Chapter 10, legend building 3

Tanya

I shook my head as I walked down the line of men who I would have to lead. I had never led anyone into battle, the wolves didn't count. If I had done so in the period I did not remember, that did not count either. The closest I had ever gotten to armed combat was a few FPS games and Medieval Total War 2. Neither of these qualified me as a military commander so leading Men into combat situations was well and truly above my head.

But I understood a few things. I'd watched Patton and a few war movies in my day, not to mention I had spent a good portion of my younger life reading up on military history. So I had some ideas of what to do: look impressive, act confident, and hope no one asked any important questions. It seemed like the best way to maintain control of the horde of barbarians I would be leading through the mountains to attack Lord Farthegn.

And they were a horde, of course. There were Russ's housecarls, at least 400 of them now, and another 200 shield maidens who had volunteered for this operation. As the king's personal soldiers they at least seemed to have some training and were lined up like a professional army should be. But the rest could best be summed up as a horde; three other Lords had volunteered forces, each of about 150 to 200 men, for a total of 550. They were not wearing the light blues of Russ; their colors were green, red, one extremely dark navy blue, and yellow. And their lines were not very professionally maintained, they simply were grouped up into what I would assume were cliques of friends. At least there seemed to be a standardization of equipment between most of the forces and Russ's personal army as almost everyone was equipped with spears and shields, with either a sword or personal axe as a sidearm for when the enemy was too close or the spear broke.

Except the yellows, every one of those 200 men carried a great axe of some kind. Their formation was also a bit heavier, I noted, having a lot more metal than fur and leather. I would have to find out who was the head commander of this force, because I would need to find out how to properly use them. The other three forces I could easily put into the wings of the main force but the 200 great axe soldiers… Well, they might need to be treated with a little bit more care on their positioning.

Besides those more lord-focused forces there was also what I was mentally calling the Adventurers Guild lackeys. Archers, scouts, adventurers, hunters, men of the wilds who were generally good with the bow. They had been paid good money from what I understood to work as scouts for our force, though how well they would do… I'd get to see if a lot of them were just as bad as the lesser lords' forces but I doubted that 200 archers would be a problem. They would find some usefulness in the coming fighting, but I wasn't exactly sure how I would use them yet. I had ideas but I would need to have a better understanding of the situation on the other side of the mountains.

I had nearly 1600 soldiers under my command, that did not seem like a lot but I was unaware of how many humans there were on the planet. I understood though that each person who was being contributed was someone who was not going to be able to help with farming duties as spring took full effect, so they had to limit the amount they were sending.

The same was not true of my enemy I would assume, which was a problem. Assuming that each one of these men needed at least one or two farmers to contribute to the food supply in their stead I meant I was possibly looking at an enemy that was double or triple my force in number, which was not a good odds. I did have an extra 200 wolves to add to the mix though, and they were each worth three to four humans in a fight.

Finishing my long walk down the line, I shook my head and took a breath. I needed to think of either a way to get out of this or a way to make sure that we all survived this. We had 6 months to cross the mountain, defeat an enemy with superior forces, and cross back before summer, when the environmental conditions would degrade again making crossing the mountains unhealthy.

How was I going to manage this? Looking back down the line I started to come up with an idea. It was not the most impressive idea but it was an idea and it was triggering a headache, which seemed to be a good sign.

Walking back towards the center of the line I found the king standing with several other lords who had contributed forces, all having what seemed like a lovely chat.

"Ah, Tanya! Do these forces meet your approval?" He asked with a smile that I almost thought was genuine. Man was using me for his own purposes. There was no way he really thought I would declare the truthful situation in front of him.

However, I could get away with playing up my wolf girl reputation. "The men are strong, yes. Though, as a pack, they seem unready."

'My men are ready." the lord in yellow said, seeming a little bit insulted. As expected, unfortunately. 'I assure you, miss, that my men will fight to their utmost and will bring victory and honor to this allied army.'

"Oh, I'm sure they will," I said, "every single one of these men and women will bring victory and honor, for a time."

"Is there an issue you've spotted that has missed our eyes?" the king asked, sounding intrigued, which was what I was hoping for.

"No doubt the fighting styles of each unit here are similar but they are not the same, meaning each engagement will have to be carefully planned for and set up. However, it would be more practical and successful if the set up happened here. If I was allowed to retrain them all so that they know how to work with each other in the field… An army that is more adaptable on a tactical level will have more success in this operation, since there is a possibility we will be facing a larger force." I proposed ignoring the headache.

