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Leech's odyssey-Chapter 11: Day one
Leech sat silent and unnoticed on a thick branch of a tall tree overlooking his new home. A light snow fell as the pale light from the full moon above shone down on the compound below. He and Alice had been there for been there for a week at that point and spent that whole time getting to know the compound and the people in it. As it turned out the compound was much bigger than they initially had thought, they whole compound was made of three different bases that formed a triangle and were separated by forest. Each base consisted of five buildings each, a barracks, dinning hall, store house, prison, and a command center, and the forest between the bases served as practice and testing grounds. The one that Alice and Leech had stumbled on was called Omega and was the main command headquarters for the entire compound, and was home of the group's leader, Raymond Dockens. From the tree in which he sat Leech could see part of all three bases as guards and patrols shifted and torches burned outside buildings. Leech was feeling nervous cause only in a few hours he and Alice were to officially join and began there training and start their new duties. As he sat there and thought about what lay ahead of them he felt a familiar hunger and he knew it was time to feed again. Leech looked at the capsule filled pouch he wore and cursed the fact that the assassins had no live-stock for him to feed off of, and having resolved to never feed off people Leech was left with no other option but to take one of his blood pills, but ever since the first time he had a deep fear of them. With a disapproving sigh he opened it and removed one of the crimson pills and held it to the moon and let the light shine through it, as much as what could happen frightened him he was found the capsule to be quite beautiful, especially in the moon light. Leech closed his eyes as he leaned back against the tree as he popped the blood tablet into his mouth, it burst immediately as it touched his tongue. Some of the blood leaked out over his lip and he quickly licked it up. He relaxed as he felt the warm, sweet liquid flow over his tongue and down his throat, followed by a distinct metal taste. He opened his eyes and like the many times before everything had red tint to it for a few minutes, once it was gone Leech felt more comfortable and wrapped his cloak around himself and fell asleep.
A loud crash woke Leech several hours later. On instinct he rushed to his feet and readied his sword in one swift motion. He quickly shook his head to clear the sleep and confusion, then with a start he realized he was on the ground beneath the tree. Leech felt the burn of embarrassment as he looked around to find that all of Omega base had gathered around him, and were all laughing. He turned to see Alice standing off to his left with the base commander, laughing intensely and holding a sling-shot. "Have a nice sleep?", Alice asked mockingly, Leech looked down at his scabbard and returned his sword to it's resting position as he said, "Yeah, slept pretty good. The waking up part wasn't as good though.", he looked up at her and smiled, "Where'd you get that thing anyway?". Alice took the sling-shot and eyed it for a second, "I made it. It was surprisingly easy.", she smiled proudly as she placed her it into a small leather holster that was tied around her right thigh. Raymond, still laughing and dressed in his normal black and gold robe, stepped forward, "Well, now that everyone is awake and here i think it's time to begin training, don't you?", he asked smiling at both Leech and Alice. They both smiled and nodded back, then Leech asked, "Where do we start?", "Well I imagine I'll need to assign you two to a teacher. You two are actually luck as we have one of our best teachers available for you both, and as you are the only apprentices we have you'll be his only pupils.", Raymond said happily. "Good! Now when do we begin!?", Leech asked enthusiastically. The assassin leader looked at the placement of the sun, "Well, i guess now would be good. Come with me and I'll introduce you two to your instructor. come on.", the shouted, "The rest of you! back to your duties!".
