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It had been roughly a month since Grud sent word to bring the two captured Blazebringer warriors, and word from the message runners was that they were about a week out. In that time, Grud had not been sitting idle, he pushed his battle group forward until the guides informed him that they were on the border of Blazebringer territory.
From there, he split his battle group into raiding groups, there were two objectives of the raiding groups, first was to recon the surrounding villages that were supposedly absorbed by the Blazebringer village, salvage anything left behind, and burn what could not be used, as for the second group, they were tasked with running security, and search and destroy any Blazebringer ambush groups that has been an increasing occurrence the closer they got to the Blazebringer village.
Unlike the small villages he steamrolled on the way here, Grud knew and was advised against using the same tactic against a big village like Blazebringer’s main village, especially after they adsorbed the surrounding villages of their manpower, as it stood now, the Blazebringers most likely had more fighting men than Grud, and not to mention the home ground advantage.
So Grud decided to play it safe while his men expanded an abandoned village they took over, they were going to turn it into a staging area for the stream of fighting men who were still trickling in to join their cause.
So this left Grud sitting around most of the time doing what he classified in his head as ‘Chieftain things’, but on a higher level. Not only did he need to sit around all day with a few other chieftains to make plans and receive reports of enemy movement, but he also needed to settle minor disputes that happened almost every day, and the worst part was that Tala and Kaya were not around to empty his balls and were far behind where he was now, and he wanted it to stay that way, the fast pace of their marching was no place for pregnant women, so he had to spend his days relieving himself, barely.
There were many times Grud was tempted to take one of the slaves from a conquered village for himself, but he restrained himself, he already had enough kids back home and he did not want to add another one in the middle of nowhere if this campaign dragged out. It was not like he could find any slave girls now, they were all sent back and all the villages around here were empty.
This left Grud rather frustrated as he made his way back to the previous Village chief’s house he had taken over, all the while grumbling to himself and hoping that he could be finished with this war soon, he knew he could be finished with this war if he just gathered all his people and make a full day fast march to the Blazebringer’s village, but he also knew that doing so would incur massive casualties on his side, and Grud was not willing to do that, no matter how sexually frustrated he was.
As Grud lay on his bed to relax after a stressful meeting about one of their raiding groups being ambushed, he could not help but feel restless, he was more used to a more active lifestyle, instead, he was stuck here doing… administration, and he was reaching his limit.
That was when an idea came to Grud, the Blazebringer’s village was just a day’s fast march, but that was for his men, for him, it was just a matter of a couple of hours at his full speed, so instead of sitting around and going crazy, Grud decided to put his powerful body to good use and do some scouting of the enemy territory.
He hefted his spear and walked out of the house, leaving his armor behind, ‘No point bringing it along, not when I want to be fast and stealthy.’ or as stealthy as a huge muscle-bound man that could knock over small trees could be.
Grud told the men standing guard outside his home that he was going on a hunt to blow off some steam, when the men asked Grud to take others with him on the hunt, he refused and quickly ran off. Everyone knew that they were not strong or fast enough to do anything about it, so the only thing they could do was accept that their leader was strong enough to protect himself.
So off Grud went into the early afternoon.
***
Grud had to travel some distance out in the opposite direction to not scare his people into thinking he was charging into the enemy territory on his own before he circled around and made his way for the Blazebringer’s village.
At his full speed, as he propelled his body off the ground and sometimes jumped from tree branch to tree branch, it took Grud until late afternoon before the Blazebringer’s village was in sight. On his way here, he had his eyes on a few Blazebringer patrols but chose to ignore them, he was here for scouting and he did not want to give the enemy any reason to increase security more than it already was in the case their patrols did not return.
The moment he was in visual range of the Blazebringer Village, he kept his means of travel purely arboreal and ended up in a tall tree that overlooked the whole Blazebringer village. And what he saw was more a tent city than a big village.
Surrounding the village itself was a thick ring of tents, ‘Well, I guess we can confirm what happened to all the evacuated small villages, there were too many to fit inside the village itself, but the number of tents… they may even outnumber the Blazebringer’s population.’ Grud thought to himself.
He then concentrated on what the people were doing and noticed that every man, woman, and child was busy, both inside and outside the village, they were all in the process of making weapons, armor, and food.
There was another thing that Grud noticed, ‘They are further fortifying their walls and not bothering to do anything about the living situation for the people in the tents… I guess it makes sense, the moment we attack, they will most likely abandon their tents and fall back behind the walls. As for their numbers… I estimate 10-12 thousand including men, women, and children.’
After circling around the village to get a better look at what he would be dealing with, he made his way back to base, informed the chieftains of what he found out, and then left with the excuse of being tired before he got chewed out for moving into enemy territory on his own.
***
A week later, after much planning and preparation, Grud’s battle group was ready, groups had been formed, weapons sharpened and armor checked, but to Grud, one of the most important pieces had just arrived, the two captured sons of the Blazebringer village, Borak, the firstborn son of Voka, and Joza, son of Voka, Grud never did ask what number son Joza was, and neither did he care.
When they arrived, the sons of Voka were brought before Grud and he looked them over. Joza who was the first one he captured was looking a little worse for wear and a little malnourished, as for Borak, besides looking a little malnourished like his brother, he seemed to be walking with a limp, seems like either he has not fully recovered from Grud folding his legs the wrong way, or he did not heal right, but that mattered little for what was going to happen to them soon.
“So…” Grud started, “I am sure you know where you are?” he asked rhetorically, but the two sons of Voka said nothing, and as Grud looked into their eyes, he could see that while Joza had lost the light of hope in his eyes, but Borak still held defiance in his.
“We are on the border of the Blazebringer territory.” Grud continued, “And we are bringing the two of you back home.”
The moment Grud said that, he saw the glimmer of hope return to both their eyes, then signaled for the guards to take the two brothers away before they could ask anything.
After the two sons of Voka were gone from his sight, Grud got up and started making his way around to show his face for moral sake and check to make sure everything was in order, and once he was satisfied, he brought all the chieftains under his command and said, “Ready the men, we march tomorrow at first light.”