Ambushed
Chaos broke out immediately when the people in the rebel caravan heard the warning call and turned around to see the snow kicked up by the approaching soldiers. Some of the more quick-thinking rebels repeated the waning call so people further ahead in the caravan could hear the same warning and prepare for the immediate assault. Each time, more people joined in and soon the call of an ambush sounded like a thunderous roar through the trees.
Panic spread just as quickly as the yelling, and fearful screaming joined in with the warning. The road they traveled was narrow and in a bad shape, covered in ice, loose boulders and deep tracks from the number of heavy carts. A quick escape was impossible, especially with the large carts. The more easily scared people had already started to scatter and disappeared among the trees, leaving behind most of their belongings and weapons in order to get away.
"Our people can't flee. They have to fight the soldiers!" Matthias yelled through the roaring wind, hoping Tino could hear him as they forced their horses forward. Uncontrollable flight among the rebels would surely lead to more death. The attackers could shoot them down as they fled and later hunt down the surviving stragglers. The rebels' main strength lay in numbers and scattered they were weak.
The soldiers slowed down on a small height with a view to the rear flank of the caravan. Those who had not armed themselves pullet up bows and aimed towards the largest cluster of people by one of the carts where most of the weapons were stored. A panicked scream cut short when the first rebel fell over with an arrow sticking out of her back. Soon after, another rebel fell and the arrows kept on raining down, hitting carts, animal and people alike. Blood was already starting to dye the snow in dark red.
Matthias and the scouting team was almost had almost reached the rear of the caravan when he realized mere defensive tactics could not save them. The raining arrows kept most of the rebels back and unable to reach their weapons in the cart. Matthias pulled harshly on the reigns of his horse and made a sharp turn, heading directly towards the soldiers, narrowly dodging an arrow.
Matthias quickly decided they had to do something drastic if they wanted to survive this ambush. He pulled harshly on the reigns and forced the horse to turn sharply to the side, heading directly for the soldiers, dodging another wave of arrows and realizing that his plan was rash and not likely to make a difference. If he was lucky, he might be able to distract them and give the other rebels a chance to collect themselves enough to fight back at least.
The soldiers seemed surprised by Matthias' move and they all turned their attention to the crazy loner heading directly towards them. He found himself with several arrows pointed directly at him and realized there was no way they all would miss him. Matthias ducked down and clung to the horse's back making himself as small as possible when the first arrows whistled his way.
The first one hissed directly above him, the second however hit the horse and the poor animal toppled over taking Matthias down with him, leaving the remaining arrows to fly by far over his head while he tumbled over in the snow.
Matthias grasped for his sword. He only had moments before the archers would have new arrows notched and ready to strike him down. Heart beating madly in his chest, he acted on instinct and charged through the snow towards the closest soldier's horse. He swung the sword towards the animal's front legs and heard the sickening crunch of bone breaking. The horse screamed in agony and dived face down in the snow, taking the rider down with it.
The soldier lay disoriented on the ground before the dead horse, groaning in pain. His armor was askew and snow covered his face when he struggled to get up. Matthias leapt forward and brought the blade down quickly before the soldier could recover. The sword struck in the gap between the shoulders and the helmet and blood gushed out over the ground. The soldier drew a last gurgling breath of air before he stilled.
Matthias let go of the sword and reached for the axe strapped to his back instead, its weight much more comfortable in his hands.
One soldiers was galloping towards him, sword raised high and ready to strike down, but before he could reach Matthias, he fell over and off his horse. The body rolled around on the ground and an arrow was sticking out of his chest. Matthias whirled around to see Tino on horseback with a bow in his hands and s group of rebels hot on his heels, urging their horses forward towards the soldiers, ready to defend the caravan.
The soldiers moved their attention from Matthias' suicidal assault and turned to the approaching group of rebels. They released several arrows and some of the rebels fell of their horses, dead before they even hit the ground. Tino fired of a second arrow and another soldier fell of his horse, this one wounded. Matthias ran forward and swung his axe to keep him from getting up. The rebels finally caught up with the soldier raining party and came together with the clash of metal against metal, wood shattering and the screaming of men.
Matthias felt small among the maze of horses. He had to dodge several swinging swords and stray arrows as he moved between the battling forces. It was difficult to tell friend from foe when he was of height with their legs, but whenever a rebel knocked a soldier off their horse Matthias rushed forward to end them before they could get up and if one of the rebels fell, he helped them get up and keep fighting.
