The Woodward Academy, Year 8

Chapter 1: June

"Come in," the vocator intoned when David knocked on the door.  David entered, seeing Vivian already standing there.  David stepped up beside her and came to attention.

"Bandador Stroud, reporting as ordered, sir!" he said snappily.

"Gotten your... situation... locked away and under control?" the vocator asked sincerely.  He was referring to David's grief over the death of Joseph Garibaldi.

"As well as can be expected, sir," David confirmed.

"Good.  Unfortunately, we all know that the only certainty in war is that this is going to happen again.  And again.  And again.  We won't always be able to give you time to sort things out."

"Yes, sir."

"Now then.  As of this date, you have been promoted from Bandador to Vigax.  This will involve some additional duties on your part, which I will get into in a minute.

"You have also been given charge of Troop 12.  Don't get too excited about that; there are only three people in Troop 12, including yourself.  All of the troops in the scout company are very small.  The largest one is five people.

"Capadra Columbo is also assigned to Troop 12.  Your third member, you'll meet later on."

"Yes, sir.  You mentioned additional responsibilities?"

"Yes.  Troop 12, and several other troops, will be stationed out of ANFCC-East.  You are the coordinating officer for those troops.  As such, you will relay their orders to them, receive their reports and relay them back here, make sure that any special mission requirements are met, and other such administrative details.  This will not exempt you or your troop from going out on missions at all.  Missions in the scout company are decided upon on a cycle, so missions will be relayed in batches.  You will have time to complete your missions after relaying orders to the other troops.  Do you understand?"

"I believe so, sir, but what is the ANFCC?"

"That is the Ark North Forward Communications Center.  There are two, East and West.  East is located just outside Winding River."

"I see.  How have we overcome the massive anti-divination magic the weres are using?"

"We haven't, but that magic doesn't affect our special communications portals.  That's why the ANFCCs are so important.  They allow us to relay information a bit more quickly, without having to have everyone come back here all the time.  You will seldom actually report back here to HQ from this point forward.  Your station will be the ANFCC.

"Yes, sir.  Is there a full base at the communications center?"

"No.  We will be working on quarters for your troops in the near future.  For right now, they're being quartered in Winding River itself."

"Yes, sir.  How much time am I likely to be spending actually at the center?"

"That will depend on how long you take to complete your missions."

"Of course, sir.  Do we have a first mission, or will we have to wait at the communications center for it?"

"Actually, Troop 12's first mission is... to go set up the communications center."  The vocator grinned.

"Sir?"

"The center is only in the beginning stages of set-up.  Troops 12, 18, and 31 are being tasked with assisting with security and technical coordination.  You'll help get everything up and running.  Each troop will be escorting a set of seven communications portals to the center.

"Once the center is running and fully operational, we'll give you an actual mission, but until then, the security of that facility is your highest priority."

"Yes, sir.  If we don't have quarters yet... how will we provide 24/7 security?"

"You'll work in shifts with the other troops.  That's why there are three of them.  When not on duty, you're free to do whatever you need to.  Be aware, Vigax; the other troops will report to you.  This is your responsibility.  Understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Very well.  Dismissed."

"Sir?  Where will I find the third member of my team?"

"I'm sure she'll find you," Vocator Schultz said with a grin.

"Yes, sir."  David motioned for Vivian to follow him, and the two left the office.

"Fuck, digging myself a bigger hole here," David muttered.

"Vigax, wow.  You'll be an arkigo by the end of the month!"

"Not funny, Vivian," David said sourly.

"Come on, let's go find our new partner," Vivian said.  "I wonder why the vocator was so cryptic."

"I don't know, but it worries me."

"Everything worries you these days."

"And I'm usually right to be worried," David retorted.  Vivian didn't have a response for that.

The two walked over to the supply center.  They stepped up to the liderra at the counter.

"Yes, sir, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"I'm supposed to be escorting some communications portals.  Have they been packaged for shipment yet?"

"Oh, yes, sir.  They're waiting in that small carriage out front.  We didn't want to be too obvious with them."

"Good thinking, Liderra, but I can go you one better.  I'll bring my glidetruck around, and we'll pack them in the back of that."

"If you say so, sir, but they're pretty bulky..."

"Trust me, my truck can handle it," David said.

"Yes, sir."

"Also, I guess I'm supposed to get some new rank insignia.  They fucked up and promoted me."

The liderra chuckled and said, "Yes, sir.  Let me check the list."  He looked at a roster he had under his counter, found David's name, and then pulled out a box containing David's new insignia.  "Here you are, sir."

"Thanks."

"Yes, sir.  Good day, sir."

David nodded, then turned to Vivian.

"Capa... meh, fuck that shit.  Vivian, you wait here, and I'll go get the truck."

"Yes, sir," Vivian said seriously.  David frowned, but he wasn't really mad at her, just at the situation that required her to call him 'sir'.

They were just loading the last of the portals into the back of David's glidetruck when a voice sounded behind them.

"Vigax?" the voice said.

David stood up a little straighter, but didn't turn around.  To Vivian, he quietly said, "I know that voice."

"Friend of yours?" she asked.

He replied, still quietly, "Centaur?  Blonde hair?  Cute as a button above the waist?  Could pierce your ears for you at a hundred yards?"

"Not sure about that last part.  The rest seems accurate," Vivian confirmed.

"Trust me on the last part," David replied.  Finally, he turned to face her.  She was saluting, and so he saluted in return.  When she lowered her arm, she looked him in the face.

"David?" she asked, stunned.

"This was not how I wanted us to meet again," he said to her, "but it's really good to see you.  Capadra Vivian Columbo, meet Giendia... rank and last name unknown," David said, smiling.

"Dubnina is my last name, but please just call me Giendia if you're going to use a name.  And I'm still just a soldier."

"After all this time?"  David said in surprise.

"It's hard for archers to get promoted," she explained.  "We're too important to the field army to be put into different positions.  We get seniority, but not rank."

David nodded.  "Sad to say, I'm not sure if I'm glad to have you on the team or not."

Giendia paled.  "I promise, Vigax, my skills are as good as ever..."

"It's not your skills I'm worried about, it's your safety.  My luck is already running shitty.  I don't want you to get hurt."

Giendia frowned.  "I'm sorry for that.  I can ask if they'll reassign me..."

David shook his head.  "They'd count it against you, rather than me, and I don't want that on your record.  Just try to keep your head down."

"Yes, sir."

David sighed, and looked at Vivian.  "That's going to get old really fast."

Vivian shrugged.  "Did you want to leave now, or was there more to do here?"

"No, we should get these to the center as quickly as possible."  David looked into his truck, then at Giendia.  He took out his wand and chanted a spell.  The communication portals seemed to shrink, but really, the inside of the vehicle had simply gotten slightly larger.  This was a taxing spell for David, but he didn't have much choice if he wanted to keep his unit together.

"Can you climb in there?" he asked Giendia.  "Or do I need to find like a ramp or something?"

"I can manage," she said.  She reared up, placing her hand on the lift gate so that she wouldn't hit her head.  Her front hooves rested on the bumper, and she slowly worked her way inside the vehicle.  Once she was fully inside, David closed the back, and then motioned to Vivian.  The two of them got in the front.

"As soon as I can," he said to Giendia, "I'll get someone to modify the truck to be more centaur-friendly.  I didn't actually expect to have you in my truck."

"I don't want you to go to any trouble for me," Giendia said.

David waved that off.  "How's your father?"

"He is working in a supply depot.  They won't let him fight, which rankles him, but I'm happy about it.  I would worry about him getting hurt."

"And I'm sure he's doing the same about you," Vivian said.

"Yes.  He's like David...er, Vigax Stroud.  He just wants me to be safe."

"I'm not going to have you shot for using my first name, you know," David said.

Giendia giggled.  "Sorry, it's just the training.  They yell at you if you use anyone's first name."

"Hmph," David said.  He showed his credentials to leave the base, and they were soon on their way to Winding River.

 David was inspecting the setup of ANFCC-East the next morning.  They had installed the seven communications portals first thing.  They led to various facilities: Scout Company 1 HQ, Ark North HQ, ANFCC-West, AN 1st Command HQ, AN 2nd Command HQ, Healer Company 1 HQ, and Supply Company 10 HQ.  The sets that the other two troops were bringing in were merely backups for these portals.  Three more backup sets were being kept elsewhere; the army understood the import of communications.

The facility wasn't what any American military officer would have expected for a communications center.  There wasn't the buzz of people talking constantly, or even the energy of expectant technicians waiting for incoming calls.  Though each portal had a soldier in attendance, most of them were busily reading their morning newspaper.  In one case, the soldier was drawing.  No one was complaining that these soldiers were not focused on their tasks; no one was calling them, anyway.

As David stepped outside the communications room into the morning sun, he was greeted with, "Good morning, sir!"

David turned to see Troops 18 and 31 standing at attention, saluting him.  David sighed quietly, returned the salute, and then said, "Morning, Jack.  I see you survived basic okay.  And a bandador.  Not bad."

"Not quite as good as you, though," Jack said.  "Vigax already."

"I think they picked my name out of a hat," David said.

Jack chuckled for a second before he grew serious.  "I heard about Joe.  Tough luck, man.  You doing okay?"

"I'll get over it, eventually.  I'm more worried about his family.  In any case, I can't let it get in the way of what's going on here."  David turned to the leader of Troop 31.  "I'm afraid I don't know you."

"Daniel Spenser," he said.  "I used to be a private investigator, back in Earth.  Moved back here a few years back for the quiet life, got myself roped into this damn thing."

David nodded.  "I can sympathize, but now we have a job to do.  You both brought your portal sets?"

"Yes, sir!" they responded together.

"Okay, the comm room is in there.  Your units are the backups to the active set, so they'll be stored for now.  Ask Liderra Miller where he wants them put."

"Yes, sir," Jack responded for both teams.

"Once you're done with that, come find me in the mess hall, and we'll go over the security arrangements for this little phone booth."

David headed off for breakfast while the others started hauling the portals inside.

"Seems decent enough," Spenser said.

"David?  I went through training with him... well, for the whole week that they made him take."

"He finished in a week?" Spenser asked, astounded.

"Dan, that's one guy you just don't want to fuck with, okay?  I got my hands on the report about when Garibaldi died.  David took out an entire company of weres, single handed."

"Holy shit," Spenser said.  "Why isn't he in the infantry?"

Jack snorted.  "Because they want to keep their secret weapon under wraps, I imagine.  Where you want these units, Liderra?" Jack asked the liderra in charge of the current communications shift.

Liderra Miller showed them the room where they would store the backup units, and the teams carried them in there.

As they were walking out of the comm building, Spenser said, "Still, seems like he'll be an okay guy to work for."

"He's not our CO..."

"No, but he's our supervisor.  Lots of guys let that sort of low-level authority go to their heads."

"Yeah, he's not likely to do that, from what I know of him, and what I've been told by the guys who worked with him up in Bolmont Division.  But you don't want to cross him, let me tell you that."

"Try not to," Spenser promised.

Jack nodded, and the two made their way over to the mess hall, to get started on their work for the day.

"Hi, David," Zyla said, her voice clearly still full of sorrow.  The two embraced each other for a long moment before Zyla let him into the house.

"Are you on leave already?" she asked.

"No.  I'm stationed nearby, so unless I'm on a mission, I'll be able to come back to Bolmont every few days."

"Oh?  What do they have you doing that's nearby?  I didn't think the war was anywhere near here yet."  David could hear the worry in her tone.

"Oh, it's not.  I'm not supposed to talk about what I'm doing, but it's a behind-the-lines kind of thing.  I'll only go into the combat area when I'm actually on a mission."

"Oh, I see.  So it's like a waiting area."

"Something like that."

"Well, it's good that you'll be able to go home frequently and check on things."

"Yeah."  For a long moment, there was no discussion.  Finally, David asked, "Where's Grace?"

"Taking a nap," Zyla said.  David nodded.

There was another long pause, and then David had to ask, "So how are you holding up?"

At that, Zyla broke down, sobbing.  David quickly cast a privacy field, so that Grace would not be woken up by her mother's tears.  After that, he stepped over and pulled Zyla gently to him.  She gripped him tightly, laying her head on his chest and letting her sobs deteriorate into wailing.  For long minutes, she could not control her grief.

David had experienced more than one of these episodes during his bereavement leave, but this one was worse than all of those had been.  He didn't know what to do for her, other than to hold her and try to comfort her.  He stood there, rocking gently back and forth as he would do if he was holding an infant.  She made no sign that she noticed this at all.

Finally, Zyla's crying started to taper off.  She slowly regained control of herself, her sobs becoming silent once again before they finally stopped.  It took another long moment before she let go of David and stepped back away from him.

"God, I've made a mess of your shirt," she said.

