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Crossing the Natisone

It was rather galling, sitting across the river and able to do nothing more than exchange jeers. Exchange jeers we did and in great numbers, as is customary before a pitched battle. Silly, perhaps, but it kept people on their toes. One side would drop their breeches and moon the other and the other would escalate by insulting the other's mothers. Then at some point, one side would feint with a fake advance or cavalry charge and the other would respond with a similar fake counter-offensive. At that point, cooler heads would prevail and everyone would go back to their camp thinking they had the last word.

Raiding and chipping away at enemies was much more honest. Just swoop in, take food and captives, rinse and repeat until they run out of supplies and surrender. The raiders are always so happy and there's nothing more demoralizing to the enemy than having a rumbling stomach and imagining what fun we were having with their captured brethren.

Pitched battles were so dishonest and little games like this had a nasty tendencyof not only increasing the enemy's morale but sometimes your own soldiers ended up having a bit too much fun doing it and eventually it becomes a game with the enemy, who start to feel less like an enemy and more like a friendly rival.

This is catastrophic from an organizational standpoint. The enemy must always be seen as a looming threat to be quickly dealt with or a pathetic rabble fit only for subjugation, depending on the circumstances. They are never to be seen as a friend, even if they are their fellow Republicans.

When the war is over, only then should the survivors be embraced as friends. That's if, of course, they forgive the slaughterof their comrades in arms.

Unfortunately, Vito, during his time in command without me, had taken to learning some theory about pitched battles and successfully argued to let the soldiers continue this foolish charade. He did this right in front of everyone else during an otherwise casual meeting: Luce, Taj, Livio, Laurent...even damned Galip and Folu! Not one of them spoke up in my defense!

Worst of all, Vito had forgotten that the decisive strategy we had planned for the Natisone was his idea and not mine. He loudly insisted that he had thought of it and I just about lunged into his face and started gekkering. I held myself back only with great restraint and humility, not wishing to show just how angry I was, but surely the brown fox was able to catch my scent, as I had trusted my inner circle not to try and analyze my scent.

But I saw their noses twitch during the meeting and soon it was all I could think about. When they thought I wasn't looking, they were sniffing, taking in a good taste of the raw anger that was stewing in my stomach.

Anger had fueled my passions and I needed a release. I ordered Galip and Folu to my tent and gave them both a hard fuck one after the other. After that, I summoned Taj and we made love while the two servants cuddled, my semen drying on their fur the whole time.

They knew I was in charge. The two servants knew I was right but dared not speak. They were wise.

Taj didn't speak up at the meeting either, but she tended to be rather aloof in planning sessions. I forgave her for not speaking up.

But I would be rather irate with the others for quite some time and it didn't help that _my_secret strategy would take some time before it would come into effect.

There was nothing to do but wait. I had already told everyone the plan and there was no changes to be made. I had to wait and stew, but at least I didn't have to talk to anyone I didn't want to.

So long as enemy reinforcements didn't show up.

Within the depths of slumber, I stared upon the Natisone, as dry as the Sahara.

In fact, the entire plains turned to sand, as open as a desert. Things were simpler then, back in Africa, and they would be once more.

We charged and cut them down. A torrent of blood sprayed through the air, splashing across my face as I cheered victoriously.

Philippe was there too and I sliced his head clean off.

Everyone bowed before me. A triumph was declared.

No one would stop me now.

Oh, sweet opium! Such wonderful dreams you send!

But what made this dream so wonderful...more than the others...

Is that when I woke, it came true.

At the break of dawn, I was roused from my sleep by Galip, who told me that Vito was outside my tent. I pushed Galip by the snout out of the way and had Folu dress me in my gambeson and chest-plate.

Galip had seen fit to attach my scabbard to my hip and both of my servants then attached flexible plates across the length of my tail, sewn into leather straps. Losing a tail, even in victory, would be a shameful omen prior to my ascension.

I thanked my servants and escaped into the damp morning air.

Though there was plenty of dew on the blades of grass, Vito pointed out that the Natisone had shallowed to a trickle. I hadn't even noticed that it was receding over the days, having been a bit distracted and still miffed at the affront to me.

Vito, perhaps wishing to enrage me, declared what he claimed to be his strategy, to be a roaring success and it was time for me to give the order to assault.

Out of the goodness of my heart, I refrained from arguing with Vito and telling him rightfully that it was my idea to send a team up the river armed with axes and picks with express orders to destroy any trees and abandoned structures and toss them into the river until it got sufficiently dammed.

