I lose the plot completely when I start to see fires being started for cooking and heat. Oh…my…Goddess! I should just go home now, resign from the Shadow Clan, and live out my life as a hermit in some cave in a faraway forest.
I’m up and about earlier than everyone else. No surprise there then. Walking around the perimeter, I find only one solitary guard awake. He challenges me as I approach in the mist, and I deliberately give the wrong answer. When he tells me he recognizes me as Shadow Clan warrior Levi, General of the army, I advance and praise him for his vigilance.
Understanding I could have found a diamond in the rough, I transfer him to my personal squad and learn his name is Bellamy. Learning some of his background, I discover he was a close friend of Blackshadow’s Alpha Connell. That could prove useful, I think to myself.
After thirty minutes of trying to rouse the camp quietly, I realize I could have been stealthier using a bass drum and a loudspeaker. It’s an hour after dawn before we are positioned for our attack, and the Blood Pearl Pack must surely be waiting for us poised and ready.
I have no intention of becoming cannon fodder in the first few minutes, so I send in the first wave of warriors. When they reach the border, the Blood Pearl Pack warriors appear as though they sprouted from the earth. They quickly start to overwhelm our force, so the second wave joins them and seems to stem the tide. I am just about to send the third wave when a tidal wave of warriors rushes out of the forest behind us.
Thinking that Arric has decided to claim the victory for himself, it takes a moment for me to realize that they are not our forces. I don’t know how they mustered such a force at our flank, orwhere they’ve come from, but this has us in dire straits. We could lose the war with our first engagement.
Chapter 32
LYLE
I’m not sure how long I will be able to spend couped up in this bunker. I’m not claustrophobic by any means, but having so many warriors in such a confined space is testing my nerves far more than I had expected. I wonder if Bronze is feeling the same in his bunker?
Due to the number of warriors crammed in here, the sanitary arrangements are already starting to fail. We dug a long tunnel away from the main area, and after only our first day here, the stench is dreadful. We can’t go outside as the rogues had been doing, or we’d be discovered immediately. There is a small group of ours hiding in the trees that buried the entrances once we were all inside. When the enemy force passes, they will open the entrances, and we will prepare to surprise them when they attack the Blood Pearl Pack.
Fortunately, Arric’s forces pass us earlier than we had anticipated, but there seemed to be more than we expected. They take an extremely long time marching by, I hope they are in narrow columns, which would make them appear a larger force than in reality.
Thirty minutes later and light pours through the opened entrance with a rush of gratefully received fresh air. Those out first help dig out the other entrance, and it isn’t long before we are all breathing in the clean forest breeze. One of the team that hid outside relays what they saw. There are more than I hoped but less than I feared, so that’s a good thing. With the other two bunkers that we had filled with our troops and those waiting for the attack at Blood Pearl, we are evenly matched.
We begin trailing the rogue army slowly and stealthily. We don’t want to stumble upon any stragglers or march into their camp if they are stupid enough to stop for a break. Nothing would surprise me with Arric’s planning or execution of said plan. Joining with Bronze and Connell’s warriors from their bunkers gives us a sizeable force for attacking their rear.
An hour later and one of our forward scouts returns to say that the rogues are preparing to attack and that they are only fifteen minutes ahead. We need to give them time to begin their attack so they are not aware of us until it’s too late. Bronze will be on my right and Connell on my left. I will delay my attack to give them time to outflank the rogue force, and prevent them from breaking ranks and trying to escape back into the forest to evade us.
Although we want an end to this, we don’t want to kill every damn rogue just for the sake of it. We know that there are some here out of desperation and others who have been forced into it.Capturing them in one fell swoop will help us weed out the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.
Watching the rogues attack the Blood Pearl Pack and having to refrain from rushing in is difficult, but it has to be done for our plan to prove effective.
BRONZE
Circling the enemy flank has been too easy, and I have scouts out watching for any enemy force catching us unaware. I can’t believe they would be so negligent as to leave themselves so open to an attack.
I am glad that I’m not in Lyle’s shoes. Having to sit there and wait for Connell and me to get into position must be testing his patience and his nerves.
Seeing Lyle’s warriors reveal themselves from the forest floor, that’s the signal to attack. Rather than charge in at full throttle, we have made the decision to almost march forward and engage them when they react to our presence. We should be much closer, and the ring around the rogues will be much tighter.
The shock of us appearing so silently and suddenly will hopefully cause panic in their ranks. Going from the attack to the defense in such a short space of time will have them boxed in and fighting on all four fronts.
A small group breaks away from their main force and rushes to engage us. Changing to their wolves as they charge, my front rank obliges them and does the same.
I see two of my female warriors, Hazel and Giselle, throw themselves forward and into the rogue group. I don’t know what the rogues were expecting in battle, but it was clearly not that. The group scatters but leaves four of them dead or dying asthey do so. Hazel has a wound on her front right leg, but it isn’t stopping her from following the fleeing members. Giselle looks to our ranks but then follows Hazel.
They have been friends for a long time, and I would not have expected Giselle to abandon Hazel. Hazel will come before me after this is over to explain why she let her bloodlust overcome her priority of staying with her comrades. There is safety in numbers not in running half-cocked into the middle of an enemy army.
As we close in, the rogues are being forced into a more compact force. Lyle has their direct escape route covered, and it is dawning on some of their warriors now that this is fast becoming a fight or die situation.
As I oversee the battle in my sector, I see Ethan, a Shadow warrior of my inner council, scything his way through rogue warriors. He is making his way towards Hazel and Giselle who are not only in the thick of battle but totally surrounded and cut off. They stand back-to-back with a growing heap of dead around them.
When Ethan reaches them, they falter slightly at whatever he says and the three of them begin working their way back to their own ranks. Safely back, Ethan escorts them to one of our healer stations and glances over to me, giving me a head nod, which I return.
Staying out of the fighting is difficult. My natural reaction is to go to the front and stand with my warriors, but we agreed when we planned the mission that we would only put ourselves at risk if it was necessary. Dying in battle would leave others to pick up our responsibility, and also, seeing their Alpha killed could adversely affect our warriors’ resolve.
CONNELL
Watching my warriors engage the rogues is a wonderful sight. Not that I’m a bloodthirsty tyrant wishing my people dead, but they are magnificent to behold. Their discipline in keeping to ranks, as far as wolves have ranks, is impressive to say the least. They are cutting their way through the rogues, and it won’t be much longer before we have them routed.
