Sare'en looked down at Em'brel. The younger female has been incredibly stressed trying to organize this chaotic mess of an alliance, and now she seemed so peaceful in her sleep that the herder girl was tempted to just let her go on sleeping. Of course, Sare'en might have done just that if Em'brel hadn't asked to be woken early to get in a bit of exercise. Sitting around all day listening to requests and complaints was starting to give her muscles cramps, which she found a bit of a workout in the morning helped alleviate.

With a grin born only slightly out of a growing sense of mischievousness, Sare'en grabbed the skin Em'brel was using as a blanket and tugged it off her friend in one quick motion, exposing the young noble to the warming morning air. "I said, it's time to get up, my lady!"

Em'brel gasped for air as her eyes shot open, her pupils constricting quickly now that they were exposed to the light creeping through her tent skin. "What? Who? Where... What's happening?"

Sare'en smiled more meekly this time. "I said, it's time to get up. I have a light snack prepared for you to eat before your exercise, and then your full breakfast will be ready when you're done. As usual, you have quite a busy day ahead of you!"

Em'brel glared daggers at her friend. "And you couldn't think of a more pleasant way to wake me?"

Sare'en's smile turned only slightly more sadistic. "Oh, I can, and I did, but you resisted my first three attempts to wake you. So I figured that if you refuse to wake up when I gently prod you, it's my duty to look into more...drastic measures to get the job done!"

Em'brel smiled a little and shook her head. "And I suppose that expression on your face is just because you take so much pleasure in a job well done?"

Sare'en blinked rapidly, her expression quickly turning more innocent. "Why, it is always my pleasure to serve my lady!"

Em'brel rolled her eyes, not fooled for a second. "Fair enough. Well, 'your lady' had better get something extra nice for breakfast to make up for your 'drastic measures,' or 'your lady' will be a big grouch all day!"

Sare'en smiled demurely and nodded. "Of course. Just so long as you actually get up this time. If I am forced to return here a fifth time, I'm dumping a pot of lukewarm water over your head!"

As she left the tent, Grim in tow, Sare'en could hear Em'brel muttering rather unpleasant things about her friend's ancestry, but she didn't take it personally. She knew her poor friend was over-exaggerating her indignation as a way to vent other frustrations. So instead, the herder girl decided to make good on her promise and make steak and eggs, Em'brel's favorite, before setting out to see to the arlack herd.

As she walked, she passed by a carefree Lon'thul, headed toward Em'brel's tent. He winked as he spoke. "How's our little leader doing? Is she having a good morning?"

Sare'en smiled back, marveling how comfortable she was with the once imposing hunting chief's son. So comfortable, she decided to have a little fun at his expense and ensure Em'brel got up at the same time. "Oh yes, she's in high spirits! I'm certain she'd just love some company!"

Lon'thul grinned in response. "Excellent! I needed to bring her the morning hunting report anyway!"

The herder girl took just a moment to stop and watch as Lon'thul poked his nose in Em'brel's tent. "Hey, Em'brel, I got the..."

He didn't get any further as the bundle of skins Em'brel had been using as a pillow flew out into his face while Em'brel shouted from within. "I'M UP! I'M UP! KEEP YOUR WATER TO YOURSELF!"

Lon'thul sputtered to himself in confusion before turning an accusatory, if amused, look toward Sare'en, who immediately turned and resumed heading to the campfire to make some breakfast. She might have felt more guilty, but she knew the hunter enjoyed being the center of attention so much he didn't mind causing mischief to get there. It just happened that he wasn't the one who planned the mischief this time. Besides, she'd make it up to him this morning with breakfast.

With Grim on her heels, Sare'en went about seeing to the rest of her morning duties.

-

Jack was looking over the rough maps Angela had drawn up. Unfortunately, she didn't get a detailed scan of the mountain area in their initial flyby, so they combined what little scanning she got and what they'd seen and experienced on the ground and added in the descriptions some of the hill tribes had been able to offer. The problem was, more often than not, different tribes had conflicting reports of the topographical area. Jack suspected that essentially came down to a lack of uniform measuring standards, mixed with existing disputes of territorial rights, but as easy as it would have been to fix under ideal situations, they needed to make a call and make it soon.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Jack lifted one map and placed it on top of another, flipping between them, trying to determine the size of the clearing they'd been told about when S'haar walked in. She watched him at work for a minute before realizing he seemed stuck in a loop and decided to interrupt. "Is it that hard to find the battleground you're looking for?"

