Once again, the quartet of Landsguard cadets sat around a fire, though this time it was in the comfort of their barracks within Brightbloom Post. They'd been training hard now for moons and winter was settling in, so there was little else to do after it got dark and duties were done. People born of a tropical climate aren't made for winter. Still, they whiled away the hours not only in each others' company, but studying things like mathematics, government, history, the various laws of Tuliyollal and its Dawnservant. Landsguard were taught all of these things in classes, because the Dawnservant believed that educated minds made sounder decisions.  

As they lounged in the common room of their barracks, Altan looked at Xochitl as she lay tucked into the corner of the sofa, legs curled up as she rested a book atop her thighs like a lap desk. "So, Xochitl, what was your reason for joining the Landsguard? You were a pretty good huntress back home, seems like that would've been a good life for you."

Looking up from the book she was reading on governance, Xochitl's ears shifted forward attentively as she gave Atlan's question some serious thought. She was quiet for a few moments before her tail curled up around her hips and her feet. "Well, my sister, Oxomoco, was bullied a lot as a child. People were largely ignorant of the kind of magic she could do. It's the kind of stuff that only the Whalaqee would understand. It's a large part of the reason our parents decided to send her there when I left for the Landsguard." And her parents weren't really sure what else to do with Oxomoco with Xochitl gone, but the tigress didn't say that part out loud. 

Closing the book and setting it aside on the endtable behind her on the other side of the couch arm, Xochitl folded her forearms on her knees. "People fear what they don't understand and I knew, standing on the threshold of my Landsguard career, I could do a lot to change that. I could educate people, encourage people to embrace these fledgling magic-users, rather than treat them like some kind of oddity or curse. If I could do that, then the world would be a better place, not just for Oxomoco, but for all the other young mages that came after her. Our world within Tural is too small to find reasons to hate and fear one another."

Atlan smiled, reaching to the coffee table where a tray of sandwiches and hand pies rested. Easy to grab and go foods that the cadets could snatch on their way to or from classes or training, it made life a bit easier sometimes than trying to fit in a proper meal at the mess hall.  "So, you're doing all of this for your sister, that's kind of endearing, Xochi. Who knew you had such a soft heart?"

Xochitl let out a light chuff of amusement. "Not many, so don't spread it around. You'll ruin my reputation."

Atlan couldn't help but laugh at that before he turned his attention to the shetona maiden in their midst. "What about you, Pixie? What made you decide to become a Landsguard?"

The auburn-haired shetona ran a hand through her short-cropped mane before smoothing that self-same hand over her long rabbit-like ears. "Yyasulani is far removed from the civility of Tuliyollal." She said, "Beyond even Shaaloani where the only law is a gun and your ability to wield it. It can be a dangerous place for the unwary or the... more peaceable soul." She reached over to pick up a vegetable hand pie from the tray before Atlan ate them all. "I suppose I joined the Landsguard for those people. People who don't want to commit violence, even to salvage their own peace. Not everyone is born to fight and not everyone should have to fight in order to live."

"Huh, that's an interesting perspective." Atlan said through half a mouthful of sandwich. "I'd always heard that Shaaloani and Yyasulani were lawless places where bandits and brigands made everyone's lives miserable. That's why you have to have a permit to cross the bridge into Xak Tural."

Pixie gave a shrug in response as she sat on the opposite end of the sofa from Xochitl. "I mean, it wasn't some big murder-fest or anything over there and there weren't bandits crawling behind every rock, bush, and tree waiting to waylay you and steal your stuff." The hare-maiden said. "But it isn't really a place for tourists or wanderers that don't know how to defend themselves. You're just asking to be robbed or killed by going in there with that kind of guilelessness."

"Sounds about right for Shaaloani." Iczo quipped from his place where he was sprawled out on the floor on his back. He held a book aloft at arm's length from his face, presumably reading it. It was a book on local herbs and herb lore. A curious thing for him, given that he'd spend most of his life as a city catte. 

Atlan pinched off a corner of the bread from his sandwich and hurled it at Iczo. It struck the book the hhetsarro was holding, bouncing off it to fall down onto the man's forehead. 

Iczo's ears pinned back as he let the book drop off to one side as he sat up. "Oi, what's your problem, man? Can't a guy read in peace?" He huffed, tail thupping against the floor in his disapproval. 

Atlan only gave him a cheesy grin and a shrug. "It's your turn. Why'd you join up with the Landsguard?"

Iczo flopped back onto the floor with a dull thud. He picked up the book, flipping it back open to where he'd left off. "None of your business."

Xochitl, of course, knew the story but she wasn't about to tell. Instead, she decided to divert Atlan before he started goading Iczo too badly. "Well, what about you, Atlan? You've gotten to ask us about all our reasons, so what's yours?"

The tonawawta paused, sandwich half-way to his mouth before he lowered it with a sheepish grin. "Naw, you guys are going to make fun of me once you hear it." He said, setting the sandwich on the table in front of him. Very few things in life made Atlan take a pass on food, now it made everyone curious.

"Well, we're likely to make fun of you anyway for being a chicken-shite and not answering, so..." Iczo said from his place on the floor.

"He's not wrong." Pixie giggled from the opposite end of the sofa. She reached around Atlan to filch his half-eaten sandwich. "Besides, few things make you miss a meal, so you better start talking." She said, waggling the sandwich at him threateningly -- or, at least threatening to keep him from his meal if he didn't answer.

Atlan looked after the sandwich longingly and gave a sigh of long-suffering. "All right, all right... Hold a man hostage, why don't you?" He said, even as Pixie gave him a mimicry of his own goofy grin, all teeth and silliness. "I joined because I wanted to be a hero." Everyone in the room let out an audible groan and Atlan shrunk into himself a little, jokingly. "Yeah, yeah, I know. The lamest reason ever to join. But I was born a fisherman's son, my future was pretty bleak. Bait the hook, cast the net, pull the haul in, rinse and repeat. I'd hear stories from the minstrels and bards that stayed in our village about epic battles and protecting one's home and hearth and that just sounded like an amazing life to me."

The four of them laughed together, finding a sense of camaraderie that they were among like minds. Xochitl, from her place on the sofa, gave a smile of fondness to these, her fast friends and found family in this life far beyond what she'd ever imagined in Yak T'el. They were still new recruits, untried and unblooded in the field as of yet, but she had a feeling there was nothing they couldn't overcome, so long as they were together.

"Pixie, give Atlan his sandwich back before he dies of starvation."