Snippet #2578572

The scout sent ahead of Sotaro’s battalion came to the first town to find that the ferries had been mysteriously destroyed. She went on to the second to find no serviceable ferries there either. She had to wonder how these towns survived if they allowed their water transport so easily put out of service. By the time she reached the third town, it was well past dark, and she was forced to stop. It was a larger town called Fei Long, and had been able to hold off any saboteurs. She sent a hawk informing the captain that there was one known larger town that may have what they needed to cross the river.

Sotaro, meanwhile, considered his course of action. He remembered reports he had received at Yu Dao about unusual thefts and blitz-style attacks on Fire Nation garrison troops and diplomats. No one could describe the attackers, but reports of them always coordinated with the late arrival or disappearance of supplies. Some troops arrived injured. Sometimes seriously, sometimes permanently. And none had apprehended these criminals.

As the shadows lengthened, Sotaro’s troops finally reached the first town. He had his men stop at a distance from it, both for their safety if this town had some unusually skilled warriors to defend it, and to prevent the town leadership from feeling threatened by a large, foreign force.

He approached the village headman himself only to find that his scout had already passed through. No luck. As Sotaro headed back to his tank, a hawk screeched above him. He set his arm out to let it land, and took the red ribbon message from its leg. Closing his fist around the message, Sotaro burned it and let the black smolders to fall to the ground.

“To Fei Long,” he ordered to the lead tank unit when he reached them. “Bypass the other towns. Whoever set off the explosions back at Yu Dao and the bridge has been here first.”

That meant they had probably made their way to Fei Long too. They had attempted to cut off his route again, but used passive tactics. No direct attacks. They were either outnumbered or waiting for the right moment to attack. Perhaps both.

“Paper,” requested Sotaro from the scribe and hawkmaster beside him as he handed the man the hawk. He got a small strip of scroll and thin brush in return.

Sotaro turned to his second in command as he wrote, who was waiting beside his own tank.

“Set up every bender as guardsmen at our flanks and back. Fully armed,” ordered Sotoaro. “They’ll be ready for us.”

He put the message into the hawk’s message into the carrier on its foot and released it. Once the guard was in place, Sotaro took his place at his tank.

“Whoever “they” are,” he added with distaste. He had no intention of allowing his men to injure themselves or lose their lives needlessly.

“Forward,” he called, and the army set off.

If the message was accurate, he should reach Fei Long as the sun set. Good. He did not like the idea of traveling in the dark with hidden attackers at his back.