Solo Pages and Letters.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

2nd of Summer, 515.

Usually, the squirrel would be sent off to train in the early mornings. He'd be sent off to the Training Grounds by his patron for a few bells of practice either with his own hands, or with his Py-Pole, and once that was done, he'd be sent off to another task. Perhaps a bit of riding practice, or perhaps a patrol. If he was lucky, he was let off to do his own things for the rest of the evening. Occasionally, he'd go down to the Bronze Woods for his own exploration of the area. Other times, he would go to the Fighters Pits to train with Hammer Fist in one of his weapons, or in his Py-Ken in the hopes of defeating his patron during their next sparring battle. However, none of that happened on that morning. When the squirrel left the Squire Dormitories, he was immediately met by his patron.. and around the patrons feet, was a small gaggle of children. Children in terms of human years, anyway - most of them weren't even past their eleventh year, although that was considered pretty damn old for the Pycons.

"You've been neglecting your Squire duties, Arch." The mans voice was calm, but the squirrel didn't understand what he'd done wrong.. or why there were children looking at him expectantly. He'd never worked with children before, except for Eric in Nyka. He certainly didn't remember a need for it being expressed when he joined the knighthood.. so he continued to stare at the crimson Akalak and the small children for several long, and quite awkward moments, before Ser Iros caught on and eventually spoke up again. Arch wasn't really that comfortable talking in front of a group of kids. "You were never told of your responsibilities to maintain the pages?" He didn't speak.. but he shook his head, and apparently that was enough for the knight to begin shaking his as well, for an entirely different reason. Arch didn't know if he'd done something wrong or not, but he frowned slightly. One of the kids frowned in return - it was actually a little creepy.

"Look. I want you to help the pages with their daily jobs - sending mail, cleaning the halls. It all needs to be done and we need someone to take care of it. For the rest of the day, it'll be your responsibility. It should give you some of the skills you'll need in the future, if you ever want to become more than just a knight." Well, it was good that he had a patron that may not have been the best in terms of teaching what he needed to become a knight.. but was looking out for him and what he might need in the future. He'd be sad to see the man go, in fact. He was sad to see him go now - as he turned his back and walked out of sight, leaving the squirrel staring at a group of about four pages under the age of 11, all considerably larger than the squirrel and waiting expectantly.

Was he supposed to say something to them to get them moving? How was he even supposed to know what jobs they had been given that day? "So... tell me what jobs you've got today." Almost immediately, he wished he'd never asked. All of the answers came at once from all four of them, in a cavalcade of different voices that soon merged together into utterly incomprehensible noise.

"Wash the ha-
"-leaning the floo-
"-livering letters for Sera Maso-"

"Alright, ALRIGHT!" He had to raise his voice far over the other four combined in order to get them to stop, and by that point, he could see a bit of a glint in some of their eyes. He knew, now, that this was going to be hell. He could read their minds, he knew what they were thinking. They were thinking they could get a day off. If their leader for the day was going to be a tiny little squirrel made of clay that would look more at home on a shelf being displayed as a decorative ornament than a position of command, then they didn't have to bother with doing any of their work. They could walk all over him, literally, and nobody would even question it. Well, they were dead-wrong. And he needed to prove it straight away, before he showed signs of weakness. Before they had a chance to work themselves up - otherwise the rest of the afternoon would be spent just trying to round them up and to get them focusing down on their tasks. "Listen up. Today, I'm going to be--"

"Look, a talking squirrel-statue!" Immediately, all of them started laughing. Fantastic.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He'd never needed to organize a whole group of people before. Usually, if anything, he was the one in the group being organized. But it made sense in the end. The knights had a very obvious hierarchy - and those higher in the chain needed to be able to control the ones on the lower ends. Needed to be able to organize them and direct them in the best ways possible, because the more people they had under them, the more difficult it would end up trying to find out where they all were, and how they were going to send everyone to the places they were supposed to go to. He briefly wondered how Ser Dyres felt. The man had a countless number of men all at his control, ready to move on his commands.. and he needed to control all of them. Or maybe not, actually. With all the chain running, he'd most likely just be in charge of one or two people. And those people would be in charge of a few more.. and those in charge of more. For one man to have to organize nearly 3000 men all at once would be a staggering feat for any person. And even if they could all be directed, it wouldn't exactly be efficient. All in all, it was a good system. One that he rather liked.