The king nodded, seeming to understand my point, before asking. "How long would this retraining take? We cannot delay too long or the campaign could be caught on the other side of the mountains when summer hits. "

'A week here of heavy training and then, instead of a heavy march across the mountain, a light march with a light training to finish." I proposed.

"That would be cutting it close," he said. "If you're unable to defeat his army within the first 3 months you will have trouble getting back over and, as we get closer to summer, what supplies we can send over will become less and less."

"I do not have a good understanding of the enemy forces just yet I'll need these ranger types to give me more info about his movements and such but once I have this information I could theoretically have the army defeated within that time. It's all a matter of gathering the proper information and keeping my man out of the enemy's grasp until we're ready to strike."

"You have your week then. Good luck, Tanya.'

"Thank you, my Lord," I said before turning back to the forces arrayed before me.

This was going to take some time but where there are wolves there's a way. Nothing beats a pair of hungry teeth into forcing people into doing what you want, I hoped. Stepping forward I set out to get at work. First things first, time to find the sub-commanders and get them on board with the retraining.

Thankfully the subcommanders I had been granted for this operation were all having a very heated conversion, by the sound of it about who would be bringing home the most glory. The first was a man in heavy armor and yellow livery, he was most likely the leader of the yellow axe men due to the fact he was lugging around a giant great axe. If he wasn't as broad-shouldered as one of my wolves he probably would not be able to haul that thing around and I wouldn't be surprised that he might pull his arms out of their sockets if he moved wrong with an attack with how heavy it looked to be. Frankly it looked like a vanity weapon that was compensating for something but I would keep that comment to myself.

Besides him was the commander of the housecarls who had been assigned to this operation. His armor was almost as heavy as his warriors though he preferred what appeared to be a round shield and a one-handed axe as his main weapon. To their right was a man in red and green armor who had a two-handed sword strapped to his back. It didn't appear incredibly large but looked fairly old on him, possibly an heirloom of some kind. The last commander representing what could be best understood as noble forces wore dark blue and had a simple round shield and sword on his side. The last man I already knew as the leader of the Adventurer Guild and he played up the part well, wearing what appeared to be a wolf fur coat with the head of the wolf turned into a cowl. He seemed to be eyeing those of my wolves that were walking around with a wary gaze.

"Gentlemen!" I called as I walked up to them, getting them to stop whatever their conversation had been about and face me. "I'll make this quick and simple since we all want to get to work. What we have here are five different forces who have never worked together for a long-term operation. If we were fighting on our own territory this would be an acceptable situation but we are going to be crossing into enemy territory. As a result, we need to make these five different forces into a united one.

"And how do you propose we do that?" The cock sure attitude coming off of the leader of the Adventurers Guild frankly annoyed me but I did not let that show. Instead I reached into the pack at Geri's side and pulled out a shovel before tossing it to him then tossing an ax to the man in dark blue.

"Today is simple. Today we build a camp." I said pointing to the area around the men. "If we can't build a simple camp that is defensible and will not result in us coming down with diseases this expeditionary force will be killed by its own hubris. So let us learn to build a camp together."

The Adventurer shrugged before taking that comment in and nodding. "Sounds reasonable." Which was the important part. In order for a force to work with each other in the battlefield they had to learn to work with each other off the field, building a camp that would be sanitary was a step in the right direction. Tomorrow I would work on marching, shield walls, and anything else I could think of. Though I'd most likely use the sub-commanders to my advantage and ask how they usually trained their men, trying to give each one a day to train the entire force in their preferred tactics. If they at least understood how each fourth worked it would be able to work together better.

The only real problems were the heavy axe and the Adventurers Guild. I would need to spend some time figuring out what to do with them. Perhaps I could get the Adventurers Guild to learn to ride my wolves? Archer cavalry didn't sound like so bad an investment.

And if the trainees got a little too uppity about it, I'm sure my wolves could convince them to stick to their training regime. Nothing like a pair of sharp and hungry teeth looking your way to improve a person's outlook on their situation.

Sub Commander Ulfrik Eilifsson

God damn, it's cold! You think you get used to the cold and then you go up into the mountains and are reminded just how cold this world is. Didn't matter how many times I went up here either. I've been on several raids via the mountain pass before, even done even more dangerous sea travels but one trip on the sea had convinced me that I didn't want to step one foot on a ship again.

The sea clans in the coastal region may have a good time out there but me? Well, the queasiness would make sure I never really wanted to go on the water again.

Besides, despite the monsters that live here, these mountains were a safer pass to where we wanted to attack. Even if the travel was at least a week longer.

Too many boats moving would cause the sea creatures to stir. Unless you were hunting sea creatures, or you really really wanted to get somewhere fast, it was best to take the land route.

