Chapter 8: March to Lys
Created: 12.31.20 - 1.1.21, edited: 3.9.22 & 4.28.22
Circa 292 AC
The first month after ending the Myrish Conflict, my camp remained outside the walls of the wealthy city as we had to reorganize everything to account for the large influx of the 20,000 young slaves and continue training up the core units that made up Locke's Legion. One of the first things I did upon arriving back at camp was freeing the 20,000 former slaves and offering them a place in my army or camp, whichever they preferred, also telling them that if they wanted to go their own way, they would be free to do so once we left Myr. Granting them freedom, and seeing the strength of my army convinced all of them to stick around, and I was flooded with praise from my now very devoted followers.
Luckily, there were easily 2,000 of the slaves who were males over 15 years old, and were instantly recruited into the recently re-forming units, bolstering their numbers considerably as we learned about their various talents of which there were few. We had daily exercises and training in all four of the major disciplines within the army, starting every morning with jogs around the camp followed by sword training and general upper body strength training. After our mid-day meal we then moved on to archery practice, then horse riding, and finally followed with spear practice and then free time until supper.
This allowed us to pick out those kids and people who excelled in one area or another, and mark them for a future in said unit, while also giving everyone a basic understanding of the various skills and disciplines involved in an army. The remaining younger kids were incorporated into the camps in various other ways, finding those with experience in various functions and putting them to work helping keep our army and the whole camp fed and outfitted, or learning from someone who already did. It was a real tight fit in the beginning, but we were able to send in a pair of soldiers at a time into Myr to purchase goods, mostly canvas and cloth to be used to make tents and clothes for our now larger population.
The Magisters of Myr however, were not happy with our presence, and usually tried to make it difficult for any of my people to enter the city and pay reasonable prices for goods that we needed, still unhappy with me for negotiating a better deal for the sellsword companies. To get around this we sent my people in small groups to neighboring farming communities and bought food and goods directly from them, even fishing in the Sea of Myrth too, in order to provide for the increased amount of mouths to feed. It was the rising cost of food after just that first month though, that had us start to make the arrangements necessary to begin marching and looking for our next adventure.
We were luckily able to purchase several large animal herds, and even picked up more people as we left the immediate vicinity around Myr and moved southeast towards the large Volmyr Lake on the very eastern edge of the Disputed Lands. The large camp was a logistical nightmare, and I was grateful every day for Rickard Snow and Alston Rivers, my two main administrative assistants, who handled the majority of the numbers and supply lines while I worked more with the growing industry I was creating or even the army itself. They had also found several of those young children who could actually read and write in some languages to help them, while they taught them everything they could and we made as much use out of everyone as we could.
It made me realize that I needed a school of sorts for the younger children, to give them something to do, and also to help them grow and learn as it would only benefit me in the end to have a more educated population. I found a few of our older camp helpers and asked around until I found a pair of older sisters that worked well with the children and knew some of the basics, and had them organize daily lessons for the youngest and train others to join and help them. This was pretty much a requirement now, that if you had a task in the camp, you now had anywhere from 2-20 helpers and/or young former slaves studying and learning the necessary things in order to keep this many people happy, clothed, and fed, which was a full time job for everyone.
We had basically become a large tribe by the time we reached the large Volmyr Lake two months after leaving Myr, as our numbers had grown to almost 30,000 total with little sign of slowing down as we picked up new people at every little village we encountered. Around the large lake, the area was really fertile for crops and likewise had even larger settlements of population that flocked to us in the thousands after learning about us and the opportunities to learn a trade, a skill, or become a soldier. By this time, most of the original young slaves from Myr had settled in relatively well, and we were able to grow to incorporate even more people by spreading around just a little bit of gold for much cheaper resources, and drawing in an even more diverse population.
I had managed to mobilize almost every industry we needed and we now had wagons that acted as mobile forges, others were kilns for pottery, shoe cobbling and weaving looms, granaries and cold lockers, large ovens and kitchens that all traveled with us and kept us outfitted and producing goods we could trade with other settlements. Those drew a lot of attention and interest, and we soon had villages paying us to build mobile industries for them as well, as we traded and sold the goods we could now make in much larger quantities with all the help being added to our numbers. Vayon and Hubbard had already begun training dozens of blacksmith apprentices that did nothing but make single items all day to equip our soldiers, and by the time we reached Volmyr Lake, had almost finished outfitting every soldier with the standard armor of their unit.
