Thief!

[Lisolette]

Trixty Peppercorn sat the egde of his bed, reading a brown, leatherbound book.

It was the start of the Summer of the Late Rose. Mossflower Country shimmered gently in a peaceful haze, bathing delicatley at each dew-laden dawn, blossoming through high sunny noontides, languishing in each crimson-tinted twilight that heralded the soft darkness of June nights...

Trixty smiled. It was an old document he had found in an haversack. But somebeast stopped his pleasurable readings, "Thief!"

Trixty looked up to see a young hare glaring down at him, "Thief? What do you think I am!? Some confounded weaselly charactah!?"

The hare snatched his book away from Trixtys paws, "Aye, you scum!"

Trixty snorted, "Hmph! Well then, you must be blind, me old chap, 'cuase I'm obviously a ferret, wot!" The hare rolled his eyes and snorted. He sent poor Trixty sprawling on his bed with a hard shove.

"I'm gonna report you, you thievin' rotter!" The hare snarled, and stomped away, book in paw, "And the next time I see ye, you're nose will have a big dent in it! 'Cuase I'm the greatest boxing recruit ever spawned! My jolly mother told me so!" And without another word, the hare stomped out of the recruit barracks.

Trixty sat up and shook. In a few seconds, he was silently crying, hold his face with his paws, "Golly, why doesn't the old boy just put me out o' my confounded ol' misery, wot!"

[sweetmint]

Captain Seaford hadn't been looking for the young ferret very long; after a quick search along the training grounds he decided to check the dormitories, and almost crashed into another, much younger hare holding a book as he hurried out.

"Hi there, young 'un! Slow down h'and show y'offisahs proper respect!" he called, and stared balefully while the hare hastened to do so. He was about to question the hare further when he heard what sounded like soft crying from the next room. Twitching an ear, he said, "Nevermind -- y're dismissed, sirrah!" and went to investigate.

As expected, the Peppercorns' ferret child was there; he was also the one weeping. Seaford hesitated; comfort and gentleness were not his strong suit, especially when it came to recruits and soldiers.

But he remembered Malum's forced smiles over the dinner table -- the way she'd recited her past so believably. No, he had to work something out for himself. Letting the door swing slowly shut behind him, the austere captain marched into the dorm room, pulling out his kerchief and stuffing his never-used monocle into a small tunic pocket as he did so.

Getting a young 'un to stop crying couldn't be too hard, he reasoned. His sister had done it to him all the time when they'd been leverets themselves. Attempting to emulate what she'd do in this situation, Seaford seated himself on the edge of the same bed the ferret was on, offering his kerchief.

"Nah then, laddie buck," he said, "wot's gone h'and brought h'in th'rain, eh?"

[Lisolette]

Trixty heard Seaford, and stopped holding his face to look up. The ferret sniffled as Seaford padded up to his bed and sat down, offering a handkerchief. Trixty took it politely and wiped away the tears, "That bully over there...All I did was borrow his book and he had to shove me...Then he called me a thief! I'm no thief!" The ferret lamented to the captain, "I just...borrowed it...'Twas all I did, sah..." He added, staring at the ground.

Trixty sniffed and handed the hanky back, "...Thank you for the kerchief..." Trixty muttered.

[Malum]

OOC: AWW!!! TRIXY! GIMME A HUG! He's such a sad kid! AWW! -hugs until tears fade-

[sweetmint]

[[Malum, you're so random! xD xD xD ]]

Seaford sat a respectable distance away from the ferret, unsure as to whether or not patting his shoulder (or something) would be too terribly against protocol. Officers and recruits weren't generally supposed to mix like this, and protocol was one of Seaford's very favorite things about life. Watching the child out of the corner of his eye, he listened as he explained the reason for his tears.

"Well, young 'un, did y'ask t'borrow th'book, h'or did y'just take et?" The captain had a bad feeling about that; was the ferret a thief -- did he have some badness in him after all? Uncomfortable, Seaford looked the young patroller in the face fully. He frowned.

"Y'say 'e shoved ye -- 'ow so?" This was also a serious breach in protocol. Violence between comrades -- unless during training or approved boxing matches -- was strictly forbidden and rule-breakers in this area were punished severely. Bad feeling between soldiers was nothing to twitch an ear at.

He accepted his kerchief back and wrung it out, still watching the ferret recruit.

Funny, he thought. A ferret as a recruit in the Long Patrol of Salamandastron. Who would think? He added:

"h'I don't believe we've been h'introduced proper yet. I am Captain Adin Seaford; h'I know y're h'one o' th'Peppercorns..." He stopped himself there; three questions to answer would be enough for now. No need to swamp the kid and make him think he was being interrogated.

[Lisolette]

Trixty hesitated. Something donned on him that Seaford would highly dissaprove of his "borrowing." Trixty accepted all three statements from the captain, not really wanting to answer his thirst inquiry. Trixty puased, expecting-no, hoping, that Seaford would say more. But he didn't. And Trixty knew that real Long Patrollers answered all questions, "M-My name is Trixty, in-case ye didn't know..." Trixty muttered, his depression turning into anxiety.

"Well, he pushed me real hard, I-I think he put bruises on my chest..." Trixty began to answer the second question, "And it sent me lying flat on me back..."

And so, Trixty forced himself to answer his third question. "A-And, well, I-I might've...borrowed it without his consent..." Trixty stuttered. He tried to stop the choppy flow of his words, but that ended as a failure, "B-But he-he didn't have to push me, Captain...I-I...I can't go to any libraries or-or anything like that...It's-It's becuase I...I don't really like to go out there 'cuase hares always sn-sneer and-and things...So-So I h-h-have to stay in..." Trixty gulped, knowing that Captain Seafords wrath would be upon him now. Hoping to make the punishment softer, Trixty immediately added, "And-And I was going to put it back where I found it! Honest I was!"

