The Foolhardies 185 Glider

"I see you're not such a useless pile of mudc.r.a.p," he growled. "You've certainly impressed Llewellyn…"

Garm turned his gaze on his other general, but she didn't shy away from his icy stare.

"It's an interesting plan, my lord," she insisted. "If the boy can pull it off… it'll prove quite the blow against our enemy early on in the campaign."

Garm exhaled a deep breath. "Fine… you'll take charge and a.s.sign units we know can get this job done to—"

"—I'd like the opportunity to take on this task, sir," I interjected.

I don't think Garm was used to being interrupted. His eyes were certainly threatening to bulge out of their sockets with the way he was looking at me now. Still, I pressed on. I wasn't about to let Garm earn more glory for himself using a plan I made without my direct involvement.

"General Redbull can attest to my unit's competence, sir," I insisted. "We can get the job done."

A vein on the great general's thick neck seemed about ready to pop. Thankfully, his subordinate was level-headed enough to calm everyone down with a question.

"Your unit cannot handle all four locations, Commander," she reminded me. "You aren't even at full strength, are you?"

"The unit stands ready at seven hundred men… we've done much more with much less," I insisted.

Llewellyn nodded thoughtfully. "Your accomplishments in the previous war were impressive… but seven hundred soldiers are still not enough for this plan."

I nodded in agreement. "Yes… that's why I'd like you to a.s.sign three units to a.s.sist us in carrying it out."

"Which three units?" Redbull asked curiously.

"The Millenium Hawks, Hammerhands, and… Moonlight Marauders," I said, struggling to say that last unit's name.

"An interesting choice," Llewellyn mused. "Tell us why you choose them?"

"I've worked with these commanders before… and although we're not always on good terms, I trust in their ability to make an opportunity count," I explained.

"So… you wouldn't deny your rivals a chance to earn more glory as well, huh," Redbull mused.

"All for the sake of victory," I insisted, and those words weren't a lie. I would do anything to ensure victory for my side, but that didn't necessarily mean Garm's side either.

From the icy stare he was giving me, the great general was thinking along those lines too. He would have to decide if the benefits that come from trusting me with this task outweighed the risks.

"Llewellyn, your recommendation?" he asked coolly.

"The plan is achievable and the units in question are all independent units… it'll be a small loss should we lose them in this gamble as our core forces will remain intact," she said.

Although she didn't say it out loud, I could guess the hidden meaning in her words. If we succeeded, the victory will still belong to Garm and if we failed, they've managed to get rid of the nuisances that the other great generals sent to them. It was a win-win scenario for them.

"Very well," Garm relented. "Don't disappoint me, One-thousand-man Commander…"

I saluted the great general while the bubbling anxiety inside me began to simmer down. I'd survived this first meeting with my head intact. I hoped this trend continued.

---

About thirty minutes after my meeting with Garm, I found myself b.u.t.ting heads with the three most stubborn people after Luca.

I'd been given a tent in the first layer of the fairy fort for meeting with Al Sheridan, Verania Folkor, and Dain Hammerhand so that I could inform them of the task we'd been set.

"It's a good plan, Dean, but can we pull it off?" Al asked.

Al was the pessimist of the group. Even the best-laid plans were flawed in his eyes.

"Of course it won't work," Verania insisted. "This just another of Dapper's reckless plans… why they made him a strategist and not me, I'll never know."

Verania was the skeptic. Any plan that wasn't hers was immediately the wrong plan.

"It's not just risky, it's impossible," Dane said, stamping his foot on the expedition table in front of him. "Show me how you'll make it possible and then I'll consider it."

Dain was the realist. Any plan was flawed until it wasn't. He was the key. If I could get him to agree, then the other two would see reason, too.

I pointed first to the center of the map where different symbols were cl.u.s.tered together.

"This route leads to failure and death…" I insisted. "The fissures around here will prevent any large army from marching forward and going around them just leaves us vulnerable to the sinkholes peppered here…"

"We already know this," Verania insisted.

"We also know that claiming the oases is the only way to move forward," Al added.

"Which is exactly what the enemy will be thinking as well," Dain finished.

I pushed down the urge to roll my eyes at them for stating the obvious. Instead, I opted to point at the north and south sides of the map.

"I noticed this back when we were trying to claim as much of the oases around the area as we could… On this desert, the wind spirits are constantly in flux, especially around oases," I rotated my finger around one oasis and then traced a swirly pattern to the next. "And these spirits have created a natural air corridor that can allow swift pa.s.sage to a vehicle that can make use of their currents…"

"What kind of vehicle?" Dain asked, his eyes alight with curiosity.

A grin formed on my face as I gazed out at their curious faces. Then I looked over to my quartermaster and asked, "Are they here yet?"

"Arrived first before the rest of the supplies, Commander," Varda stated proudly. "Your theory was correct, sir."

My grin only got wider when I turned back to my fellow young commanders and asked, "You guys want to see them?"

---

The trip took us much less than it did before, and we'd arrived at the oasis valley Redbull and I claimed only a few weeks ago with time to spare before dawn.

The valley below us was crawling with activity.

While I'd left Luca and Aura in charge of the Foolhardies gathered at the rallying point, a second smaller force led by Edo and Azuma had split off from us earlier and made their way to this valley to await the arrival of the equipment Varda had sent this way with the help of the Shanks and Co. Merchant Caravan.

The unit was now busy unloading the supplies that had arrived on the several dozen longboats parked around the valley's upper rim.

"What in blazes are those things?" Dain asked in surprise.

"Boats… in the desert?" Al asked in disbelief.

"Impossible," Verania finished the trio's commentary.

"Sand gliders," I said proudly. "I call them sand gliders."

These sand gliders had two double outriggers attached which Zarz and I had devised to glide along the desert sand while keeping the boats upright. Each glider had a single triangle-shaped sail that was perfect on surfing through high wind corridors.

I would never openly admit it, but I'd actually gotten the idea for these gliders from an old cartoon I used to love watching when I was a kid. Luckily, with a little trial and error, Zarz managed to bring this product to life just like he had with my other out-of-this-world ideas.

"How many can they hold? What's their top speed? How do you navigate the winds?" Dain asked.

His innate dwarven craftsman's curiosity coming out and blowing away his reservations was just what I'd hoped would happen.

"Each glider can hold up to a dozen people and still maintain its top speed, which, with perfect winds could outpace the swiftest swifthart," I explained. "As for navigation..."

I pointed toward the rear of the closest glider where a nearly ethereal boy was waving his hand at me in greeting.

"That's Sora… he and his sylph friends will pilot the gliders and navigate the wind corridors for us," I explained.

"Sylphs could manage to properly guide us and increase the number of wind spirits in the corridor, effectively turning them into a highway on the desert," Al considered.

That was the second gear finally working, I thought.

"How many gliders would each of us get?" Verania asked, and although her eyes were narrowed, I couldn't help but notice the smile threatening to escape her stoic face.

"Enough for eighty to a hundred soldiers each," Varda answered for me.

"We don't need too many soldiers to perform the task of causing a distraction," I added. "Speed is the key."

"You realize what you've created here has consequences that transcend this war, right?" Dain said, raising an eyebrow at me. "You've just changed the way we cross the desert… Not bad, Dapper."

Al chuckled. "I bet he didn't even think of that while formulating this plan of his."

"I hate that he'll get credit for it… but I guess we all get lucky once in a while," Verania finished.

Their praises, however veiled, surprisingly warmed my heart.

"Alright," I said finally. "Now that we have the means… let's go and get the job done."