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Lay Waste the Land

Not long after Taj was laid to rest, we received messengers from both Livio and Vito.

Vito reported on a seemingly effortless march through the Balkans thanks to the promise of slave liberation. The wolves of the Balkans appeared to have denied their slaves even the most minor of Alphate protections accorded to them and it was not hard to convince them of a better life if they supported us. Many joined with Vito's army while others decided to head west and seek their fortune out in Vulpezzia.

I immediately wrote a letter to Salvia informing her of this development. We had a deal, after all. The humans were guaranteed freedom from the wolves but without proper registration as citizens there was nothing stopping Salvia from making a living off of them.

Livio was deep into Alphate territory now, having made it through the mountain pass, and was having a grand time burning down fields and ranches. He reported on a grand victory against an Alphate detachment twice his own's size, having successfully encircled them and put all who did not surrender to the sword.

"If what Livio says is correct," I narrowed my eye and leaned into the letter to read it better, "it sounds like we could get unhindered access to the Alphate heartlands."

"If we're able to take care of this bitch delaying us," Guy grumbled, lifting a cup of ale to his burn-scarred snout. "You still wish to strike Lupercal immediately?"

"Lupercal has not been properly restored as capital," Laurent spoke before I could. "It's defenses are in shambles, most of the Alphate's vanguard has been shattered, and judging by my informant's reports, the nearest army capable of withstanding us has been dealing with nomadic incursions from the east and we stand a good chance of beating them to the capital."

"You are certain that the Alpha has moved back to Lupercal?" asked Guy. "I've heard from merchants that they still use Constantine as their economic hub and that many political functions take place in Nu'tag."

"These things take time. Years after Romulus moved the capital to Nu'tag, there were still some nobles who refused to move out of Lupercal and this necessitated some events to take place there. This is no different, except Aokus is a far more incapable Alpha, and any rumors about him still living in Nu'tag can be chalked up to his reign suffering yet another failure to communicate."

"Dictator," Guy closed his eyes and turned towards me, "I'm not so certain about this plan."

"A fine time to speak up against it!" I rubbed my temples. "Laurent's intelligence has been nothing short of invaluable, are you saying he's wrong?"

"No, it is just a gut feeling. Something about this bothers me."

"What would you have me do then?"

"Constantine, perhaps?" Guy offered. "We can cut off their access to the Mediterranean and make both Lupercal and Nu'tag suffer. We can then harass their ships with our superior fleet in the Black Sea and then make our decision. We could attack Lupercal directly or sail a fleet around it and land in Caucasia to strike at Nu'tag."

"That would mean losing the initiative."

"It would," Guy nodded, "but it would be safer."

"You're used to working with Beaumont still, I can see," my right eye began to chafe and I adjusted it. "Conservative, safe, unimaginative..."

"Safe? You think that's a bad thing?"

"When it holds back creative strategy, yes."

"Then let me justify it creatively to you," Guy leaned forward on the table, pointing at the map with his claw. "Constantine is the furthest east Fox Republic and if we take that, we can easily sweep through the Balkan to Greece and you will have taken back all that we have lost to the wolves in our history. Every single last crumb of dirt. Is that not what this war is about?"

"We would have to defend and maintain that land!" I objected, leaning across the table with a growl. "The Alphate would also strike back while we rebuild the defenses, not to mention local rebellions! It's better to force the Alphate to surrender our territory without a single sword being drawn in them. We don't want to have to hole up in a Constantine that we ruined through siege."

"It would take longer, years perhaps, but eventually the Alphate would have to accept reality and their merchants would demand peace to get trade flowing again."

"We need a fast, glorious victory and taking Lupercal and the Alpha hostage would ensure an immediate end!"

"What if the Alpha flees the city?"

"He won't!" Laurent cut in. "Aokus is barely holding onto the throne and if he leaves, someone else will take it. All he can do to maintain his legitimacy is sit on the throne like an obedient pup and do the bare minimum without making a fool of himself."

