Miguel woke to find himself alone in the inn room. He rolled out of bed and cleaned up before heading toward the common room. Looking around he did didn’t see his wife or daughter so he sat at the bar and ordered a drink and something to eat. While he was waiting he struck up a conversation with a guy sitting a few chairs over. Soon his plate of food arrived with another drink and Miguel continued to talk to his new acquaintance while he ate, even ordering the man another drink when he ran out. The two continued talking and drinking for several hours when Celeste returned and interrupted them.
“Seriously Miguel!?”
Miguel, knowing that tone of voice slowly turned to find his wife, Deandra, and Liam standing between him and the back door of the inn. And his wife looked pissed but he wasn’t sure why. He hadn’t done anything today.
“Hi honey! I was wondering where you were.”
“I’ve been out helping people. You know, our job.”
“Oookaaaay,” replied Miguel realizing he was in trouble but not understanding why. “We helped people last night by taking a shift on the wall and we’re to do it again tonight. No one told me about any other plans.”
The glare Celeste shot him had Miguel wondering if there was magic in it, because he suddenly wanted to run.
“We were sent here to help and you’ve sat on a bar stool all day drinking and you don’t understand why I’m upset? The rest of us have spent the last six hours helping out around the fort while you’ve done nothing and you don’t understand why I’m upset?”
“No, I don’t. Just because you decided to go help others doesn’t mean I have to. And if it was so important to you that I did, then you should have woken me up when you got up and told me!”
Celeste spun to storm out of the room and saw that Liam and Deandra were halfway up the first flight of stairs. “Liam, he’s your brother. You talk to him.” With that Celeste stormed past Liam and went upstairs with Deandra following.
Liam, realizing that he was alone on the stairs and that the bartender and several patrons were all watching him, shrugged and walked back to the bar sitting next to Liam. “Bartender, I’ll take an ale please.”
“Can you believe her?” Miguel asked his best friend. “I stayed out of trouble for once. I didn’t flirt with any women. I didn’t cause any problems. And she’s still mad.”
Liam waited until the ale was in front of him. He lifted it and took a long drink before placing the empty mug back on the bar and motioned for another. Then he looked over at Miguel, “We all know you’re lazy. And normally, we begrudgingly accept it. But that was on earth. The worst that happened there was you kept having to find new jobs. But like you explained to Celeste this morning while we stood on the wall. Traum isn’t earth. Things are different here. You’re suppose to the be the representative of Susinak. Tell me, how many people here know that? How many people have you to tried to speak with about the gods? How many people have you actually helped since you got out of bed?”
“Fine, I haven’t mentioned the gods to anyone since we got up. But since when have you been all religious? And is it really that bad that don’t want to work every waking moment of my day? I literally risked my life last night on the wall and will do so again tonight. Do I not deserve to do what I want in between?”
Liam shook his head, “Brother, we don’t deserve to be here at all. Think about all the anime we used to watch and how we talked about what we’d do if we were in those worlds. Not once did either of us say we were going to sit around all day drinking while others were in need.”
“And what did you all do today. How did you help those in need?”
“A few nights back some enemies made it into the fort. By the time they were caught, they had caused a bit of damage including setting one of the apartments buildings on fire. The burnt portions had been torn down, we spent today helping to rebuild it.”
Miguel shook his head. He knew better than to argue with Liam, few ever won an argument with him. “Look, that’s great. Y’all helped build homes for the homeless. That’s amazing. And maybe I am wrong. But we’ve been here for months and have rarely had a chance to just do nothing. I just wanted a normal day.”
“I get it bro. Look at it this way. The rest of us raised a few skills today and earned experience toward our next level. Do you really want to be the lowest level in the group?”
Miguel watched Liam walk away before turning back to the bartender and motioned for another round. Looking around he saw that his new friend had left during the drama, and he couldn’t blame ‘em.
As the bartender set the mug on the counter and looked at Miguel, “How be ye plannin' ta set it straight?”
Surprised at the directness of the dwarf, Miguel just looked at him for a moment before replying, “I have no idea.”
“Were ye truly sent by tha gods?”
“Heh, yeah. Crazy ain’t it?”
“Makes me feel a mite better knowin’ even one sent by tha gods canna keep his own wife happy,” laughed the bartender. “Good luck to ye lad.”
