To defend a Fort
Western Shore
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You seem to be truly in the middle of nowhere. The beach is like that you'd expect to see in a dream. Miles of saffron sand stretch to the north and south. The only sign of life is a very faint and distant wisp of smoke over the southern horizon. There is little sound, only the roar of the ivory crested waves as they crash onto the shoreline just to the west. This place looks almost as if a timeless, long forgotten stretch of beach. Though, even so, there seems to be a well-trodden path to the east...
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Darcy and Charlie are swimming. What better way to catch up with an old friend? "Well /someone/ has to keep you entertained while he's being all.. heroic or piratical or whatever he's doing with that boat of his," the redhead says to the blond, waist-deep out in the water and spreading her arms out to the sides. She sinks backward and lifts her feet from the sandy bottom, letting herself float on the small, gently rolling swells.
"Oh, he's just being himself," Charlie dismisses this with a smile. She's actually not /swimming/. She is, of all things, making a sand fort. Of course the tide's moved in on her, so there's a considerable erosion issue. "Bother," she mumbles to herself as one of the walls crumbles inward on her bare feet.
Quinten is out for his jog, the recorder loping across the sands of the western shore, heading south back toward the mountain. He slows as he spots the two ladies swimming a raises a hand in greeting. "Good day ladies, how is the water?" he keeps jogging on the spot, poofing up small clouds of sand as he keeps his rhythm going.
"You should throw a pajama party in his room while he's away," Darcy suggests with a laugh, kicking one foot out of the water to make a small splash. "And lock him /out/, otherwise he'll want to join the.. girl-talk and pillow fights and such things." She lifts her head from the water, feet touching the bottom again, and stands up, her clothes thoroughly drenched. "Chaaarlie, look - I spy a Quinten!"
Swimming? Sand forts? Someone is having a party! Tyree's not. He's coming back from a short scouting mission up the coast, bow slung over his back. No action, just some mixed tracks of dubious quality and information. If Quinten had kept going they might have bumped into each other, but no. He crests a dune instead and peers down from on high, spotting first Quinten, then two frolicking haremaids. And, for some reason, he doesn't come down, nor leave. Just... stares, in a rather uncertain manner.
Well, they are rather intimidating, haremaids. Charlie rests her paws on her hips and turns in a small circle to observe the damage to her fort. It's in this process that she spies Quinten and breaks out in a wide smile. "It /is/ a Quinten. Hi!" He distracts her from talk of pillow fights.
Quinten alone on the shore with two soaking wet hare-maids, ah the rumours which will fly around the mountain if Tyree shouldd talk. He was however quite liking the talk of pillow fights, but then what male hare wouldn't. "How are you both? It's been awhile since I saw you? Are both well I hope?"
"/Quite/ a while," Darcy affirms, detaching a trailing bit of seaweed from her arm. "We've been off on adventures. Separately - and then lucky convenience that we both came back at the same time!" From her vantage, she has the best view of Tyree up on the dune, and when she spots him she lifts a hand to shield her eyes from the sun. "Who's that up there..?"
Well, apparently Quinten knows them, so this isn't some unscrupulous rendezvous. Or was it?! Tyree supposes the only way to find out is to go down and talk. They've already spotted him anyway. One step. Two steps. And now he's walking towards them, still... staring. At least he isn't plain freaking out like he might have in earlier days. Not that being all tight lipped is a big improvement. His ears are up and perked towards them to catch snippets of conversation.
"Well, I wouldn't call anything I've done particularly /adventurous/, but..." Charlie grins and then gestures to her fort. "Come join! I need an extra paw or two. The waves are attacking." The unfriendly things. Her eyes too turn up to Tyree as he approaches and she tilts her head curiously. Hum. "Hello," she smiles.
Tyree is first and foremost well groomed with perfect posture. He stands so straight it's nearly painful to watch. His pelt is full, trimmed, and even brushed well. It is a light, wooden brown, dotted with white and black flecks, as if someone had spilled salt and pepper all over him. The tips of his ramrod straight ears have been dipped in black as well, and there is a singular patch of black around his left eye. Dark, sharp, hazel eyes. All packaged in a slim, smooth body. Very few sharp angles about him. He wears the uniform of a lieutenant.
Darcy sloshes out of the water, and pauses ankle-deep to grasp a section of her waterlogged skirt in her hand. She twists and squeezes it while making a face, wringing some of the water out, then turns her attention back over to Tyree's approach. "Well hi there, lieutenant," she says a moment after Charlie's initial greeting, tilting her head and giving Tyree a smile as well. A piece of seaweed still dangles in one hand.
