3 Months Later
We had traveled across thousands and thousands of miles, building our army by thousands every day. We had sent thousand upon thousands of soldiers to the slaughter. But we still didn't had nearly enough men to overthrow the king and his highly trained force. The king and the bulk of his military lived in the center of the empire. No villages were anywhere near it, making it easy for us to build our forces without the entire military finding out, if we didn't have the secrecy, we we wouldn't have any chance of winning.
We rode on to yet another village, attacked the soldiers, took very few casualties of our own, gave the rousing speech yet again, and set off with several thousand more soldiers. As the sun began to set, our massive force, which was now easily sixty-thousand strong, stopped in the middle of a wide open plain to rest for the night. As the bulk of the force slept, Doron refused to rest as he held his head up above the army, effectively keeping watch over them, even as Veracon and Ragon slept beside him.
"Sleep." I said as I placed my hand on is enormous wing.
He looked down at me, just as he had done so many times before. He eyes were bigger than my hand, yet they still held the look of submission and obedience, just as they did when the dragons were hatch-lings.
"Doron, sleep."
He slowly lowered his head to the ground. I sat down beside him and laid my head on his side as I felt his body calm down, until I finally looked up to see his eyes firmly closed.
The next morning, I woke up to the sound of thousands of men casually getting themselves ready to continue on, and the three dragons behind us catching up with each other with a series of screeches, growls, moans and rumbles. As I stood up, a young man came up to e cautiously. Doron rushed to my side and showed his teeth in defense.
"Easy Doron, easy. Let him Approach." I said.
The young man approached. He looked terrified of Doron.
"You may approach." I said.
"H-hello ma'am. I-I-I." He stuttered before I put my hand up to cut him off.
"You need not to be nervous. Speak your mind."
"Right. Sorry. I was just wondering if you had any idea when we would actually go up against the entirety of the kings army... My parents were killed many years ago by the village guards, and I've been seething for revenge." He said.
I looked back up at Doron briefly, then back at the young man.
"We will attack the kings forces when we have liberated every village in this land. Then we attack with full force." I said.
"Right. Thank you ma'am."
"Called me Jessica." I replied.
He gave me a slight nod before turning away.
"And what shall I call you?" I asked as he walked away.
"Jonah Cruden." He called back.
Just then, Micha and came to my side.
"I'm going on a patrol. See if I can spot anything." She said.
She mounted Veracon and took off over the army as Ragon and Doron wandered off in boredom.
Several hours later, As the army sat patiently waiting for orders, I heard Veracon screech off in the distance. As he got closer, I sensed something was wrong. He landed, and Micha practically jumped and slide down his wings as he touched down beside Doron.
"Jess! Jess! Kings forces to the south!" She yelled as she came running up to me.
I looked to the army, the nearest of which were looking to me for direction.
"How many?"
"I don't know, four hundred perhaps."
I thought over my options for a moment, then I climbed atop Doron to speak.
"Enemy forces have been spotted to the south, I, along with with one-thousand of you, will go to stop them. The rest will stay here with Tahli and Micha. That is final. If you wish to take part, gather your gear." I said.
"There's no sense in taking the entire army and all three dragons for just a few hundred soldiers. Any idea what they were doing out this way?" I asked Micha.
"It looked like they were transporting prisoners from one village to another or something. You'll have to take care not to kill them if you can help it." She said.
"Noted." I replied.
I mounted Doron, and shouted out to those who had decided to join me to follow. Doron spread his wings and took to the air, followed closely by what looked like fifteen-hundred of so warriors on horse back. From the air, the army we had grown looked massive, but I knew It still wouldn't be enough to over throw the king... Not eve close.
As I sat atop Doron, I couldn't help but wonder yet again whether or not any amount of people would be strong enough to defeat the kings army once and for all.
Hey Everyone!
If you're enjoying this story, be sure to check out my new story "The Mountain Dragon"! It can be found on my profile page and is still in progress, updates are daily or bi-daily on average.
Enjoy!