Chapter 400: You’re Distracting.

Chapter 400: Chapter 400: You’re Distracting.

The day the blossoms start opening in the castle courtyards is the day that its inhabitants breathe a sigh of relief.

Sure, the days have been getting warmer and the passes are thawing, but it’s only once the trees start to turn green and the gardens burst into colour that winter seems behind them and it feels well and truly like spring.

It’s a beautiful time of year, and one that many spend the cold winter nights dreaming of with it’s clear skies and mild evenings; a season of life and love where the grass on the plains grows lush and long and the air always smells sweet.

​But what everyone conveniently forgets in the depths of winter, is that while generally pleasant spring can be... unpredictable .

Some days it feels wetter than fall, others winter returns with a vengeance and it snows, and others still the summer heat hits early and hard and lays waste to the earth; scorching and stealing the breath from anyone foolish to be out under the sun.

​Today falls amidst the latter, and for how much they’d longed for it when winter had them trapped in its icy grip, absolutely no one is prepared for it.

​" – Shit, is it just me or was spring fucking short this year?" Montrel heaves, hurling his empty waterskin at Rogard so he knows he’s pissed that he drained it and didn’t bother filling it. Again .

" Fuck it’s too hot to be out here."

​"...Weren’t you complaining only a couple of weeks ago that it was too cold?" Jaga points out dryly, red faced and flapping his open shirt in a futile effort to try and cool himself down.

​"Well yeah ," he retorts, and scowls as Rogard childishly throws the waterskin back at his head, "Coz it was . But this is fuckin’ ridiculous."

​It is.

​It’s barely even midday yet and the sun is mercilessly beating down on them like it’s determined to make this their last day on earth. And it just might be.

For as brutal as training can be in the snow, every year they forget how brutal it can be in the heat. And Drogger is more than happy to remind them.

At least he’s generous with the water breaks –he’s not a savage –but anyone he catches spending a gratuitous amount of time loitering around the pumps risks spending the hottest part of the day running laps.

​There are a lot of men running laps, and none of them look particularly thrilled about it. That being said, the ones who aren’t running laps don’t seem particularly thrilled either.

​Khobi, on the other hand, has never felt better.

​"Dunno what you guys are complaining about," he grins, wiping a stream of water off his chin and upending the rest of the waterskin’s contents over his head.

Chest bare to the sun’s unforgiving gaze, every inch of his naked skin is drenched in sweat and glistening dusky in the afternoon glare.

Sure, it’s fucking nightmarishly hot out, but he’d take that over nightmarishly cold any day. After the months spent freezing his ass off, he’s glad that there’s finally some heat in the sun again. "...This is great ."

​"I wish I had half your enthusiasm, Khobi," Mural remarks, his usual mild tone touched with exhaustion.

He’s taken his shirt off and tied it around his head; just one of many ways the men have tried to keep their heads cool and the sun off their face.

It does not appear to have helped; he’s still red-faced and sweating as heavily as the rest of them.

​"Ugh, don’t encourage him Mural," Gandy mopes, hair plastered to his face as he splashes water over his face and chest in a desperate bid to cool himself down before they have to get back to it.

He’d love to hang off the fence but the wood’s uncomfortably warm to the touch.

"I’m feeling tired just lookin’ at him." Really, the only indication that Drogger isn’t secretly out to cripple the Crade army is that today’s drills don’t require full armour.

Just the thought of having to strap themselves into leather and steel had been enough to turn even the hardiest of stomachs. It does mean a lot of hand to hand combat though, and the ground is positively scorching .

It does make for a nice incentive to avoid getting pinned, though.

​"Well we’re just gettin’ started," Khobi grins with relish, "So you better get ready to lose."

​"Ugh you know shit like that just makes me wanna hit you," Montrel complains irritably, glaring across at him.

And like he was expecting him to say just that, Khobi flashes him a triumphant look.

"You know what?" he decides after a beat, levering himself up off the ground and wiping dirt off his pants, "Let’s go then."

​"Oh come off it Montrel, you just wanna show off for your girl," Gandy jibes, jerking a thumb over his shoulder to the enormous pastel yellow parasol currently making its approach.

While it’s difficult to pick out exactly who’s under it, there’s a good chance it’s the princess. It’s not every lady in the castle that casually comes by the training grounds.

Montrel does them all a favour by not bothering to deny it, and obstinately juts his chin towards the ring. Khobi might have a winning record against him when it comes to blades, but hand-to-hand, fist to fist, it’s not nearly so cut and dry. In heat like this; with sweating palms and sweaty skin it’s brutal trying to grapple someone to the ground, but he likes his chances.

​Khobi takes a second to throw some more water on his arms to cool them down, and if he flexes his biceps just a little more than necessary as he does so, then that’s really no one’s business.

(It’s a shame Montrel’s not the only one planning on showing off a little.)

​And from the way he catches Loac eyeing him as he opts to let the last dregs of water roll down his body instead of drying them off, he definitely noticed.

​(Of course Loac noticed. He’s only human and Khobi’s fucking hot .)

​" – Watcha lookin’ at Loac " Rogard comments wickedly, lurching out of nowhere to accost Loac from his left while Binny closes in from his right.

It’s enormously gross given how sweaty they all are. Rogard doesn’t bother waiting for an answer or an excuse, because he has eyes , and it’s obvious what Loac’s been looking at.

"Khobi, you should probably put your shirt back on" he adds in a holler, and ducks before Loac can shove a hand in his hair and knock his head into Binny’s.

That move doesn’t work on him anymore; Loac’s getting sloppy. " It’s distracting Loac ~"