The Foolhardies 9 Courage Under Fire

The pixie I sent to fetch our commander from the rear responded with a shake of his head.

"He wasn't inside the circle of stones..." the pixie said, almost laughing. "Just like you said."

"His three stooges are gone, too," said the dwarf standing next to the pixie. "Probably high-tailed it along with our glorious commander, the slimy little turd."

The dwarf who was happily disrespecting our superior officer was Varda Coldstone. Like most dwarven females, she kept her curly brown hair tied in a tight bun. This made her chiseled face stand out more which was exactly what she preferred. Varda had emerald green eyes underneath thick eyebrows. she had a small button nose and a thin mouth whose smile could light up a room. Only four feet and ten inches tall but she was all heart with broad shoulders that didn't hesitate to pull her own weight and then some. She was also one of only two pure magicians left in our unit as many of them had died trying to climb up the hill thanks to Roselle's useless command.

"Muds! I'm embarrassed the commander and I share a species," the pixie said with a shake of his head.

"Not your fault, Qwipps. There's a black sheep in every breed," I noted, jokingly.

"I'm supposed to be the black sheep. Broke enough pixie hearts to prove it," Qwipps joked back.

Unlike the stout Varda beside him, Qwipps Daggerby had a willowy frame that made his sex difficult to determine. However, all one had to do was listen to his potty mouth and they'd know immediately that he was male. Qwipps' brushed-back hair was a much lighter shade of brown than his tanned skin. His face was angular, with high cheekbones and a straight sharp nose. With his slanted eyes, Qwipps looked almost Asian, except his left iris was an electric blue while his right iris was apple red. Like the two gossamer wings hidden on his back, two-color eyes was a defining trait among pixies.

"You expected this?" Aura asked.

She stood alongside me as we hung at the very front of our defensive line, about ten yards above the halfway mark of the barren hillside. Around us, a small group of our unit's elites gathered. This included Luca and Edo, Aura's half-ogre bodyguard.

"You would come to the same conclusion if you just thought about it," I responded. "What's the one thing our commander is good at?"

"Running away," Luca and Qwipps answered at the same time.

"Not quite," I laughed. "He knows exactly when he's fighting a losing battle and when to cut his losses."

I pointed a finger at the enemy below. Their forces gathered on the southern side of the hill were more than three times our size, with trolls who had thick skins at the front and hobgoblins who were quick climbers right behind them, ready to charge at a moment's notice. Behind these fairies were row upon row of human viseres and slave soldiers, and in the rear guard, a small unit of hooded figures wielding magician staffs.

"He left us to die," Aura whispered angrily.

I nodded. "I doubt he ever intended to win the hill last night. No less defend it from this horde."

"So, we kind of ruined it for him," Luca said thoughtfully as if the idea of cramping Roselle's style amused him.

"Which is why we've become expendable. The whole lot of us," I said. Although I was still smiling, I was all serious inside my head. My mind was looking for a way to survive this encounter.

"We can handle the trolls and the hobs... the real concern is Azuma and his elites," said the hulking figure standing behind Aura.

At seven feet tall, Edo was the largest member of our hundred-man-unit. Two short, curved horns protruded out of the forehead of this silver-skinned, physically robust humanoid. Above his aquiline nose, he had deep-set violet eyes underneath thin eyebrows. His long black hair was pulled back and tied in a single braid behind his head.

"Yeah," I agreed. "We'll deal with him, too."

I didn't see the need to mention that I hadn't figured that part out yet. After all, how do you plan to defeat someone who reportedly could charge an army by himself and win single-handedly?

"You have a plan, Dean?" Varda asked. Her voice was soft and very lady-like.

I looked up at the sky.

Forks of lightning streaked across the dark clouds. Raindrops were falling on our hill. Visibility was already low and would only get lower once the rain poured harder.

I glanced down.

The hillside between our defensive formations and the enemy army was about a hundred and twenty yards in a low slope. It was the color of dark chocolate and as barren as an elf's backside. The fog had appeared in the northern and eastern hillsides. Thankfully, this meant that the enemy couldn't climb these areas any more than we could defend them.

