Bridgetown. One of many settlements conquered by the front, some twenty fields removed from Whitestream. It was a town of some two thousand souls. It’s defences were light, and battered after two Draconist warbands had run amok. The townsfolk were out and about fixing up the damage, lest their homes were next come new lashes. The mood was sombre; the snow was being shoveled away into piles.

Today the town was host to the Front’s leaders, in all their scaled glory. Many of the townsfolk kept a frightened eye on the processions in the town’s square; whispers of the town burning to ash and the citizenry being served as a sacrifice drifted across the winds, into ears accepted. Lothar couldn’t help but give an unimpressed glare in reply.

What have those imperial fools done to these people. There is an awful lot more fear in the air. Divinity’s light could not have been snuffed out here in the eight years… could it? Its light is far stronger than that!

“Well then, my lord,” a voice from below spoke, “We’re here. Bridgetown. Last stop on our journey, eh?”

A grunt from above came as a reply to the blue dragon’s quip. “Hmm. I do not see the need to joke around so, Raghes. This is war we are speaking of, not a casual afternoon stroll.”

Raghes licked at his lips. “Come on now. We already have accomplished a lot; we have rescued thousands of people from tyranny, and back into the warm arms of Divinity. Can you really blame me for smiling over that?”

“Why yes!” Flaratia chased Raghes’ words immediately after the blue dragon had shut his mouth, with the urgency of Novekk applying one of his concoctions. Her chest was puffed up; quite the contrast with her usual calm. “My lord, I understand your desire to keep things on the road well and good, but pray, is a little celebration not in order?”

Lothar sparely had the time to roll his eyes before the next dragon spoke up. “Yeah, we’re doing just fine, lord Lothar. I got to see my cousins again after so long, I even convinced them to take the Blessing! I’d say we should host a banquet to celebrate!”

“There will be plenty of time for banquets later, Commander Batharr. Given your size, I believe you can go without one for quite some time,” Lothar said, unamused. The brown dragon clicked his tongue.

“Yes, I know I’m a bit overweight, so what? We could still celebrate-”

“No.” Lothar shook his head. “This is not the time. Our main objective has not been accomplished yet, so there is no cause to celebrate. And even if Whitestream was ours, we still have the rest of Lokahn to worry of. To celebrate now, while the fields remain filled with strife, and the land still cries out in pain, would be to set up our future defeat.”

Raghes scraped at his gums with his tongue, nervously glaring over his shoulder to the residents of Bridgetown staring at him and his scaled brethren. “Well, that’s true, but we have to prepare for the last phase of the push still. You said so yourself months ago.”

Lothar nodded. “True, true. Naturally we did not hold all the cards at the time. And this is another fortress which we must pierce. We were lucky in Westedge; the enemy has learned from their missteps.”

“If I may,” Flaratia cut in. “I've had some of my men scout the defenses in advance, since they are positioned the closest to the fortress itself. I can comment on what we’re up against here.”

Batharr gave a swift nod. “Go ahead.”

Flaratia cleared her throat. “The defenses here are structured similar to those of Westedge, spare a few additions. For one, the road leading away from Whitestream has been fortified with several bunkers, andCloudbusters. Any attacks on the supply trains will be costly, that much is certain. Furthermore, there is the matter of the Steyer river. The imperials are capable of supplying the city from it.”

“Hmm...” Lothar pondered the news through.

“That reminds me, actually…!” Batharr suddenly had a loud epiphany. “My lord, my lord! This is important, some infiltrants in the Lokahnian bureaucracy have spoken of a new weapon which will be deployed in this battle.”

One of Lothar’s eyes stretched upwards as far as it could go. “Weapon?! Batharr, you blithering fool, you! Why did you not speak of this sooner?”

Batharr’s cheeks puffed themselves up; the brown dragon clasped his claws together over his chest as if to protect himself from a stab to the chest. “Well, my lord, I really would’ve liked to speak of it sooner, but I’m afraid to say that that wasn’t really possible… you see, the enemy was too strong and too stubborn for me to simply leave my men behind to you to tell you of-”

“Enough of these pitiful excuses, Batharr! You should have come sooner! This is critical information! Flaratia, Raghes, Batharr, do any of you know what exactly this weapon is, and how we can counter it?”

“I... have heard nothing of any weapon my lord,” said Raghes.

“I wish I knew more of this weapon Batharr speaks of, but I'm afraid I was too busy training our youngest blood brethren. Besides, I have no contact with any of our spies.” Flaratia leaned away.

Batharr backed away slightly from the rest; after all the delaying and docility coming from his commanders, the golden dragon grunted fierce enough for the very air itself to vibrate. Away in the crowd gathering on the edge of the square, the townsfolk shivered, and their children began to cry. Lothar felt a lump in the back of his throat: His eyes let go of their dominating gaze.

“My apologies, everyone.” Nervous chatter came from all sides. Lothar pressed a talon against his chest.

Lothar, you promised to be better than this! You’d do it for your son, because even he was terrified of you, despite the fact that you’re supposed to love him more than anything in the world!

“It’s, erhm… it’s alright, Lord Lothar. No worries, truly,” Flaratia said with all the certainty of a fool balancing on a clothing line.

“Alright, let’s just continue on, shall we? And not so loud please, the townsfolk are scared enough as is,” Raghes said.

Batharr gulped, and spoke up with both his eyes glancing up to Lothar’s head, which stood over him even in his current bow. “Well, the weapon appears to be some sort of… hand cannon, at least that is how the spies described it. Complete with miniature cannon balls and everything. Two plain human hands is all that’s needed to operate one. No need for physical strength or anything of the sort, either. So I have heard”

Lothar responded with one of his usual grunts. “ This is most concerning, Batharr. Do we have any idea as to how effective these… hand cannons are against dragon hide?”

The brown dragon shook his head. “Unfortunately, we have no idea. But I am not holding out high hopes here. Apparently one shot to the head of anything’s enough to prepare the victim to roast over a fire… that’s what the spies have seen, at least, and at least one has felt, urk...”

Raghes clicked his tongue. “Great. How will we deal with this?

Flaratia hummed. “Well, at the moment we are waiting for some of the captured artillery to be brought up to the front. Perhaps that can serve as good cover when the assault begins.”

“And, do we have any other ideas? Do not misunderstand me, any additional men and material is more than welcome. And I have heard that many of the captured Lokahnians in the imperial army were willing to come over to our side. But I doubt it will be enough.” Lothar’s tail lashed across the lumpy stone floor.

Batharr coughed. “You three are overthinking this. Why don’t we try another siege? There’s only one road and a small port keeping the city supplied, right?”

Lothar groaned, and shook his head. “Batharr, they have learned from their mistakes. The road connecting Whitestream to the rest of Lokahn has been fortified. Any assault on it will be costly.”

“Whatever step we take will be costly,” Batharr retorted with glowing eyes, “we have no choice in the matter. I’m only saying that we should pick a proven strategy. And it won’t be too difficult, either. If we have some of our forces cross the Steyer from, say, the north...”

Flaratia licked at her lips. “He’s right. We should at least harass the upply line. That's how the imperials hope to hold out. It will put pressure on the enemy.”

Lothar sighed. “Alright, alright. If you lot truly believe this is the way forward, then I am willing to follow suit. But I will warn that this is not the first time we have tried this form of attack. I expect that our adversary has all sorts of little tricks and traps waiting for us out there...”

Raghes nodded. “We know,” he said, with a fire in his eyes fierce enough to make anyone below his stature shudder. The two peers nodded alongside. They were deadset on their strategy, the will of the only ones they’d bow before be damned.

“Fine. But I will not take any of the blame should this plan of yours go awry, is that clear?”

“Perfectly clear, my lord,” Raghes said. “You’re not the only one who can come up with the plans.”

Lothar tilted his nose up. Much anger in him…

* * *

It was a busy morning. Across the artery connecting Whitestream to the heart of Lokahn, civilians, troops and volunteers from afar were hard at work. The road had been covered with small fortifications and cloudbusters, the lone thing missing now were the troops who had yet to be called to their posts. The trees roughly a field’s length out from the walls had been cut down; every conceivable advantage had been thought of. Alas, there was no time to remove the logs littering the field; their bark had grown all the more somber with its new white coat.

Observing the work from the walls, alongside imperial troops wielding their new weapons, Heidi grimaced ahead at the logged fields stretching out before her. A civilian came running up, panting like a dog come the summertime. “Mrs Goodsprings, we’re still not seeing any movement out there. Is there anything else we can do?”

“Not that I know of. We’ve done the best we could, I’d say. I think the only thing we could potentially do is to get the elderly and vulnerable out of the city, off to the east,” Heidi replied, running a hand through her bound hairs. Something fierce itched underneath; yet no amount of scratches silenced it.

“But, Mrs Goodsprings, we don’t know what we’re up against, do we? We’ve never prepared for anything like this before...”

Heidi bowed her head. “I understand, citizen. But it is precisely that which makes me hold back. Trust me, there’s plenty of ways we can defend our home, but who knows if they’ll actually work? For all we know, it may just backfire on us. Spectacularly. And I’m not willing to do that to the people who’ve put their full trust in me.”

Another civilian came running. “I was thinking, Mrs Goodsprings, we really should clear those fields of all the logs. What if the enemy uses them as cover during the battle?”

Sweat began to pour down Heidi’s forehead, in beads akin to the munitions of the weapons the imperial troops around them used. “You’re only telling me this now?! Hurry, damn you, clear as much of it as we can, they can come any moment now!”

”A-aye, madam!” Both citizens ran off. The rest of the troops on the wall began yelling at the people in the field, and the people loitering in the streets; for the first time in many, many years, Heidi felt something unwell stir up within her. It was an emotion she hadn’t felt for long, thanks to the support and care she had received from her folks in these tumultuous years.

But its sour odour and harsh pressure were unmistakable.