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Rade watches with his arms folded as Nado's defeated noblemen ride their tired mounts up to his small campsite. One of Rade's companions is standing on his left, observing the beleaguered warriors in silence.
The camp is nestled in a small grove of trees, far to the northwest of the Atiming and its woods. Small groves of trees such as this scatter the nearby rolling plains and hills that Rade has been riding through for days now.
In the coming days, Rade plans to scout this surrounding area. He must find a path to bring his men through. But that can all be done in due time. For now, there are other, more pressing matters that demands the duke's attention.
He turns his attention to the one at the head of the mounted column. Time to deal with this failure.
Nado speaks first, his words exhausted and pained. "Mozoroff… we lost."
Rade shakes his head in disgust. "No, Nado. You lost. I fucking told you to wait."
"I know. And I screwed it up. Are you just here to lecture and chastise me?"
"Perhaps you're in need of it, seeing as you disobeyed my orders."
"I don't answer to you, Rade."
Rade sighs. "Tell your men to dismount. We shall continue this in the morning."
The count nods and relays the orders to his men. The surviving nobles dismount and begin to set up their tents near Rade's. Nado steps away from the scene, leaning against a tree and staring out into the distance.
From his position, the count can barely make out the form of the royalist camp past the river, over two-and-a-half thousand yards away.
He can also see a second camp being set up only five hundred yards away. This camp is made up of his surviving infantrymen from the battle, all two thousand, eight hundred of them. The count rode ahead of this group with the rest of his cavalry to meet with Rade.
He narrows his eyes as he sees a third, significantly smaller camp set up just beyond the woods on the north side, only three hundred yards away. They display no visible flag or sign of allegiance. Nado assumes this is the camp of the loyalist defectors he was informed might be coming soon.
A branch snaps behind him, and he's torn away from his observations.
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