Infantry men all now started with a basic breastplate, with officers or veterans getting full kits in various styles with full armored backs and shoulder pauldrons, while everyone got a metal skirt, a standard helmet, a solid shield and an army issued sword and dagger. The archers had pretty much the same, except their helmet style was slightly different, and instead of swords and shields were given bows and arrows, likewise the Pikeman's only difference was a thicker helmet, a heavier and larger shield, and a long spear instead of the sword or bow. Cavalry was given the same general outfit, except they could choose their own primary weapon, a different style helmet, and had lower leg guards that protected them from the knees down to the foot, as well as options for their few horses to be armored too.
We had more seamstresses making clothing and tents than most cities, and they were always busy as the constant influx of new people was never ending as we settled for a bit near the Volmyr Lake to stock up on supplies. We had shoe cobblers teaching and working around the clock to get everyone into quality footwear, and our leather workers were likewise always busy working or teaching others and building up large stocks of everything. Our cooks, hunters, and fishermen however, were probably the most worked, as food gathering and preparation for 30,000 people was no easy feat and dominated a lot of what we did.
Several of my ideas also came to fruition at this point, after the success of building the portable wagon industries for pretty much everything, I expanded it even more to create the traveling kitchens and food storage that was the reason so many of us survived. Above the basic essentials of clothing, food, weapons, and armor that was my primary focus until we were more sustainable, I also started building portable distilleries and brought in some former ale brewers to run it and start making our own ale and rum. We built portable siege equipment that would help our growing army and defenses as we were fairly vulnerable with such a high amount of non-combatants among our tribe. It was made better by the structure of our defensive camp setup, and staying in one place long enough to build up a few more permanent style defenses to keep us better protected from any who would harm us.
This proved very important shortly after settling near Volmyr Lake, as we were attacked by a large group of over a thousand bandits, and were only really saved by luck. The group had avoided our scouts by hiding in dense forests, and waited for an opportune time to strike, when we were unprepared and had little in the way of defenses that had been set up. Had they charged us from the other side of camp, we would have lost thousands of camp helpers and non-combatants to their charge, but they mistakenly charged directly into our Cavalry and Pikemen as they were practicing maneuvers, and we only lost a few hundred soldiers instead.
It was a wake-up call to all of us, that we needed to protect ourselves and our borders better, and build up a stronger defensive structure that we could use for our growing camp and army. With the success of the portable scorpions and catapults during the Myr Conflict, we still had a few of those that quickly grew into hundreds more. Some wagons were built up to just be barriers or portable walls they could set into the ground when stationary, or watch and archer towers that would let them defend themselves better, and get better viewing vantage points related to scouting and protection.
After three months spent around Volmyr Lake, building up our mobile defenses and industries along with growing to well over 35,000 people by the time we left was incredible in the advancement of my growing tribe. And that is what we had become, we were no longer just a sellsword company with a camp, but had really grown into a tribe as we were always working towards a combined goal of survival and helping one another. The Legion had really become a formidable fighting force, as the army now numbered well over 6,000, with the majority of that infantry, while the archers, pikemen, and cavalry had all grown as well.
The infantry had been divided into 500 people brigades led by a lieutenant, who had five sargents under them, each responsible for 100 of their soldiers. Tristifer led the 1st Brigade, Sydel the 2nd, Juden the 3rd, Axel the 4th, Geremy the 5th, Jaygr Snow the 6th, Cale Burke the 7th, and his brother Cletin the 8th. Jaygr was the bastard of Lord Medger Cerwyn, who I fought with during the Greyjoy Rebellion, and the Burke brothers were the 4th and 5th sons of the Ramsgate Castilian, that had all joined me before we even left White Harbor, and were a solid group of guys who had really grown a lot. Raymar still led the scouts which had also swelled to over 200 people, whose main job was to keep us aware of any possible enemy movement anywhere around us, and to ensure we were never surprised or snuck up on again.
