To The South We March

Leaving right as the Sun came up meant after about twelve hours of marching south you will eventually make it to the Turth River. It will be right around dinner time and you will still have a couple hours of daylight left. The game plan is to make it to the Turth River, set up camp there and if all things went according to plan, the Rathkin army would be on the opposite side of the river, setting up their own base. The Turth itself would be the actual line of war for the kingdoms, to the north of the river is lands of the Syndicate, everything to the south is that of Rathkin.

Truthfully, you thought Rathkin might attempt to thwart your movement again like they did before when you took over Murnic, but the Syndicate sent out many scouts and groups of warriors to watch army movements from the distance as well as keep track of as much information as possible. From your knowledge, Rathkin left their kingdom with their entire army the other afternoon. They do have a little longer march than you so if they go straight north passed Murnic, that means they will get to the Turth early this morning, right after the sun reaches its highest peak and you and your army will get their right around dinner time.

"Lot on your mind?" Ashe's voice breaks you from your trance as she's right by your side on her own tiger, leading the march with you right at the front, "You seem zoned out and daydreaming."

"Yeah, hoping all goes according to plan, ya know?" you turn to look at her and give a shrug, "Last time Rathkin evaded us but from all the knowledge we have now, it appears they should meet us head on."

"So it appears..." Ashe wipes the back of her arm across her forehead before turning to the side, taking a piece of cloth from a pouch and wrapping it completely around her head, shielding much of the sun and heat from directly hitting her skull. "Maybe we should have left like last time, after the sun sets and walk through the night." she mentions, "Too late now but I hope this doesn't put a toll on our warriors." her head turns around as she watches the thousands upon thousands of warriors, Sunriders, horses, tigers, carriages and wagons trailing in a line for as far as the eyes can see.

"I"m sure they'll be fine..." you say as you pull your hood up a little farther, like Ashe, you are trying to shield as much of the desert sun as you can. "Although we're bringing much more supplies, wagons full of water and food, tons of medical necessities, beds, cots, hammocks, all that, especially for the wounded after we win this war."

"Yeah, we should be all good..." Ashe replies quietly before the two of you stop talking for a handful of minutes. The tigers walk stride in stride through the sandy soil of the desert as they continue their pace towards the south.

"Sooo," Ashe begins, "Pretty hard to leave them behind eh?" she asks already knowing the answer to that question.

"I'm trying not to think about it Ashe..." you bluntly put it, "Want to stay focused on the upcoming war, I keep replaying battle plans and strategy in my head and I'm trying to play out every scenario to make sure I haven't forgot anything."

"Darien, don't burn yourself out on it." she replies, "You can't solely focus on war, you need to focus your mind on other things, relax when you can and enjoy life for what it is. If all you do is worry about and focus on war, it will make you go crazy and honestly may even cause you to forget some of the simple things."

"So asking if it was hard to leave my wife behind is suppose to help my mind relax?" you almost snarl at your high commander, "How does that calm me down? You think I want to leave her behind while I go march to war and potentially die?"

"That's not..." she immediately retorts, "Darien, don't be an asshole, that's not what I meant and you know it."

You bring both your hands up and burrow your face into them, rubbing your cheeks, your eyes and even down to your neck, "Ughh, I know Ashe, sorry." you tell her, "It's a stressful situation ya know?" which causes Ashe to only nod, "But yeah, I said my proper good byes to all of them, telling them everything I wanted to and hoping that I will come back alive..."

"It's a hard thing to do that's for sure. I spoke with all three of them this morning as well, before I got my tiger, it appears you did the opposite?" you affirm her question, "Either way, gotta keep hope that you'll make it back to them alive. After you gave them a smile, a hug, a kiss and a wave good bye, it's all you can do, now we gotta do our part."

"Yup, now we just have to kick some Rathkin ass." you grin back, "and hopefully we both make it back in one piece."

"I'd agree with that." she smiles at you, "The Syndicate wouldn't be the same without you or I."

Ashe and yourself continue to lead the entire army of the Syndicate south across the desert. With the sun rising higher and higher into the sky, it became quite hot so you constantly took little five or ten minute breaks to allow warriors to rest and hydrate themselves. What Ashe said was correct, it would have been smarter to leave after the sun began to set but you wanted to get to the Turth before night fall, so you could set up the defenses and have a full nights worth of sleep before starting fresh tomorrow for war.

