Chapter 4: the grand defense

As Gora walks towards the throne room the halls become more and more crowded it seems she spent too much time tending to the burning dress by the time she makes it to the throne room the crowds are already locked in place. trying her best to move into the throne room but is blocked by the many people trying to reach the stairs balconies of the room. impatient as ever gora finds a way around to the side door in the throne room. three guards stand in front of her preventing her from entering this way. Though confident as ever gora approaches them with little haste"excuse me im needed in there"

the guards look at the sokaran woman confusedly with much contempt "What are you talking about lady? This here is the meeting of king Onei's defence on the luuton invasion only those with high military rankings and of noble birth are allowed in here"

his voice is quite stern as he speaks to gora. Gora's veins almost pop out of her head listening to this guard never in her life has she been confused with some lowborn"i understand that sir but im the grand chief of Sokara grand daughter next in line to be grand chief i am giving my aid in this upcoming conflict"

as annoyed as she may be she maintains her best at politely talking to the guards though it seems to bier no fruit"Dont lie to me ma'am i was told that the alliance with Sokara was denied i don't know who you are but you wont be getting into this room"

Inside the room the meeting has already begun. The high king looks among his subordinates that have gathered today. Rex and cofus would be looking around the room and the balconies for gora confused where she might be"i don't understand she knows where it is how can she not be here?"

cofus proclaims quite nervously"I knew i should of led her here but she was so pushy to be left alone i was sure she could manage."

before rex and cofus can continue the two low kings take their seats and the high king moves to stand in front of a podium. The high king once again looks around the room to see cofus and Rex nervously looking around. He sees that gora is not present and starts searching the room discreetly himself. At the side door at the wall to his right he'd see gora violently shaking a guard as two more would be trying to restrain her and drag her away.

His mouth drops and quickly in the most presentable way he can he makes way to gora and yells at the guards"what in the ancestors names is going on here?" one of the guards stop trying to restrain gora and bows to king "i'm sorry your sacredness this woman was trying to enter through the noble entrance"

The guard seems to be in a panic sweating heavily his face has a big bruise on it from a stray fist from gora as she flailed about as they tried to restrain her. Gora looks furious still voilently shaking a guard as she points to the high king"is this how you treat your guest high king? How unacceptable i have half a mind to pack my bags and head home now!"

her words contain much wrath as even the middle aged king quivers a bit. "You impudent fools you will release her at once or i will have you burned alive myself!" Immediately the guard that was still trying to restrain her stops and falls to floor bowing before his king. Gora drops the one she had been shaking furiously he falls to his knees as well and the final guard had already been bowing before the king had finished his sentence.

Gora huffs and dusts herself off"you are lucky sokarans are more forgiving than you astrou king onei i can't imagine the fuss this would of caused had the reversed happened in my grandfathers palace"

Gora looks the high king straight in the eyes when saying this. Her eyes hide no fear and no wavering. She moves past him and finds her seat next to cofus and rex. the king looks towards her with an odd feeling in him. Never in his life had someone so openly threaten him and yet there was nothing to be done about it. Deep down he had a feeling gora would be a necessary ally in this coming conflict. So without any further delay he makes his way back to the center of his little stage that his throne lies on. He glances around the room one last time and begins" i thank you all for coming in these troubling times. Many of you have traveled from the far corners of our kingdom with your troops ready for battle and for that you have my deepest gratitude. The flying raiders of the east seem no longer satisfied with the lands of the lisads and wish to expand into ours. We must now come together as a unified force to fend off these savages. As mighty as we may be our forces have never battled any men on flying beast before. Our flames only reach high enough to attack them when their diving to attack us with their ice" they seem to be attacking every 5 days or so, theyll destroy a village plunder it take the plunder back to their mountains and then return to raid more. a handful of villages have already been destroyed. We must send the majority of our forces to our border to fend them off. Theres 16 villages within this region so each each village will have 2 squads of knights in them then one on both sides of the outskirts between their neighbors.we will set up high watch towers in the region between each village if the luutons are spotted you are to launch a flare so that the guard towers will send for reinforcements. The luutons seem to only have one sufficient raiding party what started as 700 strong war party has slowly been widdled down to 500 over the last few raids with our new from the reinforcements from the rest of our kingdom well be able to fend off these invaders in with ease"

