Post by Lisa on Jan 3, 2010 15:42:35 GMT 10
A Day in the Life of a Sergeant
by Greenie
I was shown into Lord Gershom’s library as I arrived promptly at midday, and was left there to wait. I wasn’t sure whether to be glad that the late start had allowed me a lazy morning or to be worried that half of the day was already gone. The library certainly had plenty to interest me though. The walls were covered in maps of Tortall, its major cities, and areas of Corus, and I soon lost myself in admiring their accuracy and intricacy. The door behind me opened and Lord Gershom walked through followed by a woman who could only be Kebibi Ahuda. It seemed that he had already explained to her that I would be with her until the end of her watch, so after a brief introduction we set off. It wasn’t far before our first stop – the storeroom at Provost’s House, where Ahuda dug out a spare uniform for me. I thought I looked very impressive, although she informed me that if any of her Dogs turned up for duty looking like that, she’d soon teach them better.
We headed along the Palace Way into the Lower City, where I was bombarded with interesting sights and unpleasant smells. We stopped at a stall and bought some apple pasties and raisin patties (both of which were utterly delicious), and continued on to the Jane Street kennel. It was emptier than I expected, but Ahuda told me that the Day Watch shift was still underway, and that she had work to do before the Evening Watch started. I followed her up the stairs and along to her small study, where she spent time as needed to catch up on reports and organise her Dogs. I was allowed to read some of the more unimportant reports to occupy my time, and then she sent me down with a stack of reports to give to the Watch Commander, Sir Acton of Fenrigh. The highlight of my day came as I left his study. I rounded a corner, and found myself crashing directly into someone else. I had my hopes up as soon as I heard a woman’s voice calling me a sarden looby, but it wasn’t until I looked into a face framed by short dark hair and with glaring brown eyes that I knew I’d walked straight into the great Clary Goodwin! I managed to avoid making too much of an idiot of myself, and even had the honour of being snapped at by her.
After I found my way back to Ahuda’s study, it was time for baton practice with the Puppies and younger Dogs. I’d been looking forward to seeing Ahuda in action all day. She certainly lived up to my expectations, barking out orders and moving so quickly that I couldn’t even follow exactly what she was doing. What I didn’t expect was for her to come over to me, hand me her baton, and point to a Puppy. Her mutter that she’d given me the slowest one of the litter wasn’t particularly comforting; the skills of all the Puppies had seemed pretty impressive to me. Still, I figured I might as well give it a try. I remember doing a lot of frantic stick waving, but it came to no good. Less than two minutes later I was thoroughly shamed and slunk back to the fence, to the amusement of Ahuda and those she was training. I did get to watch plenty of action though, as she gave them all a good working over.
Finally, once they were all exhausted, it was time for the Watch to start. I followed Ahuda inside to the desk and saw that all the older Dogs were waiting inside the kennel. There was a happy, vibrant sort of atmosphere, created by the Dogs all laughing and joking, and trading stories about their day. I could see some of them gathering bets, while others rolled dice before their watch began. I could see Clary Goodwin looking in my direction and muttering to those beside her; Mattes Tunstall and Beka Cooper were watching me with curious interest. Apparently Ahuda doesn’t have people following her around very often.
I just about jumped out of my skin when Ahuda bellowed “QUIET!” from right beside me. I wasn’t the only one to get a fright, and I heard sniggers sound around the room before silence fell. The Dogs all formed their ranks and Ahuda gave them their orders for the evening. It seemed to be a fairly standard sort of an evening since the Dogs didn’t seem to be too overexcited or surprised by anything she told them. I must confess to being a little disappointed; I’d been hoping to hear one of the notorious growls. They were dismissed for watch, and there was chaos for a few minutes while they all found their partners – and Puppies – and then before I knew it the kennel was empty.
It didn’t stay empty for very long. I found myself a seat against one of the walls and watched as cage Dogs came through with Rats for the cages, and people came in looking to find out what had happened to those Rats. There was a steady flow of message runners coming into the kennel with messages for Ahuda, and she sent them out again with still more. I particularly enjoyed watching her argue with an advocate for one of the Rats, who seemed to think that money could buy everything, even for the very worst Rats. Perhaps money could buy everything from some Dogs, but not Kebibi Ahuda. She set him straight, rather loudly, and then dismissed him. When she wasn’t dealing with people, she was just doing paperwork from her seat at the desk. I did have a nice conversation with her (handsome but married) second in command, Corporal Finian Karel, before he had to go and check on the cage wagons. It was Ahuda’s turn for amusement next, when a Dog came into the kennel supporting her partner. He had a long slash in his breeches, and blood was dripping all down his leg from what must have been a horrific cut from a sword or dagger. Not that that was amusing, of course, but apparently the look on my face was. The injured Dog even managed to join in the laughter and then assure me it was ‘just a scratch’ before he was hustled through to the healers’ room. I was promptly informed by Ahuda that my face was green and that I should find something to occupy myself with to take my mind off it.
This was the perfect opportunity to have a good nosy around the kennel. I steered clear of the healers’ room and the area with the rooms for questioning, but had a good wander through the hallways and around the cages. After a somewhat embarrassing incident involving me, a cage, and a door that refused to open, I was back with Ahuda in the main room. My timing was perfect, as Ahuda announced to me that it was time for our supper. Finian had arrived back to take over the desk for her, and she led me through into the Watch Commander’s office. I was surprised to see that a full meal had been laid out for the three of us in the table in there. The food was delicious, although I did find it a bit nerve-wracking to be eating in front of such important people. Fortunately they were discussing Dog-related things, and didn’t seem to be paying much attention to my table manners.
I spent the rest of the watch at Ahuda’s side at the desk; seemingly she had decided it was best to keep me out of trouble. She let me look over some of the reports that were coming in, and even explained what was happening with some of them when we had a quiet spell in the kennel. I also took over the role of accepting the messages from the message runners and then paying them from the stash of coins that was kept in the desk for that exact purpose. Before I knew it, the full eight hours of the watch had passed, and the pairs of Dogs (and their Puppies) were trickling back into the kennel. Ahuda watched as they came in, ticking off the names on her piece of parchment, until she was certain that everybody was accounted for. Other Dogs were coming in too, ones that I hadn’t seen before. Ahuda said that these were the Dogs for the Night Watch shift, ready to take over from the Evening Watch. She gave the call for them to muster out and the Dogs from Evening Watch poured out of the kennel, calling out their goodnights to each other. Ahuda and I went back up to her study to collect my other clothes, and then she walked me back to Provost’s House. After thanking her profusely, I climbed into my bed exhausted but exhilarated by the day’s experiences. I fell asleep immediately, finally understanding exactly why the day had such a late start.
Maybe once we'd have seen it during Smackdown!