"What a pathetic bunch of limp-tails? What whelp master let you leave the nest so young and with such poor training? Was he tired of your mewling and complaining? I've never seen such a poor group of new students. Drop and give me fifty push-ups! And if they aren't good, I'll be chopping off some tails to lighten the load."

Gilad Tail-Master stalked off and allowed himself a sip of water. He was a large and warlike ratkin just starting to go grey. No one who saw him move would ever think of him as old, but he felt it in his bones some mornings. It was a long time since he had trained troops for the wars against the spiders. He had to remember that. These young whelps had no idea of those times. And too many of the new ones acted like this was only some game. They would learn!

"They that bad, boss?" The speaker was younger than Gilad, but much larger, wearing heavy armor and a helmet. A large polearm leaned against the bench he was sitting on.

Gilad lowered his voice. "Yes and no. Every recruit I have trained has started this way. They have no training and not enough exercise. I'll get them straightened out and teach them the basics of claw and tail. They will be able to defend the Hollow in an emergency. But we have too few trained fighters for guard duty, as you well know! I have seen you and Brutus working far too many shifts."

Justin just nodded, it was certainly the truth.

Gilad looked at his class of new students, swelled large with all the wild ratkin coming to the Hollow recently. "The problem is the new ones. The whelps that just show up out of nowhere with weird names and bad attitudes. Where the hell are they all coming from? There can't be that many nests out in the wild, could there? I think some will work out. A few are born killers that can't wait to go out and fight. But the questions they ask? It's insane! 'What good is tail-fighting if I have two swords already?' A lot of inbreeding in those nests, that's what I think."

Justin nodded. He'd noticed that too. "I'm worried about the ones that get some money from doing extra work and helping out. It's great to have the help, but most of them are spending every last cent on cheese. It's like no one taught them discipline. We may be looking at an entire generation of Cheese-Fiends. I thought Larry was bad, but can you imagine several Larrys?" He shuddered

Gilad smiled evilly. "In that case, I know a few lizard and spider colonies that are getting pretty large and moving too close to our caverns. I wonder how they'd like to have a full front line of Cheese-Fiends tear into them?"

Justin blanched. "Please tell me you are joking?"

Gilad let himself enjoy the thought for a few more seconds. "Of course, I am. Berserkers are bad for everyone. If we allow even one of these children to become a fiend, then we have failed as a Hollow. They must learn to master their addictions." He looked over to where a half-dozen recruits were dutifully doing pushups, and another half-dozen were lying on the ground, breathing hard and complaining. "Still...maybe I could use Larry as a sparring partner for some of them later. What do you think? Six of the new students vs. Larry? Twelve?"

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Justin stood and grabbed his polearm. "I'm on shift in five minutes, but if you decide to do it, I'll put 10 shinies on Larry, and I don't care about the odds."

Gilad stroked his chin. "Yes, getting someone to bet against Larry will be the tough part. And Gendivere would be very cross with me filling up her infirmary with all of my students."

Justin marched away to his post at the entrance of the village, and Gilad went over to 'encourage' the slackers to finish their exercises. His attention was momentarily taken by the tall tower that rose to the ceiling of the cave, as it spat forth thunderous bolts of lightning across the cavern, shaking the whole village. Another day, and another fight between Arlothe and his wife. At least many of the newer students had at least a small talent for magic. New students would keep those two busy.

A breeze brought him the delicious smell of fried mushrooms and crumbly bleu cheese. The chef must be cooking up something tasty. The only thing that kept Justin from walking into the building for a snack was the knowledge that being on time for guard duty would get him a free meal later in the day. The voice of his old trainer came to him. "Master the cheese or the cheese will master you." One had only to look at Larry sitting on a rock in front of the building, his mutated body quivering and his nose constantly sniffing the air. Larry served the village in two ways: Firstly, he was a sad example of what happened to cheese addicts. Secondly, he was six hundred pounds of unbridled murder machine when someone threatened the village. All it took was one piece of cheddar for Larry, and a second tossed at the enemy. Larry saved a lot of lives that would otherwise be lost fighting intruders. He deserved to be more than that, but Justin didn't know how to make that happen.

Brutus was at his post when Justin arrived. They guarded the entrance to the Hollow. The small cave that served as their guard post had only two entrances. One led to the Hollow, and one to the warren of caves beyond, and the massive tunnel that a wandering world-boss had dug. They'd had a lot of trouble lately from that. Cave-Mantis were multiplying again, slimes kept showing up on their doorstep heading for the smell of food coming from the Hollow, and worst of all: Humans were coming in groups to 'check things out'. Some were content to play by the rules and prove they could behave, but others became rude and aggressive. They'd beat off attacks by several groups so far and sent more than three dozen off on quests to prove their worthiness and loyalty. Only a couple had come back so far and gained entrance to the Hollow.

Brutus was about to head up-tunnel and get his dinner when he paused and stared at the darkness. "Oh, look there! We have a sneaky one skulking along the outside wall."

It took a few seconds for Justin to spot him. The newcomer had some mildly good stealth skills. "He's got more than skulking going on, I bet if my perception was a bit lower, I couldn't even see him. I bet he's used to walking right past people. Hey, I've got an idea. Let's pretend we don't see him at all until he gets here!"

Brutus straightened up and went to attention, staring straight ahead. "Oh, I love playing surprise”.