What he didn't like, though, was being a Pycon. Not because being a Pycon was in any way bad in general. He loved being a Pycon. However, not many people paid attention to a person made out of clay and barely five inches in height. One had to work to gain respect.. show their worth at every single corner. As he was at that very moment when faced with a group of four children that he knew would step on him, the first opportunity they got. "Settle down. Now." Even as he spoke, he could see one of the pages gaining an even darker smile hidden under his face. He looked about 12.. so most likely ready for squire-hood within the year. Goodness knew how long the boy had been a page but it must have been a while. Perhaps it wasn't even because he was a Pycon, or a squirrel... just because he was a squire. Something that a lot of pages must inherently dream of eventually becoming, if they spent many of their younger years kissing knight boots. It would only be a matter of time before he'd have to knock some sense into the young page in order to show him who was the boss out of the pair of them. And hopefully, if one stepped into line, then the others would soon follow.

"Obviously we have a lot to work on. I suppose the next few days will be set entirely on helping all of you with your little jobs until we're all back where we're supposed to be." Meaning the squirrel would be back training in his weapons, where he needed to be if he was ever going to become a knight. If he had to watch over a group of children and act as babysitter, he supposed he would have to, as long as he was a squire. "Today, we'll get to work on the letters. I need to see all the letters and I need to know where they're going to." He'd hoped the children would be able to respond to even the simplest commands but unfortunately, he got absolutely nothing. He really was going to have to work from the ground up at that moment. All four of the children glanced from one to the next and shrugged their shoulders, or mouthed words to one-another. Did they not even know where the letters were kept? When they'd been given them and asked to give them to their respective knights and orderlies? "You know, this stuff is going to be important for future on in life. You need to be able to organize yourself and take control of your own work!" His patience was beginning to run very thin by that moment. Trying to lead a group was proving near-impossible and he'd only spent a few chimes in front of them all.

"Why?" It was that smug little boy again. He wondered how the boy managed to sleep at night, not even knowing his future and yet utterly content to ridicule the few people that were trying to help him. One day, he'd be sorry for all the trouble he'd continuously caused.

"Because, when you're a squire and when you're a knight, you need to learn for yourself. You need to do things for yourself. You can't spend your entire life sitting under a knight and never getting paid, never getting a real job and never getting anywhere in life. Which is why you need to learn from someone who has to organize their life, how to organize yours. And then, you'll be ready for when you become a squire." Yes, he could tell he was getting somewhere now. He just needed to flaunt his power a little - his status as a better. His actual rank, as a squire, put him above them. He was allowed to order them around.. in fact, it was one of his responsibilities to order them around and make sure that they got their jobs done.... apparently.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The first job to do, though, would be getting the group to find their letters. Then he could get down to organizing them and getting the letters delivered. At least he had his usual fallback method - if they proved completely useless, the squirrel could deliver them himself. He'd done more than enough of his delivery work during his time in Nyka, where he actually worked for a delivery bureau. Hopefully he wouldn't be resorted to doing the work of the pages he was supposed to be teaching, but he also didn't want a load of angry knights blaming him, and solely him, for their messes. It was, unfortunately, one of the few problems with being in a position of responsibility - if any one of these kids messed up, it wouldn't be the noose around their necks. It'd be around his. "Seriously, can none of you remember where you held your letters?" The squirrel was utterly exasperated when he was met with a sea of confused faces that stared up, blankly. "None of you.. I don't know, held them in your rooms?" Suddenly, they all lit up. All of them. Goodness, it was going to be a very long and exhausting day, as if he didn't already know that.

