–==Official Submission==–
FROM: General Debinani Rahl
RE: A Tale of Warder Courage

A Story of Warder Courage

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The War Drums had been beating for days non-stop, and then
suddenly, they stopped

“Chillen, get ‘nder the wagon and hide” Pa screamed at us.

The tinker wagons had been formed in box shape with the
entire community inside of our makeshift walls.

Three days before, while we were on the road, I heard on of
the scouts mention to my father that there was no game in
the forest. The next day, I heard my father tell One-Leg
Tayre that the scouts encountered and killed an orc shaman.
It was soon after that the drums began to pound

For two days we rode, the drums pursued us during the day
and well into the night.

When we found the mile long meadow the orders were given to
stop and the wagons were placed in our traditional box
formation at the far end of the meadow. We listened to the
drums all morning and all afternoon. As soon as sun sank
behind the mountains, the drums stopped, and Pa yelled at
us.

We scrambled under the wagon and waited, I held little
Delia to keep her from being scared……

They came out of the woods in bunches. But from across the
meadow they looked like swarming ants.

They stood there silently. Delia asked, “what are they?”

Before I could answer, they began howling, I placed my
hands over my ears. I saw my sister crying

They started running…. for us…..Pa, Oh, Pa.

***

“Sir, the scouts have come back. A large force of orcs have
cornered a small band of tinkers in Deer Valley.”

“How many?” hissed the Sergeant

“At the least, ‘undred n fifty” replied the scout as he
melted out of the shadows

“Assemble the men and send the officers to me.”

***

The orcs were running at us, when the thundering began, but
the noise was different from the drums before.

I could hear the thundering coming from the sides of our
tinker’s square.

Over the thunder, I could hear cheering. Cheering?

I suddenly knew why. From underneath the wagon, all I could
see was the feet of their horses. There were perhaps only
twenty of them, but they silently formed a wall between us
and the charging orcs

I remember hearing the cry “1st Warders! What do we fight
for!” The men responded as one “The Rose! The Rose!” Before
the cry had died the wall moved began to move as one….
toward the orcs

…Refelctions from the moonlight and our fires danced off
their silver armor

The Delia began to cry…there are too many….too many.

***
Ru’tak was the lone man at the head of the wall. He slowly
began to walk his horse towards the rushing orcs. No need
to look back, his men would follow. He kicked his horse
into a walk, then a run. At half the distance to the orcs,
he tightened his legs shifted his weight and lowered his
spear. He looked to his left and right his men had fallen
back into a shape of the spear, with him at the lead and
aimed right at the center of the charging orcs.

***
“Hold”
“Hold”
“Hold”

He watched as the line of horseman began to move across the
field. Twenty-five men charging four times their number in
orcs, magnificent. Someday he would do the same……

When the charging men hit the half-way mark he put his horn
to his mouth a blew, a horn responded from across the
valley

****

My sister cried “What is that noise?”

“Horns” I told her.

“Look”

On each side of the valley a wall of 20 men had formed. A
wall identical to the one that had formed in front of us.
Magnificent men dressed in silver armor with black capes.

With a sound of a hundred horns the walls began to move,
closing in on the orcs who had stopped charging.

Each of the walls had become a spear point charging at full
speed towards the orcs who standing their grounds.

Moments before the all three spearpoints crashed into the
orcs, they struck their standards

I will always remember seeing that flag in the
moonlight……

Two spears crossed between a single black rose on a filed
of white.

****
“Corporal? How many escaped?

“None, sir”

“Corporal? How many did we lose?

A sigh, “Almost all, sir”