"It'll dry," David said dismissively.  It wasn't important.

Noticing for the first time, she said, "I see you remembered the privacy field."

"Grace didn't need to see you like that," David said softly.

"Again," Zyla added morosely.

"Shh," he replied.  He rubbed her upper arm for a moment, then he motioned her over to the couch.  The two talked for a long time about various things.

After a while, Grace came out of her room.

"Uncle David!" she cried happily, and ran to him.

"Hey, Gracie," he said, hugging her as she tried to strangle him with her hugs, as she usually did.

After a very long hug, she pulled back away from him.

"Where's Daddy?" she asked, confusion on her face.

Zyla said softly, "Oh, no... I hadn't anticipated this.  She's so used to you and Joe showing up together..."

David nodded.  He turned back to Grace.

"I'm sorry, Gracie.  Daddy isn't with us anymore."

"Where did he go?" she asked.

David could see that Zyla was just barely hanging on.  "Zyla... you want to maybe start dinner?  I'm sure that Grace is probably hungry after that long nap."

"Sure," she said, and dashed from the room.  David turned back to Grace again.

"Do you remember what I told you the last time I was here?" he asked softly.

Grace just shook her head no.

"Your Daddy was hurt very badly by some bad people, and he died.  That means that he had to go to this special place, where he is safe from such bad people."

"When he back?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, Gracie, but he can't come back.  This special place... once you go there, you don't get to come back."

"Then why he go there?"

"He didn't have a choice.  This special place is where you go when you die.  Dying isn't something you get to come back from."

"Why not?"

"That's just how it works, Gracie."

"Well, why he die?" she demanded angrily.

"That wasn't his choice, either," David said calmly.  "He was hurt very badly, and his body just couldn't keep on working anymore.  When that happens, you die.  It's not something you choose to do.  Believe me, Gracie, he didn't want to die.  He didn't want to leave you here and go away, but the bad men made him."

"I hate them," she growled.

"Me, too," David admitted quietly.

"Uncle David?" Grace asked after a minute.

"Yeah?"

"Could I go see Daddy?"

"You wouldn't be able to come back, Grace.  No one gets to come back."  David was well aware that he, of all people, should not be saying this to her, but trying to explain his true nature was a conversation for a much later time.

"But I wanna see Daddy."

"I'm sorry, Sweetheart, but you can't.  I know you miss him.  We all miss him.  We'd all like to see him, but that's not something that we can do.  What we can do is to remember him, and how nice he was, and what a good dad he was."

"How?"

"Well... you like to draw, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Why don't you draw a picture of him?  Then we can hang it up on your bedroom wall.  When you miss him, you can look at the picture, and you can remember him."

"Okay."

Grace got down off David's lap and started to walk away.  Halfway to the hallway, she stopped and turned around.

"Uncle David?"

"What is it, Grace?"

"Daddy go bye, not come back.  You go bye... you not come back?"

David heard a gasp behind him.  He'd had a feeling that Zyla had been listening to the conversation.  He had to focus on Grace for the moment, however.  He got off the couch, walked over and knelt in front of Grace.

"I will always come back to you, Gracie.  That's a promise.  You see, they won't let me go to the place where your Daddy went.  They don't like me there, so I have to come back here and see you."

"But... if you hurt, too?"

"I can't get hurt like your Daddy did.  I'm just weird that way.  I promise, Grace.  I won't leave you forever.  I do have to leave for a little while sometimes, but I'll always be back.  That is, so long as you promise that I'll get a hug when I get back..."

Grace smiled at him, and then threatened to break his neck with her embrace.  "I promise!" she asserted forcefully.

When she finally let him go, he smiled at her.  "Thanks, Grace.  Now, why don't you go draw that picture?"

"'Kay."  Grace ran down the hall to her room, and David rose from his spot on the carpet.  He walked through the doorway to the kitchen and embraced Zyla again, who had renewed her tears.

"I'm sorry," Zyla said.  "I never thought she'd ask about it again...  We spent so much time trying to explain it to her already..."

"It's okay," David assured her.  "It's just taking her a while to process it."

"When she asked if you were going to 'leave' too..."

"I know.  That one caught me by surprise.  It shouldn't have, though.  It has to be a fear, now.  I'm surprised she lets you out of her sight."

"I don't go anywhere."

"Not... anywhere?"

Zyla shook her head negatively.  "I just can't face what's out there right now," she said, still weeping.

David nodded, and continued to hold her until her weeping subsided.

"Now, I guess I really should start dinner."

"Want some help?"

"No... but some company would be nice," she admitted.

"Of course."

 "...and last but not least, your own mission for Troop 12.  We need you to patrol the western border from Bellamy up to Erle.  Feel free to slip inside Vrudenan territory if you need to, but we want to know where their forward-most troops are located along that border.  You have three weeks to complete the mission."

"Pardon my confusion, sir," David said, "but I was under the impression that those of us stationed here would be handling the missions in the northeast.  So... what gives?"

"That was the theory.  Unfortunately, the Vrudenans are refusing to cooperate.  They have shifted their push to the west, and so there are far more missions in that direction than this one.  You can requisition a peg-drawn carriage from Transport Company 1 to get to Bellamy, and back from Erle.  I expect you back no later than the twenty-seventh."

"Understood, sir.  Just locate their forward troops, and report positions, correct?"

"If you can manage to safely cause them some problems along the way, we won't complain," the vocator told him with a smile.  "But focus on getting us the intel."

"Yes, sir.  We will be on the way tomorrow morning."

"Why wait?" the vocator wanted to know.

"Too late in the day, sir.  Pegs aren't allowed to fly at night."

"Right.  Well, I'll leave the details to you.  Just get us that intel."

"Yes, sir."

"So... now what?" Vivian asked.  They were standing just north of Bellamy, having been dropped off by a peg-drawn coach.

"Now we walk," David said with a shrug.

"Three hundred miles?" Vivian fretted.

"We have three weeks.  That's only a hundred miles a week.  A measly little sixteen miles a day!"

"Where do I go to desert?" Vivian moaned.

Looking to Giendia, David said, "I guess now would not be the time to tell her I expect us to make at least twenty miles a day?"

While Giendia was giggling, Vivian said, "I wonder what the penalty for murdering your CO is..."

"C'mon, let's get going," David said, once the moment of levity was past.  "It honestly won't be that bad.  This region of the country is reasonably flat."

"And full of werewolves," Vivian pointed out.

"That can't be helped.  Maybe we can rid it of a few along the way."

"That wasn't part of our orders," Vivian objected.

"He didn't tell me not to," David retorted coldly.  Vivian didn't have a response to that, but she looked over at Giendia, who had noted the dark tone to David's voice, as well.  Quietly, they all headed into the forest, moving northwest for the Vrudenan border.

"Down and freeze!" David commanded in a hiss.  Vivian immediately dropped beside him.  Giendia, however, had to take more care, given her size.

David withdrew a vial from his pocket, and opened it.  He closed his eyes, and then exhaled softly, using his aeromandy to cause a slight wind, which blew across the vial, aerosolizing the potion within.

The potion was called "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" by the fun-loving, but boringly called "Scent Remover" by the humorless.  It was designed to mask the smell of humans by encasing them in an earthy aroma that was reminiscent of the forest itself.  That way, if the weres did smell them, they would think it was just a slightly pungent section of trees and dirt, and pass them by.

That was the theory, anyway.

"I count twenty, in two groups," Vivian whispered.  David just grunted softly in acknowledgment.  Weres had excellent hearing, as well as a keen sense of smell, and so it wasn't a good idea to make any noise at all while they were in sight.

David looked down at his locator device, and noted the readings.  He would log this sighting.

Once the weres had moved far enough away, Vivian let out a breath.

"Don't get too comfortable," David whispered.  "We have to follow them."

"Are you crazy... sir?" Vivian said, remembering they were actually in the army.

"Our orders are to locate their forward-most troops.  All we've done is locate troops moving forward.  We've got to see where they're going.  Come on."

David got up and slipped through the bushes, finding the trail the weres had made through the forest.  Giendia just looked at Vivian and shrugged, then got up to follow him.  Vivian grumbled quietly to herself, then followed the other two.

"Well, there's your forward troops," Vivian said sourly.  The camp before them held a full company of two hundred fifty weres.

David once again noted their position in the log he was keeping.  This was the first large force they had seen.  Up until this point, they'd only spotted scouting parties.

David withdrew a pair of binoculars from his coat.  He shifted uncomfortably.  The uniform they wore was made of dragon scale armor, and it had thicker plates of dragon scale in strategic points.  This would help them survive a magical attack, but he was having trouble getting used to its bulk.

"You have binoculars?" Vivian asked incredulously.

"These don't give off a magical signature," David replied as he brought them to his eyes.  He scanned slowly across the camp, taking in all the details he could.  "Looks like a typical infantry company.  I can see the dividing lines between troops... or whatever they call them.  They're not digging in, so I think this is just a stopover point for them for the night."

"Do we follow them?" Giendia asked.

"No, we don't have the time, if we want to keep to the schedule.  Dammit, by the time we get this information to anybody, it's not going to be of any use.  They'll have moved on."

"We can only do what we can do," Vivian pointed out.

"Yeah.  We've got to find a way to solve the damned communication issue.  Without our mirrors, or some other way to communicate, this is going to be an exercise in frustration."

"What would you suggest?" Vivian asked.

"If I knew that, I'd have already suggested it to someone," David replied.

"Perhaps Jailla could take a message back to headquarters?" Vivian offered.

David shook his head.  "He'd have to go to ANFCC-West.  HQ is much too far from here.  And even the ANFCC is hundreds of miles from where we are.  It would take him days to get there, and then days to get back... and I don't know if he'd be able to find us again once he got back... no, that's no answer."

"I hear someone coming," Giendia said, slipping down onto her knees again.

David yanked Vivian down to the ground, but kept his head up, looking for what was coming.  He could barely make their heads out above some low brush.

"What the hell?  When did the dwarves get into this war?" David muttered very quietly.  "Wait... those can't be dwarves, they're not built right.  They're built more like river trolls, but they're not the right color.  What the hell are they?"

"I don't know," Vivian said.  "But they're heading right for the Vrudenan camp, so we'll know whose friends they are in a minute..."

David nodded.  He watched, and the small creatures entered the Vrudenan camp unaccosted.

"Guess that answers that," David said.  "So, what kind of weres are those?"

David watched through the binoculars as the leader of the small weres went and spoke to the leader of the were company.  After a brief discussion, the small were turned and said something to his subordinates.  Two of them began to change shape, and David watched in incredulity.  They transformed from the slight, short creatures into vultures.

"Were-raptors," Giendia gasped.  "We'd better move, sir.  From the air, we'll be much easier to spot."

"Right," David said, taking a last long look at them.  Finally, he packed away his binoculars and rose from his position.  "This way."

"That's deeper into were territory," Vivian objected.

"I know.  It's the direction they won't be expecting to find anyone.  They've already traveled through this land."

"If you say so," Vivian said, not really sure she believed him.

 The trio set up camp over a mile away from the weres.  They were well inside Vrudena, since the forward troops they had spotted had not yet crossed the border into Callamandia.  David wondered how they would get a few hundred troops across a thousand-foot wide river with no bridge while still holding security together.  He thought perhaps he should observe that process, to report on it.

For now, however, it was time for them to get some rest.  They'd eaten their meal already.

David pulled their tent out of his Conjuring Room, and it was erected in seconds.  The tent was not a normal tent, even of the magical variety.  Fully deployed, it was only eighteen inches tall on the outside, keeping it below the level of the brush they were camping in, which meant that the only way to see it was to be standing right next to it.  Once it was set up, Vivian immediately crawled inside of it.

David turned to Giendia.  "I'll relieve you in about four hours, as usual," he said.  The women took turns with the first guard shift overnight.  David stood guard for second shift every night, since he only got four hours of sleep, anyway.  This meant that everyone stayed fairly well rested during their mission.

"Yes sir.  The emergency button?" she asked.

"Oh, right."  David pulled a small disk out of his pocket.  On it was a large red button.  When pressed, an alarm would sound inside the tent.  Since the tent was privacy-protected, no sound from the alarm would leave the tent.  It allowed the watch stander to alert those who were resting without giving away their presence to whatever was approaching.  He handed the button to Giendia.

"See you in about four hours or so," David told her.

"Yes, sir.  Sleep well."

David snorted.  "Thanks, anyway."

David knelt down and lifted up the tent opening.  The opening collapsed completely, so that the shimmering of the privacy field would not leak out the opening, even as someone entered or left the tent.  He crawled through the short entrance "tunnel", then stood up.  Inside, the tent was tall enough for even Giendia to stand up straight.

