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We stepped into a well furbished room where all of the officers that could attend were standing around a table. On the table was a battle map of the town and the surrounding area. They all looked up at us as we entered. We walked up to the table where the Major pointed out where we should stand. We took our spots and faced the table. Everyone was now looking at the Major. I searched through the faces and realized that our Lieutenant was not present. I had no time to ponder as the Major cleared his throat.

"Gentlemen, it my greatest pleasure to present to you, the heroes of Ocelcott. These two canines led the glorious charge towards the town against heavy machinegun fire, and broke through. All right before my very eyes. Even when their Lieutenant fell, they pushed onwards in his name and claimed the day for our glorious nation!" he finished, wrapping his arm around me and pulling me to his side.

"Thank you sir," I said as he released me.

"Sir, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly happened to the Lieutenant? Did he really die?" asked Dilis.

"Staff-Sergeant, your Lieutenant lead the Platoon bravely, he got up out of cover to signal an advance and was shot. As such, I considered promoting you, but you have whipped C Section into the best section in the entire Company. I would hate for the Section to fall apart because you left even though your second in command is more than able to take up your position. As such, your new Lieutenant is Lieutenant Dike there," he gestured over to a Cocker Spaniel. "Anyways, you gentlemen will be getting medals and the Section will be getting a battle ribbon for its courage. I gander you are also wondering why we called you here. Well, we wanted to inform you of your Section's impending duty for tomorrow. Tomorrow the Nr. 92nd will continue the attack forward into the field in front of the town. However, they have little experience and their commander has requested some aid from us. I promised him one section if that section were to be the ones who would carry the colors into battle. He agreed and long story short," he looked over at Lieutenant Dike, "you and your section will be the ones leading the charge. Can I trust that you will lead them to victory Lieutenant?"

"Yes sir," he replied. He seemed a little nervous the way his ears twitched and the hint of fear I could smell on him from across the room.

"Good, you will have the best soldiers there with you. Now for you two," the Major turned back to us, "Since the Lieutenant will be giving orders, he cannot be wrestling a flag at the same time. Therefore, the honor gets handed down to you two. You will be the standard bearers."

"Yes sir. Thank you sir," we said.

"Good," he looked back to address the table, "Gentlemen, I do believe we are done here tonight. I bid you all a good night and good luck tomorrow. If today was any indication, we will have their King in a couple of months. Carry on!" the Major finished and left the room.

We saluted the rest of the officers as they left the room. Our new Lieutenant was the last to leave and he just nodded to us as he passed by. Then we were alone.

Dilis turned back to the table and leaned on it, examining the map. "This doesn't look good Silverback. The enemy was regrouping when we got here and judging by the defense they were able to put up, I would say that they are going to be ready for us tomorrow," he said, taking a deep breath.

I moved to his side and looked at the map too. The plan was very simple with arrows pointing only forwards across the open plain. There were no artillery markings or enemy positions. "Oh," was all I could say.

"Yeah, this will probably be a death charge," he said. "Even worse, Lieutenant Dike has no combat experience and he is supposed to be our leader."

I leaned in, "Lieutenant Dike may be the leader, but I know who I am following."

I could see a smile slowly spread across his muzzle. "Are you scared Silverback?" he asked gently.

"Not with you here," I whispered, now watching him out of the corner of my eye.

He stood up straight and I followed suit. We turned to face each other. Our muzzles almost touched as I stared up into his deep, brown eyes as they stared down at me. They were calm, almost content. I could smell the dirt, sweat, and smoke from his uniform, but there was one scent that was intoxicating, and that was his. I was losing myself in the moment as I leaned forward slightly. He blinked and when his eyes opened, there was confusion in them that lasted only a second. Then a smile broke across them and he began to chuckle.

"I don't know how that guy could have ever rejected you Silverback, because you are pretty sneaky," he whispered.

"Am I now? Maybe this will be the last time we see each other and I was just... scared," I whispered back continuing to lean in.

"Well then, how about this instead?" he leaned in and wrapped me up in a hug, but not like before. This one was different, more gentle and caring.

I hugged back and inhaled his scent. "This will do," I whispered.

"Good because I want to tell you something. You stay safe. There is hope for you I can feel it. You are going to win fame, honor, and love for yourself. You just don't know it yet," he whispered.

"What about you? You are going to come back from this too right? Don't you leave me," I hugged him tighter.

There was a slight pause. I began to fear the worst would come from him when he finally broke the hug and held me in front of him, eyes locked with mine in a very serious stare. "I will come back. For you, for my family, and for the Section, I will come back," he assured me.

We returned to our Section and cleaned up a bit before going to sleep. I surprisingly had a very restful night, probably because I was more exhausted than scared finally. I awoke to artillery fire... again. Apparently, our artillery got into position last night to be able to fire a few shells before we charged. That was great and all, but I was still exhausted. Despite that, I forced myself to get up and to do my daily routine of personal hygiene, cleaning my weapon, and making sure I had all of my gear. Sadly, the rest of our kits still had not made it to us, so the personal hygiene part consisted of swishing water around in my mouth and cutting the larger mats out of my fur with my bayonet.

I ate with the rest of the Section and everyone seemed a little better than yesterday, well, those that were left anyways. Lieutenant Dike approached the Section and cleared his throat. We all stood up at attention.

