The Ninja and the Princess
Disclaimer: Say it with me people, I don't own Kim Possible!
Chapter Twenty Four: The Hour's Now Come
*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.
**all information regarding important events, figures, concepts, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton
***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time
-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume XXI, subject Urbanization–
The Three Kingdoms reached an apogee of urbanization immediately prior to the First Invasion. Efficient administration as well as advances in agriculture had created a surplus of food sufficient to allow many people to live in cities seeking the riches that accumulate there. While no exact records exist from the time it is believed that the cities of Lowerton, Upperton, and Middleton each had populations in excess of one hundred thousand persons. The devastation of the First Invasion greatly reduced this trend towards urbanization and the famine and disease that followed in its wake only exacerbated this situation. Estimates are varied but in the aftermath of the First Invasion it is believed somewhere from a third to a half of the survivors perished from famine or disease. This loss of workforce was a catastrophe almost as dire as the war itself. The population fell below the necessary level to sustain a large urban populace and many people returned to the fields. Also with the loss of industrial output farming reverted from a surplus based industry to subsistence level. Sparse records from AU 100 lead to estimates of the population of Lowerton at twelve thousand, the population of Upperton at twenty thousand, and the population of Middleton at eighteen thousand. Given the known levels of loss of overall population we can conclude that the once proud cities must have been nearly deserted to feed the dwindling population and that only trickles of food made it into the cities. It is believed that local fishing and ranching allowed Upperton and Middleton respectively to maintain a larger population than Lowerton which was far more dependent on food imports.
By AU 512, the year of the Second Invasion, the population of the Three Kingdoms had more than recovered and the cities were bursting with more life than ever. An overall population of approximately twenty six million found almost a quarter million in Middleton, roughly one hundred ninety thousand in Upperton and one hundred seventy five thousand in Lowerton. In addition many smaller cities boast populations of several tens of thousands. This is generally attributed to advancements in agricultural technology, those advancements are covered elsewhere in this work, as well as stable central authority allowing the free flow of goods. This ability to trade allows regions to specialize the types of goods they grow, typically regions choose the goods and crops they can best grow in the largest quantities. This generates surpluses that have allowed for a ballooning of urban populations. It is believed that the population of Middleton first passed two hundred thousand in AU 406 marking an important milestone as modern population had measurably surpassed that of pre-First Invasion times. Along with the rise of population in cities and towns came a great increase in the number of educated persons as well as industrial output. This was reflected in rising university enrollment as well as the establishment of several new universities along with greatly increased production of goods for household use. One final and most important indication of increased urbanization was the construction of new houses in all levels of settlement. With the steady increase of population younger children, particularly sons, could not remain at the family dwelling much past adulthood, many left to till new land and more still left for towns and cities. All these new people needed places to live and cities expanded appropriately, this provided not only new places to live but steady employment for a large number of newcomers to urban life.
-Rockwall Kingdom-
"The pillaging, raiding, and looting have to stop."
"But my lady, it's how warfare is done. We deny supplies to the Drakanadians, and we can deal with those who collaborated very swiftly."
"No," Tara's left hand would never be as flexible as it was before she'd gotten a knife through it but it was plenty healed enough that when she wanted to pound on a table she could do so with both hands, "if we were in Drakanada I would understand completely and I'd probably be encouraging you to give them a taste of the kind of war they've inflicted on us twice. But these are soldiers of the Rockwall Kingdom in the Rockwall Kingdom. We're going north liberating our people not conquering and terrorizing them."
"I think I'm not putting this right. With the Drakanadians forced out of their trenches the lines between armies are much more fluid and porous, our raiders are only doing so in territory still controlled by the Drakanadians. I assure you they are taking whatever can be carried away and burning the rest, we have to think of this land and its material as already lost to us one way or another and it is only prudent we make sure the Drakanadians cannot have it either."
"I suppose that makes sense," Tara wondered how Bonnie did this her whole life, so many people all giving advice doubtless presented to further their own goals and make them look good in the process, "but I've been going over these after action reports and the needless violence is just appalling. I get that the Drakanadians aren't going to welcome them with open arms but do your men really need to be going through villages like this? I don't see why we can't let the villagers gather what they can carry then have them hide out in the woods or countryside till the Drakanadians leave and then return to what's left of their homes."