Vivian was already lying on her mat, her eyes closed.  He didn't say anything, just in case she was actually asleep already.  He lay down on his own mat, resting his head on the pillow.  He made a brief connection with Jailla, who was sitting in a tree about halfway between them and the were camp.  Jailla, knowing that David was there, looked around so that David could see that the area was clear.

Having done that, he disengaged from Jailla.  There was no way for them to actually talk to each other over distance, so he couldn't wish him a good night, but then, there weren't really any good nights to be had in the middle of a war, anyway.

As was typical of the last few nights, David lay, staring up at the top of the tent, his mind going over and over his current situation.  He reviewed their plans for the next few days, and then he started to consider all the things that could go wrong, and how to deal with them.  This was hardly necessary, as he'd done the same thing every night since he'd started the mission, and so the only things left for him to plan for were things that he hadn't been able to think up yet.  He did it anyway.

After about twenty minutes, David heard a soft shuffling.  He had been in a twilight haze, and so he came alert fairly quickly.  The noise was clearly coming from inside the tent, however, so he didn't worry too much about it.

He didn't have long to consider the noise, in any case.  In just another moment, he felt a weight across his chest, and a pressure against his side.  He opened his eyes then, and turned his head to see Vivian lying beside him.  This was a new situation for him, and he wasn't sure exactly what she had in mind.

"Viv?" he asked softly.

"Do you mind?" she asked quietly.  "Laying over there, my mind just keeps going over every bad thing that can happen between now and morning."

David slipped his arm out from between them, and wrapped it around her, pulling her more tightly to him.  "This really isn't like you," David said, concerned.

"David, I'm scared," she admitted.  "Being a Rimohr is one thing.  If the situation becomes really bad, you just run away.  Nobody questions that.  If the situation gets really bad here... we don't get to run away.  Chances are, we won't even have that option."

David grunted.  Running hadn't worked out so well for Joe, had it?

"So, if it's all the same to you, I'd rather sleep here.  I know it's hardly military, but... neither am I, really."

"Well, it's clearly not 'all the same' to me, but you're quite welcome to sleep here if it makes you feel better.  I promise, Vivian, I'm trying not to make the same mistakes I made with Joe.  I'm going to get us all home in one piece this time."

"Nobody blames you for what happened to Joe, David.  You did your best.  Sometimes, that's just not good enough.  That's what worries me.  I know how good your best is, and it's damned good... but what if it's not good enough?"

David squeezed her more tightly with his arm.  "Try not to worry.  I'm the officer; worrying is my job.  And trust me, I'm doing enough of it for you, me, Giendia, and about six other people."

"I know.  And I'm sorry if I seem like I'm questioning your orders.  I will go with you to Hell and back, if you need me to.  But this is too much for me to handle without some kind of emotional support."

"I've never doubted your support, Viv.  Not once.  And if you need a shoulder to lean on from time to time, just ask... so long as we're not in the middle of a firefight, of course," he said with a grin.

"Thanks, David."  Vivian ran her hand along David's cheek, then turned his face to hers.  She kissed him softly for a moment, then she settled back into position against him.

"Good night," she said quietly.

"Night, Viv," David said.  He rolled onto his side facing her, and wrapped his other arm around her.  Vivian cuddled in tightly, and then the two of them slowly drifted off to sleep.

 "I thought we weren't going to follow them," Vivian said very quietly.  The weres were only a hundred yards ahead of them.

"I changed my mind.  Commander's prerogative," David said with a grin.  Seriously, he said, "I want to know how they manage to cross the river."

Vivian nodded, and the trio moved forward slowly and carefully.  It wasn't long before the Chantuya River was showing through the trees.  The were soldiers kept in formation as they stopped at the water's edge.

David and the others watched as the soldiers rearranged slightly.  Along the north side of the line, every fifth soldier fell out of line.  Various other soldiers from within the formation moved in to take their place, and the displaced soldiers filled in the gaps left in the formation.

"That was weird," Vivian said.  David didn't respond.

Suddenly, the first soldier on the north side of the formation lifted his hand.  The trio watched as the river churned and bubbled, and the water actually started to flow upward into an arc.  The soldier continued to move his hands, and finally the water at the edge of the river was bowed into an arch that was large enough for the entire company formation to walk through.

"Are they just going to walk into the river?  They'll drown, won't they?" Giendia asked quietly.

"I don't think that's the plan," David said.  "Watch."

As the formation began its march, the second of the soldiers who had moved now raised his hand.  The arch of water in the river pushed further across, moving more water, and allowing the company to now enter the riverbed while the water flowed above them.

"That's got to take an insane amount of power and concentration," David said.

"And it means that such a natural barrier can't stop them," Vivian grumped.

"Unless we give them a good reason not to use this technique," David mused.

"What do you mean, sir?" Giendia asked.

"Come on, let's move a bit to the north.  I want to get north of them so we have a clear look at that side with the aquamanders on it."

The three moved as quickly as they could while remaining covert.  By the time they had gotten to the position David wanted, the last rank of troops was entering the river.

"Now what?" Vivian asked.

"Now we wait a little while," David said.  "Keep an eye on those damned raptors.  We don't want them spotting us."

"I've only seen the one so far," Giendia said.

"Really?  Just one?"

"Yes, sir."

"Let me know if you see him again."

"Yes, sir."

As they watched, the arch at the edge of the river slowly collapsed, until the edge of the river was flowing normally again.  In the middle, however, it was easy to see the ten-foot-tall hump that was slowly traveling across the river.

"There's that raptor," Vivian said, pointing.  David looked and saw a lone vulture in the sky.

Pulling his wand, David took careful aim.  He silently cast a containment charm around the were-raptor.  For the moment, he kept it following him, but once the vulture had turned away from where they were standing, David grasped his wand more firmly and jerked downward with all the force he could muster.

The containment charm followed David's motions, and it slammed into the were-raptor.  The raptor was forced downward with the containment field, and he impacted the water at speeds high enough to break every bone in his body.

"One less pair of eyes to worry about," David growled with satisfaction.  "Now, did you see just how far away from the company the water started to rise up?"

"Yeah, it was five or ten feet," Vivian said.

"What we want to do is fire off some energy balls along the left side.  We're going to try to hit some of the aquamanders.  If we take out even one, it may collapse a portion of the arch and take some of the bastards out."

"But they'll just turn around and come back after us, won't they?" Giendia asked.

"That's why we've waited until they got this far.  If they turn around now, they'll actually have further to go to safety.  If they just keep pushing forward, they'll be out of danger sooner.  They can't fight back, and they don't know how many of us there are.  It's in their best interest to get the hell out of the water as fast as they can."

"Makes sense," Vivian agreed.

"Okay, so aim for the left-hand side.  Giendia, keep your eyes out for more raptors... and anything else that might come after us, okay?"

"Yes, sir," she acknowledged.

David and Vivian stood side by side and targeted their wands around the left-hand side of the bubble, about halfway along its length.  They started to launch un-aimed energy balls into the river.  At this angle, they would almost certainly hit someone if they were aiming along the line correctly.

"Now," David said.

The two began firing shots.  They couldn't see anything, so there was no point in controlling their energy.  Instead, they merely fired one shot after another, as fast as they could, sweeping slightly left and right.

"Look!" Giendia cried out, pointing into the river.

The center section of the elongated dome crashed inward.  Foam sprayed everywhere as waves rolled over the remaining two sections of dome.

"Do we try for more?" Vivian asked.

"Let's not push our luck.  There is still the chance they may turn back this way.  Let's put some distance between us and this river, then we'll turn north."

As they walked, with David in the lead and Vivian not too far behind him, she asked, "Do you think they'll stop using that trick now?"

"No.  I think they'll start posting guards on both sides of the river in order to secure their crossings."

"So what did we achieve?" Vivian asked plaintively.

"We killed some enemies," David growled.  "That's all we needed to achieve.  We've also forced them to react to us.  If we can keep them doing that, they'll lose the war."

"If you say so," she said.

The three walked back toward the overnight camping spot of the weres.  They would turn north at the camp.  They were not walking along the path that the weres had made, just in case there were any stragglers that they might run into.

As they approached the camp, things seemed normal.  All of that changed in the blink of an eye, however.

They were walking past a large tree, with David in the lead and Vivian about ten feet behind him.  Giendia was another ten feet behind Vivian.  Suddenly, the tree vanished, and so did the ground that was beneath David's feet.  A cry indicated to him that Vivian had also been caught in the trap.

Spike pit! David's mind screamed in an instant.  This was a standard Vrudenan tactic: a were terramander would create a hundred-foot hole in the ground, and create crystal spikes at the bottom.  A good illusion-enchanter would then create a solid illusion over the hole.  The Vrudenans didn't want just one person, though, so they wouldn't spring the trap when someone first stepped onto the illusion.  No, they would wait until they were about to step off.  That way, if anyone else was with them, they, too, would be caught.

That's what happened to Vivian, who had been just close enough to David to have been caught on the opposite side of the trap from him.

Because this was a standard Vrudenan ploy, David had already considered what to do if he found himself in this trap.  Unfortunately, he'd not considered the notion of someone else falling in with him.  He knew that he had to save Vivian; he would not mentally survive losing a second friend under his command.  He had only about two seconds now to pull it off.

Twisting himself in the air at the same time he pushed out with his foot, David launched himself across the ten-foot expanse while ghosting himself.  He collided with Vivian and they slammed into the wall of the pit together.  David shoved his right arm into the rock face of the pit wall - his left arm was wrapped around Vivian - and then he solidified himself.

The two immediately came to a stop, but David nearly dropped Vivian due to the intense pain.  Not only was his right forearm wrecked by being melded with the rock face, the sudden, jolting stop had dislocated his shoulder and possibly torn something loose.  He was biting back a scream of agony, because he didn't want to alert any weres who might be in the area.

"Oh, god, David!" Vivian cried.  "Are you... what the... what did you do?" she demanded, realizing just how he was holding them up.

"Call... Giendia.  Climb up on... rope," he gasped out.  He could not possibly call loud enough for Giendia to hear him without screaming bloody murder.  "And... kinda... quick.  You're... heavy."

The last was said with a smirk.  Vivian marveled that he could joke at a time like this.

"Giendia?  Are you okay up there?" Vivian called out.

Giendia's head was immediately visible at the rim of the trap.

"I'm fine.  No one around here.  What do I do?"

"Anchor your rope to something and toss it down.  We'll need to climb up."

Giendia nodded and her head disappeared as she went to tie the rope off.

"You'll have to... go up... alone," David told Vivian.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, confused.

"I'm... stuck here.  I won't... be able to... fade until sunset."

"What?" she exclaimed.

"Too... badly injured," David said.  "I can't fade... voluntarily.  I'll have to... wait for... my normal... transition.  That's... sunset."

"David, it's only fucking noon!"

"Believe me... I'm... aware," he said.  "I'll take some... NG... once you're... off my hands.  Well, hand..."

Vivian shook her head in dismay.  At that moment, a rope came dropping in from above.

"How can you just... stay here?" she asked.  "What if we try carving the rock piece out?"

"Can't... risk it."

"What do you mean?"

"Just... go.  I'll be... okay.  I'll... explain... when I'm not... dangling from my arm."

"What are your orders?" she asked, remembering he was still in charge.

"Set up... watch... around hole.  If... trouble... arrives... run like hell."

"No, sir," Vivian replied.

"Do as... you're told, Capadra!" David snapped.  "They can't kill me, Vivian.  They... can kill you."

"Yes, sir," she acknowledged with as much disdain for his order as she could manage.  With that, she grasped the rope and began to climb out.  Before she made it anywhere near the top, David had already conjured some Naproxen Ghostium from his Conjuring Room and downed it.  It wasn't as effective as usual, probably because his arm was still mangled up inside a rock.

Jailla suddenly landed on David's good shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Jailla asked.  He fully expected the answer he got.

"Oh, just hangin' around," David said with a grin.  The naproxen ghostium had at least reduced the pain enough to stop him from gasping with every breath.

"This was a poor choice of tactic," Jailla complained.

"It was the only thing I ever thought of," David retorted.  "And I didn't exactly have time to come up with something new.  Not with Vivian in danger, as well."

Jailla bobbed his head.

After a brief moment of silence, David said, "I have a question.  Not sure why I haven't asked it before, but it's been bugging me for a few days."

"Is now really the time for a discussion of some sort?" Jailla asked.

"Have I got anything better to do?" David replied.  "Talking about something else will take my mind off the fact that I'm stuck."

"Okay.  What's your question?"

"When I see through your eyes... can you see through mine?"

"Yes."

"Hmph.  You never mentioned that."

"It's never been important.  Is it important now?"

"Maybe, maybe not.  Is there any other ability that you can share with me?"

"I have little in the way of other abilities to share, David.  I'm just a bird, after all."

"Well... you can let me see what you see... can you let me hear what you hear?"

"It is tricky, but I think we are probably bonded enough for us to attempt it at this point.  Why is this important now?"

