Bookworld Online: Marsh Man

It took us a surprisingly long time to walk back to the training base through the woods. I hadn't realized that I had travelled that far.

I guess I was enjoying myself too much. I thought with a smile as we approached the large road in front of the base. There was no reaction at all until we left the woods.

A loud whistle sounded and a bugle played a rally tune right after, then the gate opened and three half-dressed squads of fighters were out through the gates and prepared to fight while two squads of crossbowmen took up good firing positions and prepared to open fire.

“Run!” “Duck!” “Get out of the way!” Several of them said loudly at the same time and waved for us to move out of the way.

“STAND DOWN!” The crossbowman carrying the swordsman yelled and everyone looked at him in confusion.

“There's an owlbear behind you!” One of them said and pointed.

“It's not alive! Private Drake is carrying it!” He responded and there was even more confusion.

“It would be... a lot taller.” I said and managed to wave. Barely. Unlike doing push-ups with Gillis sitting on my back, an owlbear was damn heavy, and I had carried it for miles. I was nearly completely covered in sweat and my back was covered in owlbear blood.

“Good lord.” Someone said and another cursed, then they saw the two bodies on the stretcher. Everyone reacted to that, all negatively.

“If it wasn't already dead, I'd kill it again.” The fighter in the front said.

“Forget that! Get a medic!” The crossbowman carrying the injured swordsman said. He was barely conscious and five people came over to him, picked him up, and carried him into the base.

We crossed through the open gate and everyone that saw us stopped and stared. No one said anything and we reached the center of the base. We had also gathered quite the crowd around us.

“What the hell did you do to my men?!?” The CO barked at me as he and the XO approached with another woman beside them. She had bright red hair tucked under her hat and her eyes took in everything, almost as if she had the vigilance technique, too.

“The owlbear is dead... and can't hear you... sir.” I said and panted.

“I was talking to you!” The CO said, loudly.

“I didn't... do anything.” I said and eased the owlbear off of my shoulders and laid it on the ground. “Whew, that thing was heavy.”

“You!” The CO pointed to the crossbowman that had his arms free. “Tell me what happened.”

“We were following the target as ordered...” The crossbowman started to say and the XO's nostrils flared and her hands became fists. “...and he was much too fast to keep up with. We had to track him through the woods and...”

Everyone listened as he recounted what happened. He was pretty accurate, too. A couple of the details were wrong, about who got smashed by the bear first; but, that didn't matter anyway. They were dead and they wouldn't care what order it was in.

The CO glared at me. “YOU! Why didn't you help them? You were right there, weren't you?”

“I wasn't stupid enough to yell at it and get its attention.” I said and a few people took in sharp breaths or hissed. “I was warned before coming here about the big predators. It's not my fault your men didn't take the same advice.”

“It IS your fault! They were following you!” The CO exclaimed.

“Actually, sir. You ordered them, so the responsibility is yours.” The XO said.

The CO turned to glare at her. “You stay out of this!”

“Private Drake is my sole responsibility, sir. Your orders confirmed it.” The XO said. “Also, you violated your own standing orders and interfered with him, despite not having the authority to do so.”

“I did no such thing!” The CO spat at her.

“Private Drake, please recount the real version of what happened.” The XO calmly said and her hands were no longer clenched into fists.

“Yes, ma'am.” I said and told them exactly what I did. I left nothing out, not even enjoying the feeling of having the dirt between my toes. A lot of people looked down and saw my bare feet and they all noticed my missing toes. I also explained how much easier it was to hunt in woods that didn't try to kill me every ten feet or so. I explained the ram and goat deaths, gutting them for transport, then hanging them up to bleed out.

When I came to the part about setting up an ambush for predators, the CO growled and kept quiet. I explained the wolves coming and a lot of people made surprised sounds. A few even whispered that they hadn't heard about a wolf pack in the area. Then I told them about the owlbear showing up and what I did to distract it.

“That was pretty smart, actually.” The redheaded woman commented and the CO turned his growl onto her. “I'm sorry, sir.” She said and saluted him, then turned to me. “Please continue, Private Drake.”

I described my attack and everyone was surprised. I couldn't tell if it was because I attacked and lived or because the owlbear didn't die right away. Either way, I described the others showing up and getting its attention, then deciding to not die and stayed still.

“So, you admit that it was your fault those men died.” The CO said with a gleam in his eye.

“No, sir.” I said and he snarled at me. “As the XO stated, you were in command and sent them into a dangerous situation.”

“You stood there and did nothing!” The CO exclaimed.

“I was not in command.” I said and he looked surprised. “I also warned the XO that anyone sent after me would be in danger.”

“Which I also told you about and gave you a copy in writing, along with his orders.” The XO said. “I couldn't have everyone on the base thinking that a soldier under my command was trying to escape every time he went near the gates and didn't come back for hours at a time.”

