[Harm, Failure]
Woody was moving faster than I’d ever seen him move before still shouting.
“ITS WAR ROSE.”
When he finally came to a stop in front of me he sounded breathless. But I don’t know how it is even possible for a tree to sound breathless. I mean they don’t have lungs. Focus Rose, my sub conscious was actively blocking my comprehension but he repeated.
“ITS WAR ROSE.”
It finally sunk in
“War with who Woody?”
“A mercenary army hired by the Harris’s, they’ll be here in three days. What do you want us to do, Rose?”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes those sound machines you set up have made it harder for us to hear what they are saying but yes Ashley is sure.”
“I’m sorry, I’ll go turn off the noise right away, it was stupid and petty anyway.”
“But what should we do, Rose?”
“I don’t know Woody, I don’t know anything about war. The only story I ever read with a war in it was the Lord of the Rings and I can’t get a host of ghost warriors nor a legion of elves. The only person I know that knows anything about war is Draco, I’ll have to go talk to him.”
“We’ll move to intercept the army. But we do not wish to kill.”
“No Woody, you absolutely must not kill anyone. If you kill, then the Harris’s have already won, because we become just like them. Galadriel could have ended the war with the one ring, but she was also smart enough to know that would turn her into the very thing that she had struggled against for so long and she found the strength to refuse it, to believe that they would find another way.”
“I’ll portal and turn off the noise right now, please let Elma and Elmer know if you have any more information.”
I portaled to the estate, it was awash with gnome carpenters, building their new home. They will have to be evacuated. First things first, kill this awful noise. Then find Bimble Blossom and order a retreat to the original gnome colony. After I’d turned off the first noise machine. Bimble actually came looking for me, or rather the person messing with the boss's noise.
“Boss, why are you turning off the noise?”
“It’s interfering with spying on the Harris’s, we have trouble, Bimble. Let me turn off the rest of these and we’ll talk.” I finished shutting down the noise machines. “Bimble an army is its way and will be here in three days, you have to evacuate all the gnomes. I can build you a fictional world to order, where you will all be safe.”
“No boss, I’ll talk to my elders but you gave us this land, we will defend it. Who commands this army?”
“I don’t know, all I know is that the Harris’s hired a mercenary army. I don’t want any of you to be hurt, I know that I gave you this land, but I can give you an entire planet, in place of this one, I can even duplicate this exactly you won’t even know the difference. Except that a human army wouldn’t be able to attack you. This army is assuredly armed with guns.”
“I’ll talk to elders, they will decide what we do.”
“I just don’t want any killing, Bimble.”
“Understood boss. No killing.”
I remembered that I did know someone besides Draco that knew about war. I portaled to the bookstore.
“I was starting to get worried, Rose, I didn’t like that cartel guy one bit. I had a gut feeling about him.”
“He was a jerk, Ryder, but we have a much bigger issue, then buying farms. An army is on the way, you have army experience so I’d like you to come with me to Draco’s lair so we can talk about retreat strategy. You two are the only people I know that know anything about war.”
With that we portaled to the tower library.
“Are we going to war, Rose?”
“No we are not, Doug. But you can come while we talk this over with Draco and talk over strategy, your historical knowledge of warfare will help us make informed decisions.”
“Me too Rose, Woody wants to know what we can do.”
“Yes fine, Elmer.”
The three of us walked down to Draco’s lair and knocked. A half second later.
“Come in, Rose.”
I’d forgotten Opal was practicing with Draco.
“Hi Opal, we need to talk to Draco for a while, would you mind going to the library to read.”
“Sure Rose.”
“What’s going on, Rose?” Draco asked after Opal had left the room.
“Woody informed me that an army is on its way here and will be here in three days.”
“What’s the size of this army?”
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“We don’t know, my stupid petty noise machines made it hard for Ashley to hear, so that’s all we know.”
“Fine, I’ll go and put an end to this.”
“No Draco, no killing. In trying to beat the Harris’s I will not have us become the Harris’s. If I want to affect change I have to be willing to spill blood, my own blood no one else's. What I want to do is make a plan of retreat.”
“Just who gets to retreat with you, Rose?”
“Everyone.”
“Lily will just give up her bakery, Lottie her clinic, Salome the only stable home she’s ever known, Martha and Henry their new home, Arthur his town. And if these people don’t want to run, you are going to force them?”
“No, of course I wouldn’t force them.”
“So you abandon them without even trying to defend them. That’s pretty selfish.”
“I know what you are doing, Draco.”
“What’s that Rose?”
“You are trying to talk me out of retreating.”
