Day Three: Training continues.

As Commander Tigermark explained what was going to be happening and what to do next, Keir was heading towards the lance rack so that he may clean the gold painted buttons with a dry rag. "Or maybe they're gold plated. If so, then they're fancy buttons," Keir chuckled to himself.

"Very well Commander. I will do as requested and keep my senses peeled," Keir replied to the Commander with a grin. He brushed up the buttons on his jacket, going over them three to four times to make sure that they were actually somewhat clean. He then proceeded to go over what gold trim there was on his uniform. Being that he was only a recruit, it was very little, but still enough to make a difference when cleaned properly.

Tamara nodded at Tigermark, then she went to put the brush back where Keir took it. She grabbed a dry cloth and began polishing the buttons and the gold trim on her uniform while listening to the Commander. It took only a moment, and she regretted not being able to look at herself in a mirror now. She didn't took the time to do it properly when she dressed up in the morning, and ran to the mess tent to get breakfast before the exercises.

"Thank you Commander," she said as he complimented them. "I can't talk for my comrades, but I'd say that you are a quite good teacher. And I hope that you'll still keep teaching us things when we all go to the headquarters, or whatever posting each of us end up getting," she said with respect and sincerity.

Grabbing her lance from the rack, and making sure that it was still clean, she began repeating the various movements that she was just taught. While it seemed easier when following the others, she still needed to completely integrate each of the movements, and any mistakes would be immediately spotted when the Overlord was there and they'd all be called together. Then she couldn't just follow, she'd had to do the right move at the same time than the others.

"We'll keep our senses in alert for the Overlord, Commander," she added, while looking around the camp from her position. She was trying to discern any kind of hints as to the Overlord's whereabouts; be it orders being shouted or a big group of people walking around, or even the presence of Lady Bane, since the Dire Wolf was Overlord Fox's right hand.

Snorting through his nose as the banter between the bear and the fox, Razor grabbed the brush from Angus's hand and motioned for him to turn around. It was no surprise that the bear wasn't nearly as dusty as he was, seeing as he hadn't taken an unexpected tumble.

"Yes, yo' butt is now prim and proper for inspection by the Overlord, or anyone else that happens to pass by~" He announced, shooting a sharp toothed grin in his direction.

Hearing Tigermark telling them the have their buttons and trim in tip top shape as well, the leopard shark prodded at Angus, "C'mon, let's borrow Keir's rag off of him when he's finished and he c'n git us a good look over, make sure we didn't miss any spots"

With that, he jogged over to the wolf, noting how meticulously he was going over the buttons and trim. From where he was standing, they looked pretty clean already, but by this time, Razor was well aware that Keir was a bit of a...perfectionist. Not that he minded, its just that he himself didn't have the ability to pay THAT much attention to detail.

"Yo', you keep rubbin' like that, you goin' take the gold right off, man!" He grinned, "But when you done, I'd like tah snatch that rag off ya' real quick"

Angus grinned and followed the shark " 4 eyes are better then 2 " he thought to himself "Razor has the right idea"
"Mind if we borrow that rag Keir. Our buttons also need some rub and scrub to shine for her Overlord" he askes as he comes closer to the wolf who looks really into it as he polish his buttons.

Keir had just finished with the final button and section of trim on his jacket as the other two males walked up and asked for the rag Keir was using. The dark wolf looked up and smiled. "sure thing guys. As a matter of fact, I was just finishing up with it," Keir said as he passed the dry rag over to the leopard shark and laughed.

"Yours may not need anything done to them," Keir smiled down at Angus. "Although I would go over them just to be sure." By this point Keir had run the rag across his buttons about three times but was finally satisfied that his uniform was clean. If not, then he just wasn't going to get to the Citadel today or whenever.

Tamara kept on doing some moves with her lance, to keep her muscles warm, and also to get a better feeling for the weapon. Her teachers back home told her that each weapon had a specific balance, and, when one finds the right balance with a weapon, they become much more efficient when using them. But finding the right balance for a specific weapon took time.

The lance's balance was tricky, first of all because it changed when the power clip was on or off, and also because the prongs that protruded changed the centre of gravity, putting it slightly out of the main body of the weapon itself. The tigress moved around, slowly, moving the lance up, down, right and left, careful not to hit any of the others around her.

She used it with one paw, then the other, then with both, thrusting it to the front, blocking in invisible opponent, striking in the air, up and down and from the side, smiling a bit as she heard the whooshing sound it made when the lance's tip arced fast in the air.

