Dawn broke over the Mardian realm quietly that first morning. In retrospect I should’ve known something was wrong at that very moment. In a world that was being torn asunder by constant fighting between the races and all the tensions that go with unrest, a quiet morning should have set my alarms on high. Instead, I lazily went through the morning ritual; lighting incense, opening the shades, making sure the idols and statues were in place, and other various actions. This morning was particularly important, as it was my first day as a colonel. Even the sound of hearing Colonel Hiroko hadn’t quite set in inside my head yet. The whole week had a sort of ethereal feel as if it were just some conjurer’s prophecy, meant to happen but not quite yet.
After morning prayers I adorned the standard colonel uniform and headed out for our training grounds. The clanking of the new chest-plate and the greaves bothered me, I preferred my previous scouting garb. This full bodied armor was too heavy, too restricting; somehow I felt this paladin armor was going to be more of a nuisance than a blessing. I know of a lot of other elves that would kill for the position I’m in and yet all I feel is a disconnect from the rest of my brothers.
“Hah!” announced Lieutenant General Taria heartily, “Seems Hiroko has come to join us after all.”
“Of course Lieutenant General,” I politely bowed, “Would be disgraceful to skip out on the first day would it not?”
He chuckled and nodded as we proceeded to walk along the courtyard. Lieutenant General Taria was a distinguished war hero, having fought in first two Elven wars. His face bore the marks of war. He had a deep scar crossing the bridge of his nose and his large square jaw always seemed to have the indents from the edge of an ill-fitting helmet, it was hard for the blacksmiths to make a helmet large enough for him. We were on our way to the war room where I would be assigned a Lieutenant and begin preparations for the upcoming war.
We entered the room and I quietly took my spot and watched the table, immersing myself deeply in my own thoughts. Tensions had been rising between the humans and the dwarves. The humans were supposedly impeding on Dwarven holy lands on Mt Koarui, but the humans insisted they were taking every precaution to avoid that side of the mountain. We understood the dwarves plight as humans had little regard for the religious and sacred places of any race, even us Elves, but nonetheless we were bound by our pact with the humans to aide them once they declared war. This ordeal was tiresome and boring. I began to wonder to myself why we even bothered to sign a treaty with the humans. Once I heard the news I knew something like this would happen, even my mother insisted I withdraw from the military and avoid getting dragged into the mess they’re creating. I furrowed my brow studying the table, the dwarves have advanced their campsites.
“Everything all right Hiroko?” General Amarin said looking over at me with a puzzled look.
“Hm? Oh yes fine,” I responded, “I was just concerned about the placement of those dwarven camps.”
“Are the off? Our recon units were very specific in their coordinates.” He spoke, now taking a closer look at the map himself along with the other officers in the room.
“No, no it’s not that. It’s just that the placement and size of the camp seem to indicate that they are building up some sort of defense on that road. Was there any significance there?” I asked.
“Nothing sir, that’s just a trade route,” said a thin Scout unit in the back of the room.
“Trade?” my alarm quickly rose as I turned to him, “What sort of items were on the caravans travelling that route?”
“Uhm, let’s see…” he poured over his list a bit panicked, “We don’t know sir, the caravans bore an unknown insignia. Here, the scouts gave us a sketch.” He said, handing me the slip of paper.
“Would you like to fill us in Colonel Hiroko?” Taria said as he came over giving the paper a look-over.
I pointed at the paper and looked up at Taria with an intent glare, “I’ve seen this before on a few of my missions. These are weapons caravans from Raulia, where the Dragonkin live! They must be allied with the Dwarves.” I exclaimed.
“Dragonkin? But what use would they have aligning with the dwarves?” said Major General Weoyn.
“I don’t know,” I said as I paced back and forth, tapping a finger against my chin, “I don’t mean to be rude and rush out sirs, but do you think I could meet my Lieutenant now? I would like to do that soon so I can go home and read over some papers from my contact in Raulia.”
“I suppose it’s all right if you’re onto something here Hiroko. Lieutenant!” Amarin called out as the scout went out of the room being replaced by the new Lieutenant.
I stood there waiting a bit tapping my foot impatiently, but the tapping abruptly stopped as I saw who had come in. She was a fair-haired elf around my age with a sour look on her face, most likely sour because she felt she should be of the same rank as me. We had been in the same class at the academy and performed similarly. Our only difference, albeit a glaring one in my opinion, was field experience. On our first mission we were sent out to recover some blueprints that a group of rebels had stolen. It was routine, easy in and out or at least it would have been if we had followed protocol. When we arrived at the rendezvous she had spotted a few hostages that weren’t mentioned in the dossier. I insisted that we follow the mission strictly and let an evacuation unit handle it, but she had other plans in mind already. Needless to say things went south when we failed to get the blueprints and the hostages and to add insult to injury she suffered an arrow through her left shoulder. The rehab and recovery ended up relegating her to run mostly courier duties between the villages while I took command of the recon unit. She’s resented me ever since and blamed me for the mishap since I wasn’t fully behind her plan. None of the other generals knew of this previous information as all mission assignments were kept confidential between those involved and the assignment corps, but nonetheless these lieutenant pairings were completely random so there was nothing to be done.
“Lieutenant Artymexia this is your commanding Colonel, Colonel Hiroko.” Armain said as he led her in and we exchanged a polite bow and shook hands.
“It’s an honor Colonel Hiroko.” She said with a begrudging tone, giving my hand a more than firm grasp.
I smiled back, “Well then sorry to rush us out of here Lieutenant, but we now have urgent business.”
With that said we both gave our salute and left heading off to talk in my office. The walk was long and quiet and I could already feel the tensions building.
No comments:
Post a Comment