Quinten laughs and walks into the shallows, pulling his trousers up to bare his lower legs and keep his trousers dry. "Well the waves are pesky varmints I am sure we can beat them all together!" He looks at Tyree and nods to them, "I do believe it is Lieutenant Tyree. From the patrol, hello there my friend." He raises a paw and waves at the approaching hare before turning back to the ladies. "Well it is nice to have you both back here with us. Will you be staying at the mountain or in the village?"
Those waves are really being quite unpleasant. Charlie lets out a disconcerted squeak as another one of the walls cave in, doing a little 'ack my feet are getting wet' dance in the process. She waves a paw at Darcy to answer for her.
Wet clothes everywhere. How does Quinten do it? The young lieutenant gives them all a polite nod and bow, trying to loosen his stance and look less like he's on the warpath. "... Hello," he says quietly, glancing at Quinten. "Yes... being a lieutenant I am in the patrol," he adds, glancing down at the sand castle. "The enemy has breached the walls," he declares. Doesn't go near the waves, and wishes he couldn't go near sand. Gets everywhere if you aren't careful.
"I belieeeve Charlie's staying with the heroic-dashing-noble Lieutenant Sidney," Darcy answers Quinten with a grin, stepping up to Charlie. She considers the semi-demolished fort and then dangles the strand of seaweed over Charlie's head... and lets it drop! "And I'm staying with Keita."
Quinten smiles at Tyree, "Well I should hope i would recognize fellow patrol members. I'd not be much of a recorder if I didn't recognize our own hares." He steps forward and places himself between the castle and the waves. "I shall stand fast ladies have no fear! Though even my mighty quill may be no match for the insidious nature of the sand!" He strikes a pose, doing his best to look gallantly heroic! As a wave slosp over his knees and soaks his trousers anyway. "Ah that is good, Keita could probably use the help after loosing the upstairs of the inn. I'd have extended the hospitality of the mountain to you both if you had not already taken care of accomodation wot."
Charlie disappears behind the remaining walls of her fort while she tries to shovel sand back into place with her bare paws. One sticks up in a brief wave, gesture thing at Tyree. "Help! Need more sa-" Plop. Seaweed on her head. "Youarenothelping."
Tyree remains calm as the water sloshes up, juuuuust barely touching his footpaws before retreating. Ha ha, stupid sea, not so tough without a storm to back you up are you? "Sand castles inevitably fall, whatever gallantry is holding them up. It is what sand does," he says simply. He draws a line just before where the water went. "Much less costly to start anew... right about here." Practicality's the word, wot! And it's less dirty.
"I'm distracting you from the inevitable collapse of your pile of sand. I mean - impenetrable fortress." Darcy glances from Charlie sidelong over at Quinten, addressing him with slightly narrowed eyes and a speculative smile. "You might do better if you were to sit down, maybe. Anyway..." To Tyree now. "She can't build up there, that's enemy territory."
"... there is a giant octopus living under the sand there," Darcy clarifies. "He'll nibble you if you're not careful, sir."
Quinten smiles at Charlie and glances at Tyree, "Ah but then the ladies hard work would be wasted! We must stand forth! Don't know the meaning of the word retreat. We shall hold forth against the storm of the wicked ocean" He gives Darcy a look. "What do you think Commander Charlie? Would me sitting down help defend the fort some?"
Charlie keeps herself deadly straight as she nods in sound agreement with Darcy's words. "Enemy territory," she confirms. "Or of /course/ I would have built there." And not in the water. >.>;;;
"You... are quite effervescent for a librarian," Tyree remarks of Quinten's enthusiasm. "Also, octopuse..s..i... the octopus does not live under sand." He stands on the spot he drew, just *daring* an actual octopus to reach up and attack him. Come on, sea beasties! He keeps his eyes on the doomed castle so he doesn't have to look at wet haremaids. All they'll do is slosh wet sand over it until it's an unrecognizable mess, with the tide rising the battle is inevitably lost. Nope, Tyree is being stubborn! "Does standing over here make me the enemy then?"
"I think it makes you a potential octopi snack," Charlie replies with a thoughtful tilt of her head.
There's a tentacle coming out of the sand! ... no, that's the seaweed, which Darcy has just tugged from Charlie's head and semi-discreetly flicked over into that vicinity. "You don't believe me? He's /twice/ the size of a badger and his /favorite/ meal is... bucks in uniform." She leans over toward Charlie, grinning. "Because they're /delicious/."
