POV Lotara
I smiled at the figure sprawled on the bed next to me. The handsome face, resting in slumber. I watched him silently as the light slowly poured through the gaps in the blinds. He stirred and his hazel eyes landed upon mine. He squirmed and covered himself as he flushed crimson.
I chuckled softly and kissed his forehead. I traced his toned abs with a lazy smile. "You look amazing Alex."
"It…" he looked away bashfully.
I got out of bed and stretched. I saw Alex staring and decided to tease him a bit. "Like what you see?"
It was so cute how he blushed. It made me want to devour him all over again. We washed up and donned our uniforms. We made our way through the mess hall.
"Leuitanat…" I cut Alex off.
"Lotara." I corrected him.
"But!"
"Lotara." I insisted with a smile as I leaned across the table and fixed his collar, brushing off the cadet ranks he wore. He squirmed a bit until I sat back in my seat.
"Lotara, about last night…"
I smiled. "It's never like you think the first time."
He flushed and I repressed a giggle. We finished our meal and headed over to the company headquarters, it was a short walk. Most were headed to their own companies, so not many saluted.
We entered the 6th company headquarters to see everyone jolt to attention as Vivian shouted. "Company Commander!"
"Carry on! I'm only filling in, you can knock it off." I grumbled. The troops started looking between Alex and I, then Vivian smiled.
"So he's staying with us?" She asked as Alex flushed red. The whole company went up in a roar. They pressed forward to congratulate Alex.
"Hell yeah!"
"Won her over?"
"Cadet too!"
The door opened and Vivian, ever trustworthy, belted out at the top of her lungs. "Brigade Commander!"
Smith Fulton walked in with Colonel Tullio right behind. The General sighed. "At ease, I got a lot to do today so I'll make it quick. First sergeant McNib died last night, succumbed to her wounds."
We were all quiet for a minute, she was a great leader, and held us all together during basic. Got us through the hump, just wasn't literate enough to be an officer. She'd been working on it, taking classes in her spare time, helping the rest of us when she could.
"I talked with Lieutenant Sera, and Colonel Tullio already… I have a couple promotions to hand out. Form up."
"Get outside!" Vivian screamed as everyone streamed out the door, grabbing their garrison caps and falling into formation. I stood in front of the whole formation, I was filling in too many shoes. The platoon sergeants nodded to me.
"Sir!" Smith jogged around the formation as I spun about.
"Sir the company is formed." I saluted.
"Very good." He returned the salute.
"Stand off to the side." I took a few steps to the side and faced the formation with a feeling of dread.
"Sargent Vivian, post!"
"Moving Sir!" Vivian jogged over and stood by my side as a squad leader took the place at the front of the formation.
"I'll keep this brief 6th, you are staring at your new command team! Company! Attention!" Smith turned on his heel and walked over to us. He removed my Lieutenant bars and pinned a single captain's bars to my right collar.
"Can't wear both till you got the time in service." He joked. Before proceeding to do the same with Vivian.
He took the spot back at the head of the formation and glanced at the Colonel. "Attention to orders! Lieutenant Lotara Sarrin is hereby breveted to the rank of Captain, Master Sergeant Celine Vivian is hereby breveted to the rank of first Sergeant, effective today April 13th 987 signed General Smith D Fulton, 1st brigade infantry, commanding."
"Alright 6th! You know the drill, back to work!" Fulton saluted the formation and they disappeared back inside as quickly as they came outside. He nodded to the colonel and started heading in the direction of the drill field.
"Sarrin." The colonel walked over and shook my hand as well as Vivian's.
"Ma'm." I stood at attention.
"Relax, relax." She smiled. "Who's taking command of your old platoon?"
"I was thinking Cadet Vandame could take over until a Lieutenant can be found." I responded after a moment.
"Vandame? The Prince?" She asked before shrugging. "As long as you think him up to the task."
"I have full confidence in his ability to lead." I replied as I recalled how he'd been on the battlefield.
"Alright, I trust your judgment on the matter. They'll be a few changes as well. It's regimental change, we're changing the numbered companies to alphabetized instead, 6th will become Fox company."
"Yes Ma'm." Vivian and I replied.
"One more thing, I'm tasking your company with training our friends, they're sending over platoon sized events to be taught our drill. They'll start arriving by the end of the day."
"Yes Ma'm." I replied with a sinking feeling in my stomach.
"They'll be quartered in the old guard barracks for now. Let me know if you need anything. Battalion XO is in charge of their quarters and equipment so forward the relevant complaints to her."
I had the company start preparing for the arrival of our guests, cleaning out the old barracks and securing linens and extra uniforms. Just after noon the first of them arrived.
"I'm Knightess Beul of the 17th regiment." I shook hands with the scarred veteran.
"Captain Sarrin, Fox company." I returned her draper nod and looked to the second knight.
"Knightess Iser of the 33rd regiment. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Captain." The young woman grinned.
"This is my first sergeant, Vivian. She'll get your women settled into the barracks." I introduced Vivian to them and got started on settling them in. Later in the evening the rest of the 'recruits' arrived.
"Knightess Temur, the royal 1st regiment." The middle aged woman glared at me distastefully.
"Knightess Dickem of the 7th regiment." The older woman had a wry grin as we exchanged greetings.
With the women being settled in I gathered all the important figures, my officers and the knights to discuss how the training regimen would look. I'd had Lieutenant Vandame work on the plan for the first week, mostly drill and I had him present it.
"Tomorrow we'll be going over basic drill as described in the drill manual. We'll focus on columns until a satisfactory level of discipline is achieved, then we'll move on to more complex formations." He explained as he passed out a few copies of the drill manual to the knights.
"I can't read…" Iser bowed her head apologetically.
"Can anyone who came with you read?" Vandame asked. He frowned when she shook her head.
"We'll just have to work around that then…" he sighed.
"I'll be in your care…" Iser apologized.
"Who cares? It's a column… we'll move past it in an hour. Even untrained boys can walk in a line." Temur scoffed.
"You weren't at Bauerdorf. You didn't see the columns of the 86th stand strong when the other regiments nearly broke when the daemons fell upon them." Dickem's replied sharply.
"Enough." I said forcefully. "We are here to train, if you don't like it… you can leave. I won't stop you."
I wrapped up the meeting and headed back to the officer's quarters with Alex when Temur called Alexious. "Your highness! What are these commoners thinking? Forcing you to act like this!"
She forced herself between us. I felt my blood boil, I had half a mind to clock her on the spot. Alexious stepped around Temur and stood by my side. "I would appreciate it if you would not insult my commanding officer."
"A commoner?" Temur scoffed. "Your highness… you can't be serious."
"Leave my officer alone, if you have a problem with my treatment of my soldiers you may take it up with battalion. Good night." I walked away, Alex followed after me. This was going to be a fun few weeks.