Chapter 11: Chapter 11: The flower of war

for the next 3 days our heroes would enjoy each others company. though the day finally comes for them to depart towards the battle field. gora once again looks behind her to see oneidora in the distance. she sighs and goes back to looking forward”so were off to pick up Cofus right?”

rex turns around on his mount to face her and nods”yes his families domain isnt that far from the battle field so well just pass through it on our way there.”

utum stares off into the distance as he rides on his ginormous mount secomi riding next to him as polishes his sword. sicus causuly strums along on his instrument as his sister happily listens. the two new comers to their party dyues and kompsos ride beside gora.

though no longer are they a small party traveling by themselves behind them an army of 400 of Sokaras finest warriors follow them from behind. marching forward towards the battle field.

a week passes and their little war party finally reaches the city of cofenevadus while no where near as large as Oniedora the city bolster a very impressive stone wall on it. rex chuckles abit as he looks upon it.” seeing this city brings back old memories in my youth i busted down those walls with the help of the late hero Arden cofeneva”

gora raises an eyebrow as her interest is peaked”huh but this city belongs to the cofenevas does it not? why would he help you destroy it”

rex smiles still look at the walls fondly”well you see the tides of war had been changing. the high king onei had been born out of a union between the messors and the laceranas leaving the cofenevas without any allies. seeing the writing on the wall Arden married one of his daughters of to prince onei therefor guaranteeing the three major clans will be united under one new dynasty”

gora snickers abit upon hearing this”so wait did the head of the cofeneva clan refused to back down and just continued to fight in a war he couldn’t possibly have won?”

rex nods”yes Arden was simply the king of the Easts brother and was acting upon his own accords, but once the walls of his city fell he surrendered and thus our people were unified”

gora lets out a little sounds intrigue though says nothing else as they reach the gates of the city. rex approaches hailing the guard. the gates open and before they enter rex looks back to dyues” sir dyues i think its best if you alll stay outside we should only be a moment”

dyues folds his arms and nods turning around to his men to let them know. rex , gora and the rest of rex’s squad along with kompsos enter the city. while not as impressive as oniedora the city did seem quite charming.

little wood houses are scattered through the city that line up with the paved stone roads. gora huffed at seeing the prosperity of this city as well and felt abit bettter upon seeing the large wooden manor that the Cofenevas dwelled in.

they reach the manor in no time at all gora looks at the building comparing it to her own. a look of discontent grows across her face the more she studies the building. as she had been surveying the building she had failed to notice rex telling the gaurds to call for cofus.

after a few more minutes of observing her focus changes from the building to the young man who would be walking out of said building. he would be rather well built not bulky in the sense utum or rex are but his frame gave forth the presence of perfection.

gora spent an odd amount of time just staring at the man not realizing that he would be approaching. he makes his way up to her only breaking her focus on his impressive body once he speaks”gora you good?”finally broken from her spell she shutters abit and looks cofus in the eyes’’oh cofus yes sorry i was just looking at your progress seems your uncle most of put you through hell”

she say with a rather Pugnacious grin on her face. now its cofus turn to shutter as memoires of his training flood his mind” ya id rather forget about it”

gora raises an eyebrow at his remark but pries no further. cofus retrieves his mount from the stables and theyre off leaving the stone worked city behind. the journey to the battle field is mostly quite with our heros only havign the odd conversation every now and then.

the air somehow feels different than before as they see the fortified glass lands. while they had been off the levies had remained keeping watch while they fortify their border. wooden barricades litter the grasslands as trenches had been dug that stretched as far as the eye could see.

secomi looks at this fortifications quite puzzled” rex how are we supposed to fight them like this surely they’ll break through this line eventually”

rex nods as he looks upon the landscape himself”yes but we have no choice . the luutons forts lie in the mountains and they have no major cities for us to conquer on this side of the mountain and with winter around the corner we cant go on the offensive less we want to be fighting the luutons in the snow”

secomi stays quiet for a moment thinking about what rex has said”ya i guess that makes sense”

as they make their way down to the tents it seems the lisads have already arrived as they would be setting up their forges. dyues looks towards his”ok spread out find a place to put up your tents for now”

the sokaran warriors disperse as they go to find an empty spot behind the trenches and fortifactions. rex looks toward his knights and sighs”its best if you do the same though my lieutenants stay with me”

secomi, sicus, arvus and utum disperse as well leaving just gora, rex, cofus, and dyues to themselves. rex dismounts and looks around the camp his face shows signs of worry. the others dismount tying the their beasts to posts outside the largest tent within the camp

entering the tent they see the high king of the east cofus would be the first to bow his head followed by rex though the two sokarans simply give him a nod of acknowledgment. much to his vexation. none the less he puts on a smile”cofus good to see you my son it seems Codia’s training has done you well”

cofus winces at mere mention of his training but does his best to put forth a smile.”yes i guess so father”

goras seems abit intrigued as she searched through her brain trying to remeber if cofus had ever mentioned his father was king of the east before. rex raises his head with a big smile on his face”so then im guessing youre leading this front my lord?”