The trio walked toward the Omega HQ, Dockens lead the way while Alice and Leech followed closely behind. Leech felt something was wrong, he looked over at Alice, she walked head down and hands in her pockets. "Ya nervous?", he asked smiling, she shrugged, "A little i guess. Aren't you?", she asked looking up at him, "Nope! not one bit!", Leech responded confidently, although inside he was very nervous, as he always was about new and unknown situations. As they approached the doors to the building they heard them slam shut and the new metal locks snap closed inside, "Open the door old man!", Dockens demanded, "No! There's absolutely no way in hell I'm teaching those two! Especially not that...that...Monster!", a loud, angry, older man shouted back. "Does he mean me?", Leech asked looking up into Raymond's face, Dockens sighed, "I'm sorry to say he does. The old fool refuses to accept that regardless on what you may be, you are still a good person.". "My a**! It's a trick! He's tiring to get us to drop are guards and then he'll strike. Kill that little monster while you have the chance!", the old man said through the door. Leech became angry and roared at the door, "I am not a monster! You're right, I'm not human, but dammit, I'm no more a monster than you!", and walked up to the door and drew is hand back to hit it, but Alice grabbed his fist, "I think once is enough. I mean you can't expect these nice people to repair their buildings every week just cause you upset, right?". Leech relaxed and hung his head for a moment, "You're right. So, how do we get him to change his mind and open the door?", Leech asked thinking aloud to himself. "I think I know how.", the commander said cheerfully and turned to walk to the side of the HQ, waving the two apprentices to fallow him. They walked a few yards from the back of the building, "Ya see, after your 'introduction' you made me realize that i needed a way to escape in case of a breech. To that end i have secretly had some men make an underground exit.", he stopped at the center of the wall and reached into the snow, after a moment searching in the snow the commander pull open a small wooden door that lead down into a dimly lit hole. "It's not totally finished yet, but it'll get us inside. Oh! and watch that first step.", he said as he stepped over to and dropped straight through the hole. Alice let out a small laugh, "Well, at least this promises to be an eventful day.", she said as she disappeared into the hole as well. Leech smiled and shook his head, "Well, that's certainly true.", he thought as he fell down into the dark ground.
He landed feet first, the fall was longer than he thought it would be. When he looked up he saw it was several feet above his head, luckily there was a large patch of hay stuffed sacks for them to land on. Alice and Raymond were standing at next to a small torch that rested in a holder placed firmly in the dirt wall that began the tunnel in front of them, "Well, that was fun wasn't it?", Alice asked playfully. Leech smiled and nodded, "It certainly was.", Leech began walking down the tunnel, "Are you two coming?", he asked over his shoulder. Alice hurried to catch up while Raymond grabbed the torch from the wall. "You can leave the light sir, all it'll do is give us away. I'd rather make this a surprise visit.", Leech said almost laughing. Leech had found over the years that he could see in the dark almost the same as in the light. They, Leech in front then Alice and Dockens in the rear, walked a few feet before the corridor became a sudden steep incline for several more feet and then flattened out again. Leech stopped in front of looked like a wall, but he could see faint box of light from the other side, he smiled as he placed his hand in the hidden door's center and slowly and pushed it forward. The stone door moved easily and quietly on the wood paneled floor, once it opened wide enough Leech cautiously stuck is head out and looked around. He found it opened to face a wall, as he looked in both directions around the door he found it was only a small wall, but it blocked the door by many feet on both sides. Leech, seeing no one there, stepped out and waved the others out as well, once out he put a finger to his lips to indicate silence and then pressed his back to the wall, crept to the edge of the wall and peeked around it. He saw the old man who had fired an arrow at his neck on his first day there, the man had his back to him facing the door. Leech rushed silently to the cover of one of the room's pillars near the middle of the room, once there he prepared to grab and subdue the old man. He bent down slightly to move quickly, but when he did the wood floor beneath him moaned and gave him away. He rushed out of his hiding place to find the old man facing him, holding his bow, ready to fire, and released the arrow it held, Leech rolled left and forward as the arrow grazed is hair. Once back on his feet another arrow was on it's way to his chest but he saw it and easily caught it, "Didn't we play this game before old man?", Leech asked condescendingly as he snapped the arrow in his hand. The old man angrily reached for another arrow but Leech was right in front of the man before his arm was half way to his quiver. "Oh no you don't!", Leech laughed as he grabbed the bow from the aged archers hands and broke it's string.
