To War 37.

Summer. The Kingdom Of Melaurn.

Lamis the runner scratches at his neck, as the farmer's smock he's wearing is more than a little itchy.
The young teen in the scouts and rangers division of the first army of Farque hurries along the track between the fields.
And once he's on the road that goes to the nearby town, he catches up to the wagons that are heading there.
It's before dawn, and the farmers on the three wagons taking their produce to town.
Don't even notice the teenager walking behind the last wagon. They don't even notice him at times jump up onto the back of the last wagon, so he can take a break from walking.
Lamis, who only arrived here in the province of Moleau late last night. Is getting as much rest as possible, as he knows today is going to be a long day.
As they approach town, Lamis sees through the predawn gloom, the tents across the open ground on this side of the town. Away to the right of the dirt packed road.
As the runner, or messenger as they're sometimes known as. Looks at the camp, he counts the number of tents he sees, and figures out how many people are in the camp.
He figures there's well over five hundred, and that doesn't include camp followers.
The messenger in the scouts and rangers division of the armies of Farque.
Sees the outline of an airship on the otherside of the camp. And suspects more of them will arrive later today.
Then as the wagons near the town, Lamis, who only recently turned fourteen.
Gets a better a look at some of those in the camp as the first rays of sunshine appear on the horizon to the east, and the camp comes to life.
From what he's been told to look out for, the runner sees that the soldiers in camp are members of the king's guard.
And not the allies of the crown. Some of whom have started arriving here in the province of Moleau.
Lamis sees that the camp of this company of king's guards. Is well maintained, and in the early morning light looks to be an orderly place.
Unlike some of the other camps of the local lords the teenage runner has heard about.
The wagons stop, and Lamis hops onto the back of the one he's been following.
He looks ahead, and sees the town guards talking to the farmer on the lead wagon.
The stop is brief, and the wagons are waved forward by the town guards, who are on duty this morning, on what feels like it's going to be another warm summer's day.
"Morning" quietly says Lamis the messenger to a yawning town guard as the last wagon enters the town.
The guardsman replies with a grunt, not even looking at the youngster sitting on the tailgate of the wagon.
The runner in the scouts and rangers division of the first army of Farque, slightly smiles to himself, as the three farm wagons head through town.
Once the wagons turn onto the first street away from the road that goes right through the town.
Lamis slips off the back of the wagon he's on, without the farmer at the reins, knowing he's even there.
And he hurries into a lane just off the street the wagons are heading down.
The messenger pauses, and briefly closes his eyes as he recalls the layout of the town from the map he's seen of it.
He slightly nods as he opens his eyes and looks around, and gets his bearings.
The teenager who hails from the northwest of the lands Farque sets off.
Making his way through the lane, and turning right onto a quiet street in this part of the town.
As Lamis makes his way through the streets of the town, most of the people he sees who are already out and about, are on their way to the morning market.
The same place the three farm wagons he was with earlier, are heading.
The runner in the scouts and rangers division of the armies of Farque is heading in the other direction.
And after he makes his way down another lane, and goes through a small square in the east part of town.
Lamis finds himself in a more residential part of town. Where a lot of the buildings are two storeys.
Many of the buildings, have the second storey overhanging the first.
So as one goes through the lanes and streets in this part of town. The buildings loom over you.
The young teenage Farqian counts the buildings on the street he's on. And when he gets to the seventh one on his right, he makes his way around to the back of it.
There after quickly looking around, Lamis knocks on the closed backdoor twice, pauses, then knocks quickly three times.
A moment later, and the backdoor of the house opens, and the messenger steps quickly inside.
"This way" quietly says the young man already in the house, who leads Lamis to a backroom.
There, the young man, who is a scout in the first army of Farque, who isn't exactly what he appears to be, says to the teenage messenger "You'll be an apprentice carpenter".
And he hands Lamis a missive that the runner reads, and memorizes.
"Here's everything you need" says the scout, a lean looking fellow, that the teenager from northwestern Farque, knows isn't human.
The messenger burns the missive by the flame of the candle on the table in the room.
Then he takes off the farmer's smock he's wearing, and stuffs it into the hole in the floor.
