Rebellion: Prince of Dawn

Chapter 17.3: Omen of Wild Warriors

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ILIAS VAN PAYNE

After some much-needed rest, we awoke the next morning with the objective of scouting around the village to plan our defences. To make use of our numbers, we decided to split up—with each group having a specific job in mind.

The twins, with Toshi tagging along, took it upon themselves to interview the villagers about things in the village that could aid us in defence. Hopefully, they could squeeze out information the farmers were trying to hide. There was no doubt that they were keeping something from us.

Tony and Mondatta would be heading up to high ground with Hanzo to get an understanding of how the bandits might attack. Their jobs were to see the weak points of the village and how they would exploit it to raid this place.

Ritsu would be accompanying Askeladd, Jaime, and I in the outskirts of the village coming up with defence tactics.

The first place we went to was the forest. When this was mentioned back at Shoya, we discussed the possibility of the bandits attacking from the east using the forest as cover.

It made sense in theory. It was a natural chokepoint with good cover. If we were able to fight them back and decided to chase them into the forest, they could easily pick us off.

The forest was covered with thick foliage and the uneven floor was littered with rocks, fallen trees, and branches. If the bandits went with a mounted attack from here, they'd risk the chances of their horses tripping and breaking their legs. If they wanted to attack from the East, they'd have to leave their horses behind. That would mean giving up one of their major advantages which they would never do.

To the West were the fields that were yet to bear wheat. The fields were like rice fields I saw diagrams of in books. Back in Gilead, we grew our produce on flat plowed ground. Here, the fields were in ditches about a foot deeper than the ground. Each field was about half an acre and there were twenty in total growing on the land. There was also only about a metre of space in between each field.

If the bandits were to attack through the fields, they'd have to make sure they were harvested. It was easy to get their horses to climb up and down the ditches, but it would slow them down severely. And the space between each field was too small for one horse to balance through, let alone fifty of them.

It would be difficult, but the bandits could still attack through here. We had the answer to lower that probability to near zero towards the north.

If we dug trenches and flooded the fields with water from the lake, it would make the fields impractical to attack through.

That would leave us open to an attack from two directions. North and South. The lake labyrinth and the twin hills.

Unfortunately, we couldn't do much to make the north side difficult to pass. The ground was made up of metamorphic rock covered by a light layer of dirt. Digging holes to dissuade their horses from travelling through would be impossible. We could leave obstacles behind, but that would mean spending time collecting more materials and spending time to set them up.

The South, however, was where they would be attacking. If I had to bet my life on it, I would bet it there. The road slithered up on the hill, giving them a perfect vantage point. The dirt road would be comfortable for the horses. The bandits would also trap us as there was no way out of this valley except the road.

We gathered back in the common lodge to plan out the defence. The rest of the village was already there, waiting to hear how we would be defending their precious homes.