(ooc: Does Sally even HAVE a library!? XD )

[sweetmint]

[[You know.... I don't think it does! D: But they must have someplace to store all their records and rosters and maps and stuff. I'm sure they have something *like* it... maybe yet another new sub board is in order? xD Since he's so young, I'm assuming Trix is a Private. Is correct?]]


Seaford listened expressionlessly to the young recruit's halting story, wishing he would stop sniffling and buck up properly. Things were just so much easier when emotion wasn't involved -- not that Seaford was the type to be moved by tears, of course, but he considered it a weakness, rather.

"M-My name is Trixty, in-case ye didn't know..."

Ah, yes. He remembered now. Trixty Peppercorn -- he had a brother and a sister, too, one of which Seaford had patrolled with in the past. Seaford nodded, gratified. It was always a good thing to keep Seaford gratified.

"Thought so, Private Trixty Peppercorn third class, still rather new t'the Patrol, h'I believe," he said.

"Well, he pushed me real hard, I-I think he put bruises on my chest... And it sent me lying flat on me back..."

Seaford suppressed an irritated sigh. What was it with young recruits and slapping each other around? Did the term 'team work' ever enter their thick little heads? He riffled through his expansive mental roster, trying to remember who the hare he'd caught leaving with a book had been. Not one of Seaford's recruits -- shame. Unless Trixty really was injured, there wasn't much the hardened officer could do about it other than a verbal reprimand. He'd have to track down both the hare's and Trixty's commanding officers.

"A-And, well, I-I might've...borrowed it without his consent... [...] And-And I was going to put it back where I found it! Honest I was!"

Seaford kept his mouth shut for a moment, then spoke, referring first to the charges of shoving.

"Y'd best 'ead t'the h'infirmary, then," he informed the young ferret, all business and ever the strict commander. "Y'll need t'be checked for serious h'injury. What was th'name h'of that 'are wot shoved ye? h'Is 'e in th'same squad h'as ye?" This was important. It would make getting a hold of their platoon commanders easier if they were in the same squad. "h'And who h'is y're commandin' h'offisah?"

The admission of stealing was a difficult one for him. Seaford had no way of knowing whether or not Trixty was just harmlessly "borrowing" some otherbeast's property, as he claimed, and something inside of him sank a little at the thought. This conversation was not going the way he'd hoped it would, he realized. And for some unknown reason, this irritated him.

Trying to sort out his thoughts on Malum and Trixty would have to wait, though; this was a situation that called for a commanding officer, and ought to be dealt with immediately.

"Y'll be put h'on fizzers, laddie buck, f'r fightin' h'and stealin', both of ye." He added, as usual not mincing words and to the point. "h'I won't be doin' et, y'r neither h'one h'of ye my young 'uns, but h'if y'were, h'I'd sentence y'both t'double guard duty h'all week h'and 'ard labor h'on th'shore, t'teach y'some team work." He flicked his ears and twitched his whiskers severely as he stood , paw on saber hilt.

[Lisolette]

Trixty frowned at the punishment. He hadn't fought with the hare! Hellsgates, you could barely call it a fight! Just an uneeded harsh shove from stupid hare that couldn't think out of the box...Trixty sighed and nodded gumly, "I don't know his name, sah. But I have seen him before...Now and again..."

Trixty rubbed his ear nervously, "Alright, sah. Though I don't think a trip to the bally infirmary is going to do much. He...He didn't push me that hard..." The ferret stood up, trying to put himself back together and create a better Long Patroller, "...Yes, sah. Very good sah." Trixty nodded. He turned around to march out of the barracks so he could speak to Sgt. Peppercorn, who was celebrating his anniversary with Mercycotton. His heart fell, only this time it wasn't for being bullied and his punishment, but for the trouble he would cuase for them...And on their wedding anniversary, too!

But something made Trixty stop, and he spun around to face Seaford, "Captain Seaford, sah, may I ask why you came here?"

[sweetmint]

Little could please Seaford more than direct, prompt obedience. As the younger Peppercorn son turned to leave, the strict captain cast what might have been a fond eye over the ferret's back. There couldn't be much wrong with the young chap if he exhibited enough obedience to pull himself together and respond promptly to such a vague command. There weren't enough young recruits at his seasons which knew to do that. And he wasn't the first to be caught stealing... wouldn't be the last, either.

Silently, Seaford determined to find the young hare with the book again, and even bit back a reprimand on Trixty's lack of salute and subsequent wait for permission to leave. This had been a strange, informal conversation from the start, and the older hare didn't want it to become any moreso than it already had been.

He was about to follow Trixty out when the ferret turned suddenly and asked a rather awkward question. Seaford paused a moment, thinking, and examined Trixty thoroughly from ears to footpaws as he did so.

"h'It's best to..." he frowned slightly, cool blue eyes seeming to search, before he continued. "...best not t'question y'h'offisahs, sirrah, h'everythin' we do h'is for th'good h'of the Patrol, h'and h'it ain't h'every young recruit's place t'wonder why, y'understand, wot?"

He marched smartly to the door and pulled it open fully. "Since y'seem so keen on questionin' h'and wonderin'," he added unexpectedly, "why don't y'go h'ask y'mater 'n' pater h'about their new guest? Down h'in th'mess." He had no idea if Trixty had intended to go there or not, but he wanted to see the two ferrets side by side. He had a feeling a lot of things would become obvious to him if they did.

[Malum]

OOC: YAY!