First Battle

After healing in my mother’s temple, I had some time to figure out my future. I had help. And, I had time. Getting your ribs crushed takes some time to heal. Add the extra features from becoming a lycan, like the extra-large breast and back bones, and that adds to the time.

How long? I’d hoped by now you’d realize we didn’t track time very close. But, the image of the girl in tight leather and gold buckles was much more interesting after healing than when I actually saw her. Her leather was never really tight, but my memories didn’t know better. Still don’t.

Another reason I couldn’t tell you time, is that I had no access to the outside world. Even though the magic was healing my wounds and keeping me alive, I was still bound to a room under the temple. Safety. The temple kept up its normal mission, with practitioners coming and going, priests praying, small animals scurrying, and everything else that goes on in a temple.

Several priests would visit me regularly. Some in disbelief, others to lay eyes on the most important person they’d ever meet. Their words, not mine. We really didn’t have nurses and doctors as you do on Earth, priests performed all these duties for us. Sometimes, a commoner would help, but they didn’t have the same magic vision, so they most often just brought food. Bread, rarely meat. I had a new craving for meat.

I learned a little from each priest until I could walk around on my own. It was a dizzying experience to say the least. I had to learn to walk after lying down for so long. My legs were a little different also. They still looked the same, but they were much bulkier. And my feet were bigger.

I was told many of these changes were to make the transitions between forms less painful. The more closely I looked like either form, the fewer changes that had to occur. These were not painless. So, many parts of my body changed. I had only three toes, most people like me had six toes. I do remember that difference. We also had six fingers. Five looked just like human hands, but there was a sixth finger that came out from our wrist area. The six toes weren’t special, but no big toe. That was just two smaller toes.

I was taught how to control those transitions. That was part of the reason I was in the lower levels. With a small moon in my room. The moon was there to prevent random transitions, which I know is the opposite of what the Earth legends are. Maybe they’re myths. The lack of a moon would trigger a transition if you weren’t taught control. If you saw the moon and a lycan, you would know they really were in control. Like the one that attacked me. Still don’t know who that was.

By the time I’d left, I had pretty good control of the transitions. I had no idea how to fly. Magic was involved, of course. I did learn some things about flying, but it always takes practice. Not to mention taking advantage of the eagle form and its special advantages.

While I served in the military, I transitioned only a few times. And far away from witnesses. Or, witnesses on my side. One of my first battles after training camp was really eye opening.

I will clarify one thing first. When you think of a military, you think of a group of soldiers that guard your nation from the attack of another nation. Or maybe your nation is the one that does the attacking. Change your view. While my army was sponsored by a group of nations, we were more like a mercenary group. Any nation could enlist our help. They simply had to pay our salaries.

That said, the majority of my time in the military was spent fighting for the same national group. Some of the veterans in my platoon had been paid by the nations we were not fighting against. They had to fight their former friends. You want a challenge? But, these soldiers were just that. Soldiers first. They guy that saves your life today may be the same person trying to take it tomorrow.

I didn’t like that. I did set up my own army, but that was much later in life. Our militaries were typically not very large. My castle’s army was maybe a couple thousand people. I had a large military in comparison to others. I guess people like me.

Back to my first battle. We were sponsored by a group of nations in the north part of the ocean. If you’re trying to draw a map, the ocean was only in the east and extended from the south to the north. It covered a large area of Drak-Bahr’s Boulders, but nowhere near as much as Earth’s oceans. How large? That’s hard to gauge since I was never able to walk on water, but if you were in the middle, you couldn’t see the eastern mountains.

We had several ships that we were using to mount an attack on a southern nation. Why? Because we were paid. It was said that if an attack was unjust, the gods would make sure to stop the attack. I’m not sure I would believe that. But, our commanders always took the long route, just to give the gods time to intervene. We didn’t see land for many days. Hunger was becoming a problem, and we’d left shore with enough food for each man to eat a couple hundred meals. And we were always fishing the ocean as well.

