Snippet #974668

"What don't you understand about the situation, soldier?" Malkini asked as he placed a large log in the center of some collected brown mudrocks and pebbles from the river. "The village has maybe one-hundred female villagers, and there are eleven-thousand soldiers. We will be here until the General is able to collect himself and send someone over here. You can expect that to take all night and then a good half of tomorrow as well."

"That's cheery," Jove muttered as he lit a small flame jet onto the bottom of the log. The two men, Knight Commander and Knight of culture, set the camp up in no time, with a large tent placed on the highest top of the hill for Malkini, and two smaller ones for the rest of the group. The sun flickered down on the edge of the pillar, the torch light of the soldiers in the village dim in comparison. The sky slowly turned from orange to blue as the night went on. Jove leaned back on the shores of the river and looked up at the fully sky, where, between the rock walls, the stars glittered. He glanced to the side where he saw Malkini walk off towards the village, bare of his armor. Jove thought nothing at the sight and looked back at the sky. The screams had stopped now, either because the troops had finished or because the villagers were all gagged. Jove shook his head. The Knights were not anything like what he had at first thought, and all the excitement he had for the mission beforehand had been replaced with disgust and a need to get off the planet Usin.