After leaving the dark depths beneath the keep, Nathan finds his way to where a group of about five hundred Storm-riders and 500 keep-dwellers are drilling together, under the command of Sir Erik Kethel.
Nathan pauses, and watches the drills for a few minutes curiously, to see exactly what they are practicing.
The idea is (from what you can discern) that the Storm-riders will use their superior reach and strength to attack, and then the keep-dwellers will either block the counter-strikes, or use the openings left by their (much taller) bretheren. And the shortest Storm-rider is head-and-shoulders taller than the tallest keep-dweller.
Nathan looks over to Erik, as well, to see if he's actively engaged in the drilling or just supervising them - ie, could I talk to him without interrupting . . .
Erik appears to be supervising, with a number of his own subordinates overseeing individual groups of about twenty. When you approach, he looks up, and then nods at you. "Hail, friend Nathan," he says warmly, smiling. "How does the day find you?"
"Hail, friend Erik. And well," Nathan visibly examines himself for a couple of seconds, then grins back at Erik, "I'm pretty sure I'm not dead yet, so I guess I'm doing alright. How's about you?"
Erik smirks, and nods. "I live, as does my wife. I have decided not to mourn her while she is still living ... and we are grateful to you for your council."
"Good to hear," Nathan chuckles, "It can never hurt, I figure. So how goes the drills?"
"Well," Erik says, turning to survey the practicing forces. "The keep-dwellers are small, and weak ... but nimble. This is as it should be -- as the records say Hadrick organized the forces when he battled here."
Nathan nods. "We can be stronger together than both apart, and all that. It's a pity we have such little preparation time."
Erik grunts, and nods his agreement. "But not all is lost," he says, gesturing to the men who are drilling together.
"Oh, hell no. We'll kick their asses anyway," Nathan notes, "I'm just griping."
There is a slight pause.
"Well, you look like you've got this pretty much this under control," Nathan continues, "do you need me to help out with anything?"
Erik snorts. "We've well enough in hand," he says, shaking his head. "You surely need your time more to yourself, after being in so many battles."
"There's always more work to do," Nathan shrugs, then looks vaguely interested as something occurs to him.
"Well, hey, I suppose we could go see how that Hunter Hunted tournament is getting along . . ." Nathan looks at Alec questioningly.
"It's always been a child's game, for us," Erik says, frowning. After a moment, he shrugs, as well, and says, "But if we've time for childish pursuits, then, as has been said ... the men have nothing to worry about." He smirks. "Enjoy yourself, then, Friend Nathan."
Nathan grins.
"I'll try. I'm sure there'll be something to be done afterwards, but if nobody needs me right now, what harm? G'luck with your training, Friend Erik."
With a wave, Nathan wanders off to look for where the Hunter Hunted game(s) are taking place. And asks a quick question of Alec along the way: "So, do you mind tagging along? I don't mind if you've got something useful to do," he snickers, "but I'm sick of plain useful right now. This'll be useful and might be fun, at the same time."
"I've got no appointments," Alec replies cheerily. "Where are they starting their games?"
"No idea. Let's go find out!" Nathan starts walking off in a random direction to start asking around, "And while we're going . . . can you explain the rules to me?"
Alec snorts, and explains about the roles of 'guards', 'goalies', and 'tacklers'. Essentially, the flag is a rag -- usually a scarf -- and the goalie carries it, trying to keep it away from the tacklers. The guards try to block, and the objective is to get the flag across the field, through the opponent's guards, past their tacklers, and then, have your goalie capture the opponent's flag. There are specific rules for when a goalie can rush, and only the attacking goalie can try to capture (though, he only gets one shot at it, and if he messes up, the round resets).
He goes on to explain a bit more about how kids usually find ways to make things interesting, but the arena, as such, is a large square, evenly divided into each team's field. Each capture is worth a point, with every game being played to six points. First team to reach six wins.
It sounds pretty straight-forward ... and just as rowdy.
Nathan snickers at this, nodding as Alec explains, and continues looking around to find out just what is happening with (and where) the Hunter Hunted games.
Jeff would be good to find, if possible!
The west side of the keep seems to hold a fair sized gathering as Jeff explains that he's officiating the tournament and that all defenders of the keep are welcome to join. A fair number of storm-riders and keep-defenders are already signing up.
"Well . . ." Nathan queries politely, "I won't be able to play often, and I doubt I'll be able to play again actually, but I don't suppose there's any teams that need another couple of players to start with? I don't have anything critical that needs my attention, and it may well help kickstart it, so why not?"
Nathan spends the next few hours learning to play Hunter-Hunted, and taking a few good-natured bruises as he learns how the game goes.
After earning a few bruises, Alec begs off of the game, citing a need to catch some sleep.
And this is about the time when Nathan, having had his fun, agrees that that's probably not a bad idea and so they head back towards the stormrider camp.
On the way back to the camp, Nathan spots Phil speaking with his command staff.
Nathan walks up quietly, politely not interrupting but waiting for someone to acknowledge him.
Nathan now moves to In the Hall of the Mountain King (http://pishoque.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=39967#39967).