This was originally published by me under the name Anduril at Anime Addventures, with the only changes being a few corrections in spelling and punctuation and occasional word choice. If you like the beginning of my story but think I've gone off the rails, or have your own ideas for a great branch-off, or think I'm taking too long to update and want to continue the story yourself, come to Anime Addventures and join in the fun!

I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi, or anything I've borrowed and modified from the Banestorm setting published by Steve Jackson Games.

Normally, Nabiki would have found Castle Carrick impressive, for a medieval-style fortification. All the stone construction certainly had a more ... solid ... feel than the fortresses from Japan's comparative era, like a solid block thrust into the landscape with none of the grace of Japanese architecture, and the fact that both it and the supporting Carrick Town had been occupied and the royal holding of Caithness for almost two centuries rather than the two plus decades of the town of Tacitus made it the largest city she'd seen so far — it might even have a couple tens of thousands of inhabitants.

Unfortunately, Myrddin had decided to stay with the Kildar long enough to give King Thransiravst a little time, at least, to decide whether to aid Caithness — as well as to see at least the initial reaction of the Keldara to their call to arms from Miyo-chan. As a result, by the time the Court Wizard had felt it time to make the cold (if not as cold as a few weeks earlier), wet, muddy journey back down the mountain trails to Caithness, the barges he'd hoped to use to travel from Tacitus to Castle Town were gone, headed back for more food to replace what Baron Elohar had sent to the refugees and their Keldara hosts. Myrddin had decided not to wait for the river transport to return with the food, and now Nabiki was one solid bar of pain from her buttocks and inner thighs straight up her back after long, hard days in the saddle pushing from dawn to dusk as fast as they could without foundering the horses. It had been the roughest two weeks in her life.

Still sitting on her horse in the castle courtyard waiting for one of men-at-arms that had traveled with them to help her down (she absolutely was not going to try to dismount herself), she watched as the Court Wizard mounted the steps up to the castle's massive front door to greet a well-dressed couple (even possibly luxuriously-dressed, though she hadn't seen enough of this world, yet, to be sure). The man had a gold circlet on his head, so he was probably King Conall, but in all conversations with Myrddin about the local situation during the nights she'd spent talking with Myrddin's tent on their trip as his latest purported mistress he'd never mentioned a queen. (One good thing about what the pace of the travel had done to her, the men traveling with them hadn't been surprised that talk and sleep had been the only use they'd put the tent to.)

King and woman greeted the returning advisor; the king warmly, the woman less so but not merely politely, and Nabiki frowned as she watched the body language on display as the three conversed. The sexes were switched around, but the dynamics were all too familiar — the king was in love with the woman, and not only did she not return it, she was either oblivious or very good at ignoring it. At least there's likely to just be the two of them, nobody could match Ranma that way, right?

Then one of the men-at-arms was beside her, reaching up to her. "Let's get you inside and into a hot bath, soak the soreness out of you a bit," he said sympathetically — at least, that's what she thought he said. She'd been trying to distract herself from the pain on their journey by practicing the Anglic spoken in Caithness, but was nowhere close to what she'd consider proficient. Lyon lifted her down, and she fought back a gasp and clutched at the man-at-arms when her fiercely aching legs refused to support her. He chuckled and swept her up in his arms and strode toward the castle.

One advantage to pretending to be Myrddin's latest mistress, I'll be able to take more time resting on my back before meeting anyone, she thought, suppressing a grimace at her less than sweeping introduction to the castle folk. Myrddin had assured her that his reputation for selecting mistresses as much for their exotic knowledge as their appearance would provide the perfect cover for adding her to his entourage, but she hadn't been exactly thrilled with the idea and it was nice to find another upside to it.

As Lyon carried her through the halls toward the Court Wizard's suite, she wondered for a moment how things were going with her family and the rest of the refugees back in the mountains in the weeks she'd been gone. The kami — or whoever — be with them, she thought, shivering a little as she remembered the meeting with the Keldara elders.

/oOo\

Akane turned around on the road (trail, really) to jog backward at an easy pace. "Everyone, pick up the pace when I say, and we'll call it a day once we reach the lower watch point and get back up to the keep instead of going another two rounds. Miyo, pass the word to the Keldara."

Miyo, face streaked with sweat and staggering just a bit, jerked her head in a nod, then called out what Akane assumed was what she'd just asked her to pass on. Akane again turned to jog forward, waited a moment, then shouted, "Now!" and broke into a trot. At that the rest of the girls and a few boys unfortunate enough to be too small for the pikes, Japanese and Keldara alike and just as sweat-soaked and weary as Miyo — except Kuonji-san and Konatsu-kun, of course — somehow pushed themselves into a shambling trot, crossbows and quivers full of quarrels on their backs bouncing against the stiffened leather armor they all wore.

