D1C9 - Guards
AN: I restored one of my deleted prologue threads and changed it to “Diana’s Logbook”. Everything you need to know will “probably” be in there.
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I woke not in my familiar bed, nor my crib but in the cradled arms of my mother. The events of yesterday night felt so far away, almost akin to my memories of a previous life. However, I knew that was no dream. The scent of blood and the tangy taste of iron was still in the air. She must have changed my nappy when I was asleep because I was relatively sure I had wet myself last night in fear. Hey, don’t you judge, I bet you’ve never had a dagger coming at your face.
Once I woke up, my mom began moving the two of us to another room. I would’ve welcomed the chance of seeing something besides the bedchamber I was kept in but the events of last night were still as fresh as morning dew in my mind.
The helplessness I felt in those few moments kept haunting me. The beast of terror was still within me, howling and growling with each pulse of pain I felt when I wriggled my limbs. It would seem I had suffered no injuries apart from bruises and scrapes. Bruises and scrapes they may be, minor injuries they say, but to a baby like me they hurt as if someone had run a cheese grater over them.
I do my my best to ignore the pain, but I cannot help but whimper every once in a while. Looking up at my mom's gentle face, all traces of the previous night had disappeared. Gone was the blood splatter on her hair, gone was the face of murder and gone too, was her extra 8 tails. Instead, they were all replaced by a mask of cold fury. My mother may have been smiling, but she could not fool me.
As someone who had been in the courtrooms looking upon the faces of defendants and plaintiffs, I had seen too many masked smiles. My mother was smiling for my sake but I knew deep inside she was absolutely furious. At what, at who, I know not but after seeing her form last night, I feel only pity for whoever had invoked her wrath.
Dad arrived not long after I woke up, rushing into the study we were now in with his sword drawn and a worried expression on his face.
“A%$ t@e two &f $&u f@ne?”
“Yes, t%e& #ere&’$ A&!e to h*&t us”
“%^&& $*^^# *^*^($))@”
“$^%()@ %*&^* &%*%*#%* #*^^%^”
“#^&^*@ *%*”
After a few terse words, my mom with me in her arms, followed dad down a long hallway and down 2 flights of stairs. It was only now, after seeing the opulent architecture, paintings, square chandeliers and balustrade staircase that I fully understood the extent of my family's wealth. The whole time we followed dad, there was a contingent of guards closely walking behind us. To be honest, I wasn’t too impressed with them and I could tell from my dad’s frown that he was also not impressed.
They did not walk in sync nor were their weapons kept in good order, I could spot chips here and there on spearheads and their lamellar styled armor. There was no sign of battle fatigue or wear from last night so it could be assumed that they were always in this condition. If our guards were this shabby, it was no wonder that assassins had managed to make their way in. Briefly, I wondered where our REAL guards were, I was relatively certain that my dad would not assign such peasant militia to protect his wife, not that she needed protecting.
We eventually made our way out to the courtyard, to one side a garden was currently in full bloom, with bee-like insects buzzing around the brightly coloured flowers. To the other side, a different picture emerged. Filled with craters and dead bodies, scorch marks littered the area and the occasional boulder or spike could be seen. It was a sure sign that a huge struggle had taken place here last night. My mom attempted to cover my eyes at the sight but I had long seen the corpses which were beginning to show signs of rigor mortis.
My dad led us through the garden side of the courtyard where the stench of death and rot was not so prevalent. My mom must have been concerned about my abnormal silence so she had started whispering sweet words to me, While I understood nothing, it lifted my spirits all the same. I must have visibly improved because I could see mom smile in relief.
Winding our way through the garden, we eventually happened upon a luxurious looking carriage. it had strange runes carved on the doors, sides and wheels. My guess was that they were some form of protective runes. Maybe barrier magic or anti magic runes. Either way, I knew nothing about magic in this world so I could not say for sure, but everything I had read in my past life indicated to this conclusion. But that wasn’t all, there was yet another surprise for me as I saw what was pulling the carriage.
Instead of the stereotypical horses, I could see a pair of what could only be described as overgrown lizards pulling it. In any case, as long as they were fast, I could care less about what was pulling the carriage. After the attack last night, I was under no delusions as to what was happening. We were bugging out. After the failed attack last night, I was sure the enemy, whoever they were, would try to mount another assault. As such, as long as these lizards could haul ass out of a battlefield I cared not.