Our ships eventually found the shore. Everyone was hungry. And angry. Get the battle over with and steal their food. It may sound like a good strategy to make your men more anxious for a quick victory. Maybe it worked sometimes. Not this time.

Yes, I did say, “men.” There were very few women in the military, and even fewer near combat. Our combat was very physical. No guns, remember. There was magic, which is what most women would use instead of swords. And magic wasn’t used as much as you would initially think. There were volleys of magic arrows and fireballs, but mages were quick to lose concentration when having to dodge the same magic they were trying to weave. Not to mention how much the casting of spells altered the strings of magic. You think you have a good thread, and a tidal wave of magic comes and changes your mind for you.

We didn’t have any women on our ships. We did have a few priests. They didn’t help.

Getting onto the beach wasn’t a problem. I was in the first wave. New guy. I had a pair of small swords, each being almost the length of my arm. I had no armor. That last part kept my arms moving. Quickly. Too quickly.

Part of our training at the time was to march in columns. Don’t go left or right, just straight. Your mates on either side would do the same. It was a common strategy at the time. Remember, these weren’t massive armies. We didn’t exactly walk shoulder to shoulder, there were a few body lengths between us. This saved me, but not my army. I made my way into the forest. Hunting my way to the back of their army.

I made it to the commanders. They didn’t pull their arms. Only held up a hand. The largest moved his horse slowly toward me. Holding up his hand. When he was within voice range, he motioned to the left and right. My army was missing. His wasn’t. They were filing into the field as we stood. Not a lot of soldiers, but more than I had met.

I learned a little lesson that day. The commander said he admired my vigor, but thought I was fighting for the wrong army. Technically, I wasn’t fighting for any army anymore. They were gone. I changed armies, thinking my army had just been decimated. They had, in a way. Most of the first wave didn’t survive the initial fight on the beach, and the next waves never came to reinforce us.

I made a note and put it in my bag. It was the name of my former commander. My new commander said he wasn’t important. He had plans to the west. He didn’t care about the problems in the north.

Vengeance is a powerful motivator. I had much to learn before I could step up to a commander and hope for a beneficial outcome.

The Next Day

Some people would consider someone that switches armies to be a traitor. Not in my world. If you switched during a battle, you were likely going to be killed, but no one really defected during a battle. After the battle, you would see soldiers talking to each other, no matter which side they had just fought. Commanders, too.

You see, although many lost their lives, military combat was considered honorable and almost a game. Challenge of arms. The pay wasn’t great, enough to eat well, but not enough to afford really good arms. Most had basic swords, maces, hammers, and daggers. Some of the more experienced could afford bows and cross bows. They seldom used them in battle, it was better to look a guy in the eyes as you fought.

This isn’t to say some wars weren’t fought in anger. There were some, but they were less common. Unfortunately, that was my second battle. I’d lost my best friend in that first battle. If I hadn’t focused straight ahead, I could have saved him. But, in most battles, you fought ahead, not to the side. Honor. One on one. Most of us that did survive were offered a place in this new army. A few decided this wasn’t the life they wanted, but about twenty of us banded together.

A few days of marching later, we were far enough from the ocean to lose its scent. This was the southern desert. There were islands of trees and scattered towns, but most of the last was hot and dry. There were rivers everywhere, but no rain fell and the sand would burn your feet. Casting a cooling spell wasn’t nearly as effective as warming your feet in the snow, and I didn’t have any nice shoes. I had taken a few shoes from the fallen at the beach, but most were too small.

You may grimace at that last line, but that’s the reality of how soldiers made money on my world. The commanders, through their rulers, would hand out a decent wage, but it was expected that you would take the items from the men you bested as payment. Some more personal things would be given to family, if they had any, but the armor, arms, and coin were kept by the victor. That said, you didn’t take from those bested by others. If the rightful person that could take the items was slain as well, those items stayed with the body.

That was another tradition. If you slayed someone, it was your responsibility to provide them with an honorable grave. A good shovel is up there with good shoes in my book.

