Chapter 74: Final Stop.

Chapter 74: Chapter 74: Final Stop.

When the day finally comes that Drogger is satisfied that he and Rogard have been sufficiently punished for their perpetual tardiness, Khobi’s a little embarrassed to discover he can barely draw his sword.

Montrel, the bastard, laughs.

Khobi makes a rude gesture at him with his free hand and tries again.

He drops it almost immediately, and Montrel howls.

Nearby, Rogard’s still face down in the dirt and where he fell, not two paces behind where Khobi himself had collapsed, and hasn’t moved in a concerning amount of time. There’s a light wind out today, and dust is starting to gather in his hair. It’s been lacking its usual obnoxious shine in recent days.

"Is there a problem?" Drogger asks him, and Khobi can’t help but think that maybe he’s fucking with him.

" No ," he grits out, and ducks before Drogger can hit him. " No sir ."

"Good," Drogger says simply. "Well? What are you waiting for? I thought you were just itching to fight each other?"

"Well yeah ," Khobi growls, trying to command his lungs suck in just that little bit extra air. It works about as well as trying to exert authority over his exhausted limbs. "I just...I just need a sec." Drogger raises an eyebrow and peers around him to where Rogard is continuing to gather dust.

"It looks like Rogard may need more than a ’sec’," he observes flatly, and actually gets a high pitched whine in response. "I’m sorry, Rogard, I didn’t quite catch that." Rogard manages to lift his head just far enough off the ground to enunciate.

"You’re too cruel, Master," he complains, and unsuccessfully tries to pat some of the dirt out of his hair.

"Like I haven’t heard that before," Rogard remarks dryly, rolling his eyes skywards. But he still reaches down and extends a hand to him. It’s barely enough to get the guy standing again.

(" Master?" Khobi half-mouths, half-gags at Montrel, who just shrugs helplessly and seems to share the sentiment.)

"Come on," Khobi sighs, storming over and hauling the guy up by the back of his shirt before he can think better of it. For some reason it’s easier than drawing his sword. "You look so bad right now."

"I’ll have you know I could turn dirt into a fashion statement thank you ," Rogard chips back, flicking his bangs out of his eyes and pretending quite convincingly that he hadn’t been face down in the dirt and inches away from unconsciousness only a few moments before. If only the state of his clothes didn’t give the game away.

"Ugh, you’re so lame," Khobi groans, but it’s lacking a bit of heat. He’s got to hand it to the guy, sure, he didn’t beat him, and he’s probably never going to be as fast as him when it comes to running laps, but he kept up. And he kept going. And he kept coming back for the punishment, same as Khobi.

He was a real pain in the ass, but so were most of the people he kept company with these days.

"I’ll have you know --"

"Ugh, shut up, Rogard, you want to come fight, or what?" Khobi growls, sticking a finger in his ear because sometimes the guy was way too loud. He’s been throwing a lot of energy into his sparring these last few days and he’s pretty sure Drogger’s not going to stand on ceremony for this one.

(" Nah, prince’s got him all in knots ," Montrel had decided to correct the other guards, when Mural had made a passing comment about Khobi’s sudden vigor and assumed that his impending duel with Rogard had something to do with it. Khobi could’ve throttled Montrel. Because he was completely wrong.

Obviously.

" Well that’s....weird ," Gandy had commented with a snicker, " Man, and I thought he wasn’t your type . My bad. "

Khobi had beaten him particularly smartly that day.)

"What? Like, right now?" Rogard queries, obviously having been expecting a little more ceremony. They had, after all, sort of hyped this up.

"Uh, yeah?" Khobi’s managed to get his body to cooperate with him, and he’s managing to keep his sword in his hand for now. It’s always a bit tough jumping straight back into drills after running for fucking hours in the sun.

But he thinks he’s getting used to it. He just overdid it a little today. He hefts the sword up onto his shoulder and jerks his head in Drogger’s direction. "Or else he’ll probably make you run again."

"What? What for? He just said we were done!"

"Oh, you think just because you’ve run some laps you’re off the hook?" Drogger snorts, and both of them inadvertently take a step backwards as he steps towards them. This time his ire is reserved solely for Rogard. "Your footwork is sloppy, you’ve completely forgotten your basic stances, and when was the last time you held a shield?"

With each reprimand, Rogard wilts just a little bit more, and the only reason Khobi doesn’t laugh is because he knows he’ll get hit if he does.

"Montrel," Drogger orders sharply, and the guard hastily comes to attention, "If you’re done making fun of Khobi --"

" --It’s an ongoing sort of job, sir --" Montrel assures him, quite seriously, and seems to (narrowly) get away with with the interruption.

"...If you’re quite done , Montrel," Drogger says again, and this time Montrel makes sure to keep his mouth shut, "Then see to it that Rogard has the proper equipment. I don’t care how nice of a sword you have at home, Rogard, we use training blades here for a reason. And armour.

I don’t care how invincible you think you are. You’re soldiers. So fight each other all you want. But do it like men, not children. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes, sir," Khobi and Rogard both answer obediently, and Drogger seems satisfied.

"Good," he nods. "Best of luck to you both. I believe you can learn a lot from each other."

The pair of them are at least wise enough by now to wait until his back is turned to share exactly what they think of that . Montrel sees the look of disgust that passes between them and laughs.

"Fine," Rogard declares, eyes hardening as he stretches out a tight muscle in his shoulder, "Let’s get this over with."

"Yeah, let’s ," Khobi declares hotly, "I’ve been waiting for this."

"Yeah, we know. Haven’t we all?" Montrel rolls his eyes, gesturing for Rogard to follow him, "Come on, pretty boy. We’ll get you a sword, then you and Khobi can kick the crap out of each other."