Zane sat at the head of the division four command tent and looked at everyone sitting around him. He had called this emergency meeting two hours ago, and now finally everyone was there. He had only called the people that he trusted most into the meeting. Rose sat to his left, and Aaron two his right. Also present was Luke, who looked concerned about the oddness of the meeting time. Others included two of Cliff's most trusted officers, Penny, Frank Kelper, who Zane trusted, and Tristen, who looked very uncomfortable with his being here. Pug surprisingly had attended despite his still very sore bruises. Cliff was not there, for obvious reasons.
Zane went over his plan one more time in his head. It was perfect, it had to work, for all of their good. Until now Zane had not even thought about the fact that he was the main target in Tim's plans. Now Zane was going to give Tim exactly what he wanted. Zane learned from Tristen that Tim would strike at the next Nulla Pugna. Since his next target would be Luke, Zane would trade places with him. They were about the same height, and with their armor on, the only way to tell them apart was Zane's Captain Insignia, which Luke would be wearing. Zane would wear the Sergeants colors and effectively, be Luke. Pug, who would be better by that then, would stick to the shadows and follow Zane. That way when Tim struck, he would get a lot more than he bargained for. Aaron, just in case he was targeted would be with Pug. He was also with Pug in case Zane needed backup. Tristen would keep Zane informed on Tim's actions during the rest of the week.
Zane took a deep breath and explained the situation to everyone present. With Pugs permission, he explained what happened to him, how Cliff had been shot, at this point, Tristen sank even lower into his chair. Then finally, he explained his plan to them. There were a lot of skeptical looks and raised eyebrows as he explained his plan. Rose seemed disappointed that she was left out of the plans. But Zane had done that on purpose, he didn't want to get her hurt too.
Luke was reluctant to let Zane take his place, but he agreed eventually. After all of the details had been worked out and agreed upon by the group, they went back to their classes. Zane, who usually found the classes interesting, could pay little attention to them in his anticipation. After his classes Zane went in to see how Cliff was doing.
When he entered the tent, he found Cliff sitting up in his bed with his shoulder heavily wrapped in cloth. He looked to be doing a lot better, although he was still very pale and seemed tired.
"How you feeling?" Zane asked. Cliff looked up and smiled when he saw Zane.
"My shoulder hurts a bit. But other than that not too bad." He replied.
"Can't imagine why your shoulder hurts," Zane said sarcastically.
Cliff grinned, "Neither can I. It's not so bad in here though, I get to have a break from all of my Captain duties."
"Not to mention you have Penny to keep you company and take care of you," Zane said.
"That too," Cliff said.
"Listen Cliff," Zane said in a more serious tone. "There are some things that you need to know." He explained once again what happened to Pug, why and how Cliff had been shot, and finally, his plan for the following Nulla Pugna.
Cliff listened intently while Zane explained, when he finished, Cliff thought for a couple of minutes and then said, "I only have one problem with your plan."
Zane looked at him in surprise, "What's that?"
"You don't even know what Tim plans to do. What do you plan to do after he does whatever it is that he's going to do?" Zane realized that Cliff was right, he hadn't even thought about that part.
He thought intently for a little bit and then came up with an answer. "I'll improvise," he said with a gleam in his eye. Cliff grinned again.
"My favorite kind of plan. Now I'm jealous, I wish I could help," he complained eyeing his shoulder with distaste. Zane smiled and bid Cliff good bye and started back to his own tent. He was thinking hard on the way there, Cliff was right. He was foolish not to have a plan for after Tim carried out whatever his plan was. Only problem was, there was no way for Zane to come up with one if he didn't know Tim's plan. The only thing he could do now, after all hell breaks loose, improvise. It was not a good plan, but at least he had help.
He reached his tent and sat down on his bed. The tent seemed really empty without Pug and Cliff there. Aaron was already asleep so Zane laid down in bed and stared at the ceiling, the day's events swirling around in his head. He managed to fall asleep to the most disturbing dream that he he'd had yet.
Zane awoke the following morning once again covered in sweat. He threw himself out of his sleeping bag and got himself ready for the day. As he strapped on his sword and threw his shield onto his back, someone knocked on one of the post's holding up his tent.
"Permission to come in? Said a hesitating voice.
"Umm come in," Zane said hiding his surprise. Valdus entered the tent looking extremely uncomfortable and turned to Zane.
"I am supposed to tell you to meet with Oran in his tent," Valdus told him avoiding eye contact.