To Vito's credit, he never took the credit in front of the soldiers, he wouldn't dare do that. But this left a bad taste in my mouth and we were too close to victory for me to pick an argument with him.

The orders were given out. We mounted our steeds and drew our blades, taking our places across the dry river. This little strategy hadn't gone unnoticed by the enemy and they appeared to adjust their positions, forming themselves into pike squares with mixed crossbows on the corners. A popular defensive strategy in the Republic and Aberto had reportedly used it to great effect in Normadie.

They were doing everything they could to defend against us but we had the advantage of maneuverability now that we could merely stomp across the river. We were not subject to their chosen killzone and had our choice of danger to pick from.

Canis, I got more than a little excited at the pinnacle of my career approaching. I had to wipe away drool and, I must confess, I grew hard at the thought of victory. I have no shame about that, it was a healthy appetite for battle, for victory.

I would lead the first charge, as any great commander would. I hand-picked the best cavalry archers from the fennecs and the foxes. Two other units would charge along with us and unleash our first skirmish on the squares. Though the defensive squares were formidable, they had only limited firepower, especially against mobile targets.

Yowling into the air, I kicked my horse and led the way. The earth rumbled like the Gods themselves were shaking it. Canis would weep for the loss of foxes today but he would take joy in the fact that one of his children would craft such a victory, especially one who has lost an eye just like him.

We stormed down the slope, crossed the remains of the river, and ascended back onto the plains. The enemy braced their pikes and kept their crossbows ready. They refused to fire, despite us being within range, no doubt waiting for us to get close so they could scare us off with a volley. It would not be enough, a mere mosquito bite on a giant.

The enemy grew closer. I could smell their fear and see the fearful whites of their eyes beneath their round helmets. It was only natural to be afraid but they wouldn't have to be afraid for much longer.

I swung my horse to the right and my cavalry tailed me, followed by the creaking of sinew as they readied their bows. Laughing maniacally, I screamed out the order to fire...

But it got caught in my throat.

The enemy did something very quick and unexpected. The pikefoxes on the border of the square ducked, holding their pikes low. Two rows of foxes wielding crossbows emerged from within the square, one getting on their knees while the others behind stood, both aiming.

Sinews twanged and bolts whistled. Before I could register what happened, my horse fell over forwards, launching me into the air.

I hit the ground rolling and immediately sprang to my feet, dodging just before a pike buried itself in the ground where my neck had been.

The fox stared at me with his maw agape, hesitating just a second too long. Just as he withdrew his pike from the dirt, I lunged forward and swept my saber across his throat.

The square began to unravel with the pikefoxes eager to seek glory and collect my tail, while the ones with crossbows began reloading. As the fox I slew fell over, I acted quick, grabbing the pavise shield atop his back and slicing the straps away.

Pulling it off, I grabbed it by the metal handle attached to its back and covered myself just in time for a heavy volley of bolts to slap into it. I braced my feet against the ground, almost falling over. I peeked out from behind the shield, the pikes were drawing closer. I wouldn't be able to hold them off for long.

As I stepped back, another volley was unleashed and the point of one bolt pierced through the shield, stopping inches away from my remaining eye.

"Fuck!" I snarled.

Hooves thumped on the dirt behind me. I flashed my gaze back and caught a jet black stallion with a free saddle rearing up and kicking at air.

I flung the pavise at the approaching soldiers, knocking a few down, and lunged towards the horse. Desperately, I hushed and purred to calm the ferocious beast down before boldly grabbing the saddle just as it finished rearing and swung myself up.

The horse was not a great fan of me and immediately tried to buck me, but either my charisma calmed it down or the dumb creature realized we had to work together to get out of here.

Not long after I kicked the horse into a gallop, I heard another series of dreadful twangs. Wind whistled across my fur as bolts flew past.

"AGH!" I screamed as a bolt caught me in the back. The wind was rushed out of me and I fell forwards against the back of the horse's neck as it ferried me across the battlefield.

I breathed in and out...it hurt but I could breath and I didn't taste blood. I'd be fine.

Froth spilling from my lips, I knew another volley would come. Weakly, I peered back and my fatigue vanished in a flash.

With the square formation having faltered in favor of rushing to capture my tail, Taj had regrouped her pack of fennecs and crashed into their flank. The fennecs light lances pierced through the crossbowfoxes light armor like paper and the pikefoxes were too few in number to resist properly. A few fennecs and their horses fell, but the square was shattered and would not regroup before they were routed.