“What I’m trying to do is to stop you from panicking. You are running from an army you don’t know anything about. You hear war and immediately you mind goes to the Lord of the Rings, probably the only thing you know about war and you want to avoid the devastation that Tolkien portrayed. But there were a lot more than two armies in that war. First what we need to do is find out if Woody is right and secondly just what the size and composition of this army is. Plus I already have some ideas, first how to slow them down and non lethal ways to thin them out.”
“How do we find out if he’s right and what the army is like?”
“We fly over it and have a look and if possible you drop large rocks on the supply wagons at the back of the army because every army marches on its stomach. Deny them food and they are forced to forage, further slowing them down. Doug tell her about the Battle of Thermopylae.”
“I’m not sure that is a good example of Draco, they actually lost.”
“They lost because they were betrayed. My point is that one thousand warriors stood against one hundred thousand and held, if they were not betrayed they might have won. Because they were smart and they knew just where to fight in a narrow passage. So before we panic, I’ll go see what we have to work with.”
“Alright, I’ll go inform Arthur, Dogberry and Alvyn.”
Ryder, Doug and I portaled to the guard house. I didn’t know the guard at the desk, so I just asked to see Dogberry. The guard went to fetch him.
“Rose, Ryder what’s up?”
“We have serious trouble, do you have a few minutes to come to town hall, I’d like to tell you and the Burgomaster at the same time.”
“Sure, let's go.”
We portaled to Town hall and walked right to the Burgomaster outer office. Michael went right away to inform the Burgomaster that we were here. Arthur came right out of his office smiling but when he saw our expressions, his smile faded. Once we were all seated in Arthur’s office. I began.
“A little while ago, Woody, the leader of the sentient trees informed me that the Harris’s had hired a mercenary army and that they would be here in three days. I told Bimble to retreat to the gnome colony. She didn’t outright refuse but said that she would speak with the gnome elders. We don’t know the size or the composition of the army but Draco just left to try and determine that. Once I know more, I’ll of course let you know as well. Just so you know Sparky designed the tower to provide protection to everyone in the town. It is bigger on the inside than the outside. From there I can jump people to any world that they desire. I’m sorry for my part in this, I never should have tried to stop the Harris’s, my attorney just informed me a few hours ago that the Harris’s didn’t care about free food disbursement or the portal network at all. They were just trying to cheat their own cartel members out of their land.”
“Rose if you remember correctly, I came to you, when the cartel attempted to blackmail us, to starve us if we refused. We’ll put the kids, the elderly and anyone else that doesn’t want to defend the town, into the tower to keep them safe, but we won’t let some army have our town, what do you say, Dogberry?”
“Burgomaster after we hear back that this army is on its way, I say we go out to the Harris estate and arrest every last one of them.”
“What if you can’t find any proof at their estate or worse they attack you when you arrive. We don’t know how many thugs they have guarding the place, Dogberry. What if you send a contingent of guards to block the road from Veracity and not allow any thugs past. In the meantime, my friends and I could try to sneak onto the estate and kidnap them. We just need to get into the house then I can jump us all to another world, maybe I can even scare them into withdrawing the army. If the army will allow itself to be withdrawn. You could come with us or send another guardsperson you trust to observe.”
“I’ll come, I’m not sending another of the guards into that dangerous situation.”
“Okay good, come to the tower later and we will make a plan. After we hear from Draco. I’ll go inform Alvyn about what we know and as more information comes in, I’ll share it with you. You both have our private portal to the tower so come any time. Bring anyone you want us to house and protect.”
So Ryder and I left and portaled to the gnome colony. The gnomes marched back and forth across the entrance. Maybe that’s why the gnomes had been standing at attention before they knew that something important was going on. They showed us right into the meeting room and went for Alvyn. It wasn’t long before Alvyn came in and sat down.
“It seems from the heightened security you already heard that an army is marching right now on Wyldwood.”
“Yes, as soon as you informed Bimble she was to retreat, she consulted with us.”
“Did you order her back?”
“No, in fact we ordered her to take the Harris estate and obtain as many prisoners as possible.”
“Alvyn, we can’t be working at counter purposes. We were planning on doing that tonight after Draco returns with information. Right now he’s flying to see what the size of the army and what kinds of weapons they possess, I can only assume that they are carrying rifles or worse.”
“Why not just let the dragon stop them where they stand?”
“No, no killing. I wanted everyone to retreat but I can see that that isn’t happening. Let’s all coordinate our actions and make plans together. But we must all agree to the plan.”
“We’ll try it for tonight, have Bimble in on your strategy session. She's extremely useful in a fight. If it goes well tonight we’ll consider a four way alliance.”
“Fourway?”
“You and your allies, the humans, the gnomes and the trees.”
“I told the trees that I’d evacuate them someplace safe.”
“Yet even now they march, none of us are going to let you fight this alone Rose or with just a handful of your friends, either.”
