The Foolhardies 191 Red Dawn

I pointed a finger at the map spread out on the expedition table. My finger hovered over a spot I'd designated as Rally Point Echo.

"The Millennium Hawks were lying in wait here to hara.s.s the enemies and allow our escape," I answered.

"Impressive that they didn't need their commander with them," Llewellyn noted. "I a.s.sume Sheridan hadn't disembarked your desert gliders until they'd reached the safety of our front lines?"

"You a.s.sume correctly, General," I said smiling. "His number two managed fine."

I picked up the ceramic teacup before me and lifted it to my lips, but I took the time to smell the tea which I was told was the proper way to do it.

"This isn't elf-tea," I noted.

"No, it's not," Llewellyn answered as she took a sip of tea herself. "It's Pine Needle Chai made from the leaves on my own hair…"

I glanced at Llewellyn's chin-length hair and noticed that the strands looked similar to pine leaves. "You're an oreiades dryad, right? A nymph of the mountains…"

"You're well-read," she said, smiling. "Knowing thy enemy is the first step to victory?"

I shook my head. "I don't think you're my enemy, General…"

She raised a dark green eyebrow at me. "Truly? Don't your loyalties lie with the Council?"

"Of which, Great General Garm is part of," I answered.

I guessed she was trying to see if I would slip up and admit to being against Garm, but I wasn't about to do that when face to face with his number two.

We enjoyed our tea for a while longer before she spoke again, "You're an interesting human, Dean Dapper… tell me, have you bedded a fairy yet?"

I nearly spilled my tea over the map on the table.

"E-excuse me?" I asked in confusion.

"I asked if you've bedded a fairy yet?" she smirked.

Llewellyn leaned forward, and I could swear that her chest seemed to double in size.

"Um, I'm sixteen, ma'am," I reasoned.

"I've mated with younger," she answered flatly.

Holy sh**, I thought. Was this tall, voluptuous dryad propositioning me for s.e.x?!

If my cheeks could go any redder they would have. In fact, my face was so hot I gulped down the rest of the tea to try and calm myself down.

"As you know, we nymphs like to enjoy ourselves… and I have a taste for intellectual men," she said in an unabashed tone.

I don't think I'd ever been speechless in my life until this moment.

Llewellyn laughed a long and hearty laugh. Then she crossed her arms and sat back on her chair looking even more like a temptress than before.

"Let me know if the boy decides he wants to become a man," she smirked. "Teasing aside, you've done well, One-thousand-man Commander."

She tossed a small purse across the table toward me.

"With the Great General's compliments," she answered. "I recommend you share some with your men."

I pulled open the purse strings and looked inside and noticed the interior was vastly bigger than the bag would have hold normally. Inside this bag of holding — because it was obviously a bag of holding — were three big casks of with the logo for the Nymphorae which was one of the most expensive ales in the Fayne.  

"Your plan worked rather well and we've managed to secure the central region of the battlefield which includes the oases in the north and south," Llewellyn explained. "Now, Lord Rah will have no choice but to fight a defensive battle, taking away the advantage of his larger numbers."

Finally finding my voice again, I asked, "Does the Great General have a plan for tomorrow's battle?"

"He always has a plan," Llewellyn tapped her finger over her lips. "However, I'm curious to know if you do?"

"What did you think of my gliders?" I asked.

"Inspired work," she answered quickly.

"We can use them to get behind the enemy again and hara.s.s their flank," I explained.

"They'll be wary now that you've already pulled off something similar," she said, standing up afterward. "Come back to me when you've thought of something more concrete or decide to join me in my bed."

And with that ominous note, I skedaddled out of her tent as quickly as I could and my way back down to the first gate of Fort Garm.

I know, I know. How pompous do you have to be to name your temporary fort after yourself?

Will I thought about Garm's bad naming sense, another thought popped up in my brain. It was nearly dawn again, and I hadn't taken off the ring on my finger that anch.o.r.ed me to the Fayne during the day.

I shrugged, "One more day won't hurt… besides, I've got something to share with the crew."

---

I wasn't the only Foolhardies visere who stayed in the Fayne that morning. Even Ty had asked to stay so he could join the unit as we said goodbye to our fallen.

How fitting it was that a red dawn had risen to greet us, for as fairy superst.i.tion believed, the red dawn was the result of the previous night's b.l.o.o.d.y battle.

"Um, then does that mean every dawn is a red dawn?" Ty asked. "I mean, isn't every night a b.l.o.o.d.y night?"

"You've got a point there, chosen one," Edo chuckled.

"Not you too, Edo," Ty whined.

We were gathered in the oasis valley once more, all six-hundred-and-fifteen of us.

Since there were seven-hundred-and-fifty of us that set out on our mission, a total of one-hundred-and-thirty-five had died. Out of that number, we managed to bring back sixty-two bodies. The rest were still lying on the sand of Point Alpha's northern slope.

We'd built sixty-two pyres for each of our dead and laid them over it with weapons in their hands for it was fairy custom to give a warrior a weapon they could carry into the spirit realm beyond so that they might be ready to fight for the Eldar on the day of Ragnarok.

Aura led us all in prayer, and in her white robes and flames dancing in the palms of her hands, she looked to me like an ancient priestess from ancient times.

As a s.h.i.+eldmaiden, Ashley was tasked with the final rites. It was her hand that lit the pyres too.

When that was done, and we'd each said our goodbyes to our comrades of many months, it became time for the second half of mourning the dead — the revelries.

Fairies were like the Irish. They didn't weep over their fallen but celebrated the lives they lived.

This made Garm's gift — which I suspected was actually Llewellyn's own generosity wrapped in Garm's name to make her boss look good — was a timely gift indeed.

We brought out the caskets of Nymphorae and placed a cup in every hand that could hold one. And after all the cups were filled, we toasted the lives of the fairies and humans who fought alongside us and died to see our mission succeed.

Then, at Varda's insistence, platters of meats and soups were distributed to the soldiers, and everyone enjoyed a hearty breakfast together while people yelled out jokes and called each other names.

Much, much later when the merrymaking had died down and the sun was high in the sky and most of the fairies were hiding inside their tents, Aura came to sit by me and Luca while we looked down at the valley from the top of the eastern slope.

"You guys think I'll ever see the Mudgardian sun again?" Luca asked.

"Isn't that the reason we're here?" I reminded him.

Luca sipped his cup of ale which he'd been nursing since the revelries began. My little brother wasn't much of a drinker.

"Yeah, but…" Luca sighed. "So many people died for us yesterday… I'm not worth that…"

"Luca," Aura's tone was sympathetic.

And I'm sure she would have given him some nice plat.i.tudes about him being a good kid and how everyone deserves to be free, but I didn't want to coddle Luca when he was in a mood. He needed to hear it straight.

"They didn't die for you, bro," I said. "Each and every one of them fought for their own reasons just like we have… They didn't die for us… They died for their own dreams."

I smacked Luca on the shoulder with my fist.

"So don't go thinking this is your fault," I added. "You're not big enough to take responsibility… that's my job."

The three of us were silent for a long time after that. However, Aura wasn't one to quiet for long. She especially hated awkward silences.

"It's our job… all three of us," she answered. "We'll share that burden with you, Commander."

"Y-yeah," Luca agreed. "You can rely on me and Aura, Dean…"

I looked over to the two of them smirking at my side and looking like they knew better than I did, and I suddenly recalled the legend of Atlas and his burden to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Somehow, I didn't think I'd end up like him. I had reliable partners in this adventure of mine — but if I knew then what would happen during this war, perhaps I would have asked them both to stay behind.