"Uh thanks," Zane replied awkwardly. Valdus nodded to him and left the tent quickly. Aaron looked questioningly at him from the other side of the tent. Zane shrugged and left the tent picking his way to the command tent. Why would Oran want to talk to him? Had he done something wrong? Zane didn't know, but by the time he reached the command tent he was jittering with nerves.
He had started to pull back the tent flap when a harsh voice called out, "What do you think you're doing?" Zane jumped about a foot into the air, almost knocking over half of the tent. He turned around to see a aggravated looking Captain Dux storming toward him. "The command tent is off limits to trainees unless they are told otherwise!"
"I . . . I was told to come see Oran," Zane replied still trying to recover from Dux scaring him.
"Then see him in his tent," Dux answered gesturing to behind the command tent. Zane decided not to ask any questions, and went in the direction that Dux had pointed. He walked toward the back of the command tent and found a small tent that he had never noticed before. It was about half the size of the trainee soldier's tents, and almost blended in with the side of the command tent.
Zane hesitated and then knocked on one of the corner posts holding up the tent, as was the custom.
"Come in," came a muffled voice from inside the tent. Zane entered and found Oran shutting a large chest that sat at the back of the tent. Oran dusted off his hands and sat down at the table. Zane noticed that Oran seemed jumpy too, he looked nervous, almost like he wasn't sure what to say. This reminded Zane that although Oran seemed to be much older, he was only a few years his elder.
"Zane," he said locking eyes with him. "Have you by any chance been having any odd dreams, or feelings lately?"
"No . . ." Zane started to say no but stopped himself. "Y . . . yes." He refrained from saying any more than that.
"I had a feeling you did," Oran said looking a little more comfortable. He scrunched up his forehead as though he was thinking hard. "You see, I have many dreams, some are easy to decipher. But others . . ." he trailed off staring into space. He shook himself out of the trance and once again locked eyes with Zane. "I have had dreams about you Zander, most disturbing dreams." He stared off into space. Zane wasn't really sure where all this was going, but he did know one thing.
"I haven't told anyone that my name is Zander," he said meeting Oran's gaze with a cold look.
Oran smiled, "Don't be defensive about that. Like I said, I see many things in my dreams." Zane decided that this was an ok explanation.
"What kind of dreams?" Zane asked, now curious. Oran sat back as though trying to find an answer.
"They're kind of hard to explain, almost more . . . feelings than actual exact thoughts. Like . . . in my dreams I feel that you are in some kind of trouble or danger. The thing is, my dreams usually come true in one way or another." Zane thought for a moment, these were starting to sound eerily close to what his dreams were like.
"Why do you have these dreams?" he asked.
"Everyone has dreams. There is some truth to most all dreams," he replied choosing his words carefully. "Though some people's dreams are more distinct than others."
"Is the reason that you have more distinct dreams because you can do magic?"
"Yes. They are connected in a way," Oran replied still thinking hard.
"Why can you do magic?" Oran hesitated and thought about his answer for a while until he finally came to a decision.
"Because of this," he walked back to the chest that Zane had seen him shut before, and opened the lid. He reached in and pulled the staff that he usually carried around with him. "If it weren't for this I would not be able to do any magic." Zane looked at him quizzically. "That is all I can tell you without putting you in danger. But if my dreams are correct you are in danger anyway." Zane was surprised to see a twinkle of humor in Oran's eyes.
"So you wanted to talk to me because you think that I'm in danger?" Zane said still very confused.
"Yes. Pretty much," he grinned. "But from what I've seen so far of your training, it seems like you can take care of yourself.
"Thank you sir," Zane said swelling with pride.
"So is there anything that you would like to take to me about? Concerning you being in danger?" Oran asked.
"Well there is one thing," Zane said slowly. He decided that he should be honest with Oran since he was honest with him. "I also have very disturbing dreams. I often dream that I am in pain or of bloodshed." He held off from telling Oran about Tim's plot. Like Oran said, he could take care of himself. Oran considered what he said for a bit.
"Hmm that is probably not a good sign. I will try to find some way to help you. But meanwhile, try to stay out of trouble and not do anything stupid," Oran stared through him, he got the feeling that Oran knew more than he was letting on.
"Yes sir," he said and began to leave the tent.
"By the way," Oran said stopping him as he was leaving. "If you need to talk to me about anything don't hesitate to come to my tent." Zane nodded and left the tent. He walked to the class that he would now be late for. That's just what I need, he though, now on top of everything else I'm going to get punished for being late. What Oran had told him had only confused Zane more than ever, dreams being real? He had always assumed that his bad dreams were just part of his imagination, not some sort of omen for bad things to happen to him in the future.
