Episode 5

A little montage is played out. The clock spins then pages start fluttering off the calendar - and their eyes get slightly smaller and their cheeks a little less round.... We see lots of school and indeed lots of martial training and weapons in workshops, - except Little Bee, who does nothing but put up posters bemoaning the cruel treatment of Grimm, and a montage of her strumming the guitar until her normally fast fingers are but a blur, and Flight of the Bumblebee- a personal favourite-, passes in milliseconds.

They are now around fourteen. The Colonel visits the school again. Some of the more mature boys are interested in her, but the majority would rather send one another messages on their scrolls and play video games. Miss Hathaway meets with the same delegation from the kingdoms as she did when they were battling the robots. - And afterward, on a crisp autumn morning Miss Hathaway tells them some news.

“I'm pleased to announce that the Kingdom of Atlas has kindly offered some advanced Huntsman and Huntress training at their cadet training school, Angel Base. - The trip will be in a few weeks time, and it's all expenses paid. - There are places for fifteen students, and I've put your names down. they'll attend in two groups - seven in one and eight in the other. - It'll be an opportunity to learn some new skills, such as Skiing and Zorbing and shooting. - Not that some of you don't shoot already - but the base is near some wild country - and that means Grimm!” - Little Bee looks excited to meet cuddly Grimm. The others are excited to be able to shoot them.

The day of the trip arrives and their Airship takes them off north and a bit east - away from the subtropical climate they are used to and into the colder climate of Atlas.

There are cadets on the airship. They are rather obviously walking up and down to use the head. They are also using it as an excuse to keep looking down the girls' fronts. - That is, until Marigold wises up to it. - She manages to pull a  few pranks on them, before the in-flight meal gets the better of her, and she quietly and invisibly throws up in their section of the plane and leaves them to it. There is a heated  debate between our heroes as to whether sick stays invisible once outside the body. - The cadets find out the hard way!

 They can see snow-covered peaks in the distance as they approach land. The airship circles around a cone-shaped peak, which has trees only about three-quarters up it, and puts down atop a large building where hundreds of windows face the airbase on one side and the cold forest on the other.

Angel Base.

They are met by a smart young man, who remembers his manners and doesn't eye-up the girls. - He offers them the passenger lift, though it may take a while - or the cargo lift - where they can avoid the eyes-on-stalks attention of all the young male recruits. - They take the cargo lift -besides it takes all their stuff in one go. - Some have a lot of gear, whereas Marigold seems to have come with only a threadbare jacket, which is going to be scant protection against the bitter cold. - Sienna is wearing a crop-top, bikini bottoms and sandals.

They are taken on a tour of the base in an army truck. The towering barracks block with its outstretched wings and landing pad does look a little like an angel. - The rest of the buildings make up the a large airbase, there are a few shops and bars for R&R, a medical centre and a small supermarket.

Several cadets are seen on guard duty. They are so unimportant, that they fade to black chapes against the snow.

Outside the base- which is surrounded by an impressive security fence- there are trees. Thousands of them - mostly tall pines. “Pine needle soup!” Someone mutters before shivering at the thought.

Once the tour is over and Sienna berated for having the window open, they arrive at a guesthouse at the edge of the base. There is a nice view and the manager seems friendly enough. They are offered the second floor for accommodation. There are single, twin and double rooms aplenty.

The manager is Mister Goode. “Okay. you're all on the second floor - rooms are numbered one to ten- so take your pick.” He says,  “No littering, no noise, no mess. Lights out at ten. Breakfast from six until eight. Supper at seven. Leave your keys here. Any extras or breakages you pay for.”

He turns to Marigold. “Okay miss faunus. You're here.” He leads Marigold to a stockroom. “I've already put your stuff in there.” He says, with a sneer. Despite his name being 'Mr.Good', he is anything but. He leads The stockroom is filled with mouldering and ripped canvas tents, broken ski equipment and a bad smell. Marigold objects. Goode laughs in her face. - He doesn't laugh so much when she punches him.

“Maybe you should sleep outside - after all, I'm sure you've got fur in other places....?” He says, rather suggestively. Little Bee is not amused and kicks him hard in the shins for his rudeness. Goode slinks back to his office.

His rudeness continues over the next few hours. Marigold responds by starting to move objects around, pulling chairs out from under him as he sits and generally acting the Kitsune around him. In the end he retreats to his office and keeps the door firmly shut.

The others make use of the hot-tub, and eye up the impressive Grimm-proof fence that borders the guesthouse garden. They sort out their rooms.