Miguel chuckled to himself as the bartender walked away. He still didn’t feel the Celeste was being fair. If he had known someone was homeless and they were building homes for them, he would have helped. But he should probably make this his last drink and go do something. Something that did not involve going to their room. Miguel sipped his drink as he thought about it. They were leaving tomorrow. And they had about four hours until they had to report to the wall. “Hmm… maybe that’s it,” he thought to himself. Downing the last of his ale, Miguel stood and headed for the door.
It didn’t take him too long to track down Sergeant Leadbeard. What he hadn’t considered that if Leadbeard stood the wall overnight then he would be off duty just like he himself was. But the sergeant was the only solider he had spoken with so he found where the man lived and was now knocking on his door hoping he wasn’t waking him.
Instead of the of the bald sergeant, the door was answered by woman Miguel hadn’t met before. She was a few inches shorter than he but her beard stretched past her waist.
“Excuse me ma’am, I was wondering if I could speak with Sergeant Leadbeard, if he’s available? My name is Miguel.”
“Ye aren’t stationed here,” she said slowly. “Ye with the resupply caravan?”
“Yes ma’am. We’re not actually in the army, just traveling with them to get some combat experience. Which is what I’d like to speak with the sergeant about.”
A voice came from the next room, “Let him in gemheart.”
“Please come in,” the woman said to Miguel
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
As Miguel followed her, she led him into their dining area. Sergeant Leadbeard sat at the table, plate of food in front of him and an unhappy expression on his face.
“Apologies for interrupting you at home. I just wanted some advice, if you’ll give me a few minutes.”
Leadbeard just nodded and motioned to a chair, “I can spare a few minutes. What’s on your mind?”
“My group’s performance. As you said this morning, we need more experience and to learn to work together better. But it seems that we’re going to be on the road for the foreseeable future so we won’t really have time to train under anyone. I was wondering if you had any recommendations for training exercises we could practice on our own? Or any suggestions, really.”
The sergeant nodded his head in thought at he took another bite of his food. As he chewed, he stood and walked out of the room only to come back with a fairly large book in his hands. Rather than sitting where he had been, he pulled out the chair next to Miguel and set the book between them. As the sergeant flipped through the pages Miguel noticed how beautiful the craftsmanship of the book was. There were hand drawn illustrations on many of the pages. And the paper itself was far thicker than the paper he was used to. Eventually the sergeant found the page he wanted. It was titled “Small Unit Tactics”
“Ideally,” the sergeant started, “your group would go through the same training as the rest of the military and thus be able to work with the rest of the forces on the wall. But since you’re just traveling around and the four of you don’t want to be split up during a battle, then this would be your best approach. Train as if you were there alone, as it sounds like that will be the the norm. Read what you can over the next couple hours. Then we’ll discuss this theory and how to apply it to your group. I’ll send a runner to your friends letting them know where to meet us this evening and to report an hour early and we’ll all discuss it. This won’t solve all of your problems, but it will get you started down the right tunnel. How does that sound?”
“That sounds amazing, sir,” Miguel replied. “Thank you for being willing to spend so much time helping us.”
⚴
Liam looked over the side of the wall, down the cliff face below them. The two hundred feet drop would have been unnerving on earth. Here it was more of an inconvenience, since he’d have to find a way back up. But the magic lights they had running down the wall were cool.
“I say go for it,” Miguel says as he walks up behind Liam.
Liam turned, “Go for what?”
“Jump. That’s what you were thinking about wasn’t it? You have a slow fall spell. Cast that right before you hit the ground.”
“If I had a spell that I could cast to bring me back up I would probably do it. But I don’t,” Liam stated with a smirk. “Good idea speaking with the sergeant earlier. Do you know how to apply all the things he taught us?”
“Nope. When I was in the army I just turned a wrench on trucks and tanks. I’m no leader. That’s you and Arden’s bag, not mine. But I figured giving you and the girls the basics would give us a common starting point and we can develop from there.”
“Good call on that. I was thinking about it wrong last night. When the sergeant started explaining that we’re on defense and that we don’t have to kill all the attackers, just drive them off before they can cause damage it was eye opening.”
“How will that change up our plan for this evening?”
Liam turned and started walking to where Celeste and Deandra were standing, motioning for Miguel to follow. As he neared the ladies he started explaining, “The reason we killed more gryphons than everyone else last night is because no one else was specifically trying to kill them. They were just trying to kill the people riding them. Once the riders are gone, the gryphons will flee. Tonight we’ll fight more like the rest of the defenders. Knock the riders off or kill them and move to the next one.”
