by Ryan Evans
As I watched the refugees practice, I soon wondered if some of them wouldn’t volunteer to join a militia force under my command. Lady Kyla seemed to notice the success of my soldiers as well but never spoke to me about any of it. I decided that, if she preferred silence, I wouldn’t be the one to bother her.
The day passed with no signs of trouble. While I was glad of that fact, I really didn’t expect any issues until nightfall. So far, I’d only seen ambushes and overwhelming force used by the saurians, and it had all been at night. I didn’t expect them to change their playbook.
“We need to look at stopping for the night. The refugees will take longer than regular troops to set up a camp, and we have a larger number to accommodate,” I said as the sun came close to touching the horizon. My words were the first ones uttered between the knight and myself since the march started. While I preferred not to break the silence between us, I wouldn’t sacrifice the wellbeing of our charges for the sake of pride.
“And if I choose not to heed your words and continue marching until dark? Will you have your soldiers stop and leave the townspeople defenseless?” she replied after a moment of silence. The town’s representatives had been traveling near us, and I saw them tense at mention of such a decision.
Throughout the day, my soldiers had engaged and reassured the traveling civilians, even going so far as to making them feel more prepared by teaching them the basics of fighting as soldiers. If there was a stand-off between myself and the imperials, I was confident they would side with me. I had a feeling the knight knew how it would go too, but she was testing me for some reason.
“Not at all, Lady Kyla. If your decision was to continue marching, and the townspeople agreed to take such a risk, I’d continue to protect them. I’m a man of my word,” I said in the same calm manner in which I’d suggested we stop. The town’s representatives visible relaxed at hearing we wouldn’t abandon them.
“Very well, then. We’ll stop for the night,” Lady Kyla said as if she’d never questioned the decision in the first place, calling for her people to halt and prepare camp. I gestured to Sergeant Aldo, who had been watching our exchange, and our people stopped marching as well.
While most of the imperial troops went about making camp for themselves, Sergeant Aldo and his assigned soldiers instructed the townspeople on what they needed to do. Many of the townspeople had simply sat down on the road, not knowing the first thing about sleeping outside of a town or village. They eagerly listened to the instruction of my troops.
Soon, clear work details had been assigned. The refugees carried out their orders with a discipline near that of regular soldiers. Lady Kyla watched on with her two lieutenants beside her. While her facial expression was neutral, the two lieutenants were clearly leery of the entire situation.
A space large enough for everyone was cleared on the side of the road. Several of my soldiers led the townspeople in cutting and then bundling the long grasses to make sustainable fires. Others instructed groups on how to dig latrines and set up their tents. Once they understood how to carry out the task, the entire group got involved. In less time than I expected, the refugees established a functional camp for themselves.
While all of this was happening, my other soldiers were scouting the surrounding areas and preparing their own sleeping areas. A member of my original squad from each of the shadowing groups came in to give me a report on the day’s progress. I was pleasantly surprised with how well all the soldiers had done, despite being exhausted.
They also verified that there were signs of saurians trailing the main group though they made no actual sightings during the day. It was as I’d expected, and I had word spread throughout the refugees. Surprisingly, a large group of them came to Sergeant Aldo and asked him to assign them guard details just like our soldiers would be maintaining.
Content with the progress the refugees were making, I moved to speak with the imperial knight regarding the camp. The imperial troops had stuck together and formed their own campsite on one side of the refugees’ area. Despite their obligation to guard the townspeople, the imperial patrols seemed to stay around their own tents.
“Lady Kyla, I came to discuss tonight’s arrangements,” I said as I walked up to where she was sitting at a fire outside of the officers’ tents. She didn’t even look up from the fire as I spoke.
“What arrangements would those be? You seem to have the refugee situation in order. I dare say in another week or so, some of them might resemble soldiers,” she said, sarcasm dripping from her words. The two lieutenants looked like they wanted to add their two cents, but wisely stayed silent upon seeing my expression.
“So is it to be jealousy at my soldiers’ initiative, or resentment at the townspeople’s willingness to take orders from them?” I asked with contempt in my voice. If she wanted to sulk like a spoiled child, I’d treat her like one. We were far enough away from the refugees that only imperial soldiers would hear our exchange.
My question pierced the professional detachment she had been presenting. In the blink of an eye, she was standing from her place at the fire with her hand clutching her sword hilt. My inner beast responded, but I couldn’t tell if it was from the prospect of a fight or the raw aggression I saw in the female knight.
She said nothing, and her lieutenants stayed quiet as she seemed to struggle with herself not to attack me. “If you want to fight, I’ll be happy to as soon as we get to Fort Granas. Until then, know that my people found evidence we were being followed during the day. If I was a betting man, I’d say tonight won’t be very restful,” I said leaning towards her, presenting as aggressive a posture as I could.
I couldn’t help wanting to goad her after her display. This woman got under my skin. In the ultimate form of taunting, I turned my back on her and walked back to the main camp.
In beast-kind culture, showing your back to a challenger was a way of saying you didn’t feel they were a threat. It was an insult from which few could step away. As I walked away, I was poised to intercept a sword swing or dagger thrust.