Upon further consideration, I also realised that last night’s attack may not necessarily have failed. Sure, they weren’t able to kill me or my mom, but it was entirely possible that that had never been their objective in the first place. It could have been a distraction to steal something the manor I lived in held. Or it could also have been a ruse to get my dad here from wherever he was before. It could also have even been carried out to frame someone innocent or even start a war. The possibilities were endless. I gave up thinking about them and decided to trust in parents.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
We were eventually led next to the carriage and it we were ready to board and leave but my dad didn’t allow it to leave, instead we waited next to it for a short while. Not that I minded, as long as I was near my mom, I had a laissez-faire attitude towards everything. Eventually the reason why we had to wait made itself known with the slight trembling of the ground, which in turn shook the carriage slightly.
It’s here. The cavalry has finally arrived!
Although I say cavalry, that’s a bit of a misnomer since they weren’t riding on horses but rather on gigantic birds. The best comparison I could come up with was that one RPG game I used to play a kid. Yep, they were chocobo knights. At this point in time, I had long decided that I wasn’t going to be surprised by anything I saw in this world, there was just no point in comparing it with my old one. Best to just accept it and move on.
I could see why they chose they big-ass birds. Their beaks could be deadly weapons, and their legs weren't like the fragile ones of horses, instead, they were big and stumpy, with claws at the bottom. Claws! Hell, judging from their size, even though they might not be able to run as fast as a horse the shock momentum they have when charging into a line formation would more than make up for it.
There were reins but there was no bit, instead of being attached to the head of the bird, it was attached to the sides of the neck. probably to allow the bird to utilize their beaks during battle. They were also armored with what looked like light pieces of metal. At the top of the head, there was also a spike, probably in case the beak was occupied.
Looking at them made them made me have a fangirl moment. It felt like some god out there had seen my wish fulfillment fantasies and decided to make them a reality, which to be fair, probably actually did happen.
(AN: Picture of them knights. So cool!)
http%3a%2f%2fimg2.wikia.nocookie.net%2f__cb20071...DOrian.jpg [http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20071216024156/finalfantasy/images/f/fb/ChocoboKnightsSanDOrian.jpg]
The knights themselves were were dressed in full plate armor, as expected of heavy cavalry. They had on Germanic styled sallets with horsetails on top for helms and were dressed in a suits of Swiss styled armor. I could see short-bows and one or two quivers of arrows along with other miscellaneous baggage on the birds. Most of them were armed with a lance and shield along with a short sword hanging from the side of the saddle. A few of the knights had banners on their lances. With that I was able to tell that these guys were truly the cream of the crop. Probably our own personal household troops or at the very least, an extremely well armed mercenary band. My opinion was of the former.
What they were did not matter, if we had been guarded by these men, yesterday night probably would not have been such a fiasco. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see envy on the faces of our shabby escort. I also noticed how different their style of armor were. Back in my world, lamellar style armor was mostly found in the east, for example, the Japanese ō-yoroi armor, or the Chinese terracotta armor. On the other hand, plate armor was mostly used in the west such as the Germanic knights. This fusion of east and west truly made me feel out of my depth.
My feeling out of depth didn’t change anything though. After a quick headcount, I estimated that there was around 80 of these heavily armed knights and around 120 footmen. Along with 20 or so servants and other miscellaneous personnel. These footmen were dressed in the same style of lamellar armor as our previous escort, however, unlike them, these men seemed much more prepared.
Their weapon would occasionally flash with reflected sunlight and it showed the amount of polishing they had done. Personally, I thought that it was all nice and well, but it would suck if it gave away our position. Moving on, their armor was uniform with one another and they moved in sync. Whilst they too, were an impressive sight to behold, they could not hold a candle to the mounted knights.
Once the bird mounted knights got set up with my dad, they fanned out with military precision into a column formation. Our carriage and another carriage along with two supply carts were located in the middle of the formation. Around 50 knights were in a rectangle in front of us, the remaining 30 were located in another rectangle to the back of us. The footmen were divided into two long strips of 60 men each and were place towards the sides of the knights and carriages.
The few RTS games I played back as teenager gave me some insight as to what the purpose of the formation was. The footmen on the two sides were supposed to hold their positions during an enemy attack so that the knights could ride out and flank the enemy fighting the footmen from the back. A classic hammer and anvil strategy. It wasn't a bad formation by any means, but in the words of Helmuth himself, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.”
With that thought, my mom and me entered the carriage and the caravan began moving out.