Cathal -Campfire Story 1
Cathal recalls an old memory from his early years in Hound's March. Told over the campfire during a long rest.
"I do very often question what Marlow was thinking when he decided to recruit orphaned teens and pre-teens as the first members of Hounds March. The original 7 of us were by no means seasoned warriors. Admittedly he did a good job at training us, but that didn't mean he was good at controlling us. It probably was a little like herding cats, and being kids we did get into trouble a good few times. He usually gave us a stern talking to on those occasions, accompanied with a set of fairly harsh drills we had to finish before we were finally allowed to eat dinner. That being said I don't think he was ever seriously cruel or strict with us. It's surprising considering I'm fairly sure we were the reason he started to go grey.
One memorable 'escapade' happened, I believe, around a month or so after I first joined. It had been a group of us....Me, Naimh, Zurus, Aldren, Kyne, and Elysande - wandering around the streets of ......Merke. It started with a bit of an argument between Elysande, Zurus, Aldren and I. I believe it was Elysande who dared us to a cart down one of the steeper side streets. Not very much I can remember about it other than someone being called a 'chicken'. Not having a lot of common sense, being kids, we.....'borrowed' a cart from a small nearby market. Naimh was the smarter among us and they chose to stay out and watch, even with Elysande calling them 'lame'.
The street conveniently was empty and connected perpendicularly to another street at the end. We had set the cart up so that it was aimed towards a bunch of hay stacks that were at the bottom. We figured it would soften the landing for when the cart crashed. That and I remember Naimh getting after us about getting seriously hurt. I helped Kyne line the cart up and then hopped in, somewhere in the middle next to Zurus, with Elysande in front and Aldren behind. Kyne hopped in last as he pushed the cart off.
I couldn't tell how fast we were actually going; all the buildings started to blur together as we built up momentum. I remember the ride feeling like it was a lot longer than it should have been and I was trying to catch everything that was happening. It was exhilarating. I think it was nearing the end when some of us started to regret pulling the stunt. I could certainly see it in Aldren's eyes.
Whatever we thought was going to happen, I don't think we accounted for the rain gutters on the edges of the perpendicular street, until it was too late. The front wheels hit the gutters and the cart pitched forwards at the sudden stop in momentum. We had been going fast enough that it launched the lot of us out of the cart and sent a few of us, including me, tumbling forwards into the haystack. Any excitement I previously had was drowned out by a pain that made my body feel like it locked up for a moment, and my head was spinning. After I could finally move I remember looking up and seeing Niamh halfway down the hill running after us. And behind them..... a couple of the local guards. I cant exactly remember what they said to us but the guards chewed us out for doing something so stupid. They were right of course but I couldn't remember caring. It had been fun and I think that was all that mattered to me at the time, despite the stinging road burn I had on my elbows and knees. I'm still surprised I didn't break a bone, though I certainly should have.
After the lecture, the guards had managed to find Marlow and we were sent home. I'm sure he had to deal with the repercussions of our actions,and he wasn’t exactly thrilled. He came back a bit later, after we had patched ourselves up, and we were made aware that we weren't exactly off the hook for the stunt we pulled. We were punished of course. The drills we had to do were made even harder by the injuries we had gotten. And I don't think we were ever allowed to go wandering off on our own like that again, for quite a long while.