Author's Note: So Chappy 3 is up now, I hope you'll all enjoy it!

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Kyou Kara Maou or its characters. But the OC and Plot are mine… xD sliver lining…

Chapter 3

Sarah stood in olive colored uniform by the sidelines overseeing the new recruits. She left her coat in her tent as it was a hot day and she kept her pewter pendent in her shirt. Her hair was now long enough to be gathered up in a short pony-tail and she now wore fingerless gloves that helped her grip her hilt more easily. She found that after a month's worth of commanding, she regarded the leaders before her in a new light. The alias name 'Howls' had also served its purpose well enough.

Two week before, she had received orders to take a light company up into the mountain terrains for drilling. Her light company consisted of fifty recruits. She had been given the right to name her own sergeant and corporal, leaving them to bully the new cadets into shape.

Considering she never liked the humans in this world, she was less than enthusiastic in passing on her knowledge and skills to the enemy. And thinking of that made her wonder: why was she so good at fighting? For all she knew, she had never ever held a sword in her entire life.

She drew herself out of her thoughts as she looked up again to check on the soldiers. She watched emotionlessly as fifty soldiers fell over themselves trying to anticipate their commander's next orders. Seeing that everything was in a somewhat chaotic order, she let her mind wander again.

She knew if she were to ever get a chance to get back to earth, it would be to travel to Shin Makoku to talk with Shinou. As a low life cadet, she thought that she might have been able to sneak out of the city one night, pass the sentries and not cause too much of a fuss, but now that she had been promoted to captainship… What kept her here as a cadet for two months was: one, she found that the sentries were as thick as lice on a beggar and two, she was curious.

The humans were preparing for something and one thing was for sure: it was big. From what she overheard in the officer's mess, training had never been so intense and they were recruiting as many people as possible. Then something struck her, in the full three months she had resided in human territory, she hadn't even found out who was ruling in Shin Makoku.

She looked up at the sound of someone fall to the ground. Her sword was already half out of it scabbard when she saw that it was only her sergeant 'teaching' one of the smart-mouthed cadets a lesson. Sliding the sword back, she concluded that this wasn't exactly the best place to be musing and decided to resume it in the main tent.

As she walked towards her private tent, she then remembered the person she had bumped into the day she got her promotion. He looked so very familiar yet she just couldn't put her finger on whom he was. Orange hair and blue eyes, she was sure she'd seen him before. The morning she had reported in, she was surprised to find that he was one of the many under her command. He was remarkably gifted with the sword as well. But for an unknown reason, after two weeks, he was removed from her command.

She reached her tent and opened the flap. But before she could take a step in, she turned as the sound of a rider approaching. The rider, a scout or messenger by the looks of it, was admitted into the campsite by the stationed guards. Sighing, she retrieved her coat and turned back to meet with the newcomer.

Sarah slid her coat as she let the rider draw closer. The rider dismounted and took something out of his horse's sling bag. He gave it to Sarah.

Sarah opened the parchment and began reading it. Her eyes slowly widened as she progressed further down the parchment. After reading the message twice over, she lowered the parchment and for awhile, was lost in thought.

After a few tensed moments, her sergeant asked, "Captain?"

Sarah looked up. She folded the paper and slipped it into her coat. To the rider, she said, "You're done here, restock on provisions if you must, then resume on your orders." The rider nodded then led his mount away. To her sergeant and corporal, she said, "Saddle up; we're leaving for the city. I want every soldier ready to ride within the hour." They nodded and left to execute the orders.

For a brief moment, she thanked her lucky stars that she had always been interested in fantasy books with wars and battles. That was the only reason she had been able to give orders without too much hesitation, or so she hoped. Then she turned in the direction of where the city lay over two days worth of hard riding, now she knew which era Shinou had dropped her in.

Sarah had to hold her tongue more than once to stop herself from cursing her own stupidity every mile of road they traveled. She should have been able to figure it out herself and if what she presumed was correct, she wanted to be there before anyone made any decisions.

She had pushed the horses and her troop to their limits reaching Big Simaron, only dismounting to walk the horses when absolutely necessary, whatever it took to get back to the palace as soon as possible. At around midmorning, a group of exhausted soldiers cantered into the city.

Sarah left her sergeant and corporal to oversee the recruits as they unsaddled their horses while she made her way up the stairs and into the castle. A page stood at the door and offered to escort her.

Sarah was escorted to the forth floor where all the military experts were holding council. A herald announced her arrival and she was bided entry. Inside, there was a large table that dominated most of the room. Around it sat a dozen other captains and generals. Once inside, she was acknowledged and greeted with nods. Then, Foster indicated she should take the only remaining empty seat.

"As I was saying," said a man whom Sarah didn't know by name. "The Mazoku are restless, we must act now." Sarah's eyes narrowed a little at this comment.

Foster put his elbows on the table and placed his finger tips together to form a tent. "But we must first find a weak spot, a guarantee that we'd crushed them. We gain nothing by acting rash."

After a few moments of silence, a man stood. "I have a proposal," he said. Foster motioned for him to continue. He asked a page to bring over a map of the battle lines. "Here," he pointed to a specific area. "Are the front lines. This is a less then defensible location for the Mazuko, and unless they have an itch for sacrificing the bulk of their army, they won't have a chance of winning. I'm quite confident that if we break through here, we'll gain a tidy bit of advantage against the demons."

A few men nodded in agreement. Since the man was quite far away, she couldn't see anything on the map. "And here," he pointed to a new location. "This city is pretty important to the demons as well. If it were to fall…" he left the sentence unfinished.