The rooms becomes an uproar of cheers as they king so confidently proclaims the war will soon be won before they have even considered it a war. Gora looks unmoved by the kings speech they have assembled a tremendous force. In only 6 weeks they had gathered well over 80 squads of knights, and have raised over 10000 levies with the already 20 squads of knights and the 2000 soldiers defending the boder making for a grand total of over 100 squads of knights and 12000 levies. While they definitely had the number advantage, Gora wondered if it would be more like shooting fish in a barrel for them. Rex glanced over at gora feeling her lack of confidence in them. Goras doubt cracks his unyielding faith in his kingdom that he had fought so hard to unite.

He ponders as to how she could have doubts. to him the war is won, soon the savages will-he thinks to himself when did he start thinking of this as a war? Were these luutons not savages of the north, another people for us to simply swat away like the Terraens of the west and the blasted alquurs of the sea. How could these beast riders stand in the way the unified astran kingdom what does she know that he doesn't? He thinks to himself quite paranoid as if he's trying to stop himself from even thinking about it.

The high king then gestures towards the door on his left four men come running in setting up a large poster stand that displays the battlefront. He looks toward the front row which consists of the most experienced of nobles and generals"now we must plan for where to send our reinforcements. They seem to be taking the loot they gather back to somewhere. We believe they may be flying back to their mountains but we are not sure. We just know they will raid a village then fly north to drop the loot off somewhere were not sure how far their beast can travel in a day but after a raiding a village they usually take around a week before coming back its been a week since the last raid so by now they're most likely raiding one of our vilages as we speak. They've been staying along the higher points of the potami river where our lands meet the sokarans so i believe we should reinforce the potami river moving upwards"

The crowd starts talking among themselves discussing what they should do. Cofus would lean over to rex." hey rex where do you think we should be sent?"

Rex looks at his younger companion and sighs"i believe towards the higher ends of the river would be best for us since it would put us closer to the combat and ive been itching for a good fight""

Cofus nods in agreement with his superior as gora just keeps looking at the war map with discontent before standing up"but what about reinforcements from the enemy your highness? We cant simply leave the lower end of the potami river open for attack"

The whole room looks at her, the king looks at the map thinking to himself before saying anything. Though one of the more high ranking generals stands up. A tall old man with a few fine lines of red hair between his grays.he looks down at gora with much disdain.

his clothes were of fine scales with a luxurious red silk cape. His stature was not just noble but dreadful many onlookers look away as the mans face looks toward gora so unfavorably"who are you to come in here and tell us how to plan our war little lady?"

His voice has much vile to it as he speaks. Though as others are fearful upon hearing his voice goras face shows nothing but rage as she looks towards the elderly man. A few of her hairs even shoot up."what did you just say to me?"

She makes her way out of the stands and makes her way to the front roy where this old man is standing"look here you geezer i do not care what rank you are in line for the high throne do you hear me?"

she pokes his chest with abit of force behind it causing the older man to feel abit uneasy as she keeps the finger there"i am first in line to the grand lands of Sokara and i have had enough of you cocky astrand think youre so mighty because your lands are simply more fertile than ours. I have traveled far from my homelands not to help you astra but to redeem my family's honor and i am tired of you astrou acting like im simply another one of your foreign servants that you can push around!"

Her finger still rests heavily on the mans chest her hair all stands up straight as her face creates produce a look more vile than the old man ever could. The old man looked fearful for his own life as the king finally looks back from the map."no she is quite right sir fensorera can someone send for me a map that includes the luutons mountain homes please?"

One of his servants nods and quickly goes to retrieve said map. He comes back within the minute and puts the map on display. Gora scoffs a little at seeing it. The lands of astra where perfecectly captured their borders were powerfully projected on the map as their neighbors were simply names roughly in the regions they occupied. Regardless though she looked at the king waiting for what he had to say.

