The Art of War

Dyl had raced into the woods and quickly went to work on Nat's side, lest he lose all his blood. Managing to remove the arrow, which had thankfully gone completely through the flesh without damaging anything as far as Dyl could see, Dyl quickly managed to get the bleeding to stop. There was a crash and Dyl looked up in time to see the cavalry struggling to get through the trees and underbrush. The 101st began bringing them down by the handful with well-placed arrows and quick assaults with spears. Dyl returned his attention to Nat. He seemed to be fine. Just needed to get his bleeding stopped. Searching for any water skins or any liquid at all he spied a mud puddle. "I know you hate getting muddy but I am going to have to wake you up 'cause I can't carry you the whole way. Just be glad that..." At the mention of mud Nat's eyes seemed to flutter open and gradually to focus on Dyl.
"If you get any mud on me I will personally trounce you!" were the first words out of Nat's mouth.
"Haha!" Dyl roared, "You are hilarious! You are covered in mud and you worry about getting more mud on yourself! Yep you are back!"
"Hey! I just don't like nasty slick surprises all that much. Where is my sword? We got to get back in the fray."
Dyl smiled at Nat and clapped him on the back, "Well I s'pose you can use this bow here."
Nat picked it up, pulled an arrow smoothly out of his quiver, grimacing whenever it stretched his injured side, and shot a rider cleanly right out of his horse. "Let's go hunt some Siltinian!" Nat shouted loping off. Dyl had to hurry to keep up with him.

Nat wondered how long he had been unconscious. Surely not for hours. When he asked Dyl all he got was a wry grin and a comment about how much he must hate getting dirty. The 101st had been on the move for quite a while now. They had found the rest of the 35th Battle Company and rejoined it. They had been hunting Siltinians all day and all last night had spent sleeping in between marching. They had received no news of the fighting elsewhere but ran into Siltinians all over the place. Lieutenant Stuntson said that they had been cut off from the main army and that they were probably behind the Siltinian's main army. Which supposedly consisted of some 50,000 men. The 3rd Imperial Army had approximately 50,000 men also and both forces seemed to be fighting over a huge battlefield scattered of many square miles of land. Our little blood bath was only a small part of the beginning of the battle. It was estimated that the 35th, aka Fearsome Farmers, had lost about 100 men in the first fight, but now they were giving out as many and more casaulties to the Siltinians. Thus is the art of war. It seemed like weeks since he had had a good nights sleep, he missed a warm bed, being clean, and most of all his mother. How was she faring? He hoped well but could never be sure. Dyl sensed his mood.
"You missing your mom again?"
"Yeah. She always did wash my clothes and make sure I was all clean and warm every night. She tucked me in and read stories to me when I was younger. She taught me how to read, too. Then when I could read on my own I read her stories when she got older and more feeble. That was fun. I should at this moment be taking care of the farm. It is almost planting season. Right now we would be rationing our food so we could plant some in spring."
Dyl nodded. While he missed his family it never seemed to bother him that much. They were at this moment walking swiftly through the woods, some distance ahead of the rest of the rest of the 101st. The Sergeant Bullion's orders were to shoot any Siltinian they saw and capture anyone they met. They could be spies was the explanation. If there were more than 2 Siltinians they were to notify Bullion immediately. Suddenly Dyl tensed, drawing his bow back but not aiming yet. Nat froze in his spot and, with the help of Dyl's hand gestures, located the threat. Two Siltinian horsemen, their backs to Nat, were laughing together about something. Nat and Dyl crept closer until they could see what occupied the horsemen's attention. They were both talking to a young lady. She was very attractive and had really dark skin. Dyl nudged Nat and whispered, "Now there's a real looker for ya." Nodding Nat drew his bow back and began taking aim when suddenly the young lady took several quick steps towards the horsemen, who had now dismounted, and suddenly without warning threw the taller, stronger looking soldier into his partner, toppling both of the soldiers. She then fled into the woods on fleet feet. Disappearing into the trees. The two horsemen jumped to their feet, muttered curses floating on the wind to us and we drew back and finished them. Hurrying down to inspect the soldiers we had killed, we soon collected their weapons in a pile and began examining them for anything usable before we began hunting down that woman. We both took a long curved knife from each of the bodies and then after leaving signs to lead the company to this location, and writing a note on a strip of cloth we found, we quickly followed after the young woman. Her trail was not hard to follow for the two boys and soon they began to find signs that she had slowed. Wondering how they would have to deal with a violent woman, they pressed onward. Finally the trail seemed to disappear. They both decided to split up and circle about and try to pick it up again. Both agreed to be careful if they did find this wild woman. She was indeed wild. She had been dressed in a sheepskin toga thing that left large portions of her body uncovered, and assaulted men, even fully armed soldiers without apparent fear. Yes she must be rather dangerous. Nat watched Dyl pick his way along in the opposite direction before turning to search in his direction. He hadn't been walking more than ten minutes when he picked up the trail again. He found a pine branch that had been used to eradicate any tracks and throw off any pursuit. It was mostly hidden but his sharp eyes spotted it. He must be on the right trail. Pine branches just didn't fall off like that. their needles fell off. Soon he found a foot-print and then another and finally he was back on track! He paused to check his bandage and tighten it, then set a hard loping pace hoping to catch up with the mysterious wild woman.