"It would wake time, the primary weapon and armor of our raiders is their speed. They can be in and out of villages leaving them burning husks before the Drakanadians more than know that they've gone through their lines. I know it sounds a simple matter to have the villagers gather up their necessaries but you would be surprised when ones house is about to be burned what suddenly becomes 'necessary.' Waiting most of a day for villagers to load carts that can't possibly be hidden then making them discard what can't be carried completely removes our advantages and leaves the brave men going into enemy territory even more vulnerable than they already are."
Tara walked out into the sun wishing more than anything that Bonnie was here to deal with all this. Tara didn't think it unduly arrogant to say she was a smart person but running a kingdom, particularly during a war, took a different sort of person than Tara. At least she could comfort herself with the knowledge that the war was going well, as much as she objected to how the raiding was being carried out it was simple fact that if the war wasn't going well they wouldn't be able to undertake operations like that.
"Taking a break from the circus?" Tara hadn't noticed Felix wheeling up behind her and jumped several inches in surprise, "Didn't mean to surprise you like that but you looked kinda steamed coming outside and I thought you might want someone to vent to."
"Sorry," Tara winced a bit at just how much she'd worn her emotions on her sleeve, "I'm just not cut out for warfare. I get that everything we're doing is necessary, everyone from both the Rockwall Kingdom and the Three Kingdoms says that all the raiding is hurting the Drakanadians in a big way. But I just can't get it out of my head that those are real people this is happening to, they haven't done anything to anyone and they're just trying to get on with their lives when the world is going crazy around them and we're bringing it all down on their heads. I guess it's good I haven't been in charge the whole time, if everyone thought like me the Drakanadians would have already won."
"That's not true," Felix said as the two walked away from the village and out into the woods, "if everyone thought like you the Drakanadians wouldn't have attacked in the first place."
"That's sweet," Tara allowed herself the tiniest of smiles, "I still like getting out into the woods whenever I can. I didn't have many opportunities to get out the last several months and when I could come and go I didn't nearly as often as I should have. I know I need to get back though, way too much needs doing for me to just wonder around like this."
"I don't think the Rockwall Kingdom will fall into the sea if you spend some time looking after yourself," Felix navigated the rough road quite deftly in his wheelchair, "I think you can do a lot more to help get the Drakanadians out of the Rockwall Kingdom if you aren't flipping out and stressed to the breaking point. Besides if anyone deserves a break after having the world fall down on their head it's you."
"Excuse me," Tara and Felix looked down the road to see a man in tattered clothing walking down the road, "is this where the army is making its headquarters these days? I'm Gil Moss and I have a message for them if it is."
"It is," Tara said as she and Felix met the traveler, "I'm actually princess Bonnie's regent so if you want to give the message to me you can head on into town. I'm sure there's a hot meal and a bath waiting for you there."
"My lucky day," Gil smiled, "the message was for you and this saves me probably hours of waiting to see you." He reached into his travel sack, as he pulled his hand out Tara noticed the glint of metal and was already diving back as the knife passed through where she had been less than a second before.
Felix wasted no time reacting as he shoved Gil to the ground by simply running into him on his wheelchair. Barely managing to not fall out of the wooden seat Felix proceeded to add insult and further injury to Tara's would be assassin by very deliberately backing over his knife hand with an audible snap as the bone broke under the weight. While in the castle Tara could only react to all the injury piled on her with stoic indifference, out here though all the fear and hate that had been building up in the normally very good natured girl finally boiled over. Tara grabbed the knife from the ground and straddling her fallen foe plunged the knife into Gil's chest over and over again.
Still in no small shock from what had just happened as well as more than a little horrified at what he was watching Felix sat watching until Gil's chest was bloody ribbons and he couldn't have said whether more of his blood was still in his body or had spurted onto Tara. Tara finally dropped the knife and knelt there sobbing out all the suffering she had been through since the war started. When Felix silently wheeled up to her and laid a hand on her shoulder she threw both arms around him and continued to sob uncontrollably into his shirt that was rapidly being soaked with both tears and blood. Some time later that was how the soldiers sent out to look for Tara found the two.
-Upperton-
"Give it to me," Kim was still somewhat dizzy as she walked over to pick up her sword, "just how bad has Erik screwed us over?"