Which is covered up by the scout, who replaces the floorboards.
Lamis dons the tunic on the table that's more appropriate for a young apprentice townsman in this part of the kingdom.
He finds it a hell of a lot more comfortable over his leather armour than the itchy farmer's smock he was wearing.
Then he takes the carpenter's pack from one of the chairs, and looks in it to find tools of that profession.
Then the scout takes his own pack, and he takes something from it, and hands it to the teenage runner in the scouts and rangers division of the first army of Farque.
"What type is it?" asks Lamis the messenger.
"I have absolutely no idea" replies the scout with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Figures" murmurs Lamis, as the two of them speak in the elven language.
"Just get the hell away from it as quickly as possible when you set it off" quietly says the scout.
"I will" says the Farqian teenager, who eyes the mage canister, before he puts it into the pack with the carpenter's tools.
"Come on, I'll show you" says the scout, who leads Lamis out of the backroom, and to the stairs to the second storey.
Up on the second storey, in a bedroom, the two Farqians look out an open window.
"There, or there" quietly says the scout as he points at the local lord's keep, that's on this side of town.
"When?" quietly asks Lamis, who when he undertook his basic army training back in the wintertime.
Never thought he'd be doing something like this in the summer, during a war.
"Whenever you like once you're in there" is the quiet reply of the scout, who follows that with "I'll be in position no doubt before you're even in there".
Lamis nods in understanding, and the scout quietly says to him "Good luck youngster".
"And to you" replies the teenage messenger, who then says "My lord wills it". In response to the scout saying the same thing to him.
Then the scout disappears in a fine spray like mist, that floats out of the open window.
Lamis briefly watches the water elemental courser in the early morning sunshine before losing sight of the fine spray like mist.
The runner then makes his way out of the bedroom, and heads downstairs, then out the backdoor.
The teenager from the northwest of the lands Farque takes a deep breath. Then he walks around to the front of the house, and once he's on the street, he makes his way to the nearby keep.
As he approaches the local lord's keep, Lamis sees that it's already busy there. With people entering and leaving. On errands, either taking things out, or bringing other things in.
The messenger in the scouts and rangers division of the first army of Farque. Knows that the local lord is busy preparing for the war.
Especially now, considering that a company of the king's own guard are camped outside the town walls.
Some of the local nobility here in the province of Moleau, who weren't affected by the attacks in the south of the province last week.
Are a little reluctant to get involved in the impending war.
But the local lord in this town has no such luck if he wants to stay out of the war.
There's a company of the king's guards just outside of his town. And they'll soon be off to war.
And the local lord and his army will be going off with them.
Lamis stands behind a wagon full of charcoal for the keep's blacksmith.
Then after the guards on gate duty let the heavy wagon in. The young teenager from the lands Farqian steps forward.
"Your business here youngster?" asks one of the guards on gate duty, who then adds "And what you got in the pack?".
"I'm one of Fissek the carpenter's apprentice" says Lamis, whose natural accent is close enough to a Melaurian one that he doesn't have to try and change it.
"We're to help the shipwright with the repairs on the count's airship" adds the messenger in the scouts and rangers division of the first army of Farque.
Opening his pack, Lamis continues with "Just my tools, and other equipment".
"I saw the carpenter and the other apprentice come in just before we came on duty" says the other guard on gate duty, as the first one looks through the open pack that Lamis is holding.
"What's this?" asks the first guard as he rummages through the pack.
Refraining from wincing, and though he's not religious in anyway, Lamis silently prays to all the gods of Volunell. Hoping that the guard doesn't twist the end of the mage canister.
The teenage Farqian says "It's stain for wood" followed by "Careful with it, you don't want to get any on you, it's near impossible to get off".
The guard with his hands in the pack lets go of the steel, nearly two foot long tube like canister, and grunts.
He steps back, and waves Lamis forward through the gates, telling him "Go on and join your master".
The runner in the scouts and rangers division of the first army of Farque nods his thanks, then makes his way through the open gates of the keep.
While behind him, the two gate guards talk to a member of the keep's staff they're familiar with, who has just come from the morning market on the otherside of town.