You exclaim, "Ahh that shall be a chronicle to record! The epic defence of Tyree against the rage of the Sand Octopus. And how we had to fight it off and rescue it with nothing but our wet clothing. Our devil may care attitude and our ability to eat food." He grins at Tyree. "And I may be a librarian but I am also a fighter good sir! Just because I took the job with the snazzy hat." he slips his hat off and pops it atop Charlie's head, it's a rather rakish tri-corn thing with a feather in, maroon to match his tunic. Hat is +10 fortress defence! No Rogue Pirate waves would dear go against someone in a hat like that. "Does not mean I have forgotten how to fight and the sea shall not defeat us!""
"/Some/ of them are," is Charlie's retort to Darcy. Suddenly the world's gone black, though. Oh, no, that's just Quinten's big hat. She adjusts it on her head and starts to shove more sand back into place. She's got wet sand up to her elbows, Tyree. Maybe she'll give you a hug.
"... ohh," Darcy says aside to Charlie, low, "he gave you his /hat/. It /is/ rather snazzy." She reaches to caress along that big fluffy feather with her fingers. "Too bad you're so itty-bitty. If you were normal-sized it'd fit you better," says the one petite doe to the other.
"Mrf," is Tyree's only response to Darcy, glancing away for a short moment, then down, unamused, at the seaweed. Maintain your composure! "My clothes are not wet. I have a tactical advantage over any sea beastie," Tyree says to Quinten. "For one thing, they'd drown if they came all the way up here." So there. Tyree wins over the whole ocean because he's over here, and it's over there.
"But, but!" Darcy protests to Tyree with a laugh. "Tide's coming /in/, mister tactical-advantage!"
Quinten salutes Charlie and smiles at her, "Have no fear miss Charlie, we shall defend the fortress together! It is only fitting the commander wear the hat." He then grins at Darcy and nods, "Aye Miss Darcy has a point acting-Major Tyree, if we don't meet the enemy head on it will swamp us! Then were will we be?"
Darcy's brows lift til they're scarcely visible behind her damp bangs, and she eyes Tyree. "/Acting major/, is it..?"
"You will note my superior use of positioning," Tyree says, tilting his head as he looks at Darcy. "I have outmaneuvered a foe that cannot even reach me. All avenues of entry are shut, and all that is left to do is fluster them with probing attacks before commencing a counterattack upon whatever holes the enemy leaves as they depart in disarray." I.E. build another sand fort. "And, yes. I am acting major of Colonel Rahier's former patrol, and assist Halyard villagers with whatever resources they require."
Quinten removes his tunic and tosses it up to Tyree above the tide line, "Catch this! Keep it dry Tyree!" leaving him in just his undershirt as he sits down, blocking... well maybe the small waves from the fort with his body as he sits crosswise to it. "He is really very good at his job too. Most resourceful."
Darcy's response is to just... tilt her head. Then: "Well... you are positively all sorts of impressive with your exquisitely verbose use of a particular muscle located within your maw." i.e. you are long-winded, sir. She looks thoughtful, then asks, "Why you? He had a lieutenant to take the job, didn't he?"
What do you want to whisper?
"Drrt!" Tyree yelps as it is not an octopus but a tunic that attacks him. Only his lightning quick reflexes save him from getting fwapped in the face. He holds onto it and folds it neatly under his arm, giving Quinten a bit of a narrow stare. "I *am* the lieutenant to take the job. For now, until someone else is found, or I am made Major in title as well as spirit. It was Colonel Lang herself who appointed me, actually."
Quinten salutes Tyree, "Tyree you need to relax some, I'm not on duty right now and I really doubt the Colonel will mind if yuo get your feet wet to aid two beautiful young ladies defend the fortress." He smiles at him. "Thanks for catching that, salt water is really hard to wash out of things." He then smiles over at Darcy, "He is right there though, he's a very good choice for the position."
"What happened to the oh-so-handsome Rahier's girlfriend, then?" Darcy asks with raised brows. She glances behind her as the oncoming tide, which is melting Charlie's poor fort into mush, and scuffs one foot as the water swells around her ankles.
Charlie room-pages, "I return yet again from my efforts to keep the toddler in food.".
Darcy says, "I mean, I'm /sure/ you do wonderfully... Dashingly. You certainly look the part."
Meanwhile, Charlie looks /splendidly/ disinterested in all of the Patrol talk. She never could manage to be all that fussed. "You know I honestly think killer octopi are a better conversation topic." Tsk. WIth the water now up to her ankles in her sand fort, with a stompy-grumpy fuss attack, she shamefully abandons the fortress and runs up to stand, of all places, by Tyree free of the rising tide.
