Day 4,572

I should not have tempted fate.

It was morning, and we were just leaving our camp when the attack happened. A tribe of Ograma has come down from the nearby mountain.

We scrambled to our camp's defenses, or what's left of it after we prepared to move out, but the attack was so sudden that we were caught off guard. The Ogramas easily broke through our barricades with their giant bodies and massive clubs, and a pitched battle ensued in the rear lines where most of our supply carts are located.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

We hurried back to its defence, but we couldn't arrive in time to save five of our supply carts from being destroyed, most of which contained food. In the end, we repelled the attack, but lost three day’s worth of provisions. With more than three hundred mouths to feed, that’s a huge blow to our mission. But the most devastating damage were the lives lost: fifty-three good men and women who died protecting our food.

We mourned their passing, then sent them on their way to the afterlife with a hero’s funeral, burying them in a mound with their weapons. They were the highest casualties incurred to us so far, so morale was low when we finally left. Worse, we deduced after careful investigation that the Ogramas deliberately went for our baggage train first, which means they knew what we intend to do.

That information further dampened our mood. But it did not stop us. For our dead comrades, we will fulfill our mission.