The Cavalry was equally divided into two 500 person units, with Ser Gerold Jast and Ser Royce Kellington leading the two units we had the equipment and horses for. Our pikemen were still being led by my friend Jaryd and Lotho, the Summer Islander who trained under Starfinder in the Company of the Rose, and their numbers had just recently reached 700 and were due for a reorganization soon. The Archers now numbered 700 as well, and their two evenly numbered units were being led by Timet Flowers from the Reach, and Sondry who was trained under Ben "Bullseye" Benji of the Company of the Rose.
The march south towards the smaller Vollys Lake took another month, and went a lot smoother as many of our people were now familiar enough with the traveling routine, and everyone was settling in well with their new duties or expectations on them. We stayed over a month around the smaller lake, attracting a lot more people from the region until our population had grown to over 45,000 by the time we continued south west towards the coast and the area nearest to Lys. It took us three months to make that journey to reach the southernmost coast nearest Lys, and we arrived with just under 50,000 total people in our large tribe.
The size of the tribe was simply staggering on a level that was hard to comprehend, and damn near impossible to govern alone, even with all the help from Rickard and Alston that I could get, we were drowning in work. In order to help, I created the Guild System within my large tribe to delegate a lot of the many small requests into more consolidated larger ones, and put Rickard and Alston in charge of finding people among their ranks that could start working and running our growing bureaucracy. It would hopefully promote more structure to our tribe, and delegate more of the busy work onto others, while training them up in important roles that will become invaluable when we return to the North.
At one point, we were attacked by a rather small group of bandits that tried to infiltrate our camp and steal some of our food and goods, but they were caught quickly by the camp helpers, who didn't recognize any of them and sounded the alarm. They were all put to death after spilling their secrets, and learning where they lived and stored their loot, which was confiscated and added to the growing wealth of the Legion. It was also a great reminder to everyone in camp, that we were all looking out for each other and were in this together, needing everyone to do their part as a lone infiltrator could hurt us just as easily as a large army.
It was also during this time of crazy busyness, that I first realized that I was starting to have a sleeping problem, getting less and less sleep as the days continued, but not seeming to struggle with it too much the following day. It had gotten to the point where if I got four hours of sleep in a night, it was considered a lot, and when I did sleep, I was usually haunted by disturbing dreams and seemingly foggy memories that weren't familiar to me at all, but made me think back to that day in the God's Wood. As I wasn't showing any outward signs of lack of sleep, I am not sure how many people really knew how much time I spent awake, working and planning our next moves before somebody made them for us, but I was taking notice and not completely comfortable when I realized I was only averaging two hours a sleep a night, and had kept about that pace throughout my two years in Essos.
"We need to find a Maester equivalent, or a healer of some kind," I spoke to Rickard and Alston, getting their attention as I pointed to some of the pregnant women among the camp helpers, something that was happening often with so many men and women traveling together.
"One of the older seamstresses is a midwife with some experience," replied Rickard after looking through his notes on our people, seeing if he had any mentions of healers.
"A few of the men have some healer training," added Alston, "those veterans we picked up near Volmyr Lake had a healer among them."
"Let's get all the healers together and start us a small traveling hospital," I replied, "give them some experience and a chance to get settled into the role, before we have them helping with all the pregnant women. And eventually, we'll have wounded soldiers too."
"Good thinking," replied Rickard, "we'll build a few wagons tomorrow and get them all involved, and see what else we need to supply the hospital, anything else?"
"We should put them next to the soap wagons, as I guess that will be a major supply need of theirs," I responded easily, glad to be having another of these meetings with my assistants in running the large camp, as a lot of these small issues get started or resolved and help things run more smoothly afterward. "We need to keep buying up more timber if we encounter any, all these wagons and equipment need wood, and I have plans for even more siege engines and other portable defenses we can build and use."
"Sounds good boss," replied Alston, making a note of the need for more wood, "anything else?"
"Yeah," I laughed softly, knowing that we had hundreds of needs still, but not enough time or resources to take care of them all, "you both need more help …get some new assistants for yourselves, pick anyone you want and have them follow you everywhere until you trust them to do the job as well."
