Of Ashes and Wind

Rollin the Daring...

"What do you mean we can't penetrate through? We have nearly five thousand in our ranks and they barely number a thousand."

"They have the strategic advantage and hold the Eostrun side of the Narrows to their advantage. There's no other way to transit our forces to Eostrun without having to go through the Narrows."

"What about ships to Yn Asari?"

"The elves would hold an advantage for naval warfare in their waters, Ailduin's navy isn't something we can laugh at."

Rollin seethed, this was the second night they've spent on Tetran's side of the Narrows. They were unable to receive any more messengers from their frontlines, but the latest message detailed that General Owens had been maimed in an early morning attack – the elves knew which of their encampment held their brilliant strategists.

General Owens wasn't in shape to keep leading his troops and the army he had shown up with in the initial push had thinned down.

General Baldwin Ritten stood with his arms crossed with the other young Captains in the room before the Prince. They were trying to figure out how to pass through the Narrows. So long as Eostrun held the high ground within the Narrows, it would be near impossible to transit through. It would be difficult to try and climb through another part of the Great Granite Range, but to even attempt to cross by scaling through would put them in an extremely vulnerable position.

"How many winged-mounts do we have?" One of the Captains asked.

"At least six hundred." Another answered.

"If we did our math right, the beastmen should only have about one hundred winged-mounts."

"But the elves rushed to their aids, all of them being winged mounts from Princess Eiriell's personal outfit."

"So, both the Crowned Prince and Princess of Jishora and Eostrun are on the other side of the Narrows?"

"Yes, but it means nothing if we can't break through."

Ritten sighed, they could try to keep breaking through – but the beastmen proved to tenacious and they had a tactician on their end too. It could be Prince Ryosuke, but the he was still a young man of twenty-three summers. Maybe it was the other dragon rider? The reports said he looked to be an older man and was seen directing their forces when Tetran tried to attack in the middle of the night to regain control of the Narrows on Eostrun's side.

"But the same would be true for Jishora, their Crown Prince can't get home if he's stuck in Eostrun."

"It would be simple for him to get away. I saw how fast his dragon flew, we don't have a winged-mount nearly that quick to catch him."

Ritten spoke up, "Prince Ryosuke wouldn't do that, he's here to aid his friend and isn't the type to abandon his people." He said it clearly.

He knew some of the responses he would stir with that statement.

"The animal prince will probably turn tail soon, it was cowardly of him to sneak in when our rear guard was at its weakest."

Ritten looked on, it was genius that they were able to time their attack the way they did.

Or they were extremely lucky.

"Hey, circling back to the winged-mount forces. If the ground battle is a stalemate, then we need to take it to the skies. Regardless, we have superior numbers for our winged-mounts, we can easily overwhelm them."

"They have two dragons and the Royal Gryphon Guard in Eostrun is famed for their talented riders, numbers don't beat out talent." Ritten was the first to speak up.

"We aim for the talent that matters then." Rollin spoke up, "Both Ryosuke and Eiriell lead their winged-mounts proudly. We just need to get them isolated enough that we can focus our efforts on taking them down. The loss of one or even both would be enough to force a retreat."

"Leave it to Rollin the Daring to come up with that."

Ritten looked over at the Crown Prince – it was a devious plan, but how would he coax the two out? The Beastman Prince proved he used his wit, never straying too far across the line of troops, baiting himself to make their over-eager winged-mounts come across to the beastmen side of the battle so that they can be overtaken.

He had a feeling that the Elven Princess had enough sense too, Eiriell the Heaven's Sword.

"How do we get them out in the open then?"

Another Captain asked the question on Ritten's mind.

The Crowned Prince thought about it.

"We'll figure that one out."

But Ritten saw that Rollin had an answer at the front of his mind, likely the same answer that Ritten had.

To use Rollin as bait to get the Prince and Princess out in the open. He didn't want to chance it. But Ritten knew that Rollin's Grandfather would have jumped at a chance like that. May the old king continue to rest in peace.

What has this great country come to?