"How many spells can you use tonight, Varda?" I asked as I glanced at her.

Varda, who was watching me with mild curiosity, raised three fingers.

I looked to Aura next. She was the only other pure magic caster we still had.

"I have two spells ready," Aura answered.

"Can either of you make the earth shake?" I asked.

"I can cause a mudslide as long as the ground gets wetter," Varda answered.

"Good," I replied. "It's going to rain hard tonight. Wait for my signal. Then wake the earth up."

I turned to Luca and Edo next.

"The two of you are our heaviest hitters. I want you to pick five more guys out of the remaining seventy-two who can perform well with hit-and-run tactics in slippery slopes," I said.

"Qwipps," I started, but then I noticed them all looking at me intently and I suddenly realized I'd taken command without asking their opinions. By rights, Varda or Qwipps should lead as they ranked higher than me. This caused me to blush. "Sorry... you mind if I take the helm?"

After a moment, Varda nodded thoughtfully. "The way I see it, Dean, you've put a plan together faster than I could. Probably better than anything Qwipps could come up with, too."

"Yep. We'd probably get you all killed if either Varda or I took charge," Qwipps added in. "But you'll need more than wit and a plucky attitude to convince our soldiers to fall in line."

I glanced past the officers with me to the soldiers manning the wooden fences nearest us. They were all looking at me, and it was obvious from their doubtful faces that they didn't share the confidence Varda and Qwipps placed in me. Some of them looked so dejected at the prospect that lay before us that we were in danger of losing before the battle began.
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I expected their mistrust. After all, I was the unit newbie and everyone knew I attained my position as a strategist only because the clan's princess recommended me. And although I may have won us the hill, many were of a mind that Luca deserved credit for this as I wasn't a warrior in their eyes. This meant that I would have to figure out a way to impress them and boost their morale at the same time.

Nervous anxiety began to build up in me, and it would have frozen me in indecision if Aura hadn't squeezed my shoulder in a gesture of encouragement. Yeah, she had that effect on me.

I turned around and faced the hilltop to survey our defenses.

The nearest manned wooden fence was a quarter of the way up the hill and maybe thirty yards from the ring of white stones above. Each fence was four feet in height, built in a series of x-shape formations joined by coils of rope with their sharpened tips facing outward to discourage enemies from breaking through them. We placed the fences at intervals along the hill with little gaps between that allowed enemies passage through. These were subtle traps that would funnel enemy soldiers right into the waiting shadowblade spears of our defenders. Furthermore, nearly all of our surviving soldiers received bows and a quiver of arrows.

Among our seventy-two defenders, Luca and I included, around half comprised pixies and elves, which meant low accuracy wouldn't be much of a concern. It was important that the enemy see the hail of arrows raining down on them. It might even sap their drive to climb the hill.

"We're lacking shields," Luca noted.

"Remind me to get some for next time," I agreed. "You and Edo ready?"

"Yeah... we picked three elves and two humans who are all light on their feet," Luca answered.

"As soon as the fighting starts, you and Edo take the ditches down to the halfway point of the hill. Wait there for the enemy to pass you by and then ambush them whenever you see an opportunity. Then run back through the ditches and take another route. Rinse and repeat," I instructed.

"So that's why you left the ditches alone," Luca said.

"Yeah... last night's match proved how effective they are as a pathway, and no one really noticed us use one. Might as well take advantage while we can," I answered.

Luca nodded thoughtfully before whispering in my ear, "What about the soldiers? How are you going to get them to follow you?"

"Do you remember that really old movie, Independence Day?" I asked.

"Yeah… it was dad's favorite," Luca answered.

I nodded. "Therein lies the key, little brother."

Luca's forehead creased. "We don't have an alien space ship to blow the enemy army away, Dean..."

I patted him on the shoulder. "You missed the point... it wasn't the weapons, it was the speech that turned things around."