Looking down from my horse on the column of men moving I was fairly impressed at the good order they were showing. This giant witch the Russ had found seemed to have a wide set of skills besides the wide tracts of land and hips. I've seen quite a few men simply do what she told them to because she told it to them. And some of those men were the most obstinate soldiers in any of our forces.

I didn't know if it was the beauty or the commanding voice she could put on that got them to do what she wanted, though I would probably put it money down on the wolves. They seemed to be tame enough around her but it was best not to push one's luck. For myself, I didn't feel any compulsion to do what she said, her curves played no part on my mind because I was a happily married man. She had proven herself capable when it came to organizing marches and setting up camps honestly, and a real logistics-minded person too. How she would do once we got to the actual fighting, that was something I would have to see. If she got herself killed though I was definitely going to angle myself for the commander spot. All they needed to do is raid the hell out of trucebreaker Farthegn's land, no reason to fight him on the open as Tanya seemed to be preparing to do.

Not that I was against our Commander, the infighting in my own region tended to make such offices very problematicfor leadership. Having a commander from one faction controlling the others usually ended with bickering. The only reason that wasn't happening now was that Tanya was technically an independent party, with her own forces as the wolves. Yeah, she was allied to the Russ but everyone was allied to the Russ so that didn't mean much.

For now, though I was willing to wait and see what happened. Who knows maybe this time I would see some great and spectacular plan actually win against a superior force? More likely than not that we'd end up raiding and marching back over mountains, a little bit more tired than we could have been if we had just gone with straight raiding instead of training for a fight.

The glory would probably be about the same either way, it only mattered that it happened and not how it happened after all.

Riding forward on my horse, I got in front of my men and then continued on, wanting to see what was ahead on the way.

The low ends of these mountains that separated the coasts from each other were not as terrifying as the peaks near the top of the world, but the small and windy paths did make everything feel smaller. There was really only room for 3 men to walk abreast with a horse rider alongside them. It would seem like more than enough room to move but you needed to keep an eye on your men or they would do something stupid, so we had to maintain enough room for a horse to ride on the side.

I already had to save some farm boy from being attacked by a giant snake that lived in these mountains. Slimy little bugger came out of a hole and tried to drag him in, one good swing of my axe though and I cut that thing's head from its shoulders! Or neck? Do snakes have shoulders? That's a question for another time.

Whatever thought I was going to have was interrupted by a shout and large amount of noise breaking out from somewhere down the road. What was up I didn't know but I was fairly curious so I rode my horse hard in that direction to find out.

It wasn't that far, over by the dark blue company of troops really or near the center of the line. What I found when I got there was that apparently one of the larger Thunder Wolves had made it through our screens of 'rangers' as Tanya had referred to them as and was currently menacing that troop. The men were holding well and slashing at them, using their shields to keep it away, but they were not able to get in close enough for their swords to do any good.

Fine! I reached to take the great axe from the side of my horse and get ready to try and do battle with this beast when the situation developed in a strange way.

The wolf was snarling and biting at them from the left side of the road, pushing the men towards the right which was basically against a cliff face. Not a tall one, I estimated it only to be 20 feet high.

But it was high enough that I did not notice right off the bat that Tanya was at the top of it. Where she had come from, how she had gotten there? I didn't know. She tended to move up and down the line, making sure everyone was marching, being a little bit stricter with those who fell behind, and having her wolves menace anyone who tried to give her lip.

Apparently she found a way up onto the cliff and was using that as a shortcut to keep an eye on everybody since it would provide a larger viewpoint than being down on the ground with the rest of the marching column.

This, however, also meant that she was in perfect position to do something which I thought looked rather ridiculous. But very effective. She jumped over the column of blue soldiers and let gravity do the work to bring her down right on top of the big white Thunder Wolf that was menacing them.

There was a sickening crack as the armor she wore smacked against the heavy fur, possibly breaking some sort of bone inside the beast. Hard to say, could easily just be that there was ice frozen in its fur somewhere that made the noise.

Either way, Tanya was now on top of the beast and immediately got her arms around its neck. I think that was not easily achieved by the looks of it as she was barely able to hold on and pull at the same time.

The beast in question immediately started bucking and trying to get her off, smacking itself against a dead tree that had marked the side of the road before taking a few steps down the right slope and slipping off the cliff with Tanya.

As ways to go that was a marvelous one, I thought. Not only does she get a legend about taking on the king of wolves but she attempted to bring down one of the king of wolves' cousins in one on one combat. She only died because positioning screwed her over.

I shook my head and then prepared myself for the inevitable discussion with the other sub-commanders about replacing our noble wolf witch.

