Cold shower. Nice, cold shower.

It had been days since I last thoroughly cleaned myself. It was sometime before Greenhill, and I don't want to think about if Saily had washed me or not. How the hell could she have done something like that anyway? I should be grateful.

I hated to think what would happen if Highland decided to attack at this very instant. I mean this very instant. I mean, it's not like they know about the fort or anything yet, but it'd still wreck havoc. The worst part of it is that if we lost, I'd have to explain the damage to Ridley. I impressed myself with the BS skills that I had.

Of course, Viktor, as usual, almost blew the whole thing. While the risk worked, he certainly didn't remove any of the tension that was going on. And the last thing I need is some snotty kobold snout up my ass because his silly little fort was attacked.

Dammit, that was a thunderclap. It's going to rain. It wasn't a pleasant day to start with; the sky was all cloudy. Sure enough, a few seconds later it started to lightly drizzle. Then, it started to pour, making my towel, my clothes, and my armor all soggy.

I sat there in the outdoor shower, wearing nothing but a disgusting face. It couldn't stop raining for a few minutes while I finished up, could it? Of course not. I turned off the shower, and put the towel around my waist. I picked up my belongings and started to head into the fort.

That's when I bumped into Viktor.

I had been in a foul mood ever since returning from North Sparrow. The trip would prove to be a milestone in the whole gypped war, but that's something I can get to for later. I had come back with a Highland kid, the last survivor of the butchered Unicorn Brigade, the last living reason for the war. But I don't feel like talking about that right now. I don't even feel like talking about the foul mood I was in.

Right now I want to talk about how silly Flik looked when he came strutting into the front door of the fort sporting a blue towel around his waist, carrying an armload of sopping clothes in his hands, his feet caked with mud from the rainy dirt path leading to our outdoor shower (a suggestion from one of our South Window recruits; no kobold would care about keeping clean enough to propose such a thing). I have to admit I nearly fell backwards out of my chair, it was one of those "someday we'll look back and laugh" moments.

Looking back on it now, I can see why Flik still won't laugh about it.

"You're the only guy I know vain enough to take two showers at once, Flik," I managed to utter through the wall of laughter I was spewing forth. I doubt Flik even understood what I said.

"Viktor," he said, "Do the fort a favor. Try NOT to eat it."

What my half-naked thunder-bearing companion was referring to was the bowl of Pohl's infamous chicken soup which sat before me; my sixth one today. Sure I had an appetite, but I wasn't fat by any means. I decided to let the comment slide- it was a bit weak, watered down in comparison to Flik's usual icy insults- and get back to our Highland foundling.

"At any rate," I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. "Get your clothes on; it's about time we wake up our little survivor, dontcha think?"

Flik grumbled as he walked past me, up the stairs to where his bedroom had been built. I called after him, "Let me know if you need any help getting dressed; I'll send Saily up after you!"

"How the hell did you know about THAT!?" roared Flik from atop the stairs. I couldn't answer him for the hellacious laughing spasm I was engulfed in at the moment. I was laughing partly because Flik was still standing there in a towel, dripping wet and beet red, and partly because I was remembering the look on Saily's face as she told me the entire mortifying story. I'd never seen a kobold wag her tail so fast...

Makoto shook his head as he struggled back to consciousness. {Oww,} he thought, {what hit me?}

Then he remembered - the pass, the guards, the fight, the first two rune spells he'd ever cast in his life, then the... the... well, whoever it was who knocked him out. {I guess I was lucky,} Makoto mused. {Whoever it was must've seen the whole thing - they could've killed me.} Giving his head one final shake (and deciding it wasn't really going to fall off, no matter how it felt) he opened his eyes.

The small room he was in had walls of wood, a dirt floor - which he was currently lying on - and a door made of bars with a young, slightly pudgy man satnding outside of it.

"Hi, I'm Pohl," said the boy, smiling slightly at Makoto in the cell. "Viktor brought you in from North Sparrow Pass. You're from Highland, so we have to keep you locked up, but from what Viktor said about you I guess you're on the same side as us."

"Wha!?" Makoto replied intelligently.

"Viktor heard you tell your story to the Pass guards. Ruka Blight killed all your friends- so you're his enemy, right?" Pohl asked.

Makoto shook his head. It still hurt to do that. "*His* enemy, yes. Not Highland's, so we aren't really on the same side."

Pohl looked disappointed, and said, "Well, I better go tell Viktor you're awake." With that, he turned and headed off to the left, and up some stairs from the sound of it.

