by Dave Hazel
“We don’t have several weeks,” Mykal sighed. “There’s no getting around going through the forest?”
“No. I am afraid that will be a part of our journey,” Uminair said and looked to the other Elves. “There are mountains to the east we will have to contend with while we contend with the dreaded forest. However, the time will be much shorter.”
“Understand Mykal,” Starling spoke up. “Though the forest is known for its horrors and rightly so, it has earned a reputation to cause fear and foreboding, we are skilled at maneuvering through forests. Even a forest such as the Black Forest.”
“Besides that,” Blair joined in. “You have mighty weapons. Weapons of such our peoples have never seen. I would not dread the forest as much as you allow it to weigh heavy on your heart.”
“And not only that Myk,” Finley said. “We were unprepared last time. This time we won’t be caught off guard.”
“You’re right,” Mykal sighed and looked around at the men as they sat around to eat and chit chatted in their small groups. “I’m just afraid of anyone getting hurt.”
“My friend,” Towbar spoke up and placed his large hand on Mykal’s shoulder. “Do not allow things you can not control to control you.”
“You’re right, you’re right,” Mykal said while nodding his head. “I can’t be a babysitter. These are all grown men here.”
“Uh oh,” Sergeant Mathis said to get the attention of the leadership. “Lookit there,” he whispered and pointed to Freeman and Toloson who were running back while crouched over.
“Get back, get back,” Freeman whispered harshly while waving to the trees. “You’re not gonna frickin believe this,” he gasped. He was the one who spotted the army of over ten thousand the last time they were lost on this side of the world. “We got a damn army coming this way.”
“What? Whadda ya mean?” Mykal asked and couldn’t believe his ears.
“It’s a frickin army just like the last time we were here,” Freeman gasped. “They’re on the other side where the trees block our view. What would you say Toloson, about a mile or two out?”
“Yeah, about two miles out. They were casually strolling along,” Toloson added.
“Okay, that’s good,” Finley replied. “The last time they were on a forced march like they were looking for someone. How big were they?”
“Honestly Sir I didn’t get a feel, but I can tell you they were not as big as the army we saw the last time.”
“Okay men, gather up all your stuff and head into the trees,” Captain Diaz ordered. “We need to go deep enough not to be seen but not too deep that we can’t see them. And whatever you do remain silent,” he ordered and looked harder to the Dwarves and Towbar’s men.
“And don’t get separated,” Mykal barked. You do not want to be alone inside this friggin forest. Make sure M-60s and M-203s are ready. We may have our first encounter with bad guys gentlemen. I may initiate contact,” Mykal said to the surprise of Diaz and Finley. “If they get past us they’re gonna always be behind us and we don’t know when they’re gonna head back to their base of operations. We don’t want them creeping up on us when we least expect it.”
“Did everyone hear that?” Diaz shouted.
“Ooh-rah,” the Marines replied.
“Hooah,” the army personnel responded.
In a flash of movement all the men ducked back into the trees to find comfortable positions and to hide themselves from the larger army that was approaching. Diaz and Finley joined Mykal and Towbar while the men spread out and dug in.
“We need to think this through Myk,” Diaz whispered when he lay beside the giant. “If they are too large we may have to let them pass by. If we can’t kill all of them, some of them may escape to get back to the palace and announce there are foreigners here with ‘magic’ weapons,” Diaz said and made air quotes. “That will bring a much larger force against us because of the evil overlord’s hatred of magic.”
“I agree,” Mykal said. “But I don’t wanna have a roving band larger than us somewhere behind us. Let’s just wait and see how this plays out.”
“We’re here with you Mykal,” Roy Jr. whispered when he and Randy pulled up beside them.
The time passed slowly. Mykal had a difficult time of keeping still. He desperately wanted to turn invisible and approach the army to get a feel of their size and what their intentions were. Before long the army came into view. They were easily two to three thousand on foot and only eight of them were on horseback. Mykal quickly turned to the Dosch brothers. “If the shit hits the fan I need you guys to take out the eight on horseback. We don’t want them riding away.”