Good enough, I guess. Akane thought, trying to keep from grimacing. She still wasn't exactly happy with the way the training duties had been divided into endurance and fitness for her and basic hand-to-hand for Ukyo. True, Ukyo had proven able to beat her regularly when they sparred under Ranma's tutelage (though she was having to work harder for it). But, considering the complete lack of training any of the girls they were teaching had, that wasn't an issue. Rather, even Akane had to admit, if only to herself, that Ukyo simply had both more patience and a better grasp of how to pass on what she knew to a beginner.

At least Shampoo's gone. She smirked as she thought of her former rival — arguably the most skilled of the fiancées, certainly the most beautiful, definitely the most dangerous, with her great-grandmother backing her up, and in the end undone by her inability to master other languages. Ultimately, she had decided to return to Japan with Ryoga and Akari, and of course Mousse went with her. But that thought wiped the smile from Akane's face. She hadn't known Akari all that well, but she was going to miss Ryoga — a lot.

Glancing up at the sun, the only clock most people in her new world seemed to have, she decided that they'd made good enough time that she could justify a little target practice at the firing range the Kildar had ordered set up down by the watch post before returning to the keep. It would give them some experience shooting when worn out, and incidentally give them a chance to catch their breath. That way, they'd actually be able to return to the keep at an uphill trot and she wouldn't have to carry through with her threatened additional rounds.

Then, most of them could get back to their home duties, she and her friends (and Ukyo and Konatsu) could get in some training with Ranma, and Miyo could get in some more Bible study with Father Andre. (That last seemed a bit backwards to her, shouldn't the study take place before the baptism, not after? But apparently Christians had no problem with it, and she had to admit that the solemn ceremony had had a feeling of ... peace? serenity? acceptance? ... that she'd felt at shrines back home, even if she hadn't understood a word.)

A shout jarred the raven-haired girl from her reverie, and Akane focused down the hill, to see a young Keldara boy running rapidly up the road toward them ... one of three she'd seen at the watch outpost the first couple of times her trainees had reached it in their run that day. She smiled ruefully at the sight. Someone must have really read those boys the riot act — sure, it was their job to report anyone approaching up the mountain valley to the Kildar, but at the speed he was running, he'd be so out of breath by the time he got to the keep that he wouldn't be able to report to anybody.

Then as the boy reached her, and stopped to grab her arm and gabble something, waving down the valley. And it wasn't a happy gabble, either...

"Miyo, get up here! What's he saying?" she called back as the girls behind her came to a stop.

The newly-minted prophetess stepped forward. "He says there's a lot of armed ... nonhumans coming up the road. He thinks they're orcs."

"What are orcs?"

"A nasty nonhuman race that lives across the desert that lies on Caithness's western border. They're the ones that used to live in Caithness, before human settlers drove them across the desert to join the rest a few centuries back."

"Any chance they're friendly?" Ukyo asked.

Miyo shook her head. "Not from what Father Andre said. You'll find the occasional orc mercenary or two in human lands, even some Christian converts, but if it's an entire band they'll almost certainly be raiders."

Ukyo nodded. "Right, let's get back up to the keep."

"But we're supposed to be skirmishers, slow down the enemy while the men come up," Akane protested.

"With the crossbows, keeping away from the infantry," Ukyo replied. "That means we need to be able to hide behind the men or run away, instead of fighting up close. I don't see the men around; and as for running away, we've already been down to the watch post and back twice. The girls are exhausted, and the orcs probably aren't."

Looking over her people — sweat pouring down their faces, trembling and not just from fear — Akane reluctantly decided Ukyo had a point. Turning to the boy, she said in what Anglic she had managed to pick up, "Go, tell Kildar, tell Ranma. We behind you."

The boy nodded and took off up the road. The rest followed as quickly as their exhaustion allowed, Akane, Ukyo and Konatsu keeping at the rear to make sure none of the others got left behind. Akane found herself searching the crowd in front of her, and relaxed a bit as she found Yuka and Sayuri at about the middle of the pack. She still wasn't sure how she felt about their decision to join, especially now...

Raiders! Miyo said raiders! Oh, shit! Akane grabbed Ukyo's shoulder and pulled her to a stop as bits and pieces of the tactics the Kildar had been teaching the new battle-leaders-to-be, when they were able to squeeze in a few moments, swirled about in her head. "Ukyo, Miyo said they're raiders! When they get up the valley, they aren't going to bother with Ranma's pikes, they'll break up and go after the settlements! The Keldara might be able to fight back some and their houses are the next thing to mini-fortresses, but all our people are helpless, out in the open, they'll be slaughtered! We can't let the orcs get that far."

