The Last of the Dragons-Set 1

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      We all stood up at once and hurried over to a wide open space with nothing but lightly colored dirt on the edge of a pond. John took a rather long, yet thing twig and drew a small circle in the dirt.

"We are some where around here. We need to go in this direction." He said as he drew a line in the dirt and pointed in the direction of the valley wall.

"Now, he has set up his remaining soldiers in three defensive rings around the center, with his finest soldiers residing with him in the center as a last line of defense. The first line you will run in to is also the largest, only a few dozen miles from the forest edge surrounding the center. It is made up of the grunts of the army. The least skilled and with the least training. They shouldn't be difficult to deal with, but they also have most of those catapults I mentioned." He said as he drew a large circle in the dirt with the stick.

"Then what?" Amy asked.

"Well, after that, he has the soldiers who have been training for many years, and they have been placed roughly one hundred miles behind the first defensive line. These men can certainly hold their own in a fight, but their are far fewer of them, so your numbers will certainly play to your advantage." He said while drawing a smaller circle just inside the first one.

He continued as he drew a smaller circle inside the second one, followed by a single dot at middle of the smallest circle.

"Then, he has his elites, who are not far from the center, maybe fifteen miles away. These men are formidable. They have excelled in formal combat training, and they could kill dozens of men with out any assistance. They will be your biggest challenge, but if you can defeat them, you wont have anything more between you and tearing the kings throat from his neck. But defeating this group of soldiers will be no easy task, and certainly the most dangerous." John said.

"Well, if we punch a whole in each line, couldn't we just run straight to the center?" Tahli asked.

"No. If we do that, we will be surrounded on all sides. Your best chance is to attack from several angles. But don't attack all around the circle. Your lines will be far to thin to have an affect. You must all attack from the same direction, which will slowly draw the men from the rest of the circle towards you, which will make it much easier to surround and slaughter them all. It is likely that you will be spotted by scouts before getting close enough to attack, so odds are by the time you arrive, the entire defensive line will be set up in a defensive wall several dozen battalions thick, backed up by catapults and long range arrows. The same will apply to all three defensive circles." John said while looking us all over.

"Can't we just fly over them and and dive on the center from above?" Amy asked.

"No. You wont get close enough to burn the center before getting shot down, and even if you did manage, you wouldn't survive to escape. You're better off to attack head on and destroy his defenses first." John replied.

We all remained silent for a moment, before I spoke up.

"So.... What do we do now?" 

"We gather as many men as we can to fight, then we attack in the early hours of what ever morning we find ourselves arriving there." John replied.

"Right. Well, let's get to it then. We have a lot of ground to cover, and a lot of men to rally." I added.

I turned and started walking towards Doron, but before I got close, Magar hissed violently at me and spread their her as a threat display.

"What's her problem?" Amy asked as she came to my side.

Doron came forward and bowed his head to me, but Magar continued to try to ward me off. Bailey approached her and put her hand out in an attempt to calm her.

"Easy girl." She said softly.

Magar slowly folded up her wings and lowered her head down to greet Bailey. As Bailey stroked Magar's jaw, she slowly stepped to the side and looked behind the dragon to try to mount her, but Magar pushed her back until they were out in the middle of the valley before allowing her to circle around to her back. 

"What was that all about?" Amy asked.

I chuckled for a moment.

"She must have nested back there." I said.

Hey Everyone!

If you're enjoying this story, be sure to check out my new story "The Dragon's Bond"! It can be found on my profile page and is still in progress, updates are daily or bi-daily on average.

Enjoy!