. His soldier's picked up on his frustration when he asked what the point of even marching for those few hours had been if they were going to stop so early.
As the group set their camp up for the night he noticed that they had put their camp as far from the other's as they could without being rude, as he took this fact in he moved to the campfire telling Ulric to put away his food. Before he was able to respond Daylor started to remove cooking utensils out of his pouch, shocking the large man as he pulled a large grill out of the small looking bag. He placed it over the fire as he then took out a few various pans, pulling out a bag enchanted to keep the food within it fresh. Over a few minutes took out eight stakes, rubbing a mix of salt and pepper on each side before placing them onto the pans. Adding a little bit of garlic butter mixed with parsley, in a side pan he cooked some root vegetables with the same butter. He then pulled out two salmon and started to cook them with a similar butter that was lacking the garlic in another pan, making sure to squeeze some lemon onto the fish. Before finally pulling out a large breaded mushroom and placing that onto its own pan to ensure it didn't touch any of the meat covering it in a marinade he had made before setting off in the morning.
It didn't take long for the group to be dragged to the campfire by the smell, and when it was he looked up at the gathered group and with a slight smile asked a simple question. "Who here is smuggling alcohol?"
Shortly after with the aid of Ulric, Brander and Bray who had smuggled a couple of kegs of mead in their own cart the entire group had a mug ready. Then with the food being ready Daylor started to plate it up, he first handed the fish and vegetables he felt would go best with them over to Flair and Aife. He had while doing research on them found out they were both pescatarian, he then handed the mushroom and some root vegetables over to Gurok making sure to use the tools that had not touched the meat or fish. He had discovered that due to religious reasons from the monstory Gurok had been raised in he was not allowed to eat meat. He then finally dished the rest of the food along with the remaining soldiers before finally doing his portion last.
"Thanks Sir, don't think I have ever seen a Captain cook for soldiers before." Ulric said as he sat down with his own plate, the man almost moaned as he started to eat the steak. "Damn sir, where did you get this steak?"
"To be honest Ulric, when we are off duty you can drop the whole sir thing. I don't even think I should be commanding you lot." Daylor admitted, half of the group seemed to be shocked at his admittance. "I have not had to be a rank higher than people in, well, a long time. And in my other group we have an agreement to all pull our own weight, I don't want you to serve me or butter me up. I will not give you orders from a tent behind the walls, I won't make you work while I sleep. For each order I give you all I will either be beside you or doing something else to help the situation."
"That's a… rare attitude to have as a leader." Sasha spoke, her voice seemed commanding yet gentle at the same time. Her earlier dislike was seeming to turn into interest as she watched the new captain.
"I am not an idiot, I know that I am fresh out of the academy. As much as I took the leader role of my party, warfare is very different to dungeoneering or brawling. I know I have a lot to learn and I hope you will all help me. I will take any suggestions on board and as long as you are not a prick about it I wont see a reason to lash out. I would also like to duel in the mornings to learn how to best fight in a war and to learn a little from all of you." Daylor replied as he washed down his food with the sweet mead. "Anyway I ask you to forgive my rudeness but it has been a long day for me, so I think I will retire early tonight. I want you all to be up a couple of hours before we will be moving in the morning, as long as you will be up and rested in time, sleep when you please. If there is a shift pattern for the night, wake me up for the middle one."
With a swift goodnight from the rest of the group, and agreements to wake him in time for his own shift on watch, the captain headed to his tent. He didn't even think about the fact he pulled the blanket covered egg into his cot with him and swiftly fell into the blissful darkness of sleep.