One soldier wove between the fighting masses, heading straight for Matthias who barely had time to lift his blade to parry the first blow. The power behind the swing was enough to make his arms shake as he fought to hold the soldier at bay. A quick step back gave him room to swing his axe in a wide arch below the soldiers raised sword. The soldier jumped back out of reach. Matthias whirled around to make another sweep before the soldier could make a move on his own. This time the axe hit home. The soldier's chest plate caved in under the force of the axe and the man fell over with a gurgle.
The soldiers had far better training than the rebels did and none of them went down easy, taking down several rebels each before they died. Then more rebels from the caravan reached the field of battle and with the added numbers, the soldiers were finally overwhelmed.
Matthias walked between the fallen men and the wandering horses, feeling a bit lost as to what to do. A few screams of pain sounded out across the field making a shiver run down his spine. The blood on his clothes was starting to dry and freeze in the cold, making every movement uncomfortable.
Rebels were working their way through the fallen. Helping their own injured get to a healer, or when the injuries were too bad keep them company for their last moments. They cut down the soldiers still breathing before they searched through their belonging looking for anything useful; money, weapons, armor and clothing not ruined too bad in the battle. Then they left the corpses to rot without any further care.
The bodies of their own fallen ones were more carefully gathered and lined up on the ground just outside the battleground and away from the enemy soldiers. The rebels collected the more useful items, like the weapons and heavier winter coats, but none had the heart to take everything from their fallen comrades and leave them like that even if it was a waste of resources. They all wanted to leave the fallen with some final dignity in the form of clothes when they would not have the time or recourses to bury them all or even burn them.
Torleif approached Matthias just as he was helping some of the others put down the body of a young man among their fallen ones. The boy really, had to be a few years younger than Matthias. A massive gash ran across his chest and the paleness of his face, made him appear even younger. Torleif's gaze darkened as he took in the damage on the young rebel laying among the other dead and gestured for Matthias to follow him a few meters away from the main rush of people.
Torleif dragged a hand through his tangled beard, apparently struggling to find the words he wanted. Some blood that had spattered in his beard, smeared onto his hand and he grimaced as he attempted to dry some of it off on his clothes. "I haven't got the count yet, but we must have lost close to 50 of our own, if not more. He did not have to mention how devastating such a loss was to them. Against the far superior royal army, every man counted. "We are in some serious trouble if things continue like this," he hissed quietly so only Matthias could hear him. "The past two weeks we have lost more people than we have gained. We are still a long way from the capitol and we have already been assaulted by one ambush team, who knows how many more are out there?" His voice rose in volume and a few people in the vicinity were sending them curious glances.
Matthias rested a hand on Torleif's shoulder to calm him down. The usually composed and confident veteran was seemingly losing his grip. He was barely sleeping, something proved by the dark skin under his eyes. His mood was dark and his face line with worry. A few of the rebels had started to notice the change in their leader and his mood was starting to catch.
Torleif sighed again. "I know that people are starting to think that we will fail, but we cannot give up now even if we want to. A lot of us have lost our homes, our families; all we have left is what we carry on our back. Even if we try to get back to normal lives as farmers and hunters, those recognized as rebels by the authorities will face execution. The rest of their lives will be lived on the run, never settling down completely. So now I have to encourage them to keep on going right after we have just ben ambushed by a small raiding team that took down a great number of ours."
Matthias was about to formulate an answer when Tino came towards them with determined steps and a firm grasp around his bow. He glanced uncertainly at Torleif before he focused on Matthias. "Your plan Matthias, I'm in."
Torleif looked confused and stared at Matthias expecting an explanation, but Matthias remained quiet, surprised at Tino's sudden change of heart.
Tino drew a breath of air. "I know you haven't come up with anything definite yet, but I want to come with you. I have spent most of my life being a hunter, but now I feel like I am the prey. I want to strike at the soldiers where they least expect it." His eyes were shining with a fire of determination and his jaw set firm.
The moment was somewhat broken by Torleif clearing his throat. "So what is this plan you were talking about, and why have I not heard about it." He lifted an eyebrow at Matthias, looking none too impressed.
"I haven't told you anything about it because it was just an idea," Matthias muttered guiltily. "And probably a very bad one at that. I have only told Tino and Berwald about it at all to hear their thoughts about it."
"Well I'm willing to listen anyways," Torleif replied with a sigh. "We cannot afford to simply discard an idea before we have given it a chance."
