Although this information was intended only for Ray, as everyone else had been awake all day long and on the march, Humonus waited for Salami to finish interpreting it anyway.
Humonus next ordered the general, “Tonight, we shall quadruple the guards and sub-commanders normally posted—you and your soldiers will get to sleep tomorrow in the backs of bunk wagons. That is all I have to say.” He sat down.
Ray crisply replied, “Yes sir!”
After Salami interpreted and Yaush had nodded his head, no one rose to his feet or said another word, and for at least the next ten seconds.
Still sitting, Humonus looked around the room one final time before asking, “Does anyone else have anything to report? Now is the time to say it…anyone?”
After Salami had interpreted, Yaush stood up out of his seat and said something that took nearly a minute. Upon his conclusion, he began to laugh his booming laughter for a few moments.
Once Yaush had sat back down, Salami interpreted, “Yaush says that he is very happy to see that the Valakanese and the Forces of the Sharia Empire are working so well together, despite the language barriers…
“He also said that none of the Valakanese has expressed any major complaints, even though so very few of us have ever been exposed to this type of hot-and-humid weather before. Even worse than the weather, he half-joked, is the fact that we Valakanese love to eat a lot—especially Yaush himself! He said he had to tie a shirt tightly around his waist, so he wouldn’t hear his stomach grumbling angrily at him anymore… Ha ha ha!”
At that, everyone began to chuckle lightly—of course, Salami’s chuckles sounded like an old man’s cackles.
Perhaps a dozen seconds later, Cheo stopped laughing, and stood up out of his seat before yawning and stretching deeply. He then signed, “Well, gentlemen, let’s all get our rest, for tomorrow’s going to be real busy day, which day will come before we know it! Goodnight gentlemen.”
After Humonus and Salami had both translated, everyone rose to their feet while nodding their heads in agreement. Everyone but Humonus and Cheo exited the tent.
These two men walked over to their individual bunks, hopped in, covered themselves with a blanket, and went fast asleep.
Only an hour before sunrise the following morning, the exhausted guards began the process of waking up the troops and giants.
Meanwhile, Ray’s final mission before going to sleep was to wake up Cheo and Humonus and give a detailed report of the previous night, and so he had already begun to head to the command tent to do just that.
As soon as this general’s eyes lay upon the command tent, he saw that Stormea was comfortably sitting in a plush chair on only two legs, just next to the closed tent flaps. He appeared to be quite dazed.
When he had halved the distance to the command tent about a minute later, however, he observed that Stormea’s eyes had crystallized upon spotting him through the throngs of other soldiers already working, or just getting out of their tents.
Upon having arrived in front of his commanding officer, another minute later, he stopped in his tracks and threw a sharp salute.
Still leaning back in his chair, Stormea lightly returned the salute. After releasing, he said in just above a whisper, “Good morning, Major-General—just so you know, I’m going to be the one personally waking Ruling-General Humonus and King Cheo up, in one hour. I think that our leaders will need that little extra bit of rest, especially for what lies ahead. Why don’t you just give me that report, so you can go to bed?”
Ray replied just as quietly, “Sounds like a wise idea, sir. Would you like us to take a walk somewhere else for me to deliver my report?”
After rising to his feet, Stormea replied, “Wise idea, Ray—let’s go. I need the exercise anyway.”
As the two men began to mosey their way through the camp, Ray delivered his report, which wasn’t all much except for a few cases of leeches, and a pair of tigers that had been sighted near the encampment much earlier in the night. A few of the soldiers were about to take off into the jungle and hunt the tigers down for the meat, but thankfully, their superior officers had ordered them to stay at camp—after all, it could have been a trap from either the jungle cats, or the gnomes.
Once Ray had completed his report by throwing up another sharp salute, which salute was equally returned by Stormea, he headed off to one of the bunk-wagons, and fell fast asleep.
As for Stormea, he headed back to the command tent, and sat back in his seat for the next hour. For the first half hour that passed, he watched as the troops and giants exhaustedly and quietly ate their dried rations and drank their water. For the second half hour, he watched as they began the process of unsetting camp or preparing all of their animals for departure.
Only minutes before sunrise, Stormea rose to his feet, entered the command tent, walked over to Humonus’s bunk, wiggled the man’s toes on his right foot, and quietly said, “Sir? The time has come to wake up. I took it upon myself to give you an extra hour of rest, sir, so that you and King Cheo will be able to function your best. Your food and water is already set for you on the table, sir, so whenever you’re ready, you can get up…”
A quarter of the way through his words, Humonus’s mind had slowly begun to return to consciousness. By the end, he sat up in bed while yawning and stretching his arms out to the skies.
Seeing that Humonus was now completely awake, Stormea headed over to Cheo’s bed, and gently wiggled this man’s toes until he was awake…
Perhaps fifteen minutes later, Cheo and Humonus—now armored and armed—consumed their small breakfasts within the command tent; it was then that Stormea relayed the short report from Ray.
Only seconds after Stormea had finished with the report, the troops outside began to chatter with excitement amongst each other about something going on in the skies.