Immediately, he sent them all off to their rooms to fetch all of the letters - all of them. And then, they were all to meet him at the entrance to the Training Grounds. They knew where it was, thank goodness.. and as soon as they'd all run off to their small errands, the squirrel was able to organize himself as well. Or.. to be accurate, calm himself. It wasn't easy standing in front of a group of four children - it'd be easier if they were adults. Children were wild and rebellious.. just like he'd once been. Adults could be reasoned with. These children just didn't give much of a shyke for what he had to say - mostly because he was tiny, made of clay, and a squirrel. He'd have to show them who was boss.. sometime later, he'd talk with one of the Sergeant Knights. They must have known how to lead a group like he never could - after all, these were just children. They had to lead an entire wing of knights on their daily missions.

Focus. For now, he had no sergeant knight. He didn't even have his patron knight. He'd be expected to run with what he had.. after all, he wouldn't always have other patron knights and sergeant knights to work with and get advice from. He'd need to push his own weight, make his own decisions.. and mistakes. The same way he'd run his entire life up to that point. It couldn't be so hard, could it. Just explain to them where they were going and what they were doing. Set them to follow his instructions and make sure that he kept a hold of where they were going and how many letters needed to be delivered. And if they started disobeying, he could threaten them with.. with.. biting. Yep. He'd call an army of squirrels down upon them from above.. heck, he'd get them removed from the Order. Of course he wouldn't do any of these things but they were children and he held moderate amounts of control over them, which meant that as long as he got results out of them and made sure that they did their jobs, he'd be fine.

But first. He needed to make it to the Training Grounds before the pages, and his mountains of paperwork and letters did. About the same time as this, he found himself becoming incredibly grateful for he fact that he was in fact a squire. Considering the squire dorms were on the second tier and the grounds were on the first. It meant that he barely had a walk of five chimes in order to reach the place. Looks like I'll have even more time to organize myself before they arrive.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Indeed, it turned out to be an even shorter walk than that. Once he'd straightened himself out, he hopped onto one of the shorter walls that guarded the entrance to the grounds, and waited. And waited. And waited some more. At first he was certain that he was just too early for them to be expected to go all the way down to their rooms and collect everything at once. But then, as more time wore on, his patience began to wear thin. Perhaps they were struggling to push all of those letters up the stairs. Or perhaps they were struggling to find any of their letters at all. One by one, his theories were debunked as chimes ticked by.. one after another after another. At nearly half a bell of waiting, his fuse disappeared entirely and he knew that they weren't coming. Was he such a pushover for them, that they'd refuse to even appear for him? It'd be a complete embarrassment if it turned out to be the truth.

However, on his way down through the Tiers.. he found himself stopping, slack-jawed, to stare. All of them had arrived, and were waiting patiently outside his dormitory room. Even though he'd expressly wished for them to meet outside the entrance of the Training Grounds. Not only that, but.. each one held a mountain of letters in both hands. Goodness. They're stupid. You'd think that one of them at least would think to deliver a letter rather that let it sit in a room for a good season or two. He didn't even want to begin thinking about all the backed-up orders that'd never gone through. But thy couldn't blame him for all the backed mail.. could they? True, they were technically under his control.. they were his responsibility. But that didn't mean that every mistake that they made could be directly linked back to him, did it? He honestly wasn't feeling so sure.

Either way, he was angry. Beyond angry, even. And he let it show, as he marched towards the pair with a deep frown etched into his face. Immediately, one of them spoke up. It was that same mouthy one as before, as well. "Hey, there you are! We've been waiting!" He couldn't believe what he was hearing. They actually looked annoyed. They looked annoyed, as if he was in the wrong. The boy looked about ready to speak up again but before he could get to the point, the squirrel cut him off with a wave of his paw and a few words that came out quite a bit louder than he'd expected. Not that he minded. He took it in his stride and kept the volume.

"Not another word." He didn't stop until he was standing before all of them. None of them moved from the line they'd taken at the edge of the wall where he'd found them. "Now, you've been waiting. That's funny, because I've been waiting too. I've been waiting at the First Tier outside the entrance to the Training Grounds, where I told you to meet me." A few faces grew pale, but others didn't. "Now. You've managed to waste enough time. We're going to go up to the outer areas of the Training Grounds, and two of you are going to stay with me. The other two will be given letters and sent to deliver them to their addresses and return. This will repeat until the letters are delivered. Do I make myself clear?" There were general nods, although most of them just looked bored and disinterested. Still, nothing. Even his tight, rather frustrated voice began cracking a little at the sight.

