The Thief

Chapter 15

We all stood in at attention in a line as a short greyed intimidating looking man walked up and down inspecting us, the new recruits. Some shook slightly under his sharp harsh gaze.

The weather was not in our favour as the heavens opened up and it began to rain soaking me to the bone. Mud slashed and sloshed around our feet. Soldiers were running around to get shelter but we did not move. We stood our ground- well the others stood their ground I battled not to fall over. My stupid leg.

"First things first. You have all just signed your own death notes," The short guy spoke in a hard solemn voice "you are now no one. You no longer have a life. You are all the lowest of the low and I have little to no respect for you."

He walked up to each of us, pausing for a few seconds and glaring at us especially those taller than him. He stopped in front of me. I held my breath praying he wouldn't notice anything different about me from the others.

"You are all pieces of scum. Especially you prison guard." He spat harshly in my face before moving to his next victim. I breathed out a little.

"To gain respect you need to earn it. You need to prove your worth and loyalty to the army. In case you haven't noticed it isn't going to be all sunshine and rainbows. We are at war and I can guarantee eighty percent of you standing here today won't make it through the next month." I heard a few unhappy mumbles especially from the man standing to my left.

In a flash the old guy giving us his harsh speech was in front of him glaring. He was about to reprimand the poor fellow when a group of three muddied horses carrying their armoured riders broke into the clearing and headed in our direction causing the greyed man to huff somewhat annoyed and turn to face the new arrivals.

The leader of the group had slightly different armour to the others and rode two strides ahead of them. His horse was as dark as the night, a true beauty yet looked tired and battered seemingly to have run quite a great distance for a long period of time. The other two resembled its state as harsh breathing could be seen through the coldness of the air that the rain brought.

They were in front of us in mere seconds. The leader dismounting while one of the fellows with him took his horse away. The other remained for a second longer watching the dismounted man as if waiting to receive orders. The leader flicked his head slightly at him signalling him to go to which he complied.

"Commander." Our harsh short speech maker acknowledged the leader.

"Terrorising the new recruits again are you Goneril, you are getting to old for this old man. I fear you may have a heart attack one day." The Commander lightly joked.

"Just because you are above me doesn't mean you can get cheeky with me kid." Goneril scowled.

The rain had died down a little leaving it as a soft drizzle with chill biting wind. The Commander chuckled lightly before pulling his helmet off his head. He had dark rings under his grey blood shot eyes showing his lack of sleep and stress.

A rough stubble graced his face, he had a scar on his left cheek and untidy brown hair. He was not at all bad looking. But he was younger than I expected. He looked only to be a few years older than myself.

"Has he arrived yet?" I could barely hear the Commander as he spoke in more of a hushed tone.

"No. He was held up in the Capital." I had no idea who they were talking about but I had the feeling the person was only held up because of my escape.

"Send word as soon as he arrives." The Commander turned to leave and walked past me. He stopped however and turned to look at me for a minute.

"Wow never expected to see a prison guard here. Curious." He shook his head and left.

"Right you scum. Where were we?"

By the time evening arrived I had a changed attire. I no longer wore my prison guard amour but instead basic leather armour over sloppy scratchy clothes that they had given us. Luckily the armour covered my breasts successfully hiding my feminine build. However I did have to bind my chest with some long torn slips of material I made from a rag.

My face was another story. I managed to clean up slightly with the few minutes they gave us to change. I was forced to cut my hair with my dagger that now sat safely hidden in my boot against my injured leg for added support to it. The others I was with joked a while of how feminine my face looked. I just prayed they continued to think that I was just an unlucky guy in the looks department.

Right now I stood outside the Commanders tent with his dinner. I was tasked with the lousy job of doing all the extra chores for the rest of the week since I came dead last in the laps we had to run around camp. I think it was also the fact that no one liked prison guards.

I cleared my throat slightly and dropped my voice a few octaves. "Commander."

As soon as I spoke he appeared at the entrance, his armour was gone and he looked exhausted. He took the plate of food staring at it tiredly.

"This again..." He sounded annoyed at the food.

I turned to leave but before I could leave he spoke. "Hey you stop right there."

I turned around to face him again.

"You are obviously one of the newbies from earlier aren't you?" It was a rhetorical question but I gave a slight nod in response anyways. Slightly annoyed that he stopped me. He stared at me for a minute not saying a thing but I could see him thoroughly examining my face. I started to get a little nervous.

Nothing was said for a moment but the silence was absolutely deafening. All I could hear was my nervous heart beat pounding in my ears.

"Commander? May I please leave?" I barely managed to speak and unfortunately forgot at that exact moment to make my voice deeper. I slipped up and I was praying that he didn't notice. He looked at me weirdly before shrugging it off.

"Please walk in a four meter circle." He finally spoke. I was beyond confused at his unusual request but I complied anyways.

"You are injured."

"What?" I looked at him bewilderedly.

Shit I was hoping he wouldn't notice but in a way I was relieved that he didn't notice anything else.

"You solider where the prison guard from earlier and prison guards may be lazy however they are fit. What confused me is why you got the chore of serving me dinner. Only the person who comes last serves me dinner so I conducted you were either injured or fake but your limp was rather visible a minute ago."

"Commander if you don't mind me asking how did you know I was the prison guard?" I asked.

"Because you were the only one whose face I didn't see."

I was rather shocked at this guys observation skills. This must be one or the reasons he made Commander.

"One more thing. Please remove your shirt."

What?!