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Dinner Before War
Commander Juste Toad Armstrong sat in his darkened tent and listened to the sounds of a war camp. Men and women of the Kingdom preparing themselves for the coming battle. A battle they knew they could not win.
Taking a knife off of the damp cutting board in front of him, Commander Armstrong began to run the long sharpener across its edge. The dull scraping sound was oddly soothing to the commander's nerves.
"Sir, I must protest," said a small man with an immaculately trimmed moustache. He was Commander Armstrong's political advisor "You must understand the effects of-"
"I understand."
"Sir, it could kill you."
Commander Armstrong did not respond. He continued to sharpen his knife.
Centuries ago, when the famous human Brothers from another world had come, they had unlocked the shape changing magic of the land. There had been magic in the Kingdom before. Most notably wand magic that the human rulers of the provinces had used to protect their lands. But the people of the land for who the Kingdom had been named could not use wand magic. The closest they could come to utilizing magic was to use enchanted items such as the ever popular flying carpet.
But the legendary Brothers who had saved the Kingdom those centuries ago, had found the magical nature of the land and utilized it. After that, it was found that only humans could use this power in way that the Brothers had. The actual people for who the Kingdom had been named, the soldiers and workers, could still not use magic.
Armstrong took a large white mushroom with bright red spots from a small wicker basket and began to slice it neatly and pushed it into a bowl. The blood red juice of the toadstool stained his fingers. He licked it from his fingers to the gasp of fear from his advisor.
"The camp will be attacked soon. This is no place for someone like you," Commander Armstrong told the nervous man staring at the mushrooms with revulsion.
After the death of the Benevolent Queen, the Kingdom began to fall into disarray. The human rulers began to take advantage of this new power and the destruction of their enemy by the Brothers. The people of the Kingdom were slowly pushed into the position of second class citizens.
Next he took a crimson petaled flower from the small basket and began to shred it with the knife. He added this to the sliced mushroom.
Commander Armstrong looked up at the little man still shifting from foot to foot in the shadows of the tent. "I said 'go'," Armstrong repeated.
"But sir,"
"Now!" shouted Armstrong, turning a fearsome gaze on the other man. The advisor scurried out of the tent quickly.
There had been an uprising. The people had gotten fed up with the mounting oppression perpetrated by the growing noble class. It was more than an uprising. It was a civil war.
A single leaf from the black stripped tanooki tree. Commander Armstrong began shedding it next.
Despite the superior strength and numbers of the people of the Kingdom, the human rulers had been able to crush them with their magic. After that, the people became true slaves. Then had come the experiments.
A wooden grinder filled with crushed shell of the black terrapin. Armstrong ground it liberally over the mushroom, petals and shredded leaf.
It was found that the people of the Kingdom could in fact utilize the magic of the land if mixed in the proper cocktail. There were side effects. Hallucinations, Anger... But Armstrong knew all of this and he also knew that it no longer mattered.
The ancient reptilian enemy of the Kingdom had returned and Armstrong's army had met them on the field of battle. Of course the human rulers, those who could utilize magic in combat, were nowhere near the front lines. The reptilian forces had been much larger than reported and now the small contingent that he still had command of was bivouacked in a blind canyon in a province once known as the Grass Land. The enemy was coming and outnumbered the Kingdom's forces by more than three to one.
There were other pockets of resistance scattered throughout the Kingdom. Or so had been reported in the last correspondence over a month earlier. The Royal Palace was the last true stronghold of the Kingdom housing every royal in possession of a wand. But that was far from Grass land.
Finally Armstrong added the final ingredient, the last part of the cocktail that would make it work for one of his kind and make it highly dangerous to ingest. A small glass vial of glittering yellow stardust. He sprinkled over the bowl and watched as it all began to dissolve into a clear substance. When the reaction had stopped Armstrong lifted the bowl to his lips and drank it all.
It was like fire and ice sliding down his throat. A red film covered his eyes. He felt his blood pumping faster, his muscles expanding, fire burning deep inside. Brown fur sprouted on his arms, stripped black. His skin hardened like stone. He felt invincible.
A shout. The sound of battle reached Commander Armstrong's ears. The chaos of the screams, discharging weapons, and metal on metal. It was the symphony that accompanied him as she strapped a thick leather belt around his waist that held several five pound sledges, the preferred weapon of choice in the Kingdom. Tradition set down by the Brothers.
The sound of battle grew louder. Commander Juste Toad Armstrong ripped aside the flap to his tent and marched towards that sound. The Kingdom would fall, but he no longer cared. The magical cocktail within him made him strong and for one more night, he would stride along the battlefield felling those who strayed in his path. Until his final breath.