the king of the east nods as he sits in his improvised throne”yes i shall be protecting the eastern front of our beloved kingdom while your uncle is leading the western front”

gora chuckles to herself and whispers to her grandfather”go figure” causing him to slightly chuckle. seeing this causes his majesty only more dissatisfaction. he exhales trying to maintain his cool”sokarans i welcome you. your aid is most appreciated.”

dyues nods observing the tent looking rather bored”yes yes. have we recieved any words of any luutons yet?”

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the king of the east scowls abit at his appreciation being so quickly dismissed”no we likely wont see them until they’re already here those flying beast of theirs are nearly impossible to see”

dyues nods and crosses his arm’’then we shall take this opportunity to rest my men and i have been traveling non stop for almost a month now”

the king nods and gestures him away”yes yes see as you feel fit”

dyues goes to exit the tent gora looks between them before leaving with him. gora looks towards her grandfather quite curiously”what was that about?”

dyues chuckles abit to himself”just having a bit of fun the astrans love their customs and its always fun to see them get agitated at the slightest lack of formality”

gora sighs and shakes her head’’ youre just as bad as me grandfather”

dyues lets out quite the jolly laugh as he pats his granddaughter on the back”well you had to get it from somewhere!”

they walk around the camp eventually finding where the sokarans set up their tents. dyues looks at his men and sighs”well it seems we have even more time to kill gora”

gora nods and plops down on the grass”lets enjoy it while we can grandfather i have a feeling it wont last long”

dyues once again sighs and sit down with his granddaughter”im getting too old for this gora”

speaking with a serious tone gora looks at him feeling abit uneasy”well age hasn’t stopped you yet grandfather”

the smile on her face looks forced as her grandfather continues to just look off into the distance with contempt”gora do you really trust the astrans?”

gora is taken back abit by this looking quite confused as she answers her grandfather”i dont know i guess a little bit they seem quite the competent people”

dyues gaze focuses upward toward the sky”trust in ones abilites is diffrent from the kinda trust im talking about gora. i distrust them because they are so competent”

gora frowns looking at her spear now”perhaps you are right grandfather but we are too far in it to back out now for the sake of our anscestors we must win this war”

dyues sighs pulling out his pipe taking a few hits on it”this is true but i have a feeling no good will come out of this relationship with the astrans. they sold the lands of the lisads to us then accepted them as citizens if we are not careful we will soon share the same fate.”

gora holds her hand out for the pipe after a few more tokes dyues hands it to her”well grandfather maybe the lisads should hold a little more worth for themselves. if they are content with being citizens of astra while we rule their lands perhaps this is for the best”

dyues shakes his head and stand up his hand held out for his pipe back gora quickly takes once last hit before giving her grandfather his pipe back”i pray i live through this war gora for theres no way you are ready to lead our people’’

gora grinds her teeth at hearing this though before she can’t say anything as dyues turn his back to her and walks off. gora quickly throws herself to her feet”shitty old man always thinks hes right”

gora makes her way out of the sokaran camps and begins wandering. a sense of anticipation would fill the air. the levies would still be working as the knights simply tend to themselves. the lisads would be busy building and operating their forges. repairing and polishing the sokarans and astrans gear.

the whole camp felt like one effective war machine though gora could only look upon the levies with pitty knowing many of them wont survive. evenually day turns to night and she heads back to the sokaran camp to find a tent put up specifically for her. gora smiles and heads inside her tent happy to finally be sleeping alone again.

night turns to day gora exits her tent to find the grounds wet with mildew as the morning sun shined brightly into her eyes. tiredly she sleepily peruses the camps for something to eat. following her nose she quickly finds a camp fire surrounded by sokarans with a pot sitting above the flame.

dyues whod be stiring the pot looks over to gora with a jolly smile waving to his granddaughter as he sees her”come gora the stew is almost done”

gora sleepily blinks at her grandfather then sighs before sitting down next to the fire”morning grandfather”

dyues begins passing around bowls as he talks to his grandfather”have you thought about what i said last night gora?”