You've done this trek a handful of times already so you began to think about every instance that you've marched north and south. The first time you went south was to get to Claire when she lead this very same Army to help Rathkin against Errian only to get backstabbed. After that, you came south once more, now leading this army when you took over Murnic and went to attack Rathkin head on. Then when the storm rolled through and Lexie was having pregnancy complications you rode again to request the help of Edmin and Bree. And here you are again, the fourth journey for you in what seems like such a short amount of time, although hopefully this time will be your last one you'll have to do in quite some time.

If the Syndicate beats Rathkin they will have to fall back and lick their wounds, Edmin will most likely have to step down and maybe, just maybe Rathkin and the Syndicate can be peaceful once again. Worst case, Rathkin wins and at that point, you're dead and you only hope they don't march north and wipe the Syndicate completely out. Sure, with the amount of forces left behind in the city, Sicilian could probably hold out for a little while, but definitely not forever.

"So," you now are the one who breaks Ashe out of her little daydream, "Remember last time we spent the night at Turth?"

"Hammocks?" her head turns and gives you an ear to ear smile as she remembers the memory, "How could I forget."

"You opened up to me a lot that night, about your family, your sister and how you grew as a person." you recall the night of Ashe telling you about her sister who was murdered by her husband. How Ashe took matters into her own hands not long after and took revenge on that very same husband, killing him for taking the life of her sister, "It's still quite the memorable night for me."

"Yeah yeah..." Ashe shrugs it off, "I don't tell many people that story to be fair, I don't like to bring it up."

"I think that was the night I knew that Ashe started to care for me." you tease, "You finally started to realize how amazing of a person I was."

"Uh huh." she laughs sarcastically as she rolls her eyes.

"But anyway, care to do that again this time? Maybe find those same trees, hook up some hammocks and relax for the night?" you ask, "Hell, maybe if you have some other secret stories you don't share with anybody else, I'd love to hear them."

"Hah!" Ashe laughs, "That would be fun although this time I think we've got something better."

"Better? What do you mean?" you curiously ask.

"You'll see, once we get there." Ashe grins at you, "It's a full blown war Darien. We're bringing a lot more supplies, you know that, even bringing tarps and tents for warriors, civilians, doctors and medics to stay in and treat the wounded."

"Well I know that..." you grumble out, "But what's wrong with Hammocks."

"They hurt your back?" she raises an eyebrow at you, "They are pieces of rope that dig into your skin?" her head shakes back and forth, "You can't sleep on your side very comfortably?" she goes on and on.

"Blah blah blah, bitch bitch bitch, that's all I'm hearing." you jest as you laugh back at your high commander. "If I recall, you fell asleep pretty easily in my arms that night!"

With another roll of her eyes, "Think what you want Darien but I was only exhausted from the long journey we had, that's all. I could have fallen asleep anywhere, anyplace, anytime!"

"Uh huh, you couldn't get enough of me, opening your heart up, cuddling in my arms, falling asleep on my chest, you were all over me that night." you taunt the red head. "All. Over. Me!" you poke and pry.

"Are you done?" Ashe glares at you as you release a few chuckles, "You wait, those hammocks were special sure, but for the night before war, no way." the smirk forming on her face tells you she has something planned and truth be told, you're extremely curious what that could be.

"Well then, can't wait til we get to the Turth!" you grin back at your red headed high commander.

The march itself goes on through out the day as you stay in the lead and continue your conversations back and forth with Ashe. As the sun is starting to get lower and lower into the horizon that's when you gaze off into the distance and see pillars of smoke gushing high up in the sky.

"Check that out." you point towards the pillars, "Smoke, must be Rathkin already set up across the river."

"Looks about right, probably another hour or two before we get there?" Ashe replies, "At least this proves that Rathkin was true to their word and was going to fight us head on instead of trying to evade us again like the scum they are."

"Yeah..." you take a deep breath as you stare off into the horizon, "Not much longer now..." you exhale slow as your destination for the night is slowly coming closer and with that destination comes quite possibly the biggest war this world has ever seen.