Summer was slowly fading, the days grew shorter and the air colder. Erik was on guard duty, he had managed to catch his seven hours of sleep and was glad about it. In the six months since he had joined Summer's squad they had only engaged in a handful of skirmishes.

After the disaster that had been Chris's first battle the guards had been doubled and the shifts adjusted so everyone got a couple of hours of sleep. They had just received a new set of orders from some new general, some strange scholar that had devised a plan to end the war within the next year.

So far he had sent them half across the country mapping villages and outposts rather than attacking scouts and guards. Summer was not sad about the whole thing after all less fighting meant less casualties and a better chance to get back home for the heroes welcome.

Erik took a deep breath, his smell enhanced and his eyes closed. The forest around him was a curtain of smells and noises. Leaves rustling the earth breathing, in the distance a rabbit hopped past, then Erik heard what he was hoping for, metal grinding against metal.

The clinking of chains and the smell of leather and sweat. Huffing and puffing, the enemy troop consisted of about fifteen soldiers. Their weapons and armour muffled with wool not to make sounds. The last couple of weeks the group had chased Summer and her troop but last week they had supposedly managed to get away when they started off into the wrong direction and then back traced their steps in the middle of the night under Erik's guidance and then marched through the day.

Now it looked like the brutal two days without sleep had been in vain after all. To Erik's joy the silent conversations were about as happy as they had been after the two days. The enemy had to have skipped a few nights rest to catch up with them, now they were exhausted and easy prey.

They would rest in a defendable position tonight and attack with the morning, at least that was what Summer would do. A bit further ahead was a good spot for camp, it was a ravine with only two points of access, easy to defend and if the enemy was not waiting for you there easy to escape as well.

It also had a small cave at the side of it where a small river had driven a narrow opening into the rock. The opening was well covered with vines and bushes making nearly impossible to find if you did not posses the memory of a dead bear that got raised there.

The entire shock troop was now in position there and awaiting the enemy's arrival, as soon as they were asleep Erik would take initiate the charge with the second in command, the little girl called Spring and her even smaller brother Bo.

A couple of months ago he would have not wanted them on this mission, a couple of kids was not the back up he would have hoped for. Now however he was glad they were with him, the two of them were small, silent and lethal in a very messed up way.

Spring was carrying a total of forty seven hidden blades with her at all times, or so she claimed and Bo was distracting and annoying with everything he could find, Erik had once witnessed the boy throwing lumps of clay at enemies filled with Fireworms, the horrifying small creatures were known for spraying acid at everything that touched them.

Within seconds the small group of enemies had been screaming as the worms escaped their prison and their acid hit their eyes and skin. The two siblings were effective and unsettling with their complete lack of fear or remorse.

"Hey sis, he is looking at you like a wolf looks at a deer again..." Bo was looking at him, Erik had been completely absorbed by his own thoughts and had not heard him sneaking up on him.

"Duh, I'm pretty... you should be used to things like this by now bro..." Spring's voice sounded from a spot in the bushes where Erik was looking at.

"I'm sorry about that, I was thinking about something." he muttered as he resumed his looking at the enemy soldiers marching past them in the distance.

"Uuuuhhh, you shouldn't say things like that out loud Wolf, you will make me blush." Erik should have known better than to say anything, Spring did her best to embarrass him whenever possible and Bo had more than once threatened to send a small army of poisonous spiders after him once he had finished training them.

"What? What was he thinking about you? Do I have to get my spiders?" Bo was, luckily, clearly just fourteen years old and thick like a brick wall.

"I don't think you spiders can help dear Wolf with that bro..." Spring said while emerging from the bush she had been hiding in, covered in green paint.

"You don't know that! My spiders can do anything, I trained the myself!" Erik was not enjoying the direction the two of them were taking this conversation.

"What have you done to yourself and your clothes? More importantly, where did you get all that paint from?" As he said the last words a breeze carried the stench of crushed Woodsnails to his nose, he wretched.

"By the breath of Cauldrun, why?" he managed to say before the impulse to gag returned. Bo was not faring a much better, he was looking at his sister with watering eyes and both hands at his throat.

Spring crossed her arms in front of her, "For cover obviously, they won't see me coming when I'm all green like this. It will be the perfect surprise!" dead serious and completely insane, just what they needed for this.

"Only if they can't smell you... which i doubt by the way." Bo said while stepping away from his sister waving his right hand while holding his nose with the other.

Spring was about to reply when Erik shushed the both of them, the argument had gotten too loud for comfort, if the soldiers down there had scouts out the twins arguing would be enough to alert them to their presence.

When he looked over the ridge again the enemy was still progressing, slowly but steadily they poured into their camp further west. Erik could already hear the shouts about a good spot for camp, so far everything was going as planned.

The three of them would need to wait another couple of hours before they could get into position and attack the sleeping soldiers. If everything went well, there would be no fighting just death. When he had joined the rebels this was not what he expected, battles were supposed to be grand and heroic, not the cutting of throats in the moonlight.

After a couple of fights however his opinion had changed, the less fighting was going on the fewer friends died. Luckily for him he didn't know most of the old group, but over the last couple of months he had grown to like the group of insane warriors. He couldn't imagine losing half of them at once like they had at their first battle. He hoped the fighting tonight would not claim any more of the people next to him.