Send a spelling or grammar correction to: Tracy Johnson
This is a first draft of a story set in the world of Greyhawk.
It is based on a home campaign so some of the people, places and things
may be different. Any helpful comments or suggestions are very welcome.
Thanks
Jason Zavoda
Guards had been posted. They watched the walls, the fields and
the road. Neither Waddard nor Kyle had given the order, but the monitors
who oversaw the squads had detailed a pair of troopers for each direction
and set them to watch as soon as the company took to the muddy field.
"Veteran an' a recruit each." Jagiello said to Kyle. "Best way
ta train 'em."
"Good." said Kyle. "Keep shifting them every two hours. I never
liked long watches, gets boring and that's no good for keeping watch."
"I'll tell Clovis." said Jagiello, naming the first monitor of
Waddard's century.
"Better have him speak to Waddard." Kyle told him.
"Ok, but he knows ta let us do our job." Jagiello shrugged.
"The sergeant might have his own ideas." said Kyle.
Jagiello just smiled and shook his head before he took leave
of Kyle.
Waddard's century was spread out to Kyle's left. What remained of
the old road leading to the bridge separated them.
Once the road had been paved along the quarter-mile heading toward
the city. The stones were long gone, and the road had merged into the
soupy mire of the surrounding fields. The giants had let this gateway and
path fall into disrepair. It was the most southern, two more large gates
were set to the east and the north of the city.
Kyle knew that other companies would be splitting off from the
main road to take up positions before the other gates. Eventually the
entire city would be circled.
The west side of the city faced the river. Old docks and wharfs
had rotted and collapsed. The giants hated the water and the Realstream
had no liking for them either. More than one of the huge monsters had
drowned while trying to ford the deep and swift flowing river.
There'd been a blockhouse that spanned the end of the road before
the bridge. Two small towers had been under construction to either side
when the city had fallen. The giants had smashed the building down when
they'd attacked. Over the years they'd hauled away the bigger blocks and
pushed the rubble into the curving moatstream that surrounded the cities
outer wall.
Nothing remained. A small semi-circle of land was missing from the
embankment. The giants had pulled up the foundation stones and the oerth
had given way. It looked like a bite had been taken from the edge adding
almost twenty feet to the distance between the gate and where the
drawbridge would have come down.
"Even if we get the cursed bridge down it won't reach." Kyle
said aloud.
"That's the way it looks." Audofleda agreed. The second of Kyle's
monitors was a tall thin woman. She, like Jagiello, was another who had
been with the company long. Longer than Kyle, but she did not seem to
resent his advancement.
Her long brown hair was bound under her cap of leather and steel.
There was a thin scar the ran down her chin and the upper edge of her
right ear had been clipped off by the edge of a sword. Her smile was
filled with the glint of silver where enchanted metal replaced the teeth
she'd lost to a battle and a dozen bar room brawls.
"I thought the giants used this gate." Kyle looked back toward the
road and the way they'd come. Fresh companies of troops had begun to
appear. Their banners and pennants bobbed as the marched then spread out
across the fields. "Send a runner. I want to speak to one of those rangers
back there."
"Kynwal!" Audofleda snapped.
One of the replacements from the Fifth dropped his shovel and
pulled himself gracefully from the ditch. The shape of his pointed ear
caught Kyle's eye, but otherwise the trooper looked like the humans
around him.
"He's the fastest." said Audofleda.
"I like to run." the young man smiled as he approached.
"Button it Kynwal. You listen and repeat what the sergeant has to
say. Otherwise, shut-up." the monitor growled.
* * *
(To Be Continued...)