"Thanks," breathed Rickard gratefully, and I knew both he and Alston were among the hardest and most overworked of my people, and knew I needed to get them both more help soon as their first wave of apprentices were now running the various Guilds and Wagon Industries that kept growing.
Our scouts had managed to determine during the last several weeks of our march, the location of the various sellsword camps near Lys' protected coast, and we were surprised to find the Chained Men as one of them, along with a large unit of Unsullied, and the Bronze Vipers, who I believed were led or created by Oberyn Martel. I had us set up camp just outside of a day's march, and had the usual security tripled while we were this close to other sellsword companies, even if they currently had no reason to attack us that we knew about. I asked Tristifer, Timet, and Rickard to accompany me to approach the three separate sellsword companies and find out what their purpose and contracts were for, to see if we should be worried or prepared to fight.
I wasn't hoping or planning to invade anybody unless provoked, but was definitely hoping to get a visit to Lys in before finding a way to contact my Family and start making the arrangements to move my large tribe and army back to Oldcastle. We traveled with my own Family Sigil, which was currently what Locke's Legion fought under, and the White Parlay flag towards the coast and location of the three separate sellsword companies. We were spotted as we neared by scouts, and met them and were brought into the camp of the Chained Men, seeing several men I remember from the long march towards Myr during that conflict.
"Donnel Locke," came the shout from a familiar voice, as Mirlan, the Commander of the Chained Men came into sight as I and my party were led into the center of their camp.
"Captain Mirlan," I greeted with a grin, glad to see their camp set up almost identically to our own, my recommendations from the Myrish Conflict being utilized well by the Tyroshi man who was a good commander of primarily cavalry and archers, "it's good to see you."
"You too Locke," he replied with a grin as I got off my horse and approached him directly, giving his forearm a shake in the traditional manner of most soldiers in this world, and something that always made me think I was in a Medieval or Viking period piece.
"So, what's got you and the Chained Men here?" I asked the tall barrel chested man.
"I was paid to defend Lys against Locke's Legion," he answered with a bark of a laugh, which just had me shaking my head at the stupidity of these rich city magisters.
"And how are they paying you?" I asked with a smile that was maybe a bit more predatory.
"8,000 gold dragons a month," he answered, matching my grin and knowing me enough to know I wasn't planning to attack him, "in perpetuity ...as long as your army is camped near here."
"Well, that does sound like good business on your part," I answered still grinning, "how about the other two? The Unsullied and Bronze Vipers?"
"I'm not sure of the amounts and specific arrangements," he replied, "but they have the same goal of defending Lys' interests indefinitely."
"How about a deal of sorts then?" I asked easily. "I'll camp nearby and make a big posturing for a few months, see if you can up the price when they see the size of us, maybe give me a 30% cut. Meanwhile, I contact my Family and get them to start sending ships to pick us all up and take me and my Legion back home. It'll be a few months of free money with absolutely no risk. We can even run a few drills and get both our groups some experience if you want?"
"10%?"
"20%."
"20% you say?" he grinned with a pleased smile, clapping me on my back and gripping my arm in a shake of agreement, "you my friend ...have a deal."
"Excellent, my friend," I replied with a happy smile of my own, glad to get a feel of what was going on in the area, and knowing now that I could get a little pay just for myself and the other companies, just sitting around waiting for my Family to come get us if I could swing the same deal with the others.
Staying for a half an hour and catching up with Mirlan, filling him in a little on the last almost full year since we departed after the Myrish Conflict ended, and learning what he had been up to as well. He had gone west originally after leaving Myr, heading back towards Tyrosh with most of the other sellsword companies before splitting off and deciding to come south to Lys instead of staying around the others. He had been slowly training up his cavalry and archers, but only fielded 1,000 total cavalry, 500 archers, and 500 infantry which would be no match for our overwhelmingly larger numbers.
After that long and helpful meeting, I led my small group still under the White Parlay flag, up to the camp of the Unsullied, and asked to speak with their commander to discuss terms. I was met minutes later by a decent looking Lysene man with pale blond hair, and his Unsullied second in charge, wearing the same leather outfit the rest of the Unsullied soldiers all seemed to have. The Lysene man was in decent shape, but looked more like an administrator than a serious soldier, though his Unsullied second in command was impressive looking and as severe as every other Unsullied I had ever seen.