"Besides," I fiddled with my claws, "if we take Lupercal, we will humiliate the wolven ego for a thousand years. It will take them years just to get our scent out of the throne room and they won't forget it."

"People who don't forget usually start plotting revenge," Guy sighed and sat back in his chair.

"They're welcome to try."

Days passed and the skirmishes began to feel more like annoyances than a real threat. An arrow or a spear here and there from a tree or a cliff followed by the often-unseen assailant hoofing it away before we could catch them. They rarely ever caused any harm to my soldiers but I knew they were probing us for weaknesses and examining how we respond. They must have realized after Guy's crushing victory over them that they had to change their tactics.

Beyond that, we did not see hide nor tail of wolves, save for the remains in the countless ruined villages we passed through. It was getting easier to advance and that worried me.

My worries were answered when we reached the top of the pass and began our decent.

Below us was a sharply descending valley with ancient human roads snaking about from left to right, gradually, ever-so slightly descending down. Baffled though I was that the humans built such a pass, or that the wolves still kept it maintained; I was more focused on what laid midway down the road.

Wolves donned with steel armor holding crossbows and pikes. The banners of the Alphate fluttered in the wind as a chorus of howls mocked us.

They were waiting for us and they were using defensive foxen tactics.

And unlike normal uses of it, this was probably the smartest thing they could possibly do.

With the way the road swerved there would be no chance of our horses picking up enough speed to charge them and the pass was narrow enough that we would make a fine target for their crossbows while we sluggishly made our way to their camp. And this was all assuming they didn't have any traps waiting for us on the way there.

We had the numbers over them but they made their stand in the most dangerous place for us. Holding the high ground is great if you intend to stay there but we needed to attack them and that meant leaving it.

As I scanned the masses below with my spyglass, I finally spotted her. I don't know how I missed her until now, with that red plume flying above her draconic helmet, and her burning red fur, but she was there.

Lieutenant Zel.

The very one who murdered my beloved.

White anger overtook my sight. Had I been within striking range of her, I would have tackled her to the ground and torn her throat out. I would not care if the sight of me with blood splattered all across my muzzle would cause my own soldiers to fear me. All that mattered was my hatred.

Someone tugged at my boot and I looked down to find Galip standing by my horse, whining pitifully. My anger started to fade, even when I noticed Guy standing behind Galip, almost as if he had brought my slave to me, sensing that I would need the one thing that could calm me down that was not a poppy.

I patted Galip on the head while Guy slid over.

"They're sending a small group over wielding a flag of parlay," Guy announced.

"What?" I exclaimed. "I never saw that."

"You were staring in anger for ten minutes. I assumed it was at the enemy commander."

Ten minutes did not sound right, not right at all. But anger can be a drug, they say, and Canis knows I've lost track of the time in an opium haze before.

"Send a scout down to meet them."

"Right away."

I returned to the spyglass and watched as one of my riders rode down to meet them halfway. They had only met for a brief moment when my scout came galloping back.

"Dictator!" the scout exclaimed as he halted his horse. "They're requesting your presence to parlay."

"Tell them I'll go down if their commander shows up personally. No weapons for anyone."

Snapping a quick salute, my scout tore down the winding roads and I spied on the proceedings. No more than a few words were exchanged between fox and wolf before both sides set off back towards their camp.

The wolven detachment made it first and I caught them speaking to Zel. It was difficult to make out fine detail from this distance but it looked like she removed her sword belt and then mounted her horse before heading towards us.

Interesting development.

I was still staring through the glass when I heard the thump of my scout's horse reach me.

"They have agreed to those terms and would like to meet immediately."

"Did you see any signs of an ambush?" I asked.

"No sir."

"Thank you," I waved the scout away.

"Even the most craven commander would not violate the flag of truce," Guy motioned towards the approaching wolves.