Three minutes after Luca and I finished our conversation, I was standing in front of the seventy-one hardened veterans of last night's battle, sweating buckets for all to see. Behind me, the enemy army just finished with their own preparations. I could hear their war cries from below to our position on the hilltop.

Thunder shook the heavens. Rain poured.

I refocused my thoughts back on my men.

"This is not the time to panic, Dean. It's a time for action," I whispered to myself before I finally addressed the soldiers. "Hi..."

As rousing openings went, mine was pathetic. I coughed to hide away my embarrassment. Then I tried again.

"Hi!" I repeated, stronger this time. "I don't want to be here... I don't think any of you want to either."

I always loved the speeches from movies that were based on real-life stories which is why I figured being honest had to be the right way to start things.

"I'm also sure that you don't want a weakling like me standing here talking to you," I said in jest.

This got me a few laughs. Some cat-calls about how right I was. Plenty of boos.

"But I'm all you've got!" I fired back. "Our leader, in his cowardice, has abandoned us and the hill we must defend!"

Shifting the blame to Roselle meant giving the soldiers someone else to hate, and anger was just as good a motivator as hope. Of course, I still needed to raise hope, too.

"He ran because he didn't believe in any of us... because he didn't know about your courage," My voice was steady. My hand raised and pointed at random soldiers. "But I do... I saw it last night. When you endured the enemy's spears and their arrows as you struggled up the hillside you showed me, you showed them, and you showed yourselves exactly who you are!"

The whining stopped. All was silent except for the pouring of the rain. All eyes were on me. I had their attention now.

I smacked my chest with a fist. "Here." Then I pointed to my brain. "And here."

There were a few nods now. Some calls of agreement.

"And when the battle begins tonight, we've all got to lay that courage on the line now... from the tips of your fingers, squeeze out every ounce of your courage and lay it out on the line tonight until you've got nothing left to give, and if you do that..."

I paused, not just for dramatic effect, but so I could look at as many faces as I could. Human, elf, pixie, dwarf, all of them. I wanted them to see the sincerity in my eyes. The proud way they stared back at me, with their chins raised, their smiles growing, and their eyes blazing, spoke volumes of how they were responding to my rousing call.

"If you do that — if we do that," I nodded my head, "we will not lose tonight. We will triumph, and with our heads held high we will have found our opportunity," I raised my hand high, "to grab glory and be remembered as heroes!"

Despite how I knew it would cause a reaction, I didn't expect the one I got. I didn't expect the booming cheers or the call to action. I felt humbled at that moment more than any time in my short existence.

Our cheering continued a long time, and I imagined it was causing an effect down below too. It may have even helped to demoralize our enemy. However, we had no such luck. For as we continued to yell ourselves hoarse, a single booming voice drowned out our cheers with a single foreboding word.

"Death!" he called, and the response that met Azuma's rallying cry overwhelmed our morale.

I turned just in time to witness three-hundred soldiers shout in unison, "De~~ath!"

"Death!" Azuma yelled again, and once more, he received an earth-shattering reply of, "De~~ath!"

Lightning struck the ground somewhere close by. Thunder boomed. The rain poured even more heavily.

"Death!" Azuma called, and with this final cry raised his spear toward the hilltop.

"De~~ath," his soldiers answered right before they finally charged.

Qwipps, who was closest to me, said, "I like his speech better. More impact."

I nodded wordlessly.

"Guess it's my turn," Qwipps said.

I nodded while still slightly in shock. There was much I needed to learn. Hopefully, I would survive the night to learn something.

"Alright, you bastards... let's give these Magesong fools a welcome gift," Qwipps yelled.

Thankfully, Qwipps voice was loud enough to wake the soldiers from their daze. They began notching their bows.

"Aim," Qwipps ordered.

I glanced at Luca and mouthed for him to go. I saw him gulp visibly before he nodded. Then he, Edo, and their raiding party vanished behind the nearest ditch.

"Fire!" Qwipps yelled.

Soon afterward, the air filled with the swooshing sounds of fifty bowstrings and the skies was blocked from view by a canvas of arrows.

Chapter end