Anyway, as we were marching through the sand, and learning how to weave ice, my group discussed military tactics. Tactics were usually straightforward, one-on-one, best man wins. Like a chess match. But a little more dangerous. But, we’d heard wind we weren’t questing for military pride. This was a vengeance march. The rules were different. We didn’t know the reason for the vengeance, but we were sure it was a little more than a bad sandwich.

As we approached, I watched the moon rise in front of us. It was large and nearly as bright as the sun. The commander took this as a sign my mother was wishing us well. I knew better. The gods didn’t interfere with these petty mortal wars. There was another problem.

The eternal night kept going as we marched for another dozen meals before we finally made a more permanent camp. Most stops for sleeping weren’t much more than a bunch of men making the sand as comfortable as possible for a short sleep. And some time to repair shoes.

Of course, my mother didn’t answer. Even when I snuck away and flew as high as I could. I did get a good look at the army we were approaching. They had half as many men. But most of them were very large. The rest all had four or six legs. Wizards. This wasn’t going to be an honorable fight.

As I lay down, pretending I never left, I dreamt of ways to warn our side about the wizards. But, the only way I could know that is if I was a wizard myself. And, that typically shortens your life expectancy in my present company.

After waking, I convinced my group to hang back as the battle started and move around behind the other army. The wizards would be concentrating on the tapestry and not expect anything different than the normal column fighting. I was hoping the observing officers wouldn’t notice, either.

For the latter, I did get a break. The moon dimmed as the battle started. It was still bright enough to fight someone close to you, but provided cover if you were far enough away. By the time my commanders noticed the wizards, it was too late for the majority of my army. I slipped to the back of my group as we moved, and transformed into my eagle form. They definitely wouldn’t be expecting that.

Most of my hopes were realized. The wizards fell quickly, and the rear army didn’t know what had happened. The commanders were too far to see what had happened, the wizards were careful not to use obvious magic like fire. They were using shards of ice. Since this was a fight in anger, we spared no one. I could see our army was decimated. Their army wasn’t much better.

As the commanders slowly realized what happened and called for their army to return, I flew high into the sky. I was going to need a little speed for the two rocks I was holding. I only hoped this would work. I needed more hope.

I folded back my wings and dove straight for the ground. Head first. It may seem obvious, but this is foreshadowing. As I approached the group of commanders, I let go of the two rocks to either side, keeping my eyes on the commander in the middle. I approached him with an open beak. This kinda disrupts my vision. Just a little. Too much. Don’t worry, I did hit him with my lower beak and all its sharpness, but he also was able to connect his sword to the side of my head. That hurt. I did win, the rocks did their job and what was left of my group was able to take advantage of the distracting eagle. The one with a very sore cheek.

I flew near the center of the field and transformed back. Running to meet up with my group. Bleeding. Everywhere.

After I approached, one of my men quickly wove healing. Then another. Then another. That is one thing about transforming. I’m able to keep my weapons and armor within my new form, but injuries don’t heal. They usually get slightly worse.

How bad? Apparently, the only thing holding my head together was my skull. The slice went from one corner of my mouth around the back of my head and to the other corner of my mouth. That’s a scar that would be difficult to live with.

There is one advantage to defeating wizards. They usually have neat trinkets. It does take a talent I didn’t have to know what the trinkets were for, but I would up finding a ring that would regenerate the wearer. Basically, a ring that wove healing. Constantly. No scars, never aging. It did take too long for my hair to return. I didn’t like that one bit.

Oh, and if you’re keeping score. We did win that battle decidedly. But, there were only five of use left standing. None were commanders. Now what?

Wandering

Five guys wandering a desert. No commanders, and we were all low-rank soldiers. Beginners. The general rule of honor was that commanders weren’t killed. Each side lost all five of their commanders. Truth be told, we don’t know which were killed first, but this wasn’t an honorable battle. You may have guessed when the moon dimmed that it wasn’t being favored any more.

