Taking the City

Naturally Sir Axel knew this to be true as soon as she'd said it - which in turn made him feel even worse about pressuring her into saying it.
"I see," he said in a soft voice, not really knowing how to reply for a moment. "That's quite a story. So it's just been the two of you for all this time?"

He then took in a deep breath, looked at her intently and said: "listen Fallon, if you can promise me right now that you have no intention to cause us harm, I'll believe you. And I won't ask any more questions, ok?"
He considered that a pretty fair deal. If she spoke those words, he could tell if she was telling the truth or not. With that, all concerns would be out of the way, and he could stop upsetting her. And Fallon, in return could feel secure that he'd stop prying into her business. Sir Axel would still have to ask Hunter, of course, just be to sure... but that would be over soon.

"It's been the two of us for as long as I can remember," Fallon answered nodding a little. Her helmet bubbing up and down as she nodded. When she stopped nodding her helmet was tilted backwards just enough that the shadow was nolonger covering her eyes revealing her eyes to be a bright purple.
"I don't want to harm anyone," she answered in a small voice, her eyes still on the leaves in her hands.

About to reply to Fallon's comment, Sir Axel was suddenly distracted by her eyes. He hid it quite well though, and with Fallon looking away constantly there was a reasonable chance she missed it. Fortunatly she went on to her promise, snapping Sir Axel out of it in order to pay attention to reading her mind.

After finding out she was telling the truth, he smiled. "Alright," he said, "I believe you."
He hessitated for a moment, questioning himself about whether or not he was suppose to say what was already on the tip of his tongue.
"Fallon, I don't wish to alarm you..." he started, "but I could see your eyes just now..."

Fallon smiled relieved when Sir Axel said that he believed her. She was starting to relax, thinking that she had done great so on her own and then he asked about her eyes.
Immediatly she tensed all over, her eyes big and she felt her stomach cramp up. Her hands were on top of her helmet before she knew it, tilting it right again and holding it firmly on her head. She was too scared/nervous to really give a vocal answer. She couldn't even think to herself about how he would react if she were to take off her helmet to give a better view of her eyes.

Sir Axel had expected her to be tensed, but not this much. Actually being startled by how startled she was, he quickly held up his hands in a calming gesture and said: "oh no please, don't- don't be scared."

I really hate myself right now...

"I'm sorry, I- I really didn't mean to scare you again," he went on in a calmer, but still apologizing manner. He let out a small sigh, then explained: "I hoped to get the point across that it doesn't matter to me... well, I'm actually not sure what about you think you should hide... but either way, I wanted to point out it makes no difference to me."

Fallon got thorn then. On the one hand she really wanted to confide into someone. To be herself around people even though they rarely had contact with other people all that often. She lowered her hands and picked up the leaves that had fallen to the floor, her hands shaking slightly.
"What sort of people are there in the rebellion...?" she asked in a small voice. Before she could really consider to confide she first wanted to know who/what were already accepted within the rebellion.

Sir Axel found some hope in Fallon's reply; it showed she was at least considering!
"All sorts of people really," he replied in a kind voice, "I wouldn't even know where to begin. There's pirates, vampires, element benders... there's witches and wizards, a nympf also, there's a guardian angel, and uhm... we actually haven't figured out what he is... Of course there's ex-soldiers, and citizens... people from other dimensions..."

He paused for a moment, just before realising he hadn't mentioned someone; "o yeah," he therefor added with a small, slightly awkward chuckle, "then I'm a little weird myself..."
His expressioned softened then again, as he calmly concluded: "I might still be forgetting some people, but the main point is... there are so many different kind of peope here. There is no need to be concerned about showing who you are. That is exactly what we came here to fight for in the first place, after all."

At the mentioning of a nymph Fallon looked up, interest clear on her face. That turned into a slight frown when Sir Axel said that there was a man who they didn't know what he was and then tilted her head when he said that he was a little weird himself.
"How are you weird then?" she was her first question and then added, "what kind of nymph...?"
Her eyes stood somewhere between curious and hopeful. She had never met a nymph before and that was not because she hadn't been keeping her eyes open for one during her travels.

"Her name is Rose, I believe," Sir Axel replied, "and I believe she's a plant-tree nympf, but..." he found himself doubting for a moment what the right name for it would be. Finally he just continued: "I'm not sure if I'm saying it right, but if you want maybe we can introduce you to her later? You can ask her yourself?"

