4th day of the 4th month 580th year of the 8th era

The sunlight crept into the barracks. Akuchi awoke. After dressing, he headed out to the mess hall where a line of soldiers waited for food. He joined the line and waited. As the line moved, and he got closer to breakfast, the smell of food cooking made him even hungrier. One soldier dressed in all in black looked down at the food he received.

“Is that all there is?” the soldier demanded.

“That is the ration for today,” answered the man behind the counter.

“I can’t be expected to fight with this. I thought a supply ship came in.”

“Hey,” called a soldier further down the line. “What’s the holdup?”

“They are planning on starving us to death,” called the black-clad soldier.

A rumble of discontent swept through everyone.

“I demand a reasonable-sized meal!” called someone else from the line.

“Yeah,” called a group of people.

“I am just doing what I am told,” replied the man behind the counter.

“They are hiding it!” called another. “Keeping it for themselves.”

“No, we are not,” the man at the counter replied.

“Lies!” called another man. “Let’s get the food!”

The soldiers in the line surged forward and climbed over the counter, tossing the man into the group of disgruntled soldiers. Some people tried to stop the fight but ended up in the middle of it. A soldier took a swing and hit Akuchi in the head. Akuchi turned and punched the man in the face. A brawl broke out; people were fighting each other, only friends were fighting together. Crockery smashed as people were flung at stacks of plates and bowls. Akuchi ducked and lashed out, taking a man in the face, knocking him unconscious only to be hit in the head with a plate, shattering on impact. He turned to face his new assailant and could not see anyone. Akuchi moved to the wall and tried to stay out of it.

At the wall, he saw Aquillia holding off several men with unarmed attacks. She would punch one and swing to stop another then duck and take out another. One man rushed her. She side-stepped him then turned, leaped onto his back, and catapulted herself over a couple of angry soldiers. The man collapsed to the ground. Aquillia sailed through the air and landed on the shoulders of another man. He crumpled under her weight. She looked up and spotted Akuchi at the wall, watching her.

She was magnificent as she flew, her skirt billowing as she landed on the man. Akuchi watched as she fought. He admired her maneuvers as she knocked many men out cold. Shortly after it had started, it finished. The only people still standing were Aquillia in the middle and Akuchi at the wall.

The doors flew open and Oghenekaro burst in with several soldiers all carrying clubs.

“What happened?” he demanded.

“A fight broke out because of the lack of food,” replied Akuchi as he stepped beside Aquillia.

Aquillia lowered her fists and stood upright again.

Oghenekaro turned to the men behind him. “Take everyone except those two,” he instructed pointing Aquillia and Akuchi. “You two, follow me.”

They followed Oghenekaro out of the mess hall. Once out, he turned and faced Akuchi and Aquillia.

“What caused that fight?” Oggy asked, hands on his hips.

“The fight started because there isn’t enough food to go around,” replied Aquillia, as her stomach growled.

“Everyone is hungry,” commented Akuchi as his stomach growled in response.

“The ships coming out here are not bringing enough food anymore,” Oggy filled in, “Recent tensions between the Horse Lords and the Dwarfs have reduced the amount of food being brought in. Add that to the fact that the Kingdom of Zapriti has been engaged in a very long war with the orcs and the elvish shipments can't get past the Dragon Mouth unless it goes over land. Not to mention the constant pirate raids that have reduced the amount of food coming in.”

“Could you grow food?” Akuchi asked.

“We have nowhere to grow the food,” answered Oghenekaro. “So, I am planning a raid on the trolls. They always seem to have cattle we could slaughter. Get your weapons and meet me in the muster yard.”

Akuchi and Aquillia nodded, raced back to their bunks, and withdrew their swords. Slipping the straps over their heads, they dashed out of the barracks and jogged to the muster yard. Several horses were ready to go; only two horses remained without riders. Others in the raid included: Mayu who sat on her mount, Nurarfed in full battle armor, and twenty other grizzled soldiers with varying types of armor and weapons.

“We are going to attack the trolls and steal their cattle,” Oghenekaro announced. “Sentries on the wall have spotted a large herd of cattle in the rear of their camp. We will charge through their ranks, liberate the herd and return it here.

A cheer went up from the soldiers. The moment the gates were opened, Oghenekaro raised his hand and signaled the attack. The force rushed out at full gallop. They caught the trolls off guard. They were still in their tents slumbering as the squad attacked.