I was both impressed and disappointed when neither came. I distinctly heard a growl from behind me as I entered the refugee camp and headed to check on my troops. The growl was followed by the sound of guard details being assigned and orders being given. I smiled to myself and continued on my way.
Chapter 15
True to my prediction, the attack came shortly after midnight. A force of enemy chirpers tried to infiltrate the camp from the north between two of my satellite camps’ positions. They were trying to repeat their previous tactics against the Silvanti army. Not to be taken by the same trick twice, the two groups stripped and completed the shift into their beast forms as quietly as possible. One of our outer groups stalked the enemy towards the camp’s outskirts. The others scouted away from camp to find any other saurian forces waiting nearby.
The howl of one of the wolf-kind scouts alerted the guards of the enemy’s arrival from far enough away that the enemy didn’t turn back. The sound set the soldiers to waking the refugees who’d been assigned weapons along with our soldiers in the main camp. When the enemy made it to the edge of the long grass prepared to sneak up on the sentries, what they found was an established battle line holding shields and waiting.
The enemy chirpers immediately fell into chaos as the battle line of armed townspeople and Silvanti soldiers charged them. They turned to scatter and retreat at the same time that twenty shifted wolf-kind descended on their prey from behind. The chirpers never had a chance.
I watched, along with Sergeant Aldo, from the edge of camp as our people hunted the enemy and dispatched them with vicious efficiency. Pent up rage was a powerful tool. Everyone that attacked the saurians had plenty of reason to be well and truly angry.
As the skirmish concluded, a soldier ran up and gave me another of the white necklaces we associated with saurian leadership. I slipped the token around my neck as another signal sounded from the west, and the sounds of battle came fro
m the imperial camp to the south.
Those on the north side of camp prepared to receive more enemies, and the shifted soldiers disappeared into the long grass to hunt more prey. They had strict orders not to abandon their side of the camp in case another group tried to break through.
My soldiers and the refugees were well prepared on the western side of camp, but were confronted by a sizable force. I arrived on the scene as twelve brutes broke through the line of the militia before me. I noticed several militia tiger-kind stepping back and beginning their shifts, but they would be too late to plug the hole that the brutes had caused. With a roar, I entered the fray. I charged the twelve brutes, plugging the breach alone as Sergeant Aldo and several soldiers ran to catch up.
Meeting the enemy, my blades were a whirlwind of death. I slashed the hamstring of one opponent with my dagger while stabbing my sword deep into the chest of another. The number of opponents meant that they quickly surrounded me, but they weren’t well coordinated and got in each other’s way.
I used my blades to disembowel another opponent and slit the throat of the fourth before the press of bodies became too close to effectively maneuver the blades. Dropping my weapons, I focused my shift and, instead of allowing the entire change, I only shifted below my elbows. My hands and forearms became more muscular, and my fingernails became the large, razor-sharp claws of a monster.
It was a strange sensation, holding the shift to only one part of my body like this. The urge to finish the change was ever present, but I suppressed it without my clawed hands changing back. I’d never read of anyone doing this before me. It made me wonder if it was a skill of all noble bloodlines or a unique trait of the Feros.
I raked faces, tore out throats, and slashed arteries with reckless abandon. I felt the occasional stab of pain on my exposed skin or in the gaps of my armor from a saurian slash or bite. The sensation only served to let me know where the enemy was in relation to my position. My retaliation for the pain was swift, and it wasn’t long before I stood alone, covered in blood.
I shifted my clawed hands back to my human form and surveyed the surrounding area. I’d apparently not stopped my forward momentum when I moved to plug the breach in our lines. Instead of being parallel with the soldiers and militia, I was out in front of them. Many more than twelve saurians lie around me, and one of the shredded beasts had the telltale sign of leadership hanging around his neck.
I added the token to my collection as I searched for my sword and dagger. I quickly found and retrieved them from the bodies of slain enemies on the ground. Both had been sticking out of fatal wounds on separate brutes. As I wiped the blades clean on the scaled bodies of those I’d slain, I registered the surrounding silence.
The occasional roar of a shifted soldier or militia member rang out from the long grass as they hunted retreating saurians. Their orders were not to range too far from the camp, but I couldn’t blame them for wanting to maximize the death they sowed while in their beast forms. After all, at the end of their shift, they’d be left weak and vulnerable. Every saurian killed was one that couldn’t attack us later.
I turned and focused on the soldiers behind me. Sergeant Aldo, along with my guard contingent and at least fifty of the militia, were all staring at me with their mouths hanging open. Several of them were naked, having already shifted back to human form. I pretended to be oblivious to the stares. Instead, I focused on making my way through the knee high stack of bodies around me towards their location.
“Sir, are… are you hurt?” one of the militia asked me with a tremble in his voice as I made it back to the formation. They were all still staring. Even Sergeant Aldo hadn’t quite recovered yet.
“I’m fine, but it looks like many aren’t. See to our wounded and make sure all of our enemies on the ground are dead. Also, sound horns to get the shifted that are hunting to return,” I said addressing the soldiers and militia before me. They all hit their fists to their chests in salute, bowed, and moved off to follow my orders.