"I am Donnel Locke of Locke's Legion," I spoke when the man arrived, looking directly into the man's eyes, and finding them far too greedy and calculating to think I could make the same deal with him. "I wanted to meet with you to discuss your aims and intentions towards my tribe."
"Tribe?" he practically sneered, dismissing me instantly as beneath him just as I instantly deemed him too arrogant to ever work well with.
"What else do you call 50,000 people traveling together?" I answered with a shrug, also trying to express the size of my outfit, knowing just from appearances, that he couldn't have more than 5,000 Unsullied soldiers and despite their fierce reputation it wouldn't be enough against my Legion.
"48,000 slaves and camp helpers, and a small infantry of no more than 2,000 men," came his sneered reply, which made me narrow my eyes at his pejorative words, but knew to hold my tongue as it made more sense to let him severely underestimate us.
"Are you here to defend Lys' controlled coast from our advancement?" I asked, ignoring the rudeness of the other man, who still had not introduced himself, and hoping to learn what his intention really was.
"You will not advance past us! My Unsullied force will protect Lys from the likes of you …savage!" He scowled with contempt, but answered my question nonetheless, as he was going to simply defend any advancement by the Legion, but most likely wouldn't be seeking out a battle if we didn't attack as he held the more defensible higher ground he wouldn't want to give it up.
"Very well," I answered politely, with no reason to sink to the arrogant man's level, "then I will most likely see you on the battlefield."
"Where we will slaughter you," he yelled with a somewhat crazed look in his greedy eyes as I simply nodded to his second in command ignoring the Lysene man, and then turned and left the parlay to move on to the final sellsword company.
I was not too surprised by the reaction of the Lysene man, though he could have been a little more reasonable or friendly during parlay, but he was most likely just the local representative in charge of controlling their purchased Unsullied force. I wasn't foolish enough to completely dismiss the Unsullied, as they were reputed to be a fierce collection of fighters, mostly pikemen who would fare okay against my cavalry, pikemen, or infantry. Archers would pose them a bit of difficulty, as would the recently created mobile siege engines I had been designing and building, that I felt would soften them up considerably and allow my much larger numbers to overcome them if it came to a battle.
Not that I had any reason to start a battle with the Unsullied unit, I had no interest in Lys other than visiting and seeing it for myself, but making sure I knew how to handle them if the worst case scenario happened was what it meant to be in charge. I had a brief thought about the mobile scorpions, catapults, and trebuchets I had designed and had built as we traveled the last leg of this journey towards Lys, and how effective they would be in punching holes in pretty much any kind of defense out here. My mind then shifted as I moved further west to the other side of the central Unsullied camp, and towards the sigil I saw at the front of the Bronze Vipers camp, and I realized my thought on Oberyn Martell's involvement was confirmed.
It was practically the House Martell Sigil, with the red sun on a bronze field instead of orange, and the spear was actually a bronze colored viper leaving little doubt that the company was under or at least founded by Oberyn himself. I was curiously looking forward to meeting the man, hoping he was still involved in the sellsword company, as he was one of my favorite characters from my first life watching Game of Thrones and was interested in how close the TV show got to his character. I knew I wasn't in the show universe exactly, as so far none of the people I had met matched completely with the actors that played them, but since I never read the books, nor were they or the show finished when I died, so I didn't know how true to the story HBO was.
I watched as a handsome bronze skinned man, maybe in his early to late thirties, rode a horse with three people next to and behind him approaching us with a bit of an arrogant swagger about him. The most interesting thing however, was the woman to his left with beautiful bronze skin and an alluring figure even on a horse that I assumed was his famous paramour, Ellaria Sand. She really was an insanely beautiful woman, and along with the others, all equally bronzed skinned, they made for a very exotic looking group as they approached.
"Greetings," I called out as we neared each other, "I am Donnel Locke, Captain of Locke's Legion ...I am here to discuss our options."