Supper is at seven. - It is not very impressive, being a brown stew, ‘Burnt Hombre Brown’ Which seems to mean that a subtle smoky taste is replaced by a powerful ‘overcooked and burned’ taste. There is bread too. And a few vegetables that have probably been boiling for a week.

“Never thought I'd pine for pine-needle soup....”

After supper, they are visited by a smart-looking sergeant from the Atlas military. Mike Bridges is a handsome man, with a stern expression and a warm heart. - He sports six stripes. -three for his rank, and three on the side of his face.

Sergeant Bridges

“Seven o'clock start tomorrow. - I'll take you on a tour, run through some exercises and then get you out on the nursery slopes. - okay?”

“Yes sir!” Autumn snaps sharply to attention.

“You can call me 'Sarge.' -or 'Mister Bridges', or maybe even 'Mike' by the end of the week.... You're not in the army son. -At least.... Not yet!”

“Okay.” Autumn agrees, nearly adding “Sir!”

“Seven not too early? -Seeing as you’re teenagers and all. - You might need your beauty sleep....” He looks at Autumn, “Well....Maybe just your sleep!”

None of them object, so it's settled. “I’ll take you to get kitted up first - but bring any winter kit you have brought with you.” Bridges tells them.

When he is gone, the girls compare notes.

“Nice man.”

“Very nice.”

“Yup. Nice. Nice in a Malcolm Reynolds kinda way.”

“Oooh! Yes! Absolutely. Certainly. So yummy.....Um....Who is Malcolm Reynolds?”

In the evening some of them go outside to spar and get acclimatised. Marigold is feeling the cold and is content to snuggle in the hot tub.

In the morning, true to his word, Sergeant Bridges turns up about seven o'clock, driving a half-track. “I think it's called a 'warthog.'” Cerise says.

"Why warthog? It doesn't look like a pig."

“I think it looks more like a puma.” Mal suggests. -This starts a rather protracted argument.

Autumn and Sienna have contemplated stealing Goode's skidoo and taking it for a spin around the base. - Having pleaded to borrow it and being told flatly no. Goode hides the keys to the skidoo -but Sienna has seen him take them off the hook and put them in a desk drawer -so they're not exactly hidden well.

“Stealing is wrong.” Autumn maintains.

“If you return it, it's borrowing.....Or at worst, 'taken without consent.'” Sienna tells him. He isn't convinced. The others argue each way, but in the end they drop it for now.

“Okay. Time to get kitted up!” It takes a while, but they’re all kitted up. Some of them have designer ski-jackets, some have high-viz camouflage, Marigold has a threadbare cardigan, sans three buttons. - She takes a size fourteen ski boot too, despite her petite frame. - There are even ski-helmets that she can put her bunny ears through with warm muffs!

Having been kitted up, they drive a little way to the edge of the base. There is a small conveyor and a chair-lift of sorts where they can start their skiing lessons. Before that, Bridges tells them to stow their weapons in the Puma Warthog.

“Okay put your weapons in the trailer. You don’t need them yet. – And your jackets. – Don’t worry, I’m not gonna ask you to strip.... Though if you’re in the army; you do.”

He leaves them for a few minutes.  “Cold? Shall I turn the hose on?” He throws snow at them. It soon becomes cold.

“Okay. Now close your eyes.” They do so.

 “.... And we’ll open the hidden section of fence in front....” He explains. “-And close off this area behind.” There is a sliding noise and a clang as the fence sections re-arrange themselves. “Now you’re effectively outside the base. – Any wandering Grimm can come out of the forest- and attack at any moment. – And believe me, they might....”

Bridges goes silent. Our heroes are starting to feel the cold. - Sienna takes off her woolly hat and puts a knotted handkerchief on her head. The cold starts to bite. They fancy they can detect movement in the trees. The temptation to open their eyes and confront what is out there is very strong.

A moment later, bridges is about to yell about an Grimm incoming, when Sienna looses her nerve completely and gives a blood-curdling scream! Some of the others remain calm, but the others panic, take up defensive stances and open their eyes. They look around nervously, expecting some horrible creature to have grabbed Sienna. There are a few seconds of stunned silence.... Their nerves slowly go from jingling-and-jangling to something calmer.

“Okay. Exercise over.” Bridges tells them. “You know the tales about Grimm being attracted by fear...? Well that's half the battle: Managing your fear. - You've got to stand firm, and conquer it.”

He explains,  “When I say that Grimm can smell it, they can sense it too. Don’t ask me how. I’m no scientist…..”