"There's tall grass along the sides of the road," I pointed to several patches including one close to the midway point where the wolves had stopped before. They were dried out from the summer heat but had not begun to wither. A wolf or a fox could remain undetected there if they remained still. "I trust my scout's judgment but without a sweep of the grass I can't be certain."

"Point taken," Guy nodded. "You will refuse, then?"

"No," I sighed, unbuckling my sword belt and handing it down to Galip, who delicately cradled it against his naked chest. "I will go with six riders, no weapons."

"Alpha!" Galip cried. "It's too dangerous!"

I tapped Galip on the tip of his nose and he winced, "No weapons, but each rider will have a lit lantern hanging from their saddle. If an ambush is spotted, we'll throw them into the grass and hopefully it will be dry enough to catch fire in a flash."

"You have reason to despise the commander. I'm afraid that-"

"I'll be fine."

Guy saluted and immediately gathered up six of my guards. At times like this, I wish we still had some of the Dragon's Blood just to make sure the grass would become a raging inferno.

We snaked our way down the winding roads, ever on the lookout for any sort of trouble. My right paw controlled my horse's reins and my left was on the saddle horn, inches away from the lantern dangling on the side. If I so much as smelled a wolf in the grass, I'd toss it.

The wolves halted at the same spot as before. It was roughly the halfway point, so it was fitting truce ground, but one could not help but think they picked that spot for another reason.

The wind blew downward, carrying our scents towards the wolves as they sniffed the air. I knew not what they read from us but I disliked not having a read of their own odor.

We rounded one last corner next to a patch of brown grass and a rabbit darted out with a sharp rustle. I almost lobbed the lantern but caught myself just as my paw left the horn. It was already strange enough that we had candles lit in our lanterns during the day, we didn't need to give away our backup plan to the wolves.

Undeterred, we stopped several feet away from the wolven party. Zel had no weapons but was clad in the same dark steel chestplate and greaves that she wore the night she killed Taj. The she-wolf showed no emotion at my approach and there was no doubt that she would be hiding her scent with a perfume just as I was.

Her escort was heavily armored as well, complete with barding on the horses. Some of the finest of the Alphate's heavy cavalry had joined up with a monstrous blackguard, if there was any pretense of wolven noble benevolence left, it was gone then.

"On command from the honorable Beta Gamma, Shen Hege," one of the wolves barked and lowered his head. "I present to you, Lieutenant Zin of the Imperial Alphate Army."

She beckoned her horse forward, taking the first step. I followed shortly after and we stopped a few feet apart.

I caught her scent and my hackles rose. She was wearing a perfume, as expected, but I did not expect it to carry Taj's scent.

"The butcher himself. The one with the bloody rear," Zel made a lewd gesture with her gloved paw. "Word of your exploits from as far east as the Shah have reached us..."

Even now when thinking of that smell, that smell that I loved so much, visions flash through my head. Disturbed imaginations of the tortures that the wolves put her body through. It was not enough to desecrate her body, but to extract her scent glands and turn it into a perfume?"

"I must confess, my _eyes_are a little disappointed at what I'm seeing."

Her cohorts laughed gruffly.

I kept my face frozen. Only my hackles gave my emotions away and I hoped that the worst of it was not visible to them.

Just like Sofia and her fortune telling, the scent on Zel had multiple layers that revealed themselves gradually. Until then, it just had Taj's delightful sandy rose notes, but it changed.

Wolf semen.

That was the second note of her perfume.

All bets were off now. Anger possessed me and I was no longer Marco, merely a beast.

"Well, are you going to speak?" Zel sneered.

"AMBUSH!" I screamed.

Launching my lantern into the grass to my left, I kicked my horse into a gallop. Before Zel could so much as growl, my horse had reached her side and I leaped off my horse, tackling into the she-wolf and sending us both tumbling towards the dirt.

We landed on a sharp slope and rolled down. We snapped our jaws and snarled, trying to rip off the other's face. We were both animals now, all veneer of civilization having vanished.

