Elder Astrid woke up and sat in bed. Everything that had happened in the past few days seemed like a dream. Her plan had gone perfectly, well, almost perfectly. However, she was now getting suspicious. She expected the Southern Earth tribe to come for some negotiations of sorts. After all, they had arrested someone crucial to the tribe. A few days of waiting, no one came. She had begun to suspect they were planning something. And as she heard the sound of a distant trumpet, her suspicions were confirmed.
Getting out of bed, she hurriedly dressed up and left the house. She arrived at the hall of elders, only to see the others already waiting for her. All of them seemed restless. Even Fal Mora who was usually calm and composed had traces of panic on his face.
"Our scouts have seen a large army of warriors camped up at the edge of the northern forest. We suspect they are from the Southern Earth tribe, but since when has that small tribe had so many warriors?" spoke Elder Peryite.
"What do you think, Astrid?" asked Fal Mora.
"The only way for the Southern Earth tribe to have enough warriors to challenge us, is by forming alliances with the other small tribes! What we need to do now is to break them up, and then target them one by one. That's the only way we can win without losing too many warriors", answered Elder Astrid, as she took a seat.
"What about the government? They can't overlook something like this happening! Why don't we go ask Saedis or Wilfreim what they think?" asked Elder Mahkith.
Elder Astrid frowned. So much for forging a new path. It seemed the others would rather dig themselves into a hole and try to dig themselves out of it. She was sure this was a very stupid idea. But then again, when have they ever come up with a good one?
"We have already spoken to Saedis, and he made his stance clear. Remember how much time it took us to get a letter of approval from him? Four days! As for Wilfreim, other than messing around with women, do you think he'll help you in such a case? We could go directly to commander Valdis, but we all know he only listens to Saedis!" berated Elder Astrid.
"Hmpf! What are you suggesting?" asked Elder Mahkith with a cold snort.
"We need to break up that alliance and attack them individually! That's the only way we'll win."
"And how do you propose we break them up?"
Elder Astrid kept quiet. She was thinking about a way to enforce her plan, when Elder Peryite said, "Why don't we directly attack them? I mean, we have an advantage in terms of familiarity with the terrain. Also, we have more warriors than that alliance of theirs!"
Everyone turned to look at Elder Peryite, who remained serious.
"Well …" everyone was at a loss of words. Even Elder Astrid could not find a retort against this one.
"Fine. Peryite, you're in charge of this attack!" said Fal Mora, as he stood up to leave the hall. Where was he going? Who knew?
The warriors from the Southern Water tribe gathered and left the small town to go and fight against a combination of four tribes. Of course, they didn't know about this, after all, no one in the upper ranks knew it either. They thought they had the superiority of numbers, and they were familiar with the terrain. What they didn't know was, they were playing into a carefully laid trap!
The battle began as the two sides faced off at the edge of the forest near the Southern Water tribe. The warriors from the Southern Water tribe just rushed towards their enemies while wielding short swords and iron shields. Reeve smirked as he saw this. Close to five hundred or so warriors were lining up for a slaughter! This was way too easy!
The alliance was smarter, they knew that in a head on fight, they wouldn't win. So, Reeve being a good strategist he didn't think he was, told the warriors to lay traps first. When their enemies reached the traps, a lot of them died and blood flowed throughout the battlefield. Reeve wasn't used to seeing so much blood, but then something within him caused him to keep calm.
As for the other tribe chiefs, they were surprised to see that the plan was somehow actually working. Well, part of it had gotten them so far. Arkad finally realized why Mrak and Karim had made this funny looking person the tribe protector. Or he thought he did.
When the enemy warriors went past the third trap, then the alliance warriors started throwing javelins, towards them. Their archers waited until a certain distance, before drawing and firing! The few enemies that made it past this firing line, were dealt with by the warriors standing by, who were wielding small swords and daggers.
"When are they going to use their shamans?" asked Reeve.
"Most people would rather use shamans in a battle like this as last resort. If they run out of magic in the beginning of the battle, then it's all over!" answered Arkad, with growing respect. "Besides, right now, even if they were to send their shamans to the battlefield, they won't be able to do much."
"Is that so? Oh well, it's almost time for the signal. I wonder what's taking the spies so long!"
As he finished saying this, he saw pillars of smoke coming from the Southern Water tribe! "About time!" he said with a smile.
The warriors from the Southern Water tribe saw the pillars of smoke coming from home, and they were suddenly confused. Did that mean that their enemies had managed to get to their wives and children? Thinking like this, who would want to stay and fight? They began to turn and run back, and that's when the alliance warriors started their attack!
Rizaneth had been having some relaxed days. It had been a week since the encounter with the zombie. She couldn't help but gently massage her chin when she thought about that zombie.