Songs of Battle

Chapter 11: Attack on the March

Left paw, right paw. The army trudged steadily onward. Far into the day they marched, never slowing down. Caspian urged them onward until the mounts were about to drop in fatigue. He called a halt and ordered the settling down for the night.

"What have you, Rimestone? Tell me how far we have traveled toward O'ranel Fay since we began marching?" Caspian asked.

Rimestone.answered promptly, "Of the 300 miles it takes to get to O'ranel Fay, we have travelled two."

Caspian snorted in irritation. "Just two? That will never do! We need to pick up the pace and make a change to the formation," he said.

"Ten-shun!" Caspian bellowed. Everybody looked up from where they sat around small fires. "We will be marching on foot from now on! Our mounts will go in sections to scout ahead and when they are not scouting, they will be marching at the sides and back of the main columns... We will also be going as fast as we can for as long as we can," he said.

"Get to sleep and don't eat. We'll be marching before the sun breaks the horizon. Dismissed!" Caspian finished. The soldiers turned back to their fires while Caspian sat at the edge of the encampment with Nanuk, Jack and Phillip, and Rimestone. The rest of the leaders were all gathered around a fire with their mounts.

Jack, not disliking fire like Nanuk or Caspian, asked, "Why haven't you lit a fire?" Caspian blew a snowflake off his nose. "I'm the Ice Prince, I don't like fire," he replied simply. Nodding Jack turned to his troops as they sat and made jokes near the fire. "You know, for most of them, it will be their first time seeing vuxta from other courts," he said, his eyes grave.

Caspian looked at the Guosaff as well. The youngest, Jack and Phillip, were fourteen, while the oldest were about twenty. Jack was right. "Sometimes I forget you're only fourteen," Caspian laughed. He'd know Jack and Phillip Frost since they were born, and when Caspian himself was old enough, he taught them how to fight with a blade. Jack Frost, Ruler of the Outer Lands of the Ice Realm, nodded. "In the Ice Realm, you grow up fast."

"We'll march long and hard tomorrow, so get to bed," Caspian said, turning around to Nanuk. Jack knew that he was dismissed. He went and gave the order to bed down for the night. Caspian ran his fingers through the fur that was showing from Nanuk's armour, a gesture that had always calmed him. "Nanuk, what do you think about all of this?" he asked.

The wolf turned her scarred muzzle towards him, her blue eyes showing emotion that normal animals' didn't possess. "I feel as though you are doing the right thing, my Prince." Caspian breathed in deeply, already smelling the slight heat that was blowing from O'ranel Fay. It had been a long time since he had fought in the heat.

"I feel your apprehension as well, Caspian. You can fight in the heat, but you must keep you head at all times. Once you waver you will be dead," the wise Nanuk warned. Caspian nodded to the great white wolf. He sighed, his breath barely frosting in the air; an unnerving sign for the Prince. Caspian laid down, settling his head against the foreleg of Nanuk. She wrapped herself protectively about him, a calm, radiating cold that lulled him to sleep.

* * *

Caspian awoke early and gathered his few belongings quickly. He checked to make sure Frostbite was on his back and Nanuk's armour was in place, and then took a bone horn and awoke the army. "Wake up ya brain-dead bitches! You lily-livered laggers! Get into position, have weapons ready!" Caspian bellowed in true drill sergeant fashion. The army scrambled to get into the ranks, some still blinking sleep out of their eyes before it was all over. Caspian stood. Rimestone, Hunter, Jack, Lance, and Zero stood to either of Caspian's sides, while their seconds formed up behind them.