How could I withdraw after such a stroke of fate? I swung around and snuck up behind a fox who had braced his pike towards the fennecs, as stealthily as one could be on a warhorse. Regardless, the fox did notice. He likely blinked and the next moment he was meeting Canis personally. Hopefully Canis would not be affronted by his jugular gushing blood on the ground.

Aberto was no doubt fuming. His precious defensive wall had a rout before our infantry had even reached the battlefield. He made his name forming invincible ranks against ursine raiders in Normandie but he was no match for thousands of clever foxes, ledby a clever commander.

I slew a few more foxes while others laid down their arms and begged for mercy. I left their fates up to my soldiers or my horse, who seemed downright eager to go out of his way to trample on anyone dumb enough to lie down in his path. I liked this stallion.

Rolling up to Taj, we embraced atop our horses, our tongues meeting and licking at our lips. She had fresh blood splattered on her muzzle and I tasted salt.

Gods, I could have made love to her right there! My sweet vixen of the battlefield...

Alas, we wouldn't get to show off our affection to the enemy. Something slapped the dirt with immense force and we were splashed with blood. Something sliced into my arm and I wiped away the blood from my brow to find a chunk of wood sticking out of my sleeve.

"What the fuck?"

My eye darted to the side. A pile of intestine and blood sat atop a horse that had been bisected by a shattered ballista bolt. A few horses and foxes were on the ground in the area, wood and metal shrapnel sticking out of them.

Ekrem had mentioned something about this in one of his engineering rants. Design the bolts of a ballista to be less sturdy and increase the chance of shattering on impact. It made it ineffective for siege warfare but it theoretically could be used to injure large numbers of soldiers at once.

That being said, Ekrem had advised against using it. Ballistas were hard enough to aim when shooting at a static target and firing at a chaotic battlefield made it far too likely to hit your own soldiers.

Aberto seemed to be more reckless than I gave him credit for, that or stupidly desperate to stop me at all costs. It chilled me to the spine thinking of it. He must have really wanted to kill me.

His soldiers must have realized they had switched to an unpopular auxiliary plan, as many of the remaining members of the unit we had routed hit the dirt immediately after the bolt crashed into the ground, rather than freeze. They did not rise from their cover.

Sadly, the other squares were significantly more brave, continuing to brace their pikes and eagerly awaiting for us to fall into their crossbow trap. Either that or they had absolute confidence in the accuracy of their General's artillery.

The first wave of infantry crossed the river and were close to joining us. We had to get rid of those ballistas.

"Cavalry, to me!" I cried out.

Slapping Taj on the shoulder, I ordered her to rally her own unit and split up. Once I got a handful of cavalry by my side, I flicked the reins and my horse darted along the length of the enemy army.

Bolts whistled through the air as our horses kicked up dirt. I raised the visor of my helmet just in time to see a massive bolt scream through the air, passing just above my head before crashing off into the infantry mass, sending foxes flying.

Where was it coming from? There was a short hill not far away but I couldn't see so much as a campfire atop it. Aberto had to be firing it from high ground somewhere, surely he wouldn't be so brazen to fire it from flat ground behind his soldiers?

"Hold fire unless necessary!" I shouted as we kept our distance along the length of the army. I had no idea when we'd find the ballistas, but we couldn't waste our missiles now.

Our little recon expedition did not go unnoticed by the enemy, who got a little irritated that we were clearly up to something. A narrow rank of cavalry emerged from the flank of the army to intercept us armed with spears.

A volley of fennec arrows shot over my head, slicing through some of the lightly armored cavalry seconds before we made contact. A spear narrowly missed my shoulder and I sliced into its wielder's chest with my saber, knocking him from his horse.

Another fox tried his luck, a young one, clearly rich and inexperienced. He swung his sword at me and I deflected it into the ground. I grabbed him by the scruff and lifted him from his horse, hanging him from the side of my stallion as he kicked his legs and tried to beg for mercy between choking gasps.

As soon as I felt no more gratification from the powerless dandy, I threw him away from my speeding horse and he bounced off of the ground and went limp.

I expected the common infantry of the army to be rather unenthusiastic about working for a Dictator who severed their pension and owed them a year of back pay, but I thought the noble cavalry would be a bit more energetic. It would seem that some dire reforms would be needed after this battle.

A nearby pike square suddenly scattered just before a bolt collided into the center of it. Just like that, Aberto had routed his own unit, though I will give him this much: if the ballista had been aimed just an inch higher, it would have done me in instantly, ending this whole little war in a flash. Luck was clearly on my side along with the Gods.