Foster leaned over to get a better look at the map, and then pointed out, "But this, unlike the front lines, is a defensible position. True, if it was to fall here and we break through at the front lines, we'd have them. But I don't think we can risk sending our experienced to face that." He shook his head. "That's too much of a risk."

The man split a grin that could only be labeled as evil. "That's why we're doing the exact opposite."

A few eyes widened and some mouths fell slightly open, including Sarah's. "You mean to send the latest recruits." one man gasped, it wasn't a question.

"As bait, yes," continued the man, expressionless. "While we station our more experience veterans behind them. Let the demons tire first. In addition to that, we can slip more people around the battle zone and have them take the demons from behind. The city will fall within a week's time." He drew a path on the map with one finger.

And to Sarah's horror, she saw many around the table recover instantly and nod in agreement. They were actually agreeing to sacrifice a whole company of new soldiers… as bait! These people were heatless!

"Captain Howls," Foster said.

Sarah immediately snapped back to attention and said, "Yes?"

"I'd like you to lead your troops in the front line battle," he said as he slid the map across the table. "I've seen your troop in action, they have potential, eventually, they'll make good enough veterans," he continued. "The terrain is to our advantage and you will have also have the advantage of numbers. It should be an easy win and as a new captain, I'll let you take this battle."

The map skidded to a halt in front of her and when she saw it clearly, a lump was caught at her throat and her eyes widened slightly again. In the middle of the map, there was a label with the words: Front Lines. And right beneath that label, was another. Sarah whispered, "Luttenburg."

Time stopped. Everything froze around her. Scenes of the anime she loved flashed through her mind. The Luttenburg division… Almost no survivors…

If she led the battle, she'd be killing the half-blooded Mazoku that were volunteering and prepared to die. But if she didn't put up a fight, she'd be unnecessarily sacrificing her own troop. Neither was a solution… What was she going to do?

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. A page came in and walked over to where Foster sat. The page leaned over his shoulder and whispered something into Foster's ear. Foster nodded understandingly and dismissed the page. Standing up, he said, "Gentlemen, unfortunately as military representatives, we have to attend the public hanging which is ready to start the minute we get there."

Sarah raised an eyebrow in alarm. She wasn't informed of such a thing; nonetheless, she followed as everyone filtered out of the room. She suddenly felt the powerful urge to do something to stop the death sentence, then suddenly mentally laughed at herself for thinking of such: wanting to save someone from a death sentence without even knowing who it was or what he was convicted for.

After they mounted, Sarah's horse fell beside Foster. Foster gave her a meaningful glance and said, "I just noticed that your hair color changed."

Sarah just shrugged. In truth, she had woken one day to find that the roots of her hair were starting to reveal her real hair color. She thought she might make a dramatic change instead of get the same color.

Everyone rode in silence and after mere minutes, the gibbet slowly came into view. The feeling of panic was overwhelming her. A hanging wasn't something you could witness and feel nothing about.

A crowd was gathered around the base while two men stood on the landing of the gibbet. One was definitely the executer and the other immediately registered in her mind. Seeing him in his normal outfit and with his cheesy smile in place, was none other then Josak Gurrier.

Seeing her hesitate vaguely, Foster said, "Josak Gurrier, accused of being a spy for the Mazoku, that alone was enough to get him a hanging. I also believe he was posing as one of the new recruits that so happened to be under you. That was why he was removed."

Sarah's eyes narrowed as she directed her sight to the nearby rooftops. A glint of light was sufficient to tell her what was about to happen. There was no way you could be facing the noose and still be smiling.

Sarah considered what she had to do but before she knew it, the herald had finished naming the accused of his crimes. About a dozen of the named crimes were probably false. Sarah noted silently.

She decided to wait a bit longer. Instead of watching the gibbet, she scanned the place she had seen the light. And just as the box was about to be kicked from under his feet, her patients were rewarded. Five black figures stood up and were about ready to jump down, but before anything progressed any further, Sarah shouted, "Wait!"

Everyone turned at the sound of her voice and the rooftop men had visibly faltered before crouching down out of sight again. Sarah turned to Foster, "This man was a spy posing as a soldier under my command. I consider this a personal insult. May I have to pleasure in executing him myself?"

Everyone, including Josak, was momentarily stunned speechless. Then, Foster indicated to the executioner to let her do as she wished. Sarah slid down from her horse and made her way to the gibbet.

Sarah came to stand beside the box and she heard Josak say, "You're going to regret this, captain."

Sarah turned back to face Josak, then smiled and said, "Not really, your five friends up there are quite poorly trained, next time, make sure you tell them to hide their swords more discreetly." The expression on Josak's face was priceless. She hoped she was right in guessing what was going to happen next. She drew her leg back and kicked the box. Instantly, a dagger flew from one of the rooftops and cut the rope. Josak landed on his feet.

Alarm spread through the crowd like a disease and the horses on which the military representatives rode panicked and buckled. As they were trying to regain control, the five figures jumped down from their hiding spots and down onto the landing.

Foster looked up to see one of his captain being roughly disarmed then knocked unconscious. Just then, his horse buckled again and threw him off his saddle. When he got up, the seven figures on the gibbet were gone.

a/n:

So this is what I have so far. Please be critical and give it to me straight about what you think about it and how I can improve my writing. Thanks!

To Torana: Thanks for you're review! This chapter is dedicated to you, I hope you liked it.

To Wizshan: Thanks so much for adding me to your list, means a lot to me.

Until the next chapter,

Forever,

Val