Tamara was also very careful not to get any dirt or anything on her freshly cleaned uniform and lance, making sure she stayed in tip top shape for when the Overlord would arrive and review them.

With the rag in hand, Razor began to wipe the buttons and trim to a nice sheen. Afterwards, he went over them a second, then third time to make absolutely certain no dirt or dust could stand a chance of sticking around. He'd embarrassed himself enough today, first with the passing out fiasco (which he prayed to never happen again) and then COMPLETELY blanking on the proper lance presentation protocol....why did he get in the front of the line again?

Once that was done, he tossed the rag the bear's way, sighing through his gills. Green eyes caught the movement of the tigress working on her lance skill, jogging the shark's memory to the spar earlier. He turned a sly smirk to Keir, "Soooooooo......'bout that fight man. She's pretty good, yeah?"

Keir laughed and patted Razor on the back. "She is definitely an adept fighter. Her skill was incredible and that was quite the fight. Although I really wasn't surprised she beat me," Keir replied as he turned to watch her. The way she held the lance was rather exciting to watch, to say the least. "What got me the most was when she threw me over her. Talk about flexible and swift. However, most of it was myself being stuck in momentum."

Turning back to the shark, Keir leaned in close and whispered to the leopard shark. "I bet you wish it had been you though, am I right?" Keir laughed and nudged Razor's arm with his own, winking at him. He could tell Razor was a ladies man, even if he didn't show it too often.

Though it looked like she was focused on her movements with the lance, one careful observer would notice that one of her round feline ear stayed pointed towards the group of males. She was listening to their idle conversation while making her moves with the lance, and chuckled inwardly at the friendly banter and teasing.

"Hehe I think she is a very good fighter and good looking too when she did best you Keir" Angus chuckled as he begann to clean every button on his jacket with great care.
He looked in the direction of the tigress . "She can always throw me down though I would fight like every other male against her " he grins at the two other males.

Feeling as if he would be interrupting an important meeting which Commander Steele was a part of, the lanky cheetah decided to take a walk, not only to have a basic feel of the tent city and its inhabitants but also to slowly regain his strength and endurance before he tackled anything more strenuous but even then he knew he would have to eventually catch up with the rest of the recruits in those regards as well.  He noticed commotion going on in the field and by the number of recruits already there, it was apparent it was a training grounds of sorts.  He then noticed the white tiger from before directing them to take a breather before someone called 'Her Majesty' returned.  This was interesting, he knew of an Overlord was the leader of the island but royalty?  He wondered if it was the one and the same person he had heard about.  Curiosity piqued, he walked over to the white tiger, Tigermark, he believe his name was and called out to him.  

"Excuse me sir," Charon said quietly.  "I believe Commander Steele was in some sort of meeting and I didn't want to bother him at this time.  I am quite late to the party already and I don't want to be further behind in training; would there anything I could do to regain my endurance and help out in any way?"

Tigermark noticed the cheetah he'd seen earlier at the medical tent approaching. With the officers spread pretty thin, apparently he hadn't been able to report in to Commander Steele yet. After hearing his request, the tiger responded.

"Recruit Bond, wasn't it? Sorry, I don't have the training syllabus for Base Ops recruits. From what I've observed, they've been sent out to gather food and return, but I don't know the specifics. If you want to loosen up a bit and see if you're physically ready to resume training, then have a lap or two around the camp. The trail is easy to see, and there are stopping points in four places if you need to rest. I wouldn't take more than two laps before reporting back in to Commander Steele or whichever officer is in charge of Base Ops at that time. Sorry I can't be more help, but as I said, I'm not teaching Base Ops this round."

Keir laughed at Angus' comment about sparring with the tigress before the males. Leaving the Razor and Angus to themselves, Keir walked over towards Tamara and tapped her shoulder lightly, tensing his muscles to block her attack should she be spooked by his presence.

"Excuse me, Tamara, but where did you learn to defend yourself like that?" Keir asked curiously from her left side. She had out maneuvered him with precision, yet somehow still overpowered his strength.

Charon nodded his head at the suggestion of attempting to do a couple of laps around the track. "Well, I certainly hope I don't have a relapse of my seed incident at the mess tent," joked the cheetah as he walked over to where the trail started. "And not to fall in heap after I'm done."