"Greetings Captain Locke," came the smooth voice of the lead man, "I am Prince Oberyn Martell, the Founder and Commander of the Bronze Vipers, and I am always open to options."
I almost laughed at the seductive undertones, and the easy flirting nature of the man, who used innuendo to such effect but instead held it back to a smile, already enjoying this conversation. I had to send a look to Tristifer to ensure he stayed quiet, as this was exactly the type of conversation my friend excelled and reveled in, and I didn't want to deal with his insanity as well. Unfortunately, Oberyn's group didn't have the same thought as it was the beautifully seductive feminine voice of his paramour that next entered the conversation.
"I can think of several options that would appeal to me," she spoke easily, dragging her eyes over all of us.
"Haha," laughed Oberyn with a wide smile, "be gentle my sweet."
"Don't be too gentle," added Tristifer in his smoothest voice, and I could only groan at my friend's mouth, and recent desire to flirt with pretty much anybody he saw.
"I like this one," came her reply, "can I keep him?"
"I'd be careful," came the voice of Rickard behind me, having really come into his own recently with all the added responsibilities I had been heaping on him, "that one's not house trained."
"Hey," argued Tristifer indignantly.
"Gentlemen!" I snapped, not really upset but wanting to get the important conversation out of the way, "and I use that term lightly ...but, please ...shut up!"
"I apologize Prince Oberyn and guests," I continued, nodding at the so far two silent men and the attractive woman who was eyeing us all in a very predatory way that was rather exciting, as I motioned to the men around me. "Allow me to introduce my men ...this is my second in command, Tristifer Greenhands ...the lieutenant of my archers and translator, Timet Flowers ...and the head of my camp, Rickard Snow."
"Flowers, Snow, and now Sand," came the sultry voice of the beautiful woman.
"There is no need to apologize," came the smooth voice of Oberyn. "My paramour, Ellaria Sand," he continued gesturing to the attractive woman, and then to the other two, "and these two are Eli and Maris, my guards."
"Well met," I responded with nods to all of them, getting a pretty smile from Ellaria and an equally pretty smile from Oberyn.
"Well met indeed," replied Oberyn with a calculating look in his sharp dark brown eyes, "won't you gentlemen join us, we can discuss these options in private."
It turned out to be a wonderful discussion that took hours and several glasses of wine, until we came to an agreement that was very similar to the one I had with the Chained Men, only this time I got 25% of the cut from their monthly payments from Lys. I also got to enjoy the hospitality of the Prince of Dorne, and get to know him and his paramour quite well, though not in the same way Tristifer did. Surprisingly, we were all offered to join the Dornish pair in more amorous activities, though only Tristifer partook, and they were happy to have the rest of us watch, which was a completely new experience for us even if it was quite pleasant to see Ellaria in the throws of passion.
When we all happily left the central command tent of Oberyn and the Bronze Vipers, hours after arriving, we all probably had somewhat goofy grins on our faces, and I was secure in knowing that we would have the support of both the Bronze Vipers and the Chained Men for the next several months. I was also very pleased to have met and gotten along well with the powerful Prince of Dorne, liking his sharp tongue and quick wit. It also helped that he didn't look down on bastards like most Westerosi Nobles, and spoke his mind. I felt that with time, we could become good friends, and he would be a good friend to have in the years to come and everything I thought was going to be happening in the future of Ice and Fire.
I tried not to think about what exactly was going to happen in the distant future too often, not knowing how close the TV show was to the books, and really which storyline if either of them was reality or if it even mattered now with changes I've made. I knew Daenerys and her dragons were significant and the probable representation of Fire, as were the Starks and the North in response to the White Walkers representing the Ice element, but how did they all fit together? I never saw the end of the show, the books weren't even finished ...so, who really knows.
What I did know was that I could prepare, and the best way to do that would be to get as strong as I could in every possible way. Physically, economically, politically, you name it ...and I was going to do everything in my power to accomplish it in order to survive. Whatever was going to happen, I needed to be ready for it and continue gathering resources and building up my strength, but also had to keep an eye out for opportunities to exploit to my advantage. Making friends with Dorne was one such thing, as in the parts of the story I remembered Dorne was still living in almost complete isolation from the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, and if I got them involved sooner than significant changes would come from that alone.