"Look towards the mountains sir fensorera. That is the basis of your point is isn't it lady gora?"his voice shows no malice nor any hint at threat gora smiles and nods getting up to the map and points to the lowest most far eastern side of the mountain range that finds itself closer to the river than anywhere further up the potami.something that was not on the previous map."the luutons beast thrive in these mountains the entire mountain range is their true domain if we push up the potami river we leave ourselves open from the east"

Gora says with much confidence to the room of nobles, knights, generals ,and high borns. The room falls silent for a moment as they all look towards gora and the high king. Finally the high king speaks. But before he does he nods his head toward gora"i see so in that case i agree we should definitely send troops down further on the potami river ."he looks toward sir fensorera with abit of disdain"sir fensorera while i value you as a trusted vassal and advisor i think its best you learn to let the younger generations speak from time to time. One never knows the value they might have to offer"

The room falls silent once again the high kings words fall heavy onto the elderly lord. He promptly sits down his head hanging low as he refuses to defend himself in front of his lord. Gora smiles and looks towards the high king"thank you your majesty if i can request id like to be sent along the northern split of the potami river were the end of mountain range is closest to the river."

The high king obverves the map for a second then points to the area she was talking about."right around here then miss gora then?"she nods her head"then from here on out i bestow upon you the military rank of junior commander of commander rexans party."

Two servants come over giver her a little metal clip that had two scale imprints on it. She looks at it curiously before picking it up and putting it right below where her collar bone would be."thank you your majesty i look forward to helping you in this upcoming war"she bows her head and goes back to rex and cofus.

While everyone else resumes their planning rex and cofus look at gora with much shock."gora do you have any idea who that old man is?"rex says grabbing goras collar

"Hey you cant just grab me like that! Im-"

"Nuh uh missy you heard the king your now under my command and as your commander i have to inform you of the massive issue you just caused"

rex voices hold much authority to it. Though hes not being loud there is no mishearing him. He speaks firmly and flawlessly, Gora's left a little shaken and look off to the side" huh issue? What are you talking about sir rexan?"

still not looking him in the eyes as he holds her collar. Rexs face was still filled with much rage"that elderly lord you laid your hands on lady grigora was my father! Sir fensorera lacerana astra head of the lacerana clan and high commander of the western forces aka your now high commander!"

Goras is shocked, her jaw falls as far as it can go as she looks towards rex"wait what!"

Rex lets her go and sighs"lets just hope we wont have to face his rath directly my father is not a soft man by any means" gora frowns and just sits down she has what she want theres no need to make any more of a fuss.

Cofus would be on her right hed still be standing still trying to process all thats just happened. He quickly snaps out of it though and sits down next to gora and leans over to her"gora me and you are the same rank now."

She rolls his her eyes at him"what do you want? A cookie?"

Neither of them say anything after that for a bit. Eventually the terms are settled. Rex and his squad will be deployed to the higher regions of the northern potami river.a point gora believes is highly likely to be attacked.

As they exit the hall gora heads to her room by herself and sits on her bed without saying a word. Gora taking the spear from off her back unwraps its and looks at it. In a matter of weeks she will have killed someone with this weapon. She slowly wraps it back up and heads to bed resting comfortably in the soft bed after weeks of travel. This is a luxury she will soon not be able to afford for quite some time and she plans on enjoying every last second of it.

She peacefully lays in her bed, she had no need for a blanket as the palace was always abit warm. Gora joked to herself its because of how hot headed the astrans are. But she knew it was most likely a combination of the amount of fires they kept around the palace and the fact it was mid summer. The palace was never dark just outside the room underneath her door gora could see a glimpse of light.

The halls were thoroughly decorated with candles. Just another flounder of their great wealth as the forests of astra's land are plentiful with hives.she falls asleep into the night knowing the future would only bring hardship.

The morning comes softly like a warm wave. She awoke not suddenly but guided by her dreams to the new day. Looking towards her wrapped spear she slowly gets up and gets prepared for the new day no matter what it brings.

Gora makes her way out of room with all of her belongings knowing very well she may never enter that room again. She looks around for sir cofus and sir rex while wandering around trying to find a place to eat. She thought about asking the blue haired servant but felt bad associating with her.

Finally after some odd couple of minutes she finds whats looks to be a fine dining hall. After entering the grand hall she looks to a line of people lining up to get food. After waiting in the line for a bit she looks around the halls and spots rex and cofus eating at a table with two other people. Gora smiles and move her way over to them.with her tray of food. She sits next to rex at the end of the 6 person table cofus would be across from her."so were heading out today then? Thats why all these people are gathered here right?"