He stretched out all of his muscles especially at his legs for the trial he set for himself. With him feeling sufficiently stretched out, he set himself a slow jog for the first lap around the tent city. It would certainly give him a good idea on how big the camp was as well as making him used to feel of the camp and its inhabitants. The first lap around, he felt no ill effects but about the halfway point on the second lap he had began to feel a bit winded. At least this felt normal as his species usually couldn't keep up will in an endurance run as cheetahs were usually built for speedo and short distances.

At the last part of the second lap, at the straightaway, a sudden thought ran through his mind which made him have a slightly amused smirk across his lips and muzzle. Breathing in deeply to open up his lungs, he gradually picked up speed. He knew he'd probably feel the effects of what he was about to do but he wanted to impress on the recruits it wouldn't be wise to run from him if he was allowed to become a guard for her Overlord's service. Also, at the same time, he secretly wanted to impress Tigermark in he did feel better and didn't feel the effects of his previous encounter at the mess tent.

He finally felt sufficient enough to finally let loose. He took off like a harpoon shot from an underwater gun. He practically flew across the field and he felt as though time slowed down around him. For a cheetah, it would be very unfortunate not only for himself but for the unlucky recruit to pop out right in front of him as he ran at this speed. He took in all the sights and smells as he streaked towards the starting point. He then realized he would probably have to take a few extra yards to stop as he wasn't feeling up to 100% of himself. He slowed down his running and came to a stop. His body screamed at him for pushing it a bit too early as his sides hurt from the extra air in his lungs as well as his legs ached going across unfamiliar ground. At least he hoped someone would have noticed him or at least the blur of him going across the grounds at a break neck, but controlled speed.

Tamara saw Keir coming, so she wasn't spooked as he tapped her on the shoulder, and she just finished her move and turned to look at him, lance in hand, panting ever so slightly.

"Well, I was lucky that one of my professors back home had been in the service of the previous Overlord. So he learnt quite a lot of very useful tricks and moves during his years of service, which he passed on to his pupils. It's a little different than the usual hunting training we receive, but so very useful, as you saw first hand," she replied with a grin, her tail flicking in an amused way.

She glanced to the side at some point, noticing a blur of fur running around the camp. It wasn't difficult to recognize a cheetah. Very fast over short distances, always impressive to watch, but tiring quickly. Then she looked back at Keir.

"How very exciting. And I will say again, as you probably heard earlier, quite an impressive style," Keir nodded with a grin. He was proud of being selected to spar against Tamara, and now after having seen what the tigress could do, Keir made a mental note to stay on her good side. "You know what's funny is, I come from a farming village on the island of Tiurai with practically no fighting knowledge. The scariest most easily frightening thing I have ever faced was a feral mountain lion. When sparring against you, I took the moves that Tigermark showed us, and just let myself go, feeling the rhythm of the fight and running with it. That is, until I was dropped like a sack of potatoes!" Keir teases, laughing. "No I'm kidding. It's really cool that you had someone to teach you that stuff."

Right as Keir finished his sentence, there was a flash of spotted fur between two of the tents. It had been a long time since Keir had seen anyone with fur in such a pattern as the animal he saw. Immediately recognizing the cheetah from the few days before hand, Keir mentally congratulated the cheetah for his swiftness, even if it was only for a short distance. Keir peered over towards the R&D tent and the Base Ops tent to see if there was still a commotion going on, and was surprised to have lost sight of General Steele and Sunny, along with the rest of the Base Ops recruits.

(sorry for the late replied)

She glanced from time to time to see what was happening as she brought her bag of goods to base ops. She was a little nervous as she felt like she had gotten on the bad side of Commander Steele, but she had a feeling it was going to happen to her sooner or later. She tends to go on her own at times, base Ops took her

"Here is my bag of goods from Commander Steele training mission" The person took her bag and she was told to report to training. She bows her head" Thank you

"She walks towards the group of people and she spotted Commander Tigermark training training the new people. She stood in lines with the others waiting for either the Commander to call on her or for her turn"

The tigress smiled and bowed slightly at Keir. "Thank you. You're a good fighter as well though. Don't think you're not because I bested you this time," she added with a slight grin.

"My village is located in the winter islands. So hunting is our way of life. We have very little crops, and not that much grows around, not enough to sustain us. So everyone learns to hunt from a very young age, and what we do not need for us is exchanged with produce from the other islands."