Ten men broke off from the main force and grabbed flaming torches from the trolls' fires and began to burn the tents, creating havoc, the perfect cover for the raid. Smoke billowed from the burning tents and trolls began pouring out of the tents.

Akuchi kept riding after the commander and followed him to the cattle. He rushed past sleeping tents and made it to the other side of the trolls' camp. The commander then sent five more men to the other side of the herd, broke open the makeshift corral, and released the cattle. At that moment, the first group of ten men arrived behind the cattle and spooked them. The cattle bolted away from the smoke and headed right at Akuchi’s group. The horses felt the panic of the cattle and bolted away from them.

Akuchi, Aquillia, Mayu, and the commander raced ahead of the cattle slicing down all trolls in their path. The stampeding cattle drove many trolls out of their tents and into awaiting blades. The smoke from the fires set by the soldiers stung their eyes and they kept running. A horn blasted alerting the trolls to the attack. The whole camp erupted into activity as the trolls emerged from their tents. Akuchi looked back and saw the stampeding cattle following him only a hair’s breadth behind him and saw a soldier pulled from his saddle as the trolls came from behind. The cattle broke out of the camp and pushed into the waiting arms of the fort’s open gates.

Akuchi, Aquillia, and the commander came in first and then steered their horses to one side and let the cattle come in through the gates. The reaming soldiers came in after them, with trolls hot on their tails. Once inside the fort, with the smell of smoke and fear behind them, the cattle stopped running and calmed down. The last of the soldiers came through and so did about thirty trolls just before the gates closed. The soldiers took to arms as they descended upon the trolls inside the fort’s walls.

Akuchi charged on horseback, sword drawn. He leaped off his horse and landed on a troll, breaking its neck. A melee erupted with Akuchi in the middle. He lifted his sword high and brought it crashing down, killing troll after troll. Aquillia followed him, spinning and cutting trolls in two as she cut a path towards Akuchi, trying to save him.

Soldiers and trolls fell as the trolls tried to make their way to a gatehouse. Pounding on the gate added to the sounds of trolls and men screaming war cries and in pain as they were cut down from arrows and sword blades.

Akuchi‘s blade cut through a shoulder and torso of a nearby troll. It came clean through, so he spun to his left and lifted the sword again, slicing through another troll’s legs, hamstringing it. It cried out in pain before Aquillia’s spinning sword sliced off its head.

In the center with Akuchi, Aquillia turned her back on Akuchi and they fought the trolls. The mustering yard was thick with blood. Bodies of the trolls littered the field.

The last troll died with a stab through its heart from Mayu’s khopesh. A cheer went up from the bloodied soldiers, before being drowned out by the pounding at the gate. More trolls to kill. Mayu and the commander ducked into the gatehouse tower. Akuchi and Aquillia, both covered in blood, slid down to the ground, back to back. They surveyed the carnage around them. The trolls, all dead, had extracted a toll on the soldiers and Fort Northern Wiles. Seven soldiers had given their lives in the capture of fifty head of cattle.

Upon the gatehouse, Oghenekaro and Mayu looked down at another large group of angry trolls pounding the gate with a large metal ram.

“This is new,” Oghenekaro commented.

“What are we going to do?” asked Mayu.

“Well, first, anyone that can draw a bow will need to get up here,” instructed Oghenekaro, “and we need to brace the gate.”

A soldier on the gatehouse took a horn to his lips and blew three times, calling for the fort’s defenders to come. Below, soldiers began to race to the gatehouse armed with bows and arrows. They took position along the wall and began to fire into the large group of trolls. Once they were up, Mayu descended the tower’s stairs and joined Aquillia and Akuchi at the portcullis.

“We need to brace the gates,” said Mayu. “Any ideas?”

“Large beams,” offered Aquillia, “braced against the ground can buy us some time.”

Mayu turned to a blood-splattered soldier. “Go to the stores and get as many large beams as you can and bring them here.”

The soldier nodded and ran off taking several of his buddies with him.

Mayu called another soldier over. “Go and prepare the oil and rocks.”

The soldier nodded and ran off towards the gate tower.

A few moments later, Taya arrived with the soldiers, and several large beams carried between them.

“We need to position them to brace the gate,” instructed Mayu.

Taya nodded and led the soldiers to the gate. Once the beams were placed. Mayu called several soldiers to lean into the beams as the trolls continued to pound rhythmically into the large stout wooden gate. Each crash shook the gate.