“Gotcha Myk,” Roy Jr. said and adjusted the scope on his rifle.
“That’ll be easy,” Randy said while watching the army approach. “If they pass us I betcha they’ll go after Codlon’s friend and his people. That would turn out bad for them people cuz they’re out numbered big time and don’t have the weapons we have.”
“To be honest I don’t care about them cuz they didn’t wanna be with us cuz of the Elves,” Mykal said.
“But there were plenty of women and children there Myk,” Diaz reminded him.
“Oh damn, you’re right,” Mykal whispered. “I honestly forgot about the women and children. Well, let’s see what happens.”
“If we don’t make any noise we should be okay,” Lieutenant Finley whispered to Mykal and Towbar. “Since the ground is rough there is hardly any grass to show we walked over it. If we had been several miles back there they would easily see we traveled through the ground.”
They silently watched the slow moving army approach and begin to pass their position in the tree area. The army was a structured uniformed army dressed in red and gold. They were reminiscent of soldiers from the old Roman Empire. The men were armed with swords, spears and large shields. Some had bow and arrows. Only eight of the leaders rode on horseback. One of the leaders rode in the front. Three of the leaders rode on one side of the column and the other four leaders rode on the far side of the column. The two on the side would take turns falling back to keep their eyes on all the men. They weren’t marching but they pretty much stayed in step.
Mykal wondered if they should turn back to warn Kawliga’s people after this army passed by. If the army crossed paths with them they would easily destroy the smaller tribe. Not only was the army much larger but they appeared to be well trained. Mykal’s thoughts were rudely interrupted.
“We got problems Myk,” Mathis whispered as the column of soldiers stopped in front of their position.
“What’s going on?” Mykal asked and strained his eyes but didn’t want to give his position away.
“They’re inspecting something over there,” Mathis answered. “One of the Rangers who has a radio, Corporal Vega said that someone left their empty MRE* packages on the ground.”
*-MREs - Meals Ready to Eat are prepackaged operational food rations for the United States Armed Forces. It originated from c-rations and k-rations from World War II and later developed into MCI (Meal, Combat, Individual) rations used in Korea and Vietnam. MRE was developed in 1980.
“What?” Mykal gasped. “Are you friggin kidding me?”
“Someone obviously didn’t police their area,” Finley hissed.
They watched several of the army people inspect the strange things on the ground before them. They picked up the plastic covered aluminum foil packs and passed them around to determine what they were. There were several on the ground. Some still had food stuffs in them which really stirred the curiosity of the soldiers. The soldiers looked at the ground and saw footprints in the dirt leading to the trees.
“Mathis,” Mykal whispered to his radio man. “Tell the other radio men to pass it on to everyone to be ready to open fire. If it looks like they may detect us we’re gonna take them out and we gotta make sure we get the leaders on horseback.”
“Yes Sir,” Mathis replied and relayed the message.
Mykal turned to Fi
nley and Diaz. “That friggin mistake may have cost us dearly,” he snarled though he wasn’t angry at them.
“Oh no Myk,” Finley pointed down the line. “They’re moving to the trees.”
“They are moving to the trees,” Mathis gasped after the call he received.
“Open fire,” Diaz yelled and suddenly shooting erupted all down the tree line. The momentary blast of noise startled the army who had been caught off guard. 40mm grenades exploded inside the dense formation of the columns.
Mykal raised his rifle and shot as quickly as he put the enemy in his sights. From his left side he caught sight of the Elves shooting arrows into the army. Several men target the eight horsemen so they couldn’t escape quickly. Five of the leaders on horseback were dropped almost immediately.
Roy Jr. aimed at who he thought to be the main leader and shot him in the head. The second horseman who rushed beside him fell just as suddenly. The last horseman reacted as if he had been shot in the shoulder. The shocked horseman grabbed his shoulder and fell forward on his horse and turned to flee.
