kcw | erzo iv
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555/2/64. After fleeing the demise of Red Castle, our ragtag group headed South, to Blue Castle and the main Red army. Not wanting to look like a bunch of wimps, Tok and Nakaro urged us all on to keep pace with the lead group, much to my chagrin. At first I was devastated that we had left the Janers and my dresser behind, but three days of forced marching brought up more immediate concerns to my mind, like trying to keep going one step at a time through the haze of pain and exhaustion. Glad was I to when we arrived at the main Red army camp, as I stumbled into our tent and gratefully gave my feet a well-deserved respite. I think I'll sleep now.

555/2/65. The morning brought us a new complication: a White army approaching from the neighboring kingdom. Lord Red has no idea what White's intentions are, so he will send an envoy to find out and possible negotiate with White to stay out of the coming conflict. We were given the choice of either being those envoys or participating in the assault of Blue castle. Not feeling all that witty today, we decided to take part in the fight.

The first day is merely a feint. The Red army will attack, trying to draw out any chaos beasties from Blue castle. Our objective is to kill those chaos beasties, then withdraw for the real attack tomorrow. We have three places where we can contribute. The safest is attacking a wall as those are the least defended. Next up is to attack the gate. Most dangerous is to be in the assault party that storms the keep, though in that case we would only participate lightly the first day.
Krelga wanted to be in the gate party, saying something about "that way we get to do something both days *and* we can always join the assault party." Naturally the dog agreed with Krelga. Nakaro and Tok wanted to just be in the assualt party as Krelga's plan was too suicidal for their tastes. Not seeing any point in getting ourselves killed, I voted for attacking the wall. Timroth could have made it a three way tie but inexplicably he voted for the assault party.

So today we were to stay back and fire arrows at the chaos beasties. It was another sparklingly cold day, perfect for a battle. The red troops swarmed the walls and gate. Blue troops defended the castle while chaos beasties swarmed around. We shot one or two down, but return fire also took down three of our number. Not a good showing for this first day, though I dare say it was good bow practice for us all.

Tomorrow is the big battle. I'm quite nervous. As I look around at the other members of the assault party I can't but help feel that our little group is way over our heads. Tok says not to worry, pointing out that we only need to look good, not necessarily do good. I'm not quite that hypocritical. I'd rather just stay behind and forgo all that glory. But I know that tomorrow I'll be right there with my friends when they rush off to their doom. Funny that I should think of them as friends. It's only taken a couple of seasons but I guess they're not the underworld demons that we'd been taught at school.

Not to say that they aren't dangerous and that what they're doing is completely wrong, but I'm starting to understand why they're on this quest. To them it's trying to restore balance to the world. To me it's the total destruction of everything I know and love. It's all a matter of perspective when you look at it closely. I'll be quite sad when I have to kill them all.
Copyright (c) 2001 Kevin C. Wong
Page Created: December 11, 2003 Page Last Updated: December 11, 2003