2 In Which We Review Lessons on Monsters, 2

"Say, your knees nearly buckled when Mordeci talked to you, recruit." Sascha landed next to him on the forest floor, rope coiling back wildly into his back box, snapping in place with a spray of dust in its wake.

"I can't help myself," said Jacob, grinning as his face went scarlet. "She's a glamourous knockout."

"Those are fancy words, Jacobi." said Aristea. "What you mean to say is…"

"He means to say her bust's huge," snickered Huoyan.

Jacob's face curled into unbearable disgust.

"You seemed more embarrassed than awestruck, recruit." said Chui with a ceased voice, a yard away, chewing on a redleaf.

"Yeah, you lost your shit-" Huoyan began.

"Why the hell are you guys always calling me recruit and saying my full name like a mother? I-I don't get it, it's like, aren't we supposed to be a big happy unit-"

"We are, we've just got a funny way of showing it." said Aristea.

"Because you act like a recruit who gets belittled by his mother, so that's how we treat you." said Sascha, shaking his head as if it was obvious.

"Quiet, now," murmured Chui. "The Lieutenant is here."

Mordeci approached with Arlo by her side. She stopped just below the hole in the trees, and placed one leg on the fallen log. She placed her arms on her back, but not touching it, the rods of the steam-thrusts an intermediary. "I can smell the flames."

"Smells more like bread to me, furen." Jacob stepped forward, 90 degree salute.

"I can smell the bread on you, yes." Mordeci dragged her boot down the log, tearing off bark. Underneath, it was black.

Jacob's eyes went wide. "It's charred, on the inside."

"Very astute of you, recruit." said Arlo. He went to a lower part of the tree and peeled off more bark. It was blackened there as well. He stepped over the corpse and tried the other side. It was the same. "The entirety of the inside seems cooked. We'll have to get samples, see what's going on here. I've never seen anything like it."

"Let's start on what we have seen before." Mordeci went to the lower end of the tree, by Arlo. Her boot clasped over a fern, and she pointed to white marks on the tree Jacob hadn't noticed before. "I thought you all would have sharper eyes than this by now. Arlo, what's this?"

"Yoko meshi rubbing marks." Arlo looked at Jacob.

Mordeci grinded her teeth, looking into the deeper forest. "That's right. Now, when do meshii come out?"

"Sunset, xiansheng." Jacob drummed his fingers on the textbook as Lieutenant Strauss's eyes bore into him. The small nose carried a heavy pair of silver-rimmed spectacles, and the mouth furled up like the old, yellowing pages on a book, cusped over the jutting chin like a frog. His ears were huge, and were his claim to being able to hear whatever a student said no matter where he was. Thoughtful eyes dissected Jacob, and tried to fit the pieces back together where there was only a body. The room was heavy with hot air, and the dust carried a weight and smell. Strauss picked up the textbook, dropping it on his desk.

"That's wrong, simply put. There's some more to it, but that's, uh, wrong. Anybody here know the correct answer? Put your hand down, Huoyan, you're not teaching anybody anytime soon. Nobody else? Ah, Aristea. What? Speak up, please, I can't seem to hear for the life of me today."

"I, uh, I don't think they have a specific time of coming out." Aristea's big golden eyes let her auburn hair pass through her, but the effect was dispersed by a tight bun, which pulled back the rest of her face, neck and lips taut, freckles running past her cheeks. She held her own hand, uniform not fitted properly over her thin frame, shoulders of the collared undershirt crinkling high.

"Then why would they come out, if they aren't on a schedule?" Strauss tilted his head, attentive, as if he was genuinely curious of the answer, her answer.

"The same reason creatures without a schedule come out, xiansheng. Because, because they want to."

"I get what you're trying to say." Strauss nodded, pushing his spectacles back up his nose. "You mean they feed for pleasure, not for nature."

Some of the students laughed, and one piped up. "So you're saying they can get fat like us, too?"

