Battle Prep

 

“This feeling is uncomfortable,” Bebe said as she held onto a supple evergreen branch. “My stomach. I think I’m going to be sick.”

Taking hold of her tunic, Alpen gently pulled her to him. “Don’t touch the trees until you get used to this. The ground is talking to the tree through you. After you get used to the energy wave from the ground, then you can touch a tree.”

Bebe turned to Drindl. “Did you feel weird your first time?”

Drindl paused, shifting the stake to his other hand. “I can’t remember. I suppose I did.”

“He did,” Alpen confirmed. “Some of the new recruits think there are worms crawling in their legs. We push them down and slap their feet to kill the worms as they emerge, laughing all the time at their foolishness. ‘Stop laughing,’ they insist as they writhe around on the ground. ‘This is serious!’ they cry. ‘All the worms are dead,’ we tell them. We hold some leaf stems up to them to show them and they believe us.”

Drindl’s laugh turned louder at this tale and Alpen turned to him and signaled to keep his tone low.

“This is how you all fight as one?” Bebe asked Alpen, using his arm to steady herself. The tingling in her feet was disconcerting.

“Do you feel it?” Alpen asked.

“My feet?”

“No, your hand on my arm. It’s tingling. The ground is talking to me through you.” Alpen lifted her hand off his arm and let it go.

Bebe stared at her hand. “You’re right. Now it’s going away – the tingle.”

Drindl put his hand on Alpen’s arm, then withdrew it. “I think we’re ready to unite. I can hear the sounds from the mine. It’s not far away.”

Alpen turned to Bebe. “Are you getting used to it?” Bebe nodded. Alpen led her to an evergreen with long needles. “Touch the branch. Feel the spines.”

Bebe rubbed the long green needles between her fingers, the tips tingling as she joined the ground and tree. “I’m part of it – the tree,” she said in a voice of surprise as she looked around. “It’s part of the forest community. They are all talking to each other.” She withdrew her hand, breaking the connection. She turned to Alpen. “It changes when I withdraw, but I’m still united.” She stared at her hand, incredulous at the feeling.

“You’re ready,” Alpen said. They laid their staffs and food down, then Alpen arranged them in a circle, kneeling with their toes dug into the dirt. “Hand to hand.”

Bebe felt the tingle as she took Drindl’s hand in one of hers and Alpen’s hand in the other. Her perception of the world was emerging through her eyes and out of her head. She closed her eyes to stop herself from escaping her body but opened them again when she felt Alpen squeeze her hand.

“Don’t fight the merge,” he said. “You’ll be in three bodies. It takes a few seconds to adjust.” When she nodded, Alpen said, “turn on three.”

Still clasping hands, Drindl and Alpen rotated their palms, and she did the same. At each count of three, they turned their palms from front to back until she was not sure which were her hands, and which were the hands of the others. Her vision changed so that she could see in front of her and behind her.

“Link and pull,” Alpen said softly. They linked arms and pulled at each other. Bebe felt the tingle run through her arms and chest then through her feet and into the ground. The tingle turned into a wave of power, then they unlinked.

Alpen and Drindl stepped away from her, widening the circle. Alpen struck out with his arm and she reached up to grab his wrist, surprised that she was aware of his sudden movement. Alpen smiled. She cocked her head in a questioning glance, then struck out with a kick. He feinted away from her foot.

“You won’t have the specific training so follow my lead when we attack,” Alpen said.

“He’s the big worm,” Drindl joked. Alpen gave him a look. Drindl picked up the pinkle fruit. They had eaten all the tubers. “Should we cache these?”

“No, we’ll continue north after we find Mellen,” Alpen said. “Let’s bring some to use as weapons.” Drindl hefted one in his palm and smiled. The sound of an elephant trumpet drew their attention. He picked up a staff. “The long slow war becomes the quick battle.”

As he strode forward through the trees, Drindl and Bebe followed, their six footfalls making the same cadence as the four paws of a wolfbear.

//////////

As they came to the edge of the trees, the energy dust from the mine glinted in the sunlight that drifted through the forest. Alpen, in the lead, stopped. He didn’t need to signal to Bebe and Drindl behind him. They knew. He crept forward, head above a few feet above the ground as he emerged into the sunlight. Bebe sensed the brightness of the light. Reaching back, Alpen’s fingers motioned them to come forward. Bebe took a position next to Alpen and Drindl flanked the other side.

Bebe’s initial shock at the size of the hole dug into the ground was immediately checked by a cold tactical analysis of the access and weakness points. She identified the clinic building where Alithea had given the medicine to the miners. On the far side was the main road that came from the palace and descended into the bowl of the mine. The dense haze of dust deep in the bowl made it difficult to assess the number of mine workers and guards.

Alpen looked to Bebe. “Did Alithea say the mine prisoners appeared compliant?” She  nodded, her attention focused on the main road where two elephants emerged from the dust with pallets loaded.

“The queen’s people can’t drug the Fae riders, or they lose their ability to control animals. Why are they working in these conditions?” she asked.

Drindl pointed to the two guards outside the clinic. “Alithea said there were two inside when she was there?” Bebe nodded.

“I count fourteen miners and four guards that we can see,” Alpen said. “Triple that for good measure. Fifty miners and guards. A half-dozen Fae riders perhaps.”

“We look too healthy to be miners,” Drindl said.

Alpen pointed to the left, where naked miners were being doused with water, before following the path down the clinic building. “There are no female miners,” Alpen said.

Scanning the area, Bebe said, “They are taking the miner’s clothes. See? To the right.

“Why do they clothe the miners?” Drindl asked.

Alpen shrugged. “We’re too clean to pass for miners. We make a swift assault on the clinic. We must be cruel to be just. If Mellen is there, we leave with him. If not,” he paused, “we find him in this hell hole.”

Hearing his words, Bebe realized that this fight might be their last. Strangely, it did not deter her will or spirit.

“Pincer attack,” Alpen said. “Move.”