“Stop him!” Mykal shouted when he saw the last horseman turn to escape.
The Elf named Egoneal who was supposed to be the best archer the Elves ever had stepped out from the trees and aim his bow high into the air rather than at the fleeing soldier on horseback. Mykal thought he aimed too high, but the arrow dropped down into the base of the fleeing man’s skull. The wounded leader fell off his horse some distance away from the group formation. The horse stopped some fifty feet away and returned to the fallen soldier. Their horses had to have been trained to return to the fallen riders because all of the fleeing horses returned to their dead riders.
“Damn, that was a friggin beautiful shot,” Mykal gawked while shooting his rifle. Mykal couldn’t believe all the shocked expressions of the soldiers who had been surprised with machinegun fire, rifle fire and explosions. Some stood still for only a moment and that was all it took to end their life or their chances to retaliate.
Mykal shot through his thirty round magazine as quickly as it took to press the trigger thirty times and he killed an enemy with every round. They were so close that he couldn’t miss. Half way through his second magazine he stopped shooting. Within moments all the soldiers were dead or wounded. He looked over to Egoneal. “Did you plan for that to happen or was that just a lucky shot?” He asked the Elf and Mykal noticed Egoneal’s bow was larger and seemed heavier than the bows the other Elves carried.
Egoneal looked at Mykal as if he couldn’t believe the question. “I placed all my arrows where I desired them to strike.”
“Egoneal is our greatest archer,” Starling said and raised his eyebrows as if the question could have caused an offense.
Suddenly a few more rifle shots rang out as soldiers jumped to their feet to run away.
“Towbar, could you have all your people and the Dwarven people with Nordad’s men go through the group and make sure they’re all dead?” Mykal asked as if he was asking his friend to perform some menial task. “I don’t want the men to waste anymore ammo.”
“Yes my friend. We will gladly put them out of their misery,” the giant said and rallied the people of his world to him to give them their instructions
“Finley, have a few men walk with them in case any are faking and try to get up and attack. But tell them not to shoot the wounded. If any of our guys want to help I want them to be like the Silent Killers and eliminate them silently or just let those of Towbar’s world finish them. Captain Diaz, we need to find out who and why they left the trash where they did. That could have cost us some serious problems. I don’t want anyone to be in trouble, but I just want them not to do it again. Then I need either you or Finley to talk to the two reporter groups and let them know we’re not killing them to be cruel, but trying to protect ourselves.”
“I agree Myk,” Diaz replied and left to gather the majority of the men.
Mykal walked among the dead and couldn’t believe his eyes. They were sprawled over each other in so many different positions. Body parts were blown away, heads were smashed and everything was covered in blood. It looked like a cleaner version of the Pass battles. Cleaner in the sense these soldiers were all in nice uniforms. Mykal heard the moaning and groaning of wounded soldiers and then the thud or slash or crunch which ended the moaning and groaning. Mykal knew the wounded soldiers were being snuffed out. ‘Am I really okay with this?’ He wondered in thought. ‘I have to do this. If they get away then all my men will be at risk.’
Mykal neared Nordad, Codlon and Agnor. Codlon and Agnor were killing those still breathing while Nordad checked to make sure those near him were dead. Agnor drove his battle axe into the head of a gasping man while Codlon was pulling his bloodied sword from the chest of another.
Codlon turned to Mykal while wiping blood from his dripping blade. “I wish to thank you Mykal,” Codlon said while eyeing the bodies near him. “I believe you spared my friend Kawliga and his clan. Though he does not know death was hours away. He will never know how close his clan was to death. Nonetheless, if I get the chance to speak to him again I will be sure to share how you spared his people certain annihilation.”
“Thank you,” Mykal said. “The women and children wouldn’t have stood a chance against this army,” he added and walked away. He was going to say that it had nothing to do with Kawliga’s people but rather he did it for his team. He decided to allow Codlon to believe they did it to help his childhood friend.
“What troubles you my friend?” Towbar asked when he approached him.