"The Drakanadians are invading," Josh put it as bluntly as he could, "if what I found is right they're putting troops ashore several hours north of the city. Erik probably fed them the locations of all our sentry towers some time ago. Near as I can tell he had people ready to take out those towers and give the Drakanadians a gap in our coverage to get a whole army ashore. That building going up in flames was a signal to him that he should kill you. They were hoping that it would throw the city and army into chaos and they'd be able to just about walk in and take the city without resistance."
"They came too close," Kim dug through the piles of paper on the floor that had been thrown from her desk looking for a map, "they definitely picked the best time to land. Our army was out practicing all day and they're exhausted, I'll bet the Drakanadians spent the day relaxing and staying fresh for this. Did Erik's papers mention anything about the Drakanadians bringing siege engines?"
"I don't remember," Josh wished he'd brought those papers with him even though he knew it would have been impractical, "even if they did it would probably be better to pull back into the city. Let them camp outside the walls as long as they want. I read that the Drakanadians were having trouble trying to find people to burn the docks, as long as they can't do that we can resupply the army indefinitely. We'll send word of the landing tonight and in a few weeks the Drakanadians will be stuck between us and armies marching from Middleton and Lowerton."
"We can bring in a lot of food by sea," Kim sighed, "but the Drakanadians timed it just right. In the First Invasion they attacked just after harvest, the city's granaries were full to bursting. It's the middle of winter right now and the city has far more people inside now than it did then. We might be able to keep enough people fed long enough if we can bring in all the food we can by sea. But the Drakanadian navy is going to have something to say about that, plus if the Drakanadians brought any kind of big siege engines they might be able to reach the docks and then we can't bring in any food. There's lots of farms and little towns north of the city, if I were the Drakanadians once I was sure we knew they'd landed I'd want to drive as many of those people into Upperton as I could and give us more mouths to feed."
"Even if we don't have a full scale battle north of the city we have to at least try to slow them down," Josh walked over to Kim's desk to look over the map she'd pulled out, "we'll also have to start getting as many civilians out of the city and moving west as fast as possible so we don't have to feed them. But we're going to have to use soldiers to make sure they aren't trying to take everything they own with them and we'll need to give them food so they don't starve halfway to Middleton."
"Damn," Kim dropped into her seat and started rubbing her temples, "Erik gave them everything they need to put the screws to us. If we want to avoid complete panic in a city the size of Upperton we're going to have to use more than a few soldiers. And every one of those soldiers is someone we can't send to slow the Drakanadians down. Not to mention feeding all those people long enough for them to get away from the city is going to be a big hit to our food stores. The evacuees will have to get practically to your parents lands before they're far enough away from the city we haven't been all but stripping the land bare to feed the army."
"We should use the troops who were garrisoning the city and defending during the exercises today as much as we can in the counter-attack," Josh tried to ignore the smell beginning to permeate the small room from where Erik's bowels had released on his death, "an open field battle like this is something they've all trained for and they won't be nearly so exhausted from marching even if we meet the Drakanadians somewhere in the middle."
"Whatever we're going to do we need to do it in a hurry," Kim walked out from behind her desk, sword in hand, and paused only to kick Erik's corpse as she walked out of her study, "let's go wake everyone up and stop the Drakanadians in their tracks. They're getting beat up in the Rockwall Kingdom and if they can't get a foothold here whether we want to invade afterwards or not we win."
Josh had wondered for some time where the mysterious missing Drakanadian army was. Now in front of him in the dawn light was the decidedly unpleasant answer to that question. He wasn't sure whether the Drakanadian banners before him were of noble houses or military units but he was entirely sure that there were far too many for his comfort not to mention his chances of continued survival. Most of the army in front of him was foot soldiers; Josh couldn't imagine horses being much use hours at most after such a long sea voyage. But there were still plenty of mounted Drakanadians, whether they'd somehow landed the horses earlier, taken horses when they landed, or were just using sick horses Josh couldn't have said.
"We've got more horse, and lots more heavy cavalry that we can use," Josh looked over to see Kim with the same pensive look he imagined was on his face, "but there's just so many of them. No wonder we were able attack like we did in the Rockwall Kingdom, all the Drakanadians came here."
"That means a lot of ships," Josh tried to slide his breastplate into a better fit over the chain mail underneath, "even if they didn't bring enough to beat the Royal Navy they'll probably sink enough if we don't stop them here that we won't be able to bring in nearly enough food to Upperton."
