Turtle's Adventures Volume 4

Chapter 3

I walked past the broken and destroyed wall that gave an easy entrance into the camp. Stepping over a dead Switch, I found myself back with the others. I looked over at a large square table where Dodger stood with Lora and Snake. I walked over and placed my hand on the shoulder of a Knight that stood over looking the conversation. He looked back at me and nodded before running off to help his fellow knights to clean up the mess we made. They started to pile up the dead Switches. Before they did they'd loot them and took what they wanted before throwing their dead bodies into the pile. Others kept the contained Switches that surrendered. There was only a dozen of them but they were stripped of their weapons and placed on their knees by the still standing cabin. They were tied up and had many men watching them. If they are smart they wont do anything. Some of us are ready to kill all of them without hesitation. I'm sure a couple of them are wishing the surrendered Switches would try something. 

I turned back to the table where collected and looted papers laid. Dodger and Lora looked over a large map that had some writing on it. Snake read some short letters that laid before him. "If we strike at these places we are just going to stray more away from the main lands." Dodger said. 

"Yeah, but Pyged might just be in this one, or that one, we wont know until we go look ourselves." Lora said. I stayed quiet as they talked it out. 

"Switches are stating to make their move and if we don't do something fast, they'll conquer the West before we could even travel to these locations." Dodger said. 

"The west? Isn't that where most the battles for the human war is taking place?" Snake butted in, looking up from reading the letter. 

"Yes, It's stupid, but we think it might all be a distraction for their main attack on the remaining kingdoms." Lora said. 

"So what do you propose we do?" I asked. 

"We move west, and take down the camps, and push them back toward the North." Dodger said.

"That's suicide, we wont have enough men, We move to the remaining kingdoms and keep them alive." Lora said. 

"And risk them starting the war early, I'm sure the Switches would love that, and thats why we cant let them, we go West." Dodger argued.

"There's got to be a easier way." I said.

"What about splitting up?" Snake said.

"Of course we could but if we were going to outnumbered before with all of us, we wont stand a chance splitting up." Lora said. 

"So we have to pick one and hope that it saves us, if not the war begins." Snake said. 

"What do you think about this Turtle?" Lora asked. 

"Save the kingdoms and have them prepare for war, or save the fighting soldiers down West and hope that delays the war from happening?" I said explaining our options. 

"So this war happens no matter what?" Dodger said. 

"Pyged planned this." Snake said. 

"What do you mean?" I asked. 

"He knew we were taking out his camps, so he advanced the attack on the west. He also knows that the attack in the west is a good enough distraction to hit a kingdom or two, all if he's lucky. He knows we cant choose both. Either way, no matter what we pick, he gets his war." I said. 

"He's checking our king in this game of chess. Forcing us to make a move or we lose. He's been three moves ahead of us this whole time." Lora said. There was a bit of silence at the table. We all looked at each other, knowing that whatever we pick, there will be war as it's aftermath. It was going to be a hard decision. 

"So how long do we have until his men advance anywhere?" Dodger asked. 

"If our scouts are right, maybe a week or two." Lora said. 

"And it'll take us about a week to travel, so that leaves us less then a week to plan." Snake said. 

"So what do we do?" Dodger asked. 

"Turtle, you've been quiet plus you've been around the monster longer, most out of all of us, what do you think we should do?" Lora asked. 

"It shouldn't be my choice." I said. 

"No, it should be." Lora said. 

"I agree with flower over here, its yours to make." Snake said. Dodger nodded in agreement. I stayed quiet looking over the map and letters on the table. Either way its going to be a fight, many men will mostly die and get injured and the war will start anyway. 

"We head to the kingdoms, each leader gets one kingdom. Dodger, you and Snake get Yunta. Lora, you and Felix get the small towns of the kingdoms. I'll head to Cloaked." I said making a decision. Everyone looked to agree with my decision for which they all nodded their head. Felix was another leader like Dodger and us. There was one more and then the rest of the Knight's. We were going to split the army between the groups and head to our locations. Lora grabbed the papers off the table and folded them before placing them in one of her pouches. She then walked off to help some of the Knight's. Dodger nodded and walked off along Lora. I leaned against the table and sighed. Snake crossed his arms and stood next to me. 

"Do you think we'll make it?" Snake asked. 

"I'm sure we have a chance." I said. 

"Pyged has an army, we have a group of rebels in armor." He said. 

"And I'm sure when we get to the kingdoms we may recruit more." I said. 

"That's not the point, I watch as week after week, these people die over a cause they might not even know the full story of. I trust you Turtle, I trust that you have an understanding of what your doing. But I want to let you know, if things start looking bad, I'm leaving." Snake explained. 

"Snake, things have been looking bad ever since we started, and your'e still with us." I said. 

"I'm just saying." Snake said. 

"I understand." I said. With that Snake walked off. I was left alone by the table. I stayed there and watched as Knight's ignited the pile of Switches into a flames. Most stood in around and watched as the recent enemies burned. Others collected what they needed and or wanted and started to load up the wagons that recently arrived from where we had them hidden in the woods. I couldn't stand it, I hated when hard decisions were put on me. I hated being this leader. I'm glad they trust me, but Snake was wrong about one thing, I have no idea what I'm doing. I sighed as I stopped leaning on the table and started to walk to the wagons to return to the small town we were held up. I can see a bad future approaching.