Smashing into a patch of tall grass, I landed atop her and when she was momentarily stunned, I punched her straight in the nose. She recoiled but did not yelp in pain.

I wanted to kill her but I heard hooves on dirt and I knew I needed leverage. I crawled behind her and caught her by the neck, holding her against my chest and bringing my claws to her throat.

"I will kill your commander I so much as smell you! Stay back!"

A gray wolven head passed by the top of the tall grass. His fierce, yellow eyes stared down at me. My captive said nothing, she did not beg nor did she order her soldiers to forget about her and kill me.

Realizing I was serious, he rode away with a howl. The ground began to rumble. Both of our soldiers would fight on without us. The battle would be decided by whoever's subordinates were more skilled.

This was torture. With my snout all but pressed into the wolf's neck, the smell of Taj and wolf semen was unbearable. Still, I could not just kill her, that would have to wait.

I did not expect her to beg, but I did expect her to mock me.

What I got was quite different.

"I've read your history," she said without a hint of distress.

"I've read yours too," I replied back.

"I'm flattered," she laughed, "we're not so different, hm?"

"You're a wolf and I'm a fox. You murdered my love."

"And you murdered one of my lovers during one of your attacks on us," she sighed in a careless ton. "But such is war."

I could feel the world quake as our armies met. Steel clashed on steel and bowstrings twanged.

All of that was inconsequential to that damned perfume she was wearing. I couldn't hide my revulsion with every breath I took.

"I apologize for using her scent like this, truly."

"Shut up."

"We did it to provoke you into violating the parlay. We were going to have someone from the bushes shoot you as soon as you did but it seems we underestimated your ferocity."

"Enough."

"Or what? You'll claw my throat out?" she leaned up against me, rubbing the back of her head against my muzzle. "You caught me, there's no shame in losing."

"I'm not falling for that," I pressed my claws and pushed her head aside. "I know you have a fanatical hatred of foxes."

"Did you know I was a favorite of Alpha Romulus?"

I blinked. It would explain her quick promotion when she had such a lowborn background, but then I was made General at an even younger age with less connections.

""What was he like?" I asked.

"Weak."

I shook my head, "Romulus was many things but he was not weak. Not in the slightest."

"He refused to do what was necessary. He grew attached to two fox slaves who could have demanded two halves of his Alphate if they so wished. I arranged to have them killed and when he found out, he had me reassigned to the Western Army and banished from Nu'tag."

"And that's where you made your mark in the Ransom Wars."

"Much as you made your mark in the Alpini Campaign," she whispered. "I think your campaign was better. You accomplished your goals without massacring the population like I did."

"The massacres you did recently certainly threw me for a loop, as cruel as it was."

"I'm glad to hear that."

Her tail started to wag.

"May I tell you the real reason I did those massacres?"

"Sure."

"I wanted to give the foxes a reason to want to capture me and disgrace me."

My heart stopped for a moment and my claws loosened before I realized this could have been a trick to catch me off-guard.

"I had a lot of fantasies you know...about them putting me in stocks in a square and having the whole town fuck me. Or made into a mere slave and shipped over to Vulpezzia to be used and abused by the elite foxes. Just a dumb wolf slave like I used to be when I was young."

"You..." I cleared my throat, "...you killed your master."

"Because he refused my advances."

I held my breath. I had read her profile completely wrong.

"I sometimes wonder what would have happened to me if..." I said absentmindedly, "...one wolven rider almost caught me when I was fleeing with my family."

"If he had, we would have been a perfect mirror of each other, perhaps."

"Yeah..."

I licked my lip. My heart was starting to race.

"That rider...the first time that I explored..."

I shifted my thighs before I realized what I was doing and stopped immediately. I still don't know what came over me when I began telling such a bullshit story. Perhaps I felt a bit of empathy for my captive and needed to share a similar, if made-up, experience?