Taya left and returned with more beams and more soldiers to brace the gate. As dawn became midday, the trolls steadily pounded the gate, but the gate was no longer moving with each impact of their battering ram.

“Akuchi, go and check on the progress of the attackers and give me a report,” Mayu instructed.

Akuchi and Aquillia left and ascended the gatehouse steps. “Sergeant Mayu sends her greetings and requests if you need anything else, sir,” Akuchi asked the commander.

As he waited for the commander to respond, Akuchi cast his eyes out on the force assembled at the front of the fort. A teeming mass of trolls pressed into the fortress walls. Bowmen at the gatehouse continued firing through a hole in the roof and kept taking down trolls. With each troll that fell, the body would be dragged away, and another would replace it.

“Thank Mayu for her concern and tell her to hold the gate,” replied the commander.

Akuchi and Aquillia left and descended back down the gatehouse steps and reported the news back to Mayu.

“The commander says he is fine but the force of trolls outside is huge,” Akuchi said.

“There were about a hundred and fifty at the gate this morning,” said Mayu.

“There are close to several thousand there now,” said Aquillia.

Mayu’s eyes furrowed and she bit her lip. “That is too many. How are we going to kill them all?”

Aquillia heard Mayu’s concern. “The walls are high, and the gate is holding.”

“Last time they attacked us, they used scaling ladders,” said Akuchi.

“But no ram,” observed Mayu.

“It seems that our troll friends out there are trying different things to break through us.”

“Up until the last attack, the commander said that they always had a firm pattern to their attacks,” Mayu said, “they would stick to it like clockwork.”

“I wonder what happened?” Aquillia asked.

“That is why I was hoping for a prisoner to capture.”

“Why don’t you ask Retha? She was with the trolls in the last attack, and she might know what would be different to force the trolls to try new things.”

Akuchi and Aquillia rushed to the other side of the fort. Retha was tending to the wounded in one of the barracks. As they ran towards the far side of the fort the sound of the trolls pounding the gate receded. That is odd; wouldn’t it be wise to surround the fort to prevent being flanked by the fort’s forces?

Akuchi entered the barracks and saw Retha tending to the wounds of a man that was badly wounded. The barracks was laid out in the same style as the others, except that the trunks had been removed and all the occupants of the barracks were wounded. Retha was sitting on the bed next to a man that had broken several ribs. She was wearing a brown tunic and a pair of trousers. Both were splattered with blood.

“Retha,” Akuchi called. “Mayu would like to talk to you about the trolls.”

“Very well,” Retha replied and finished bandaging the man.

As they left the barracks and walked back to the north wall Akuchi listened to the growing sound of battle. Why is it that the trolls only attack from the north?

After delivering Retha to Mayu, Akuchi beckoned to Aquillia and they walked over to the south wall.

“Tell me if you were laying siege to a fort,” Akuchi asked, “wouldn’t you surround it completely?”

“Yes, you would,” replied Aquillia.

“Then how is it that the trolls are only at the north wall and not the south wall?”

“I think it might have something to do with those mountains.” Aquillia pointed to the west wall.

The western wall was built into the side of a great cliff that ascended hundreds of meters into above the wall of the fort.

“Yes, I know about the mountains. Couldn’t the trolls go around the mountains?”

“These mountains are impassable. It would be impossible to cross those mountains without flying. They run all the way to the far ocean, in the west.”

“Then why build the southern wall at all?” Akuchi asked.

“Good question,” Aquillia admitted.

“The only thing I can see to the south is a great forest,” said Akuchi.

“It is the Bloodwood Forest,” said Aquillia. “The forest was once the home to a proud people, the dark elves. They were nearly wiped out by wars with the trolls and the orcs. Their queen saved them, but they paid a terrible price for it.”

“What was the price they paid?” Akuchi asked.

“Shortly after that fateful day no one has ever heard from them, and anyone who goes into the forest doesn’t live to tell the tale,” warned Aquillia.

“I am a farmer, why don’t we clear a little land at the edge here; we could feed the whole fort.”

“I am unsure of why they don’t have farms to the south unless they have attempted it before and it ended badly. The only way to find out would be to go into the forest and check. At the very least we could come back with forage, which would be better than just the stolen cattle from the trolls.”