Tamara paused and smiled softly. "I could teach you some of the moves I learnt, if you want, when we're at the Citadel," she said. Though she glanced quickly towards Tigermark, who ought to have heard them, inwardly pondering if that would be authorized or not.

Tigermark, who was thinking of going over the review with the recruits once more before the Overlord came back, twitched an ear at Tamara. He'd been listening to the recruits banter in case they got out of hand, but so far they were fine.

"Recruit Tamara, and the rest of you, don't worry. You've made it this far in your training, and it's rare for a recruit to be dismissed this far in. You might have to stay and train another cycle, but you'll most likely make it to the Citadel now or later. It is very rare for her Majesty to dismiss an earnest recruit unless they've continually screwed up, and none of you have. No Razor, not even you. Stay sharp, answer truthfully, and you'll all do fine."

"Thank you Commander," replied Tamara, glancing quickly at Razor with a small smile on her lips. "I guess we will all feel better, and less stressed, once Her Majesty will have reviewed us and we will be officially qualified for service. I know I will!" she added with a slightly nervous laugh.

"Commander, while we wait, can you tell us a bit more about what it really is to be a minions of the Overlord, and the life at the Citadel? I think we've all heard stories about it, there are many circulating around the islands, and some of them sounds downright silly or the product of a drunk mind. We'd love to hear what it is from someone who do live there."

"Right. That makes sense to use hunting for food. And if you feel like sharing, I would be more than happy in learning some new fighting moves with which to use on an enemy, shall we find any," Keir smiled nodding to Tamara. When Commander Tigermark spoke up, Keir got all excited and couldn't wait to actually get to the Citadel. He had heard rumors and stories of it as a pup, and had wanted to go see it ever since, whether through his farming or through the military.

As Tamara turned and began speaking to Tigermark, asking for more 'stories' if you will, Keir peeked over his shoulder to see a winged wolf walking around. Not recognizing the face, Keir watched her for a minute before returning his attention to the Commander, waiting to see if he tell more about this 'Lair' of the Overlord's.

It was nice to know he hadn't screwed up, though Charon. His overt reaction to the bread he ate wasn't his fault though so it didn't count as a screw up or so he thought it wouldn't. The cheetah still was doing his best to regain his breath after the sprint to the finish line he performed. He knew he shouldn't have done so this early in recuperating from his illness, but he couldn't help himself. He thought better of it only after his body screamed at him at the very end to slow down. 'Conserve all the energy you could until it was most needed,' his father constantly told him.

Knowing this wasn't his area to be in until he could talk to Commander Steele, Charon kept to the back of the group and listening in to the conversations. Hunting was one of the things felines did best but he did so mostly closer to the water and sometimes in the water. He could easily translate using a spear gun in the water to a bow and arrow on land but he did have a hard time conceiving how trying to wrestle with a small sized grouper would translate to land combat.

Angus heard Tamara ask for more infos about he Citadel and the Overlord and how it is.
Yesterday they where disturbed by the two foxes who they rescued but now his interrest was again raised.
He turns to the white Tiger
" Yes Commander Please share some more of your stories about what awaits us."
Still his cloth in hand rubbing his buttons to a shining gold gleam.

Tigermark leaned up against the corner of the lance rack, crossing his arms and flipping his tail around his ankles.

"More about the Lair, eh? Well, as I said, most work a normal workday, but as part of the Military you'll sometimes pull the Night Watch. We used to not have to keep watch all hours but with changes in the situation we've kept a watch twenty four/ seven for several years now. Not to worry, the dining halls accommodate the schedule. The dining halls are the main place to meet up and socialize. Also, there are a few clubs and pubs scattered about the Lair for after-hours fun. There are a couple small villages on Aukate' that give places outside the lair to visit and socialize and shop. Just remember, like the other Islands, there are only footpaths through the jungle. There is exactly one road and one vehicle for that road on Aukate', and it is privately owned and not for general use. Being in the Military, most of your day will be spent training or pulling watch, or on call. Remember, we serve at the pleasure of Her Majesty, so whatever she calls on us to do, that's what we do. Quite honestly, things at the Lair can go from very quiet to very hectic and back again on any given day, sometimes several times a day. Other than that, I'll try to answer any specific question y'all might have."

Tamara listened, her round ears perked up, tail flicking slowly. "Could you elaborate a bit on the change of situation that prompted the twenty four / seven watch?" she asked. "I heard about enemies of the Overlord, but the details are quite lacking, or sounds like some sort of bad fairy tale..."