Immediately all three leaders ran outside, seeing that many of their troops were pointing eastbound—turning to look, they saw that the entire eastern and southeastern horizons were covered with very thick, black, smoky clouds!
Perhaps thirty seconds later, Cheo tapped Humonus on the shoulder until he turned around. He signed, “I wonder what’s going on over there?”
Humonus answered, “I’m not really sure. Want me to find out on the hawk, your Majesty?”
Cheo signed, “Actually, may I go and find out? Today’s my turn, anyway.”
“As you wish,” Humonus respectfully said with a bow.
Cheo, after an appreciative nod to his head, made his way over to the stable areas in order to retrieve the hawk and Darius. Meanwhile, Humonus looked over at Stormea, and said, “Commanding-General, it looks like our forces are almost ready—in fifteen minutes, we need to be in formation and ready to leave.”
“Yes, Ruling General!” Stormea said, just before he snapped a salute and then departed to carry out his task. Just then, Yaush and Salami arrived at the command tent.
While cocking his head to the east, Salami greeted, “Strange looking clouds, eh?”
Humonus nodded his head and answered, “Yes. King Cheo is going to check it out.”
After interpreting Humonus’s answer to Yaush, Salami said, “Good. Oh—just to let you know, we’re all ready to go, whenever you guys are.”
Humonus replied, “We’ll be ready in fifteen minutes.”
Salami interpreted—Yaush nodded his head.
Salami said to Humonus, “Sounds good to us.”
These two giants then walked back to the rest of the loosely congregated giants who were silently standing or sitting around. As for Humonus, he walked around the camp that was nearly unset, ensuring that everything would be ready to go at the scheduled time of departure.
About five minutes later, Cheo and Darius had just finished strapping the last of the saddle and reins upon the hawk. They next climbed into the saddle and began to buckle themselves in, Cheo taking the front seat.
Once so, Cheo pulled back on the reins so that the hawk would launch str
aight up into the air, and once they had risen to one thousand feet in altitude, he veered Leshava eastbound toward the direction of the dark and smoky clouds.
Over the course of the next forty-five minutes, Cheo had to evade dozens of large flocks of birds that were frantically flying to the northwest.
Upon nearing the source of those very clouds, which had surprisingly spread from the southeastern horizon to the northeastern horizon, both men couldn’t help but see that there was a raging fire far ahead in the distance!
As far as their eyes could see, which were thousands of square miles because they were now at an altitude of five thousand feet, they could tell that the dried-up jungle vegetation and trees were quickly burning up in all directions, due to the lack of rain!
A minute-or-so later, Darius was the first to broadcast his thoughts, saying, “It would appear that this fire was intentionally set, your Majesty.”
Cheo turned his head around to look at Darius before he nodded his head affirmatively twice.
It was only then that Darius observed that tears were steadfastly pouring from the king’s eyes, but then his mind immediately reasoned that the reason for this was because his kingdom was being consumed by fire!
Through the unabashed tears, Cheo pointed at the three of them with his index finger, and then pointed that finger toward the direction where their army’s last known coordinates were.
“Wise idea, your Majesty!”
Cheo sharply tugged the hawk’s reins to the right, in order to do a U-turn—in response, Leshava began to circle to the right. Once they were facing the correct direction, he relaxed the reins, which then caused the hawk to fly forward.
Nearly a half an hour later, now bearing an altitude of one thousand feet, he spotted their army.
Thirty seconds later, he pulled down hard on the reins—in response, the hawk collapsed her wings, which caused the three of them to plummet straight down to the ground.
About fifty feet up in the air, Cheo pulled back up the reins, and Leshava smoothly landed on the ground thirty feet in front of the formation, where Humonus currently rode on the chariot.
Humonus lifted his left-armored fist high up into the air, while calling out, “Halt!”
After the officers to his right and left called out “Halt,” they did.
Humonus pulled back on the reins with his right hand, and the two horses pulling the chariot stopped in their tracks.
At the same time, even though every last giant was too far away to hear the vocalized command, they saw the troops halt, so all but two of them stopped in their tracks. Yaush and Salami began the walk ahead to the front of the line.
Humonus only had to wait for a little over three minutes before Yaush, Salami, and Stormea had arrived, as well as Cheo and Darius.
Once together, Humonus asked with great concern, “So what’s with the dark clouds that are rapidly coming from other directions now as well, King Cheo?”
Salami interpreted the question to Yaush. Once done, Yaush nodded his head, but did not say a word.
Bearing a horrified expression upon his face, Cheo signed, “Well, where should I begin? Okay—there is a massive jungle fire ahead of us, which fire is spreading every direction from the northeast to the southwest! Already, from what Darius and I’ve seen, it has destroyed a bare minimum of hundreds of thousands of acres of my home, perhaps even millions! It is coming this direction and it is way too big to stop…”
At this point, Cheo took a lengthy pause, so that his words could be interpreted to everyone—meanwhile, a grim look had begun to cross both Yaush and Stormea’s face during the course of these interpretations.