He hessitated before saying what made him 'weird', somewhat hoping that Fallon's interest in nympf's might distract her from it. It wasn't that he was embaressed to say it, but he could imagine it would make him seem even more invasive than he already appeared.
But in the end there was no going back on it so he just calmly replied: "I can read people's minds."

Fallon looked very curious when Sir Axel was telling her about Rose. She frowned a little amused though when he said that she was a plan-tree nymph. Even if that was the right way of calling her species it was funny and she let out a small chuckle. When he asked her if she wanted to be introduced to Rose her eyes lid up.
"I would like that," she answered with the type of eager smile only small children could pull.

When after a moment of silence Sir Axel said that he could read minds it took her a moment to link it to her question before his explanation of Rose. And then another moment for her to start understanding what he just said and ten her enthousiasme about meeting a nymph dissappeared replaced by warning flags and uncertainty.
"All the time?" she asked uncertain and slightly fearfull because of the secret she and Hunter where keeping.

Sir Axel smiled and nodded; "alright," he said, "either myself or someone else will introduce you to her then." His eyes shifted towards Hunter, and he went on: "well, soon as your brother wakes up, that is. I can't imagine the fright he'd have if he woke up and you weren't here."

Then, in reply to Fallon's question, he first shook his head, and then explained: "no, not always. I mean, I can't see everything that is in your mind, only the things you are thinking about at that moment. And only if I focus on it. Rather like when you're in a large crowd, and you only hear what others around you are saying when you focus on it."

He then finally got back up straight: "I have some things to arrange now," he said, making his way to the outside, "if your brother wakes up, just come out and see me. I'll stay close-by, ok?"
And with one last smile he left.

Fallon was glad when Sir Axel said that either he or someone else would introduce her to Rose the nymph when Hunter would be awake. Admittedly it hadn't even crossed her mind to leave the tent, willingly, as long as he would still be asleep. When Sir Axel explained how his mindreading worked she tilted her head a little. She wasn't all that used to crowds so his example didn't help her a lot, but nontheless she didn't ask any other questions. When he got up and said he had to arrange some things she tilted her head slightly wondering what things he could be reffering to. She nodded at his suggestion of coming out of the tent when Hunter would be awake and gave him a small wave as he left.

Quite sometime past in which Fallon just said waiting in the tent for her brother to wake up. She was hungry and thirsty and she wanted to play with her leaves again, but she did nothing. Afraid that Sir Axel might read her mind while playing and not knowing how to manage food or drink without leaving the tent.
It was about three in the afternoon when Hunter finally woke up. As soon as he was awake Fallon told her about her meeting with Sir Axel while he was asleep. At first Hunter was upset that she hadn't woken him up, but as he heard that it went good he was rather proud of his little sister. When he was completely informed he made sure his hat was on good and his pants where brushing the ground and then checked Fallon's helmet and skirt were good and then they left the tent together looking for Sir Axel.

As they'd come out of the tent, they would be able to see a campfire site (if they looked past several other tents set up around them). As said, there was a campire in the middle of this site - though the fire had been reduced to only a small, black pile of smouldering charcoal - with a large kettle hanging over it. It was surrounded by a large number of dirty, empy bowls, suggesting a lot of people had just eaten there (which in fact was true, making this a much better timing for Hunter and Fallon to come out). All around the campfire, there were great big logs laid out on the ground in a circulair shape, serving as improvised couches.

On one of these logs, Sir Axel was seated. He picked that exact location because he knew he'd be visable from the hospital tent's entrance there. He was talking to the captain of the rebel soldiers, who seemed to have come out of the battle less fortunate, with his shoulder and head covered in bandages. Despite this, they seemed to have quite a light-hearted chat, by the looks on their faces.

After a while, Sir Axel noticed Hunter and Fallon standing in front of the hospital tent and he gestured towards them to come over.

As Fallon and Hunter stood in front of the tent orientating themselves a little. It had been dark when they had arrived, too dark to really get a view of where they were. When they spotted the all but died out campfire and the empty bowls Fallon's stomach growled. A slight pout came to her lips, she was hungery and seeing to have missed a mealtime didn't help with that. Hunter took her hand and gave it a small squeeze, he felt a little guilty for her hunger.
It wasn't until Sir Axel gestured for them to come over that Fallon recognised him. She hadn't been paying all that much attention to the two men. Hunter looked at Fallon for a moment to see if this was the men she had spoken about earlier. When he saw the recognision on her face they walked over to them, still holding hands.