Surely, now was the time for me to flex my famous charisma.

"You!" I barked at a soldier wearing a red Sergeant's plume in his helmet.

The Sergeant was confused, having lost his pike in the chaos, and he offered almost no resistance when I reached down and caught him by the throat. I lifted him up, sneering down at him from behind my helmet like he was a mere slave.

"Tell me where the ballistas are and you'll be greatly rewarded," I grinned, rubbing at his soft red cheek fur. "It could be beneficial to get on my good side, Sergeant."

He choked and pointed down towards the back of the army, "Wooden platforms...at the back by command...firing over us..."

"Thank you," I threw the fox to the ground, "lay down and play dead until the battle is over. Don't cause any trouble and we'll make sure you're taken care of."

I cupped my paw around my muzzle and whistled sharply over the chaos of the battlefield.

Swinging my horse around, I led my cavalry back, swerving between the approaching infantry seconds before they made contact with the enemy and clashed their steel.

Taj's unit along with other cavalry commanders gradually thumped over, circling around me after having heard my signal.

"You might have all noticed the ballistas," I addressed the cavalry.

Livio slammed the visor of his helmet up with a thunk. The balding fox snarled, "You could fucking say so!"

Grabbing a spear from one of the lancers, I thumped the tip into the dirt and began drawing an outline of the battlefield.

"One of the Sergeants squealed and told me that the ballistas are located around here," I scratched out some X's at the back of the army.

"Oh fuck no..." Livio hissed.

"Problem, Lieutenant?" I stared at the mangy fox.

"Not at all, go on."

Anxiety stained Livio's scent and spiked whenever I opened my mouth. He knew what I was going to ask and was dreading it.

"We're going to need to split up into small raiding parties and take down the engineers."

"Fuck..." Livio growled.

A thunderclap hit the ground and I ducked just as a spinning piece of wood flew over my head. Over on the front line, at least five of my soldiers were on the ground by the shattered remains of a bolt.

"The bolts are shattering on impact and turning us into fucking pincushions, Lieutenant!" I snarled. "We need to infiltrate and destroy them immediately. Aberto is willing to risk killing his own foxes, we need to be even more ballsy. We've done this millions of times in Carpathia."

"Not against a brick fucking wall!" Livio pointed towards the enemy's square units. "These aren't caravans or rabble, they'll fucking skewer us before we get anywhere close to the rear!"

"It's a risk we need to take and I'll lead the way."

"One must not fear death," Taj said softly.

Livio looked over at the army and spat, "Orders received, Marshal."

There was no point in reprimanding him, I was asking them to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous. I could not deny my officers the ability to vent to a degree and I knew they would follow so long as I took the risk as well.

Both friend and foe would see just how much I'm willing to risk in the name of my soldiers. They would see that I am willing to do what Philippe or even Aberto would not and no one could deny my valor.

"Fuck!" another fox cursed. Again, I let him vent and ignored it.

"Canis will gaze upon us with pride," I smiled towards the enemy, "and the enemy will not see it coming."

Another bolt slammed into the ground, splattering a soldier into pulp and scattering his cohorts. It was time to put an end to this.

We split up into small units, no more than ten cavalry and immediately bolted towards the nearest gaps between the enemy's squares.

The first ranks passed us by without any resistance. They were too busy dealing with our infantry and didn't think we'd be stupid enough to actually try and infiltrate them like this.

As fresh as the second rank was, they were so baffled by our bold move that they didn't thrust their spears or release their bolts. This stream of luck would not last.

Sure enough, the next square we attempted to pass immediately broke ranks and spread out, hoping to catch us with their pikes. I swerved my horse to the side, whistling for my tods to follow and galloped parallel to the enemy while bolts whistled through the air.

Being on foot, the foxes couldn't clog the gap between their units faster than our horses could run and with one more violent twist of the reins, I led the way deeper into the enemy forces.

There was another gap between the next units that was too good to be true but I didn't have enough time to think it through. As soon as I passed through, sinew twanged and my new stallion was hit. I rolled off as the horse collapsed, drawing my blade and darting my eyes from the enemies who had me flanked.

"Marshal!" one of my soldiers brought his horse to a halt, jumped off and just about tossed me into the saddle. "Go!"

I didn't hesitate, lest I let the soldier's sacrifice be in vain. He caught a pike to the shoulder just before I got the hell out of there.

There were only seven of my cavalry remaining now. It was expected for there to be casualties during this risky mission, it couldn't be helped.

