Bloodline

Waiting (1) - part 19

(This part will be many time skips put together for this part of the story, a supply run has been called from the castle to the encampment, and so to avoid making separate chapters for the time the characters will be there, I'm making the time they're there in one chapter in the form of Zircon logging their time there. Thank you if you read up to this point, and I hope you still enjoy my terrible book.)

Day 1&2 - Eliminating an enemy fortress, finding out the camp superior has been calling for "supplies" for himself, and taking some supplies from him to celebrate this moment in time, I find that the many things we've accomplished in this quest to bring down the king in the east has brought me and my friends together more, especially after leaving the dreaded forest earlier. I feel like I've made a stronger bond with Lutol and Tesath, and even after changing the very meaning behind my actions and purpose after losing Osred, they still stick around with me. It was a shame he died, and I could never explain in words how it has affected all of us, but now we must continue, not only for the safety of our kingdom, but for Osred too, for his sacrifice to save Damian from Opal, who I realise now with his actions makes him a Grounded, saved not only the only child of the king, but also saved our campaign against the easterners. The others are calling for me now, so I must go, for we are now sending off the squads of seven soldiers to the castle to assist with a caravan of supplies to build a fortress instead of staying in tents here at the east's doorstep.

Day 3 - Scouts have gone out multiple times by now, giving us new information on the enemy, and so far, what that soldier we took captive earlier has said has been true so far. Camps have been spotted near the mountains cutting off our advance to the castle itself, and spending time going around would send us off course for months on end. Maralyne went by with another scouting expedition to see if theres a strategic point in where we could engage them, or bring them out, but so far there hadn't been anything in our favor. Damian has been very busy trying to decide a plan with the lieutenant of this encampment in our next course of action, but both seem to be on different views on nearly everything. This had been the only time I've seen Damian walk off on someone talking to him, and I could see the frustration boiling in his blood, Tesath trying to calm him down. Lutol and I have begun to cut trees down from a forest near the fort we destroyed, and with the help of soldiers in the camp, we now have logs to use as walls for the fort. Even through disagreeing with the lieutenant and making plans for us, Damian tries his best to lead, as a general and as the future of our kingdom, and I know he will be a great king, so does everyone else, he denies it though, but we all have known since meeting him that he would lead us like his father does.

Day 6 - Already some of the troops in the medical tent have been getting worse with their conditions, especially those who have gotten serious wounds, or even lost a limb or two. If that wasn't bad enough, we had a message delivered by arrow into one of our camp guards who wasnt doing anything other than looking off into the distance. He died right as it hit his heart, and reading the note delivered on it read about an attack that will come by in a week. Though it's strange they just told us when they'll attack, I believe they did this to spark fear and maybe even attack another day while everyone here is readying for a false truth. Damian agrees with me, and after talking with him and trying to get him on my side, we traveled together out towards the mountains and began to scout the enemy and their natural fortress. From what I was told by Damian while we were traveling, there was the coal mines that had been there nearly 150 years ago that had given our kingdom massive amounts of coal and other natural resources. Now that they are using the mines as a forward operating base, it cuts us off from moving directly through to the castle, which we've been told is not that far behind them, but passing the mountains would take about a month or two, but more than likely for a lone traveler, imagine a whole convoy of an army passing through, that would be more than half a year at least to rally everyone together for a siege.

Day 8 - Scouting out the place for two days revealed many things to us, one being that the enemy is using the mines as a base, they also use it as a tunnel to pass through from the castle to here, but I think it's most likely set to be trapped when we arrive and set siege to the fort there. Speaking of which, its probably the biggest one of them all here, as it could be compared to four forts combined into one. The high external walls reveal another layer of walls before you actually step foot inside the fort itself, and even then the inside has revealed archer positions covering all possible entrances to the fort, so a surprise attack would most likely be cut down due to the large space the archers can view of the army. Speaking of which, there are many different towers for archers to fire at, inside and outside of the walls, we nearly got spotted by one at one point, but covering Damian under my cloak helped camouflage us in the plains, and we decided to head back to camp. We're still on our way there, but soon our intel will help the stubborn lieutenant come up with a better plan than "walk to front door intimidatingly and knock on the front door, laying siege later on." Who would think of that idea is beyond me, but no way are we going to go with that plan.

Day 11 - Its been a week by now when we started sending scouts to try to find a weakness in their fort, but no luck has been made to our effort. We did find something near the edge of the fort though, a somewhat large crack in the mountain, revealing a slope leading upward near a cliff right above the fort, maybe a good archer positions, but on the other hand, a natural barricade to drop on top of them, or even make an avalanche to destroy most of their defenses closer to the tunnel. Speaking to Damian about this, he agrees, but the lieutenant still doesnt budge, so I think we'll have to do something unprecedented...On another topic, we're all getting more and more tense about the threat we recieved earlier last week, everyone looks backwards expecting a surprise attack every time something in the forest twitches. It's something to worry about for sure, but some of these soldiers take it way too seriously, maybe I'll sneak out tonight and spy on anything happening in the fort, I'm sure I saw someone pass by the entrance without getting harmed earlier, so maybe some intelligence will be easier to gather than I thought, the moon will only tell if it works or not.