“Supposedly the attack last night was the heaviest they’ve seen in a month. Do they expect a repeat?” asked Celeste.
“I asked about that,” replied Miguel. “They honestly don’t know. From what the sergeant told me, they never know what to expect. The enemy keeps it random. So what’s the plan for tonight?”
“Nothing fancy. Figure we’ll stay about ten feet apart on the wall keeping watch. If we get attacked we’ll move to the rear of the wall so that if we’re blown off it’s on the short side. Celeste is in the rear. Deandra and I a bit in front and to the sides of her and you in the front and center. You keep anything from getting to the rest of us. If it slips past you, Deandra or I will take it. Celeste tries to kill everything.”
“What if they fly in and drop off folks to fight?” asked Celeste.
Miguel and I charge forward. Deandra protects you. You try to kill everything.
Deandra, who hadn’t been paying much attention, suddenly pull her bow from her pack and sighted in on something.
“What are you…” was all Celeste managed to get out before Deandra released and the arrow flew forward and struck something in the air about fifty yards from the wall. A moment later a figure appeared around the arrow. It looked like a woman mixed with a bird. Her head and the upper part of her torso were human but her arms and legs were that of a bird. She even had tail feathers, Celeste noticed. There were another group of soldiers about 20 yards down the wall who saw the creature and started yelling ‘Harpy!’, which snapped Celeste out of her analysis of the new enemy.
After a quick chant, Celeste cast [Chain Lightening]. The bolt flew from her hand and hit the harpy right in the chest before jumping and hitting three more, breaking the invisibility on all of them. As they appeared, Liam started firing off [Magic Missile]s as quick as he could.
As more spells flew out from the wall, more and more harpies appeared in the air. Dozens upon dozens of the bird creatures. The mages and archers all fired as fast as they could but there were too many to stop them all. As a group of them flew over the wall, Miguel stepped forward and used his [Taunt] ability, causing them to focus on him. And focus they did. In just a couple heartbeats Miguel had three harpies surrounding him, raking him with their talons. He did his best to dodge and block what he could before using [Shield Bash] to send one of the harpies falling over the edge of the wall. He knew it wouldn’t kill her but hoped it would by him room to work. It did not, as she was quickly replaced with two more. A few [Power Strike]s and a harpy was dead at his feat. As he looked around he noticed more getting past him and fired off another [Taunt] and kept fighting. The seconds turned to minutes and Miguel continued to fight and continued to pull more of the harpies to himself. So many were surrounding him that they were injuring one another when they tried to attack him. Miguel lost himself to the battle. The numbness he hadn’t felt since Iraq returned. There was no time to think, he just did as he was trained to do. Over and over. [Shield Bash], block, [Power Strike], block, [Taunt], block. The routine continued and suddenly he was shocked to see that there was only a single harpy standing before him. As he squared up to it, an arrow appeared in the side of it’s head killing it.
Miguel glanced to the side to see Deandra standing next to Celeste, nocking another arrow, “Thanks!” he called over as he turned survey the area. He saw a few harpies engaged with various soldiers but no one was overwhelmed. Looking down he saw a mound of dead harpies surrounding him. With a shake of his head he turning back to his daughter and called out, “You see any more hidden anywhere?”
“No sir.”
Miguel just nodded and carefully stepped through the dead to reach Liam, who was resting on one knee. “You okay brother?”
“Yeah. Mana headache. I don’t usually use that much mana during a fight. Not used to it.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“No, I just need to power through. They say in time you can get used to them but I don’t see how.”
“Repetition,” stated Celeste as she joined them. “Lots of repetition.” Nudging Deandra, “Tell your father how you saw the harpy’s while they were invisible.”
Deandra, who had been riding her own after battle high, dropped her eyes and mumbled something.
“What was that?” asked Miguel.
Deandra sighed as she shared part of her status screen with her family:
[True Sight: Pierce the veil of all illusions, shape-changing, and polymorphs to see the truth.]
“Wow,” responded Miguel in surprise.
“Wait, that doesn’t say anything about invisibility,” remarked Liam. “Are you sure that’s the ability that allowed you to see them?”
Deandra shrugged, “It’s the only ability I have.”
“That’s an awesome ability. When did you get it?”
“That day we spoke with the priestess that told us Uncle Dakota and Uncle Wendell were okay. When she touched me, I got this ability.”
It took a breath for the realization to hit and then all three adults started asking her what the priest had actually looked like. Deandra giggled as she told them that priestess was very pretty.