Zacharias didn't complain, vocally or otherwise, at the revelation that most of the Guardsmen would be sleeping in barns. He was used to it, after all, and it was better than sleeping on the floor. He also didn't care in the slightest about the "contest" to sleep in the estates. He would be striving to be amongst the best Guardsmen, of course, but because it usually came with a little perk called "being deemed too valuable to be left to die."

As he marched through the woods, he couldn't help staring constantly towards the glow coming from the carriage. The Totem contained within must have been very powerful, or he wouldn't be able to notice it straight through solid wood. He spent most of his time walking wondering what it did. If anyone asked, he simply said he was trying to figure out how that carriage moved. It probably wasn't too far from the truth, anyways.

When the caravan arrived to the blockade, Zach became really paranoid. He'd been through that scenario dozens of times. The caravan stops, people come out to move away the logs, then someone gets shot through the chest with a bow. He stood guard, while the stronger Guardsmen moved the logs from the path. Fortunately, nothing happened. It still left him feeling a little bit worried.

He was idly scribling yet another theory into his Totems notebook, while eating a piece of bread with butter, when the lady came with the bad news. Predictably enough, Adele jumped right at her throat. Zach jumped behind her, ready to defuse the situation.

"Woah, woah, woah," he said, stepping in between the women, looking at Adele. "[i]Woah.[/i] Calm down. Sure, witholding vital information, which could cause grave injuries or death, is really, [i]really[/i] wrong, but stabbing the client is never the right answer. After all," he whispered. "If they're dead, you can't milk any more money outta them." He then turned towards the lady, Gisele something-or-other, with a big, fake smile plastered onto his face.

"I'm really sorry about that. However, she does have a tiny smidgen of a point. You hired the White Guard for a Caravan Guarding job, including, amongst other, smaller things, protection against bandits and wild animals. This falls under the category of General Protection. However, if what you are telling us is true, then you should have hired us for Protection Against a Known or Unknown enemy, which falls under Targeted Protection, a different, and, dare I say it, costlier category." Plus the fee for guarding a powerful Totem, but he wasn't about to explain how he knew about that. "Therefore, I should ask you to speak to your superiors about a change in category, or I may be forced to speak to [i]my[/i] superiors about a, let's call it [i]relocation,[/i] of our troops back to Belencrest."