It's the whole butterfly effect problem, and I already knew I was making changes that were never part of the original story, as there was no mention I remembered of anybody of importance related to House Locke in the North. If they were included in the books or TV show at all, I wouldn't even know, but I expected to be strong enough to compete and match any of the larger houses that were mentioned from this point on. My inclusion in the North, would effect change to the region that housed some of the main characters of the Game of Thrones story, and any change that improved the North and hence the Starks, was a positive and a delineation from whatever canon I was dumped in.
When I returned to the North, I expected to continue to effect changes in a major way, leaving the North a completely different place from where I remember the Game of Thrones story starting. It made me think about everything I was accomplishing with the Legion, and think about the best way to continue moving forward and building up my powerbase. Spending the next few months outside of Lys, running war exercises, and training my soldiers and getting them some experience was a necessity if I wanted to return to Oldcastle ready to change Westeros.
"Tristifer, you let the army know our plans to march at dawn and set up a defensible location on the shallow rise just to the east of the Chained Men," I ordered my best friend and second in command, before turning to the others around me, "Rickard, you've got to alert the Guilds and be prepared to move at dawn. Timet, go find Raymar and have him meet me in my tent, I've got some tasks for our scouts."
"You got it boss," replied Tristifer with a smug grin, that hadn't left his face since he got into bed with Ellaria and Oberyn, while the other two just nodded and split off to take care of their tasks.
"You wanted to see me, Captain?" came the voice of Raymar several minutes later, as I sat at my desk writing out plans and contingencies, and my friend arrived looking excited.
"Thanks Raymar," I answered, putting down my quill and fixing my old tent mate with a friendly smile, "yes, I was hoping you could assign a few scouts to search the southeastern coast for a natural docking point we could use in case we can't get access to Lys directly?"
"Sure thing, Captain," came his easy response, "what else?"
"Hn," I snorted in reply at his eagerness as always, "then I need a few scouts to go east and see if they can locate any farming villages or resources. We will probably be here a few months, and will need another food source if we are to make it. Once we are settled at our new location, I will want scouts around the clock watching all three of the Sellsword companies, so we will not be surprised again. The army starts to move at dawn, and I'll wait for your signal of 'all clear' before we begin."
"You got it, Captain," came Raymar's short response followed by a salute and nod before he dismissed himself to carry out his tasks, only to be replaced in my tent by Cale and Cletis Burke, both with hopeful expressions on their near identical faces.
"Captain, we would like permission to form a specialized Berserker group?" came Cale's soft voice, despite looking every bit the savage berserker I often called him and his brother.
"Then who would take over your brigades?" I asked curiously, wondering what it really was that they wanted.
"Oh, um," started Cletis, "that's not what we meant."
"Yeah, we were thinking of turning our brigades into Berserker brigades?" continued Cale quickly.
"We would recruit all those who like fighting Berserker style, like us," continued Cletis excitedly as I hadn't shot them down yet. "We could even trade out some of our men who want to fight in a more traditional brigade."
"We just thought it would give the Legion another something different, to show our enemies," responded Cale whose grin was now matching his brothers, as they both were very swept up in their excitement.
"And you think we would be better suited to have all those Berserkers together in one unit, versus spread out throughout all of our Infantry units?" I asked, thinking about it myself, and wondering if they thought beyond just their own desires for the weapon.
"Well, if we trained them together, those Berserker skills could be improved and refined, and maybe incorporate small parts of them into each unit if the experiment fails and they have to go back into the main infantry," replied Cletis, getting a nod from his brother in agreement.
"Well," I responded before standing up and smiling at my friends, "you've got yourself a month starting after we get settled tomorrow to show me results of this Berserker Brigade, and you don't force anyone into it, it has to be strictly volunteer, got it?"
"Yes sir, Captain," smiled Cale, with a wide grin matching his brothers as they both rushed out of my tent excitedly, and I had a few seconds of silence before Jolle and Rundy, my newest two young squires arrived with my meal and a few messages from others in camp, preparations for any type of movement of this many people required a truly insane amount of planning.