185 Glider (1/2)

It was after I'd explained my plan to them that Garm got off his butt and rose to his feet just so he could stare me down at full height.

”I see you're not such a useless pile of mudcrap,” he growled. ”You've certainly impressed Llewellyn…”

Garm turned his gaze on his other general, but she didn't shy away from his icy stare.

”It's an interesting plan, my lord,” she insisted. ”If the boy can pull it off… it'll prove quite the blow against our enemy early on in the campaign.”

Garm exhaled a deep breath. ”Fine… you'll take charge and assign units we know can get this job done to—”

”—I'd like the opportunity to take on this task, sir,” I interjected.

I don't think Garm was used to being interrupted. His eyes were certainly threatening to bulge out of their sockets with the way he was looking at me now. Still, I pressed on. I wasn't about to let Garm earn more glory for himself using a plan I made without my direct involvement.

”General Redbull can attest to my unit's competence, sir,” I insisted. ”We can get the job done.”

A vein on the great general's thick neck seemed about ready to pop. Thankfully, his subordinate was level-headed enough to calm everyone down with a question.

”Your unit cannot handle all four locations, Commander,” she reminded me. ”You aren't even at full strength, are you?”

”The unit stands ready at seven hundred men… we've done much more with much less,” I insisted.

Llewellyn nodded thoughtfully. ”Your accomplishments in the previous war were impressive… but seven hundred soldiers are still not enough for this plan.”

I nodded in agreement. ”Yes… that's why I'd like you to assign three units to assist us in carrying it out.”

”Which three units?” Redbull asked curiously.

”The Millenium Hawks, Hammerhands, and… Moonlight Marauders,” I said, struggling to say that last unit's name.

”An interesting choice,” Llewellyn mused. ”Tell us why you choose them?”

”I've worked with these commanders before… and although we're not always on good terms, I trust in their ability to make an opportunity count,” I explained.

”So… you wouldn't deny your rivals a chance to earn more glory as well, huh,” Redbull mused.

”All for the sake of victory,” I insisted, and those words weren't a lie. I would do anything to ensure victory for my side, but that didn't necessarily mean Garm's side either.

From the icy stare he was giving me, the great general was thinking along those lines too. He would have to decide if the benefits that come from trusting me with this task outweighed the risks.

”Llewellyn, your recommendation?” he asked coolly.

”The plan is achievable and the units in question are all independent units… it'll be a small loss should we lose them in this gamble as our core forces will remain intact,” she said.

”Very well,” Garm relented. ”Don't disappoint me, One-thousand-man Commander…”

I saluted the great general while the bubbling anxiety inside me began to simmer down. I'd survived this first meeting with my head intact. I hoped this trend continued.

---

About thirty minutes after my meeting with Garm, I found myself butting heads with the three most stubborn people after Luca.

I'd been given a tent in the first layer of the fairy fort for meeting with Al Sheridan, Verania Folkor, and Dain Hammerhand so that I could inform them of the task we'd been set.

”It's a good plan, Dean, but can we pull it off?” Al asked.

Al was the pessimist of the group. Even the best-laid plans were flawed in his eyes.

”Of course it won't work,” Verania insisted. ”This just another of Dapper's reckless plans… why they made him a strategist and not me, I'll never know.”

Verania was the skeptic. Any plan that wasn't hers was immediately the wrong plan.

”It's not just risky, it's impossible,” Dane said, stamping his foot on the expedition table in front of him. ”Show me how you'll make it possible and then I'll consider it.”

Dain was the realist. Any plan was flawed until it wasn't. He was the key. If I could get him to agree, then the other two would see reason, too.

I pointed first to the center of the map where different symbols were clustered together.

”This route leads to failure and death…” I insisted. ”The fissures around here will prevent any large army from marching forward and going around them just leaves us vulnerable to the sinkholes peppered here…”