Ukyo stared at her, face suddenly pale. "Oh, crap, you're right!" She looked the few yards up the road where the rest had stumbled to a halt. "But we can't stop them, they'll just roll over us and keep going."

"We have to at least try!" Akane insisted. "Listen, Ranma will be bringing the pikes down to meet us, he'll want to keep the orcs as far from the settlements as he can. If we can find a good place to hold them back for just a little bit, we can send someone to tell him where, and to hurry."

Ukyo stared at her for a moment, then looked back down the road twisting down the mountain valley. There wasn't anyone visible yet, but some birds started up from the trees at the edge of sight where the valley curved. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. "The Pillars," she said. "I can chop down a tree on each side, give us a low wall. You, me, Konatsu in the middle, others with crossbows to each side, we should be able to hold for awhile."

"Good idea," Akane agreed, and looked up at the others. "Miyo, did you hear all that?" A pale Miyo nodded, and she continued, "Run up to Ranma as fast as you can, let him know."

"Why me?"

"Because we can't afford to lose you. Come back with Ranma if you have to, but keep safe," Ukyo ordered.

"But what about communication? Nobody here except me is exactly fluent in Anglic."

"Damn! You're right."

Akane and Ukyo exchanged glances, and finally Ukyo shrugged. "Sayuri, you're one of the fastest here, you go instead, give me your crossbow. Hrefna, you too, go with her."

Miyo quickly explained what was going on to the Keldara, and the two girls handed Ukyo their crossbows and quivers and resumed their run as fast as they could go.

"Everyone, to the Pillars, now!" Akane called in Anglic, and the crowd again resumed its slow run up the road.

Another chapter! And quicker than I expected, if more time than it could have been — a number of the previous chapters for other stories have been pretty long, for me at least. Still, I've moved it back to second rank and temporarily dropped "Chained World" while I finish up "A New Future 2."

Actually, Akane's wrong — a raiding party is unlikely to ignore the pikes and go after the soft targets. The pikes could simply swing behind them and block their exit, and orcs are hardly likely to be the martyr types, any orc raiders would want to have an exit. But she's new to this, and doesn't know all that much about what she's doing. Neither does Ukyo.

Oh, and the situation between the king and the lady? Straight from GURPS Banestorm.

As always reviews are much appreciated!

Chargeon: For crossbows vs. muskets, when it comes to actual battlefield performance crossbows perform much better than muskets when it comes to accuracy — especially the first guns. Gunpowder was originally much more useful for knocking down castle walls than field battles. However, there were two ways that the first muskets outperformed crossbows: their users could carry a lot more ammo to the battlefield, and they were loud. Don't discount that last, sheer noise had long been a weapon of war, intended to shake the morale of the enemy. It's what bagpipes were all about. And here you have something that not only makes more noise than anything previously created, it even sometimes kills people! Of course, battlefield performance isn't the only place you measure performance, and IIRC muskets were also cheaper and easier to make than crossbows, meaning you could bring more of them to the battlefield for the same cost. They were also just as easy to learn to use, and took less physical strength. And you are right about the shock value, but skirmishers are never about shock, their about scouting the enemy forces, keeping the enemy skirmishers away from your own people, and killing leaders if you can get close enough.

For the arms and armor of skirmishers, classically they were lightly armed and armored, often with a ranged weapon of some sort and a large knife with no armor to speak of. That might have changed by the medieval period, but by then decently trained infantry was pretty much a thing of the past—except for the Swiss pike and those that came to imitate them (ironically, around the time gunpowder started making an impact).

For sieges, yeah, they were usually either about betrayal, surrender when their position became hopeless, or a brutal form of attrition — whose army would melt away from disease the fastest. Which was why the besiegers would do things like catapult bodies of rotting cattle into the castles. When they did end by assault, the results were very nasty — read or watch Henry V.

Rune Tobor: Yes, there will eventually be training of more ki users. How soon is up in the air, but obviously not right away — it took Ranma a decade plus of training before he was ready for the really effective battlefield techniques. It could end up with a situation roughly similar to crossbows vs. longbows. Longbows may be more effective, but require a heck of a lot more training.

Sparky555: Yes, the breaking point technique would be useful, though Ranma would need toughening up. Of course, if you're going to own the castle you don't want to blow too many holes in it taking it ... hmmm, interesting balancing act.