The sunset was much more beautiful in Wutai than in Midgar or Junon. He supposed in was because there were no machines to block the view, just mountains. The sun dipped below the horizon before he made his way back to his tent. Tomorrow was another day, and he needed to fine tune his plans for it.
He entered his tent, his black cloak sweeping behind him. Today had been long and brutal, but its reward sweet. The battle was theirs, there was no doubt, and they succeeded in pushing the Wutai army back farther. Having gained about ten more miles of land, they pushed their camp farther along. They were now only thirty miles to the capital city of Wutai, and to Emperor Godo Kisaragi. If they took down Kisaragi, the war would be over, there would be no more casualties. Already, thousands of soldiers had died on each side.
In the heat of battle, the ShinRa general was in his element, doing what he was created to do. At the age of seventeen, he had been made ShinRa's youngest and finest general. That had been at the beginning of the war. Now, nearly two years later, he had lead his troops from the bottom of the isle of Wutai to being so close to the capital. It was a great acheivment to say the least, but he would not boast about it, he was merely doing his job.
In the middle of his tent was a table on which lie a large map of Wutai. About a week ago, the army had gotten clear of the mountain range. There was a line drawn to where the border of their camp was and how much of Wutai was still in Wutain control. Having sent scouts ahead, the general knew where the Wutai camp was located and about how many men they had left. There wasn't many, and though that was a good thing for the ShinRa army, it was very bad for the Wutains. The next attack would be in a few days, allowing both sides to recooperate for now. Though some were against allowing the enemy to rest, they said nothing; too many were afraid of the general to voice their opinions.
Though it was illogical to allow the enemy to rest while his army could take them over, the general knew, he knew that it would be somewhat dishonerable to take such an advantage. The Wutain people held honor in the highest respect, and he understood that very well. He would allow them to rest and regain their strength, though he knew it would really do them no good in teh end, as they would still lose this war. He knew that even Emperor Kisaragi would understand this by now.
He set his long katana, the Masamune, to lean against the side of the table and sat down in a chair. His eyes were closed for not even three seconds when he heard yelling from outside. Someone was yelling for him. He stood and left the tent. He could see two men, scouts it looked like, running towards him. When they neared, they were gasping for air and trying to keep themselves from dropping to the ground in exhaustion. "Sir," one began to say through gasps, "we..we've spotted..a..a..small," he couldn't finish. The other took over, "Village, sev..seven miles..east..from...here." They both dropped to the ground, having given their message. The general spoke, his voice deep yet melodic for one so young, "Have them taken to the medic tent. Where's Buster?" This made his men chuckle, even though they knew that the general was only looking for Zack Buster, a first class SOLDIER. "Right here." Zack came to the front of the crowd that had surrounded the exhausted soldiers. His black hair was spiked, though surprisingly naturally.
"Gather ten men and some chocobos. We're going to this villiage." The general gave his orders then swept back into his tent. He gathered his sword then left through the back of the tent. He headed for the chocobo tent, where his gold chocobo waited. It warked happily when it saw the general. The general gave it a large green and petted its neck. "There you go, Leon." The chocobo warked softly again and nuzzled the side of it's head on the general's.
"I hate to interrupt," came a voice from the tent opening, "but I assumed you wanted to get moving as fast as possible." The general looked over at the first call SOLDIER, "You should never assume anything Zack." There were ten other men behind him, awaiting orders.
"You men, prepare chocobos. We're leaving in five minutes." The soldiers began to prepare the chocobos, saddling and bridling them. The general and Zack did the same. They were riding out of camp when Zack walked his chocobo up to the general's and asked, "So, Seph, what do you think we'll find?"
Sephiroth shrugged, "I'm not sure. The scouts never said who was there before they passed out."
Well, that's the first chapter, but I promise that the next one will be better. Sephiroth, Zack, and the soldiers will arrive in the villiage and find out who is there. I think that you'll all be surprised though. As always, please review and tell me what you think. Your opinions mean very much to me.