"Aren't you just full of good news today," Kim sounded even unhappier than she looked, "any thoughts on the plan of attack? Part of me wants to run the heavy knights up the shore and cut the Drakanadians off from evacuation if their ships ever show up. But that's sandy ground and I don't know how well a few thousand pounds of horse, knight, and armor will do running down it."
"The Drakanadians have a lot of spears," Josh found the veritable forest glinting steel points hard to miss, the Drakanadians must have felled a decent size forest to equip that many men and build as many ships as they had to move them, "I don't know if it's going to be practical to try a massed cavalry charge anywhere to start with. I think for now we're better off staying put. Our soldiers are almost all exhausted and every minute of rest we give them is better for us, plus we're on a hill that's a fairly decent defensive position. Our biggest advantage right now though is time, the Drakanadians probably can't resupply from their ships for long, they've probably sailed most of their fleet to meet our own and a lot of ships are going to sink or burn. Plus we sent word to Middleton, every day they spend here is another day another army is moving closer to them."
Evidently the Drakanadian commanders had been having a discussion that reached the same conclusion. Before Kim could respond horns sounded, shouts echoed, and the unmistakable sound of several tens of thousands of men all marching together began to slowly thunder towards their hill.
"So much for a plan of attack," Kim said, "signal all the knights to dismount and get into the line on the far left. Give ground as we need to in order to keep the line stable, we have plenty of ground between us and Upperton and I want to kill as many Drakanadians before we get back to the city as we can."
Bannermen started waving giant flags to signal that the knights should dismount and put aside their lances, meanwhile a whole host of message runners sprinted off to deliver Kim's orders to the army.
"This whole giving command to the princess just because I'm part of the royal family is pretty silly," Kim turned away from the steadily advancing horde, "I mean I've never commanded men in real battle. If I wasn't the princess I wouldn't even be here, and now I'm just in charge like that."
"None of the generals here have been in the Rockwall Kingdom," Josh pointed out, "that means they haven't commanded men in real battle either. I know I'm hardly a genius but what I've fought the Drakanadians and what you're doing seems like a good idea."
"I guess we'll find out if I know what I'm doing when all this is over." Kim all of a sudden sounded far less certain of herself than she had moments ago.
In the old stories battle was always a matter between two honorable combatants, if bows and arrows were going to be used the archers would always wait until the very last minute to only fire off one volley. Josh knew better than that and the commanders of the archers did too, as soon as the Drakanadians got close enough an almost silent whooshing sound carried back as arrow upon arrow leapt into the sky. The Drakanadians, equally pragmatic combatants, simply raised their shields as they continued to run forward. Despite their shields arrows still found their mark and the thunder of feet was joined with the cries of the wounded. Josh was under no illusions that arrows alone would stop the huge number of Drakanadians attacking and his expectations were not dashed as the many surviving Drakanadians continued on as inexorably as before.
Even before the first volley had landed another was on its way to thin the ranks of attacking Drakanadians. The Three Kingdoms though were not the only side that had brought bows, Drakanadian arrows began their own flight as well. With the advantage of not moving the Drakanadian arrows found their mark less often but some still won through the mass of shields raised against them and the cries of the wounded began to echo from both sides of the battle. Josh watched as several more volleys from each side arced across the sky and then the wave of attacking Drakanadians crashed into the defenses. No one could fault the Drakanadian soldiers for a lack of bravery, Josh sometimes thought them lacking in initiative but certainly they were willing to throw themselves headlong into a wall of waiting steel.
Josh didn't need to be more than the mediocre soldier he was to see that the Three Kingdoms couldn't hold back the massive Drakanadian onslaught with what they had in the field. Too many soldiers had been sent north to the Rockwall Kingdom to help fight there and too many had stayed behind to keep order in Upperton. If that many soldiers had still been in the field here and now or if the soldiers had had time to dig trenches like up in the Rockwall Kingdom it may have been a different matter but grudging though it may have been the Drakanadians started pushing the Three Kingdoms from one hill south to the next. The dismounted knights in their armor provided a near impenetrable wall on the far left flank that many times kept the Drakanadians from turning the grinding retreat into a chaotic rout. Even so it was only a matter of time until the lines broke somewhere, the Drakanadians were taking more casualties but they had brought many more men. Every fallen Kingdom soldier was one less to hold the lines while every fallen Drakanadian soldier was quickly replaced by a new attacker.