The CO glared at her. “Well, I am holding him responsible for their deaths.”

“You can to whatever you want with your personal feelings, sir. Legally, you are the one that caused their deaths, despite many warnings and your own orders. In fact, I believe a case of dereliction of duty could be made for your intentional endangerment of soldiers under your command when you issued illegal orders.”

The CO stared at her for about twenty seconds and no one spoke. He glanced around at all the witnesses and looked back at her. “You are lucky that the chain of command protects you from this insubordination.”

“No, sir. You are.” The XO said, to his surprise. “I filed papers for your removal the moment you mistreated Private Drake the first time.”

“You did WHAT?!?” The CO yelled.

“Unfortunately, I was overruled and told to let things play out and to let you hang yourself.” The XO said and waved at us. “I'm sad that these brave men had to die to get rid of you.”

The CO looked to the bodies and back to her. “You can't do this.”

“It's already done.” The XO said and nodded to the redhead, who stepped forward and handed him a set of orders. “Have fun being stationed at the front, sir.”

The CO looked at the orders in his hand and stayed quiet.

“Army Command can't stand incompetence, sir.” The XO said and saluted. “Have a safe journey.”

The CO didn't look at her or return the salute. He just walked away.

“God, that felt good.” The XO said and turned to the redhead. “Thank you for rushing here.”

The redhead chuckled. “As soon as the request came through for a new drill sergeant for you, I was on the fastest horse I could find.”

The XO smiled warmly at her. “Thank you.” She said and then looked at us. “Crossbowman, take those bodies to the medical building to be dealt with properly.”

“Yes, ma'am!” He said and went to salute. His hands were full, so I quickly took off the petrified hand and held it to his forehead.

“Carry on.” She said and returned the salute, and the man turned and dragged the stretcher away.

“I can't believe you made a stretcher that large so quickly.” The redhead said.

“I was assigned to the maintenance department at the garrison for a week and Gary taught me a lot.” I said and hung the hand around my neck again.

“A week?!?” She asked, surprised.

“He can learn fast.” The XO said. “He also knows all the rules and regulations.”

The redhead gave me a searching look. “You've figured out their limitations, haven't you?”

I nodded.

“Then you are a huge bundle of trouble.” The redhead said. She looked serious for a moment, then she smiled. “I'm looking forward to challenging you to see what you can do.”

I looked at the XO and she nodded.

“Private Drake, meet your new Drill Sergeant, Nancy Travis.”

“Ma'am.” I said to the redhead and saluted with the petrified hand.

“That thing sure is handy.” Nancy said with a bright smile.

“None of that.” The XO said and then whispered. “That's a real hand.”

“I know.” Nancy said. “Private, why did you bring the owlbear back?”

“I need food.” I said and everyone reacted.

“You can't possibly...” “That's disgusting.” “Is he serious?”

“I'll be sending the pelt to Ester's Village, too.” I said and everyone went quiet.

“Why so far?” Nancy asked.

“Diane has a specialty store there. I'm sure she can sell it.” I responded. “I have the ram's horns, too. I always collect the horns from things.”

“I think we can arrange something with the PX instead.” The XO said. “We can discuss that later, though. Take your kills to the kitchen and do what you want with them.”

“Yes, ma'am.” I said and saluted with my real hand.

The XO let a smile appear on her face for a second and returned the 'real' salute. “Wash your feet and put your boots back on, too.”

I nodded as I bent down and hefted the owlbear up onto my back. I got it balanced and started to walk away.

“I'm not going to ask what you're going to do with him.” The XO whispered, not realizing that I could still hear her. “I'll just warn you now. According to his old CO, his mind is... well... pretty much empty. He grew up not learning anything.”

“That... is just perfect.” Nancy whispered back. “Getting a fresh mind to fill with knowledge is something every drill sergeant should dream of.”

“Do what you can for him. He needs proper guidance and to be instilled with a little more common sense.” The XO said. “His version of things can seem a little off, so be careful.”

“Don't worry about me. I know exactly how to handle someone like him.” Nancy said.

“Let's go to my office and I'll fill you in on everything else I know.” The XO said and I heard them walk away.

I brought the owlbear to the mess hall and went inside. They had a room in the back for butchering, even though I hadn't seen them using it, and I put the owlbear down. I sat down and rested for several minutes, then went to their smoked meat room and started it up. I wasn't surprised to see piles of jerky used in army travel rations. I moved everything aside and prepped a nice area for my things.

I went back over to the butchering room and carefully removed the very large pelt from the owlbear. The head was too damaged to save, so I discarded it. I hung the pelt up on the side of the room and then got to work on the carcass and carved off some nice choice cuts of meat. The thing was huge and had tons of meat on it, so I hoped it would last me for a long time.