• Chapter 3: The Innelian Rogues

    “Sir, we are in dire need of food and our water supply is running low. The trees are too thick to venture deeper into the woods where all the animals are.”
    “I know that Al, I’m trying to find a good hunting ground in this desolate woodland. It doesn’t seem like there is any path through here.”
    “The only things around here are bird, and none of us are archers.”
    “That is true; I wonder what happened to Parry. Didn’t he say he was going to look for food?”
    “Beats me. Last I saw him, he was mumbling to himself as usual.”
    “Hey, don’t be talking about me when I’m not around, especially you, Wil, seeing as you’re trying to win my daughter’s hand.”
    “Ah, yes sir, I’ll watch my tongue next time,” Wil replied a little annoyed because he hadn’t said anything wrong.
    “So, what is your plan then genius?” Parry questioned Wil. He laid his catch under a nearby tree, two birds and a rabbit.
    “Well our force is too small to do any damage at all to Crenrah as of right now. The location of the Reglon refugees is currently unknown; we can only assume they made it to Lazrik safely.”
    “Get on with the plan, Boy! We don’t have forever!”
    “Our best option is to use guerilla tactics and ambush Crenrah supply caravans.” Wil continued as though he hadn’t been interrupted.
    “That’s not a bad idea actually. It has potential to work assuming we hit the proper caravans at the right time,” Al agreed.
    “Humph, I don’t know about this. Sounds like a suicide mission,” Parry mumbled in his usual pessimistic way.
    “Well you can just sit in this wilting forest for the rest of your life then while your daughter is alone in Lazrik thinking we’re all dead then. As for me, I’m going to go find her and make sure she’s safe,” Wil said angrily.
    “How is being a guerilla force helping my daughter any?!”
    “We’ll be crippling Crenrah, which will loosen any threat on Lazrik they may hold. Reglon was burned to the ground; you both saw it, the smoke from the village. Do you really want to see the same happen to Lazrik?”
    “Again, how is this supposed to help her?”
    “You are truly difficult to work with. By crippling Crenrah’s supply routes, any threat on Lazrik would be waylaid. If Lazrik is safe, then so is Rebecca.”
    “Crippling Crenrah doesn’t make a difference. Rebecca is safe; we’ve already established that Hector decided to go with the refugees against the command of the Elders, and a good thing too.”
    “Al what do you think?” Wil turned to Al, quite tired of having to reason with Parry. Al had remained silent throughout.
    “I believe that being a guerilla force will help the war in several ways, not just in defense of Lazrik and the Reglon refugees. It would also cut supply on any army enroute to the capitol,” Al replied. He seemed to be the only one focusing on the war as a whole.
    “My point exactly, thanks Al,” Wil stated, a little surprised at the answer he had received. “I suggest we attack this force here.” He gestured to a map he had laid out on an old tree stump. He was pointing his finger at a point just north of Pralek, one of the river trade towns to the east.
    “How do you even know there is a force there?” Parry questioned.
    “I had watch duty last night, remember? They were enroute to Pralek, and they had a caravan about a mile behind. If we ambush their caravan, the attack not only will cease to take place but we’ll have a decent supply of food for a few weeks.”
    “Alright, fine. I’m in on this since food is involved. When do we move out?” Parry said.
    “Right away, we can catch them by tomorrow,” Wil replied. He had taken up most of the leadership role of the three of them.
    Wil had managed to cut a way through the Crenrah invasion force. He had spotted the weakness on the left flank of the enemy line and took advantage of handicap. Most of the soldiers to the left were archers and therefore they didn’t have good close combat capabilities which made escape that much more probable. It was only by mere luck that they reached the edge of the forest though, as they were being pursued by an angry spearman, he didn’t last long after they reached the trees however.
    The “Forest Deep” as some called it was a thick over growth. Wil and his companions, Parry and Al, had set up a camp in the northern most section of the wood. Finding a clearing in a place like the “Forest Deep” was nearly impossible. As the name suggested, the trees run deep and covered a vast area of land. Venturing to the center was a feat nigh impossible.
    They all made their way eastward along the edge of the forest, though keeping within the shadow of the trees. They finally caught sight of their quarry on the horizon. They saw the Crenrah flag stationed over a few tents and horse drawn supply carts. There only appeared to be a handful of soldiers, likely the most undertrained of the army. The information Wil had gathered the previous night told him that the full force was at least a mile ahead as to keep the caravan safe. Wil gestured the others to stalk the supply troop quietly, but quickly.
    They followed for close to four hours before the caravan stopped on a ridge for the night. Wil thought to himself they couldn’t have picked a better night to launch their raid. Most of the soldiers had gotten into the beer kegs that they had brought along and were snoozing peacefully with their weapons at their feet.
    The company grew close and stepped lightly about the caravan camp; they decided they should disarm the guards first, seeing as weapon supply is always a good thing to have. Next they raided the food cart, taking whatever they could carry. Al gave a suggestion to untie the horses from the carts and let them run off and they did so, however keeping a horse to carry their own supplies back into the woods. One of the guards gave a snort and tossed in his drunken sleep. Al almost laughed but Parry covered his mouth and said “Shhh!”
    Wil took it upon himself to refill all their water bags which had nearly run dry, and decided to drain the rest of the Crenrah water into the soil. He figured the plants would make better use of it than the soldiers would.
    When they finally were about to leave they heard a small voice, a whisper. They turned to see a stout man with a fuzzy mustache. He looked rather frightened but he approached the band of men anyway.
    “Excuse me?” Wil said. “Who might you be?”
    “I… Umm… Yes, I am Ojo. I am a merchant forced into Crenrah service. Who might you be?”
    “We are… The Innelian Rogues,” Wil came up with the name off the top of his head. He decided it wasn’t a very eventful name but it’d have to do.
    “The Innelian Rogues? I wonder, would it be alright if I were to join you?” Ojo asked.
    “Well certainly, so long as you aren’t a Crenrah spy.” Wil laughed.
    “Keep your voice down, Boy!” Parry demanded.
    “Right, sorry Parry,” Wil apologized.
    “I see that you are a little disorganized when it comes to supplies, a merchant like me could come in handy possibly,” Ojo went on to say.
    “Well he’s got a point,” Al concluded. “I say we take him with us.”
    “Alright you’re in,” Wil agreed. “But you got to stay in the woods then, it wouldn’t be good for a merchant to go on a guerilla raid.”
    “I quite agree, sir,” Ojo said.
    Wil gestured to his companions to return to the woods, feeling that they had successfully crippled the plans to attack Pralek. He was glad that all fighting had been avoided. He wasn’t sure if they could handle a fight with only three men. They got their first job done nonetheless, with zero casualties on top of that. He felt confident that they would make themselves known to Crenrah soon enough.
    Before leaving the campsite Wil took out a piece of parchment paper. He uncorked his personal ink well and pulled out his favorite feather quill. On the paper he wrote, “Compliments of The Innelian Rogues. You will not move unopposed.” Feeling satisfied he planted the note in the ground at the foot of one of the soldiers and suppressed a laugh. They made their way back towards the woods.

    ~Property of Colin Rose, author of this novel~