The newest Watcher of the Redfort couldn't tell just how long he'd been stuck down in the Deep. It had become exponentially more difficult to tell the time since he found himself surrounded by nothing but pure darkness save for the lit torch in his hand and the faint glow eminating from the cavern behind him. To pass the time, he'd begun whistling a cheery tune, echoing eerily throughout the chamber. Not a song of his own creation, but an old tune popular in Redfield. He had learned it as a boy because the beat of the song paired with his own labored footsteps on the fields of the family farm, and now he stood in the caverns of the Redfort whistling it as if to warm himself.

[i]A lass who bore the light of the town
Her fur of ivory thread
How she danced is stuck in my crown 
And back to the Glen my boat led[/i]

Cedric reached only the end of the first stanza before it was drowned out by the ominous rumbling of the Fort's elevator and the subsequent cascade of footsteps descending into the Deep. Cedric couldn't help but smile to himself.

[b]"Show time."[/b]

It took a good few minutes for all of the recruits to amass themselves into such an admittedly tight passageway. Luckily enough they'd found it in them to remain mostly silent. That made things marginally easier. A group of a dozen or so recruits stood before him in moments. Which was a fair bit less than the members of his own recruiting class.

[b]"First thing's first, welcome to the Watch."[/b] Cedric gave the group a courteous nod before continuing. It wasn't a phrase from the speech he was assigned to memorize, but then, Cedric was not a mouse for following instructions by the letter in the first place.

[b]"As my superior has no doubt told you, my name is Cedric. Being the junior member of the order, it's my job to introduce you lot to the perils of your own initiation."[/b] he turned sideways and moved towards a sconce at the base of the cavern.

[b]"Follow me."[/b]

He led the mice down a short stone pathway, descending further into the darkness of the caverns. Around them, though not close enough to help illuminate their path, were clusters of phosphorescent green mushrooms, casting a dim light in the shadows. The stench of meat grew closer.

[b]"The jist is that I'm going to go further into this big old cavern right here and light a number of torches. You're going to follow those torches back to the top of the Deep. You have until the final torch goes out to complete the trials. Simple enough, right?"[/b] he turned back towards the recruits, pulling an unlit torch from the ground and sparking it with a piece of flint.

[b]"If you ignore the cannibals, spiders and pitfalls, at least."[/b]

Cedric expected a couple of the recruits would've laughed at that if not for the immediate screech that filled the chamber before they had the opportunity to do so. Instead, he was met with gasps and shrieks when his newly acquired mount made her entrance, emerging from the darkness like a (thinking up mouse metaphors is hard okay). All in all she was a beautiful thing to behold, as were the reactions she was getting. How lucky was he that the Deep was large enough to fly a kestrel through relatively unobstructed?

[b]"Sadly enough, this magnificient bird of prey is [i]not[/i] one of your trials."[/b] 

Cedric approached the beast with all the nonchalance that came with being an experienced pilot. He stroked her beak before putting his left foot in one of the stirrups at her side and pulling himself into the saddle, which was tricky considering the lit torch in his hand. No doubt fear had blinded the majority of the recruits to that little detail, let alone all the unlit torches in a pair of saddlebags. He decided to keep the goodbye short and simple.

[b]"Remember: Follow the torches."[/b]

And just like that, he was off.