Makoto woke up back in the cell where he'd come to before. {Oww...} he thought. {Now *both* sides of my head hurt.}

Looking up, he saw the young man - Pohl, his name was - sitting outside his cell, guarding it. He also saw the chair wedged under the far side of the door. {There's no way I can get that out of there *and* subdue Pohl before he calls for help,} Makoto thought with a sigh. {I guess I'm stuck here for a while.}

He sat in sullen silence until a loud thumping on the stairs announced that someone was coming down. Looking up, he saw the bear -

{Viktor,} he reminded himself -

walk into the spot in front of the cell. Makoto's eyes widened as he realized that the man was carrying the Twin Heaven Fangs with him. {Are they going to let me go?} he thought wildly.

Viktor sat down on the chair that *had* been bracing the door. "Kid, we gotta talk."

Makoto stood up - and his head immediately made him regret it. "Owww.. Ah, um, look! I have to get back into Highland as soon as I can! If somebody doesn't tell-"

Viktor cut him off. "Shut up for a minute, okay?!"

Makoto shut up, and Viktor continued. "Look... I admire your heart, but you have to think this through. I've seen things like this happen back in the Scarlet Moon Empire. The first thing Ruka's gonna do once his soldiers tell him you got away is make you a criminal or something. Hell, he may even be blaming you for helping 'the enemy' kill off your brigade!" he growled.

"Wh-why do you think..." Makoto began, but Viktor answered the question before he even finished it.

"Why? 'Cause that's exactly what Scarlet Moon did to two of their nobles who got wise that bad things were going on. Odessa Silverberg and Young Master McDohl - you know those names, kid?"

"Uh... Isn't the first one the leader of that rebel army there? That's what we were told a few years ago..." Viktor winced, and Makoto blinked. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Long story, kid," Viktor replied, still looking pained. "Don't bring that up around Flik, for your own good, okay?"

"Uh.. okay..." Makoto replied. Viktor shook his head and continued.

"Anyway, it's practically a cliche. Corrupt guys in government can make their opponents into crooks real easy. Chances are, you're a wanted traitor in Highland right now."

"Oh..." Makoto replied, crestfallen. {It *does* make sense,} he thought ruefully. "But then what can I *DO!?*" he exploded, despairingly.

"Good question," Viktor answered. "Only answer I can give you is that for now, you stick with us. We'll skirmish with Highland sooner or later. When we do, we'll probably take prisoners.. and then you can send one back to the King with a message or somethin'."

Makoto blinked again. "You mean.. even after the bit on the stairs..."

Viktor grinned at him, an expression echoed by Pohl behind him. "Hey, we need recruits anyway... and you wanna stop the killing just like we do, right?"

Tears in his eyes, Makoto saluted. "Makoto Gentaro reporting for duty, sir," he stated past the lump in his throat.

Makoto quickly found out just how the fort was being built so quickly. In addition to the kobolds building the place, all the recruits helped out - thanks to Pohl's clever 'you wanna eat, you gotta work' policy.

Pohl and Makoto got along well together - which was good, because they were bunked in the same room. The young man, who proved to be from the Toran Republic - the overthrown Scarlet Moon Empire - was clever and a fast talker. He was such a change from most people that Makoto had known that the Highland boy was always being taken off-balance, but he didn't mind. Pohl had such a positive attitude that it was hard to get annoyed with him.

The two spent a whole day organizing the food stores that Flik had brought back from Radat. During a few of their breaks, they traded stories - Makoto telling of Kyaro Town, the Unicorn Brigade, and his escape, while Pohl brought Makoto up to date on the Gate Rune war and his travels afterward.

"No!" Makoto leaned against a food crate to keep from falling over laughing. "He really said, 'As far as I'm concerned, you killed Teo's whole blinkin' battallion'?!?"

Pohl beamed at him. "Yup! I had to take Yoroi-Teki here to the Tinto blacksmiths to get him to buy that story in the first place, but it was worth it!" he said, holding out his spear, which *did* seem to be expertly crafted.