A large bolt flew over the battlefield and I could finally see the wooden platforms the soldier had told me about. There was only one more row of squares to get past and we'd be there.

Unfortunately, the enemies behind us had gotten just as ballsy as Aberto. A crossbow bolt caught me in the back while others shot past me without heed for their comrades, several of which got hit with friendly fire. The pain was intense but I knew my armor had protected me and there was no time to slow down and cry now.

A pike sliced through my left shoulder, tearing open my gambeson and the flesh beneath. I remained atop my horse, which is more than I could say for two of my foxes behind me, one of whom was disembowled onto a pike and while the other was pulled down from his horse and carried into a square alive, screaming for mercy.

We made it through, me and four others. There was nothing stopping us from charging up to the platforms, not even barricades. They hadn't expected us to get this far.

I caught sight of Taj, who had her own depleted unit on the other side of the platform. Her horse ascended the stairs before mine and the fox engineers immediately scattered with some surrendering to mercy that Taj nor I could spare.

Under ideal circumstances, I would have been merciful to the siege engineers. They were just doing their duty and they had a skill-set that was immensely valuable. Unfortunately for them, we were not taking prisoners on this raid and if we had left them alive, they'd just go back to work the moment we fucked off.

Once we had passed through the platform, it was greased with blood. We had our horses give the ballistas a few good kicks until they rolled off of the platform, crashing to the ground below, mostly intact but too dangerous to fire by an untrained soldier without killing any of their friends in its path.

We regrouped and galloped past the platform, passing the rows of tents used by the enemy commander as headquarters. It was sparsely guarded and populated, Aberto did not appear to be there, but we jeered and taunted him regardless as we rode through his camp without resistance.

Escaping into the plains of Udine was almost embarrassingly easy compared to what we had just done.

By the time we had joined back up with the army, the day had already been won and we were greeted with jubilant celebrations from my foxes. Word of our bold raid into enemy territory had spread and my cavalry was hailed as the greatest heroes of all by both my soldiers and many of the enemy we had captured. How could one resent such a heroic strategy?

Well, the one exception being the cavalry themselves. Aside from Taj, they had been mostly silent aside from the occasional grumble on the ride back to the army and it's partly why I took our sweet time returning. Not one of them lacked injuries, including Taj who clutched at her shoulder which stained her white robes red. At least half of my own unit had been killed or captured, Taj had lost most of her fennecs as well, and there was no sign of Livio or anyone else's cavalry.

Heroic moves like these are best enjoyed by those who were far, far away from them. The story would spread and it would make up for the lost lives, but for now, we had to live with the devastation wrought upon us even in the wake of victory.

The battle had dulled down to a few small skirmishes. Aberto had fallen upon his sword rather than surrender and there was nothing but confusion as to who was in charge of his army. Most of the rabble surrendered with a bit of pressure but a few had to be taught harsh lessons in reality.

One such holdout, upon being routed, we found Livio and Sister among the soldiers as prisoners. Somehow, Livio looked worse than he ever had before, his mangy skin covered in thick bruises and welts, along with bloody holes riddling his hauberk. Sister has less wounds, but being significantly less ugly than Livio and being a smooth-skinned human, her wounds showed up more.

They'd both be fine but they refused to talk to me for more than a second. Livio was seconds away from being executed by the enemy before we showed up, they had a knife right to his throat while Sister watched helplessly, begging for her mate's life. He was only saved by the approach of our army and the fear that executing one of my top officers would result in reprisal.

Laurent had been knocked unconscious early on in the battle. He was lucky, if you ask me, but he had a concussion that kept him out of commission for a week.

Vito was the only one of us who went through the battle unscathed and not for lack of trying. When one of the infantry units was encircled by pike squares, he personally led an assault to breakthrough the enemy and rescue them. He got just as much praise as I did for the raid and he deserved it.

Myself, I was stuck in my tent for hours as the battle came to a close. A vixen doctor cauterized the worse of my wounds and stitched them up. She gave me what she called a heavy dose of opium to dull the pain but was shocked when it did nothing and only gave me more with some heavy persuasion and a warning from her that I ignored.

That's the thing about decisive battles, no one is truly happy after them. Everyone ends up more miserable and broken than before, it's far more merciful to wear down the enemy with small skirmishes and make them agree to a surrender.

But sadly, not all enemies are so willing to do what's best for them.

I pushed such morose thoughts out of my head and laid back in my bedroll alone. I'd have Vulpezzia without resistance at this point, there was no use in sulking over a few deaths.

I was finally going to get everything I deserved.