Garden Wars

Prelude - The Pruning

General Quercus was silent, his hands clasped behind his back, as relaxed as his years of military service would allow. He stood watching the yellow flags of the Scythian army encamped around him hang limp in the still humid air. The hills in the distance, shimmering with the early season heat wave, were dotted with soldiers practicing maneuvers and running training drills. On each side of the practice fields were several squads of soldiers, each group paying rapt attention to what Quercus assumed was their instructor. As his gaze flowed from group to group, and from side to side, he began to realize that each set of squards was focused on its own specific subject. Each squad on the left side of the field was in various stages of training regarding ballistics, trajectories, and other math formulas related to long distance bombardment. Quercus smiled at this, even though he knew there was no way for the soldiers to see him.

The squads on the right side of the training grounds, however, caused the General to frown. Tactics, strategies, and military movements and planning were the focus here. He frowned remembering the times as a cadet that he took those classes and constantly disappointed his instructors. He had an inherent skill for finding patterns and predicting events but had never been able to express the variables used to come to the decision he did.   

Closer in were groups of Scythian wizards dressed in flamboyant yellow robes going through a series of practice maneuvers all their own. Of these he knew nothing. The manipulation and use of magic was something he had absolutely no skill in, or interest. Rules, plans, schedules, and predictability were comfortable friends to him. Magic was a stranger he didn't want to get to know

He sighed and turned back to the group huddled around the table under what was currently pretending to be a tent. The day had turned hot, hotter than expected, so he had issued the command to open the sides of the Command tent, regardless of the fact it exposed everything they did and talked about. He was resigned to the task before him, even though it was a task he had never wanted. It had been his prediction, one that had quickly come true, that put him here, so his only choice was to accept and make the best of it. 

He had seen the signs of escalating aggression from the Fescunian armies. Along with his ability to see patterns he had predicted changes in the annual war games, though they were anything but a game. The yearly Prunings, as they had become known, were attempts by ruling parties of the Fescue nation to conquer Scythia. What Quercus had seen was that they would begin earlier than usual and that the military force facing them this time would be far greater and far more aggressive than ever before. Once the events in his report began happening just as he suggested they would, those in charge of the Scythian military promoted him and put him in command of the training and engagement of that year's Pruning. 

But the ruling parties of Scythia had also tied his hands. While they had ultimately agreed that the events were starting early, they had completely dismissed the suggestions that the Fescue participation would be stronger and more aggressive. Instead they directed Quercus to maintain a ready status, but to keep the engagement "friendly." 

He sighed and made his way back to the center of the wanna-be tent. The contents of the table that sat there were currently hidden under a detailed topographical map of the western half of Scythia, the part of the border most connected to the neighboring Fescue. That map sat upon stacks and stacks of reports, missives, duty logs, other maps, and documents that Quercus preferred not to think about at the moment.

"Sir. You were about to explain your current plans in more detail," called out the one who had introduced himself late last night as Viceroy Apium. A new participant in the events, and more likely than not, an observer sent from the Council to make sure Quercus didn't supersede his mandate. 

"Based on the information brought in by the runners, the plan is to send a battalion of troops west to the Hedge Mountains to maintain the border there as well as a battalion east to the Garden Forest. Each group will have two support columns of Mages. The rest will remain here to confront the main force of the Fescunian force. If things go as expected, the flanking battalions can come in behind the invaders, cutting them off and trapping them. Rudbeckia's unit is already deployed to the north, serving as scouts and lookouts. There are also a couple of other elite squads patrolling the border."