"I... thank you," Tyree says in a gentle murmur to all the compliments, from Darcy and Quinten. "Not too many would say the same. As for Sephora... well, I don't know. She wasn't chosen, and that's that as far as I know, or am concerned. I certainly didn't *ask* for it. It is simply a matter of duty now that I am here." He gives Charlie a glance, and a cheeky smirk crawls up onto one corner of his lips. "Advancing in the opposite direction, are we?" he teases.
You say, "Alas we have been defeated." Standing up, shaking out his wet legs he strolls up out of the water nonchanlantly to join Charlie, his hat and Tyree. "It was a valiant effort miss Charlie but sadly not enough." he bows to her, sinking to one knee in mock seriousness. "Can you forgive this poor Librarian for failing to protect you hard earned forth?" he looks up to her and grins."
Darcy gives Charlie a look like - 'where are you going?' A grin splits across her face. "Caaareful, little Charlotte," she croons playfully at her friend, "the tide's going to sweep you away! Try higher ground - climb up on his shoulders." She gestures with a laugh to Tyree.
At Tyree's cheekiness, Charlie turns to him with a mischievous grin and extends her sandy hands to him. And wiggles her messy fingers at him. "I am messy and I know how to use it," she threatens with a grin. As for Quinten, she just gives him a smile. "It's okay. I'll try again tomorrow." She wrinkles her nose at Darcy.
"What!" Darcy laughs at the expression from Charlie. "Don't underestimate the... strategic value of a piggy-back!"
Quinten stands back up and chuckles, "Nothing wrong with being messy, used to happen to me all the time before I got respectable."
"Ahem. I don't think a piggy-back is necessary, now," Tyree says, suddenly raising a severe eyebrow. Don't even think about it! He still has his gear on. It's all pokey, anyway. He leans back a bit, wary of sandy paws. "And do not try and mess up this uniform, thank you. I take pride in fastidiousness." He waggles his ears. Sparkly clean!
"I don't just take piggy-backs from anyone, I'll have you know," Charlie answers Darcy. Then she holds her offending arms out to either side, feeling considerably sandy. Humph. She squints towards the water's edge and trots over to it, wading and then diving in. Clean!
"Of course you do. As you should!" Why does it sound like Darcy is getting mischievous? Oh. Because she's going down the shore, to where a big heap of seaweed is at the tideline, and she gathers this up in both hands and comes back toward Tyree. It's all slimy and drippy and-- ".. Charlie, I think you and I are out of sync."
Quinten chuckles, "Well miss Charlie what if I was to offer you a piggy-back ride? Would you accept one from a dashing recorder who loaned you his hat?"
Of couse, Charlie just hears the "Charlie, I think y-" before she's submerged. Whoops. She comes up a few seconds later further out, with a little gasp, turning and brushing her wet headfur back. She grins. "What!" she calls. Oh, P.S. the hat totally fell off before she jumped in. Quinten's hat is safe!
"I /said/!" Darcy calls out toward Charlie, grinning as she plops the seaweed down near the ruined sand castle, "You! And I! Are /out of sync/!" She comes forward into the water, wading out and then taking a little jumping dive into the next small swell, and kicks underwater toward Charlie. Darcy shark!
As for Quinten, Charlie only heard the tail end of Quinten's offer. Something about a piggy-back ride? She grins at him, while keeping half an eye on the approaching Darcy shark. "If it keeps me out of the sand, yes!"
Quinten recovers his hat and puts it back on his head, adjusting it just so and holds out a hand to Tyree, "Can I have my tunic back?" He asks then glances at Charlie and smiles. "Well then, may I offer you a piggy-back ride to the mountain? Or destination of your choice?"
Darcy surfaces, takes a breath of air, and then goes underwater again. While Charlie tries to have a conversation with Quinten, orrr whatever they're doing - Darcy snatches for Charlie's ankle and pulls her down underwater with her.
"I /don't want/ a piggy-back ride," Tyree says quickly and decisively. There is *no way* he is going to debase himself with something like that! He nods at the water. "You aren't going to join the gamboling gels?" he asks. Get all slick... and wet... again.
Ack-thpt! Charlie gets tugged under, but she is a wriggly little thing, so she twists free! Freeee! She comes up and scrambles out of the water and over towards Quinten. She wastes no time in sneaking 'round behind him to clamber up onto his back. Ewwwww, sand on her feet. "To the mountain, sir!" She does her best not to choke him around the neck with her grip. Yes.
Quinten shrugs back into his tunic but leaves it open, "I am already quite slick and wet Tyree! I am going to give miss Charlie a piggy-back ride" He erfs a bit as Charlie clambers up onto his back. He shifts his arms, looping them about her legs and nods. "Wot ho! See you chaps later!" And with that he starts to lope off, carrying Charlie with him toward the mountain. "Tally-Ho!"
~ end
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