Strauss rolled his eyes. "You kids've been softened and spoiled by the iron serpent. Is it that hard to believe that somewhere out in nature there's a mirror?" The students laughed once more, but they silenced as soon as he spoke again. "The creatures have a very limited diet. They eat insects and just about anything else that's warm and full of blood they can wrap their spindly black fingers around. They're exceedingly rare, however, as you all know, but we've heard the tales. Balaq the Bull, Reiner's Last Breakfast, and all our favorites, Stream Run Run."

The same student started up on the song: "Little stream, run runnnn, by, the walll, little stream…"

"You're becoming exceedingly funny, Tod, but I don't believe that's what any of you came here for?"

Tod's purple eyes lit up, a new jape on the tip of his rolling lips, fat nose sniffing the tension in the room, feet tapping as they waited for themselves. Tod leaned forward, chocolate curls shifting forward on his head. "I dunno, xiansheng, all I came here for was to sing."

"Then consider the travelers, because this is serious." Strauss's smile faded away, and he pointed a finger. "I'm fine with a loose environment in this classroom, god knows you kids need to relax a bit more, but I hope you remember that this classroom isn't your life, and life is not a joke. Just consider that the world beyond the precipice isn't going to care about your humour - some of those creatures…"

"He'll fish you out of the stream, and eat you up right whole - run run run, stream, run run runnnn…." Tod's fingers swayed like the leaves on a tree, swinging back in forth to the pace of run run run.

Run, run, run-

"Have it your way. They always say it's hell teaching rising Cardinal Guard, and you're living proof of that, Tod. A meshi-"

"-in this area means trouble." Mordeci took out her pistol and aimed it at the markings. "We shouldn't stay long. Shooting them in the dark could be hell."

Arlo pulled out a pocket watch, a simple thing, silver on silver on white, cheap. He said, "We've got four hours before sunset, we should be clear."

"The bergmonch nearby should give us some time," said Mordeci. "Those tracks looked big - the animal will be large as well."

"Meshi this far in?" Arlo tucked away the watch. "They must be hungry. I'd say those four hours should be treated with care."

Mordeci grunted. "Ever the careful one, captain."

Arlo looked at the Meshi markings once more. "Always."

The Colonel was standing over two soldiers picking at something with two large plows. The air was getting colder, and the sun a heart in the sky, blood squeezed out and pouring onto the horizon. The lifted breeze let the earthy scent consume them, and as the soldiers huffed and huffed as they dug further, their boots sunk into the ground and their shoes filled with water, though neither of them mentioned a word. One of them struck something, then he crouched to dig it out with his hands, paws clawing at something in the ground. It was ingrained with veins of soil, perhaps a rock. But when the soldier pulled it out entirely, he yelped with a start and nearly dropped it. He shakily handed the skull to the Colonel, wiping down the paste on his thighs. The Colonel held it up, and it adopted a wicked gleam in the setting sun. A glob of mud fell out of the right eye. "Xiansheng," said the same soldier, a moment later. "The Lieutenant is approaching-"

"Mhm," Zelani handed the skull back to the soldier, who hesitated. The Colonel frowned. "Is something the matter, soldat?"

"N-no, xiansheng." The soldier took the skull.

"What's your name?"

"Tod, xiansheng."

"Dismissed, recruit Tod."

The soldier saluted and hurried off.

"Xiansheng," said Mordeci as she arrived.

"Lieutenant Mordeci."

"Captain Arlo and I have found evidence of Meshi nearby. We identified rubbing marks on a tree, among other things."

"Among other things?"

"The tree, it appeared to be blackened on the inside - heat. I've already ordered for samples to be collected."

"You don't suppose it may have been a fungi, Lieutenant?"

"No, xiansheng. I recommend further investigation, but as of now, I don't believe we're equipped to handle meshi."

"You believe we are not equipped to handle these monsters?"

"Yes, xiansheng. I, uh, we should-"

"We will continue with this investigation. A few beasts lurking outside of the site doesn't scare you, I hope?"

Mordeci lost her words for a moment. "I, of course not, xiansheng. As you wish." She saluted-

"Is your family well, Lieutenant?" His eye swept over her, passing her, not seeing her, understanding.

"My family is safe back home, xiansheng." Mordeci bowed her head. "The work we are doing here should only contribute to that."