"I SAID, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?" Finally, a bit more attention. Some of the pages straightened themselves and their eyes widened in sheer surprise; evidently they weren't expecting such noise from a tiny creature, and neither did they like it. The chorus of 'Yes Ser' was music to his little clay ears. With one more glance around the group, he nodded to himself before turning and marching back up the stairs with four young pages in tow. He swore along the way one or two familiar squires were giving him some odd looks but he didn't want to try and lose all the progress.. even if it was entirely unintentional. He didn't like shouting.. but damn, if he had to then he damn well would.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He actually had to stop himself from smiling, at how unexpectedly well things had suddenly turned. All he needed to do was put a bit more force into his words, show them who was the real boss.. after all, it didn't matter which of them was physically bigger. All that mattered was which one had the better intimidation factor.. and right now, that was him. He made sure to make good reference of it at any available opportunity, as well. Whenever one of the group looked to be dawdling, straying from the single file line, he turned and pointed back at them. Eventually, they knew what was expected of them and he nodded in approval. Oh yes, he'd make them into the most efficient little couriers of all; well, maybe not little, but certainly efficient. Not that they looked particularly pleased with the arrangement, but then again, for now they didn't have much of a choice. He was the elder, the one in charge, so to speak.

Eventually, they marched out over the First Tier and stopped just outside the entrance of the Training Grounds. Exactly where he'd hoped to set this meeting in the first place, although certain.. complications.. had evidently brought about a minor setback. He wasn't about to let them try that again, either. No sir. Immediately, he turned and pointed down to the ground before him. The four pages looked at him in various stages of confusion and disbelief, until he explained it to them in very simple terms. "Half-circle, facing inwards, on me." There were some awkward inward glances but his stern expression eventually pushed them into motion and they.. eventually.. took their places. "Farther apart. Eyes forward." Even then, it seemed like he had to order them when to breathe to stop them from petching up.

Eventually - after a very long back-and-forth that had already sent the squirrel to the very brink of his damn sanity - they could begin. "Show me all the letters you've gathered, then." He could see a few letters clutched in their hands but he wasn't prepared for what they truly brought. Pockets were emptied, whole backpacks were pulled inside out.. and at the end of it, he was left with a mountain vastly overshadowing his own body. He didn't know how they'd managed it - but there must have been two seasons worth, maybe even more, of undelivered letters all hoarded under their beds or behind their desks. Why on earth none of them had even bothered to deliver the letters instead of just leaving them.. and goodness knew what had happened to countless more, that could have been forgotten about entirely. Left on the floor, dropped, abandoned.

"There's more." The squirrels jaw could no longer take it, and fell pretty wide open as he looked towards the rather embarrassed page that stood amongst the small crowd. "We.. couldn't carry it all here." The squirrel honestly couldn't believe it. He wanted, desperately, to scream at them. And he had no clue what held them back from doing it - whether it was the fact that they were immature children, or the fact that he more or less pitied them in equal amounts. Either way.. he knew that the letters weren't going to just deliver themselves to wherever they needed to go. He'd have to organize the entire batch. Himself. He didn't plan on giving any of them the opportunity to mess up any more than they'd already managed.

But where to start? He picked up one letter - addressed to the Windmount Stables. The next that he picked, was for the Ironworks. He knew that there'd likely be several messages to be sent to each.. but he didn't like the way the group kept staring at him, the way they did. He just wanted them to go away. And this was the perfect opportunity. The squirrel pointed to the page t the farthest right of the group, then handed him one of the letters. "You're to take this down to the Windmount Stables as quickly as possible." Then the page standing next to him. The other letter was set in his outstretched hand. "You're to take this to the Ironworks." Two down, four to go. He scooped up more of the letters in bundles, and skimmed through them while handing them to the pages. "Miza Mint. Housing Authority. Archive. The Leatherworks. All of them needed to be delivered, so you'd better get moving. Now." They turned and hastily ran off.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Only after they'd disappeared off into their jobs, did the squirrel realize the magnitude of importance in the letters. The more he searched through the addresses in the pile, the more his face would have gone pale.. if it had any blood flow in it. Letters were addressed to anywhere and everywhere in Syliras.. from the knights to the other knights, to the businesses and the government buildings and the temples. Addressed to individual knights, weaponmasters, and entire industries. All of these places had letters that were never delivered - orders, valuable information, utterly forgotten because of six pages. Six pages weren't working as well as they should have been and for that, the entire city could have been affected. Guess we really are as strong as our weakest link. He'd never really understood the phrase until that moment - staring down at all the letters and wondering how the petch they were going to get delivered.