Makoto wasted no time in battering at the door with his tonfas. {The Twin Heaven Fangs may be wood themselves, but they're Highland ironwood - *way* tougher than the oak in this door,} he thought as he hammered away at the door. The wood chipped, cracked - and finally gave way. Makoto shoved the door open and ran for the stairs. {I have to get out of here before-}

As he turned the corner of the stairs, he came nearly face-to-face with two people - three, counting Pohl behind them. The first, on the right, was clearly a warrior. He wore a blue cape that he was still buckling onto one shoulder, and carried a longsword in his belt sheath. The other was-

{-a bear,} Makoto thought. There was simply no other way to describe him - he was *huge,* and he carried an equally big two-handed sword on his back. {That's probably the one who knocked me out,} the young man realized.

"And where do you think you're going?" The one clad in blue asked

"Uhh..." Makoto replied, sounding idiotic for the second time in five minutes. "I-I'm Makoto Gentaro," he stammered, then firmed his resolve. "I can't let you keep me here. I have to get back to Highland, because-"

"Hold on a minute there, kid," spat the bear. "What do you mean 'you can't let us?'" He crossed his arms defiantly. "So your little planks busted our door; doesn't mean you can get through this wall."

Makoto grinned tightly. What he was about to do seemed insane - but the sane, safe path led right back to that cell. "You don't try and go through a bear," Makoto replied, quickly backing down two steps. As the bear moved to follow, Makoto spun his tonfas around and whacked him on both ankles, sending him tumbling forward. Lunging around him for the gap thus opened, Makoto finished his sentence: "you back off and hope he trips!"

The blue one, however, stuck out his arm. Makoto ran right into it, and clotheslined him right on the ground. Flik strattled the boy on the ground and socked him square on the face. Makoto banged the back of his head against the hard wood and fell into unconsciousness.

The bear climbed to his feet, wincing in pain. "Damn little sprout... I hope for his sake there ain't nothing broken..."

"You're getting slow, Viktor." The blue one said, taking away his two tonfas. "You put him in the jail armed?"

"You're getting cocky, Flik," shot the bear, gathering the fallen Highlander into his arms and carrying him back to the cell. "How was I supposed to know the kid could snap a door with those sticks?" He grimmaced. "You take care of this, I'm gonna have Saily take a look at my ankles..."

"Don't let her get a look at anything else while she's down there."

Poor kid, I think I hit him pretty hard. I put his limp body down in the cell and closed the broken door.

I turned to Pohl. "When Saily's done with Viktor, get her down here and have a look at this kid."

"I'll go immediately." Pohl said, leaving.

I turned back to the kid. I almost felt sorry for the kid, but then I remember what he did to Viktor. He could have broken Viktor's legs, which wouldn't be good at all. Had he, I think I would have beaten him up pretty worse than just a punch to the head. The kid groaned.

Prying his eyes open, the boy looked around, probably figuring out where he was, then climbed slowly to his feet. "Oww..." he moaned. Then he looked around in alarm, apparently noticing the absence of his weapons. "Hey!" he called to me. "Who are you, and what did you do with the Twin Heaven Fangs?!"

Twin Heaven Fangs? He must have been some sorta McDohl fan. Not letting on, however, I retorted, "Those tonfa you attacked Viktor with? Those are in our possession right now. In the mean time, we have to decide what we're going to do with you. Those tonfa should be the least of your worries."

The boy sighed. "Right... I apologize. In all the fuss out there, I never caught your name."

"It's Flik." I replied with a chill in my voice as I turned my back to him.

"And Viktor is the bear?" the boy asked behind me. I spun around in time to catch him trying to hide a sudden, horrified expression.

"And what if he is?"

Footsteps came down the stairs. I turned around again and saw Pohl and Saily coming towards the cell. "He's in there." I said. "Pohl, you guard him until Viktor and I decide what we want to do with him."

"Yessir." Pohl said to me as I brushed past him.

Saily told me the wounds weren't bad. Makoto had bruised up my right ankle, but nothing that wouldn't heal within a few days.

Flik walked into the room snickering. "Like I was saying, Vik... only a bonafide lard ass like yourself woulda been one-upped by that little squirt." He was trying to get me back for my shower crack earlier, though he did have a point. I was so used to the old man guiding my battles that adjusting to my own expertise would take a little re-training.

"So what do we do with the kid, Flik?" I asked. "He's a Highlander, but he's got the truth we need to ge this fledgling war off right. We take the kid's story back to Ridley and we can swing all the folks in Two River against this Blight fellow."

"It's not that easy though. They could just as easily condemn us for capturing a Highland soldier and not putting him to death."

"So what do we do?" Flik was silent. I hadn't asked him to pick the world up or anything, I just wanted to know what to do with this kid we had on hand. It was going to take some convincing...

"You always used to mock my intuition, ya know Flik? But I'm telling you, there's something about this kid. Something about his will- his determination. Remember, a few years ago I went against everyone's wishes and brought a kid from the enemy's side into our ranks, just on my gut instinct. And you remember who that kid turned out to be. I ain't asking you to betray our cause. Just trust me on this."