186 Fort Courageous (1/2)

Unlike the previous war, there were no great speeches to jumpstart the beginning of the conflict. No Braveheart moment where our leaders raised our morale with their words. No, this Trickster-Sunspire war began with a whisper.

A single go-ahead from Garm's second-in-command, Llewellyn, was all we got that very same night, and as the red dawn rose peeked over the horizon, the aptly named Operation Sun Eater proceeded.

The wind whipped against my face and pulled my hair back as I sat at the very back of our glider and looked out at Sol for the second time in my life.

I'd been wearing the fairy ring that kept me in the Fayne even during the day so that we could begin our mission as quickly as possible. Speed was the key and waiting for the next night would have been too late.

Luckily, Ty and I had planned ahead. He would go back to Mudgard and cover for me during the day as we discussed and tell aunt Lena I was sleeping over at his place for the weekend. Arah would help him out so I wasn't worried they'd get caught in the lie.

”Commander, we're nearing Point Bravo,” Azuma reported.

I glanced toward him and then at the Immortals riding the same sand glider I was in. Their faces showed only determination. It was a reassuring sight considering what we were planning to do.

”Glad you decided to hang out during the day,” I said.

”You ordered me to stay,” he said, chuckling lightly right before his face turned serious. ”Don't get used to being here in the day, Dean… don't lose sight of where you're from.”

I shook my head. ”You worry too much, old man… Don't worry, I won't forget…”

We reached Point Bravo in record time thanks to Sora and his fellow sylphs guiding us through the wind corridor that crossed through this stretch of desert like winding rivers.

Point Bravo, that's what we called the first of two oases mine and Al's units were in charge of on the southwest edge of the battlefield. Incidentally, it was also closest to the enemy army's right wing.

Lucky for us, it was another hill-sized sand dune with an oasis at its peak. We Foolhardies were very used to hills by now. One could even say conquering and defending one had become our specialty.

A hundred and fifty soldiers landed here under my command so we could secure this oasis before the enemy did. We would most likely be successful as I deduced that the Sunspire's forces would prioritize oases that were further to the center of the giant battlefield.

While I ordered the men to move our equipment to the bottom of the hill, I gazed toward the lead glider of the group that continued onward to Point Alpha.

Al Sheridan was at its helm. He had the pinky side of his fist tapping his chest in the usual fairy salute.

I returned his salute while mouthing, ”Good luck,” to him. He would need it.

The determined faces of the fairy and human soldiers under his command told me they knew they might not be coming back and that they were more than ready to give their lives to see the plan succeed.

”Don't worry about them… they'll be able to escape when their task is done. Not like us,” Azuma pointed out.

”Yeah,” I said, sighing. ”We always get the difficult parts, don't we?”

”You always want the difficult parts, Commander,” he reminded me. ”This is your plan, remember.”

That was true and I guessed that it was because I couldn't trust anyone else to handle the difficult parts. Call it pride, but it always had to be me managing the challenging stuff.

I looked over at Sora, the very young sylph who was leading the glider team and ordered him to head back to the oasis valley as quickly as possible to pick up the next group of soldiers. While he and his team prepared to leave, I turned my attention to my soldiers and ordered them to begin the climb.

Although the sand dune's southern slope was steeper than I would have liked, the summit wasn't terribly high up, and so we managed to climb to the oasis within the hour of our arrival.

The oasis itself was nothing impressive, just a single watering hole surrounded by a few desert firs. But it was wide enough that a hundred men could stand around it without problems.

”Set up here, boys,” Azuma ordered.

As we'd completed objective number one without a hitch — reaching the oasis before the enemy did — it was time to continue with our second objective, fortification.

I was nowhere near as good as Garm when it came to fortifying a fairy fort. In fact, you could say my fort-building grades were downright abysmal. It was another reason why I brought Azuma. He was the best among my officers apart from Varda at building proper defenses.

While Azuma managed the Immortals, I sat down by the pool of water.

”Oh, great fool, let me see the unseen that I might know the unknowable,” I whispered and activated Fool's Insight's tactical-view ability.