still tired she sleepishly gazes into the fire dragging her hand across her face before she looks over to her grandfather to answer him”huh ya sure what you got cooking there old man?”

dyues ignores goras rude remarks and continues passing food around to the sokaran warriors with a smile on his face”oh just venison soup gora and what conclusion have you came to about my words?”

gora looks to her grandfather with quite the looke of drowse her eyes look heavy as she holds out a bowl to her grandfather”gramps its too early for this can you just pour me a bowl and well discuss this later”

her grandfathers joyfull attude crack as a look of disgust comes across his face”im afraid i didn’t make enough for everyone gora why dont you go ask the astrans for some of their food”

goras eyes suddenly fling open wide at hearing her grandfathers harsh words in front of all these warriors.”huh whats this all about grandfather? its too early for this shit!”

she proclaims now on her feat looking quite upset”huh do you wanna steal rations from your own people? pick your self up and go scavange some food from the astrans!”

the solideirs were speachless every one of them would look tense as their lord is so harsh to their heir. gora fist clinch tightly though she makes no attempt to raise her arms instead she just aggravatingly scoffs and turns around”whatever you walking husk i didn’t want to eat your shitty cooking anyway”

gora storms off out of the camp making her way to the astrans camps finding where rex and their crew were set up. her comrades greet her giving her a bowl to eat while making room for her at the campfire.gora agrivatedly looks at the food. she doesn’t know why but she help but look at the food with aggravated contempt even as she eats it .

the days pass and soon 3 month exact is upon them the soldiers stand their ground keeping an eye on the sky. the air is once again tense as they anticipate the enemy to attack at any moment. the levies stand guard around the camps as the knights hang around their tents.

gora would be sitting in the astran camps with rex’s squad. sicus as always sits by the fire playing his instrument utum causally listens as they seem to be the only two able to relax. the rest of rexs squad sit around their camp in anticipation secomi polishes his sword, arvus would testing her bow, rex and cofus sit next to each other disusing their situation. as gora would simply be gazing into the fire.

goras gaze only being broken by the sounds of bells and the sound of men yelling soon after they begin ringing. gora stands up and looks off into horizon her eyes focusing on the approaching flock in the distance. though not a flock of birds but a flock of the luutons winged beast.

pulling her spear off her back she looks toward the wave of approaching luutons. the levies would already be running to the front lines as her allies would be getting their gear. gora sighs standing there looking agitated”hurry theyll be here any minute!”

suddenly the sky gets abits darker out of no where gora looks to the sky seeing a great volley of arrows coming down upon them”oh shit”

she starts twirling her spear around above her head smacking away any arrows that would be falling ontop of her. once the volley is over she looks around her camp in a panic. arrows littered every bit of the ground as the tents fall on themselves tattered and ruined”is everyone alright?”

utums would be holding his wall he calls a sheild above his head the thing was large enough for him to cover his allies.”ya every ones fine”

he says lowering his shield back to its resting position. his companions scooching away from him as they had all been bundled closely underneath his sheild. cofus looks at the arrows with a sense of contemt”well i guess they realize we dont plan on paying their tribute.”

rex sighs as he climbs ontop of his mount”i have a feeling they never really cared about the tribute cofus”

cofus frowns getting on a mount of his own”then what was the point of the 3 months captian?”

rex shrugs as he looks towards the battle field the luutons have yet to arrive and already he spots the corpes of several astran levies”my only guess is they didnt want to drag this out they gave us ample time to prepare and a place to meet”

secomi scoffs from ontop of his mount as well”the arrogance of these luutons”

rex shakes his head and points to the flock of luutons in the distance ”secomi how far away do you think they are?”

secomi looks over towards the flying horde and squints. they looked like a dark cloud in the sky off in the horrizon”i dont know but there must be around five thousand of them in the sky”

rex sighs with a great amount of displeasure as he looks towards secomi”secomi theyre most likely over a mile away”

secomi looks back to the hoard with each passing moment the hoard grows bigger and bigger taking up more of the horizon with each second as if the luutons themselves were consomuing the sky. secomi unsheathes his sword a tense grin comes upon his face as he grabs his mounts reigns”i see so probally more like ten thousand”

rex sighs and unsheathes his sword as well”the number doesn’t matter let us go into battle with our heads held high my friends and if this is to be the last time i serve with any of you just know it has been a great pride of mine to make warriors out of you all”

sitting ontop of their mounts rexs squad look back at him cheerfully as he turns to charge towards the battle field. his companions following behind him