Then the wind picked up at an incredible rate as if a storm had been summoned and was hitting the mountains below our passage. The men, fearful of whatever this was, grabbed onto the side of the mountain and hoped they weren't blown away. I simply sat there on the back of my horse, looking stoic. I was not exactly sure about what was going on but knew that a show of confidence would lead to a better position in taking over, after her death was declared real.

Then the Thunder Wolf was thrown back up onto the cliffside by the massive amount of wind. Tanya was still holding on to the damn Thunder Wolf as if her life depended on it and I swore I saw something glowing in her left hand before they both crashed into the ground.

Everyone just stood there. We were shocked, unsure on what to do. All of a sudden Tanya pulled herself up, brushed off a little bit of snow and dirt that had gathered on her cloak, and walked over to the Thunder Wolf and checked up on it as she would have any of her others.

I expected many things but the wolf actually not trying to bite her hand off as she began making sure it was okay was not one of them. My best guess was that the Thunder Wolf I thought it was dead and wasn't exactly sure how to handle not being among the living anymore.

After a few moments of thought it seemed to shake itself free of whatever stupidity this was and stood back up. It looked around at everyone before its eyes focused on Tanya. One of her crows landed on her shoulder at that exact moment, which drew its notice. It bowed its head and backed away slowly, showing more deference than I've seen from any human to a lord.

Once it was far enough away it turned around and ran off, apparently deciding that human meat was off the menu today. Tanya turned around with a big smile on her face and said "well, gentlemen, it seems that situation is handled. Back to our march, we got a Trucebreaker to teach a lesson to and we can't waste our time up here."

The men immediately got to work doing what she said, marching in the general direction, but I just sat there on the horse stunned by the turn of events and listening to the soldiers as they walked by. Comments such as Chosen of the Allfather and Wolf King were made as they walked by.

Tanya for her part did not seem to care, only turning towards me after a few minutes to say, "good work coming up when you heard the racket. I wasn't sure what I was going to do when that thing first showed up but when I saw you there I knew I would have support."

"No, my Lady. Thanks to you, I've never seen something so wondrous as a Thunder Wolf being tackled. That is a scene that I shall replay in my memories for some time". I said, trying to be nice.

Tanya simply smiled and nodded "it was an honor, though I wish I could have done it without falling off that cliff. That was a close one."

"Yes, quite lucky that the wind kicked up right then weren't you?" I poked.

"Yes. Lucky." she said, slipping something into her pocket. My eyes caught what looked to be a rune priest beads as it was stored back.

My eyebrow raised a bit when I realized that she was dabbling with magic, making my comment about being a witch more realistic than I thought. But, as long as she was safe… That could be useful in the coming days. Having someone with powers could change any battlefield. Most of the rune priests tended to stay out of combat so it was likely to come in handy in most situations.

Nodding in my head I said "Well then, Lady Tanya, I believe we have a march to get back to. The Trucebreaker isn't going to defeat himself after all."

I got a smile from her, which was a sign I was doing something right. Someone with powers you did not want to cross as well, better to be on her good side unless I wanted to end up a Wolf myself. Who knew what kind of other powers she had.

Tanya

Felt good to be out of those mountains. There was less stress now but I had to put out so many fires and near chaotic moments.

The road we had chosen apparently was known to be hunted by Thunder Wolves, as a result we had run into four. After talking with the subcommanders I learned that it was actually expected that something like this would happen and that they had expected to take 10% losses from the wolf attacks. Thankfully we only took 1% losses, mainly from people who had done stupid things and fallen off the mountain or got their feet frozen off and had to be taken back by my wolves. At least I hope they made it back safe? They were riding on wolf back, they should be fine enough. I guess I would find out when I got home.

Either way we'd made it safely across the mountains and we were now setting up a base in an area that seemed less populated. We had a freshwater stream and I'd had the latrines dug well away from it and from the camp. I also sent out the Adventurers Guild mounted on my wolves to find out more information about the area around us.

So far their information gathering was acceptable. We had arrived in the furthest west of the Trucebreaker's territory. So far there was nothing of more than vague interest, my Adventurers Guild Riders had located several old fortresses similar to the ones I had seen when I first entered the lowlands on the other side of the mountains.

They also were long since overgrown and abandoned for the most part. Good positions for a siege if something were to happen but not one that I would like to be caught in. Best to keep the force moving as often as possible and doing as much damage to the enemy as I could.

As for the rest of the terrain it was allsnow and villages, I used the Adventurers Guild as barebone diplomats to see if those villages would be willing to give us supplies while we were engaging in hostilities against their leadership.

