All Adventure Begins with Tragedy

Chapter XII: Victory is served sweatest with cake

I let the men sleep in. Every one was badly hung over. Except for myself and Luke. We were just very tired.

That day crawled by with no actually progress. I checked on the fort. The fire was put out, although most of it was terribly burnt.

Tomorrow we would loot it, I decided.

That night we ate little, having had such a big meal the day before.

We now had two carts, and we hoped to find more in the fort. Our army was growing quickly.

The next day the men were feeling much better, so we packed up and then went to loot the fort. We weren't the first there.

Townsfolk from the surrounding farms and small village had come to take as much as they could. When they saw us coming, they started to run, thinking we were the Hammerites. Thankfully, we had sent the scouts ahead. They began to cry that it was a savior army, not the Hammerites. Many of the folk became curious and watched us March towards the defeated fort.

As we walked through the front gate, the men and women and children began cheering us loudly. I let the soldiers disperse into the crowd, on the orders of making friends.

This was the perfect chance to strengthen our numbers. In a few hours, we began picking through the ruins.

The town's folk did the same.

We round many things, to many to list. The stables had, thankfully, been left intact, and the horses were still there. Twenty three of them.

We found tons of copper and silver coins, weapons, and other such gear. But none of the loot was as precious as the influx of men that joined us. Nearly eighty men joined us. That brought our grand total to a hundred twenty six. That gave us a total of seventeen squads. Eighteen including the scout squad with one added member.

Eighteen squads was definitely a force to be reckoned with.

We marched off towards the next fort with a considerably larger army and eight carts. We had two squads of archers now, and they also served as the cavalry. A homely farm woman had told me the location of the next fort. It was larger and had a larger garrison. It also had more supplies, and served as a base for enslaving the nearby village. We decided to lay siege to the fort and at the same time free the village. With out the support from the fort, it would be extremely hard to defend. We should be able to take the village easily, that's what we said at least.

"It will be the icing on the cake!" As Jonathan said.

Two days after we started marching, the scouts reported that the fort had been spotted. They estimated it would take only another day of marching to reach it.

I could feel the excitement rippling through the men as we approached the base. I had no doubt we would take it, but I was worried that we would lose lives. We had been lucky so far. Not a single man or woman had been killed, or died from any other cause since we started the THDC. We had captures an enemy fort, with no blood shed on our side. We had a clean record. But for how long could this keep up? We were at war, and in war, people die. There was no escaping it. The question was, when would the first fall? And who would it be?

We came upon the fort that evening, and I had us camp behind the village, as far away from it as we could remaining eye contact.

That morning we prepared for the siege. Six trebuchets were built this time. The ammunition was unloaded from the wagons. We had the weapons set up on three sides of the fort. The fort looked similar to the one We had already taken, except it had six sides and was larger. It had a larger tower, due to the fact that is was surrounded on all sides by hills. We, on top of the hills, were level with the top of the tower.

We had six squads in between the fort and village, hidden alongside the road. They were prepared to stop movement between the two settlements. Six other squads were on the hills, one to each trebuchets. Five squads were positioned to take the village. The eighteenth squad, the infiltrators or scouts, were ready to sneak into the fort and take it from the inside.

We were ready for war.

"Is everyone in position?" I asked a young boy, part of the scout squad.

"Yes sir, I've made my rounds, everyone is ready for fighting, and sir, they're getting exited!" Was his answer.

"Okay then, Jonathan! Prepare for fire!"

"Yes sir! You all here that? Load 'em up!"

"Yessir!"

A pause.

"Loaded!"

"Loaded!"

"Loaded!"

"Loaded!"

"Loaded!"

"She's ready!"

"Your supposed to say she's loaded!"

"Sorry sir! She's loaded sir!"

"Okay then! Fire!"

The word "fire" was echoed by the squad leaders.

The stone rounds slammed into the fort. Instantly alarm bells were wrung. One of our snipers picked him off, and his body fell off of the tower. Soldiers began running from the town towards the fort. Time for the cavalry!

The cavalry charged in taking out any soldiers in the town. As the regiment of Hammerites marched down the road to the fort, The ambush was sprung. Arrows whizzed into their ranks. Men fell left and right. Volley after volley mowed them down. And then all hell broke lose for the remaining men. Our soldiers sprung up and charged at them. Within ten minutes all were dead, and we had lost two and had seven wounded. The cavalry chased the ones that ran down and killed them. And so we had completely surrounded the fort.

The trebuchets continued their deadly rain of stone. Soon it turned from stone to hell fire and brim stone. The fire charges lit most of the buildings on fire. Unfortunately, the fires were put out and the slinging became more irregular.

We stationed a bigger force in front of the gates and waited. The town was now in our possession, and hundreds of townsfolk offered their beds to us.

It took two days time to finally crack the nut. A final barrage of fire distracted them, while the scouts climbed the walls and opened the gates from the inside. Our entire force, plus a mob of angry villagers rushed through leaving no man left alive. The second fort was captured!

We had suffered eight losses total, none of the original crew. But we did gain four more squads worth of men. One hundred and fifty four. That was our man count. And we had a permanent garrison of town folk to guard the fort.

We armed four more squads worth of them and trained them for combat. We wanted them to be able to guard their newfound freedom.

And maps revealed the location of three more forts. But one of them had a garrison almost four times as big as our army. And we received word that they were mobilizing an army. So instead of preparing to march, we prepared to defend.

And it would be one hell of a defense.