A Narnia Tale: For King, Queen and Country

Once more into the fray

He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born general.

December 3, 1000NY

Dear diary, today I write again, almost five months after my last entry. Let me tell you, writing with only one eye is a struggle. And this eyepatch makes me look like a pirate. That bloody Archenland lunatic. I'll tell the story of it here.

We assembled parts of the army the day after the meeting and prepared for a long campaign. This time I would fight at the side of my new King, I looked forward to it. A week later we marched off to the southern parts of Lantern Wood, where the most activity was reported. After two days, we made camp in the hearth of Shuddering Wood. When the scouts came back with the newest information we made our plans. Peter would divide the army in three parts, one being leaded by Oreius, an other by King Edmund and the last by Peter. Peter asked me to go with Edmund, he was a little too young to make the right decisions on his own. At same time, a messenger arrived. He told us that King Lune would send a hundred men to aid Narnia once more. Peter thanked the man, who went back to his country shortly after.

A day later, I rode next to Edmund, followed by a good seven hundred soldiers. We moved west, aiming for the point where Lantern Wood faded into the western mountains. The land here was almost impassable for an army, steep hills and canyons scarred the landscape. Everything was heavily forested, making progress painfully slow. I guess we covered about fifteen kilometres per day. A day after we crossed the Telmar River, we got ambushed. They jumped on top of us while we were climbing a hill. A dozen Minotaurs, twenty odd Dwarfs and some creatures I still don't know the name of. We immediately tried to form a coherent line but the terrain made it too difficult. Edmund's horse tripped while trying to turn around, I had already dismounted by then. Many Narnians fell before we could counter attack but by that point the savages ran away and we were unable to follow them. I already felt that this wouldn't be it. I was right. We got attacked twice later that day, they charged in and disappeared before we got the time to respond. The next day, they did it again, four times to be exact. Our army was approaching a hundred dead and wounded, moral was on an all time low. We had to do something.

'Can't we retreat?' one of the Dwarf commanders asked. We sat around a small campfire, I, Edmund and three other leaders, a Dwarf, a Satyr and a Centaur. 'No, my brother gave me orders. We need to secure this part of the country,' Edmund replied, despite his age, he had the aura of a leader. 'My King, with all due respect. We can't win this, they don't offer a real battle,' the Dwarf shook his head in disbelief. The centaur raised his hand: 'I agree with the King. The stars told long ago that he and his siblings would rule Narnia. There has to be a way.' I had almost forgot that almost all centaurs were stargazers in their free time. 'Yubalian, then how do you suppose we can win this?' the Dwarf almost yelled in frustration. 'We do the same as them,' I said with a firm voice. The squabble stopped. 'They move in small groups and attack without warning. We can defeat them by doing the same. We make small groups to scout and harass the enemy. When we find a camp, we send a messenger to the main force. Then the army can come and kick their ass,' I explained. My proposition was a daring one. If executed correctly it could grand us a decisive victory, if not the army would be destroyed.

In the end, Edmund decided that my plan was the best one. The next day, we scattered in small groups. I commanded twenty-odd men, just like the three other officers. Edmund would stay with the remaining five hundred soldiers, they started building walls around the camp when we left. 

It took us a day to stumble upon a small enemy camp. Wolves, a had and two minoboars sitting around a fireplace. Luckily, they were eating so I remained undetected while looking down upon them from my hilltop. I gathered my small force and told them what I had seen. We then started to climb the hill. Our enemy didn't even had the time to go for their weapons. They fell in mere seconds. I pulled my sword out of the chest of a wolf and cleaned the weapon to its fur.