Divided Nation

Retaliation

The Purple Kingdom had 1,000 soldiers total. The Biege had 10,000, accounting up all of the clans that had united together under a temporary king. There was talk of starting a republic, similiar to the Sea States, but the temporary king would lead the clan into war. They had vowed alligance towards our cause and would be a good aid.

     As Isiah and I made our way back to our camp, it was streaming with soldiers in good spirits. Apparently, everyone had known about the Purple and Biege Kingdoms joining the war, and they were marching their troops up to the Sands and the East Turret now. With them in the war, we would actually stand a good chance against the Regime.

     "A toast!" Isiah shouted, that night at dinner, "To the defeat of the Regime!"

    Everyone repeated that and drank the barallels of whiskey that we had brought with us. The most important provision, Harold would have said. I passed on the alchol. It had always made me nauseous and I couldn't take more than a couple cups before I vomited. And although I had a good streak of vomitting going on, I didn't want to damage my stomache anymore.

     Dinner that night was hearty, with people cheering and feasting. There was still a couple defenders out, in case Regime soldiers came, but they weren't due for another day. We had transported maybe 1,000 soldiers across the Rapid by now. 

     Many of them were going back to the Outpost at this point. The wounded and an escort had to be sent back while the remainder of our army would continue on to Birch Hill. Our reinforcements have arrived as well, that extra 4,000 men that had been trailing behind us since the Outpost. 

     We were halfway to Birch Hill by now and if all of our men managed to cross the Rapid before the Regime came, our total army would amount to nearly 7,000 fighting men. More than enough to finish the encirclement.

     "Ok,ok," Isiah said, stopping the flow of whiskey, "I think that's enough for today. We'll finish the rest of the barrall when we take Birch Hill!"

     That got the army cheering agian. I found out that Isiah had a way of making the army like him. We had set up a camp on the North Bank of the Rapid, with a couple tents and defensive trenches and makshift watchtowers. 

     There were also scouts that regularly came and went to check if any of the Regime aid was coming. I made my way into my tent and fell asleep instantly.

     The next day was full of stuff to do. We were still ferrying troops across, a process that had been going even through the night. We were down to only one barge now, and even that was in bad condition now. If that last one broke, we would be stuck on the enemy side for days.

     Another possibility is if we rode back to the Outpost. With 1,000 men, we could make it back in less than a day. However, it would take a longer time to get back to the South bank of the Rapid. And we needed to take Birch's Hill now. There wasn't enough time for us to go all the way to the Outpost and back.

      As the day wore on, so did the tension. The Regime army was due any minute now and the camp was on high alert. Scouts had been sent out, but so far, none had returned. What was even worse was that we had ferried 80% of our army to the South shore by now.We only had less than 500 men with us. If the Regime was to attack us, we would be done.

     "No scouts have returned," I told Isiah, as we watched the barge take off yet again from our shore, loaded to the brim with soldiers, "I don't like that."

     "Me neither, Hayden," He replied, "What do you know about our enemies?"

     I thought about it for a while and realized that he was talking about the third garrison. They would inevitably be the ones to send troops to us. The raven would have flown directly there anyways. Messenger ravens tend to fly to the nearest place they were trained to go. And that was the third Garrison.