Chương 160: Day One Hundred And Fifty Nine

Dear Diary, Y'know, I've only been here five months, but sometimes it's hard to remember I ever lived anywhere else. So what with Saffron being able to Co-Locate herself, she can visit in the evenings, at least so long as there's nothing she needs to pay close attention to after dark. Apparently Lancaster wants her and Vulcan fresh for any daytime actions, so her squad is exempt from night watch. General Lancaster's and Marshall duBois' units are exempt too, so it's not causing too much of a fuss.

No change on the dream front. Just more stargazing and trying to ignore itches. Woke up rested and ready for the day, despite a lack of Saffron in the bed. Apparently that whole 'Co-Location ends when one of you goes to sleep' pulled her back to her tent. Really hoping she didn't wind up naked in the snow, because I like all her bits and don't want any frozen off.

"You two awake?" I asked quietly.

"Yes," Marie answered.

"Na," denied the menace.

"Okay then. Get ready to get dressed, because the blanket comes off on three." I took a solid grip on the blankets, then counted, "One. Two. Three!" I yanked the blankets off and tossed them toward the bed. They were way heavier than they should have been, because the little menace had got herself a good grip on the blankets before I threw them, so now she lay at the bottom of a heap of blankets on the bed. I leapt up, opened the armoire, and tossed her a uniform before putting my own on.

She still hadn't emerged by the time Marie and I were both ready, so Marie picked up her uniform, I wrestled her out of her heap of toasty blankets, and together we managed to wrangle her into her clothing. There may have been tickling involved, but at least she giggled rather than crying about it.

"See you at breakfast?"

"Yes." So after hugs and kisses, Marie trundled off about her day, and Isnomi and I got ourselves down to the Dining Hall. We got there a little early, actually, and while the menace is fine with being carried from place to place, when she's awake she's generally not terribly fond of being held while standing still. So I set her down and she wandered around the hallway.

Kind of an interesting thing, probably a carryover from when the place had been built as a fortress, but the first floor hallways were remarkably bare. You'd expect something like a trophy case, or pictures of former Headmasters or something, but nope. Plenty of personalized decoration in private rooms, and even some portraits and banners in the Dining Hall and Library, but nothing whatsoever in the entryway or the first floor hallways. So Isnomi just ran back and forth hollering, "Wa me, Mama! Wa me!"

I, of course, replied with, "I'm watching, Menace. You're getting really fast!" I didn't even have to exaggerate much about that, either. Her 'running on tiptoes' had sort of naturally evolved into 'running on the balls of her feet', and if you've ever watched pro short-distance sprinters, they tend to do that kind of thing. Part of me wondered where she'd picked it up, but mostly I just marveled at how tall she'd gotten since Saffron left. Growth spurt indeed.

Eventually, after a couple other Cadets showed up, the Maids opened the Dining Hall, and we all got ourselves in to the tables. Lots of sausage today. I'm guessing somehow the war effort screwed up egg production, because there'd been fewer and fewer trays of eggs each morning, until this morning we only got the one. I shared, because if everybody's gonna force me into the Team Mom role, I might as well do it right, y'know?

The Menace didn't care; she preferred the sausages, because she still had some troubles with spoons, so anything she could just pick up and shove in her maw was just plain easier for her. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. After around an hour and a half of hardcore nomming, I saw Lancaster stand up at the Barbie Brigade table. Before he got too far I hopped up and jogged over to him.

"Hey, Larry, can you hang until Marie gets here?"

"I am fully capable of walking to the wall by myself, Diaz." I just nodded.

"Sure you are. But I'd feel bad if you slipped, fell, and wound up lying there yelling, 'I've fallen and can't get up' all day." He heaved a sigh and just plopped his butt down on the nearest seat. Weird, I thought he'd put up way more of a fight. Probably still not feeling up to too much fighting after his recent bout with The Crud. I jogged back to the ROTC table and stuffed food until Marie showed up. At that point I scooped up the Menace and delivered her to Marie's cart, which had trays of food atop it.

I looked at the Menace and said, "Looks like you've got to walk until Marie's done her deliveries. You okay with that, Menace?" She nodded, "Ah ga dis, Mama." I ruffled her hair, delivered hugs and kisses upon both of them, and then went back to collect Lancaster. Right as we left the Academy, he griped, "it's unbecoming how you fawn over your lessers."

I gave him all the side-eye and replied, "I can't tell if you're talking about my daughter, who deserves all the hugs and kisses because I'm her mother, my Maenad, who is a Deific Champion and nobody's lesser, or you. Who is, I guess, a Freshman Cadet at Phileo City Heroic Academy, so not totally without some accomplishment, loath though I am to admit it." He scoffed.

"Your Maid is a Deific Champion? Of who?"

"Dionysus. Duh." He went silent for a while. Around about the end of the Boulevard, he muttered, "I suppose that makes an unfortunate amount of sense. Still, aren't you afraid your daughter will wind up soft, with you coddling her so much?" I took my time thinking about that; around about the bridge to Camden Yards I replied, "Yeah, the world's hard, dangerous, and, at the moment, pretty fucking cold.

But that just means it's my job to make sure she's got a safe place to run to when the world gets too hard, cold, or dangerous. Not to mention she's already apparently survived a direct confrontation with The Smith, so I'm really more worried about the world than I am about her." When I mentioned the Smith, Lancaster barked out a laugh.

"You know, I thought maybe you were serious up until that bit about The Smith." I shrugged as we got in line at Drivers'.

"We both know I'm not smart enough to lie to you, Larry." After we'd secured breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we strolled the rest of the way to the wall. After doing a bit of back and forth walking eating breakfast and warming our muscles and coats up, I said, "did you bring the practice swords today?"

"I saw no point, since you'd likely weasel out of practice again." I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"Just as well that you didn't. I doubt you're up to a full day of practice without getting sick. Bring them tomorrow though. You're right, I need more practice." He just worked his mouth soundlessly for a bit after that, like he wanted to reply, but couldn't process the fact that I'd more or less handed him the win in that argument. I sympathized, I had no idea what to do at that point either. So we just settled into quietly strolling back and forth along the wall. Around lunch, Saffron tagged me, Tabitha?

How much should I tell them? About what? Mimic. You. The big fuzzy darkness covering the Phileo and Camden portion of Metaphoric Space. Uh, don't tell them I'm Mimic? Other than that? I trust your discretion. Hell, I trust you more than I do me when it comes to this kind of thing. As you will it, my Goddess. Must be going to the strategy meeting. Love you, Kitten. Love you too, Goof.

The rest of the day passed without incident, although Lancaster and I both spotted what looked like the smoke from a single small campfire in the distance. When we got back to the Academy, we reported that to Hero Velazquez, who said he'd dispatch a unit to check it out tomorrow. Saffron showed up as we got ready for bed, and we lay there in each other's arms until she fell asleep and disappeared. I kinda wish I'd fallen asleep first, because her disappearing like that? Spooked me more than I wanted to admit.