The Night's Curse #3 (Waverly Stump and The 7 Realms)

Chapter 20

It was nerve-racking to camp so close to the enemy without wretching or wanting to do a number on one of them. The forest was oddly quiet despite the camp being nearly overpopulated by ogres and giants, both of which were notoriously loud creatures. Birds steered clear of the environment; the only ones around being the messenger birds for the enemy side. The smell of rotting meat, roasted animal parts and snake skin made the foul air even fouler and poisonous such that if one would inhale for too long they could drop dead at once.

The dark army did not do much except quarrel and attack each other especially without Oculmus present to intimidate them into behavior. The ogres mostly had to split up fights but even they got into heated arguments with themselves over who was in charge. The encampment had only six Outcasts; all of which were strangely lackadaisical about everything. They only watched, ate and laughed where necessary. Sometimes they said a word or two and their voices were cruel enough to enforce an atmosphere of silence for a number of hours. There were huge bonfires and so everything was bathed in yellow and red light. It was odd to see that a group so closely associated with darkness could not go a single second without light. This became a running joke in Waverly's unit whenever they took turns spying on the dark army.

Earlier that same day, long before the crack of dawn, plans had been executed in full throttle. A unit distracted the enemy by drawing them away from their base while another unit quickly set up the trenches. For the first time ever, Waverly had met the Burrowers. A group of Hammitonians that apparently had been in camp ever since she left the Tyro training ground for her new camp on the hill.

The Burrowers lived underground since they were small creatures and also, very fast diggers. Waverly recalled spotting numerous lumps of earth in certain areas of camp but had never put much thought on it.

The Burrowers were like rabbits and moles, only about four heads taller and a couple of inches wider. They were very self-centered creatures and so only a few of them had agreed to help with digging the trenches. They claimed they were a righteous clan and did not take sides with the dark army. Waverly was suddenly thankful of this when she watched them dig.

It was incredible.

Under a few minutes, an entire trench had been dug up by only six Burrowers. The Elves hurriedly set up everything necessary for their brief stay underground. A pride of lions pulled in three enormous carriages filled with palm tree branches and other plant life that would camouflage the trench with the surrounding. It was a rushed job but it was done so perfectly well that it looked like it had taken years to finish and the enemy had not suspected a thing ever since.

Two units camped on either sides of the enemy so that the dark army was right smack dab in the middle. The ambush was a long couple of hours away and so the Kings army wiled away time by watching the creatures instead. Diarmaid had provided pieces of incredible camouflage clothing for the army, the same one he and his brother had worn the first day Waverly met them.

Waverly crouched low, her nose only inches from the dusty earth. It was annoying to exhale as the air scattered the underbrush under her nostrils, lifting many uncomfortable things into the air and up her breathing hole. The night sky was the darkest blue, like writing ink, dotted with numberless white stars and a bright moon that made shadows line the ground so sharply one could almost feel them.

Waverly shifted her head sideways to gaze at Regent who had a funny looking equipment that he held close to his eyes. He had let her use it once and she thought it was quite fascinating. It allowed her see things in the enemy camp up close and when Regent had put it close to his eyes, the glass on the outside magnified his eyeballs to a hilarious size. Waverly's laugh at the sight of it had almost given them away so Regent did not allow her use the device anymore.