8. Imperial Checkers: Wiremu

The sun was rising when I found a safe-ish place for the day. I planned to sleep for the morning, and travel and hunt in the afternoon and find somewhere for my fire and roast bird this evening. Campfire smoke was too visible during the day. The creek I had been following was now a small stream. I had kept travelling parallel to it, but kept a reasonable distance from it as it now attracted all sorts of animals, both hunter and prey. Scanning the horizon before I bunked down for the morning I saw a straight line in the landscape. Probably a road, but the low levelled Far Sight couldn’t make out much detail. That will be my destination this afternoon. My mouth was already watering in anticipation of cooked meat.

I woke early in the afternoon with a new purpose and with a new destination. I wouldn’t make the road before nightfall, which suited me just fine. I had a roast fowl to enjoy, I hoped. At dusk I found a grove of trees in a depression in the ground and dug a small fire pit to keep the light down and so the surrounding grass didn’t catch. The dry grass and twigs caught fairly easily to the sparks from the rocks striking each other. The hardest part was plucking the damned bird. I very, very much enjoyed that meal, and that is understating it. Maybe, I will find some herbs and spices soon as well.

An hour before dawn I smothered the fire and filled in the hole, scattering detritus around so it was not obvious I was here. It was late morning when I approached the road very cautiously. It was a proper road and not a farm track. There had been maintenance done at one point filling in the worst of the holes. It obviously connected two towns. I was conscious I must look terrible dressed in filthy tatters of clothes, or perhaps rags. I wasn’t armed and had no supplies for travelling. I would stand out and be immediately suspect by anyone who saw me. In the half hour I observed the road, nobody used it. No couriers, no farmers, just one small rabbit who crossed.

I decided to be cautious. I picked the direction most away from the quarry and set out parallel to the road, a short way inside the grasses. Two hours later I picked up the sound of fighting. This made me even more cautious. I wasn’t looking to get in any fights. If it was bandits, I certainly had the look to be classed as one of them. On the other hand it was also an opportunity. Where there is fighting there is probably dying, and I was in desperate need of equipment and supplies. I guess classing me as a bandit was not so wrong after all.

As I neared the sound of the fighting, I first came across a well ordered camp. Two people were in the camp. A male was tending to a line of horses and a female was preparing a meal. Both had the glassy eyes of slaves. My first chance at some supplies. I would have to be careful they didn’t see me because I didn’t want to kill them and if they saw me they would report me to the survivors of the battle. A little random theft could perhaps be blamed on a rogue of whoever they were fighting? Maybe? I stealthed to the rear of one of the tents and used my “rock knife” to cut a hole big enough for me to crawl into. The guy who slept on the left was a thin weed of a man and nothing fit. Apparently I had filled out some muscles in the quarry. The things you don’t realise. I did find a general purpose knife and some travel rations. The Guy who slept on the right was a bit bigger than me and I scored a shirt and trousers, with a belt, and a pair of boots which were only slightly too big. No coins. I stuffed all the pockets full of travel rations and slipped out again. The next tent obviously housed a couple of women and nothing fit. I did score a small backpack, a tinder box, a second knife and whetstone along with more rations and a canteen.

I figured I had better go and see what was taking so long in this fight. Fights don’t normally take very long, even though it seems like it when you are in the middle of them. When I got to where I could see it was a mess. There were a lot of bodies. From what I could see the Lieutenant? Yes Lieutenant had a platoon of maybe twenty manning a checkpoint at the crossroads. The six wagons, who had a very large number of armoured personnel, had not wanted to be checked for some reason. Half of the lieutenant's people were on the ground and unmoving. Half of those still standing were wounded. The lieutenant did not appear to be wounded, but he was doing a lot of yelling.

Of the wagoners, they had also lost a lot of personnel. One wagon was off the side of the road with a broken wheel and dead horse. There was a loose horse heading away from the battle as fast as it could. Probably the smartest creature here. The survivors were huddled behind a massive kite shield. Held by a heavily armoured warrior, obviously a shield specialist. There were spearmen on either side of the Shield Bearer and the three of them had accounted for a number of bodies lying in front of them. My guess is the lieutenant had ordered a charge. You don’t do that against a Shield Bearer, that is where they are the strongest. There seemed to be a number of noncombatants hiding behind the last three warriors.

