Disclaimer: A Song of Ice and Fire is the creation of George R.R. Martin, not mine.
Summary: There was no turning back now.
Author's notes: Fic #17 for Livejournal community Ficlets on Demand's Fic a Day June Challenge '08. Request: Incorporate a Chinese poem by xellosspoo. Poem used: An Old War-Song by Li Qi. This is something I've said to myself I'd try: one same prompt for five different fandom :-)
Corps
by monitor screen
-o-
They had taken the Riverlands. There was nothing to do but wait now.
Through the bright day up the mountain, we scan the sky for a war-torch;
At yellow dusk we water our horses in the Boundary River;
In a way this was worse than before they won; at least then they had been the ones attacking. Having to peek over their shoulders at every turn, straining their senses to see if there might be an ambush - this was more trying than marching all the way over from the West.
And when the throb of watch-drums hangs in the sandy wind,
We hear the guitar of the Chinese Princess telling her endless woe...
And these Riverlands were creepy. Many claimed to have heard voices in the woods... No one would dare to say it out loud, but they all wondered about the origin of the name Whispering Wood.
Ten thousand miles without a town, nothing but camps,
Till the heavy sky joins the wide desert in snow.
With their plaintive calls, barbarian wild-geese fly from night to night,
And children of the Tartars have many tears to shed;
The Riverlands were nothing like the rocky hills and open grounds they had trained in, which made it that much more difficult to know what to look out for. And failures would be fatal; it was a dangerous game the high lords played, with lives as their stakes. Their lives.
Most of them did not ask for this. But then again most of them never thought there would be a war. They had expected bloodshed when they joined the troop, but the casualties were not them, never them. To think that any of them might die with the slightest inattention...
But we hear that the Jade Pass is still impassable,
So we should stake our lives following the light-chariot general.
But there was no turning back now, no way out of this mess unless they had fought and won. There was no way to steer clear of danger, to be smart and leave warfare alone. They had lost their chance the day they joined.
At least they were under Ser Jaime. He was not any better than the other high lords, but boy, could Ser Jaime fight. At least the Kingslayer would never be one of those who ruined everything before the battle even began. At least they could stand a fair chance.
-- Not that any of this was fair in the first place. None of them forgot that Jaime was a Lannister, through and through. They simply cherished what advantage they could have.
There was a clash of steel in the woods; the horn sounded.
Each year we bury in the desert bones unnumbered,
Yet we only watch for grape-vines coming into China.
They charged.
-o-