Gora says before stuffing her face with her food. Rex looks at his new junior commander and does his best to force a smile"yes gora by high noon we will be traveling towards the battlefront. Im glad you have an appetite because this might the last good meal you get for the next few weeks. The eastern regions of the potami river are sparsely populated and our ownly supplies will be from what little we bring and what the villagers can afford to give us. Which im afraid most likely will not be alot" rex says to the eating chieftain princess

Gora stops eating and looks over to the two people sitting at the table chatting with cofus. She had a feeling she met one of them yesterday but couldn't say who the other one is."uh huh that really sucks captain but i have to ask who are those two?"she says pointing at the two.

Everyone at the table looks around eachother before the four of them chuckle abit. Which Seems only irritate gora abit slamming her fist onto the table"hey don't laugh its a serious question!"

They nod and stifle their chuckling ,trying to regain their composer. Cofus looks gora in the eyes with a grin and gestures towards the two strangers"of course im sorry lady gora youre right its quite odd you don't know the people you'll be fighting with yet. This gentlemen to my right is Sicus messor astra our musical aid."

gora remembers now Sicus was the skinny man from before that was playing the strange lute called the pandura . his hair was barely speckled with a few red hairs gora could see what looked to be th body of his instrument strapped to his back."and this lovely lady is Arvus messor astra our scout"

Cofus introduces the lady while looking at her with a smile. They both wave to gora as they eat their food. Arvus seemed to be a slender woman with a bow resting on her back and only a single row of hair seems to have that signature astra red. Gora unsurely waved back to the two"your two are both messors. you two are related then no?" gora ask the two.

"Yes were actually siblings lady grigora"Sicus says as he finishes the last bit of his food

As everyone else finishes up rex stands up."gora i see you have your stuff good thatll save us some time we're to head out as soon as possible so once were done here well head to stables to get on our mounts and meet the last two members of my squad"

Gora nods and finishes the last bit of her food up not leaving a single scrap. She then quickly stands up looks at rex with a big grin on her face"ok then lets get a moving then we have an invasion to fight off what are we doing standing around here?"

Gora and the others make it to the stables to retrieve their mounts, Gora smiles looking upon her trusted steed again. A beautiful horse that had yellow patches of fur on its mane while it wasn't as luxurious as a dragon this large war horse wasn't anything to overlook . she hugs the beast neck before attaching her stuff to it and getting on.

The beast patiently waits for its master to mount it. Once gora hops on its waits to follow her every command. Gora looks over to the other members of the party rex looks at them all"ok everyone we need to meet up with utum and secomi at the eastern bridge"

rex shouts out to his crew. Once they do make it to the bridge they find around 200 people moving through the area at this moment. Its likely that they'll be traveling with these people for a minute as they make their way to their defense positions

Rex spots his two men waiting to the side of the road away from the main flow of crossing soldiers. Cutting through the natural flow of traffic they make their way over to them rex smiles as he sees the last two men of his unit."gora meet utum omin astra"

He gestures to a behemoth of a man with flowing red stripes of hair mixed with his long blades of black hair. a set of javelins are mounted on his back as a large shield is tied to the side of his lizard mount."and that is secomi"

The giant smiles at gora waving at her seeming very happy to see her. He then gestures to a man with a saber attached to his side. He only had one red swirl of hair on each side of his head giving him the appearance of having little red horns.his eyes loom with intensity as he observes gora like a hawk but says nothing only acknowledging her presence with a simple raising of his hand for a half assed wave. Gora looks at these men with a bit of fascination they seem quite different than the other astrans so far.

As they get close enough to talk she looks at the astrans in front of her but says nothing before looking away. Not one to stand around and gawk gora looks toward rex"so this is everyone then rex? If so let us proceed to the bridge."

rex nods and moves his mount to move that way. After they cross the bridge rexan takes the lead the group is now heading to some of their most western regions. Gora glances around at her new comrades; these are to be the people she is trusting her life with. She didn't say anything to anyone fore abit enjoying the view of the countryside of the river valley. There were crops all along the road; she thought how funny it is that the luutons were always raiding her and the lisads empty grasslands and yet they had yet to raid the fruitful lands of astra.