“-That’s what you’re up against. Half the battle is being in control. Some of my cadets wet themselves. – Yellow snow syndrome we call it. – At least you didn’t succumb to that!”

Our heroes are somewhat relieved and not relieved at the same time.

“But there are times when you’re gonna be up against it.” Bridges continues,  “– All alone, against the environment, possibly unarmed, abandoned, or a combination of all of them….”

They pause to let this sink in.

Bridges taps his face with a stick. it sounds rather hollow for flesh. – “Half my face -  half my arm. My leg shredded. – That was a Grimm! – a big  Ursa did that. It was white against the snow- only a few black chitinous parts.... and that was our undoing. It was in the camp before we knew it.”

Lincoln tries analyzing the scratches on the sergeant's face. - “That's a big Ursa !”  He concludes.

“I was leading a cadet squad,” Bridges explains.  “Twelve young men just about to pass out- and we got into a tricky situation – one of the lads panicked. – Don’t exactly know how or why – and this bleach-white Ursa popped up out of the snow and started laying into the lads. Teeth, claws, spines, spikes. Two cadets didn’t make it out of the gully. – Three more were so badly mauled they’d never graduate. It took ten of us emptying hundreds of rounds into the thing to bring it down.”

“And the worst thing? – They don’t even eat human flesh. – just shred it and leave it. – And I’ve seen a couple of occasions like that as well. – So forget your Grimm plushies and fairy stories..... These things are stone cold killers. No reason. No mercy. No thought. No morals. –Like thousands of vicious serial killers on the loose outside every town, village, stockade....”

The others look around. Some check the fence - It hasn't left them outside as they feared - but without their sight, they couldn't be sure.

“Okay. We’re going on a walk round the corner.” The sergeant tells them.

He leads them across the base to a memorial. – “These are people form this base who lost their lives.  – and not because of the food! These men and women and cadets all lost them to Grimm. – The war memorial is somewhat larger, but has just sixty more manes. – It’s close, but I’m determined not to add to it. Got it? Good!”

There is a moment's silence - not enforced, but the reality starts to sink in. “Okay. Lunchtime!” There is a chuck wagon with hot soup and sandwiches. Sienna opts for Gazpacho. Marigold complains that despite it being vegetarian, it is cold. Sienna stirs it with a spoon. Now it is piping hot. - Lovely!

After lunch they start ski training. First one ski sliding up and down. Then the other. Then the side-steps up a gentle slope and a slow glide down. Autumn is reasonably experienced, and takes to the nursery slopes immediately, swishing and swooping around. There are a few tumbles, but nothing spectacular. By the end they are all reasonably competent. They stop for the day around four o'clock. Most are keen to get into the hot-tub or rest or both. There is some more sparring too. Supper today is Chestnut Brown- a stew with nuts in it.

On the second day, more advanced nursery slopes. Then they go out of the camp after lunch. - For real this time. Bridges gives them a wristband. It slaps over their wrist and it looks like a chunky plastic bracelet. “This is your last line of defence - when you strike it....NOT NOW! It expands into a large Zorb ball” He explains. “-Protection from the environment and a means of instant transport. -The roads atop the mountain are cut to guide you back to the base and armed men and safety -  press it firmly and it's your 'get out of jail' card.”

Several of them want to press the wristband now. “Wait for it!” He warns. Looking straight at Autumn.

“Okay this Zorb,  it's like a big balloon that folds over you and lets you roll over terrain. – These are your emergency lifelines – Pop this, and roll away – the section of mountain is pretty clear of trees and rocks and cliffs, so you’ll just roll downhill. The perimeter slopes down to the entrance which is always manned. – So with luck you’ll end up there. –This wristband? – Don’t leave home without it!” But if you activate it here in camp, you’ll be carrying everyone else’s kit…. Got it ? good!”

They spend half the afternoon swishing and swooping around the more difficult slopes. In the final hour Bridges gets them to leave their skis behind and change into boots. - he leads them to the top of the slope.  - “Okay, Zorb time!”

One by one they activate their wristbands and the Zorbs balloon up. -They roll gently down the slope. It's a strange sensation at first, but actually quite enjoyable near the end. At the bottom, they plead to do it again. Bridges is pleased with their skiing progress and grants them their wish. They have several more runs down in the Zorbs. Slow at first, and faster and faster at the end. Sienna and Autumn are soon racing and trying to outdo one-another. Marigold isn't so sure about this, but in the end manages her trepidation, though she doesn't want to race. Cerise decides to go off-piste and promptly rolls over a cliff and into a tree. She isn't hurt, but is a bit stuck.

“Didn't see that coming, did you?”

