The diminutive scout chambered a round from the box of hunting ammunition into a cut-down rifle more suited to her size and darted out of the group with a small contingent of fellow squirrel scouts behind her.
“They get excited about fresh food when their winter stockpile starts getting low. You know how it is. We will bring you some if we have good luck on the hunt this time. But we should go and distribute this ammunition to the patrols so that they can stop the humans from getting supplies.” The representative told him, then immediately led his people away, leaving only the one small scout hidden under the bush by the door.
“Hey, little witch. How is scout duty going?” Wolfe asked the hidden guard.
“Good, good. I feel incredible here on top of the vent. It’s nice and warm. Even my insides and head don’t hurt anymore. I think I’m going to get switched out early, though. The extra people in your camp mean that you don’t need the guard as much anymore, and the others are less nervous about handing the witches messages now.” She replied.
“Then you can go home and rest. You’ve done a good job here, and we will have the attackers gone as soon as we can.” Wolfe agreed.
“What will you do after this? Will you go back to the Sylvan Forest? Will we still be able to buy supplies from you?” She asked.
“I’m not completely certain, but I think we will stay nearby and build up our own little village. There are a lot of dangers everywhere lately, and I have gotten really used to fresh air. Going back into a city with no real sunlight sounds much less appealing now that I’ve been spending time outside, and there are things I want to find here in the mountains.”
“Well, we’re always happy to have you. And your witches. Maybe especially your witches. If they come by every week to heal the injured, I think that they might quickly become the most popular people in the entire Frozen Wastes.
The renegade witches are usually really mean, and they think we’re stupid because we can’t talk to them, so they attack us on sight. That means we attack on sight, and it’s just no good, and people get hurt.
But yours are nice, and they heal us, and they like our cooking.”
That made Wolfe laugh. The fact that liking her village’s cooking was second on the girl’s list as important considerations for a potential friend, next to ‘They’re not trying to kill me,’ might be the funniest thing he had heard in a while.
“I will tell them that you appreciate their appetites. Your village’s food is really good, though. If you’re talking to the patrols later, tell them to talk to the Fox Demon and see if she wants us to schedule visits to heal the sick. I’m sure the witches will be willing to help in exchange for food and some supplies.
We’ve also got some of your dishes here too. They’ve been cleaned, so the patrol can take them back home for the next time they want to deliver food.”
“I will send them back with the others. I will be right here where they left me, so if you need anything, just call me.” The scout agreed.
Wolfe headed back inside and placed the dishes by the exit, then went to join the witches further down inside the tunnels. He had a lot of magic to learn, but once he did, he could make this place a much more liveable area than the rocks and vines decor that they had going on now.
That might have to wait, Wolfe realized once he saw the witches gathered around a table full of maps, with small rocks placed on them to represent the positions of various Army units. The human ones seemed to be the plain rocks, while the Coven forces were gemstones.
“Good, you’re finished. Did you come to an arrangement with the Local Villagers?” Cassie asked, not looking up from the map.
“I did. They’re going to go heavy on the attacks for the next three days while I work on some of the magic that I picked up on my latest mission. After that, we agreed to push hard to try to starve the humans out so that they will go home and leave the Wastes alone for the summer so everyone can restore their supplies.”
Cassie nodded absently, then pointed at one of the rocks on the table, which was much larger than the others.
“This is a reinforcement column that the witches aerial scouts detected. Over a thousand armoured vehicles and a hundred thousand soldiers. They’re from a new force, not the same nation that we have been fighting. If that makes it to the city, the Sylvan Coven is screwed.
We’re trying to come up with some way that we can stop their advance before they leave the Wastes.” She explained.
Wolfe examined the map and realized that a mountain map actually resembled the tangle of side streets that had formed in the lower levels over the centuries as the buildings were redeveloped without oversight. They all led somewhere, but not in nice neat lines.
There were only so many ways that you could make your way through to deliver parcels, and there were a lot of choke points where rival courier companies and neighbourhood gangs might try to jump you. It was the same with the mountain passes, but this time they would be on the offence, and the army would be the outside delivery rider.
“From what I can tell, these are the only three routes that they could possibly take to get through the mountains from where they were detected. This one will stall them for ages, according to the topographical map, if I’m reading it right. But which of the other two they pick should be clear very soon.”
Wolfe stopped to point at two spots on the map, “If we wait either here or here, then we can ambush them as they enter the pass and stop their progress. Once the front and back of their convoy are disabled, they will be trapped.”
Priya looked over the points he had mentioned, then moved her finger south, closer to their current location. “If we attack here, it will be a much tighter pinch point and easier to attack them as a group.”
Wolfe nodded. “It’s also very obvious that it’s the best spot to attack them, so they will be on their guard as soon as they start getting close to it. They can’t avoid the trap in that narrow valley but remember that they also have artillery and tanks. They will be able to fight back.
That’s too dangerous for us to deal with if we don’t have the element of surprise, so I want to ambush them in a spot that looks relatively safe and one that gives us room to retreat to another good spot for an ambush where they won’t want to follow us.”
ƥαṇdαηθνε|
“Possibly. But we are professionals. We’re still better at planning battle tactics.” Priya replied proudly.
“Then we’re decided? We hit them in whichever valley they enter tomorrow?”
“Agreed.”