He reached his sword fighting class preparing for Dux to go ape on him and make him clean all of the equipment. To Zane's surprise, Dux said nothing as Oran took his place with the other three Captains. The other trainees had class with Colonel Lentae, while the four Captains and Lieutenants had advanced class with Dux. Not surprisingly, it was his least favorite class. When there were only eight people in the class it was impossible to avoid being partnered with Winston. Usually it wasn't that bad, with Pug and Cliff to keep him company. Now both of them were missing and Zane felt very alone.
He nodded to Valdus as he took his place and glared harshly at Winston, who stared daggers back into Zane. Dux began the lesson with defensive strategies; it was just Zane's luck that he ended up being paired up with Winston. Exactly what he needed, he thought sarcastically, let's Winston try to kill me while I defend without attacking back. At least he would get to do the same back. Winston gave him everything that he had, but Zane managed to block everything that Winston threw at him.
When it was his turn to attack Winston, he aggressively tried to hack off every limb that Winston possessed. Though he couldn't actually chop off any of his appendages, he did succeed in giving him some pretty nasty bruises in places you really didn't want to be bruised. After defensive strategy, They proceeded to offensive tactics. This did not involve and actual fighting, but them sitting and listening to Captain Dux talk about different uses of tactics during battle. This part of class covered everything from land to land battle without cover, such as in a canyon, guerrilla tactics, and other things used to give you an edge during battle.
Zane liked this part even less, he would much rather be on the battle field fighting than learning about how some country far to the south fought their battle's one hundred years ago. Although it did boost his spirits to see that Winston managed to sit down on the ground after much difficulty and wincing from his new found bruises. Zane looked over at Valdus, as always, he was hanging on to Captain Dux' every word as though he were locking it into his memory. Zane ignored Winston's glares, tuned out Captain Dux, and passed the time by rerunning through his plan in his head.
When Captain Dux finally let them go for lunch, he stood up and stretched out his legs. He was on his way to visit Cliff and Pug in the division four emergency tent, when he heard someone whispering his name.
"Zane!" They whispered urgently. He turned and looked for the source of the sound and found Tristen whispering his name. Tristen was crouched down and hidden in a group of tents. Zane stepped behind the tents with him.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I have news!" Tristen told him excitedly. This was the advantage of having Tristen on his side, he was eager to make up for his mistake of shooting Cliff.
"Go on," Zane told him preparing to listen.
"I found out more about Tim's plan!" he said a bit loudly.
"Keep it down!" Zane told him, checking to make sure no one had heard. "I thought that they wouldn't tell you the full plan?"
"They didn't," he answered, being sure to keep his voice down. "They were having a meeting and I listened from the outside of the tent."
"Nice job Tristen," Zane praised, giving him a pat on the back. "What is the plan?"
"At first they were arguing over what the plan would be," Tristen began. "Apparently they were going to do something similar to what they did to your lieutenant. Then Tim told them that he was tired of sneaking around and doing everything so discreet. The rest of them agreed, and they decided to take a more direct approach."
"So what are they doing?" he asked impatiently.
"Tim and two other guys from your division are going to simply take Luke by force during the battle and bring him to the designated area. They didn't say where the area was, but I think it may be somewhere out of the spells range. Then they are going to force him to give up his position."
"Thank you tons Tristen," Zane said. He left Tristen behind the tent and started back toward the emergency tent. Even though what Tristen told him didn't change Zane's plan at all, it was very interesting. So Tim was getting tired of sneaking around huh? Well don't worry Tim, you'll get some action at the Nulla Pugna.
He reached the emergency tent and filled Cliff and Pug in on the new events. They all agreed that the news didn't affect the plan enough for them to call another meeting.
"So do you think that you'll be ready to go by the Nulla Pugna?" Zane asked Pug starting a new conversation.
"I better be," he said with a nod. "I don't want to miss whippin Tim for anything. He put me in here; it's time for some payback." Pug rubbed his hands together, savoring the thought.
"Don't worry you will get your payback," Zane told him. Zane left Pug and Cliff to their thoughts and went back to his tent. When he got there, he filled in Aaron with the new details of the plan.
"So pretty much you're going to get captured on purpose and I have to save your sorry butt," Aaron said folding his arms when Zane finished.
"That's the gist of it yeah." He replied with a shrug.
"Well don't blame me if things don't go the right way. You know I'm not the best fighter." Aaron said rolling over in his sleeping bag. Zane jumped into his own sleeping bag and went to sleep with his head aching.