They had politely refused the first time which had required me to go deal with them myself. After an hour of long negotiations, while my wolves padded around the village, I was able to secure a local supply in exchange for the local currency that we would most likely be getting off the enemy once we started fighting them.

It wasn't a great deal but it was better than nothing and they seemed happy enough to have it. Although considering that the other subcommander said that we should just raid them and take what we needed, there was probably a reason for that. They were based off Vikings in their culture, I wouldn't be surprised if raiding and fighting were just as common as Viking culture had it.

So working on negotiating a deal was a definite improvement for the peasants of this land. This also gathered to me a bit of intelligence from the locals as I knew that the Trucebreaker was still in his castle far to the South.

However some of his lesser lords were gathering forces, apparently they were taking this whole situation very seriously compared to their lord. They had not called up the citizenry of their little peasant villages though, relying on the warrior class of this region. From what I understood it meant there were seven armies of around 500 to 700 men each, scattered across this side of the continent and slowly moving in my direction.

I didn't need the constant headaches that I had been having since taking on this job to know how to handle such a situation; I was quite a fan of military history and I was well aware of Napoleon's strategy of hitting the enemy army while it was separated and destroying it piecemeal.

And that was exactly what I was planning to do. I only had close to 1600 men while the enemy had twice that minimum, if all their forces came together I would not have a victory on my hands. So I set about making sure that they would not come together. I had my Wolf Rider Rangers, the 100 or so men I had been able to train to ride the wolves without getting themselves bitten in two, to head towards the second closest army with the plan to simply engage, distract them, and keep them chasing my men in the wrong direction.

The rest of my forces had been split up into three columns and were moving out of camp, we were going to hit the closest force of around 600 men in the afternoon.

As far as I could tell they were being lackadaisical and lazy as they didn't even have pickets out to let them know that my rangers had gotten within breathing distance of them.

Which was not my problem. If the enemy chose to be terrible at their job that just made my life easier.

Mounting up on Freki I looked over at the other commanders who were eyeing my wolf carefully.

"All right, gentlemen! Let's go settle the score on the ambush number. They don't have much right to complain, considering what they told with their crossbowmen." I said trying to exude authority and confidence.

It seemed to work as they chuckled before leader in dark blue Jon Alfgeirsson said "Yes, let's go teach these trucebreakers why you don't break the freaking truce. I swear Lord Farthegn was a fool who got lucky or a genius who overplayed. Either way this is not going to go the way he thinks.'

Nikolas Larlsson of Green and red nodded his approval before adding "a good point! Though I think he didn't believe we'd be as bold as Lady Tanya is proposing with this march. Most commanders would simply come over the mountains and raid everything, not interfere with the local systems. Really the more gold you bring across usually means the more glory."

I nodded my understanding but I simply said, "The king asked me to end a monster, that's a certain expectation that I shall meet. Raiding the countryside and being an improvision on the citizenry of this country will not meet that expectation, it'll simply put off the inevitable fight that will come from not taking this truce breaker down while we have the chance. Better to kill the poisonous snake today, while it is still outside your property, than to clean up the remains of your animals tomorrow." trying to make my opinion on the matter as clear as possible.

And I did agree with this opinion on every level. The man had broken the laws of civilization as those people understood it. Letting him walk around like that was nothing would just encourage him to do it more.

Laws exist for a reason, to protect civilization from its worse excesses. You could bend them, you could find loopholes around them, but to break them that was a betrayal of civilization. And I would not live with something that was no better than an uncivilized barbarian waiting on my borders for the best moment to cause mayhem and disaster for the people that I worked with.

Writers note: Not happy with a chapter, it serves the goal but I admit I could have done better, it was written over the course of 2/24-26, so yeah I was a bit distracted. I believe all of are and that's all I'm going to say on that matter. That's why diced to not do any of the battles I had planned for this chapter instead of shove off them to next week so I hoped I would be less distracted, chapter 10 of mando came easier so I assumed I will be able to to do that.

Let me know what you all think and enjoy.

Edited by: Preier, M.G. , Sunny

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Community editable doc (Chapter 10) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread

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Reviews
e10620ac: here you go... not my best week though
Valerious Lake: at least you shall not be dispointed to much
SuperiorFreak: yes yes he seemd to be...
Suzuwuzu: ah tanya dose have tendacy to avoid fight with her boss
Templarsith: so manny that if i mentioned every single one it would doubled langth of the chapter in bad way.
T3ddy: i hope it better then i feel about it
The-Grave-Walker: will do chapter 11 coming along at reasonable pace and it should be in better conditioned then