"Because it would allow us to communicate at a distance.  If you can hear me speak out loud, then I could ask you questions, and you could answer them."

"I see your point.  I will attempt to work on this."

David nodded.  "Also... how fast and how far can you fly?"

"How fast would be about thirty miles per hour if I'm not in a hurry.  How far... I've never tried to figure that, but it would depend a lot on how fast.  If I have to push the speed, I will grow tired more quickly.  As a rough guess, I would say I can fly for seven or eight hours a day, at most.  Why are you asking?"

"Because the information about that damned company needs to get back to the arkigos as fast as possible, and another two weeks of us walking through the woods is going to make that information useless.  If you can fly to ANFCC-West, then we can get the information out much more quickly."

"I don't see how.  I cannot carry any sort of lengthy message, and you cannot speak through me..."

"But I'm a conjurer.  If I can look through your eyes, it's just like looking through a mirror.  I could write a report and just conjure it to where you are."

"Ah, yes, I hadn't thought of that.  Do you want me to leave now?"

"No... try to see if you can do the whole hearing thing first.  You can head off for the ANFCC in the morning.  While you're doing that, help the girls stand watch, would you?"

"Of course.  Try to relax, David.  Tensing up will only make the pain worse."

"Easy for you to say.  You're not mounted to the wall."

"Perhaps if you carved yourself some footholds," Jailla offered.

"Hey, that's not a bad idea... but... shit.  Can you try to pull my wand for me?  I can't exactly reach it."

Jailla walked down David's arm and stepped onto Kalagasakalayo.

"I hope it'll let you.  It's only supposed to let its owner pull the wand..."

Jailla grasped at the jewel on the end of the wand with his claw, and tugged on it awkwardly.  The wand slid easily free.  Jailla held onto the wand as he pulled it further and further out, until David could get his fingers on the end of it, and was able to work it into his hand properly.  It was, of course, his left hand, which was not his primary hand, so spellcasting could be interesting, to say the least.

"I think I'll get out of the line of fire for a while," Jailla said with a smirk in his voice.

"Thanks a lot, bird-brain," David said grumpily.

Jailla nipped him on the ear.

"Ow!  You bastard," David said with a grin.  "Get lost," he continued with a chuckle.

With that, Jailla flew up out of the hole, while David tried to learn to cast spells with his left hand.

 David had asked Giendia to warn him a few minutes before sunset, so that when it arrived, he wasn't taken by surprise.  He controlled his cry of pain as he faded to ghost form.  He steadied himself on the footholds, using the rope, which was still hanging there, to keep himself from falling.

Slowly, carefully, David twisted his body.  As soon as he moved, his right arm dropped, his shoulder incapable of holding it in place.  He stifled yet another scream of intense pain as his hand thumped against his thigh.

David looked down at his arm, to see that it was mutilated and misshapen.  He didn't dare try to move his fingers; he knew they were worse than broken.

Seeing the condition of his right hand, he realized he had a problem.  There was no way he was going to climb the rope up out of the pit with just one usable arm.

"Giendia?" David called quietly.  Vivian was on outer guard duty, while Giendia kept watch closer to the hole.

"Yes, sir?" she asked, looking down into the hole.

"When I tell you to, I want you to pull the rope up, tie a small loop in the end of it, then drop it back down to me."

"How small is small?" she asked.

David snorted.  "Good question.  Big enough for me to get one foot into it, but not a lot bigger than that.  You're going to have to pull me up, because there's no way I can climb.  I'll use my free leg to keep myself from scraping along the wall all the way to the top."

Giendia nodded.  "Let me know when you're ready for me to pull up the rope."

David pulled his wand out of his pocket, where he'd stuck it, since he couldn't possibly put it back in its usual place.  He cast the spell he'd worked on earlier, and another depression formed in the wall of the pit.  He put away his wand again, and gripped the depression, testing how well he could hold on to it.

Once he was sure his grip was firm, he said, "Okay, take it up."

The rope zipped upward at a furious pace, and it didn't take very long before it dropped back down, now with a solidly tied loop at the end.

David reached out and took hold of the rope, bringing it to himself.  He tightened his grip as much as he could, then he lifted his left foot off the tiny ledge it was on.  He slipped his toes into the loop, and tested how well it would hold him.  It seemed stable, so he pushed away from the wall with his right foot.  Now he was positioned directly below the point where the rope entered the pit.

"Okay, I'm ready when you are," David called up.

David's ascent was rapid.  He was moving fast enough that he struggled a bit to keep up with Giendia's pace.  As he reached the top, he called out, "Okay, stop!"

Giendia stopped moving instantly.  "What's wrong?" she asked in concern.

"I have to figure out how to get up over the rim of the pit without hurting myself even worse."  After a minute of thought, David asked, "Can you loop the rope over a high branch?  At least ten feet or so off the ground?  Preferably one that's kind of close to the pit..."

"Sure.  Just a second."

In seemingly no time at all, Giendia had the rope slung over a thick branch twenty feet up.

"Now what?" she asked.

"Now just pull on the other end.  With the rope more vertical, I can keep myself away from the wall of the pit until I'm clear."

"Right."

In just a few more seconds, David was standing on solid ground again.  He rubbed his neck, which was stiff and sore from a day of dangling by his destroyed shoulder.

"Soldier, bend down here," David said to Giendia formally.

Giendia leaned down, to be closer to eye level with David.  David reached out with his good left hand and put it behind her head.  He pulled her closer, and he kissed her strongly.  She responded immediately, forgetting anything about him being her commanding officer.

When he broke their kiss, David said, "Thank you for getting me the hell out of there."

Giendia smiled and blushed.

Vivian came over to David.  One look at him, and she turned pale.  "Oh, my god, your arm..."

"I'll live," he said.  "Er... no I won't," he continued with a chuckle.  "But I'll manage."

For the fourth time that day, David pulled a vial of Naproxen Ghostium out of his CR, and swallowed it.  The pain of his injury lessened immediately, but was still very much present.  He would just have to live with that.

"Okay, we need to get away from here, but I'm not going to be able to travel far.  We will set up camp... well, wherever we are when I can't walk any further."

"Shouldn't we call in to have you medevaced?"

"Call in to whom?" David asked.  "We can't call in to anyone, because our mirrors don't work here, and we aren't carrying around one of those fifty-pound portals.  No, we have a mission to do, and I'll just have to suck it up and carry on.  I'll probably be healed in three or four days, anyway."

"Yes, sir," Vivian said, her tone indicating that she was not at all happy with the situation.

"Okay, let's move out.  Jailla, watch the sky for us, would you?  We'll try to keep under cover, so no raptors can see us, but better if we know they're coming before they get here."

Jailla nodded and winged off.  He had not yet managed to allow David to hear through his ears, despite spending the entire afternoon working on it.

"Vivian, you need to lead off.  I'm in no shape to fend off anything we run into.  Just travel kind of parallel to the river."

"Gotcha."

"On second thought, you know what?  Let's go back to the river and walk along the bank."

"We'll be more visible that way," Giendia objected.

"I know, but it's the only direction that we know there aren't more of these pits.  We need to let HQ know that they're planting these damned things around their encampments.  Once we're... oh, say, a mile away from this damned base, we can move back into the trees.  Assuming, that is, that I can walk that far."

"Right.  Okay, I'll try to walk the same exact path back that we walked to get here."

David nodded, and Vivian moved out.  He waited until she was a good fifteen feet ahead before he started to walk.  Giendia, seeing what he had done, did likewise, so that their group was a bit more spread out than before.

They walked for the next three hours, though they didn't make great time.  Finally, David could go no further.  The last hour had been torture, but he'd forced himself to do it, so that they could get to a position of excellent cover to stop for the night.

"Okay, this is good," David said.  Vivian stopped immediately, and turned back to join him.  David sat down on a fallen tree trunk.  He winced as the movement jostled his shoulder.

"How bad is it?" Vivian asked, distressed.

"I've had worse," David said, trying to shrug it off figuratively, since there was no way in hell he could shrug literally.

"David, you've had your head blown off.  Saying you've had worse is not encouraging!" Vivian pointed out.

"He what?" Giendia cried in dismay.

"You didn't hear about the attempt on the king's life?" Vivian asked.

"Yes, they said it was stopped by... that was you?" Giendia asked David.

"Yeah.  I'm prone to doing stupid shit when I think it's necessary.  You should watch out for me."

Giendia just stared at him in awe.

"In any case, who's making dinner?  I know it's my turn, but I figure you guys want to actually eat tonight, so..."

Vivian snorted.  "I'll do it," she said.

David conjured their food ration for the evening out of his Conjuring Room.  There was a slight danger in using conjuring; if there were weres close enough to them, they could detect it.  But using the CR gave the smallest signature for conjuring, since one end of the conjure was completely undetectable.  It was a risk they felt worth taking, since it meant not having to pack along large amounts of food and water.

 As the trio ate their meal, Vivian asked quietly, "David, do you really plan to stand watch tonight, even with your arm like that?"

"Have I got something better to do?" David asked.  "I'm not going to get more than four hours of sleep, no matter that I'm injured."

"But you slept a lot more when you were shot..." she objected.

"I slept mostly because I was bored.  You ever had to lay still on a bed for a few hours?  It's just a natural reaction.  It wasn't about me healing."

"But... you're a ghost.  Aren't you worried about giving away our position?  I mean... you glow," Giendia pointed out.

"I'll stand watch the same way I usually do.  Invisibly."

"You... now why didn't I think of that?" Vivian asked herself.  "How come we never catch you being invisible, then?"

"Because it takes you longer to exit the tent than it does for me to fade.  I just consider it rude to be invisible around people."

Vivian nodded.

After the three finished their meal, David called Jailla down from his perch.  He asked him, "Are you fed and rested?"

"Yes, just fine," Jailla said.

"Good.  I want you to start off tomorrow morning at sun-up.  Your destination is ANFCC-West.  Can you find that?"

"Yes."

"Okay, great.  While you're gone, we'll compose the report.  Once you're there, connect with me so that I can conjure it to them."

Jailla bobbed his head in acknowledgment.

"Good.  Now, I'm gonna go get some rest.  Good night, and good luck."

"You, too," Jailla said, then winged off.  He headed into the trees to stand outer watch for the group.

"I'll see you in four hours or so," he told Vivian.

Vivian nodded, but she clearly was uncertain of having an injured person on watch.  David pretended not to notice her concern.

"You coming to bed now, or you going to stay up a little while?" David asked Giendia.

"I'll join you," she said.  David pulled up the tunnel roof so that it made a large opening.  Giendia walked in.  The privacy field was only visible for a couple seconds before the whole thing settled to the ground and closed it off again.

David turned to Vivian.  "Look, I know you're worried about my arm.  I appreciate that.  But trust me, standing watch is the very least of my worries where this arm is concerned."

"Yes, sir," she said, in a tone she reserved for acknowledging things she didn't like, but couldn't do anything about.

"I'll see you in four hours.  Be safe out here, okay?"

"Do my best.  Sleep well."

David snorted, then turned back to the tent.

Once David had made his way inside the tent, he found that Giendia had rolled up both mats and maneuvered her pillow to the spot where David would normally sleep.  She was already in her resting posture, but she was still awake.

"Giendia?" he asked.

"You shouldn't lie flat with that arm the way it is," she said.  "It will get bumped and banged all night long.  If you rest on my back, though, you can set it on the pillow, and it will be kept safe."

David walked over to her.  Since she was kneeling, they were almost eye-to-eye.  He leaned in and kissed her softly.

"Thanks," he said sincerely.  He then carefully straddled her and lay against her human back.  As she lowered herself onto the pillow, he moved his arm so that it would rest on the pillow's surface.

In only seconds, he was asleep.

"I never realized how much I'd come to rely on Jailla's presence," David said.  "I feel very vulnerable all of a sudden."

"Do you plan to move just as fast as we have been?" Vivian asked.

"As close to it as I can reasonably pull off.  This arm will slow me down somewhat, unfortunately.  Probably only be able to make eighteen miles a day, instead of twenty-one."  He gave Vivian a mischievous grin.

"The stockade is looking better and better," she mumbled to herself, just loud enough to make sure David heard her.

"Hmm?  What was that, Capadra?" David said teasingly.

"Sir, nothing, sir!  Just clearing my throat, sir!"

"Uh-huh," David replied.  "We need to cross back over the river.  Those troops we ambushed were the lead elements here, but the likelihood is that the weres are moving across the river all along the border, so we should get back into Callamandia."

"Are we going to play that walking on water trick again to get across?" Vivian asked.

"No, not with my arm like this.  I could never concentrate well enough to keep us from getting very wet."

"How, then?"

"We'll find something," he replied.

"You say so," she said dubiously, then she headed off into the trees, toward the river.  After a second, David followed her, with Giendia not-too-close behind.

