Subj: [ffml] [MW] Dinner Date: 00-07-16 00:45:59 EDT From: skyhall@hotmail.com (Sky Hall) Reply-to: ffml@egroups.com To: ffml@egroups.com The several rooms of Hiel Keep provided a honeycomb of rooms, stairways, and hallways. Sleeping quarters, storage rooms, workshops, and extra rooms were everywhere and in an almost haphazard spread throughout the building. However, this was due to the nature of the building. Different rooms provided good vantage points to areas surrounding Hiel Keep. And in particular, there were several rooms with windows that focused specifically on the mountain pass to the east, the expanse to the north and south, and a few that covered the homeland to the west. The number of troops in Hiel Keep fluctuated continuously due to changes in political and social situations. And although fifty soldiers could barely hold the keep against a weak opponent, one hundred or more soldiers could hold Hiel Keep indefinitely, depending on the ammount of supplies. But regardless of this, the state rooms in the center of Hiel Keep were always used. There was a map room, the lord’s chamber, a few assembly rooms, and some officer quarters. One assembly room was located on the second floor and near a kitchen, and was commonly referred to as the dining room. It had a good ceiling and effect of ambiance, was large enough to fit a party of fifty or so, and the sturdy tables of the keep were able to be broken down and moved about, to best fit the purpose of the owner of the keep. On the day of the arrival of the reinforcement troops led by Captain Clive, Tim had decided to hold a special dinner, both in honor of the new arrivals and to celebrate the victory a few days before. Every officer from Colonel Tim down to the lieutenants were present. Although Tim had risen from the ranks, he was beginning to observe formal custom of keeping the commissioned officers together in social situations. It was awkward for him and his men, but Tim was soon beginning to realize it’s effect. The officers could communicate with each other and identify with each other, as well as share ideas and information. Tim was startled at the realization that while a soldier may fight and die and think about himself, one man, an officer fought and led, and thus was responsible for the lives of himself and his command. This fear had been in Tim all along, but had not really manifested itself so well until lately. Tim and these men in the room, were all responsible for the lives of countless others. If these officers made a mistake, a life was lost. This put tremendous stress on the officers, thus requiring them to relax more. Tim also realized that it came with the identification with your soldiers. If you are friends with someone, you do not wish for that person to die. If you are an officer that identifies with his soldiers, he will not want to have his men die, and will make rash and bad decisions. But if you are an officer and think as an officer, and realize that your men are soldiers, you would make the best choice. Tim shook such thoughts aside and looked about the room. All the officers were seated and dressed in their uniforms. No one had dress uniforms. Tim sat at one end of a long table, with Captain Nighthawk at the far end. The avariel looked rather nervous and fidgeted somewhat on her stool. Next to Tim was Captain Clive and Thulio, the war mage from Thamasa. Clive caught his attention. “I was curious at how well you had been living here, sir,” spoke the captain. The blond man had an open, charming face. “And looking about the barracks, I see that your men are well settled. But I was surprised at the amount of clutter in the rooms. One of your soldiers mentioned something about a ‘pet project.’” Tim smiled at Clive. “Yes. You see, I focus so much on training that I often forget that the training may actually work against a man. He may have been a good bowman growing up, but had always wanted to be a swordsmen in the army. He joins the army and learns the sword, but still has his knowledge of the bow in his mind. It would be a waste to not continue to train him in the art of the bow and allow him to increase his potential. “That is the ‘clutter’ you are referring to, I believe. Every soldier has their time off, and in that time they can do as they like, but the warrior instinct is so strong in these men that many are developing their fighting skills. Several men are taking up the bow again. Some are developing throwing daggers and hatchets for battle. “You see, while this may add some extra weight and incumberance to a soldier, it makes him more confidant on the battlefield. If he holds just a sword, he will fear about loosing that sword and may make a mistake. But if the soldier knows he has a dagger and a hatchet as his back up weapons, he will not be so concerned. The same is true about going into the bush. He does not know what he will encounter, but having a few more trusty weapons on his person will increase his courage and desire to fight.” Clive nodded. “Colonel Tim, you are a very intelligent man. The rumors I heard were obviously false.” “Rumors?” asked Tim, his attention perked. Clive shut his mouth and a moment of embarrassment was evident on his face. “Oh, well yes, about you, sir. Nothing inflammatory, but that you were unique and a hard-nosed commander, always berating your troops and working them too hard. But I see now that you are a very calm and good commander. None of your men grumble.” Clive chuckled. “I wish I could claim the same for my men.” Tim smiled. “That’s good to hear. Even though my rank is almost meaningless, I am as busy as ever, overseeing the training of the men, working on the special projects that I have lined up, and keeping up with what the other