Hounds of War [Yandere Generals x Female General Reader]

19. The Second Conquest.

Baccoso had lost count of how long he had been in the mountains with General Denlleonis, not that it mattered. Bliss; that's what it was like in the wilderness. No responsibilities beyond hunting food to survive, a task that was all too easy for the bear-like man. No buildings and tools that were too small for him, everything in the mountains was sturdy enough to withstand his size. No people gawking at him whenever he went, only General Denlleonis who had never looked at him as less of a man because he was different.

He never wanted to return to the rest of the army, to Luccia. After spending time in the mountains he realized that it was where he wanted to be for the rest of his life. He had begun to daydream about convincing General Denlleonis to stay there with him. They could forget about the rest of the world and live in peaceful solitude.

He shook his head of black hair, now was not the time to get absorbed in that fantasy. He had to focus. Y/N had said that he would be using all the skills he had learned in their time in the mountains to track down game only instead of hunting deer or elk he was tasked with something much more elusive, general Denlleonis herself.

His dark eyes darted around the grassy clearing he was in, searching for broken branches or other things that would indicate that something big had passed that way. He strained his ears but could hear nothing apart from the chirping of birds and the gentle burble of a distant stream.

When she wasn't wearing her armor, the general was surprisingly stealthy. Baccoso let out a low gravelly chuckle. He was going to enjoy the challenge. Bending down, he placed both his large palms against the ground and closed his eyes. He concentrated on connecting with the earth beneath him.

By no means could he manipulate the earth like the Nöerrc people in legend, but if he focused he found that the soil held secrets that it could sometimes be coaxed into sharing. After several moments of stillness, he heard it, or more accurately he felt it. The pattering sound of two running feet.

His eyes snapped open and he shot to his feet. The sound stopped as soon as his hands lost contact with the earth, but that didn't matter. He was on her trail now. He took off at a sprint, chasing after the footsteps.

He flew through the wooded mountain with ease. Around thickets and over gullies, it was as though the very terrain was built for his success. Running with the mountain air lashing his face he couldn't help but laugh. 

In what felt like no time at all he caught sight of a flash of blue among the trees, he lunged forward after it. At the sound of his approach, she quickened her pace, but so did he. They raced across the ground, the trees surrounding them little more than blurs.

They dashed through a mountain stream, neither bothered by the frigid water. Y/N suddenly turned, forcing Baccoso to change the direction he was running. She had slipped out of the shadow of the trees, but Baccoso chose to remain hidden knowing that it would take more than strength alone to catch the general.

Once he was level with her, only separated by a thin wall of trees, he waited for the right moment and then launched himself at her. Expecting him to come at her from behind Y/N was caught off guard when he suddenly appeared on her side. Before she could react he tackled her to the ground.

Baccoso's momentum caused the pair to go tumbling down a gentle hillside. The landed and the bottom and Baccoso pinned Y/N don't beneath him. "I caught you." He said, panting for breath.

"Indeed," Y/N said, winded. She looked at Baccoso from where she lay in the grass and smirked, "you know, very few men have managed to get me on my back."

His ears turned crimson at her words as he immediately thought of the other connotation her words could have. He couldn't help the sudden, inexplicable twinge of jealousy he felt at the thought of another man holding her down in the intimate way that he was.

"And none have been able to keep me there," general Denlleonis added as she took advantage of Baccoso's momentary distraction to throw him off and jump to her feet. "Come on, get up. It's your turn to run and mine to seek."

She took off at a jog in the other direction to give him a headstart. Baccoso sat on the ground stunned, still trying to process his sudden possessive feelings over Y/N.

. . .

Before either of them realized, the day had come to an end, and night had fallen over the mountains. The pair returned to the meadow that had become their home, talking and laughing about the mischief of the day. They stretched out on the cool earth and looked up at the inky sky that seemed to be dripping with crystal stars.

After laying together in silence for a while, Baccoso finally managed to voice the question that had been on his mind since they first arrived in the mountains, "Why were you willing to go through all this just to train one soldier, general Denlleonis?"

"Well, why wouldn't I?" She responded, not moving her gave from the fathomless heavens above them. "Your one of my men and you need to be grounded in who you are if you are going to be a good soldier. I was tasked with helping the Luccian Army achieve victory, and I will do whatever it takes to accomplish that even if I have to train the army man by man."

"Do you ever grow tired of it?" Baccoso asked, turning his head so that he could more closely watch the woman laying next to him. "All the fighting?"

"No," she replied with a quickness that unnerved him. After a pause, she explained "For as long as I can remember, war has been a part of who I was and who I was supposed to become. I'm not sure what I would do with myself if I stopped."

The pair fell into a comfortable silence after that. The black-haired general continued to watch her, growing more and more curious about what course of events had led her to be laying next to him, not that it would change anything. Over their time together in the mountains, he had realized that all of his newfound strength, finally being able to embrace his bloodline proudly, all of it was because Y/N had noticed him and gone out of her way to help him. He knew that for that he would owe her a debt that could never be repaid.

"If you didn't want to be discovered as a runaway slave why did you give your horse one of the most common Nöerrc names?" Y/N asked suddenly, cutting through Baccoso's reflection.

"I named her after someone," he replied defensively out of habit. After a moment he recalled just how much he owed Y/N and opened up about her question. "... I named her after my aunt. I never met the woman, but she and my mother were captured and sold into slavery together when they were young. My mother always spoke about how tough her sister Tola was. That's why I picked the name. Foolish reason now that I think about it, general Denlleo-"

"You know I don't care if you just call me Denlleonis or Y/N when we're away from the army," She stated, shocking the bear-like man with her laid back attitude. "It's bad enough that I can never get Esclave to drop the formalities."

His mood soured at this and he felt another, much stronger pang of jealousy when he recalled all of her interactions with the Subedict General, especially the way that she had kissed his cheek. "You two seem close..." He said softly.

"We are," she responded, completely missing what Baccoso was implying. "There's not another soldier that I trust more than him."

After hearing her talk so fondly about another man Baccoso realize just how possessive he had grown to be over the general - no over Y/N. He didn't want to let go of her, not after she had done so much for him. And he certainly wasn't going to allow anyone else to take her away from him.

A/N

Three generals down and one to go.

I have big news, @kiyoism made some lovely fan-art of Esedict General Denlleonis. Her work is amazing and you should definitely go check it out! ^~^

After seeing her art I was wondering if you would be interested in seeing a watercolor of general Denlleonis that I made a while back?

Until next time I'll see you on the other side

~J. C. Coltt.~