Bloody Roses || Sanders Sides

Chapter 1

I wish I was able to finish this one. Maybe eventually. I love writing stories with dragons. Dragons are the best. Oh well.

TW: swearing, talk of war/death,

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"We can't send people there. It's going to be a massacre."

"But what about the people? We can't just leave them defenseless," Patton protested.

"Trust me on this," Logan said. "We'll lose more people by trying to defend the town than we will by leaving it."

"We can't do nothing." Roman sighed. He hated this room. There were too many decisions to be made here. "Maybe we don't defend the town, but we should try to evacuate as many people as possible before their army gets there. King Patton is right, we can't just leave the people there to die."

"You know we don't have to use titles here. It's just us."

"You're right. Force of habit," Roman muttered. He rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. Too many hours were wasted in this room with too little progress made. "How many do you think we could get out of the town before the show up?"

"At the pace they're moving, maybe half." Logan ran a finger along the map, tracing the route to the town from where the other army was positioned. "They still have to get through the valley, and the slopes will slow them down slightly, but we still need to get there as well. The nearest troops are positioned about a day away from the town. If they manage to get there, we still have to suddenly evacuate, which will take more time. We'd get at most seventy five percent of the town out before the other army shows up."

"How many would we lose if we stayed to finish evacuating after they show up?" Logan drummed his fingers along the desk in thought.

"It depends on who's leading the charge," Logan explained. "If their normal army is in the front, then we can hold our own just fine. With enough people we'd be able to finish the evacuation with little casualties." He paused. "However, if their mage force is in front, we would be trouble. In that scenario, we wouldn't be able to get everyone out without serious casualties that we can't afford. The longer take to get everyone out, the more likely it is that the mages will show up."

"So we need to be fast then," Patton said.

"Precisely. Time is everything here. Anything we do will need to be quick and concise, allowing no room for error. We can't misjudge anything."

"Well, it's a risk I'm willing to take. If you're alright with this, Patton, we can send word to the troops to head over and evacuate the town." Patton stared at the map in thought before finally looking up and meeting Roman's eyes.

"They may not be my citizens, but they're still people. Of course I agree."

"Since you're both in agreement, I'll send the messenger falcon." Logan grabbed a piece of parchment and a pen, quickly jotting down a message for the troops. "I'm sure Colonel Sanders will get the troops moving right away. He's not one to waste time when lives are on the line. Your orders will be received."

"We would be lost without you, Logan," Roman muttered. "I can't make sense of those numbers like you can. This whole mess of a war would have been lost long ago if it wasn't for you." The war advisor gave him a small smile while rolling up the message.

"Trust me, I know. You were a mess before you appointed me. But that's alright. I'd be more terrified if you were a military genius, since you have command of the kingdom." Logan walked out of the room to send off the message, leaving Patton and Roman alone.

"I want to thank you again for helping with this," Roman said, turning to Patton. "Without your army we would've been overrun long ago. I can't fight two armies."

"The declaration of war was undeserved. This war may be pointless, but I wasn't going to let your people get killed over nothing."

"It's been three years, Patton," Roman said quietly. "When will it ever end? It's a back and forth battle that's just destroying the kingdoms. Does this even benefit anyone?"

"Not any of the four kingdoms who are fighting." Patton shook his head. "The only kingdom this is helping is the sky kingdom. They can't be attacked where they are on that mountain, and they just get to watch as all of our kingdoms crumble away."

"They refuse to even get involved. It's like the king enjoys watching all of us get nowhere."

"Can you blame him?" Patton asked. "If you had dragons and a nearly impenetrable kingdom, wouldn't you just watch? He isn't putting his people in danger, but he has a choice. When people have choices, they're going to chose the easier one."

Roman wished there was an easier choice he could make, but war was what he had known for three years, and in was all he could do now.

901 words.