But, we had a duty to perform, which took way too long. We lost count, but I would guess there were more than a thousand graves that we dug. The loot? We divided the good items amongst us. Then buried most of it. We didn’t have a horse or a cart.

Now, there were two heads of government we had to speak with. We fought on the side of a kingdom, so that was easy. Only one guy to talk to. And collect our pay. The others fought for a democratic government. We drew straws, so to speak. Two of us would go back to our king, and the others to the other nation. I didn’t get to see our king. But, the three of us did get our pick of the best loot. None of believed we see each other again.

I will add one bit of embarrassing clarification. Remember, these are all my memories. From my perception. As the five of us recalled the battle, the others talked and laughed about a flailing eagle. One thought our side had flung the eagle at their commanders as a distraction, as it certainly wasn’t flying under its own power. Yeah, maybe I didn’t yet have the grace I thought I did.

With that out of the way, as we trekked along the desert, the sand finally gave way to dirt and grass. Then trees. The long night broke as we reached the trees. It was the start of a long day.

The city we had to reach was built among the trees and not in a clearing. There were some paths, but they weren’t overly obvious. We did happen across the right group of trees. Somewhat easily actually. They weren’t quite as nice as the natural trees. There were some walking trees around the outside of the town. They didn’t move into the town, only standing and staring. Eternal watchmen.

Finding someone in charge of the military was another quest in itself. I haven’t sold this picture very well. These people were much closer to anarchy than a democracy. No one wanted to lead, although everyone had ideas. Most didn’t like soldiers, or authority. Many more didn’t like clearing trees to make houses and towns. I wouldn’t book a vacation here.

When we finally found someone that would take our loot for coin, we also happened to find the one responsible for the military. They didn’t seem upset at losing their army. Probably a good thing for the three of us. We had a choice to make, but it wasn’t going to be made in our present location.

Instead of heading back south, we ventured west. And south a little. We followed the tree line until we found another town. As luck would have it, so did the other two survivors. Pay? The three of us had made more coin. All of the coin, actually.

The two had been met by a king’s guard that was less than welcoming. They didn’t stick around to find out why, and dropped a few items to make running a little easier. Another note for my bag. That was two armies that had left me for dead. Yeah, that didn’t stop me from finding a third. There was still some to learn, or so I thought. There wasn’t.

As you would guess, we weren’t really believed when we restated our last battle. Our new commanders simply thought we were deserters. First wave duties again. At least this next battle was more tournament than anger. Each army was to send a number of waves, each with the same number of troops. The victorious soldiers would get a promotion.

The five of us did get promoted after standing on the battlefield alone. Again. How there were only five victors in a battle with forty soldiers is beyond my knowledge. But, I’m guessing something didn’t quite go to plan. But, we weren’t deserted this time.

Promotion only means you get to be in a later wave. Immediately. By the end of the wave eight or nine, maybe four, but they all blended, the battle was over. There weren’t nearly as many graves to dig, but there were a lot of injured soldiers milling about. The goal wasn’t to kill your opponent, only make them yield. Sometimes, those are the same thing.

My next few battles for this nation were the same. Over and over. I did yield a few times, noting how that made your day much shorter, and less painful. The pay difference between waves wasn’t a lot. I remember relating it to the cost of a good tavern meal. This was the time I learned most of my weapon skills. It was a lot easier to keep someone alive with a mace or hammer. Sword in one hand, mace in the other. I wouldn’t learn to use a shield for quite some time. In a different army.

After a couple seasons, the ocean was calling my name. The five of us finally went our own ways. But, it wouldn’t be the last time we saw each other. We were to meet at my mother’s temple in ten seasons.

Start of my naval career?

The call of the ocean was hard to explain. I had only been on the ocean a couple times, but there was something about it that drew me toward it. Unfortunately for me, that meant traversing the length of Drak-Bahr’s Boulders. We had fought our way to the western mountains by the time the five us decided to go our own ways.

