On this early summer day, Joe is the first to notice the troop entering the clearing. “Moo.”

John pauses his work to bring back the grass. “I’m working on the grass. What is it?”

“Moo moo,” Joe explains while pointing towards the group as they leave the forest.

The men finally reach the range of John’s senses. ‘Armor and weapons? They are clearly not here for a picnic.’ John then sends his voice to the closest man. “Arron! Soldiers are here.”

Arron jumps at John’s voice. He looks in the direction they came from. There he watches as a few men scan the area. Not long after Arron sees them, they notice Arron. The men begin to walk over while waving.

The man out front has a steel plate chest piece and chain mail arms and leg pieces. His gate shows confidence, but the scars on his face prove he’s struggled. This unknown man says, “Good day, friend! I’m Ernest. I bring grave news.”

Arron frowns and asks, “Are you soldiers from the Red River empire?”

Ernest shakes his head, “No, we are here to die fighting them. They’ve already rallied a large horde to end this village,” he looks about with mixed emotions, “I honestly thought there would be more here.”

Arron rubs his head, “Sorry. I better round everyone up so we can talk.”

“Alright, do you mind if my men start setting up camp?”

Arron looks over as more men come out of the woods. “Yeah, I guess that’s alright.” Ernest waves at his men and turns away.

John sends his voice to Arron, “I’ll tell everyone to meet up in the square.”

Arron nods and starts walking towards the village square. When he arrives, he can already see the women who had been preparing lunch. They look at Arron worriedly. Mellisa asks, “What’s going on? Who are all these people?”

Arron rubs his head, his muscles rippling with nervousness. “I’m not sure. But Ernest said that the Red River Empire was coming.”

The women gasp. Harriet squeaks as she violently shakes her head. Her curly red hair bounces around energetically until she passes out. Marsha catches the woman with her lanky arms. Still, she’s also gone pale and is barely keeping things together. Her husband had tied to block some soldiers from her and Roy. He was just a small merchant with a simple stand. There was no way he could stand up to the big men chasing them.

Vickie hits her hand with a ladle as she speaks, “I don’t understand why they would come all the way out here.”

Arron can only say, “We’ll just have to wait for everyone. There’s no point in worrying by ourselves.”

Slowly the villagers gather. Gregory walks up to Arron and pats his shoulder. “Good job keeping it together.” He then tells everyone, “First, we must keep John a secret. We don’t know whether these people can be trusted. We can’t hide our guardian spirit. But John looks like a normal bush. No one will think he’s a cultivator.”

Everyone agrees with this, and Gregory sends Arron to go ask them to send a representative over. Soon Arron returns with Ernest in toe.

Gregory walks over with an outstretched hand. “It must have been quite the journey. We’ve heard a little, but we would like to hear more details,” Gregory says humbly. Ernest happily takes Gregory’s hand and gives it a solid shake.

“Of course, this must be quite the shock to you all. When I saw the Red River empire was recruiting men to attack your village, I was incensed,” Ernest says while gripping his fist tightly. He then continues, “I’ve gathered some men I know to come put up a fight… Is what I’d like to say. But we’ve actually come searching for a place to die.”

“A place to die?” Gregory asks hesitantly.

Ernest nods, “yes, these are all men who didn’t manage to die in the previous war. Most are here to die a heroic death. I made sure that none of them had families or were too young.”

Gregory looks over his shoulder and grimaces, “How many are coming?”

“I don’t know for sure, but the best case is tens of thousands. The recruitment called for one hundred thousand.”

This time both Harriet and Marsha collapse into their boy's hands. Wilbur holds Donna close and grits his teeth. In contrast, Anna holds her quite large stomach with a glint in her eye. Mellisa grips Laurel closely as Laurel looks up at the flag bitterly. Marsha gently hugs her boy's head.

“Then we must flee at once,” Gregory states.

Ernest frowns, then his smile returns, “I understand. I didn’t expect there to be mostly women and children here.”

Anna steps forward, “Runaway? Don’t be ridiculous. We’ve gained so much here. We’re strong enough to fight.”

Arron grabs Anna’s hand and tries to reason with her, “Anna, you’re pregnant. Even if you manage to have the baby before they arrive, it’s better for us to escape.”

Anna flings Arron’s hand away and retorts, ”what future is there if we aren’t here? Will we be able to survive deeper in the Unbroken Region?” She turns briskly and confronts Mellisa as she cowers, “And you, Mellisa, what will happen to your daughter?”

Gregory steps between them and says, “we can discuss this later.” He looks at Ernest and asks, “How much time do we have?”

Ernest looks up and the sky and thinks, “a few months. They’ll reach here before the end of summer for sure.”

Gregory relaxes, “In that case, we have time to think things over. For now, we should prepare more food for everyone.”

Ernest waves his hand, clearly shaken, “That isn’t necessary. We have rations and can hunt for ourselves.”

Vickie shakes her head, “That’s not good enough. You’ve come all this way. If anything, we have plenty of vegetables. The meat may be a bit lacking, though.” She glances at Gregory in the end.

Gregory rubs his greying head regretfully, “it’s not so easy to trap the animals around here.”

Ernest gives in and says, “If you’re that determined, I won’t reject. I’m sure everyone will celebrate.” He then returns to his men. After a few moments, everyone can hear cheers from the crowd of men.