 "Fuck, this hurts," David said as he conjured another vial of Naproxen Ghostium.  The two of them were preparing for bed, having found a hopefully safe place to camp for the night.

They were back inside Callamandia.  Vivian had crafted a raft for them out of some scrap wood she'd found near the river, and then she had used a spell to propel them across the river.  David would have been able to get them across much faster, but his spellcasting wasn't trustworthy with his left hand.

Vivian looked at him with concern.

"How many of those have you taken today?" she asked, referring to the pain medicine.

"This makes number five," David replied after he swallowed it.  "Don't worry, Mom, it hasn't proven to be habit-forming."

Vivian blushed.  "Is your hand getting any better at all?"

"Probably.  Hard to tell, as much as it hurts.  I still can't move anything, including my wrist.  I'm assuming it's getting better.  No reason for it not to."

"Why did you not let me carve out the rock around your arm yesterday?  You could have at least sat comfortably somewhere, instead of putting all that strain on your shoulder..."

"I was worried I'd be stuck with a rock on my arm for the rest of eternity."

"Huh?" Vivian asked, confused.

"When I fade from human to ghost, anything I'm 'in possession of' at the time fades with me.  This includes people, book bags, chairs... and probably rocks.

"Now, there's no way that I could ever be considered to be 'in possession of' the entire planet, so while my arm was buried inside the ground, I knew that the planet wouldn't fade with me when I changed.

"But, if you had cut out a section of the rock, that might have bridged the gap.  I might have then been considered to be 'in possession' of the rock around my arm.  If that happened, then the rock would fade when I did, and it's conceivable I'd never have been able to get rid of it, without cutting off my arm.  I really didn't want to take that chance.  One afternoon of discomfort is better than weeks of it... or an eternity..."

"I can see your point.  Still, did you have to do that just to save me?  I feel really bad about your arm..."

"I'd have done a lot more than this to save you if I'd had to.  I've already lost my oldest friend thanks to this goddamned war.  I couldn't bear losing my next-oldest one.

"And, let's not be too heroic about my actions.  I was saving my own ass, too.  I've already been impaled on a spike once in my existence.  I really wasn't interested in repeating the experience."

"When were you impaled on a spike?" Vivian asked.

David pointed to the scar on his chest, which was visible, since he didn't have on a shirt at the moment.  "Where do you think this came from?"

"Ouch," Vivian said.  "I've never really thought about how you died.  I mean, I know, it was a prank, but I never much considered the thing that had actually killed you."

"It was a bird cage," David said.  "If Jailla was here, I'd make a joke about how birds are always causing me trouble."

Vivian giggled.  She stepped close to David, and ran her hand gently over the scar on his chest.  It was a bit of an odd experience for her, as he was in ghost form, but she could still touch him.  As she lowered her arm, she accidentally brushed against David's right hand.

"Aagh!" David cried out.  He grimaced and shuddered.

"Oh, fuck, I'm sorry!" Vivian cried.  "I should have been way more careful!"

"I'll manage," David said through gritted teeth.  "But please don't do that again, or I'm making you walk twenty-two miles tomorrow."

"God, David... the things you put yourself through for others...  How often do people actually say thank you?"

"Often enough.  I don't do things to be thanked.  I do them because they need doing."

"All the more reason that those of us on the receiving end of your help should show some gratitude," she told him.  With that, Vivian knelt in front of David.

"What are you doing?" David asked.  Vivian didn't answer him, but instead unfastened and then unzipped his pants.  As she reached in and extracted his dick from his briefs, David sighed, then said, "Ohhh, that's what you're doing."

"This is my way of saying thank you for saving my ass," she said.

"Well, it's such a cute ass," David replied, then sighed again as her lips slid over the head of his cock.

David moved his right hand behind his back, to keep it well out of the way.  His left hand, he rested gently on Vivian's head, encouraging her to keep up her ministrations.  For a brief moment, he wondered what Vocator Schultz would say if he knew how Troop 12 spent its down-time, but Vivian's tongue soon wiped any concern of military protocol completely out of his mind.

Vivian placed her hands on David's hips, holding him in place firmly as she bobbed on his cock.  He was bigger than any guy she'd been with before, so she couldn't take his entire length, but she took what she could, working her tongue over the underside as her lips applied suction.

David let the wonderful sensations embrace his consciousness.  He knew that he was going to come soon; Vivian's mouth felt far too good, and it had been too long since he'd had any sexual contact.  He groaned to let her know that things were getting close.

Vivian sped up as much as she could, pushing David toward the edge.  When he reached it, he grunted to give her a warning.  Only a couple seconds later, he blasted her mouth with his seed.  She pulled back just enough to withstand the onslaught, and continued to run her tongue against his dick.

Finally, when David's climax had passed, she swallowed his cum.  Slowly, she let her lips slide off his cock, and she smiled up at him.

"You're welcome," he said with a smirk.

Vivian giggled as she rose.  She stepped close to him, rubbing his chest with her hands.

"So," she said softly, "Now that you've saved my ass, is there anything else you'd like to do with it?"

David raised an eyebrow, and grinned slightly.  "Such as?" he asked coyly.

Vivian replied, "Oh, I don't know.  Maybe you'll think of something," she said as she began to undo her shirt.  David ran his left hand along her side until it rested on her hip, then he slipped it around behind her, pulling her gently to him.

Vivian closed her eyes as their lips met, and her mouth opened immediately when she felt David's tongue slip out.  The two kissed passionately as she continued to undo her shirt.  When that was finished, she immediately pushed it off her shoulders and let it fall to the ground.  Her bra followed soon thereafter.

Reluctantly, Vivian pushed David away and stepped back slightly.

"Got to get these damned boots off," she said to him.  She knelt to undo her laces, and tugged at his while she was at it.  They each removed the rest of their bottom clothes quickly.

"Now would be a really bad time for the enemy to show up," David said with a chuckle.

"I don't want to think about the enemy.  I don't want to think about the war.  I don't even want to think about Giendia.  All I want to think about is how good you're making me feel.  You... are going to make me feel good now, aren't you?"

David moved close to her and ran his left hand over her breasts.  He slid each finger slowly over her nipples.  Vivian mewed softly.  Leaning over, he took one of her nipples between his lips and slowly stroked it with his tongue.

"Ooh, you are going to make me feel good," she sighed.

David closed his eyes and chanted a spell.  With only one good arm, he was going to have to play a few tricks in order to participate properly in this encounter.  He called forth the energy tendrils he'd used several times before.  The first one, however, he wrapped around his own right arm, holding it tightly behind his back so that he wouldn't hurt it.

The second tendril slipped down and wrapped around Vivian's left knee.  As David slipped his hand behind her to hold her upright, the tendril lifted her leg, exposing her pussy and giving him all the access he needed.

David stood up and pulled Vivian against him.  She reached down and took hold of his dick, slipping it between her legs until it was ready to penetrate her depths.

For a moment, neither of them moved.  They stared into each other's eyes, communicating silently.  Then, finally, David pushed forward slowly, burying himself to the hilt within her warm wetness.  Vivian closed her eyes and pushed herself against him, laying her head on his shoulder and very carefully wrapping her arms around him.

Once David had completely inserted himself inside her, he began to stroke smoothly.  He rubbed her back as they coupled, his hips rolling to push his dick as far into her as he could in this position.  She rocked her hips into him, helping as much as she could.  She moaned and sighed as the feelings washed over her, letting her mind quiet as her body heated up.

Before long, however, her leg began to tire.

"Can we switch positions?" she asked.

"Sure," David said.  He let her leg loose, and stepped back from her.  After a quick look around, he said, "Go lean over Giendia's pillow."

Vivian quickly moved to the large pillow and lay herself against it, her tits pressed into the firm but yielding surface.  Her ass was pushed out, and she spread her legs wide, inviting David to do whatever he liked.

Stepping back to her, David slid his cock back inside her.  As he did, she moaned lowly in joy.  Gripping her hip with his good hand, he began to rock his hips more forcefully now, thrusting into her.

"Oh, yeah!" she cried out, pushing her hips back at him in sync with his movements.  Her heat was rising fast now, and her body soon began to quiver in anticipation.

In only another moment, her climax washed over her, and her back arched.  Her pussy gripped David's cock tightly, and she shuddered in ecstasy.  David pushed all the way into her and stopped, just waiting for her orgasm to pass.

Once she was able, Vivian rose from her position and turned to face David.  "Goddamn, that was nice.  But you didn't come," she objected.

"I never said I was done, either," David replied with a smirk.

"Oh, really?" Vivian asked with glee.  "What else did you have in mind?"

"Lie down on the mat," he said, directing her to their sleeping mat.  She quickly complied, and he lowered himself to the mat as well, kneeling next to her.

Vivian spread her legs slightly, not quite sure what his plan was.  When he put one knee between her legs, however, she spread them wider to make room for him.  He was now kneeling over her, looking down at her with a gentle smile.

Closing his eyes, David reworked his energy tendril spell.  This time, the tendrils encased his damaged arm completely.  He pulled it out from behind his back, and then he leaned down over Vivian.  He planted his right hand on the ground, but the tendrils took all the weight and pressure.

David once again ran his hand over Vivian's tits, tweaking her nipples and caressing her flesh.

"That feels very nice," she murmured.

Reaching down, David placed the head of his cock at her entrance, and slid home.

"But that feels oh so much nicer," she continued.

David leaned down slightly, and then began to rock his hips smoothly, thrusting into her in easy, almost gentle strokes.  Vivian looked up at him with a smile and began to roll her hips in time with his moves.  The two coupled tenderly for long moments, until they were both ready for the pace to increase.

Leaning down further, David kissed Vivian, sliding his tongue deep into her mouth.  As he did so, he began to rock his hips more forcefully, stroking into her with passion and energy.  Vivian grunted in surprise at first, but then moaned in pleasure, and her hips were soon matching his moves.

The two allowed their pace to quicken naturally, until they were finally fucking with abandon.  David broke their kiss, allowing the room to fill with their moans and cries of passion.  They knew they were both close.  In only a few more seconds, they arrived together.  David's cum blasted into Vivian's pussy while her muscles milked his cock for every drop.

For long moments, the two remained coupled, breathing hard and heaving.  Slowly, they descended from their high.  David rolled to the side, careful to protect his right arm as he did so.  Once he was settled, Vivian rolled to her side, slid her arm across his chest, and then kissed him for a long while.

"Thank you," she said sincerely, and then lay down against him.

David wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into him.

"Any time," he replied quietly.

In another couple minutes, they were both asleep.

"Vigax, I hear noises coming from that direction," Giendia told him.

Very quietly, to Vivian, David said, "God, I can't stand that title..."  The three of them had been in the forest for nearly two weeks now, and it was beginning to grate on David that Giendia refused to relax in his presence.

Vivian grinned.  "Wait till you make batalisto.  You'll lose your first name entirely," she whispered back.

"Bite your tongue.  And that's an order," David grumbled.

Pulling out his binoculars, David looked to where Giendia had pointed.  Whatever was going on, however, it was too far away for them to see.

"Jailla, fly on ahead and scout it out for us," David said.  He was very glad to have his partner and friend back from his trip to ANFCC-West.  According to the short note that had been sent back with Jailla, the army was already moving to counter the incursion.

Jailla winged off, and the three remained hidden among the trees.  In short order, David received an image from Jailla that would have made his blood boil, if he'd had any.

"Come on," David said darkly, and edged his way through the bushes.  Vivian and Giendia followed quickly behind.

The trio reached the edge of a large clearing, which held a small village of no more than a hundred people.  Many of those people were already dead.  A team of ten werewolves was going through the town, slaughtering most and turning the rest.

"Giendia, you aim for those farthest away.  Vivian, you target the ones close in."

"Yes, sir," they acknowledged as they drew their weapons.

"And try not to hit me," he added.

"Huh?" Vivian asked, but she was asking his back.  David had already pulled his wand and exited the tree line.  Something else he was glad to have back was his right arm, which had taken a full five days to heal, but was now fully functional again.  He wouldn't have wanted to try this using his wand in his left hand.

Two quick zaps took down one werewolf, but it also announced David's presence.  They growled almost in unison, and turned to attack him, but a scream from the back of the group drew their attention.  A were had been run through by Giendia's arrow.

A sharp blast drew their attention now, as a third werewolf died from Vivian's energy ball.

The werewolves turned to David, their only visible enemy.

"Come and get it, maggot-meat," David taunted lowly.

The werewolves started to charge, but two more were down quickly from the ladies' attacks.  David took out two more before the weres got within twenty feet of him.  It was now three on one, but David was perfectly okay with those odds.

One of the weres lunged, but David sidestepped as he drew his staff.  He elongated the staff and swung it, snapping the were's neck in an instant.