Thankfully, I was still on the southern side and hadn’t started up the western valley. There were really two sets of mountains in the west, separated by a wide valley. Eventually, the two mountain chains became one in the north, so maybe there’s another term a geographer would use.

The eastern part of the mountains wasn’t nearly as high, and would be a place I’d visit more than once later in life. One of my friends went into this valley, one went south, and two went east. I also went east. We would eventually split up at the first town. One stayed, one went north. I went east. Which led me north. Paths were not always direct. It was the snowy time of year.

Most of my path was covered with trees, and I managed to find a grove of wandering trees. I followed them for some time, as they are great at clearing snow. Not so great holding conversations. Unless you count a conversation that takes days. Many, many days. I was still under contract to serve in a military, but I also managed to avoid any larger towns that may hold an army. I thought it best to improve my skills and learn a little more about my eagle form.

As the snow began to melt, the trees decided to stop their wandering. I stayed with them for some time, maybe seven days, to find out why they stopped. “Time to grow,” was the answer. That last word took four days. Very slow conversations. Or they just liked me. I don’t think they particularly cared for me, one way or the other.

One tree did point me toward a path that would lead to the ocean. After going through one of the larger northern towns.

This was a democratic territory. Very democratic. Even the military. There were no less than a hundred commanders that all voted for every decision. How to train, where to train, where to buy weapons, where to march. Every decision. Since I was still contracted, they did pay my wages for the time I’d spent wandering. I liked that. It was enough to buy my first infinity bag, which fit nicely inside my other bag.

I suggested they should march east. There was a traitor in the north east they should go after. The snow was soon to start by the time they decided. The army would march east to meet this traitor. I was voted the commanding officer for the march and upcoming battle.

Sounds great, doesn’t it. It wasn’t. By the time we could smell the ocean through the snow, there were a total of ten of us left. The others had decided to join other armies or just hide and report back and collect their pay. They didn’t know I had been given all the salaries for the entire army for one year.

Just before reaching the beach, I split the salary between the ten of us that made the entire journey. Fairly standard practice, survivors get paid. To my surprise, they agreed to stay with me in my hunt for the traitor. I had a plan. It wasn’t very good.

Since I was now a commander, I was able to stay in the back ranks of whichever army I was with. We joined the northern ocean army, after I promoted the others to commanders as well. Coming from a democratic nation, it seemed absolutely normal. This made for fourteen total commanders.

This may sound familiar, but after a long boat ride, we arrived on the southern beach. This time, there wasn’t an army to meet us. I may have missed a minor piece of information. Two of my guys were sent ahead to warn the southern army. Only eight of us were with the traitor.

Now, the commanders had to disembark and set their feet on the beach. I could tell the others didn’t like this. But I insisted we track the southerns to see why they would not show for a battle.

If it isn’t obvious, this northern nation and the southern nation were not very friendly with each other. I’m not sure the reason for the hatred, but it was constant. If I had to guess, I would guess there was some kind of a family dispute.

Back to my poor plan. I’m sure you’ve guessed, but we were going to attack the other commanders once the armies were deployed. Then leave. It sounded good in my head.

We had to march about a day in from the beach, at which time we made a camp. I could tell by the darkness of the sky that it was going to be a long night. The moon did rise and provide some light, but it was dim. I didn’t know if the lack of excitement was for the battle or my plan.

Or both.

The battle was signaled using fire. When the torches were lit, the battle was to start. Traitor didn’t want to wait, and sent the first wave early. Expectedly. Since it was dark, it was easy to get the following seven waves to fall in. Traitor didn’t like that, but it was also time for eight versus six. I used two swords, and a healthy dose of fire.

That was the part that worked. The part that didn’t was the final two waves seeing the fireballs and thinking it was a command to return. That would have made it eight on a couple hundred. I was wishing for horses, but they weren’t boat-friendly. Four of us made it to the north to meet up with our two messengers. We hid in an abandoned town until the day returned. We were surrounded.

