5 Ert's patrol

a loner's regret.

4. Ert was on patrol again. These dam patrols through the wilds which served no purpose he could fathom. He had always enjoyed the wilds before, before they had offered freedom, the freedom to go wherever he could clime, to eat whatever he could catch and to do things his way without civilisation tugging him in so many ways at once. Now civilisation had come with him to the wilds (of coarse in reality he had followed the soldier as a scout to earn their coin but he still felt as if wherever he lay his mat was his private space and anyone else was intruding as it had used to be). Now there were rule, rules on when you ranged ahead and when you marched in lines, rules on when you stopped to eat and what it would be, rules on who you marched next to. Ert had quickly realised that with others around and with orders being given the untamed hills were no longer the sanctuary of liberty and privacy he’d always thought of them as, now they were no different than any town or village only with less shelter from rain. And he missed Peap. She got lonely and worried about the dangers, which pained him, but he had gone anyway seeking to be some use to his fellow men in helping scout out bandit activity and wanting to match Peeps meagre but sufficient income helping at the herb store with one of his own " although in reality he could probably have got more money by literally selling his sword on to another merchant than by working as as a sell-sword mercenary scout.

Only now at the end of the day could he think all these thoughts clearly, all day a part of his mind had bean distracted by the placement of his feat to avoid slippind down the steep hills and with the macho gossip of the others. Now even as he was unrolling his sleeping mat one of his tent mates was snoring, he was a stranger but Ert still felt a unreasonable resentment towards him for being hear with him as he lay down to try and sleep.