Answer the dragon call

Chapter 9

Bundled tightly against the icy winds tearing through any tiny gap left open to its assault, Arell wished again that he had rather accepted Dorano and Kenna’s invitation to stay until the worst of the stormy winter season had passed.  But stubborn as usual, he had declined politely and gone with the next load of supplies that went through to the army.  The last day and a half had him regretting his hasty and impatient nature, hopefully he would learn something from this.  Like proper planning!

It was absolutely senseless going out to join the army in this kind of weather.  At least they should reach the army camp shortly, he could already see the smoke of several fires changing the color of the sky to a darker shade of dull grey.  The cart was full of supplies, mostly grains and some vegetables, although for this time of the year, the variety and condition wasn’t that great.  He had come to realize that he had actually been eating rather well by the dragons.  According to the stories he had heard the last few days, the general troop did not get that much meat to eat.  O well, he would survive, he was sure that he would not starve, there was more than enough grain for porridge!

As they got nearer he got his first good look at the camp.  And what a shock!  The camp seemed to consist of patches of tents and wooden structures put together by a child playing a game.  Most of the people they passed by were sitting around working on their amour or weapons.  At least they were not just lounging around, but he certainly expected things to be more organized, and said so to the driver.

“Used to be, but there are so many new ones coming in that things got a bit out of hand.  And Thorgan has got his hands full with the Blood Families, most of them are  hoping to take over as the ruling family, but most of the folk here will not stand for that.  Not many of the old guard is left, so he is having trouble organizing things.  Deonus asked me to take you to him.  As soon as we get to the stores, I will come with you, gives me an excuse to leave the off loading to younger backs than mine.”

Walking towards the far back where the older part of the camp was situated Arell was relieved to see that here the camp was more organized.  It seemed the camp was started in an organized way, but as more and more people joined, things had gotten slightly out of hand.

“Wait here.”  He was told when they reached a tent similar, but just larger than the others.  Arell stood there watching the busy activity around him.  Strange, he never thought about how detailed the dragon thoughts were when they were playing their strategy games.  He could now remember that they thought of a lot of details when they were playing, and thanks to that he had a rather disjointed idea of what he had expected from this.

In the dragon minds the camps were always neatly organized for getting the most out of what was expected.  In most scenarios the dragons had split the archers from the foot soldiers, keeping regular open patches in between for training.  They also had rather large groups attending that were not involved in fighting.  Like the stores and cooking areas.  They also normally had a rather extensive group of people that were supposedly there to take care of repair and maintenance to weapons and amour.  Some even had places set out for the injured.

The old driver came out of the tent, sighing deeply.  He slapped Arell on the shoulder.

“Thorgan will see you now.  Good luck.  Hope you are still alive when I come around again.”

Arell walked into the tent, expecting it to be dark and stuffy, but the interior was bright, and he saw that part of the roof was folded away to allow sunlight to fall onto a table.

There were five men inside.  An old grizzled man with hardly any hair was sitting at the table, filled with a map and a lot of other documents.  The other four were standing around the table.  Their eyes were all on the map and they were talking in soft murmers, hurriedly arguing amongst themselves.  He stood silently, waiting for someone to notice him, but their arguments only got louder and more heated.  Eventually Arell cleared his throat.