"Afternoon," Sir Axel greeted them with a smile, "good to see you up and about. I was almost starting to get worried."
The rebel captain looked at the children with some curiosity, leading Sir Axel to start introductions; "this is captain ? (name-to-be-found-later XD)," he said to Hunter and Fallon. He was then about to introduce the children back, but then decided to leave that up to them.

Captain ? nodded his head at the children as a greeting, a friendly smile on his face. "Why don't you join us?" he said, "the soup's all gone, I'm afraid, but I think there's still some bread and dried meat left."

Fallon smiled a little back at Sir Axel, but captain ? made her shy again. She took a step closer to Hunter as his curious eyes locked onto them. Hunter on the other hand made himself a little bigger, tilting his head upwards slightly as well. They both nodded as manner of greeting before Hunter introduced the two of them.
"I'm Hunter and this is my younger sister Fallon," he said before they both took a seat on the closest log to Sir Axel and captain ?. At the mentioning of food Fallon's stomach gave another growl which caused a faint blush on her cheeks. Despite how hungry she was she didn't really had the guts to ask for some of the food. Hunter had the guts, but that didn't mean he had the social skills/knowledge of how to ask for it politely.

"I'll go check the supplies for some good," captain ? said whilst getting up, suspecting his presence was making the children feel awkward.

Sir Axel nodded in agreement as the captain walked off, then returned his attention to the children - Hunter to be more specific. "You must've been quite tired?" he asked Hunter, "did you sleep well?"

Hunter and Fallon silently watched captain ? leave. Hunter wondered what goods he was referring to, or if he was just saying something to validate his leave. He didn't say something about it though, especially not when Sir Axel's question sidetracking him.
"Yes I did," he answered, "I didn't knew I was that tired to be honest..."
He looked a little uncomfortable as he thought about how long he had slept. How deep he had slept. How long he had let his sister be without his guard...
"Can I have some bread...?" Fallon asked in a small voice, looking at her knees while she asked that. She felt uncomfortable asking it, as she was not used to asking this sort of things, but she was hungry.

Sir Axel looked at Hunter a little concerned for a moment; he was really putting a lot of pressure on himself protecting Fallon. It wasn't that this wasn't understandable, just... it seemed like quite a lot of responsibility for someone so young.
"Well, then it was a good thing you slept for so long, I think," Sir Axel replied, failing to let his concerns show.

He then turned to Fallon with a smile and said: "the captain's just getting some now, I think." He then added: "and you don't need to be shy about asking that."

Just there captain ? returned with a woven basket, with in it two pieces of bread, a bit of dried sausag and two apples. He also had a jug filled with water under his arm. "Here you go," he said, handing the basket to Hunter and the jug to Fallon, "enjoy." He then sat back down on log, next to Sir Axel.

On the one hand Hunter had to agree with Sir Axel that it was a good thing he had caught up on his sleep now. They were relatively safe in this camp by the looks of it. Fallon was at the moment not soley depended on him for safety so he shouldn't beat himself up for getting the rest he had been denying himself for so long now. He couldn't deny that he was glad when Fallon asked her, especially for her, bold question and was happily surprised when Sir Axel told him captain ? was probably getting them some food now.

And then a few moments later captain ? came back handing Hunter a basket with food for the two of them and Fallon a jug.
"Thank you," Fallon said in a small voice and Fallon said it a little louder after her.
Curious to the contence of the jug Fallon pulled the cork out of it and sniffed for a moment. Recognising the, lack of, scent to be water she took a few mouthfulls before passing it on to Hunter. Taking the jug from her he gave her one of the breads and they both ate and drank. The time it took them to eat what captain ? had given them made it clear that these children hadn't eaten a decent meal in a long time before they had been taken into the camp.

Both Sir Axel and captain ?* looked at the children eat with a small frown, then looked at eachother, both putting together that the children propbably hadn't eaten in quite some time. This wasn't all that surprising, of course, but still somewhat concerning.