Lamis once he's inside the keep, spots the airship being repaired, behind what looks like the stables.
The teenager from the northwest of the lands Farque heads more or less in that direction.
Though when he nears the stables, he takes a right, and heads up the steps to the top of the wall that surrounds the keep.
Lamis makes his way along the top of the wall, glancing away to his right, across the town, to the camp of king's guards, who are camped there.
Where he knows the water elemental scout is in position, waiting for the teenage runner to do his part of the plan.
Lamis sees a couple of the keep guards walking along the top of the wall towards him.
He stops when he overlooks the airship belonging to the count that's being repaired.
The Farqian teenager looks down at the vessel, as if he's closely eyeing something as the two guards walk towards him.
"What are you doing up here youngster?" asks one of the bored sounding guards as they stop next to the messenger in the scouts and rangers division of the armies of Farque.
"I'm an apprentice to Fissek the carpenter" says Lamis who nods down to the twin masted airship below.
"We're helping the shipwright repair count Marmond's ship for the war" continues the teenager from the lands Farque, who is definitely expanding on the information on the missive he read in the safehouse earlier.
"I'm to keep an eye on things from up here, make sure they've got the bracings right on the damaged mast" adds Lamis who hopes to hell he sounds like he knows what he's talking about.
The two guards glance down at the airship that's being worked on, and Lamis hears one quietly say to the other "Hope they don't fix it too quick, i don't want to go down to Corlinda with the others".
The other guard grunts in agreement with him.
And the runner in the scouts and rangers division of the first army of Farque. Gets an insight into the mindset of some of the soldiers of the local nobility.
Like these guards of count Marmond. Who haven't been caught up with the attacks in the south of Moleau.
But have basically been coerced into going off to war. Because the crown's forces. In this instance, the king's own guards. Are camped just outside of the count's town.
"Well, be careful" says the first guard, who follows on with "Don't want you falling off the wall".
Lamis nods in agreement with that, and the two guards continue on their way along the top of the wall.
While the Farqian teenager looks down at the airship that's being repaired behind the stables, here in the keep of the local lord.
Glancing out of the corner of his left eye, the messenger from the northwest of the lands Farque sees the two guards make their way into the tower at the far end of the wall.
Lamis turns, and makes his way towards the tower closest to him, the one nearest the steps he used to come up to the top of the wall.
As he approaches the tower, the runner is glad the door is open up here. If it wasn't, he doesn't know what he would do.
The messenger in the scouts and rangers division of the first army of Farque steps into the room at the top of the tower.
"Come on Lamis, you can do this" the teenager from northwestern Farque murmurs to himself in the elven language.
Who takes a deep breath, opens the pack he's carrying, twists the end of the mage canister, and throws the pack it's in, down the spiral stairwell that comes up in the middle of the room.
Lamis has already turned, and has run out of the tower room, and is running along the top of the wall.
He's just about to the steps he used to come up to the top of the wall, when he's knocked off his feet by an extremely large, and not to mention loud explosion behind him.
The messenger slides along the top of the wall, he comes to a stop, wincing, and from what he can tell, half deaf.
He rolls over, and blinks as he looks back, and the top of the tower is gone, and a bit of the wall too.
And there's a large debris cloud, with what looks like flashes of lightning within it, mushrooming up into the clear morning sky.
Lamis staggers to his feet, and makes his way down the steps, as people run around, shouting and yelling as they wonder what's happened.
The messenger from the northwest of the lands Farque passes the gate guards who have rushed into the keep to see what's happening.
And the teenage runner in the scouts and rangers division of the first army of Farque.
Heads out of the opens gates with many other people who are fleeing the destruction that's just occurred in the keep of count Marmond.
Lamis turns quickly to his left, and hurries down a street, glad that he's not permanently deaf after being so close to that explosion.
The runner knows what he just did was a distraction. For in the nearby camp of the king's guards, just outside of town.
The water elemental scout, has just assassinated the commander of that company of king's guards.
Lamis knows that he and the water elemental courser this morning, have just accomplished the very first act in the war between lord Gormica of Salmah Forest, and the crown.
Now the teenage messenger has to get himself out of town, and away to safety, which won't be particularly easy . . . . . .