Braveheart

General Thors handed me a smaller version of the scrying orb that Nike brought to me the night before. This one was about golf ball size and red in color. From just a glance, I could tell it obviously held a different purpose than the cloudy one that brought us news.

"Our scouts and spies have compiled a list of officers from hundred-man commanders to one-thousand-man commanders," he pointed to the orb that pulsed weakly in my hand. "The closer you are to an enemy officer, the more that tracker orb will pulse," he explained.

"Like a heartbeat increasing tempo," I noted. 

General Thors nodded. "A word of caution, Dean. The darker the orb gets... the stronger the opponent. Avoid those until you've gained enough confidence hunting big names."

I glanced down at the orb in my hand and felt the cool, almost marble-like texture between my fingers.

"Got it," I pocketed the orb and then glanced up at the blonde soldier I looked up to. "Congrats on making general, by the way."

"Thanks..." he grinned back at me. "Although its a temporary promotion unless I produce enough results in this war to make it stick."

I gave Thors the thumbs up. "I'll do what I can to help, sir!"

Thor climbed up his swifthart like a pro. Then he adjusted his position on his saddle, but before he followed Darah out to the front of the field, he gave me the thumbs up and gave me one last word of encouragement.

"Go bag yourself some commanders' heads," he said.

Then he was gone and moving past the center army's line so he could stand next to the Iron Fist as she surveyed the enemy army from past our front line.

I, on the other hand, pulled back to where the rest of the Foolhardies were waiting. All my team leaders were upfront and were no doubt waiting to hear about the mission Darah had given us.

"We're hunting officers," I said resolutely.

"How are we supposed to do this?" Ashley asked. "They won't exactly be lining up to get whacked."

I pulled out the red golf ball and showed it to them.

"Sweet... tracker orb," Varda nodded approvingly.

"Muddamit... that's an expensive piece of hardware, Dean," Qwipps whistled.

"We're going to need to be dangerously close to make that thing work," Edo argued.

It was easy to see that he was thinking of Aura's safety when he said this but he wasn't wrong. I doubted the orb would work over long distances.

"Alternatively, we can make a loud enough racket to make the enemy come to us," Thom added.

I grinned at him. "Exactly. We make enough noise and bait the suckers into coming after us."

"You want to pull the bait and switch in a field this big?" Aura guessed.

I turned my grin on her next. "I love how we're all in sync right now. So... you guys ready?"

The grins playing on their faces was not unexpected. We'd been doing well as a unit these past few months, and we were used to getting tough missions from Darah, but hunting enemy officers successfully usually meant racking up big rewards making it a risky yet worthwhile endeavor. Only Luca seemed dissatisfied.

"What's with the glum face, bro?" I asked. 

"Well... if they wanted us to hunt they could have let us keep the swiftharts we stole from the enemy," Luca explained.

Qwipps and Ashley nodded in agreement. They, like Luca, seemed to have gotten attached. To be honest, so was I. My swifthart was awesome which is why I requested to Darah that our new mounts be kept in the reserve stables for now as I assumed my unit was ill-equipped to take care of and ride those intelligent beasts into battle.

I explained this face to Luca and the others and added, "Plus, we're attached to the center army's infantry division. It wouldn't make sense strategically for us to have them here."

"Well, at least Jade Shadow's going to survive this mess we're smack in the middle of," Luca said.

"You named your swifthart already?" I asked.

"Haven't you?" Luca asked me back.

I shrugged. "Haven't thought of a good name yet... Jade Shadow, huh?"

"What?" Luca raised an eyebrow at me as if daring me to question his naming sense."

I shrugged again. "Nothing... the name sounds cool."

Our discussion on swiftharts ended there because the horns of war had just sounded—and they were coming from the opposite side of the field where the grey mass of enemy soldiers was positioned.

"Here, we go!" I said a little louder than I intended. Nerves. "You all know what your teams have to do. Keep close to each other when the melee begins and follow through on your roles. Ashley, your squad's upfront."

My officers dispersed to return to their respective positions in our unit. The time for preparation was over.

Aura patted me lightly on the shoulder before she took her place standing beside Luca who was behind me.

A loud, raucous cheering from the other side began, and like a sonic boom reverberating across the plains, the roars of a hundred thousand warriors shook the earth beneath my feet.

I glanced down briefly. "Geez... this is something else."

My eyes glanced upward and back toward the enemy who continued to roar and yell like the devil himself was slapping their behinds with his fiery whip.

I turned around and saw the tense looks of the soldiers behind me. It seemed like the fervor of the other side was beating down our own morale.

It was suddenly hard to breathe like I was somewhere high up where the air was too thin. Sweat dripped down my forehead. My body felt tense.

And then, like a syren's song drawing my attention, a single cry pierced through the veil of grey muck, "Warriors of the Trickster Pavilion!"

Darah's voice was like the clarion call of a valkyrie. It was that powerful and that demanding of our attention.

"Tonight, we face the fools standing at our door..." Darah unsheathed her golden sword and raised it high. "Tomorrow, we greet the red dawn in victory!"

The roar that followed her proclamation made the very earth beneath us tremble. There was not a single voice in the entirety of the Darah army that was not raised. There was not a single hand that was not up. Even Luca. Even me. We were all caught up in this inspiring moment.

Ah, so this is what it's like when a Great General of the Fayne inspires others. I thought. This is how you boost morale.

I could only imagine what our warcries were doing to the enemy army whose own warcries seemed weak in comparison to ours. I could only assume they felt an equal mixture of shock and awe. I knew I did.

Goosebumps rose on the skin of my neck. The hairs on the back of my arm stood on end. That's how electrifying the atmosphere was.

Darah, her armor gleaming even under the low lighting of the Fayne's golden moon, pointed her golden sword forward—and the noise died down suddenly as if the world around me went silent. For those few seconds, everything was still, all was quiet. You could hear a pin drop if you listened hard enough.

Then Darah gave her marching orders, "Go and be glorious!"

The silence broke. The tension reached its peak. A second roar escaped the lips of those of us in the center army. We heard the right and left armies answer back with their own warcries. Then all at once, the proverbial dam broke and we charged like a tidal wave seeking to consume all we came across.

I remembered running in front of the Foolhardies. I remembered my feet feeling light as feathers. And as the scenery around me began to blur and only the way forward seemed crystal clear, I remembered yelling for everyone to ready their weapons and then unsheathing my falchion.

The wind was in my hair. The cold bit at my skin. The smell of earth floated to my nostrils.

From in front of us, the enemy infantry charged and I remembered their faces coming ever closer.

Suddenly, violently, my remembering was over and the clashing of the two sides began, and then all was red as my falchion's shadowblade cut down the foe before me.