"I take it there wasn't much to eat for you two in the inner ring of the city?" Sir Axel asked.
This question lead captain ? to a topic he had some questions about: "what is it like in there anyway?"
Of course Sa'Ida's soldier and Valdez had returned with some information concerning this, but even so they'd only been inside for a short period of time. Information on how it'd been from the beginning and how things had changed over time might reveal something more.


* Seriously starting to like the name "captain ?", I might never find him a name! XD

Fallon shook her head at Sir Axel's question and after captain ?'s question Hunter took it upon him to elaborate.
"There was enough food for those who belonged inside the bubble and for those that had gotten in through the legal manners," he explained, "but if you were trapped in like us without any of the nesecarry paperwork they didn't care. We tried begging but hardly anyone gave us anything, so we tried stealing, but the amount of guards had increased so that wasn't all that succesfull either... In the beginning a lot of people were scared about what was going on, but when they knew they realxed. But over time some people became paranoid about being trapped inside, but others still believe themself to be completely safe because of the bubble. We've heard guards talk about how the king shows himself only to a select few and only on his invitation. All over the moral inside the bubble is rather low..."
He didn't knew if what he had just said was of any interest for Sir Axel or captain ?, but he felt like he should tell them as much as they knew because they were kind enough to share their food with them. During all of this time Fallon had been fumbling a little with the fabric of her skirt not looking at anyone.

Captain ? had a very focussed look on his face as Hunter began telling about the inner ring of the city. By the look on his face you could tell he was trying to make a mental picture to go along with the story.

Sir Axel's expression was more relaxed; admittedly, there wasn't much in the story that he didn't already know from the rapport of Sa'Ida's soldier and Valdez (the latter of which was quite elaborate about how some of the noblepeople in there didn't seem to comprehend the sticky situation they were in, something he deemed both annoying and amusing).
Still, he also tried to imagine what exactly the conditions were like inside the city's inner circle. 
And could they possibly use any of it to their advantage? The fact that some of the insiders were starting to let their entrapment get to them seemed promising...

"Alright," the captain said when Hunter was done talking. He then paused for a moment, thinking, then asked: "so where did you two hide out all that time? How did you prevent yourselves from being caught?"

The focussed look of captain ? made Hunter and Fallon a little nervous. Fallon looked uncomfortable at the question of how they had kept themselves hidden. It weren't her best memories. Hunter gave her hand a small squeeze again, she rested her head on his shoulder in response to that a sad expression on her face.
"We hid in different locations," Hunter explained, "never staying too long in one spot. We hid in alleyways, back street and some times on top of the roofs... Pretty much just wherever we wouldn't be noticed. Admittedly a lot of people didn't really pay attention to us as long as we stayed out of their way."

"Hmm," the captain replied, combined with a small nod of his head. Then he smiled and remarked; "that's a clever strategy."

Sir Axel nodded in agreement, though not quite as enthusiastic, more disturbed than impressed that these children had such well-developped survival skills. Also, several memory flashes - however brief - that flashed through the children's minds, he picked up, causing a rather grim look on his face.

Captain ? besides him seemed quite ignorant about this. His mind was too focussed on all the new invasion plans were popping up into his mind. Even though Sir Axel could understand his enthusiasm - being a rebel this long, it wasn't illogical to be eager for this whole thing to be over - but he didn't really like the idea of the captain swamping Hunter and Fallon with more questions right now. 

"Captain, I can tell that your mind is overrun with clever plans," he therefore brought up, "perhaps you should write them down before you forget them."

Captain ? turned to him, with a small grin; "yes, you would be able to tell, wouldn't you?" he said, in a teasing, hearty way.* "But very well," he concluded, "that's not a bad idea. I think I will."
Then he got up, said goodbye to the children, then marched off and disappeared into the vast sea of tents surrounding them.

"As subtle as a blunt axe," Sir Axel sighed as he watched the captain leave. Then he returned his attention back towards the children; "I hope his questions didn't bother you?" he asked.

* When he was still in command of the King, Sir Axel was often praised for his great insight in people. After Sir Axel revealed the reason for this -namely his mind-reading - to captain ? a lot of this admiration seemed to shift into a sortoff mocking attitude... as if making up for all those years he was undeservedly phraised. Sir Axel didn't mind so much, most of the time, though he did think it was a bit unnesecairy at times.