Matthias pondered for a moment and he figured it was worth a shot. At least Tino agreed to come with him if Torleif gave permission to go ahead. "I want to find a way into the capitol, either by pretending to be refugees or by looking for work. If we get in, we can learn the capitol from the inside, find its weaknesses, and use them to our advantage. I want to strike at the soldier from within the capitol. They will never expect it."
Complete silence followed. Torleif stared at him in surprise and disbelief. "You have lost your mind" he hissed quietly and dragged a hand through his hair again, frustration showing clearly. "That's suicide"
"But we can't dismiss any plans, you said so yourself" Tino insisted quietly. "And it's no more suicidal than anything else we have done."
Torleif cursed softly. "If I let you go, what am I supposed to tell everybody else? They might think you have given up and they will lose all hope."
"You tell them the truth" Matthias replied. "You intend to head towards the capitol anyways, walk into the viper's nest you said. If the group of people I take with me to infiltrate the city succeed, then you will have a much higher chance to beat the soldiers. The capitol must be almost impossible to take by a group of untrained soldiers. Having people on the inside can give the others hope."
"This is crazy," Torleif muttered. He seemed to wrack his brain for a different solution to their problems. Apparently, he failed, because he sighed heavily for the umpteenth time that day. "If you are going to do this, then you need to come up with a way to communicate with the rest of us. If we are to coordinate an attack on the capitol or even just on one of the smaller cities nearby, we are going to need every bit of information you can give us. Considering how dangerous this mission is, I will only allow you to bring volunteers. I will not force anybody into doing this." Torleif looked defeated where he stood. It was plain to see that he did not want them to go at all, but he also knew he had to. "Come to me when you have a group assembled and I'll decide whether or not I will let you go." Torleif stared sadly at them for a moment, before he turned on his heel without waiting for any further answer from them moving his attention to the remains of the battlefield.
Tino flashed a short, sad smile at Matthias before he ducked his head and turned to leave as well. "We better help the others clear this up and I will talk to Berwald later today about joining us."
Matthias nodded tersely, lost in his own thoughts. Somebody walked up behind him, clapped him gently on the back, bringing his back to reality. There was still work to do before they could leave this place, but his heart was beating a lot faster after the conversation with Torleif and Tino.
He had to find more people to join than just Tino and possibly Berwald. Torleif was right to deny him from taking any others than volunteers with so many possibilities of failure. He had to make a more detailed plan for sneaking in and probably a backup plan. With the threat of the rebel army, the capitol has to be under heavy guard and with strict security if they even made it that far.
It took hours to finish the work of collecting the usable equipment and load it all up on the carts. Matthias wiped a few drops of sweat from his brow as he loaded the last few usable blades into one of the weapon carts. Torleif gave an order to pack everything and then move for a few hours so they could get away from the battleground before the set up camp. Dusk was upon them and the caravan was just about ready to move out. It was going to be a long night for them all.
Matthias was about to turn around and search for any remaining equipment when he realized Eir stood right beside him and had somehow gotten there without making a single sound. He cursed sharply from the shock and the old woman chuckled at him.
"I have heard an interesting rumor this evening," Eir said with a smirk. "Young Tino seems to be quite busy this evening. From what I heard, he is convincing people to join some mission to sneak into the capitol." She stared at him thoroughly for several moments. "Now, I wonder where he might have gotten that idea from. Especially considering that it was only days ago that we discussed the possibility of doing exactly the same thing."
Matthias laughed nervously and dragged a hand through his hair that was becoming a lot longer than he normally kept it. "I didn't know he would spread a rumor that quickly."
"He is a determined young man and won't hesitate to do what he thinks is right," Eir said. She raised a hand and grasped his shoulder firmly. "And if you want to succeed, you will have to be too. When this mission begins, and it will, you will be its leader and everyone will look to you for guidance and courage. You cannot afford to doubt yourself."
Matthias huffed and tried to shrug out of the old healers grasp. "I know that."
"Well then show it!" Eir said firmly before he could continue. "Stow away all that self-doubt and step up to the job you never wanted. A proper leader. And stop wasting time, there is work to do." She smacked his cheek playfully before she turned to leave.
As usual, Eir had an uncanny ability to leave him speechless. He glanced around to see if everyone else was ready to move and caught the eyes of Berwald a few carts over. The smith held his gaze for a few seconds before he lowered his head in on slow nod before he turned back to strapping the cargo to the cart. Tino certainly worked fast if he had already convinced Berwald to join in the mission when he had seemed so much against it in the beginning.
There was not turning back now. The plan was out in circulation, Tino and Berwald agreed to join. He just needed a few more people. He sighed heavily. It was time to pretend he was not as scared as he felt.