David did not watch the were fall, but instead turned on one of the others.  He heard the one behind him fall to the combined fire of Giendia and Vivian.  The last one tried to run, but David blasted him with a massive bolt of lightning, and nothing was left of him after the screaming was done.

"Ten more improved Vrudenans," David said.  He looked down at the dead werewolves as the two ladies joined him.  One of them started to change, de-morphing back into his human form, as happened with turned humans when they died.

"Aw, fuck," David said, seeing one of the bodies.  "Goddammit, Nick..."

"What's wrong?" Giendia asked.

"This isn't a Vrudenan.  This is a traitor."

"How can you be sure?" Vivian asked.

"I know this guy.  His name is Nick Hasterscant.  His uncle ran a shop in Erle.  He's the brother of my friend, Gwen.  If he's down here, it can't mean good things for Erle.  We need to get moving.  Even at our best speed, we won't be there until the day after tomorrow."

"We could skip our rest period," Giendia offered.

David shook his head.  "No, if we run into trouble, we're going to need to be at the top of our game.  We can't be hampered by fatigue.  That would just give them two more victims."

"Don't you mean three?" Vivian asked.

"What're they gonna do, kill me?" David replied.  "Come on.  We've got to get moving."

"What about the people in this village?" Vivian asked.

"I don't think we got here in time to save anyone," David groused.  "If there is anyone, they're not coming out to greet us."

"What about the turned?  Shouldn't we kill them?" Vivian asked.

"Being a werewolf isn't illegal, Vivian.  These people are Callamandian citizens.  Until they make the choice to betray their country, they deserve our protection as much as anyone else.  Of course, any of them that does betray this country," David said, raising his voice so they could hear him, "I will personally gut and leave for the buzzards."

David looked down at the body of Nick Hasterscant one last time, and then kicked it viciously.  They all heard bones break within the corpse.  He then spit in its face.  Finished, he motioned to the other two, and they continued their trek northward, heading back into the trees as quickly as they had come out of them.

 David's team had spotted two more groups of weres, but they had simply plotted their locations and carefully moved past them.  He could have whittled them down some, but he had a bad feeling about the city of Erle, and wanted to get there as quickly as he could.

As they approached the city, they could see the fires through the trees.  It wasn't a single massive blaze, but obviously the destruction of individual homes and businesses.

Probably the ones that resisted a little too much, David snarled to himself.

The three moved into the city.  They could hear screams in the distance, toward the east.

"They probably swept in from the northwest.  It's the obvious direction to come from," David said.

Vivian nodded.  Giendia just looked grim.

"Come on.  I doubt there's much we can do to save the people here, either, but we need to at least be able to make a report on what's going on.  Be careful; we don't want to be seen if we can avoid it."

The three moved quickly from street to street.  Bodies littered the ground.  In doorways, in the street, hanging from windows, there were corpses everywhere.  Many of the women had clearly been raped before they were killed; their clothing was shredded in a particular fashion that made the purpose obvious.

"Goddamned barbarians," Vivian growled.

As the troop moved, the noises grew louder.  It didn't take them that long to cover the width of the city, and they were nearing its eastern edge.

"How long do you think they've been here?" Giendia asked.

"At least a day.  Maybe two," David said.  "This isn't combat, this is recreation for these fucks.  These people posed no real resistance.  The army isn't anywhere near here.  And why that is, somebody had better have a damned good answer," David muttered menacingly.

As they reached the edge of the city, they entered the grounds of Madchen Hall Academy.  Here, there was still active "recreation" going on.  The screams of dying men and terrorized women was quite clear.  Finally, they saw werewolves in the distance.

"Jailla, go," David ordered.  Jailla, who had been resting on David's shoulder as they walked, immediately took to the sky.  He knew his task.

"Take the motherfuckers out," David ordered.

"What about not being seen?" Vivian protested.

"It's a small group of weres... and are you going to just stand and watch them kill unarmed civilians?"

Vivian grunted at that, and pulled her wand.  The three of them fired at the same time, and three werewolves died.  In short order, the rest of the small group also lay bleeding and dead on the ground.

As the troop approached the survivors, the people were wailing in gratitude at being saved.  David looked around.  There were weres all over the place, it seemed, in little groups, and even some by themselves.  They couldn't take them all out... it was more important to protect the humans.  Especially one.

"Soldier, you are to guard these humans with your life.  Capadra, target as many small groups as you safely can, to rescue as many humans as possible.  When you think the risk has gotten too high, you take your survivors and you move west.  The weres have already been through there; they're not likely to head back that way in the immediate future.  Find a safe place to hide, and wait for me.  I will find you.  I have something I need to do."

"Yes, sir!" both ladies intoned at once.  As David moved off into the madness, Jailla winged his way back to land on Giendia's shoulder.

David moved rapidly through the bedlam, making himself first insubstantial, then invisible, so he could move as quickly as possible.  Jailla's vision had not been encouraging.

David was nearing a dead run when he came upon the scene he feared to find.  He had arrived too late.

Kneeling over her body, a werewolf was feasting on her.  David's rage boiled up out of him.  He faded to solidity as he drew his staff.

"NO!" he wailed as his staff came down across the back of the werewolf.  The were slumped to the ground, lying on top of his victim.  David tossed the unconscious were aside, and knelt beside her.

David gathered Lise into his arms, but he was under no illusions.  Even her soul had already departed.  What he held was nothing more than a memory.  Tears ran down his face as he kissed her forehead, and then gently vaporized what was left of her body.

The werewolf, who had woken during David's melancholy reverie, sneered, "She tasted very sweet."

"You bastard," David snarled. His hand swung up so fast the were never saw the attack coming.  David's staff contacted the were's chin and sent him flying onto his back.

"You filthy, mother-fucking sub-human animal," David spat.  "I will teach you now why you should have left us well enough alone!"

Possibly disturbing scene starts here. Go To End of Scene

David rose from his position on the ground and stepped over to the were. The were swung his arms at David and tried to rise, but his back was shattered from the first staff strike, and he had no chance to move.

David looked down at the werewolf, and then kicked him in the side as hard as he could.  Two ribs broke instantly, and the werewolf was momentarily stunned from the shock and the pain.

A moment was all David needed.  He raised his staff, and then brought the tip of it down full force onto each side of the were's collarbone.  The crack was easily audible, even over the were's screams of pain.  The were's arms fell limply to the ground; it hurt far too much to lift them, and the pain was sapping what strength he had left.

David put away his staff as he stared down at his enemy, his eyes filled with hatred and malice.  Withdrawing two vials from his pocket, David crouched over his enemy.  He inserted his thumb into the corner of the were's jaw and pressed as hard as he could, forcing the werewolf to open his mouth.  David poured the two potions down the were's throat, forcing him to swallow them.

"Your poison isn't very effective, human," the werewolf taunted.  His taunt was diminished by the fact that he had to speak through gritted teeth, just to bear the pain.

"Those weren't poisons, animal," David replied, throwing the were's taunt back in his face.  "Those were a sort of sustaining potion.  The first is called Bloodbank.  It makes sure you don't bleed to death... for a while.  The second was called Insomniac's Dread.  It will prevent you from becoming unconscious... again, for a while.  I wouldn't want you to miss your lesson."

With that, David knelt over the were's body, and he drew out his combat knife.  Unlike his dagger, which was intended mainly for stabbing, his combat knife had a razor-sharp cutting edge.  He twisted it slowly, letting the glint of nearby fires shine in the werewolf's eyes.

"What are you planning to do with that, little boy?" the werewolf jeered.  The jeer wasn't as effective as it could have been; David heard the waver of fear in his tone.

"This," David said, and placed the tip of the blade carefully against the were's chest.  With one swift, smooth slash of the blade, he cut the werewolf's skin from chest to waist.  The cut was shallow, just enough to split open the skin.  Blood started to ooze from the wound, sticking to the were's fur and staining it dark red.

For a moment, the werewolf didn't feel anything.  Then, the pain kicked in.  David watched as the werewolf fought to hold in the scream.

"Might as well let it out," David growled lowly.  "You are going to scream yourself hoarse before I'm through with you."

As David put the tip of his blade against the were's chest again, the were tried to struggle.  David merely slammed the were's head against the ground until he no longer had the strength with which to fight back.  His head lolled back and forth in a woozy state.  He would be unconscious, if not for David's potion, but David had made sure not to crack his skull.  It wasn't time for this asshole to die yet.

Returning his blade to the were's chest, he made his incision slowly this time, moving with precision across the were's chest up to his shoulder, and then all the way down his arm to his wrist. As David worked, the cuts began to burn, as such sharp cuts do.  David's knife might as well have been a razor blade, and it made short work of the were's tough hide.

The werewolf jerked in pain, but could do little more than that.  Blood flowed freely out of his body, puddling on the ground beneath him.  David took no notice.  He worked deliberately, steadily flaying the werewolf's arm.  Starting at the wrist and working his way toward the shoulder, he slipped his blade just beneath the skin layer and sliced carefully, then pulled the skin back and laid it down so he could continue to work.  The werewolf finally gave in, letting a howl of intense pain and anguish escape his throat.  David took no notice.

Once finished with the first arm, David set to work on the second.  He didn't say anything to his victim as he worked, but merely continued to skin him like the animal David felt he was.  When the arms were finished, David worked on the legs, moving just as deliberately.  The werewolf was screaming constantly now, unable to hold back the shrieks of pain and terror.

Finished with the legs, David sat back and stared at his victim.  The were's arm and leg skin lay loose on the ground, still attached to the werewolf's back half.  Only the abdominal area and the head were still covered in skin.

"Well, that's our first lesson.  Are you ready for lesson number two?" David asked.  His voice was calm, but his eyes held madness.  The were could see it, and the fear of his tormentor grew even more horrible.

"Just kill me!" the were cried out.

"No, no, no," David said.  "You haven't learned yet."

David leaned forward, returning his knife to the center of the were's chest, and placing it within his original cut line.  David pushed now, sliding the blade deeper into the were's chest, just below his sternum.  Once the knife had gone in a few inches, David's hand moved slowly but firmly downward.  The were was a muscular sort, and David felt the resistance of strong muscle tissue against his knife blade.  Nothing, however, was going to oppose something that sharp for long.  David applied more pressure, and drew the knife slightly outward as he worked.  The tissues soon gave under the assault, and blood flowed vigorously from the opened wound as David continued his cut for the entire length of the original slash, all the way down to the werewolf's waist.

The werewolf screeched as the pain ripped through his body.

"Did she scream as you killed her?" David asked, his voice insanely calm and quiet.  "Did she beg you to stop, to just kill her and be done with it?"

David's next cut ran from side to side, just above the were's waistline, just as deep as the vertical one he'd just completed.  Blood was gushing from the body now, but Bloodbank made sure that the victim would not die from that loss.  Another cut crossed the were's chest, just below the ribs.

Finished with his incisions, David jabbed his knife into his victim's leg, and left it there.  The werewolf, paralyzed from the waist down, gratefully felt nothing of that insult to his body.

"Don't go stealing my knife, now," David taunted.

Reaching his hands inside the deep cut he'd made in the were's abdomen, David curled his fingers and ripped outward, pulling back on the muscles and flesh until the werewolf's internal organs were laid bare for the world to see.  The werewolf screamed in agony, longing for oblivion, so that this torture would end.

But David had made sure that oblivion would not come for this were anytime soon.

Pulling his knife out of the were's leg, David set to work hacking out little bits of the werewolf's internal organs.  He left the heart and lungs alone; damaging those would kill him, and David didn't want that.  He focused, first, on the intestines.  He pulled them out as if they were a spring snake in a can, tossing them this way and that, until they were strewn all around the body.

A careful few slices, and David pulled free the were's liver.  He held it up in front of his own face, turning it to watch as the blood dripped out of it.  Finally, when it had no more blood, David merely tossed it to the side.

As David continued to work, the werewolf screamed and howled incessantly.  Finally, David grew annoyed.  He reached into the were's body and sliced out another organ.

"Fine, you want to vent your spleen?  Here!" With that, David shoved the were's spleen into his mouth, effectively gagging him with his own organ.

Giving a satisfied nod, David returned to the task at hand.  The werewolf choked and gurgled as the spleen in his mouth trickled blood down his throat.

Another careful slice, and David pulled out the werewolf's left kidney.  He threw it over his shoulder with no concern whatsoever.  To the were, he said, "Don't worry, you aren't going to need that.  Anyway, you've got another one."

The werewolf could barely comprehend him at this point, his mind was so overwhelmed with the pain and sheer terror he was undergoing.  His eyes stared widely as his lips and tongue tried to expel the disgusting bit of his own body stuffed in his mouth.

After another minute, and the removal of the were's pancreas, David reached in and pulled out the were's right kidney.