As he sat back, Jack sighed before looking up with an exhausted smile. "Yes. Outside the mountains, there are plenty of ideal spots we could fight, but the enemy is literally between them and us. We need an open flat area to pull this off, and it turns out that between a bunch of mountains, all we seem to have are forests and hills, and of course, we've got the only battle plan in history that'll work best if we don't have the high ground! Additionally, we don't want the enemy to have a hill to hide on top of; they have supply lines that enable them to engage in a much more extended campaign than ourselves. And to top it all off, if there's no clear line of sight of the battle lines, everything falls apart! So no forests, no hills, and there doesn't seem to be any land that matches both requirements!"

Stretching his neck and looking up at S'haar, Jack smiled wanly. "What about you? How's coordinating with the tribes going?"

This time it was S'haar's turn to sigh and shake her head. "Well, they think our plan is insane. I keep pointing out that that's part of the plan, it's supposed to look like we don't know what we're doing, but they still have plenty of doubts. Although to be fair, it does kind of fly in the face of all traditional warfare. Every tactician alive would say this is a surefire way to lose a battle as quickly as possible!"

Jack sighed again and rubbed his eye. "Maybe we're overthinking this? This plan depends on both land and trust we're lacking. With our belly bows and the guard's armor, we have a solid core to our army. What are our odds in a simple stand-up fight?"

S'haar frowned. "According to our scouts, even with the hill people, we're outnumbered by more than two to one, and they're all seasoned fighters, whereas much of our line are hunters and workers. A dozen guards in armor and a few dozen belly bows won't give us anywhere near the advantage we need. We'd lose that battle every time, and it would be an incredibly bloody affair. Thousands would die for nothing. We'd be better off surrendering."

Jack looked back at the maps wearily. "What about retreat then? With the hill tribes at our back, we have enough people to break past the army keeping us trapped in the mountains. There's a decent chance we could pull it off before A'ngles could bring the main force up to pincer us, and we could resume our trek north."

This time it was Angela who interjected. "There's no way we could travel at a reasonable speed with the hill tribes now attached to our caravan. So we'd either have to abandon them or get caught. And there's still the issue of not knowing what's on the other side of the mountains. Admittedly, it's unlikely it'll be any worse than what we'd leave behind, but there's always a chance we'll simply run into another A'ngles, better established in the area."

S'haar shook her head again. "We're not abandoning anyone. They joined us in our fight in good faith. If anything, we have an obligation to stand and fight while they make their escape."

Jack slumped in his chair. "Then we have no choice. I think this plan is our best and only chance of pulling off a win in an actual battle scenario, but where..."

S'haar off-handedly pointed to a relatively open area with a large grove in the middle. "Too bad those trees are there. That would be just about perfect."

Jack looked at it momentarily while Angela floated over his shoulder, thinking aloud. "You know... we could do something about that. It might not eliminate all the trees, but clearing out all the underbrush and most of the smaller trees might be enough."

Jack raised his intact eyebrow. "Maybe... but that would be awfully dangerous. If things got out of hand, we would be doing A'ngles' job for him. Not to mention even if things go right, we'll be putting up a huge unmistakable beacon marking our exact location..."

Angela shrugged. "But it'll save us the time, effort, and risk of drawing them into our chosen battlefield. Even if they suspect a trap, our entire army standing in one location, ready for a final confrontation in an area where we can't bottleneck them and dilute the effectiveness of their numerical advantage, is too good an opportunity for them to pass up."

Jack looked thoughtful, but his expression was still one of deep concern. "Maybe, but if we're going to do this, we have to get started right away. If A'ngles shows up too early, it'll be unusable, and everything will be for nothing..."

S'haar was looking back and forth between the two of them. "What, do you have a dozen of those chainsaws packed away that I don't know about?"

Jack shook his head. "It's not a technology we're talking about, but rather a common practice to maintain the health of our forests back home. Anglea is talking about a controlled burn. Basically, a forest fire where we dictate how, when, and where the flames spread."

S'haar gave Jack a look he hadn't seen in quite some time. Her face was silently screaming a question about his sanity as she spoke. "You want to start a forest fire? Do you know how dangerous those things are?"

Jack smiled back wanly. "More than you might think, but it might be our best option at the moment. The grove is relatively isolated. We'd only have to create a fire break on one side where it connects to a larger forest through a bottleneck. With all the hill tribes, we have more than enough manpower to make it happen," With a glance at S'haar, he quickly added, "so to speak."

S'haar seemed unbothered by Jack's choice of words, probably because such concerns paled in comparison to the insane idea he was now presenting. She stood in place, staring at the map for several moments before sighing. "Okay, run me through this. If I'm going to be presenting this idea to the hill chiefs, I'd better know what I'm talking about."

Jack drew a quick slash through the trees. "So ideally, we'll want a line here where all the trees are chopped down, and the underbrush is cleared down to the soil..."

As S'haar stood and listened, Jack continued his explanation, knowing he'd probably have to redo this explanation a dozen times before the day was out.