In the Bear's Footsteps - a BotL story

[bluntblade]

This thread will be a collection of stories I've written for the Iron Bears Legion in the Brotherhood of the Lost project. This might get messy with the amount of crossover with other Legions, but we'll see how this goes.

 

A Proper Depiction

M30, 999

 

+++++

 

Ellan Temeter made her way to the Fuel Tank, a former storage space in the Dragon of Autumn which the Remembrancers were rapidly making their own. It seemed that every contingent had set up a watering hole on their appointed vessel, and the soldiers who served under the Iron Bears were unusually receptive.

 

Never more so than just after a battle had been won. After months of cautious chipping away at the xeno defences, the Scions Hospitaller had weakened the enemy enough for the Iron Bears and their mortal auxiliaries to join them for a shattering assault. The Laer’s central atolls had been seized and the road to victory was clear. The halls resounded to the sounds of celebration, and even if Ellan hadn't wanted to relax and get some fresh accounts of the war for Laeran, the amourous racket from either side of her quarters would have driven her out. Strange how, after hours of combat, all the soldiers want to do is exert themselves some more. So she made her way to the bar, slipping around boisterous troops and colleagues.

 

She had a rough idea of how she would structure her account of the war against the Laer, but despite the excellent work of the pictographers she was collaborating with, it felt lacking. The last few months had brought a steady stream of acclaimed picts and paintings, but she and her fellow scribes were struggling. Some documentarists argued that the environment put them at a disadvantage; Laeran’s beautiful seas and riotous alien cities certainly favoured the imagists, but Ellan felt that the problem went deeper. Something about the conflict eluded them, leaving them unable to truly encapsulate the Great Crusade's glories.

 

This was partly why she had opted for a more wide-ranging narrative. A discipline master’s viewpoint for one engagement, a stormbird pilot's perspective for another. Given a few weeks it would be complete, her third contribution to documenting the Crusade. Her previous work had been more of an effort to describe the Iron Bears’ way of making war alongside their comrades in the Crimson Lions, although she had stopped short of attempting to profile their lord. Daer’dd seemed unknowable, as did the rest of his brothers, to judge by the publications from other fleets. Still, she had managed to interview a few captains from each Legion, and they offered some excellent material to work with.

 

She sat down under a painting of the ship's captain- undoubtedly titled Fire the Ursus Claws if the subject's snarling expression, blazing eyes and outstretched fist were any indication. She sank into the conversations; a large poet arguing with a colleague over the merits of using paper over data-slates, and a pictographer grumbling about how the Bears had flattened the Laer temple before the remembrancers could reach it. Over it all, a sense of dissatisfaction pervaded.

 

“Ishaq, you really shouldn't complain so much,” an iterator declared. “Such degenerate designs, rendered by xenos hands, deserve…” He tailed off, slack-jawed, and a hush spread through the bar as everyone turned to see the cause. When Ellan saw, she wondered how they hadn't noticed sooner.

 

Besides everything else, there was the sheer size of him. He seemed almost too large for the space around him, and even in plain robes there was no disguising those colossal muscles. Ellan had seen garish picts from earlier ages, depicting heroes with absurdly honed physiques. Daer’dd would have made any one of them look quite feeble. And then there was the aura around him, animalistic but endowed with frightening intelligence.

 

“And let's not forget the teeth” the primarch added. Not that there was any danger of that, once the remembrancers had seen him open his mouth. “Now, I have come here tonight to register… a certain dissatisfaction with your work.” Horrified whispering spread through the mass of people and dozens backed away.

 

“Why, lord?” It took Ellan a moment to recognise her own voice. By the time she did, she was very alone, face to face with the master of the XI Legion.

 

“Why, Miss Temeter?” came the rumbling reply, and it rose in volume even as the tone remained flat. The primarch was plainly fighting to keep a hold on his emotions. “Because I have read the scribblings of your order, and I am appalled at their inadequacy in doing justice to the leaders of this Crusade!”

 

The pool of empty space around Ellan grew larger still, and she had to stop herself swaying as thoughts ran through her head. Another contingent disgraced and expelled. So many opportunities lost… and they'll blame me. They'll remember who spoke back to him…

 

She had no choice but to plough on. “What dishonour have we done to the primarchs? We have reported their deeds with only reverence and solmenit…” A raised eyebrow brought her up short, and she realised that the emotion Daer’dd was attempting to rein in wasn't anger. The chuckling caused glasses to rattle throughout the hall as Daer’dd squatted down opposite her.

 

“Exactly! You're so damn solemn about us that I barely recognise my brothers in these chronicles. I mean, just look at Alexandros as Ogliv Vashynk describes him. ‘Honour of rock, integrity of the stars’... you'd think he never cracks a joke! Can you imagine looking up to such a starch-arse?"

 

The mortals fell about laughing at such incongruous words from the mouth of a primarch, and as the mood thawed Astartes began to enter the room. Ellan forced herself to speak up again. “So, how can we redress our order's failings?”

 

Daer'dd grinned and made a gesture at something over her shoulder. “Well,” he grinned, “you must learn about my brothers from a source who knows them well, and is as candid as a warrior’s discipline and integrity will allow.” A servitor set a large tankard down before Daer'dd. “So, starting from tonight, we shall drink and make merry, and whatever you remember, you may use in your writings.”

 

“You mean, you'd permit us to record what you say when drunk?

 

“Do you mean to challenge me, remembrancer?” Now Daer'dd’s laugh was loud enough to shake dust from the rafters. He tapped his equerry on the shoulder. “Ten drinks for each of us. Get to it.”

 

Ten tankards were brought and set on the table between them. Each one, Ellan knew, was potent enough to liquidise a mortal’s innards. Despite his levity, the terror still hadn't left her. Was she sat in front of a madman? Was she to be poisoned as some kind of twisted warning to the remembrancers? Surely only Alexos and the maniac Raktra were capable of such a thing?

 

Then a tray was set down in front of her. Ten glasses of quite non-lethal wine, mortal-sized. “It's only fair to keep things in proportion” shrugged Daer'dd. “Now,” he grasped the nearest tankard in one massive hand as more servitors appeared, proferring drinks to the other remembrancers. “A toast. To a proper depiction of the Great Crusade!”

 

-----

 

Ironically, the first product of Daer'dd’s resolution would be a pict, depicting the master of the Iron Bears with an arm around Ellan Temeter’s shoulders, leading the remembrancers and his lieutenants in song while his guards stood, for once in a state of utter confusion, in the background.

 

Mercifully, history does not remember the exceedingly rude ditty. Nor, for that matter, who won the drinking contest.

[simison]

Blunt, you feeling alright or was there some copying mistake?

 

"Red Lions"?

 

"Ursis Claws"? Not, Ursus?

 

"IX Legion"? Wouldn't you capitalize "Master", too since that is a proper title?

 

And why is the 'Despite his levity' sentence repeated twice?

 

Still love the story though.

[bluntblade]

Copying mistakes or old typos. Android Docs can be temperamental.

 

I am actually a bit groggy - had a disagreement with a riverbed yesterday and I'm feeling lucky to still have all my teeth.

 

I'm going to leave "master" as it is, I think. I'd do the same for "lord" in that context, although if he's addressed as "Lord Daer'dd" then it certainly gets capitalised.