"Maybe not this time, soldat." The Colonel tried to tug down on his brim, only to find none. His hand dropped slowly, in remembrance. "Do you remember the vows you took, as you became a Cardinal?"

Mordeci looked confused. "Of course."

"What were the first few parts? Remind me, in my time I've forgotten."

"I… I am a frail thing, a being of flesh and blood." Mordeci shifted her weight. "I am a silence, in the dark and the deep, forgotten, remembered not by my name, but by my deeds."

"You'd do to keep that name close to you. Keep it close, when we find this doctor."

"Which name?" Mordeci looked around, urging to duty. "My own, or the one I'll be supposedly remembered by?"

"It is a dangerous thing to suppose, Lieutenant. Whichever will get you through the rest of this excursion. Dismissed."

Mordeci saluted, and was off.

"Why do you think we do squads, Chui?"

"Xiansheng. The use of units and squadrons is an old military tactic, and has proved to be an effective one to this day."

"To the point. Correct," said Strauss, sighing, "but let me elaborate. In a world that today, and for many days, has had conflict on a scale too large for one man to command, divisions are made. You've got your chain-of-command, that leads down to your brigades, regiments, and so on. Our smallest "team", if you will, is a section, with a section commander. Now, this man isn't really a commander, just in charge of his little group. But his men must treat him like one in order for it all to work. From section to army, it all must be a polished cog in a well-oiled machine. You've heard it all before, so I'll skip past the rest of the talk. What's a man to lose if he's not watching out for his fellow soldiers, and vice versa?"

"His limbs," said Huoyan, to a small gale of laughter.

"Of course," allowed Strauss.

"His dignity, his respect." said Sascha.

"There we are." Strauss put his hand up. "And why's that so important to a machine?"

"The same way the chemicals in our brain are important." said Sascha. "A machine's not like a brain, at all, but the basic idea of cognition is still there, of bits and pieces. We build up something from a… nothing. Our emotions are the workings of a machine. Uh, us. Us in the brain inside most of our heads, everything has to work together to get you to what you are, which is homeostasis, and the machine of humanity has to achieve the same homeostasis. If the soldiers in one section, one squad, feel their commander isn't much of a commander, he ceases to be one. They might still follow his commands, but you're only rolling half a wagon."

"Nobody likes an idiot." Jacob finished bluntly, seated beside Sascha.

"Thank you for that, Sascha… and you as well, Jacob." Strauss moved to the board, and flipped it to the clean slate. The chalk squealed out a small white circle, then a bigger one next to it. "Think of it in a more abstract way. If there's an obstacle, an enemy…" he jabbed at the big circle with the point, "and you need to work as a cohesive grouping, then you have to know what you're peers are up to." He drew a line between them. "Here's your other squad member. He thinks he's solved the issue, right? Didn't even need your help. Here's the new issue." He picked up a puffy black eraser and wiped away the big circle, redrawing it on the line. "This wasn't a wall. It was a stick in the mud. And now it's crushed, and now…" he illustrated lines crossing over the small circle. "You're both dead. What should you have really done?"

The class waited for itself for a moment, wondering if anybody else had the answer when it collectively knew, perhaps in the spirit of the lesson, that it did not. Eventually a student in the back spoke up, long, spruce hair laden with pepper and brushed behind his ears, soft skin cupping black, wondering eyes and a small smirk, nose long and low on his face, appropriately. He was balancing a pen on his finger. "Retreated. You're in no spot to deal with something like that." Some of the students chuckled, but it died quickly, smothered in its infancy but the unsureness of whether that was a joke or not.

Strauss looked at the board, trying to see it from a different angle while he was standing in the same spot. "I can see what you're thinking, Nathan, but I thought of something more like this." He drew the line again, this time on top of the small circle, the erasing the previous big circle and line, he redrew it rolling over the stick, balanced on the small circle. "It looks a bit like a traveller act, but I thought it made the most sense." He placed the big circle at the edge of the board, going on its way just as an unharmed pair had planned. "Know your men, know your friends, trust them. Or else you'll…" he puffed away the two and put one huge circle over them. "Poof. Like that. Gone."