(Note: Yoroi-Teki is Armour Foe according to my dictionary..)

"That's long enough to be a decent staff," Makoto commented, memories of sparring with Jowy flashing through his mind. "Here, lemme show you some blocks I know..."

The two were quite busy that day... and the food never *did* get organized.

It was a few days after that, while Makoto was out stretching in the yard, when he saw Flik practicing with his sword. {I need to improve,} Makoto thought, {and he and Viktor are the only two here better than me, so..}

Walking over to the blue-clad warrior, he waited for the man to pause, and cleared his throat. "(ahem...) Sir Flik?"

Glancing over at him, Flik replied tersely, "Yeah?"

"Um... can I spar with you? I'm not getting any better with the Heaven Fangs just whacking at a wooden pole, so..."

Flik seemed to think about this for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, I could use the practice myself." Taking several steps back, Flik took a stance across the practice field from Makoto, as a breeze blew by them both.

"This is how to attack. Got it?" Flik asked, a bare moment before he charged. Makoto raised the Heaven Fangs and blocked the overhand chop, but the impact made his arms hurt.

{He's strong!} Makoto thought, and sprang back a few paces.

Flik raised his sword in a 'come on' gesture. "Okay, your turn. Let's see what you've got."

Makoto charged, swinging his tonfa in a sharp left-right combination. Flik took the first on his shield and neatly fielded the second on his sword. Makoto pushed, just long enough to be sure he wasn't getting aynwhere, and then sprang back again.

Flik gave him a tight grin. "Here goes! Hope you can handle this!"

"Yaahh!" Makoto yelled as they charged each other full-force.

The exchange was devastating. Makoto took a rap on the hip from the flat of Flik's sword, a slam in the face from his shield, and a punch to the gut from his sword hand in rapid succession. At the same time, though, he dealt out a pair of slams to Flik's ribs from his tonfa and followed up with a punch of his own - an uppercut, leading with a tonfa butt.

The two staggered back from each other, Makoto bleeding from the nose and Flik from his lip. "Not bad," Flik commented, "but I'm not wasting time now."

Makoto snorted and moved to attack again. Unfortunately, his lunge was anticipated, and Flik deftly sidestepped him, giving him another rap from the sword and slam from the shield to speed his way to the ground. By the time he rolled over, Flik's sword was pointed at his heart.

"Do you yield?" Flik asked, and Makoto nodded. Noticing the inscription on Flik's sword, the boy raised his head and asked, "'Odessa?'"

Flik flinched as he was putting the sword away. "I came from the Warriors' Village in Toran. Our custom there is to name our swords after the thing most important to us."

Makoto gave the blue swordsman a grin as he got to his feet. "I wish you both the best, then," he offered, and was surprised when Flik stiffened, turned away, and left.

{Huh?} Makoto thought. A tap on his shoulder made him spin around. "What!?"

Pohl was standing there. "Dummy! 'Odessa' is Lady Silverberg, the first Liberation Army leader!!"

"The one who died?" Makoto asked, then put his hands to his mouth in horror. "Oh no..."

Later that night, Makoto knocked on the door to Flik's room.

"Yeah, who is it?" Flik called through the door.

"Makoto, sir. I just wanted to apologize for before. I... I didn't know..." he trailed off, head hung low.

He started in surprise when the door opened. Flik stood there, still fully dressed. "It's okay. I realize you didn't know... you meant well."

"Does it.. does it keep hurting like this, sir?" Makoto asked, his own heart aching for his friends who died in the Unicorn Brigade.

Flik looked at him with sudden understanding.

"Yeah... yeah, it does," he said after a moment, "but it gets easier to bear."

"Thank you," Makoto replied, and headed down to the room he shared with Pohl. {I hope you're right,} he thought...

The next day saw the arrival of a Kobold warrior from Two River. Gengen had been sent here to lead the Kobold contingent at the Mercenary Fort, and he certainly got them motivated better that Pohl or Viktor had.