Eventually though Sicus comes up to lady gora with his little 4 string guitar in hand strumming away"so lady gora i understand your a sokaran princess its incredible that you are out her fight for us"

Gora scoffs at his petty attempt of commerce"no i am THE princess of Sokara. i am next in line to be the grand chief of your neighboring nation. I am here on a quest to redeem a piece of my families legacy. The only reason i am here is because you astrou have gave me a convenient way of doing so"

Goras voice is bold, it holds no malice but is crushing regardless Sicus frowns and backs away feeling deflected by the princesses' hard words. Though as time goes by gora finds herself riding next to rex. Theyd be having a pleasant conversation about the scenery of the land and its beauty.

Cofus looks over to the conversing escapaders considering joining in on their conversation but not wanting to merely throw himself into the chat he resides to simply enjoying the scenery while they are as well but without them.

Sicus and his sister Arvus would be chatting along the path. Sicus strumming away on his pandura the roads are loosely scattered with soldiers making their way to their defensive position the sounds of instruments being played fills the air making it sweet as they all play in tune within each other. Noisy is not the word one would use to describe such a scene, lively feels more well placed as the soldiers laugh and cheer as they march towards the front.

As hours go by a few soldiers part ways but the roads stay lively cofus and rex would be talking together as gora finds herself commercing with a young man whose hair has two stripes of green on his bangs. His ox that he rides upom would be a beautiful creature it was mostly white with green spots decorated around its body and the tips of the powerful beasts horns.

She looked at the ox amazedly for a moment before looking back to the green haired man"so youre a lisad then huh? Green hair and the ox kinda a dead give away"

Gora says smiling at the stranger. The young man looks over to her and nods though his face carried much self contempt to it"yes and im guessing by the bulky stallion and the bright untamed yellow hair youre a sokaran no?"

Gora nods not sure how to take the the messy hair remark but for now smiles and puts it aside"so why are you helping the astrans as well neighbor?"

she says looking at the man interested in what his story might be .He looks at her and sighs, his eyes fall somberly downwards."my tribe migrated from our majestic plains found in the most southern of the luutons tributaries. We headed for the coast to hopefully escape the luutons greed. As the astran influence grew in the area we moved into the cities the lisadgi are a proud people of the calm plains once i heard the luutons were pushing further into my peoples homelands and reaching the edges of the astras. I made sure to enlist my aid."

Gora looks at the man with abit of respect" a man that fights for what he believes the world can never have too many of those just don't let people have you to believe what they want you to fight for"

The lisad man was taken aback his beast slows down as he blankly stares at gora who movies on ahead of him wondering what she could mean. Gora eventually finds herself chatting with utum along the road.

She looks at the massive shield that was attached to his hulking beast. His lizard a large monitor with a big gut it holds its head high so thats its on body doesn't touch the ground. While not a refined beast of a high noble what it lacked in elegance it made up for in efficiency. The beast was large but not bulky nor did its skin look loose or flap it held itself like a proud rigid lizard its eyes darted off to the side as utm lead it.

But even among this impressive war mount the large shield utum had tied onto it the beast looked small liked the shield was weighing heavily on the beast's body. Gora couldn't help but look upon this large stone shield with much interest. Eventually unable to subside her curiosity she meets utum in the eyes" so utum that shield is surely too large to use in one hand how do you use those javelins of yours?"

Utum stopped observing the birds in the sky and looks down at the sokarans princess with much grace. His hair flowed like a luxurious mane with 8 red stripes perfectly convergent of each other."huh oh no i use the shield and my javelins at the same time. I hold the shield in my right arm and throw the spear with my left"

Gora looked at the large man with much confusion surely he must be joking but what an arrogantly stupid joke to make on her as if he were questioning her intelligence. The idea he could even lift the ginormous shield with one hand was insane while she must admit he was a behemoth of a man standing at what she figures to be around 7'9. That shield looked to be closer to 9 feet than 8 it clinged to the side of his beast like it was a plate of armor for it. How absurd he even say anything so outrageous to her benign questioning.