"At ease," he said. "Today gentlemen, we are going to be a part of a glorious attack. C Section has the honor of leading the charge of the Nr. 92nd. We are going to be acting as the color guard as the Staff-Sergeant and the Sergeant carry the flag of our glorious nation into battle. Be ready to move out in 30 minutes," he finished and left promptly.

There was some mumbling and grumbling. I overheard one soldier say, "Why us?" This kind of made me mad. Hell we were the Royal Fang Garde. We were supposed to be the heroes of the army and here I saw those heroes grumbling about doing their duty. I bit my tongue and kept quiet despite myself.

A few minutes later a mail carrier came in and handed out our mail. I got two letters, one from Felix, the other from my step-mom. I opened up my step mom's and began reading:

Dear Jazcal,

_ My dearest step-son. I know I haven't always been the best parent I could be with you and I want you to know that I am sorry. With you going off to war like this and then your letter telling me that you are going into active combat, it just hit me where it hurts the most and I never thought that would happen. I hope that this letter gets to you in time before you head out so that you can know that I am proud of you, and your father would be too. I also want you to know that I love you and I want you to stay safe. Please come back Jazcal, I know now that life would be horrible without you. Please come back Jazcal._

_ Love,_

_ Crystal Boarderston_

I noticed on the last line there was a dried spot where I believe she had cried. I began to tear up. This was the first time she ever signed "Love" on anything she wrote me, and that was all the evidence I needed to know that she meant it.

I sniffled a little and Dilis came and sat next to me, "What's got you all worked up?" I handed him the letter and opened up Felix's:

_ Jazcal,_

_ I hope you made it through to be able to read this and please write back as soon as possible. Your mom is falling apart. She cries everyday about you and she even asks me to come over so she can talk to me about you. I am worried too man. There is a lot of scary shit in the paper nowadays about mass charges ending in slaughter. You are a smart jackal Jazcal; remember that and I know you will be fine._

_ Also, I hate to tell you this, but there hasn't been a draft in a while. The bad part is that Snow has disappeared. He has been acting weird ever since you left as I assume he would after you two talked. I fear he might have enlisted to escape it all. So if you get anything in the mail from him, please let me know that he is okay. You two worry me to the point of leaking and it is not cool. Please don't make me cry man._

_ Stay safe,_

_ Felix_

Now I was shaking. Snow is gone and my mother is worried sick. The thought of dying didn't seem so bad anymore compared to going back to a fractured life.

"This great Sergeant! Your step-mom seems like she finally found out what was important!" said Dilis cheerfully, looking up at me. "That doesn't look good," he said in a serious tone as he took Felix's letter from me and began to read.

I was in shock with emotionally charged thoughts running through my head. _Snow could die, mother dying, friend going insane, what is the point of fighting then?_I thought to myself.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry Sergeant, I... I don't know what to say," he said, ears drooping down.

"Can you do me a favor Staff-Sergeant?" I asked feebly.

"Yeah, what do you need?" he said perking up a bit.

"If I die, can you please write back to Felix for me and let him and everyone know? I think you would do a better job than the War Department and they would deserve that at the very least," I replied quietly.

"No one is going to die," he said sternly while also not drawing attention to us. I gave him a serious look back, because I wasn't joking. He sighed and replied softly, "Yeah I'll do it if you do the same for me."

"Deal," I whispered back.

Dilis took a shaky breath and stood up. "Alright C Section! Let's get into position! We have 15 minutes! Check your weapons and your buddy's weapons! We want to be ready when we engage." Everyone got up and filed out.

We took our position behind our section of the mound making up the front line. The engineers had been working hard behind us and had made a wall of sandbags with firing ports and a small mortar pit where everyone who was not taking part in the attack was stationed. The rest of the Platoon saluted us and called out "Good luck" and "Go Get'em.'" Dilis and I were standing in the center of the small line that was C Section, waiting for the banner that we were to carry into battle.

"So did you get any letters?" I asked handing him a slip of paper with Felix's address on it.

"Here," he said, handing me a letter while taking the paper from me and putting it in his pocket.

I opened up the letter to check for the address and found an entire letter in beautiful, cursive handwriting. My dearest Freckles, read the first line. I looked up at him and asked, "May I?"

"Go right ahead," he said, "keep it for the address."

I continued reading:

All the talk of the war is quite scary and I do look forward to your next letter. I am glad you have someone you can trust and call friend in a time where it seems like they won't survive long enough. I could feel myself blush a bit. Old Charles got his son's letter the other day. That doesn't leave very many houses that haven't received it yet left. Poor Mrs. Chi got her second and third in one day. The whole neighborhood came to comfort her. I am glad that you are staying safe. The war is scaring the boys. I couldn't believe that their coach got pulled off of the field because he was drafted, right in front of the children! The boys are doing well in school and they enjoy your letters as much as I do. I am sorry if this sounds all flustered, but ... war is hard on everyone apparently. Please be safe and come back to us. And honey, no matter what you have to do over there, no matter how horrible, I will always love you. Don't ever forget that and please come home.

_ Love always,_

_ Sicilia_

I looked up and I could see him whipping tears off of his muzzle. "You are a lucky Dog, Staff-Sergeant," I told him. I held the letter out to him. "And you should be the one that has this, because you and I are going to make it through this."

He smiled and took the letter. He put it in his jacket pocket where the photograph was.

The flag was brought to us in pristine condition. We attached it to the pole and we were ready to go. All was quiet as the artillery stopped and we waited for the signal with the flag waving above us proudly.