A mysterious looking man with light brown, almost blond, hair and blue-green eyes, clamored up the sole rig in the valley. It was a hard climb, seeing as he was wearing heavy jade armor. He looked out at his vast army of warriors in triumph, their similar armor, made iron and jade, glinting in the evening light.

Today would be the start of the first great victory of the Jade Knights and General Nathaniel could see his men were ready. His spy had gained the enemy's trust and had reported back how best to destroy them.

"Err, sir, the men are getting restless. They want to move out," said the anxious Scanran Captain standing to his left.

Nathanial sighed. "Tell the knights to prepare; we make our move at sunup." He said without looking away from the scene before him.

"Very good, my Lord," the young Captain said and he trotted off to spread the good news.

(line)

The Jade Knights and the rest of the Scanran army were lined up and in battle formation, waiting for the General come and lead the assault. They would have a short walk to their destination and when they arrived, they would merely have to wait till nightfall to go in and take their sleeping prisoners that their spy had drugged with sleeping draught.

And since they already took all the forts and fiefs bordering Scanra, this was the only one left.

Not even a mage could mess up this plan.

Just as a brawl was about to arise between one of the Jade Knights and Scanrans, the General rode up to the head of the army's formation and silence spread throughout the troops.

"Forward hoe!" Were the only words he yelled to his men, but it was enough to send his forces marching onward toward the place of the pillaging,

To Fort New Hope

(line)

Keladry of Mindelan was just outside of New Hope near the dense woods surrounding the fort, training the younger generation of the camp in archery and glaive work.

Kel watched her young archers fire at their target from a mile off until she decided that that was enough for today and let them go in to their supper.

As she turned to leave, she nearly bumped right into Nealen of Queenscove. "Watch were your bumping, Meathead." She said smiling. "Kel, you'll never guess who just came through the front gate!" Neal gasped, grinning ear to ear.

"King Jonathan the IV." She answered sarcastically.

"No." He said, rolling his eyes. "Go and see!"

Kel ran back into the fort, suspecting who it was, and ran right up to Domitian of Masbolle.

"Hey, what are you doing here? We were about to get ready to leave." She said, bewildered

"What, you don't like seeing your friendly neighborhood Sergeant?" He said grinning.

"Nope, but we don't like seeing our friendly neighborhood annoyance." Said Neal as he walked up to the pair.

"Meathead!" Dom cried grabbing his Cousin playfully around the shoulders and ruffled his hair.

"Sir Meathead, Sir! Does no one see me as the knight I am?"

"The knight you are, yes. The knight you think you are, well that's another matter entirely."

"Enough, peace. Dom, you still haven't answered my question." Kel said laughing.

"Well I figured we both have to go and report to my Lord Wyldon, so we might as well go together."

"Well then, let's mount up and move out."