Akuchi steeled himself and approached the southern gate. It opened with ease and they slipped out of the fort and entered the Bloodwood Forest to the south.

“It is an old forest,” Aquillia said, placing her hand on a tree at the edge of the forest.

Among the edge of the forest were several bushes each with a variety of berries hanging from them.

“There is plenty of food here,” observed Akuchi, bending down and plucking a ripe looking red berry, “while in the fort we starve each day.”

“Why would the commander just ignore this great source of food and starve his soldiers?” asked Aquillia.

“Maybe our fearless commander is afraid of what lives in the forest?” said Akuchi.

“Either that or he knows the soldiers wouldn’t dare to go into the forest,” mused Aquillia, “because of the curse.”

“What curse?”

“Anyone that has gone into the forest has disappeared. People think that the forest is cursed.”

A rustle in the underbrush in the forest brought their attention to the deeper parts of the forest. Aquillia turned and leveled her sword at the sound. Akuchi leapt forward into the darkness of the forest and charged at the rustle. Aquillia ran after him. He ran past several moss-covered trees and came upon a small herd of deer eating the foliage under the shade of several trees. Several deer heads came up and looked at Akuchi as he burst through the foliage. Akuchi stopped short and Aquillia barreled into him, knocking them both to the ground. Aquillia arose and assisted Akuchi off the ground, looking around at the deer eating the foliage.

Aquillia said, “There seems to be plenty of food, enough for the fort for quite some time.”

“Yes,” Akuchi agreed and knelt to the ground and scooped up some of the dirt. He removed his trousers, tied off the legs, and began to pick berries off the bushes, placing them into his makeshift sack.

Aquillia watched what he was doing and removed her skirt and affixed it so that it too worked like a sack and began to fill her skirt with berries.

They remained close to the edge of the forest and kept an eye out for danger, from the darker parts of the forest. After a couple of hours, they had filled their makeshift sacks with berries and other foodstuffs they had found near the edge of the forest.

Sweat poured off Akuchi’s back from squatting in the dirt.

“I haven’t felt this type of pain since I left the farm,” Akuchi commented, placing his full sack on the ground and leaning against a tree root.

“You were a farmer?” Aquillia asked, setting down her bag next to his and sitting down next to Akuchi.

“Yes, I was,” Akuchi said. He turned to look at the elf beside him.

As they approached the fort with their forage, the gate door opened. Standing just inside the gate was Commander Oghenekaro with his arms folded across his chest and a scowl on his brow.

“We have found some food.” Akuchi smiled. walking past Oghenekaro.

Aquillia said nothing just smiled at Oghenekaro as she followed Akuchi.

“Stop!” Oghenekaro ordered, his tone sharp and firm. Akuchi and Aquillia stopped dead in their tracks. “You abandoned your post and now you are parading around my fort naked. Take that food to Taya and then get some clothes on. I will deal with you two later.”

Chastened they ran to the store's building where they presented their find to Taya. The sound of the pounding from the gate continued as the trolls had not given up their attempt to retrieve their stolen cattle.

Taya frowned and placed a hand on her forehead in despair.

“Where did you get these?” Taya asked, trying not to look at them.

“In the forest to the south,” started Akuchi.

“The Bloodwood Forest,” completed Aquillia, smiling at their success.

Taya undid the knots on Akuchi’s trousers and Aquillia’s skirt. An assortment of berries and foodstuffs tumbled out.

A moment of silence hung in the air as Taya looked between Akuchi and Aquillia trying to determine if they were joking.

Akuchi broke the silence. “Oggy asked us to get new clothes.”

“Follow me,” Taya muttered as she opened the hatch in the bench and let them into the stores. Akuchi and Aquillia followed her down through the shelves and up a set of stairs to the room on the next floor. The room contained various assortments of clothing: dresses, skirts, trousers, shorts, shirts, and socks. Aquillia walked over to a pile of skirts and pulled out a replacement brown skirt and stepped into it quickly. Akuchi pulled out a pair of brown trousers and stepped into them. Once they were done, Taya took them back to the front of the storehouse. Oghenekaro waited for them, his face scowling with his muscled arms folded across his chest.

“What am I going to do with the two of you?” Oghenekaro said. He ran a hand over his face. “Akuchi, one day you are disobeying me, the next you are heroically saving the fort. You’re not making my life any easier.”

“Sorry, sir,” Akuchi said.