Chapter 187

"Do you know what the real problem is with magic?" Neia asked of Olasird'arc while she walked beside him along the training grounds where the orcish warriors were forming a shield wall. The shields were fairly crude, but by stroke of luck, the wide rounded shields they favored would make for an adequate wall if they were formed up properly. A wooden base with a sheet of steel over the front and a grip in the center, it did require a little modification.

Neia had a strap added to the far side through which the arm fit, and the hand grip moved to the opposite side allowing for far more versatility of movement, and the first of her changes were embraced by her new people.

"No, what?" Olasird'arc asked as she spun and kicked at the shield wall, her foot connected, and the orc grunted with pain, but he didn't fall. He was held up by a column of orcs behind him, each one bracing the one in front. Their shields held overhead to provide a turtle shell-like protection from missile fire.

The arrows clattered and fell, bouncing off of the shields, and Neia landed a punch at another orc who showed his face, shattering his teeth. "Better the shield than you!" She snapped, and though he grunted in pain, he wore a now less toothy smile and raised his shield up. 'Orcs have a high pain tolerance.' She acknowledged about her warriors.

She then looked up to Olasird'arc again and continued to walk the line. "It's easy. It's so easy that everybody wants to use it, they love it so much that when they have it, it's all they use. Do you know why I was so good at hunting orcs, and stone spitters, and snakepeople, and whatever else slipped into the wilds?"

Olisard'arc looked down at the white haired woman, "I'm guessing you'll tell me."

Neia chuckled, "Yes, I will. It's because I had no magic to use for that sort of thing. My ability to put mana into my arrows for a deadlier shot is… or maybe 'was' the only thing I could do. So I had to hide myself in other ways, learn how to use mud, moss, leaves, dye, paint, and the environment. That's the magic of nature. Nobody ever looked for that, they always tried to find signs of magic use. And that is how we'll win the first fight."

"You know I could just simply use my breath and claws to give you an easy win." Olasird'arc pointed out, and Neia stopped walking, she craned her neck to look up at the dragon and put a hand on his scaled limb.

"I know, but I have to establish credibility as a Queen. If people think my only strength is you, they will never listen to me. Besides, they need a win to get their confidence back. And if they win using the things I teach them, they'll embrace the new ways with the fervor of a religious convert."

Olasird'arc gave a low growl of acknowledgement, "You thought this through." He said and watched a group of orcs trying to push through a shield wall.

Neia patted his scales, "We're small, we're weak, we're short lived compared to dragons, but that means we have to work harder, not that we can't improve. We have to think, use our minds, and plan for anything. Paladins are taught leadership, and encouraged to improve ourselves continuously. This is how we… how humans, I mean, survived as long as we did."

Olasird'arc thought that one through while they finished the inspections.

Healers in the aftermath took care of the injured, and Neia went over the training results with the assembled tribal leaders. They sat cross legged at her feet while she sat on the rounded upper half of Olasird'arc's vicious claws. "You are no longer 'just' tribal leaders." She explained patiently, "you are my field commanders, one day perhaps even 'Generals', and now that you're aware of the power of unity, I want to make something else clear."

The various orc leaders looked back and forth at each other, their puzzled faces met, each one unaware of what their new Queen intended.

"Would it help if you had a few hundred, or a few thousand long range warriors to help guard your wings?" She asked, and the orc's recessed eyes became sharper, more beady.

"Yes, but orcs, we don't have good bows. Not good arrows. We fight close." Thalren punched one fist into his palm with an audible smack to emphasize his point.

"We're going to get that support from somewhere else." Neia answered.

The orcs laughed, "Humans will not help orcs."

"I mean the stone spitters." Neia said point blank, and they stopped laughing.

"They are your enemies, but they are your weakest enemies. They don't fight as well up close as you do. Combined? We will have two hands to one. I intend to attack." Neia said, "Just like when I was the Huntress of the Wildlands, I was always on the attack, defense may win a battle, but it will lose a war." Neia said to them, while they rumbled and grumbled a bit, "I don't want to fight them again in ten years, this is not going to be war as demihumans have ever known it. Not one of plunder, not one of simply slaughter or a cattle raid. You will learn to fight as humans fought, it's why they have a wall and you don't."

Thalren bowed his head first. "Huntress gave me life. Let us feed and flee. Gives us good shield knowing. Shield wall is strong, she is strong. We obey."

It was the endorsement Neia needed, several of the orcs affectionately caressed the crude but now improved shields that leaned against their bodies. The new grip style proved popular, with the shield bash being the cause of many an injury that kept the healers low on mana that day.

Neia stood up, "Then rest for now, my people., We begin again tomorrow, and select scouts to watch the Green Fist and the path to the nearest Stone Spitter village."

The meeting broke up after that, and the sun slowly disappeared over the horizon, leaving Neia alone with Olasird'arc, "Will you go to a tent or a hut?"

Neia shook her head. "No. I will stay with you."

"That will be fine." Olasird'arc said and watched the dragonid lie down with her back against his foreleg.

'I wonder if she will grow wings, or if her skin will continue to harden until it is like scales? Will she grow a tail?' Open questions, all of them, and the only answer he could come to was, 'Time will tell.'

Her strength was already far in excess of what it was before, which from what he gathered of the demihumans thus far, was vital to her future.

And strangely enough, he felt somehow it was vital to his own.