𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 ★ 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞

•Chapter 7: Lost•

After losing the six young knights a week ago, there had been no other reported cases of the sickness that wiped out a quarter of our squadron. Since the service we had to honor the ones we lost, I kept to myself this past week as I did my jobs and barely talked to any of the knights, other than Wilbur. My mind was having a hard time accepting the loss of Jason and would constantly think back to all the memories I shared with the kid, making me want to dive deeper into solitude. What made it even worse was that I had to choose two more men to become a part of the inner circle. One to fill the next open position and the other to become my right-hand man, the spot that was previously occupied by Jason. Those were the two hardest decisions I had to make.

In other news, the Ogres had been traveling farther away from the kingdom, thanks to the new deal I made with the Dark One a few weeks back. Because of this, my squadron, as well as many others, settled down a bit and lost their nervousness of an upcoming Ogre attack. Even though the Dark One stayed true to his word thus far, I continued the train into the late hours of the night, knowing that the imp that I bargained with could change his mind at the drop of a hat. Or he could find a loophole. The knights weren't technically in the kingdom after all.

Like every other day around the camp, all the knights were doing their daily jobs of sharpening their swords to grooming the horses. After taking a look around the camp to make sure everything was going smoothly, I made my way to join Wilbur and the rest of the inner circle to work on battle strategies against the Orges.

"We can have the first line go in five minutes early so that they can clear as many of the Ogres as possible before sending in the rest of the troops," Ben suggested as I closed the tent flap behind me before joining them around the table in the center of the room.

"But the first line is only fifteen men," Derek stated before looking up at the former speaking next to him with a look of disgust in his eyes, "there's no way fifteen men can take down more than one Ogre."

"I think that we should all attack at once, four groups coming from different angles, excluding the reserves. They'll hang back just in case we need back up," Jeremy told them while moving around the small pieces of the board to show us his idea before looking up at the rest of us, "if we use this strategy, we'll have about one hundred men attack at once. Should be about ten to twelve men per one Ogre."

"That could work," Wilbur responded as he studied the board in front of him before his eye met mine, "what do think, Sammy?"

After staring at the man in front of me for a short moment, I broke eye contact with him to look back down at the board. As I analyze the plan in front of me, my head races with thoughts and images of the youngest surviving knights, knowing that we couldn't drag them into a battle when they weren't even close to being ready.

"As long as we keep the young in the reserves back in camp, I think it will be successful," I stated before looking back up to meet the emotionless eyes of the men that surround me, "they aren't ready to face a battle with those giants if they aren't needed."

"I agree, for now. But as soon as you feel they can hold their own, they join one of the lines. Are we in agreement?" Wilbur said, causing everyone to nod in response before a small sigh escapes his lips as he looks back down to the map in front of him. Silence surrounds the six of us for a long moment, no one knowing what to say to keep the conversation going. When the silence became too much for us to bear, Wilbur looked up from the map to look at each of us in the eyes before a wave of determination flashed across his features. "Let's hope the Dark One stays true to his word and we don't have to use this plan."

★★★

After leaving Wilbur's tent a few hours ago, not much else happened throughout the rest of the day, nothing worth remembering anyway. Like every other day, I spent the evening training the remaining five young knights to prepare them for any upcoming battles. As I watched them spar with one another, my head began to fill with memories of how Jason and I first met before the feeling of relief hit me like a tidal wave. Knowing the rest of these boys won't see the light of a battle until I deem them ready gave me a hint of hope that they'll make it through this war.