[sandbox]

[furiousmaximus]

Antillar Maximus stands at the far end of the Elinarch. He is the ranking officer out with the cohort on guard for a surprise attack from the Canes. They'd be beaten back, but there were a lot of them out there, and they might come again. Tavi would have been the ranking officer, but Max had finally convinced him to get some real sleep four hours before. Without furies to draw on, the commander couldn't push himself as hard as his troops could. Besides, Max knew his business.

His eyes scan across the terrain in front of him taking in the still-smoldering ruins where the firetrap had done less than they had hoped. Behind him he hears the steady rhythm of the Legion's engineers improving the fortifications along the bridge.

For one long moment, Max closes his eyes as he thinks about all the men they lost. But they had held. They had held.

Comments

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

"Put me to bed and then get along with business, Max?" comes a grousing voice from behind him.

Tavi looks as if the sleep has done some good, though it's obvious he needed more. His hair is a bit of a mess, his armor a little crooked, and it looks as if he might have put his boots on the wrong foot.

In short, about the usual.

[furiousmaximus.livejournal.com]

Max grimaces that Tavi's not sleeping, but quickly shifts it into a smirk, "Someone's got to get you out of the way so that the real work can get done around here, Calderan."

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

"Someone's tempting me to assign them latrine duty for a fe weeks," he replies with a wicked grin as he walks up beside Max.

[furiousmaximus.livejournal.com]

"Oh, is that how it is?" Max grins. "Abusing your newfound authority already? I wish I could say I were surprised, but I've long known that not everyone can be as amazingly responsible as I am."

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

"Try that line on someone who didn't regularly wake you up for classes by walking you into the cold baths," he replies with a roll of his eyes.

He could say such things, where they were. Anywhere else, he'd have to be careful not to be overheard as Scipio Rufus certainly didn't attend the Academy in Alera Imperia.

Tavi, however, had.

[furiousmaximus.livejournal.com]

Max's eyes dart around just in case someone's nearby, but since no one is he simply responds with. "Oh, I was responsible. I just had," he pauses significantly, "other responsibilities. Important ones involving sacrificing sleep to alleviative the loneliness of various women."

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

"I checked the area as I was walking up," he tells his friend before answering the other bit of nonsense.

"I recall a few of those women who weren't so much lonely as comely. And I suppose you were also sacrificing the hops to the Great Furies, with all the drinking you did?"

[furiousmaximus.livejournal.com]

Max simply nods in acknowledgment. Personally he was pleased with the work that had been done in the few hours Tavi had actually slept, but he was sure Tavi would have some suggestions. He always did. They were even good ones most of the time.

"They were rather comely, weren't they," Max smirks. Then he shoots his friend a mock-serious look, "Well, someone has to drink all that ale. Otherwise it languishes in the barrel wasting space."

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

"An argument, I'm sure, none of the tavern keepers ever refuted," he says with a faint laugh.

He tipped his chin towards the terrain.

"Anything happen in the four hours while I was sleeping?"

[furiousmaximus.livejournal.com]

"Nothing," Max replies, his voice losing its teasing tone. "I've pushed our scouts out a bit, but none of them have reported any Cane activity. No more encounters with their females either."

He pauses for a moment, then continues, "I've been rotating men off the wall every two hours. They're all stretched thin and I'm trying to get them as much sleep as possible in case we have to fight again soon. The engineers tell me that they can raise the walls another three feet by nightfall, and I've got a small team back in the city," his chin jerks toward the still smoking ruins, "trying to figure out how much of the gate we can salvage for reuse in our fortifications."

Another long pause, "You should have stayed in bed."

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

He shakes his head.

"No I shouldn't have," he argues, pointing towards the city. "Because I want to hear what they have the second they get back. Who did you send in that party?"

[furiousmaximus.livejournal.com]

"Two men from the engineers, a squad of your Crows for security." Max grins suddenly, "And Ehren. He's got an eye for... odd applications."

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

"Ehren came back from the scouting party and you didn't wake me?" he asks, sounding none too pleased with that.

"Did he have anything to report?"

[furiousmaximus.livejournal.com]

Max eyes his friend, "If he'd had anything worth waking you over, I would have."

Then he relents, "No changes. No sign of refugees hiding out waiting for the Cane to bypass them, no sign of the Cane heading our way again. I think he's right: they're pulling back to reorganize since we burned their old command structure."

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

"We burned their old puppetmaster," Tavi corrects. "Nasaug is the leader of the warrior caste and for all intents and purposes, the warleader. He's alive and well and a better strategist than I can be comfortable about. He's probably settling all the lose ends from the ritualist camp and getting a thorough lay of the land."

[furiousmaximus.livejournal.com]

"The stuff that they really should have done as soon as they landed," Max nods. "Damn, I hate competent enemies."

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

He laughs, very quietly, and shakes his head.

"Well, unfortunately, Alera has plenty of them. Have any dispatches from the capitol come in?"

[furiousmaximus.livejournal.com]

"Not yet." Max shakes his head, "I really would have gotten you up for that. But," he shrugs, "no Cursors are here to give us our mail from the First Lord." He grins a bit at his own joke.

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

Tavi gives him a mildly dirty look before scrubbing his face with one hand.

"And do you have any numbers from Foss on the wounded? How many up and able? How many dead?"

His voice didn't change as he said the last, but there was a subtle difference to his tone.

Guilt.

[furiousmaximus.livejournal.com]

"I've got them," Max's voice is soft. "The dead are bad enough, but our medicos have just about reached their limit. I don't think we're going to lose any more men, at least not those with any sort of injury that can be crafted, but I do think we're about to lose the use of our watercrafters. They need food and rest. We're probably going to be reduced to our thousand or so effectives and a bunch of walking wounded for at least the next day."

Max frowns, "There's just no way we can push our watercrafters farther. They're already making dangerous mistakes. They have to take a break."

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

"And no news of reinforcements," he says tiredly.

"Split them into more shifts," he continues, lifting his head. "We'll have less in the tents at any given time, but it'll also mean they'll have more time to rest and should be more functional."

He gives Max a crooked, weary grin.

"It'll be slower going, but it should mean we'll end up with more alive at the end of the day."

[furiousmaximus.livejournal.com]

"Will do, sir." The usual hint of mockery is absent in Max's tone.

Then it comes back, "You look awful, you know that right?"

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

"I look like the crows've already picked me over, yes," he agrees with a sigh. "I know. And I'm sure Kitai will be by soon to drag me back into bed. But while I'm still up, I'm getting something done."

[furiousmaximus.livejournal.com]

Max barks a sudden laugh and leers, "I'm sure that Kitai will drag you back to bed and you'll still be up."

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

That gets Max a shove and a mock-glare.

"Do you ever manage to pull your mind from the gutter?"