“Actually, I saw the cliff....And me going over.....But there was nothing I could do!” Cerise says from fifty-feet up. Lincoln rolls over and extract himself from the Zorb. He concentrates on the tree and a section of it boils up and explodes. Shards of tree whizz off into the forest and Cerise rolls gently to the ground.

They have another couple of Zorb runs before calling it a night. - Tired but happy, they head back. Sienna has won a coin toss to drive the half-track home.

“Have you ever driven before?” Bridges asks.

“This is my very first time!”

“Stay on the road.” He warns her.

“Which bit is the road?”

“The narrow strip between the immovable trees and the three-hundred foot drop.”

“Ulp! -Um....okay!”

It is difficult to skid a half-track truck. When they get back on base some of the others are offered a go in it. They take turns spinning it around the base before supper.

Supper tonight is 'Sand brown' stew made with semolina  - but it is rather undercooked so it tastes of sand. Marigold has decided to help in the kitchens. - She befriends a roly-poly chef, named Mister Kitt.

His good humour is somewhat counterbalanced by his terrible chef skills. However, Marigold does some wonderful things with carrots. Cerise does some wonderful juggling with plates. - And some wonderful sweeping up all the broken pieces.

Marigold let loose with Zing and Zang and a carrot.

There is more skiing tomorrow, and by now they are pretty competent. Bridges is most impressed with their progress. Even Iris and Little Bee manage a few fall-free runs and by the afternoon are pulling off some impressive tricks. Autumn ditches one ski and starts Snowboarding down the slope like a pro.

In the evening they spin the half-track around in front of Angel base. As they pass by a snowball flies their way. Then another, then another. This starts the highlight of the day- a snowball fight!

Several hundred cadets start hastily clearing their balconies of snow to chuck at our heroes. Not to be outdone, our heroes retaliate. -It swiftly escalates into the mother of all battles when Lincoln starts exploding snowballs. This dislodges a number of icicles from the gutters, and making visibility difficult for the cadets, as ice particles swirl about.

 Sienna gathers snow as quickly as she can with her bare hands. She flash melts then flash freezes the shell of the snow to produce exploding cannonballs, aided by Lincoln. Autumn is in his element, lobbing projectile after projectile. Marigold sneaks inside the building and delights in dumping snow and ice down the backs of the cadets while invisible.

Mal is swinging his staff expertly, scooping up powdery snow, electrocuting it into a ball and using the staff like a catapult to launch cannon-ball sized chunks upwards. - He also manages to augment the other's aim, making for a very accurate barrage from the ground. At the climax of the battle, Sienna manages to flash-freeze the entirety of hot-tub water. Hoping to launch it skyward and explode it like a bomb, they misjudge three key things:  The weight of it, – lifting it into the air and Autumn.

Autumn reckons he could bench press a ton-weight of ice cube above his head – Heaven knows how he gets it out of the tub without any visible handholds! Perhaps a rubber duck is frozen into the top or something equally implausible… However, despite all the obvious physical and logistical limitations, lift it he does. With quaking knees, he staggers into position. Mal is ready to augment what happens next….

Sienna looks over, impressed at Autumn hefting the giant ice cube above his head. – But instead of launching it skywards, she and Mal exchange a look. In an instant the ice cube becomes liquid once again- and succumbs to gravity- completely soaking Autumn in icy-cold water! Autumn’s shocked gasp and shudder make all the cadets and our heroes forget themselves for a minute as they roar with laughter!

 A moment later, our heroes fashion a large snowball and launch it skywards. With everyone channelling their energies into it, it explodes like a bomb. This buries the cadets in snow, so much so that they have to wriggle for some time to extricate themselves. When the snow settles, there is a lot on the apron outside the barracks. - Sienna flash melts it and then flash freezes it to create a skating rink. They glide around on it, before making tracks for home. Some might fancy that they write rude words on it, only visible from above!

Tired out, Autumn takes off his clothes and streaks through the guesthouse, before taking a running jump into the hot tub- only to find it empty!

He fills it with snow and with Sienna's help, it's soon warm and toasty!

Mal takes to his room. Tomorrow he'll have a robot skiing companion! He starts tinkering expertly. Autumn tries to justify taking the Skidoo. He settles with imagining himself on it, whizzing around the slopes. - Pursued by Grimm.

Back at the barracks the cold and wet cadets tasked with clearing the snow from their balconies - again- and taking spades, shovels and picks to the ice-rink in front of the building. - They plot their revenge....

Tomorrow's supper: 'Smokey brown.' – Not quite as burned as..... Burnt brown!