Don't Forget (Old Version)

Chapter #24

(Ty's POV)

I stand hunched over the map with Quinten, a marker in hand. This information could turn the whole war around! We've found some of the routs the squids march their troops, but they manage to hide their forts surprisingly well for squids. And they somehow knew where this camp was........ not good.

     "W-Where are we n-now?", Quinten asks me. ""Right here on the left side of the Everglade forest", I reply while pointing to a spot on the map. Quinten traces down from that spot towards the coast and out into the ocean a little ways. "T-This is w-where I was kept. It's underwater", he says. Quinten then takes the marker from me and draws an X, O, or lines between them. All starting from the GoldenEye kingdom.

"I was t-taken to a few of the different forts. Those are w-what the X mean. The Os are w-where the supplies come from, where they train, a-and where the send and revive m-messages from. The lines a-are the routs they take through the c-continent. It's all in a pattern that way the squids don't necessarily have to m-memorize where everything is. They won't change it for that reason", Quinten explains.

"If we can take one of the Os and not let word get out that we have control, do you think small groups of squids would keep coming?", I ask excitedly. "A-As long as no squids make it o-out of the base, then yes", he stutters. I can't help but smile and grab Quinten in a giant hug. I hear him squeak from the contact. "You may have just turned this war around for us, Quinten. Thank you", I tell him. "Y-Your w-welcome", he speaks again. I let him go and grab the map and look back at Mitch and Sky.

     Sky's on the floor with Mitch glaring at him. Poor Mitch. He's never been the same since Jerome left three years ago. I don't even know why. And Mitch won't talk about it. The two of them used to be inseparable. I even remembered when Mitch and Prince Adam had their first practice battle. Because of the the threat of assassins, Adam was never allowed out of the castle exempt for battles. His fight with Mitch was one of the first times that anyone in the kingdom got to see him. Mitch won, with Jerome cheering him on from the sidelines. Those were such better days then now.

"Mitch, can you get four pairs of recruits on horses to go to each base and tell them about the map? And that we're going to attack one of the smaller bases?" I ask him. "Yeah, but we're attacking? All we've been doing lately is defending. About time for a change!", Mitch says with a new glint in his eyes. "Can I come? Pretty please? I promise to only break the people that you want me too!", Sky says while trying to make puppy dog eyes. "I guess. But only because you did a good job when fighting in the last battle", I say while smiling a bit from his childish nature.

"I-If it's ok. I'd l-like to come a-and f-fight the best I can. I'm d-definitely not the strongest mudkip o-out their, but I kn-know hot the squids think", Quinten speaks up. "We can use all the help we can get. Welcome to the team, Quinten", I laugh. "Now let's go get Ian to play with us!", Sky yells before grabbing Quinten and pulling him outside.

     "Do you really think we can win now?", Mitch asks, coming up beside me. "I think we really can. We finally stand a chance", I say. "That's a first. Been a long time since you've been hopeful. This is the Ty I've been missing, great to see you", Mitch jokes. "Great to see the joker Mitch that I've been missing", I tease back. He grunts, but I can tell that he's not mad. I pat him on the back before exiting the tent.

Two blurs shoot past me, one screaming at the other. "Come on Chameleon! I just want a hug!", Sky screams at Ian as they run. I thought Sky's nickname for Ian was Cobblestone? "Get aWaY frOm me!", Ian screams with his voice scratchy and cracking on his words. That's a little weird. Must be part of his act when he was pretending to be insane.

Mitch came out beside me and is already gathering twelve recruits to go to the other six camps. They'll travel in groups of two from here to the camps on horseback. Once they come back with messages, we'll leave with about thirty soldiers to attack the squid base. Since it's a communication center, it's not designed for defense, and won't have very many squids inside. We can easily take it thanks to Quinten.

     Speaking of Quinten, where did he run off to? I scan the clearing and spot his blue skin over by some of the sleeping quarters. He's talking to one of the recruits from the scout division. She seems to by trying to be friendly, but I've seen how shy Quinten can be. Just as I'm about to go over there to get him, Quinten cups his hands and forms a small ball of water. The recruit squeals in delight, and points towards a boy from the traps division. Quinten cocks his arm back and throws the orb at him, hitting his mark and soaking the trapper. Quinten and the girl duck behind a building as the boy spins around and tries to find who got him wet.

     It looks like he'll fit in just fine.