The Return - Part 13

So too could he swear that he could hear the crackling of thunder. Inside Ernest walls, the storm continued itself. The old, weather worn stones seemed more like the jagged rocks meant to gut ships, that a lighthouse ought to have warned against. Only beyond those gates could he see the light of sun.

"Very well," the Sergeant said, saluting his Captain. He turned on his heel, as he'd done a thousand times before, after being given such an order. He'd fought on a battlefield under the man. And this, to him, seemed another such battlefield.

The Captain, with a flick of his fingers, summoned some of the surrounding soldiers to see the inspection performed. Then he stood, watching, and waiting, playing with three braids of his long red beard, making them squirm like a krakan's tentacles.

The newcomers pushed through the on duty soldiers, and they reached for the door. Only then did the Sergeant seem to realize his mistake.