"See?  I told you that you had another one of... wait, didn't I already...  Um... Oops."  With that, he chucked the second kidney over his shoulder to join the first.

For several more minutes, David sliced away at his victim, until the only things left in the werewolf's abdomen were scraps and his already-shattered backbone.

"Tch," David said, sitting back and looking at his handiwork.  "You have nothing more for me to play with."

The were grunted and growled, as if to make words.  David reached forward and yanked the spleen out of his mouth, tossing it to join the other organs.

"What?" he asked with exasperation.

Scene End: For synopsis, mouse over this sentence.

The werewolf just stared up at him, gurgling from the blood in his throat and groaning in agony.  "Why?" he asked, finally.  "Why not just kill me?"

David's maniacal grin turned to a fierce, cold, menacing scowl.  "Because you took something precious from me.  Because if I must feel the pain of her absence for the rest of eternity, then you need to feel some pain for causing it.  Because I know that what awaits you is not Hell, or any close approximation of it.  If I kill you outright, there is no punishment at all for what you've done to me.  Because I want your nation to understand what demon they have awoken."

David rose, and looked down at the soon-to-be-corpse, and said darkly, "And because nobody hurts my family."

With that, David turned away from the werewolf and drew his sword.  He moved off toward the nearest sounds of activity.

Two hours later, a hundred humans were following him, and three dozen weres lay disemboweled behind him.  Though the survivors were glad to be rescued, they weren't sure that they were a lot safer with their savior, given the fact that he was covered with blood and staring into the far distance, as if nothing around him mattered.

"Jesus, David, are you all right?" Vivian gasped upon seeing him.

"Lise is dead," David replied, his voice wispy and almost ethereal.

"Oh, hell," Vivian muttered.  "What do we do?" she asked Giendia.

David was the one who answered her, his voice snapping into an almost harsh military tone.  "These people need to be moved to the south, so that they can hide out until First Command arrives to take this area back.  Then we have a patrol to finish."

"Da... um, Vigax," Vivian said, for the moment not comfortable using his name, "our orders were to patrol up to Erle.  I'd think our patrol is over, isn't it?"

"Our patrol is over when we're at our pick-up point.  Not before," David replied.  The look on his face brooked no argument, and Vivian kept her peace.

David turned to the civilians and raised his voice.  "Okay, everyone, up and ready!  We're moving out immediately.  This area is not safe.  We will move you to a position where you can await real rescue."

"Why should we follow you?" someone demanded.

"You don't want to follow me?" David replied, and then pointed.  "There's the door.  You'll be dead by midnight, but I honestly don't give a fuck.  You want to live, follow me.  You don't give a shit about your life... do what you like.  Now, move out!"

David marched out the door.  He didn't bother to look back to see if anyone - even his troop - was following him.

 "Whoa, nice house," Vivian said.  "Too bad it's liable to get trashed by the goddamned weres.  Who do you think owns this place?" she asked David.

"I do," David replied.  For a moment, he stopped, and his voice took on that ethereal tone again.  "It was the last place I saw Lise..."

The others stopped, unsure of how to react, wondering whether their leader was going to break down.  Suddenly, his voice snapped back and his eyes focused again.

"All right.  In the morning, we will send Jailla to get us transport out of here.  Then we're stuck waiting for TC1 to send someone to retrieve us.  We'll be here at least a day and a half, so make yourselves comfortable.  This house has four bedrooms.  Giendia... if you feel cramped here, the stable is fully renovated.  I'd planned it for Cupcake, so there should be plenty of room for you if you want to be out there instead."

"Thank you.  I'm fine for now."

David nodded curtly.

"If you two will excuse me, I'm going for a walk."

David walked out the back door and down to the beach.  Turning west, he walked along the shoreline, feeling no end of misery and despair.

Inside, Vivian looked at Giendia.  "What do we do about him?"

"I don't know.  I wish I knew what happened to him."

"Something tells me we're both better off not knowing.  Given all the shit he's been through over the last couple years, whatever it was had to be truly nasty to shake him this bad."

"What do you mean?  What's he been through?  I haven't been able to communicate with David since I went off to basic training, which was a couple years ago.  We've been wrapped up in all this war stuff since we got back together, so we haven't really talked."

"Let's make some lunch, and I'll fill you in.  But prepare yourself, because it's not all pretty."

"Okay, Vigax, let's hear your report," Vocator Schultz said over the portal link.  Troop 12 had been retrieved as quickly as possible, and they were now all back at ANFCC-East.  Vivian and Giendia were off showering.  Though they had each showered - twice - while waiting at David's lake house, they still felt filthy from two and a half weeks in the bush.

"Erle has been overrun, sir.  Few buildings are left undamaged, and I'd be willing to bet that there aren't more than five hundred survivors.  We managed to rescue about a hundred fifty people and move them south, out of the city.  They are going to need rescue, or at least supplies, or they're not going to survive.  Their location is in my written report."

"In your interim report, sent to ANFCC-West, you mentioned an injury.  Care to explain what happened?"

"Capadra Columbo and myself were caught in a Vrudenan spike pit.  In order to keep her from being impaled, it was necessary for me to embed my forearm into the wall of the pit, to keep both of us from falling.  This necessarily did serious damage to my forearm, as well as tearing up my shoulder."

"How long was your team out of commission because of this?"

David looked at him funny.  "We never stood down for the injury, sir.  I put Capadra Columbo in the lead position, since I was no longer as capable of warding off attack.  We were slowed down slightly by my injury, but at no time did I consider standing down.  It took my arm five days to heal fully; we couldn't afford to waste that much time."

"I see.  These other units you spotted, what do you think their intentions were?"

"If I had to guess, sir, I think they were all planning to rendezvous and form a command-sized unit.  We didn't see that many troops, but my thought is they felt if they could make it deeper into the country surreptitiously, then we'd have a harder time kicking them out once they formed up into a cohesive battle unit."

The vocator nodded.  "It's certainly a possibility.  All right, Vigax.  Stay in touch, but you and your troop will stand down from now until Sunday morning at eight hours."

"Yes, sir!" David said.  "Thank you, sir."

The vocator nodded, and then the connection was broken.  With that, David went to find himself some transport.  He needed to go home.

 "Master!" Olissa cried, running to him and hugging him fiercely.

"Hey, Little One," he said quietly.  "How have you been?"

"Fine, Master.  Are you home for long?"

"No.  Probably just the night.  I'll probably spend tomorrow checking on Zyla and Grace, and then I'll have to go back on duty."

Others had come into the main room as the two had been talking.

"Hey, Gwen," David said.  "Jess."  They each gave him a hug in welcome.  "Are you guys living here now?"

"I prefer to think of it as visiting frequently," Gwen said with a slight blush.  "Do you mind?"

"No, not at all.  Pat, good to see you."

"Hey, David.  I hope you don't think I'm being too silly.  I just couldn't stand staying in that big house alone with all this craziness going on."

David shook his head.  "But what if someone steals your sphinx statue again?" he asked with a smirk.

Pat blushed strawberry.  Olissa said, "It's in the basement."

David actually laughed.  It was the first time in days.

Since before...

They all saw the look on David's face change, and his attitude went with it.

"I need to clean up a bit.  Are you guys staying for dinner?"

"Staying?  We're making dinner," Jess said.

"Oh?"

"They insisted," Olissa explained.

David nodded.  "Okay, then.  I'll see you all in a little while."

With that, David headed out to the lift and headed for the third floor.

"Something's wrong with him," Gwen said immediately after he left.

Olissa nodded and frowned.

David was standing on the balcony, staring up at the stars.  It was a humid night, and a storm would be arriving soon, but for the moment, it was pleasant, at least on the outside.

On the inside, David was a complete mess.  His thoughts were disorganized and fraught with darkness.  Despair warred with anger, anxiety warred with aggression.

"Master?" Olissa asked quietly.

David jumped; he'd not heard her come out onto the balcony.  He turned to face her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you.  Something's got you all tied up.  What is it?"

"Don't worry about it," David said.  "It'll work itself out."

"Master, you know it's not good for you to keep things inside like that.  Remember the coach robber?"

David remembered all too well.  Two years later and innumerable deaths at his hand, but that one still gave him nightmares.

"I remember quite well.  This is not like that."  Well, not exactly, anyway, he thought to himself.  "Don't concern yourself with my problem."

"Master-" Olissa tried.

"Olissa," David said sternly.  "Just this once, let it be.  This is information you do not want."

Olissa's eyes misted.  "Yes, Master," she said, and left him alone.  She returned to the ground floor and went to her room, where she could cry in private.

David did not have room to worry about Olissa's feelings for the moment.  That was one too many thoughts for his head to hold.  He returned to looking up at the stars, but he found that the clouds had rolled in, obscuring the sky.  Lightning flashed in the distance.

Lovely.

"David!  Thank the Universe.  I was beginning to worry about you," Zyla said.  "Come on in."

"Sorry.  I was sent on kind of a long mission, so I've been out of touch for a few weeks."

"Well, you look okay, nothing missing, no holes in you..."

"I'm fine," on the outside, David thought to himself.  "Where's Grace?"

"She's on a play date with a friend down the street."

"Oh?  So you've started venturing out of the house?"

Zyla frowned.  "No.  Janine came and got Grace.  She'll bring her back in a few hours."

"Oh," David said, frowning.

"You can go down and get her, if you like," Zyla offered.

David shook his head.  "It wasn't that.  I'm just worried about you.  You can't stay cooped up in this house for the rest of your life."

Zyla sighed.  "I know.  I'm just not quite ready to face what's out there yet.  So, is Vivian okay?"

"She's fine.  Grumbling about having to do so much walking, but otherwise fine."

Zyla giggled.  "You had to do a lot of walking?"

"We were on a patrol."

Zyla nodded, knowing that David wouldn't say any more than that about it.

"So how are you doing?" David asked softly.

Zyla fought back the tears this time, though she wanted to cry very badly.  David could see that, and he reached out and gently took her hand, squeezing it to show support.  She smiled at him for that, and took a deep, ragged breath.

"Does that answer your question?" she asked, trying to make fun of herself.

"All too well, I'm afraid," David said.

"I'm sorry.  I know I should be stronger than this, but I miss him so much..."

"It's all right, Zyla.  He was your husband.  You're supposed to miss him.  It takes time to heal.  No one expects you to be singing and dancing now.  So long as you make it through each day, one at a time.  My only worry is whether or not things are getting better for you at all."

"I don't really know," she admitted.  "I hurt too much to think about it objectively."

David nodded.  "So, Grace is busy playing, and there's no point in us sitting here moping... what should we do with our day?"

"I was going to work in the garden," Zyla offered.

"Sounds like a plan."

"David?" Zyla asked, some concern in her voice.

David jolted.  His mind had been elsewhere.  The same place it had been for days, ever since it had happened.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" he asked Zyla.

"Five times," she replied, staring at him hard.  "Something's eating away at you.  What is it?"

"You don't want to know," he said.

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know," she objected.

David looked at her for a long moment, trying to decide whether she could even handle knowing what he'd done.

"Let's just say I saw my dark side in full bloom.  It was... not pleasant."

Zyla set down the garden tool she was holding, and stood up.  She motioned him to do the same.  Together, they walked over to the patio table and sat down.

"What happened?"

"Lise - Prof. Fibblebitz - was killed by the Vrudenans," David said, tears immediately springing to his eyes.

"Oh, no, David, I'm so sorry... I know you two were very close."

"I tried to get to her," David said hoarsely.  "We were in Erle, and we'd gone to the academy.  I had Jailla search to see if he could find her.  He did.  I went to get her, to bring her out with the other survivors, but when I got there... it was too late," he said, sobbing.

Zyla reached out and took David's hand now, trying to support him as much as she could.  She fully understood the pain and despair in his voice.

"When I found her," David said, his voice adding a new undertone of rage, "A werewolf was eating her body."

Zyla paled.  To have a loved one so utterly desecrated before your eyes...  "I assume you killed him," she said.

"Oh, no," David said.  He looked up at Zyla, and the look in his eyes was crazed.  "I did so much worse than kill him.  So much worse."

"What could be worse than killing someone?" she asked in confusion.

"Are you sure you want to know?  Are you really sure you want that image in your head?  'Cause I don't, but it's there, every time I close my eyes!"

"Tell me," she gently ordered.

"First, I gave him two potions.  One kept his body full of blood.  The other kept him awake," David said.

"And then?" Zyla prompted.

"And then I vivisected the sonofabitch," David almost snarled.

Zyla swallowed hard.  She could almost feel the emotional torment radiating off David's soul.  She wasn't sure she had the strength for what she was about to do, but it had to be done.

"Tell me about it," she said.

"No.  You don't-"

Zyla interrupted him.  "Whether I need the imagery or not, whether it will keep me up nights, you have to tell someone.  You have to say it, out loud.  David, you're reliving it every second of the day, anyway.  Tell me about it."