The first crack came in the center of the lines, the Drakanadians hadn't committed their own heavy horse until then and they chose the worst possible spot to do so. The center of the lines was held by the most exhausted troops and against armored shock cavalry with lances they didn't stand a chance. Crammed into a narrow area the Drakanadian advantage in numbers wasn't as effective as it could be but once there was a breach in Kingdom lines the Drakanadians had ample men to pour into the breach. Unsurprisingly they made straight for where Josh and Kim were waiting just back of the battle. Fortunately at least one of the prior owners of the Lotus Blade knew what he was doing on top of a horse and Josh made good use of that knowledge.
The Drakanadian knights who made the first hole in the line were still holding that breach so the first men to come charging forward were undisciplined foot soldiers. Spurring his horse forward Josh and the rest of Kim's guards met the attackers head on. Josh relieved a dirty looking bearded man of an arm before using his horse to plow another to the ground and stomp him to death. For every Drakanadian Josh hacked down though it seemed that three more took his place. Before long the rest of the army would have to fall back in head long retreat or be surrounded and completely wiped out, it was small solace that at the southern-most end of the fighting Josh would have a slight head start when the running began.
The horn off to the west made the battle stop for a brief instant as its low resonating note pierced the constant din of fighting. As Josh looked to the west and saw the banners of the army on the horizon he had to blink several times to convince himself he wasn't hallucinating. Josh didn't pretend to know the sign of every noble house in the Three Kingdoms but the sheer number of banners meant that most of those houses were represented in the army cresting the low rise at a full run towards the battle nearer the coast. Seeing a second army headed towards them the Drakanadians could only watch as their carefully laid plans fell apart on the verge of success. With their lines thinned from losses and stretched out over the battlefield the Drakanadians had nowhere near the mass needed to hold back the wings of knights who crashed into their flanks. What had been rapidly turning into a rout of the Three Kingdoms quickly became a slaughter of Drakanadians, with their boats at sea trying to draw the Royal Navy out the Drakanadians had nowhere to run and while many threw down their weapons and went into captivity many more fought to the bitter end. By the time it was all over the sun was well into the western sky and Josh felt like the day had lasted years.
"Not that I'm complaining," Josh saw that Kim's sword had enough blood on it and her mail armor had several tears to show that she'd done more than a little fighting, "but we just sent out a message this morning, how did a whole army get here that fast?"
"I think I can answer that Kimmie-cub," Josh turned around to see Kim's dad walking up to the two of them. For being a royal family the Possible family wore very plain and utilitarian armor, a trait not shared by all their nobles. "Awhile back we got some information from our spy in the Rockwall Kingdom that wasn't complete. About ten days ago our spy got that missing part of the message to us; it said the Drakanadians were going to be landing near Upperton. This morning as we were nearing the city a man on horse was coming down the road and told us just where to come, it was a long ride but here we are."
"That…" Kim was at least able to grope for words; which was more than Josh was capable of at the moment. The odds against an army made up of reinforcements waiting for deployment showing at just the right time were staggeringly low yet that was exactly what had happened.
"Relax Kimmie," Kim's dad wrapped an arm around his daughter's shoulders as the three of them started south with the rest of the army, "I don't think we'll be invading Drakanada anytime soon but we've won this round."
As the army trudged south in tired victory Josh pondered the end of this war and wondered when the next one would come.
AN: There you have it, the penultimate chapter of The Ninja and the Princess. I'm not sure if the epilogue will be rolled into next chapter or get its own posting but we're coming down to the wire either way. Lengthy battle scenes are a pain to write and I see now why every fantasy author I've ever read tries to make them as short and arching as possible. Likewise endings are a pain, I just realize I've left myself Tara's storyline to wrap up, Ron and Bonnie's, and the epilogue, why oh why did I do that to myself? In retrospect I'm disappointed with myself for not giving Kim nearly enough chances to open up a can on someone, Josh saved her last chapter then her dad this one. I'm almost tempted to make the Drakanadians win this fight so the war can go on and Kim can get her day in the sun. I won't though, the story is over and I have to accept I wrote myself into that. Anyways I hope you all enjoyed the end of this part of the story, the final chapter will be up next Friday. Oh and good job getting out to the polls Tuesday, poxes revoked.