By the time that Salami and Humonus had concluded, Yaush and Stormea’s faces looked pretty much the same as everyone else’s face—nervous yet thoughtful.
A minute of silence passed before Cheo clapped his hands two times together, in order to get everyone’s attention. Once this was so, he then signed, “This fire was most likely set last night—most likely at the very same time by the dark gnomes, and perhaps the dragon!
“If we are to avoid the likely possibility that this fire will be quickly heading this way, we will need to veer our course northbound. I know of a river that exists to our north about sixty miles away. Once we have all safely crossed this river, we should be safe from the dangers of the fire. We can then continue to travel northeast until we are directly north of Chao-chu-sha-maen, and then we make our way south if possible.”
After another lengthy pause so that his words could be interpreted, he added, “Once the fire has been extinguished, we can then recommence to find and destroy these villains who are not only guilty of killing my people, but destroying my land. Sound good?’
Humonus interpreted to Stormea and then Salami interpreted this information to Yaush.
Once all the interpreting was complete, everyone remained silent for about ten seconds as they contemplated all this new information.
Yaush was the first one to speak. Once done, Salami interpreted, “Yaush said that this plan sounds very good. He says that we should waste no time in getting there, either!”
“Agreed,” everyone but Cheo said in unison.
After Humonus had interpreted to Cheo, he nodded his head.
Humonus added, “One final thing I’d quickly like to say before we adjourn this meeting and move our forces… Let’s keep moving and not make camp again until after we’ve crossed the river—no telling how quickly that fire will get here!”
Salami interpreted, and Yaush nodded with complete agreement as did everyone else.
Only moments later, they stood up to their feet and began to exit the command tent. Right away, a dozen soldiers began the process of packing everything up inside, while another dozen soldiers began to unset the tent itself.
After the two giants had waved farewell, they hurriedly walked back over to the location of the other giants in the rear of the formation, in order to relay the “new news.”
At the same time, Cheo made his way back over to the hawk, in which Darius had already buckled himself into the back seat and was holding onto the reins. Once there, he climbed into the front seat, buckled in, took the reins, and took off into the air. By this time, Stormea, who had ridden on his horse, waited in the very middle of the first set of ranks, as was his designated spot.
Humonus continued to remain where he was, standing outside the front of the tent, but his eyes never stopped gazing around at all of his forces to ensure everyone was in place and ready to go. Other than those soldiers disassembling and packing everything away, in which they should be done by the time the last wagon passed, they were nearly ready.
Exactly one minute after the men had exited the tent, one soldier drove up his ruling-general’s two-horse-drawn chariot, stopped the chariot in front of the man himself, got out of the chariot, and saluted.
After returning the salute, Humonus climbed aboard. The soldier headed back to his wagon.
Through his megaphone in his right hand, he ordered, “Forces of the Sharia Empire. Forward, ride. Column half-left, ride.”
They did.
Once Humonus saw this was so, a minute later, he then called out, “Column half-left, ride.”
The army did, now traveling north.
Without making camp once, and with only two half-hour-long breaks, due to the threat of the fire that was fast coming their way and spreading quickly, they arrived at the river the following hot-and-steamy afternoon!
The utterly exhausted army, their horses, and the just-as-exhausted giants—finally began to cross the juncture at the river that flowed from the northeast to the southwest … it used to be rapids. Now it was only halfway filled—looking shallow, weak and calm.
Only once on the far side did Humonus deliver the order to make camp, eat dinner, collect as much water as possible, and then rest. All slept obliviously, except for the night-guards who had been given plenty of time to rest during the trip.
The following morning, a
fter the army and the giants had unassembled camp and breakfasts were eaten and drunk, they continued to travel northeast along the river.
By noon, for the first time since having entered the Galgaa Jungle, thick rain clouds now covered the entire skies and a steady rain poured down not only all day, but for most of the night. Everyone was quite joyous, especially Cheo, about this fortuitous turn of events!
Despite the fact that everyone was completely exhausted, drenched, and muddy by the end of this day, they did not camp or stop at all through this night either.
After all, Humonus had briefed to everyone, during their hour-long break, that a night like this would be a perfect night for the gnomes to attack, and it’d be better to ride until morning and then make camp … no one disagreed.
It was only shortly after sunrise the following morning that Humonus ordered the beyond-exhausted troops to make camp—they did, and once camp was set, all but Humonus, Cheo, and the guards immediately passed out.
During the dried-jerky breakfast that commenced in the command tent, the only time that Humonus spoke at all was when he informed Cheo, “I’m going to scout around on Leshava for a couple of hours this morning, before I come back and pass out…until we ride tonight.”
Cheo, while disgustedly and tiredly continuing to chew on a piece of jerky in his mouth, simply cocked his head from side to side, indicating the affirmative. He had to drink it down with a few swigs of water, before waving farewell to his friend, getting up, climbing into bed, and passing out.
Humonus, on the other hand, stood up, exited the command tent, and headed to the temporary animal stables. Once there, he assisted Darius with the final preparations. Thankfully, both hawk and hawk-master were not tired, as they had ridden on a topless wagon and slept.
BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan Page 27
