A month had passed since the Gryphon company had joined the town's defence. In this month they had started to build a second part of the town on the outside of the wall of course though they were not building it across the bridge but behind the town and safety of their defensives. Daylor stood on top of the wall facing the bridge, his eyes watching the trees, having been on guard since dawn. John came up behind his captain, yawning as he had just woken recently after taking the night watch.
"If you don't mind Captain I have a few things to bring up with you?" John said groggily as he drank from a steaming metal cup, a book in his other hand.
"John I could have sworn I told you to take the day off" Daylor replied with a hint of annoyance. John was always trying to ensure Daylor took off time each week but was always stubborn when Daylor tried to get him to take time off.
"I am Captain, that's why i'm not wearing my armour" John replied with a cheeky smile to his captain. He was in fact in a well made blue shirt and dark leather trousers, he also wore a dark blue nobleman's coat to ward off the bitter autumn air. "Besides that's why I have a book."
Daylor sighed and nodded at the First Lieutenant. A gesture the man had gotten to understand that his captain wanted him to carry on but didn't see the point in saying as much.
"Well first off, why did you promote someone as green as Daividh to lead a Sgioba?" John said without annoyance but with genuine curiosity. "Also I know I keep bringing this up but you don't have to keep on watch as a Captain you should assign others to do it."
"To your first point, yes Daividh is inexperienced but they know him. It may have also taken some arguing on their end but at the end he was the one who had the guts to come forwards knowing it may have resulted in his execution, and while I could still decide his fate he asked me to let the refugees in before doing as I commanded, a thing that most Captains would have given him a lashing for doing. Also you forget I am also inexperienced, yes I have had lessons in being in command since I was a boy but there is a difference in lessons and practice. And as I said they know him so they are more likely to feel more at ease with him giving them orders than one of us." Daylor informed him as he kept a watch over the forest, its leaves had browned and began to fall over the last few weeks. "And for your second point, I am used to being in an adventuring party. The way I see it, each person should pull their weight or leave."
"Ah right Captain if you say so, why are you so focused on the forest in the last few weeks though?" John asked, he was not dumb he knew thats where the enemy would have to come from, but the Captain had been showing more interest in it lately than he had before.
"They should have attacked by now, they show a greater intelligence than outside wants to believe and I think they know how our forces work, which means they most likely know we will not get reinforcements this close to winter, but at the same point they are losing the advantage of the forest, when the leaves fall completely the forest will not hide them anywhere near as much as it would now. It could only mean two things, none of which make me feel comfortable."
"What do you mean Captain?"
"First Lieutenant it means they either can attack without worry over the winter, or something else. If you knew that reinforcements would not come until the end of the next season and that forces from the main chokepoint cannot move, what would that mean?" Daylor asked as he turned to look at John.
"It would mean that they know we are not getting reinforcements, and that-" John said before he paled as he got his captain's point, gulping before continuing his point. "It means they know we cannot reinforce anyone else, and that the different Dìonadair's and the Èigneachaidh could not reinforce or be reinforced. Meaning they could take them out one by one, or starve them out as supplies will also be harder to transport. Not only that but then they would have time to reinforce land they take until we can move."
Daylor only nodded with a grim look on his face as he sighed and turned from the wall, his replacement coming to relieve him and more coming up to relieve the others on watch.
"Captain we have moved your belongings, we know you were being stubborn so we moved you into the new building while you were on shift." John said with a proud smirk as he led the captain down and past the barracks, towards the mayor's house where another large building had been built near it. Daylor had ignored its production as his soldiers had built it, thinking it was another request from the mayor that John had taken care of, now he knew the cheeky bastard had built a captain's house and office for him. They had been trying to get him to move out of the barracks for a while saying a man from his station needed better accommodation.
This had annoyed Daylor because it had started only when the other soldiers had joined and his original soldiers then decided that with all the extra people the captain's propriety had to be enforced and that people should treat him like a captain. Some of them got annoyed that he sat and ate with the soldiers like a standard soldier, so in the mess hall they had made a table for him and the Lieutenant's to sit at, yet Daylor annoyed them by saying each meal any soldier could come and join them until the seats were full.
The constant show actually worked in the Captains favour without him or his original trusted soldiers realising, it meant that the men and women who had joined him saw him as a worthy man who would treat them all with respect and they knew he would fight with them, bleeding and struggling in the lines beside them. But they also knew they had gained the respect to listen to their Captain, trusting their lives in his hands knowing he wouldn't throw them away.
Daylor, who was obviously annoyed, followed John to the place they had made for him, his annoyance only rising when he saw how grand it was on the inside.
"John what is this? It is overly decorated even for a high captain or even a general?" Daylor asked with a grim foreboding.
"Ah well I have good and bad news. The good news is that most of this is from the locals and mayor thanking you for the help we have given the town under your orders. They say it is doing better than it was in their fathers, fathers time and for the defence you have given the town. Apparently before we came here a local gang of thugs from a few towns over would pester the town for supplies and money every few months, and the local baron had ignored it as the money went to his pocket. And with it being disputed land between this barony and the one past the river the crown could not get involved. And our presence has stopped that from happening." As John said this Daylor remembered a group of ruffians John and a few of his soldiers had roughly dealt with after the harvest had been brought in. Yet Daylor had turned a blind eye as the soldiers were not using weapons and he trusted in John's judgement.
"And the bad part?" Daylor said, the bad feeling remaining as he read John's grim face.
"The stable hand overheard parts of your conversation with Bray. Before we knew what had happened, the tale of a prince from another land coming to help the town defend against the barbarians across the river had spread." John said with an apologetic look on his face.
"Are you telling me they don't even know I am not a prince anymore or that I was banished?" Daylor asked, sitting at the ornately decorated mahogany desk that had apparently been carved for him. He could tell due to the image of Sgàil Luath that had been carved into the front of it.
"Well they didn't hear why you were banished sir, so rumours have gone around saying you were banished because you wanted to help the common folk, or the story that you had fallen in love with a commoner is fairly popular. They seem convinced your father was some sort of tyrant." John said, then when he saw a hurt look on his Captain's face he looked more concerned. "Is something wrong sir?"
"That one actually is another reason I was banished, sure me being an abomination to my father didn't help but after I rejected my arranged marriage for a servant was the real reason he banished me, It is just a bit too raw to talk about." Daylor said, a memory of finding the corpse of a beautiful woman with purple hair, emerald eyes and bronzed skin. For a moment he was overcome by the pain, and the fury that memory brought him.
"I-I am sorry sir, I didn't mean to bring up old wounds." John said with a sad look "I also think that you should have some Sciath after this came to light, it most likely left the town weeks back and some aspiring nobles could try to get you killed to improve their relations wit-"
John was interrupted when a knock sounded on the office door, John looked at the door and probably due to the current conversation his hand fell on his hilt as he looked at his Captain. Daylor just nodded towards the door which John opened with a slight hesitation.
"How can I help you?" he said to the person on the other side of the door, an edge to his voice that warned Daylor that John was unsure who the person was. Yet the young demon couldn't help but smile when he heard an odd echo-like voice respond on the other side, one he was used to and had not heard in months.
"We are here to see your idiot of a Captain" the weird voice said with a mix of humour and annoyance in the inhuman voice.