Eventually, he began stacking them. Every time he found two going to the same address, he put them on the same pile. That was about as far as he could go - the sheer volume of letters and parcels soon meant that he struggled to reach the top of the piles to add more on.. thank goodness for stretchy arms. Packages too heavy to lift were left leaning against the bottom of the piles, soon creating miniature mountains of brown paper and strings that he used as steps to climb higher. In all of the mess he'd brought down on himself just as much as the pages that refused to do their work, there was at least one silver lining; at least I'm not the one delivering all this shyke. Each letter was as tall as the squirrel on its side, let alone when he let it stand at its full height - he dared not think how he'd make it through the narrow, crowded corridors with one letter strapped to his back, let alone the small forest spread out before him.

There were still more to work through by the time the pages returned. Without turning back to them, still steaming in his clay, his tail pointed at one of the piles. "Each one of you take a pile. Carry as many letters and parcels as you can, take them all to their destination, come back, grab the rest, keep going until it's gone. If you finish your pile, pick a different one." He could hear grumbles but didn't acknowledge them; there was still so much to do! Of course, none of the pages seemed to care about that.

"How're we supposed to know where they all go?" One voice brought a chorus of agreement from the others. "You want us to get all this done so fast but there's too much to be done, if it's so important to all them knights then why don't they do it themselves?" He was losing his cool again. As if they know anything about what's important to petching knights. Alright, maybe the squirrel wasn't one to talk but at least he was somewhere a little closer than them.. that meant that they had absolutely no right to lecture him on anything!

"If you paid attention and looked at the piles, you'd see each pile is all sent to the same address. You take all the parcels in the pile to that address. Simple enough?" A 'but' was half-way through tumbling out of the page's mouth again before he wheeled around and shoved it straight back in there with another bout of near-shouting. "I'm glad it is! Because, you know, this would be a lot simpler if you'd done your job in the first place and delivered all these things when they were given to you, like you were asked. Oh, by the way, the reason you were asked to deliver them? Because knights are busy doing much more important things than catering to you! Training squires and each-other, patrolling the city, helping people.. you know, all the things that you don't do! You don't risk your life, you don't risk anything but sleeping in a little too late and missing out on the better half of porridge."

"Now, get going! I don't want to see any slacking until these piles are empty.. and that means we're not stopping. I don't care how late it is, all of them need to be delivered. GO!"

[Dravite]

Archailist

XP Award:

• Childcare: 1
• Organisation: 4
• Planning: 1
• Logic: 1
• Teaching: 1
• Endurance: 2
• Rhetoric: 2
• Intelligence: 1
• Investigation: 1
• Intimidation: 1
• Leadership: 2

Lore:

• Anyone over ten years is old for a Pycon
• Ser Iros: The crimson Akalak
• Teaching: A good teacher considers the skills a student will need in future
• Children can be so cruel
• Respect is not a gift, it is earned
• If you want to get paid you need to work
• Organisation: If you want something done right, shout
• Organisation: Delegation is key
• Leadership: Tougher than it looks
• Leadership has its Silver linings
• Knights are busy people

Notes: Hello, Archailist. Thanks for fixing the date! Loved the thread, very well written and planned out, it all flowed wonderfully. I loved the struggle your PC had to face in organising the children and their defiance at first, which he managed to beat out of them by the end. Enjoy the rewards! Let me know if you think I have missed anything here and be sure to edit your grading request!

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