“Sergeant Aldo, what’s the overall status of the camp? I seem to have become too focused on my own fight to keep track of it all,” I admitted guiltily. My question and admission were enough to snap him out of his stupor.
“Sir, it looks like the saurians meant to hit us primarily from the west. The northern and southern attacks were merely skirmishes meant to infiltrate the camp or draw our focus away from the main strike. We lost no one on the north, but we’ve lost twenty Silvanti soldiers here with another ten wounded. The imperials appear to have lost some twenty-five soldiers with no seriously injured but haven’t told us officially. The townspeople gave a good showing, losing fifty with the same number wounded,” he said, and I felt a weariness in my chest at such losses.
Sergeant Aldo continued to speak, drawing me out of my depression at our losses. “Sir, we estimate nearly seven hundred saurians involved in the attack. They were overwhelming the militia when we arrived. Where they broke through would have been the collapse of our line until you charged the breach. There were so many of them that my men and I couldn’t get to you. We had many shift so they could bolster the line of shields but feared it wouldn’t be enough,” he said reliving what he’d just experienced. He stopped and took a breath before saying what was on his mind.
He looked me in the eye as he continued. “Sir, I knew you would be dead. There was a swarm of saurians in front of us so thick we couldn’t even see you. Then, the pressure on the line diminished as they all seemed to be drawn into the swarm,” he said while looking down at my bloody hands. He then looked beyond me to where I had been with awe and disbelief.
I turned and looked at the field from which I’d come. It immediately hit me. There were at least seventy or eighty of the enemy lying dead in a concentrated area. Some of their dead were stacked up to waist high.
I didn’t know what to say and nodded mechanically before turning back toward the refugee camp. Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself before saying anything.
“Let’s go see to the dead and wounded,” I said as I took my first steps back towards those we were trying to protect. I absently wondered if maybe I wasn’t the most dangerous thing the townspeople faced on their way to the safety of Fort Granas.
Sergeant Iglias along with Tristan found me amongst the refugees a little while later. They relieved the two soldiers that had been assigned as my personal bodyguard, despite my arguing that I didn’t need one, by Sergeant Aldo. Dried blood still covered me, and they both kept looking at me like they were waiting for me to suddenly turn savage. I continued to help gather the deceased and salvage what supplies and equipment we could from the battle field. When the job was done, I’d clean the gore away.
I nodded in recognition at their arrival, but said nothing as I returned to carrying a militia soldier’s body to the pyre that would soon be lit. Someone else would go through his things and decide what we could salvage. Someone had already taken the soldier’s weapon and shield to be redistributed among the survivors.
They might not be trained soldiers, but the townspeople were as efficient of scavengers as I’d seen. They even recovered scraps of leather and clothing that my soldiers and I would consider trash. I would have asked them about it, but every time I came close to them, they stopped speaking and just stared at me.
I heard more than saw Sergeant Iglias nudge Tristan towards me at my side. Ever since the battle, my senses had been heightened even more than they normally were. I stopped my work and faced them. I’d not be whispered about. If there was something to say, I’d have it said to my face.
Tristan started to say something then stopped. He did this twice before coming to some conclusion. He stepped forward with resolve and put his hand on my shoulder as he spoke.
“Valian, a lot of wild stories are going around right now. The townspeople don’t know what to think. They’re saying you killed one hundred saurians by yourself, mostly with your bare hands. They’re also saying you can partially shift at will. Talk to
me. What happened out there?”
His words and his hand on my shoulder got me out of my own head. I stood there looking at him for a moment, preparing to explain what had happened. Instead, as I made eye contact, he continued, “We’ve counted. One hundred twenty eight saurians died by your claws.”
I came up short at the revelation. I didn’t see how I could have possibly done so much damage, but I knew he wouldn’t lie to me. It further reinforced the fear that I might be more dangerous to everyone than the saurians. During the battle, the violence had carried me away. I’d given my beast free reign. If I lost control like that again, there was no telling whether I’d be an asset or terror to my own forces.
Tristan seemed to follow my train of thought. “Your soldiers are with you. The townspeople are wary, but trust you. Just warn us before you go all apocalyptic again. Oh, and if you get some kind of following, as your best friend, I get my pick of the female groupies,” he said with a cocky smile on his face.
“I disagree with that. As the senior sergeant, I should get first pick of the ladies,” Sergeant Iglias said, surprising both Tristan and me, and completely banishing the last of my melancholy.
Tristan burst out laughing so hard that he doubled over for a moment. Eventually he composed himself enough to look serious again. “Now, sir, we should get you cleaned up. You look scary as hell covered in blood, and you’ll have to talk with the beautiful knight before we move out again,” he said with a wink.
“I wonder if Selene knows you think Lady Kyla is attractive, or that you want your choice of female supplicants,” I mused to myself as I moved to follow the two towards the long grasses. With the absence of readily available water, I’d have to scrub the blood off of my body with the tall grasses that dominated the landscape. It wasn’t ideal, but the moisture in the grasses would get the job done. For a moment I saw true terror in Tristan’s eyes and laughed at my friend’s reaction.