Feeling offended she speeds her beast up to catch up with cofus and rex. As the day turns to night many camps are set up along side the roads of the astran territories. Men of high nobility ,low nobility commoners and foreigners alike all heading off to see the fruition of the same goal rest along the sides of dirt roads making campfires and setting up camp sites of varying degree. The western forces of astra are mostly late to the defense but within the coming weeks a full display of the astrans power for war would be displayed and at the heart of the soon conflict of two people; Is a foreigner from neither side. A young woman who simply wishes to redeem her families sacred beast.

Gora gets off her trusted stead and grabs her tent bag. As she holds the bag in her hands she cant help but chuckle abit as she goes to go put up her own tent for the night. Spring is soon in the air and to lay in the astrans valleys without a covering of some kind is to subject oneself to the rains of the new year.

Seeing as gora liked to keep her person dry at most occasions she puts any pride she has as a princess aside and starts pitching up her tent like every other soldier there. Rex and the rest of his squad spend the afternoon setting up their tents. by the night all is set up and the 7 warriors all lay by the campfire looking at each other barrels and mugs of alcohol were brought out and drank as he relax from the day's travel.

Sicus as always plays in his pandura. Gora would be sitting around the others staring at the fire, her gaze never really leaving the flames as her mind ponders its beauty and its existence. Not talking to the the other members of her party.Secomi sits away from the others simply polishing his sword. Utum sits among them swaying gently like a tree to Sicus's strumming. His sister Arvus lays next to the fire her focus lost into her cup as rex starts telling cofus a tale of his younger years"back before onei rose to be the high king of these fair lands cofus the lands of astra were a much more divided place. Sure people like my father will tell you the kings could of battled for superiority for another 200 years and all would of been well the truth is i feel nostalgia blinds him. I remember the war unification as a war that costed most of the clans half their sons and while the lacerana family now leads the western kingdom 400 years ago we called the lands of what is now the eastern kingdom home. cofus.''

Rex catches his breath and sighs as cofus stares at him intrigued "sorry i don't mean to ramble my point is don't let those geasers put ideas of grandeur and glory in your head kid. This will be the first battle you've taken part of so you'll learn real quick that war is just war. No glory, no grandeur. There's simply those who won those who lost those who died and those who lived. Each one of those people will affect the world in different ways. The dead of our kingdoms will be missed but more than that Theyll be sons who never learned their fathers trades and fathers who never raised their sons. So much to gain and even more to lose that is war cofus and don't forget it"

he says, patting cofus on the back as he drinks his mug with another, the alcohol clearly starting to affect him. Gora amd a few others had been listening to rexes little speech to varying degrees. Utum still just gently swaying to Sicus's music who also seemed uninterested. Arvus seemed had to pass out spilling her alcohol on the ground as she falls asleep for the night in the dirt off the side of the road.

Utum eventually gets up and heading to bed Sicus soon follows after feeling quite tired himself. They moved slowly but gora just kept staring into the fire unsure of why shes here. She didn't even really tell her grandfather goodbye. She gets up and looks at cofus and rex she looks at her mostly empty cup and sighs a drunken sighs then stumbles her way to her tent barely making it there without running into someone else's tent. She lays in her tent arms flayed out as she rest on her bedroll. She thinks back on what rex said. If there was no glory or grandeur could there be any hope to redeem her spear. She thinks back to the lisad she spoke with and what she told him about what he believed what was right.

Was she even doing what she believed was right. She unwraps the spear in her drunken state and looks at it with a dim glaze. It was so beautiful the most beautiful thing shes ever seen. Her ancestors war mounts produced the finest material in the world, gora thought. Her outfit and person was tastefully littered with ornaments made of the material.

Though as she looked upon the spear in her drunken state of mind she almost feels like crying as looks at the weapon. Her grandfather always hated weapons and yet here she was risking her life for this priceless weapon in a war that has nothing to do with her or her people. she gritted her teeth and clutched the weapon tightly thinking how much she wished she never laid eyes on this cursed weapon.

Though as she passed out into the night she held tightly onto the weapon it mattered not that if anyone were to briefly peek into gora tent that they would see this luxurious item because theyed quickly take note of the woman's hand who is firmly attached to said item.

Though no problem ever arose and gora fell asleep into the night holding onto her spear in the morning shed look at the item with it still clutched in her hands. She stares it down as shes deals with the morning grog. She lets out a heavy sigh and wraps the item back up and get ready for the day. Though the oncoming days would be quite uneventful as they travel to their destination.