A Daemon-Horn Blade Ch. 15

In one of the next burned and devastated villages, a famished but frisky large shaggy dog was found rooting about in the ruins. This huge dog was nearly the size of a small pony and quite taller than most of the goblins, who rarely grew taller than three and half feet. Finding himself an unusual friend, the dog became close chums with one of the smaller goblin warriors, who soon had the notion of trying to fit a makeshift leather saddle on top of the enormous dog so that it could be ridden. After a few test rides, the goblin declared that they were both ready to join with the cavalry, and complete with a long spear the two of them dashed forth after the horsemen, and quite managed to keep up with their galloping pace. Boyle wasn't completely opposed to the idea, and after he managed to stop laughing himself silly, he took the eager young púca trooper aside to offer him the very important task of being his personal messenger. The dog with its rider could follow the horses anywhere, so that Boyle could send the young goblin hero off on his fast charging mount to quickly catch up with any of the patrols, to either give new orders or to recall the squadron of cavalry suddenly in an emergency.

Such an emergency occurred two days later when the marching regiment ran quite unexpectedly into a large war-band of about two hundred Boar-Men that had stealthily hidden themselves and evaded Boyle's advance front scouts, much to their considerable embarrassment.

Now, these two forces more or less collided into each other, with relatively little prior planning and preparation. Boyle sent off his plucky outrider to recall his rear and side cavalry squadrons, and Rowan and Gwenda hastily commanded the regiment to gather into their usual prepared defensive line at the front, holding the 4^th Reserve Company back to protect the camp followers and the women and children. The goblins gathered their own warriors, which numbered about eighty, and placed them to the two wings of the reserve 4^th, and stood there in readiness, with their own females and young mixed in with the humans. Standing together in battle for the first time in this age, arms-men and women, and púca joined together in arms against their common hated enemy the Eorfleode.

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As was usual, the Boar-Men ran in loose groups rather than as a prepared united front, and Rowan, situated as usual in the center of the line in front of the middle of 2^nd Company, gave orders for the men to prepare their shield wall tightly, to blunt the attacking waves along their front. Gwenda, much to her annoyance, was firmly sent back to the reserve company, twice. Her wounds were much improved, but she was still not at her best, and her left shoulder was still too weak to even bear her usual thrusting dagger for very long.

For a change, Rowan's regiment outnumbered this war-band, and he was fairly optimistic that his soldiers could hold and slaughter this sloppy charge without taking too many casualties of their own. They had been blooded, and knew now what was expected of them -- to hold and fight in their line, and save the suicidal heroics for their leader.

The battle in fact did not take long, barely in fact more than a quarter of a glass. Not a single boarman broke though the line and they suffered only about a dozen casualties, mostly in 2^nd company in the center of the line, of which only two soldiers had died. Everyone was delighted to face these more favorable odds and their morale only increased further, if at all possible. As usual, not a single boarman had run away, and every single one had fought to the death, usually individually facing a few members of the battle-line at a time, outnumbered, out weaponed and armored. In fact both of the fatal injuries had occurred after wounded Boar-Men had fallen and the human soldiers had relaxed their guard before the crippled but still fighting creature had been completely finished off.

Rowan had tried to stay close to the battle-line this time, and kept his advance to only a few paces out in front, taking short rests this time in-between groups of fresh attackers. On his own, he thought that he had slain about twenty or perhaps a few more by himself, as he kept his anger and temper in check, not creating for himself as much of a preferred target for his foe. He had no wounds himself and he endured with remarkable patience the angry complaints of Gwenda, that he had once more placed himself into extra danger, while she had been held back, unable to protect him this time. The cries of anger soon turned to a flurry of kisses, and the two lovers held each other close for a quite a long time.

Boyle's scouts when they returned belatedly, too late even for the mopping up, reported signs of additional war-bands in the areas to both their north and east, mostly the size of the group they had just fought, but a few with even smaller war-bands. There did not seem to be any large unified and disciplined armies here, and the counsel discussed this stroke of luck that night.