The man remained determined and grabbed an arrow despite the fact he couldn't fire it, but he instead stabbed it into Leech's stomach. Leech stepped back from his attacker and looked down at the offending arrow, that was buried to about the middle of the shaft, and then back at the old man and laughed while looking him directly in the eyes as he violently tore the arrow out, blood poured from the wound at an alarming pace for a little over a minute before healing. "Now that wasn't very nice of you. Why can't we just be friends?", leech laughed with a fanged smile. The older man began to sake as Leech moved closer to him, he was only another step away when Alice punched him in the back of the head, "That's enough. There's no need scare people.", she said stopping beside him and stared at him annoyed with her arms folded in front of her. Leech gave her a dejected look, "Aw, but he started it!", he said with a childish whine. Alice could help but smile as she spoke, "Be that as it may, it's not right to be so mean". She quickly reached out and grabbed him by the ear and turned him to face the man, "Now then, i think it's time for apologies. You first!", she said pulling Leech's ear. "Ow! Okay, Okay, I'm sorry for scaring you sir, and for breaking you bow string.", Leech said, then Alice released him and turned to the old man, "And now it's your turn, sir". The man's anger flared, "I have nothing to apologize for! especially to a child and a monster!", he yelled, no sooner than the last word had left his lips Alice was next to him and had grabbed ahold to his ear and gave it a small tug. Leech fought a laugh as she continued to demand the man apologize, "Now, are you ready to apologize?", she asked, "Never!", he protested, but Alice squeezed his ear harder, "OW! Dammit, fine! I'm sorry!", he shouted. She released him, "There, now was that so hard?", she asked sarcastically as she turned and stood back beside Leech.
Raymond walked up from behind smiling, "Well, seems these two put ya in you place eh pop?", he asked mockingly. The older man stood holding his ear looking defeated, "I guess they did.", the commander stood next to the old man, "Well, now that we're all here, how about introductions. You first pop.". The old man sighed, "Fine. Hi, I'm Larenzo Dockens, and yes, this lout beside me is my son. Now what are your names?". Alice smiled, "I'm Alice. nice to meet you.", the man then looked at Leech, "And you?", Leech's face was blank, "I don't have a name.". "What do you mean you don't have a name?", the man asked annoyed, Leech just stared back, "I woke alone on a beach some years ago with no memory, so if i did have a name, i don't know it.", the man seemed to take on a pained look, "Well, that won't do, you'll need some kinda name. How about we call you Red?", the man asked looking Leech's hair. Leech shrugged, "That'll work i guess. So now that that's takin care of, what's next? do we start training now?", Larenzo looked at Raymond and nodded and said, "I imagine we should. You two wait here, I'll be back.", Larenzo said as the two Dockens walked up the stairs. Alice turned to Leech, "Well, it's nice someone was able to come up with a name for ya, Red.", Leech laughed a little, "Yeah, it'll be good, but it doesn't feel like it fits for some reason.". Soon Raymond and Larenzo returned, the younger carried a broom while the older carried a rag and a pot, the broom was tossed to Leech while Alice was handed the rag and pot. "What are these for?", Leech asked without thinking, Raymond laughed, "For cleaning of course! You do know how to clean don't you?". "Of course i do! But I'm not here to learn to push a broom, I'm here to learn how to be an assassin!", Leech protested as he slammed the broom to the ground.
Larenzo walked up to him and quickly stuck him on the back of the head, "That's right, you are! The first think you need to learn is order, discipline, and how to take orders from superiors. Without those basic things you will never be ready for jobs later.", Leech sighed and picked up the broom, "I'll take your word for it. So what's first?". Raymond looked around the room then back at Leech, "Well, you can start by sweeping up in here, and then once that's done you can do the same for every building on base. After that you'll need to go to the creek and fetch water, you'll find the buckets behind the mess hall. If you do it right it should only take ya three trips. Then go help the cook with tonight's meal.". Leech just shrugged, "Fine.", then Alice spoke up, "What about me? What am i supposed to do with these?", gesturing to the objects in her hands. Leech could now see the pot held some kind of liquid, "You need to go over to the store house to clean and polish the weapons there and then take stock stock and organize the place, you'll find the equipment list in the bottom right drawer of the desk by the door there.", Larenzo said before turning to walk upstairs. Alice smiled and nodded to Raymond then Leech, "Well, i guess I'll get to it then.". Dockens nodded then turned to follow his father, Leech smiled, "Have fun.", he said mockingly, "Oh, i will.", she said with a laugh before turning and leaving the building, then Leech then set about his assigned chores
 randomizor301 · Wed Nov 10, 2010 @ 03:54pm · 0 Comments |
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