A lot of the wagoner personnel were downed by the two imperial archers, which were the cause of the stand off. The wagoners couldn’t move or they would catch an arrow and the Lieutenant only had the two archers, himself and three others capable of fighting. I realised there used to be four archers. One of the dead archers was lying with a throwing knife in his eye, sorry, her eye about 10 metres to my left within reach of the grass edge. Opportunity! I carefully made my way over, camouflaging myself in grass on the way. I inched forward on my stomach and when everybody's attention seemed elsewhere, I got the bow and the quiver of arrows, which was about half full. I obviously wasn’t used to these new knives because it slipped and the coin purse came loose as well.

Now the question was, do I join the fight, or make like the sensible horse. If I joined the fight, and there was no question which side I would join, I potentially could have some new allies and a source of information. If I left I would be way better off but lacking in information. The noncombatants could be a huge burden, but the three remaining warriors were very good. If I joined the fight I would have to take out the two archers quickly, and hopefully the warriors had enough left in the tank to take on the lieutenant and his remaining people. Should be able to, especially if I could provide ranged support. On the other hand, I hadn't touched a bow in over three years. My bow skill is still in the low apprentice levels. I am very low skilled for a fight like this. My biggest advantage is Physical Strength and Pip. All my skills are too low, except maybe for Hammer and I don't have one of those. I have a bow. To be quite honest, that Shield Bearer is probably stronger than I am too.

Yes, I am going to join the fight. Non-hostile people and information are too much of a draw card. I just have to hunt smart. I have no traps, but I have Pip. I send Pip off to the furthest archer as they are the one I am most likely to miss. He will take a while and the lieutenant is winding down, unfortunately. I am not sure what he plans to do next, but I made sure Pip knew to leave him till last. If the enemy has an idiot commander you leave them as much opportunity to make as many mistakes as possible.

Yeah, we are out of time. I take a bead on the nearest archer. She has her bow up so I aim for the weak armour under the arm. She is only 20 metres away from me. I control my breathing and let the arrow loose. The shot is good and she goes down. I quickly get another arrow and line up the other archer, who is looking at his mate puzzled. As I suspected my aim was off and it bounces off his pauldron. He spotted where the arrow came from and returned fire, bloody archers and their high perception. I violently rolled sideways through the grass and the arrow pierced the ground where I was lying. Everybody knows where I am now, however the Shield Bearer has taken the opportunity to charge the lieutenant. It is a Skilled charge too. The un-prepared lieutenant flew back about 10m and one of those near him was clipped by the charge. The two spearmen were close behind the Shield Bearer and were engaging the remaining combatants. Where is the other archer? He is obviously highly skilled and can still turn the tide. I relax a bit when I see him on the ground fighting off Desert Viper Venom. Those things are a real menace. I move closer to the action because my bow is unreliable at that distance and I want to get a better angle. I also want to put an arrow in the other archer because the venom may not be enough.

The Lieutenant is moving sluggishly, so I take the opportunity to put an arrow in him to make him stay down. The last three on three battle with the wagoners is going in their favour. Things can change in an eye blink so I keep a close eye for the opportunity to make a favourable change. When I clear the combatants and have a view of the other archer he is still on the ground but has a potion in his hand. I put an arrow in him, but it only goes through the shoulder. I really need to level this skill. At least he won't be using his bow in the near future.

I looked back and the Shield Bearer and one of the spearmen had finished. The other spearman then took down their opponent. The first spearman moved toward the archer that I had wounded and I had the Shield Bearers full attention on me. “Hello Stranger,” she says. Well that is a surprise. There are not many females that large or that skilled in front line fighting. She moves toward me and I can see she towers over me and is very solidly built. With full plate armour there is no way to tell male from female. She looks around for other dangers, and seeing none starts to remove her helmet. Then she spies Pip making his way to me and her hand goes to the axe at her side. I put up a hand to say wait and bend down and put my other hand down for Pip to climb. I can feel her surprise even if I can't see it. Pip settles in his usual place on my shoulder with his head poking out of my shirt looking at her, his tongue tasting the air.

There couldn’t be a bigger contrast between us. She is a towering, solid figure in full plate armour, obviously well trained with a specialised class and a shield as tall as I am. Then there's me with no armour, just in baggy shirt and pants with a borrowed bow and a snake on my shoulder. Then she takes off her helmet and it gets worse. She is a bloody Orc! There ain’t no mistaking the green tinted skin and protruding lower jaw with tusks. We had the occasional Dwarf and Elf through the quarry, but no Orcs. Apparently the standing orders are to kill on sight for the Imperials, which would help to explain the fight.

One Spearman heads toward us while the other goes to the noncombatants. They are also removing their helmets and they are both male Orcs. It is obvious the three have operated together as a unit for a long time, with the way they seemed to be in sync. I glance around and there are humans and possibly a dwarf among the wagoners dead. The noncombatants are a mix of human and elf that I can see.