Nearly unanimously (the Lady Ayleth opposing), the goblin shaman Jim'ose was invited to join the leadership counsel, and he attended the meeting and offered much sage advice. Oddtus, the Lore-Master, had remained mostly quiet since the peace-weaving meeting, and he remained silent as well for most of this meeting as well, except to add his 'Yes' vote to the idea of trying to locate and entice each of the smaller bands of Boar-Men to attack them piecemeal, so that the regiment could destroy each of these small bands relatively easily and quickly, one small battle at a time, until this part of the valley was clear.

This plan proved relatively easy to accomplish, and the cavalry easily caught the attention of several other area war-bands, and in turn led them slowly to the regiment for their destruction. These smaller, easier battles provided excellent training for the soldiers, and kept their casualties low and quite sustainable. In fact new recruits from refugees that were still being rounded up, were replacing every single slain member, and even adding a few additional trainees to the reserve company, which soon numbered nearly a hundred and fifty. More of the older wounded were now mostly recovered as well, enough so that Gwenda expressed her full confidence in them that they could be aptly used soon, in the event of a nastier battle or emergency. The new masses of refugees unfortunately once again began to slow their wagons, but Rowan just ordered additional training exercises to keep the soldiers alert and ready in the middle of each morning and afternoon, until the stragglers had caught up.

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Three days, and five small easily won battles latter, the forward scouts announced that they could see the city walls of Kenniford just ahead. A vast host of Boar-Men, certainly numbered in the thousands were outside laying siege. For now the great city was apparently safe, but their forward path was now blocked and they had no ready means of getting themselves inside the city walls to help the defenders.

Rowan ordered most of the cavalry to remain close, within a mile of so of their camp, and he ordered the regiment to dig a large square defensive field fortification and lay spikes in front on all sides, upon a small nearby hill that seemed to offer the most favorable ground for a defensive battle. It wasn't much, but it was better than facing a possible large pitched battle right on the middle of the roadway. This way at least, the four companies could stand in a square battle formation and protect the refugees and camp followers in the center. The goblins were especially skilled diggers and helped to prepare much of the trench and earthen wall rampart that surrounded their impromptu fort. There wasn't much room for the wagons, but they were unloaded and placed into their sides forming an inner shelter for the women and the children that could be fairly well protected from the Boar-Men's arrows.

By mid the next morning, Rowan and his company commanders were satisfied with the crude fortification, and Rowan released his cavalry to try and carefully entice just a small perimeter war-band or two to come attack their fort. In effect to piecemeal slice off just a tiny part of the army at a time, and for the most part, during the next two days of off and on fighting, they were largely successful.

One by one, they enticed isolated war-bands of one to two hundred Eorfleode at a time to their fort, and killed them off there with relatively little trouble. But as the deep dirt moat began to fill quite up with Boar-Men dead, the officers started to become a bit more worried. In-between skirmishes, the soldiers tried to empty out the ditch they had filled anew with dead once more, but it seemed like the regular cavalry patrols were now attracting more unwelcome attention than they would prefer to deal with.

When two separate patrols returned nearly simultaneously, each with several hundred angry Boar-Men hot on their trail, the counsel became more than a bit worried that they had bitten off more than they could chew.

The moment of truth came when the ditches filled to overflowing with Eorfleode dead, and the survivors walked across a sea of the wounded and dead to climb over part of the hastily erected spiked pole barricade and nearly broke through the lines of 3^rd Company in two places. It took the reinforcements from the reserve to hastily to throw enough soldiers in the line to seal the breaches, and the butcher's bill was high. By the time the final charge was routed, sixty soldiers had been wounded and another thirty fallen dead, all in their place along the battle-line. Once again, the regiment was down nearly a full company in strength, but the company commanders tightened up their lines a bit and evened out the manpower so that 3^rd company was restored to even strength with the other two main companies. It was now the reserves that enjoyed the most manpower, even after the healthiest of the walking wounding had been sent to one of the other companies. No accusations of cowardice were made; if a man or woman thought that they could still stand and bear arms, then they did so, with no cowards hiding to the rear with minimal wounds, seeking to avoid combat. This was quite unusual for any army, but their moral remained high and the soldiers sang ballads of glory while their swords and spears did their grim tasks.