“I don’t know,” Mykal sighed. “We just wiped out this friggin army as if it was nothing. I know, I know, they woulda killed us if they found us. But in just a matter of minutes we killed all these people. I’m sure they had families who are waiting for them whether it is wives and kids or their parents waiting for them and we just wiped them all out cuz they posed a threat. They posed a threat cuz one of our damn men left his food on the ground. My emotions are going all over the place. Forgive me Towbar,” Mykal said and glanced down at the magic ring he believed oscillated his emotions. “This is just hitting me all at once.”
“Do we need to return to the Pass my friend?” Towbar asked.
“No! No. No, we gotta find Doninka,” he said and looked to the ground. “I had to get it off my chest and now that I have I’ll be fine.”
Diaz and Finley joined them. “Mykal, I want to let you know that we killed two thousand three hundred and seventy-nine men,” Captain Diaz announced. “It was needed to be done because of the danger they posed to the men,” Diaz added as if to convince himself.
“Damn, just under twenty-four hundred,” Mykal said and gawked at all the dead bodies laid out before them.
“Well, those who didn’t know anything of our capabilities look at us differently now,” Finley said in reference to the Elves and two of Towbar’s five men who had not witnessed Mykal’s people in battle at the Pass. “Also Myk, just to give you a heads up I spoke to the reporter teams and they didn’t have any qualms about not recording this incident. They said they were thankful that they know this army will not be following us at some time.”
“Good,” Mykal sighed and gave a thankful smile. “That’s one thing I don’t have to worry about, I guess.”
“Sir, may I interrupt,” Gunnery Sergeant Ratner rushed into their conversation. He looked at Captain Diaz. “The men are all taking trinkets. Souvenirs if you will, Sir. Off the dead men. Do you have a problem with that? I’ll stop them right now if you say so.”
“No, let ‘em go,” Mykal answered before Diaz answered. “As long as they’re not robbing live people or taking body parts, I don’t care what they take. We’re gonna go through some shit before it’s all said and done. I have some reminders for myself from previous battles,” he added and placed his hand on the handle of the ice pick like dagger he had been stabbed with on July 4th. Tell them not to bog themselves down and they may wanna grab some extra food and water fr
om these people. Then we can stay out here a couple more days before we have to go back and resupply.”
“Yes Sir,” Ratner said but looked at Diaz to make sure he approved.
“I don’t have an issue if they’re taking weapons, pieces of armor and the like,” Diaz said. “But I better not hear of anyone cutting off body parts like fingers or ears,” Diaz added to show his agreement with Mykal was solid.
“No worries on that Sir,” Gunney Ratner said and shook his head to show they were all of one mind on the subject. “We will not tolerate the men being barbaric. Do you think we should have the men drag all the bodies into the trees to get them out of sight Sir?”
Mykal, Towbar, Diaz and Finley all looked at each other. “I think that would be a whole lot of work for nothing,” Mykal broke the brief silence. By the time they are discovered we should be long gone and whoever finds them won’t know what or who killed them.”
“They will find a number of arrows that the Elves shot,” Finley said.
“But that would really make for an interesting conversation,” Diaz said and fingered his chin. “It may make some wonder how Elves killed that many soldiers all at once without suffering any casualties on their side.”
“That is true,” Towbar said. “If the bodies are discovered and those who find the bodies believe it was the Elvin people it will not make them hate the Elves any more than they are currently hated.”
“Yeah, just leave the bodies where they are,” Mykal said. “And if we can grab the horses I wanna bring them with us. They may come in handy. Were the horses injured? I only saw a few of them.”
“No Myk. All eight are out there and appear to be healthy,” Ratner replied with a surprised expression. “With all our gun fire I thought for sure the beasts would have been cut down. None of the animals suffered any wounds and all of them returned to their dead riders.”
“Alright then Gunny,” Diaz spoke to break up the little meeting. “Tell the men to police the area and I wanna be moving in ten minutes.”