I’m not sure if the army knew we were there or were retreating by land. We continued to wait. It was a good thing I had an infinity bag, full of food.

Eventually, the army left. Mostly. There were a few that had decided our nice abandoned town would make a good place to start a new life. They didn’t know who we were. But, at least we had northern army marks.

I didn’t keep tabs with the men that helped with my first quest. But, I decided it was time to get on the ocean.

On the Ocean

Instead of continuing back to the northern state, we decided to join one of the more central oceanic states. The one run by a republic. The other was a parliamentary monarchy. This will become important later, but probably not today.

The advantage of both of these states was that neither was engaged in any standing wars like the northern and southern states. This made the naval affairs much better for training. The naval games were quite different than the land engagements. Everything was either through a bow and arrow, or you were throwing javelins. Some even threw small metal balls either by arm or sling. We didn’t have cannons, or gun powder for that matter. Most long distance attacks were either magic-based or the weapons I mentioned.

This did lead to one little problem for me. My use of a sword in my off hand wasn’t going to work very well against arrows. I was going to have to learn how to use a shield.

When I say my off hand used a sword, you may be thinking of a nice, shiny broadsword with a razor sharp edge. Nope. As it is on Earth, it’s never really a good idea to hit sword to sword. Unless you intend to break your sword. Blocking swords were designed a little different to survive those attacks. For one, there wasn’t a real cutting edge and it wasn’t really light like a standard sword. It was kept fairly dull and think with one fuller on one side and two fullers on the other side. These were just to give a little relief on the weight. The guard and pommel were integrally forged with the blade itself, as was the basic shape of the handle. I did wrap my handle with a piece of leather for padding and wrapped with a vine that looks similar to modern hemp rope. The blade itself was similar to the broadsword in your head, but the last ten percent was flared toward the ends of the guard. The guard ends themselves had a small hook meant to break a sword that slid down that far.

I’m going to use shield instead of buckler, but know that most of the shields we used were fairly small. Much easier to use in the basic single combat that was typical for our armies. On the ships for wargames we would sometimes use the tower shield for some types of sport. These usually had small targets the other side was intended to hit with their ranged attack.

I may as well talk about some of these wargames at this point. I won’t say people didn’t die, because they did, but it was much safer than land combat. If you miss the incoming arrow or javelin with your shield, it was likely to hit you. I’ve also seen a few shields break and arms get pierced when the shield gives way.

There were usually three rounds to the wargame. First was arrow volleys back and forth. Second were the javelins, and third was the targeting game. The first two were just to see how many of the projectiles would land on the ship itself and not get stuck in a shield. The final event was to hit one of the targets on the tower shield. Sometimes that final game would be with a buckler on defense and the two would work with each other to get the best score. Again, these wargames were generally fairly friendly without much anger.

I did try these games with a bow and arrow, but I was much better with a javelin. And, yes, I did learn my shield skills on these ships. Did I ever get injured? Yep. But my injuries were usually from over-throwing the javelin. A little embarrassing when you throw the javelin and yourself over the side of the ship.

You may recall that there were ten of us from the democratic state. Four of them decided to stay with me and join the navy. The other five went back to their democratic nation to fortify their new commander rank and collect extra money. I would meet back up with them later in life. Helping restore order to their state.

And, no, my commander rank didn’t help much in the navy. I had to start over, almost from the bottom. I also learned I didn’t really care for the diet of a naval person. Fish. Or fish. Or, you could have some seaweed with your fish. I did find I much preferred eating land animals. Unfortunately for me, most of the time we were too far out in the ocean to fly back to land for a nice meal. Fish.

I will say my entire naval career was rather boring and not really story-worthy as a whole. Of course there were learning issues, like throwing myself overboard, but there were many victories and some losses as well. No quests appeared in my leather bag during this time. But, my time with a shield led me to fully retire my off-hand sword. I kept it for memories, but wouldn’t pick it up again.