I was never a slave. I have and will always be a free fox and never dreamed of anything else.

"If your side wins," she whispered. Even with Taj's perfume, I could smell the wolf's own lust seeping into the air. "I would be willing to submit to you for life."

"Enough," I pressed my claws to her throat. "Quiet."

Still, her words lingered. We had a lot in common even if our paths were different. Galip was a good slave but he was not much when it came to the conversation of war and tactics.

Zel might be a good slave and a good informant.

A smile grew on my face.

It was a long battle and not a single arrow landed in the bush we laid in. We were safe from the horrors of war for one day.

Eventually the sounds of battle gave way to victorious yips. There was no denying that my side had won.

I could hear wolves begging for mercy before being suddenly silenced. It sounded like Guy had called for no quarter. Salvia would be disappointed.

"I'm your trophy now," Zel whispered, grinding her rear up against me. "How nostalgic..."

"Eager, huh?" all I could smell was Taj now, none of the galling wolven semen that tainted her scent before.

"Mmmmm..."

Still, I waited just in case my ears were fooling me. I didn't dare move in case a wolven soldier took a potshot at me and got lucky before he got eliminated along with his comrades. There was no point in taking a risk just because I was eager to get out of the bush with a horny wolf.

The grass rustled and gave way.

Laurent pushed his nose into the bush.

"There you are!" Laurent turned back and called out. "He's here!"

After a few moments, Guy's burn-scarred form broke into the grass, cutting much of it down with a dagger.

I pushed Zel onto the ground and stood up, my legs shaky from having laid down so long.

"I surrender," Zel bowed, lifting her tail. "Master Marco has decided to force me to serve in his household."

Guy and Laurent looked at one another, snouts wrinkled with disgust.

Guy drew his blade.

"What are you doing!?" I shouted, getting between Guy and Zel.

"Don't tell me she speaks the truth!?" Guy demanded, giving me a rare snarl from Beaumont's former sycophant. "Are you mad!?"

"We're all entitled to war trophies, especially if they're willing."

"Marco," Laurent narrowed his eyes, "we haven't even counted how many of our soldiers she has killed. She massacred innocent villagers and even killed Taj."

Laurent cursed and spat, "And now you want to take her as your slave!? Just pardon her actions and give her unfettered access to you!? Is your brain working!?"

"Watch your tongue!" I snarled. "I handled Galip well, didn't I?"

"Galip was a spoiled noble with a fetish for foxes, you were made for each other. Zel has done nothing but massacre foxes all her life!"

"She told me she has a similar interest in foxes, you know."

"Did you ever think she was lying?"

I looked down at Zel. Despite the conversation, she was still wagging her tail and smiling happily. It was a far cry from the bloodthirsty warlord that she was before.

"We all have hidden, dark interests."

"I know, I've seen what you have in the basement in the library..." Laurent muttered.

Guy's ear flicked and pointed at Laurent.

"Marco," Guy spoke calmly and controlled, "lets say that she is not a security risk, do you think the soldiers are going to respect you for this decision?"

"They will think it's a fine revenge on a hated foe."

"They will think you've gone mad!" Guy growled. "She saw you break the damned parlay! We have to hunt down all the wolves here and kill them so they can't speak a word of it!"

"She told me there was someone waiting to shoot me!"

"We'll find out when the bush you threw your lantern in stops burning, but I don't trust her to tell the truth when pushed!"

Guy pointed his sword at the wolf.

"Step aside Marco, if you can't do it, I will."

I reached for my sword only to touch my hip. I had forgotten that I had thrown my blade away for the parlay.

By that point, it was too late. Guy had brought down his sword and cleaved Zel's head from her shoulders. Her smile was frozen on her face forever now and I found myself unable to break away from staring at it.

I felt nothing.

"I'm sorry Marco," Guy wiped the blood off his blade before sheathing it, "but you know it had to be done."