The Way of Things [[open!]]

[Chris]

Nathaniel Carridus A bright new day was beginning at the Grey Tower. The sun was rising, and with it so were the trainees. Novices were scrubbing floors, Soldiers were running sword drills, and Drin of both genders were performing their morning warmups before their various exercises of the day. Every trainee in the Tower knew their place and was performing their role.

Every trainee that is, apart from Nathaniel Cullen Nazran Carridus.

It wasn't that he didn't see the importance of training, because he did. He recognised that he needed to be more disciplined, and that long days of training would make him the fighter he needed to be. When it came to hard work and tenacity, Nate was all about putting in all the effort and getting as much out of the experience as possible.

So where was this eager little Drin then?

Well, let's just say that putting in all the effort and getting as much out of the experience as possible, did not only apply to his training in the yards...

The night had started out innocently enough. Nate and a couple of the guys had headed into Hama Valon for a quiet drink or two, in attendance with one of the more friendly Dedicated that Tetrin knew from some mishap or other. Just a couple of ales and maybe a game of dice, nothing too silly. That was the plan.

The plan wasn't for Tetrin to drink more ale than he was supposed to, and whilst Nate was seeing a man about a horse, he and his Dedicated friend had taken off back to the Tower and left him. Deserted him! In Hama Valon! Unsupervised! Suddenly his grey uniform felt very out of place, as if everyone was staring at it. So the only sensible thing to do really was to remove his coat, and place that on the back of a chair. It seemed like a good idea at the time, though an hour later when it had gone missing Nate supposed he ought to reassess that for future adventures in the city.

It was difficult to worry about the whereabouts of his coat when there was a lovely serving girl by the name of Rowena who had supplied him with ale through the night, and was coming to the end of her shift. Short and comely, with enough to grab a hold of and a smile to top it all off, the dark haired woman didn't live so far from the Inn, and she either didn't know Nate was a trainee at the Tower, or she simply didn't care. So off they went, coatless and needless to say, soon clothesless.

That still doesn't answer where the Drin was on this fine morning.

Nathaniel was sat near the Tower gates, casting a doleful look at the men standing guard. He could still smell ale on his breath and probably his shirt, which was rumpled and in need of a good clean. His hair was a mess and no, he had no idea where his bloody coat was. Back against the wall, he rested his arms against his knees and resisted the urge to butt his head against his knee. Or the ground. Ugh. Doing that might make him sick again though...

He needed to get into the Grey Tower, without getting into trouble. He was missing his lessons, and he was clearly out of uniform. Staying out in the city overnight? That was a Big Bad, Nate knew that, and in the warm early morning sunlight (ouch, too bright), Nate was starting to regret the previous night's shenanigans, as enjoyable as they may have been.

All he needed was a master plan and he'd be fine. There was the obvious route of going to the gates and letting them know he was a filthy stopout and a lazy slacker, but maybe there was some other way? All he had to do was get back in, wash up and cry wolf over being under the weather or... or say he slept in. Yeah. Maybe. Not the best start to the day. There was always the option of returning to Rowena's for a while longer.