commanders are doing so far in the war.” Clive nodded. “Yes. Although the campaign to retake Doma is not proceeding as fast as we lost it, I feel we are winning rather well. In fact, from my judgement, the battle front should be in line with Hiel Keep now.” Tim nodded. “Aye, it is. That is why we are preparing to move. Once the Lance Henriksen detachment arrives, we will move out.” “Do you have a plan, sir?” “Yes,” said Tim. He sat back in his chair and looked about as he spoke. “We’ll shoot south, to the seaway, then run west till we are almost at Southvale, then turn north, towards Doma. It is not my intention to claim any land, but to shake up the enemy and not let them know where we are. But from what some of the intelligence seems to be indicating, the moogles are pulling back their forces.” “What do you mean, sir?” asked Clive. “If the moogles have such a huge army in Doma, where is it?” asked Tim. “Granted, we faced quite a heavy resistance when we landed and cleared the northern territory. Even recently, with the large moogle force that tried to retake Hiel Keep, it seems they intend to hold Doma. But the reports show that many areas are unguarded, and that the moogles are fighting delaying and retreating actions. The area north of Doma is being held very strongly, but that is it. Elsewhere it seems the moogles are melting away.” “Maybe they lost more moogles then when we had thought when they took Doma,” said Clive. “We fought them tooth and nail when they took Doma. And although we barely managed to escape with a fraction of men, we must have severely hurt their numbers.” "You could be right on that," said Tim. "I just don't know. Hopefully we may learn something when we march again." Tim was stopped from continuing by the entrance of several men bearing platters. The orderlies set the platters on the table and Tim's mouth began to water at the "feast." Roast venison, cooked vegetables, fruit, bread, and some stew were served. Although not as wonderful as a state dinner, this would be the best meal that Tim's men had eaten in a long time. Tim stood up and held his cup of wine. "I would like to propose a toast," said Tim, holding his glass aloft. All the men stood up and held their glasses aloft. "Firstly, my compliments to the chef for this fine meal." Tim indicated the orderlies, who nodded their heads. "Now, I would like to Toast Captain Nighthawk and her hunters for providing us with this fine venison." "Here, here," said the offiers and sipped their wine. "And Nighthawk, I understand your claustrophobia, so if you desire to leave, please feel free to do so. We will not be upset." Tim smiled at her. Nighthawk nodded back at Tim. "I would like to toast Captain Clive for joining us." All the men toasted. "And I would like to toast all of you fine officers. For without your leadership and discipline, we would not have achieved such success as we have today." All the men toasted. "And I would like to toast the fallen soldiers, who sacrificed their lives to defeat the moogles. Without their loss, we might not have defeated the moogles." The men toasted and were silent a moment. "And we must toast you, Colonel Tim. For without your example, and your hard work, we would not be the elite fighting force that we are." "Here, here!" said the men loudly. Tim felt like he could blush. "Thank you," said Tim softly. Everyone smiled and chuckled. "Now, let us eat this wonderful meal." All the men sat down and did so. Tim was able to talk to Thulio during the meal and did find him to be rather shy and disinclined to war and fighting. Tim realized that he would have to take some special time and work on the warmage from Thamasa. The rest of the meal went well and all enjoyed their evening. --Sky ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To email plain text is conventional, to add graphics is divine. We'll show you how at www.supersig.com. http://click.egroups.com/1/6808/1/_/175046/_/963722668/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Final Fantasy Mailing List: Now available in Cherry, Strawberry or Tofu ----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- Return-Path: <.sentto-5708-60703-963722668-raumkatze2=aol.com@returns.onelist.com> Received: from rly-yg04.mx.aol.com (rly-yg04.mail.aol.com [172.18.147.4]) by air-yg01.mail.aol.com (v75_b1.4) with ESMTP; Sun, 16 Jul 2000 00:45:59 -0400 Received: from hh.egroups.com (hh.egroups.com [208.50.99.210]) by rly-yg04.mx.aol.com (v75.18) with ESMTP; Sun, 16 Jul 2000 00:45:29 -0400 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-5708-60703-963722668-raumkatze2=aol.com@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.10.36] by hh.egroups.com with NNFMP; 16 Jul 2000 04:44:28 -0000 Received: (qmail 31810 invoked from network); 16 Jul 2000 04:44:28 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by m2.onelist.org with QMQP; 16 Jul 2000 04:44:28 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO hotmail.com) (216.32.181.144) by mta1 with SMTP; 16 Jul 2000 04:44:28 -0000 Received: (qmail 12286 invoked by uid 0); 16 Jul 2000 04:44:27 -0000 Message-ID: <20000716044427.12285.qmail@hotmail.com> Received: from 64.1.214.16 by www.hotmail.com with HTTP; Sat, 15 Jul 2000 21:44:27 PDT X-Originating-IP: [64.1.214.16] To: ffml@egroups.com From: "Sky Hall" <.skyhall@hotmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list ffml@egroups.com; contact ffml-owner@egroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list ffml@egroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <.mailto:ffml-unsubscribe@egroups.com> Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2000 21:44:27 PDT Reply-To: ffml@egroups.com Subject: [ffml] [MW] Dinner Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit