That afternoon, Lolo and Ulana headed to the military base to make General Chadvargi’s life miserable. Ulana was almost giddy.

“Girl! I am so attracted to you right now! You just chewed the general out! I’ve been wanting to do that for over a year. He’s an incompetent idiot. I said that we’d blow some old-fashioned minds this summer, but within fifteen minutes on our very first day?! You are on fire!”

Lolo scowled and didn't respond to Ulana's complimentary jabbering. She was still feeling rather cranky. She didn’t like losing her temper, but she disliked irresponsible leadership even more, especially when lives hung in the balance.

The girls arrived at the general’s command center with orders written on an official scroll requiring the general to listen to, obey, and cooperate fully with them. The general was less than surprised to be welcoming Lolo as his over-seer, but every other soldier in the area looked at the pair of young women with outright confusion.

“Assemble all of your high-ranking commanding officers,” Lolo ordered as soon as the scroll was read and authenticated by a bewildered lieutenant, “and bring me as many practice swords as you can find.”

An hour later, three hundred and fifteen men had been assembled in the main training field, approximately one captain or lieutenant for each hundred soldiers, and that wasn't even counting squad leaders and the like. So not only were the men undertrained, but they were also over-promoted. Lolo made a mental note to adjust promotion standards.

“Set your swords to the side of the field and find a practice sword,” Lolo shouted. Unaccustomed to taking orders from a woman, especially one as young as Lolo, the soldiers hesitated.

“Now! Unless you want to fight each other to the death,” Ulana added, and the men shuffled off to the side of the field where the practice swords were waiting.

“Quickly!” Lolo was losing patience with their resistant attitudes and casual obedience. The men reassembled with practice swords in hand.

“Who are you?” One captain dared to challenge Huo Lohse’s authority. His mistake. Lolo had no tolerance for insubordination with so much on the line. In one fluid motion, she knocked his legs out from under him and crashed her practice sword down over his chest before he even knew what had hit him.

“You’re dead, soldier,” she scowled. “I’m the person that killed you. Any questions?” The embarrassed captain shook his head and scrambled back up to his feet, brushing dirt off of his uniform. Lolo was less than subtly reminded of Captain Tamkhee Yudha's grand entrance when he introduced himself as their new trainer during the dragon exchange and found dry humor in the comparison.

Behind Lolo, Ulana struggled to contain her enthusiasm. “Oh, snap!” she mouthed silently.

“Ulana, I think these men need a dose of humility. What do you think?” Lolo declared, still seething a little.

“Yes, ma’am!” Ulana picked up a practice sword and eagerly awaited Lolo’s next instructions.

“Let’s try a little scrimmage, shall we, all of you against us.”

“Wait, what?” Ulana’s eyes widened.

The men started laughing. “There’s over three hundred of us,” someone shouted.

“Then I reckon that you have nothing to worry about,” Lolo shot back. “If you are hit with a killing stroke, you’re done. Understood?” The men murmured in agreement, and the girls took their positions. “Begin!” Lolo shouted.

The nearest dozen men or so charged, but it was clear within seconds that they were painfully outmatched. Before any of them could get in a single attack, Lolo had landed a flurry of killing strokes on six men and kicked another two onto the ground. Ulana, in one of her classic moves, vaulted herself over the top of her attackers and spun around with her sword extended, hitting multiple men across their backs and chests with one sweep. The Phoenix Tribe soldiers couldn’t touch the girls. They couldn’t even get close enough to try. Ten minutes from the time they'd started, all three hundred and fifteen men were nursing bruises.

“Well, that was a fun warm-up. What’s next, Lolo?” Ulana chirped as she stepped around the legs of the officers she’d just brutalized.

Lolo ordered the men to stand back up and assemble. “Until further notice, I am in charge here. Do I make myself clear?!”

“Yes, sir!” came the unified chorus of voices.

“You are so sexy right now,” Ulana crooned softly in Lolo’s ear.

***

To Huo Lohse Lang, Phoenix Tribe, Palace, Guest Quarters

From Fortus Arum, Lion Tribe, Palace, Guest Quarters

June 5

Hey Lolo,

I know I’m a terrible pen pal. Sorry. I’m still doing alright. Just busy.

I’ve shared your letter with General Artibus. He plans to discuss the issue with King Hospes, but he also plans to send a few men to the Panther Tribe tomorrow to get them started on their training. He hand-picked some men with humble backgrounds that will be sensitive to the needs of the smaller tribes.

I’ve suggested inviting all of the smaller tribes to request training assistance from the Lion Tribe. Artibus is taking that under advisement and bringing that to his meeting with the king. You are right though. With the small tribes so spread out and weak on their own, there is little we can do to help them beyond doing our best to support their military.

I’ve planted the thought for the Lion Tribe to be prepared to take in refugees in the future, perhaps when the threat becomes a little more real and the smaller tribes are more willing to accept relocation.

Good luck with your exchange,

Fortus

***

To Huo Lohse Lang, Phoenix Tribe, Palace, Guest Quarters

From Philige Tragen, Bear Tribe, Leader’s Lodge

June 6

Dear Lolo,

You would be welcome here any time. Consider this an open invitation to visit the Bear Tribe at your earliest convenience.

Standig told you correctly that I’ve been giving the issue of defending a spread out population a lot of thought. Short of relocating everyone, the best idea I’ve come up with is to establish an emergency plan among the people in advance. Should they be attacked, where will they go? How will they get there? What escape routes do they have? Do they have access to a main road? Who will they ask for help? Are there any early warning systems in place? What defenses do they have? You have to understand, if a small village is attacked, staying and fighting is a suicide mission. They would be a lot better off fleeing to a more well-defended area.

To that end, I plan to coordinate with the other three main tribe leaders to set up refugee alliances with all of the smaller tribes. In the event that they are attacked, having a plan for where they are welcome to go will be important.

Thank you for bringing these concerns to my attention. Count on you to always be thinking of other people.

All my best,

Philige

***

“How is the military training going?” Surakh asked Lolo at the end of the week.

She smiled. “You should come observe sometime. It took a little... persuasion, but I think the men are responding well.”

“Oh, yeah? What kind of persuasion are we talking about?”

Ulana laughed merrily as she joined in the conversation. “We beat up all of the commanding officers.”

“You did what, now?!”

Huo Lohse sighed. “We humbled them in a fight… three hundred some odd of them against the two of us.”

Surakh was understandably stunned. “And you won?”

“Handily,” Ulana grinned smugly.

“Don’t worry, Surakh,” Lolo smiled, “when we’re through with them, we won’t be able to beat them so readily.”

The council meeting began, and King Ukhaan called the girls forward to report.

“I’m eager to hear about your first week. Give me a full progress report,” the Old Phoenix leaned forward with anticipation.

“Training is going as expected,” Huo Lohse began. “We’ve started sparring with practice swords so the men can experience how it feels to make killing strokes without causing too much injury to each other. As such, there has been a sharp increase in minor injuries, but that is to be expected. Minor injuries now are a small price to pay for soldiers that can actually survive a battle later. Our goal with this training method is to remove any hesitations or reservations they may have about fighting to kill. Just in the last week, I have observed less hesitation. We are on the right track.”

“Excellent,” King Ukhaan smiled. “Anything else to report?”

Ulana piped in. “Next week, we begin battle scrimmages. They're my favorite!"

Lolo added, "the goal is to improve leadership, teamwork, and strategic thinking while applying the sparring methods learned this week. It also simulates real scenarios the soldiers may face on the battlefield. The more scrimmages we run, the more scenarios the men will face, and the less likely they will be to run across something completely unexpected during a future battle. This improves confidence and acumen while teaching resourcefulness and ingenuity.”

The Old Phoenix nodded and smiled. “I look forward to your report next week.”

“Your majesty,” Huo Lohse said, “I’ve ordered General Chadvargi to focus exclusively on recruiting new soldiers for now. He is actually an excellent recruiter, and the troop numbers swelled a staggering two and a half thousand men in under a week, but might I suggest that we actively search for a new Phoenix General?”

“Do you have someone in mind?”

“Not yet, but I would like to request permission to grant all commanding officers an emeritus status so we can start from scratch. As I’ve observed the training this week, I have identified thirty-five men that exhibit excellent leadership potential. I recommend that you promote these men as captains, and I would then like to give them the opportunity to select their own lieutenants. As the training reveals their capabilities, I believe that a new Phoenix General will naturally rise from among them.”

King Ukhaan contemplated Lolo’s suggestion. “You will get a lot of back-lash from this adjustment.”

“Frankly, your majesty, I don’t care. My goal is to whip the Phoenix Tribe military into battle-worthy shape. To do that, I need good leaders.”

He nodded. “I agree. Do as you see fit, princess Lang. I will support you.”

“Thank you.”

***

To Huo Lohse Lang, Phoenix Tribe, Palace, Guest Quarters

From Wolf Tribe Leader Ming Lang, Wolf Tribe, Pack Hall

June 8

My Princess,

Thank you for your letter about your concerns for the smaller tribes. I’ve been thinking about that recently too, so it was validating to hear about your interaction with the panther prince.

Yesterday, I received a similar letter from the Bear Tribe leader suggesting a unilateral cooperative refugee alliance between all the main tribes and all the smaller tribes. We are working to prepare a tribe leaders meeting to draft a treaty this coming weekend. Today, I am sending out formal invitations to all tribe leaders to meet on the fifteenth at the tournament grounds. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

I love you, princess. Be safe.

Dad