Still, no one in the Counsel ever wanted another one of those sorts of battles again.

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Boyle reported that the cavalry was finding it increasingly difficult to just entice a small war-band or two now. They had fairly neatly already picked off most of the outside roaming units, and that they would have to go within easy sighting range of much of the siege army in order to find any further small war-bands. Clearly this was unacceptable. While everyone wanted to do everything they could to clear the siege of the city, but facing that entire army, or even half of it, would surely overwhelm their smaller weaker force. No one had much of an idea about how to remedy this problem until the goblin shaman offered a suggestion.

"Fighting from now on behind these earth walls would be a very dangerous thing." The púca leader said. "Already your lines are weak, inviting breaches. Also, behind these earthen walls, my own warriors have been of very little use, except to stab between human feet at the Eorfleode. We must now fight smarter, not harder! First, let us try a different and more subtle means of enticement. As the púcel are a common slave race of the Boar-Men, we should be able to send small groups well into their siege camp to deliver misleading messages to their leaders. If we can misdirect at least half of the army elsewhere, then the relief of the city would be nearly certain. Secondly, we can also deliver reports of the regiment to individual war-leaders who would be certain to want the glory of the killing for themselves. Thusly, we can carefully lead and direct their war-bands here at arranged times, such as dawn, mid-morning, noon, mid-afternoon and dusk, leaving several hours between these smaller battles for rest and recovery. Finally, I suggest that you assume once more a straight battle-line formation. The horsemen can guard your flanks and my warriors will join the bowmen by firing their slings. My warriors and even most of the females are very good with a sling, and the river nearby offers some excellent large and round rocks perfect for their missiles. If we carefully hold and then envelop our foe, a normal battle-line will quickly carve up their numbers, and with little cost in our blood."

As no one had any other ideas that even seemed remotely serviceable, the counsel accepted this plan. That night, the púcel would begin their campaign of misinformation, while the regiment spent much of their own rest time preparing a new nearby field of battle, with as many sharpened wooden spikes placed in front of the center of their line as was possible. When done, Rowan released all but the night watch, mostly goblins now, to their rest.

Rowan just prayed that he had been wise in his temporary alliance with the goblins, and that they were not even now betraying them for plunder. Goblins did like plunder, rather a lot. Would their mysterious prophecy be enough to bind their loyalty? Rowan did not know the answer, nor did he desire to talk to the sullen gléaman. He was certain now that the Foole was keeping some secrets from him, and he was becoming desperately frightened that at least one of these secrets, if not willing and honestly revealed could cost some of all of his friends their lives.

Rowan and Gwenda, as usual shared their sleeping blankets together, albeit still chastely for now as her wounds still gave her some discomfort. Sleep would not come for either of them during all of that long dark and misty night, but huddled together for warmth, their companionship increasing became more of a cuddle between lovers.

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About midnight, Rowan found himself too restless, his head filled with worry, to even consider getting any sleep. He knew that he hadn't been getting much lately, but sleep always seemed to evade him. His mind just raced, wanting to stay busy even as he tried to get a little rest. As he began to arise from his blankets, Gwenda, who was quite as awake as he was, began to arise as well.

"Love, you never should have given up that tent they offered us. It did keep the rain off at the very least, and might have also provided us with a bit of privacy from time to time. I don't think we've had more than a few minutes of time alone together since we dragged ourselves naked and half-dead out of that damned swamp!" She whispered and gently bit his ear as she embraced him.