And so David did.  Zyla nearly threw up at the very description.  She was aghast at what her closest friend - Grace's godfather - was actually capable of.

"And the worst part of the whole thing is that I still don't understand what was going on in my head while I was doing it!" David exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" she asked, trying to get her composure back.

"One part of me, a small part, was horrified.  That part crawled to the back of my mind and just watched.  Another part of me, what I hope is a very small part, was enjoying itself, and the rest of me... seemed to feel nothing at all.  It was like my deadness had consumed me from the inside, and only the most extreme parts of my mind were left.  I can't tell you now why I did that to him.  Worse, I can't tell you I'm sorry for doing it, either.  That scares me."

Zyla nodded.  After taking a deep breath to calm herself from the images she had just conjured up, she said, "You can't regret it because you don't know why you did it," Zyla told him.  "Until you can figure out your motivation, you can't come to terms with whether it was right or wrong in your mind.  If you did what, to you, was the right thing, then there's no point in regretting it.  But you haven't decided if it was the right thing or not."

"Do you think it was?"

"David," Zyla said softly, "I'm in no place to pass judgment on you."

"Zyla... I'm not supposed to talk about our missions.  You're the only person that even knows this happened.  Vivian and Giendia weren't with me at the time, I was alone.  My own thoughts about it are too confused and disoriented.  I need someone else's insight.  I need to know what you think."

Zyla sat for a long moment, then took a deep breath.  "Frankly, what you did sickens me.  You did to him far worse than he did to Lise.  I would have been surprised if you hadn't killed him.  I could even have stomached you doing to him what you did to the wizard who attacked your girlfriend this spring.  But what you did went so far beyond any of that...

"No, in my mind, what you did wasn't right.  It was evil.  It was vicious, and cruel, and vile, and I think you're a lot better person than that.  You need to get control of your dark side, David, or it will own you.  This war may be the very hardest thing you ever have to go through for your entire existence.  You've already lost two people you care deeply about, and there's no telling if you'll lose anyone else.

"But losing someone you love is only a blemish on the soul.  With time, it fades until it's only just noticeable.  What you did... if you continue down that road, that's a deep, festering gash on the soul, and that... that usually doesn't ever go away.

"You need to be very careful, David.  Watch yourself.  Guard your actions.  I don't know what kind of willpower it would have taken for you to walk away from that werewolf... but you need to find it within yourself, and soon."

David sat for a long moment, staring open-mouthed at her.  He had asked for her opinion.  He'd not expected it to be a good one, but what she had given him was like a kick to the groin.  He couldn't breathe, so it was a good thing that he didn't need to.

"I'm sorry," Zyla said very softly.  "Maybe I was too harsh," she said, regretting her spur-of-the-moment comments.  "I should have found a kinder way to say all that..."

Suddenly David asked, "Are you afraid of me?"

"What?" Zyla asked incredulously.  "Of course not!  I've never been afraid of you, ever, in all the time we've known each other.  David, you're a good person.  I'm appalled by what you did, but we all fail from time to time.  This isn't about who you are, this is about who you might become, if you're not careful.  You are my best friend.  You are Grace's godfather.  Do you think I'd let you around my little girl if I was afraid of you?"

David smirked.  "I could point out that I haven't seen her yet today."

Zyla frowned.  "A coincidence.  Nothing more.  David, I think the chance of you hurting me or Grace is about as likely as you... killing the king of Callamandia.  We're only in danger of a potential future you.  This you isn't someone to be feared, he's someone to be worried for."

"Thanks," David said hoarsely, looking down at the ground.  "I wouldn't blame you for being afraid of me," he said.  "I'm afraid of me right now."

"Keep hold of that fear," Zyla implored him.  "The day you lose the fear of what you could become... is the day you've already become it."

David broke down at that point and cried.  Zyla moved over next to him and wrapped her arm around him, supporting him while he wept.

Finally, after long minutes, David's tears finally dried up.

"Come on, let's go inside," Zyla said.  "I think you could use a dose of god-daughterly hugs."

"Couldn't hurt," David agreed.

As they entered the house, Zyla asked, "David... you said I'm the only one you've told.  Why didn't you tell your... girlfriend, or whatever she is?

"Olissa's my age, and she's seen even less of life than I have."

"Most people have," Zyla told him.

David nodded.  "I know, but she's been truly sheltered.  Mostly by me.  In any case, I knew she wouldn't be able to deal with the truth of it.  You're the... most experienced... close friend I'm still talking to."

"Thank you for not calling me old," Zyla said with a grin.

"You're hardly old.  You're what, like thirty-two or something?"

"I'm twenty-nine, and always will be," she said.

David grinned.  "In any case, it's more about what you've experienced vicariously through Joe.  You're used to hearing about unpleasantness.  And I trust your opinion."

"But not hers?"

"She would never feel comfortable telling me what you just did, even if she felt that way.  She just wouldn't be able to say it to my face."

"So you trusted me to be cruel," Zyla said with a frown.

"I trusted you to be honest," David corrected.

"Thanks," Zyla said.  "Now, let me mirror Janine so you can see your Gracie."

 "Sir?  Vocator Schultz on the portal for you."

David set down his copy of the Gorumshead Crier and walked over to the portal to SC1 HQ.  He thanked the soldier, and then sat down.

"Yes, sir, what can I do for you today?"

"Have a job for you," Schultz said.

"Sir?  I thought it wasn't time for a new set of missions yet."

"It isn't.  Not for a few more days.  This isn't a combat mission.  Up near Burton, we had a battle that did not go at all our way.  We want you to take Troop 12 up and investigate.  See what you can find out about what happened, and report back."

"Were there no survivors, sir?"

"Very few, all still in the infirmary.  And their statements have been confusing at best.  I want you and your team to tie it all together."

"Is there a clock on this mission, sir?"

"You've got two days to do a preliminary.  If a deeper investigation is warranted, we'll re-evaluate at that point."

"Yes, sir.  We'll be on the move within the hour."

"Good man.  Good luck."

"Thank you, sir."

"My lord, look at all the blood," Giendia said.  Even two days after the battle, the stains of blood were clear on the ground.  Bodies still lay strewn everywhere, weres and humans alike.  Far more humans than weres, however.

"Okay," David said, his voice taking a commanding tone again, "Take a minute to let your system settle, then let's get to work.  We're trying to figure out if there was anything unusual about this battle... ultimately, we want to know why we lost, and lost so badly."

"Yes, sir," Vivian said for the other two.

"We don't have much time, so let's spread out.  Vivian, you take the left.  Giendia, you take the right.  I'll go up the middle.  Stay in visual contact at all times."

The three separated, and moved to their assigned sections.  David stopped at each body and looked to see if he could figure out quickly how they died.  There were a couple hundred dead Callamandians here, and a few dozen dead werewolves.  Most of the werewolves appeared to have been killed by energy blast.  The humans seem to have been ripped apart, though some bore the telltale marks of energy balls, as well.

After David had examined each of the bodies in his section, he stood for a long moment, looking over the terrain.

"Jailla?" he called out quietly, but loud enough to be heard.  Jailla winged over to David's shoulder.

"I need a bird's-eye view of the scene.  Go as high as you need to so that we can look at the scene for a minute without having it move too much on us."

"I'll circle," Jailla suggested.  David nodded, and then Jailla winged off.  David closed his eyes and watched the world from Jailla's perspective.

For about an hour, David surveyed the battlefield from above.  Finally, Jailla returned to David's shoulder.

"Have you seen enough?"

"For now," David confirmed.  "I think now we need to talk to the survivors."

"Where are they?" Vivian asked.  She and Giendia had finished their examinations while David had been busy with the overview.

"They're back in Treacle, at the infirmary there."

"Not at a military infirmary?  What about the Healer Company?" Giendia asked.

"Healer Company 1's Third Troop has taken over the Treacle Infirmary.  It was more comfortable than setting up a field hospital."

"Is there more we need to do here?" Vivian asked.

"No, not right now.  We'll be back, I'm sure.  Come on."

"Sir!" the injured man said, trying to sit up straight.

David waved him down.  "Relax, Soldier.  This is informal, I just want to talk to you about what happened."

"Yes, sir."

"So, first off, how many men were in your unit?"

"It was just a company of us, sir.  5th of the 24th.  We'd already lost a few men over the last few weeks, so... maybe... two hundred or so?  Sorry, I don't have an exact count, Vigax."

"That's fine.  Any idea how many weres there were?"

"A hell of a lot more than that," the man said.  "I'd be guessing at an exact number, but it looked to me like over five or six hundred."

"Maybe three companies?  Or a short battalion?"

"Yes, sir, about that... or that's what it looked like to me, anyway.  I was kind of too busy not getting my head ripped off to do any counting."

David smirked.  "I'm sure.  Did the weres use any unusual tactics?"

"Nothing I saw, sir.  They just kind of swarmed out of the tree line.  One minute, we were just moving through the forest, the next they're all over us like ants... only big, mean ants with claws and magic wands."

David nodded.  "Okay, Soldier, is there anything more you can tell me?"

"I don't know what it would be, sir.  I got knocked unconscious maybe... ten minutes into the battle.  I don't know what happened after that."

"So the weres could have deployed special tactics after you were knocked out..."

"Yes, sir.  Absolutely possible."

"Very good.  All right, I'll let you rest now.  Take it easy.  Trust me, the war will be here when you get out."

"I'd be okay with it if it wasn't, sir..." the soldier said with a grin.

David snorted.  "I hear you.  Carry on," he said, and nodded to the soldier.

The other four interviews he performed went in similar fashion, revealing little in the way of information.

"So... now what?" Giendia wanted to know.

"Tomorrow we'll go back to the battlefield and look beyond its boundaries, into the trees.  I have a feeling this one has a fairly simple explanation, but I don't want us to miss anything in our hurry to wrap this up."

"Yes, sir," the other two said.  David scowled at them.

"So what did you find?" Vocator Schultz asked.  A batalisto was seated to his left, but had not yet been introduced.

"Sir, we interviewed all the survivors, and we also examined the battlefield, twice, as well as getting an aerial overview of the entire scene.  I focused primarily on finding evidence of some unusual weapon or tactic that the weres might have employed.

"We found no signs of any form of special tactics used in this particular battle.  As to weapons, that would be much harder to disprove, but there were no unusual blast marks or other signs that would lead me to believe that any such device was employed."

"Based on the interviews with survivors, I decided to search through the forested area surrounding the battlefield, to see if I could find signs of the were battle force which had attacked them.

"Sir, I think this is one case where we were just outnumbered.  I found evidence of a full were battalion - or whatever the hell they call them - hiding in the trees surrounding that field.  The company that got attacked was already reduced in numbers.  Records indicate they were at a strength of 206 men.  Survivors' estimates of enemy strength range from about five hundred to over a thousand.  My investigation of the terrain suggests maybe eight hundred or so.

"Long story short, sir, I don't think the weres employed anything special against us except sheer numbers.  5th Company never stood a chance."

Vocator Schultz nodded in silence.  "Very well.  Good report.  I'll want the written version on my desk in the next day or so."

"Be there in ten minutes, sir," David confirmed.

"Good.  Now, you'll get the paperwork probably tomorrow, but I'm letting you know now that Batalisto Franken has been reassigned to staff duty.  This is our new CO, Batalisto DeSantis.

"Sir!" David snapped.  He would have saluted, but one doesn't do that while sitting down.

"At ease, Vigax.  Good report," the batalisto said.  "Also included in tomorrow's official courier pouch will be decorations to be issued.  It's your responsibility to pass them out."

"Yes, sir.  Is there a ceremony for that?"

"Only if you feel like holding one.  Otherwise, just hand them out, and let them know what they're for.  I should like to inform you that three of those decorations are for you personally."

"Sir?"

"The first is simply your Combat Shield.  All of your men will be receiving it.  It indicates that you have served in active combat.

"The second commendation for you is the Goldenrod Medal.  Your report states you were injured in the line of duty.  The medal is given to all who are injured."

"Yes, sir."

"The last is the Verdant Star, which you are being awarded for facing serious personal injury in saving a comrade from certain death."

"Thank you, sir," David said.  He didn't actually feel all that grateful for any of the awards; he felt they lessened the real danger that others were putting themselves in.  That was not, however, something you said to your CO.

"No thanks necessary, Vigax.  You've earned them.  We'll let you get back to work now.  New orders will be arriving on Saturday.  Make sure your units are prepared."

"Yes, sir!" David assured him.

"That's all.  Dismissed."

With that, the image faded.  David rose from the chair so that the normal operator could sit back down, and walked back over to the desk he had commandeered.

A new mission... that meant a new chance for his dark side to get out of control.

Zyla's right.  I have to keep this goddamned thing in check.

But how?