With a slight smile, Flik had set Makoto and Gengen against each other in sparring, and Gengen won more than he lost. Makoto took the last round by sandwiching the kobold's head between two tonfa swings, which had nearly knocked the smaller warrior out. Makoto spent the next hour regretting it as Saily scolded him roundly (Arf!) for going overboard.

Gengen, luckily, took it in good part, and had lunch with Pohl and Makoto the day afterward. The two boys had a lot of fun trying to copy Gengen's method of - quite literally - tearing chunks off his meat, and the mess hall was roaring with laughter.

It was a good thing the three got along, because that evening the fort ran out of Medicine. Viktor called the trio up to his room that night.

"I need you three to go to Ryube tomorrow and do a couple of things," he said as soon as all three were in the room.

"Yeah, what, Viktor?"
"What do you need, sir?" and
"What Gengen do for you? Arf!"

answered Pohl, Makoto, and Gengen respectively.

Viktor smiled at the replies. "We're running low on Medicine. I want you three to go to Ryube Village tomorrow morning and buy as much as you can. Here's 3000 potch - don't waste it," the bear admonished them. "Also, while you're there, there's supposed to be a great smith and spearman living around there called Tsai of the Divine Spear. See if you can find out from
the locals whether he'd be interested in joining us, okay?"

"Okay."
"Understood. (salute!)"
"Gengen go. Arf!"

By now Viktor was trying not to laugh. "Go on, get your rest, and get going early!" He waved both arms at them, and the three scampered out.

The next morning, Pohl led them to Ryube, albeit not without a few stops along the way - after all, it never hurt to add a few potch or urns to their cash stock. A few FurFurs less wouldn't be a problem...

Three hours, eight fights, and one nest of nearly TWENTY FurFurs later ("Ack! SHINING LIGHT!"), the trio limped into Ryube Village and stopped in at the item shop. Most of their 'extra' potch, unfortunately, had to be spent on a few Medicine for themselves, but they did have some profits.

"Lucky for us you had that Rune," Pohl mentioned when they were all healed. Makoto glared at him.

"That's the last time I listen when you tell me to go monster hunting!" he replied as they spent Viktor's potch on three sacks of Medicine for the fort.

"Gengen agree about Rune. Arf! Gengen hear of Rune like that once. Big hero wear it to fight war."

"Huh?" chorused Pohl and Makoto. "...a hero?" Makoto continued in a small voice. "but... I'm no..."

Gengen shrugged. "Gengen no know any more. Is old story - maybe not same Rune, either. Arf!"

Makoto was curious, but decided to leave the matter for now. "Excuse me," he asked the shopkeep, "but do you know anything about a Tsai of the Divine Spear?"

The shopkeep smiled down at him. "He has a house up in the mountains back there, boy, but he's not there. He left - headed for Muse, I think. No one really knows if or when he'll be coming back."

"Oh," Makoto replied, crestfallen. "Well, folks from the fort across the plain there," he pointed vaguely back toward the fort, "will probably keep coming through here every so often for supplies. If Tsai comes back, could you tell one of them?"

The shopkeep considered for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. See you around, boys," he called after them as they hauled their packs out the door.

The trip back to the fort was blessedly peaceful... which was a good thing, given that Makoto wasn't really sure if he could use the Shining Light again without a rest.

"Huh, if that don't beat all," Viktor said when they gave him the news about Tsai. "I guess he decided to offer his services or something. Ah well, we'll just have to make do." Looking back to the three, he waved a hand in dismissal. "Oh, get going, you three. Get some food in you - you look as if you had to fight the whole way there and back."

"Not on the way *back...*" Makoto grumbled, glaring at Pohl, who was mildly embarrassed.

"Aw, come on, how was I to know there were *that* many FurFurs in the gully?" he asked mournfully as the three walked out.

Life settled into a routine for Makoto over the next few days; working, sparring, teaching Pohl, being taught by Flik, Viktor or Gengen, eating well-earned dinners and resting.