The Rogues Who Went Rogue
Chapter 78

It wasn't really 'tonight' for anyone. Everyone was at Polje by late evening. The sunset off the horizon would've been a breathtaking sight if it weren't for the fact that the lycans, werewolves and vampires were there because of Margaret's vision. She saw fire and heard growls, but thankfully, no blood or anguished howls like the last time. Octavia and Amber came tonight, along with a few other discretus and fortis. Octavia's eyes and those of the other ten discretus they brought along roamed the surroundings, scanning for proditors.

When they did this for a good fifteen minutes but saw nothing, the discretus asked their wolf and lycan counterparts whether they were hearing or smelling anything. None of them did, not even Xandar with the sharpest hearing or Lucianne with the sharpest sense of smell. Most of them didn't doubt Margaret's vision at first since it proved to be terrifyingly accurate about the Blue Crescent attack. But after an hour in which half of the time was nightfall, some started to look at Margaret in suspicion, wondering if she was pulling their leg. Tate was beginning to glare at anyone who was looking at Margaret in disdain, which was mostly the royal rogues.

Lucianne saw it, too. She then clapped her hands once to get everyone's attention before making a suggestion, "How about half of us resume practice while the other half of us stand guard? We'll take turns. An hour of practice for the first batch, and then an hour with the second batch."

Desmond was the first to shrug like it was no big deal when he said, "Better than w'all standing 'round doin' nothin'. Yo, Zane! What d'ya wanna do first?"

Greg's animal was scratching its face at Desmond's casualness before the duke's hand went for the Money Retriever's nape as he delivered a stern, shivering reminder, "After the queen finishes speaking, we place an arm across our chest as a sign of loyalty and say the standard words of 'As you wish, My Queen' as a demonstration of obedience. Is that understood, Desmond?"

Desmond nodded without needing to think. He might have been afraid of the way Greg looked at him with that partially-onyx glare, but the follower was more afraid of disappointing the very creature who helped him stand on his feet again than he was of the warning. Lucianne's voice then rang through the space, "Greg, let him go. Desmond did nothing wrong." She then turned back to everyone else and said, "The ministers and royal family members will stand guard with the discretus first. Warriors and...”

It was on the tip of Lucianne's tongue to say 'rogues', but the word didn't feel right after she read half of Iridessa's thesis, so she thought fast and chose to say, "...mavericks," her own animal was covering its face in embarrassment for its human part but Lucianne pushed through, "Train first. We'll swap after an hour."

The queen quickly turned and jogged towards a random spot to guard, not wanting to see any weird looks that may be thrown at her for her lame choice of word. She really should have thought that through before opening her mouth. What Lucianne didn't know was that the word 'maverick' made the rogues who understood the word feel better about themselves.

When Desmond saw that the queen had left the circle and he didn't need to be all nice and polite around the king, he looked at his boss and said, "That's a cool word, boss. Ain't know what it means though."

Greg's smile was getting broader by the second, and he allowed himself another two-second look at Lucianne's retreating figure before he answered Desmond, "Mavericks are unorthodox creatures who don't follow a prescribed set of rules, customs or beliefs. Independent thinkers and believers."

Greg then turned in the other direction for his own guard duty when Desmond asked, "That's a good thing, ain't it, boss?"

Greg smiled radiantly when he yelled out without hesitation, "Beats being called a rogue like you don't belong anywhere."

The rogues looked at their queen, who was speaking animatedly to Octavia and another discretus who were right behind her when she jogged away, and the rogues couldn't deny the warmth she gave them just through a simple swap of one word. For once, they didn't feel like they were being ostracized from the general society. She made them feel...special, maybe even above those who blindly followed rules.

Even the non-rogues felt like they had learned something from their queen. If the law-abiding creatures were being honest with themselves, they would admit that they had tried their best to keep their distance from the rogues, who 'earned' that label after causing some form of trouble.

But now that Lucianne addressed them as 'mavericks', it somehow felt like they may be able to make an attempt at...forgiveness, and possibly acceptance of these creatures who were now helping them with the present threat.

When Lucianne looked around and realized that she was the only one standing guard with the exception of Greg who was taking his time to get to his side of the field, her confused eyes darted back to everyone who were still staring at her in awe and appreciation. With nothing but annoyance in her eyes since she didn't know what went on after leaving the circle, her arms raised into a 'what' sign as she shouted across the field, "WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING STANDING THERE?! THE FIRST HOUR OF PRACTICE STARTED TWO MINUTES AGO!" Upon hearing that, Greg's animal prompted him to ditch walking and start running to his spot. Everyone else's eyes bulged wide-open as they cursed under their breath at their queen's ferocity before frantically searching for their decipio partner and pulling their wolf or lycan partner to start practice.

Xandar, Christian and the ministers sprinted to cover the edges of the field. Toby and Juan even knocked into each other by accident when they were in the midst of rushing. It didn't matter how long they knew Lucianne, it was still very possible to be scared of her when she barks out orders like that. Xandar was at his wife's side in an instant, and he pecked a sweet kiss on her temple to calm her agitation before muttering, "Sorry for delaying their practice, babe. And you're amazing, by the way. You have no idea how many eyes lit up when you called them 'mavericks' instead of 'rogues'."

Before he could sprint away to take his spot, Lucianne protested, "That can't be right, Xandar. That word is so ancient that it's lame to use it today. Calling them a rebel would have been cooler but I felt that there may be some...negative connotation to it that would create further friction between them and the rest of our people. I'll definitely be thinking of a better word for their group."

Xandar chuckled before he cupped her cheek and assured her, "Lucy, that word is perfect. YOU are perfect. You gave them what you've already given the rest of us - hope. There's nothing lame about it at all. It baffles me how you still can't see the effect you have on creatures. If you stuck around after saying what you did, you'd feel how the tension between our kinds eased a little with the change of one word."

Lucianne's eyes went to the rogues...sorry, mavericks, who were practicing before she whispered, "Not all of them are what we thought they were, Xandar. We have to fix this. We have to fix what history and our predecessors have done to them, and what we've been taught to keep doing to them."

Xandar held her in an embrace before pecking a sweet kiss in her hair as he promised, "We will, baby. We will."

###

Margaret was practicing with Azalea with their decipio partner, Dylan. They shut their eyes like they were taught to do the previous night. After five seconds were up, their eyes opened. Since they reminded themselves and their wolves to trust their noses over their eyes, the first session wasn't very difficult to ace since Dylan only made them both see each other as enemies, removing himself from the picture.

The real challenge came when the three of them agreed that it was time for Dylan to help them level-up. That was exactly when things got a little bit out of hand.