"I just couldn't keep it. It didn't bother me so much that we only had a handful of tents and nearly everyone else that mattered to me was going to be sleeping on the ground and enjoying the gloomy rainy fall weather. It was the fact that the damned tent was the only place I could ever get two uninterrupted minutes all to myself, to think. In just two days of using it got to the point where I didn't want to leave the tent in the morning at all, because the second my nose poked through the canvas folks would start asking me damned stupid questions, as if they didn't have any mind left of their own! I knew that in just another day or two, I'd start to act like the Lady Ayleth, and keep to my tent and not even leave it for meals! Like it or not, I somehow found myself running this circus, and there are a lot of people... too damned many people, that look to me for answers. Answers that I usually don't even have myself. I can't even enjoy meals anymore, let alone enjoy holding a certain young woman that I've become increasingly fond of, but never have time to show it!"

"Ah, well that my love, can be corrected... well at least partially anyway. It's a nice dark night and I don't think anyone will go into a panic if we wander off a bit for a late night swim! The river is just over there outside the camp and even with the cold rain the current is not too bad, especially for your strong arms and shoulders! Mine is still throbbing and hurts, and maybe a little stretching will soothe it and give me a few minutes of peace as well. Otherwise I've got to wake up the Foole and ask him for another sip of the poppy juice. I hate taking that stuff! It lets me sleep at night alright, but it makes me feel stupid and wool-headed in the morning, so I only take it when I have to, a few times a week. Tonight, I'd rather have a swim... and maybe a little romp afterwards, if I can persuade you to feel inclined."

"Lady, I am always inclined, where you are concerned! It is true that we've not had an evening of proper privacy since we left Silana. Your shoulder, side and leg wounds haven't helped that matter much either, plus no one paid the slightest bit of attention to your shut bedroom door back at the Count's keep, and everyone and their dog kept barging in without knocking, and hovering over you like an invalid every few minutes. I despaired of even managing to steal a kiss, in-between all of the innumerable interruptions!"

"Well tonight my dear, even if but for a few stolen minutes, at least some of our time will be our own once again!" She whispered, and again nibbled his ear while her right hand gently stroked his stiffening cock through his leather trousers.

Together, now hand in hand, they quietly moved out of the camp down toward the riverbank, and once there they waved off the pair of goblins that were keeping the nightly river watch to move a bit further downstream, and the two lovers slowly undressed each other. The water was cold from the recent rain, but as long as they stayed close to the shore the current was quite manageable. They swam up and down the near side of the river, as deeply out as they dared, but Gwenda's shoulder soon locked up tighter, rather than loosened with the exercise. Apparently the cold water was worse than the chilly night air upon her wound. Far sooner than Rowan would have preferred, the couple quit their swim to huddle naked in their blankets together, along the grassy riverbank. With their arms now around each other, Rowan soon discovered that his girlfriend indeed now had other sorts of exercise in mind.

"With our love having solely consisted of just my taking your seed into my mouth, or sprayed upon my fingers, our courtship has ill-progressed indeed. In fact, these were minor deeds I'd performed long ago for even my most casual lovers. As my heart-song, to be able to claim you wholly as mine, to mark you and accept you as my lover, but not yet my declared and accepted husband, it is past time that you accepted another of my gifts to you, specifically the taking of another of my orifices of love. As my flows are about to be upon me, I offer particularly this night my bottom for your acceptance and enjoyment. I've noticed that you enjoy looking at my ass, and now it is well past time that you had further and deeper enjoyments of that particular pleasure."

With that she reached into a small string bag that she had brought along with her, and produced a small ceramic vial of olive oil. Once she had carefully lubricated his cockhead and shaft, she moved herself onto all fours and bid him to use his fingers to oil and gently penetrate her asshole with his oily fingers, to gently lubricate her passage before entry. She well knew that his cock was rather large and thick, and even with the lubrication she needed to grit her teeth a moment while she relaxed herself enough to fully take in his member. When Rowan had completely inserted himself inside of her, he caressed her hair, shoulders and neck as he gently began to thrust in and out of her.