Private Tales Extended family

[Conrad]

A messenger however quite literally had knocked on their door with the official document declaring war on Syvis and her husband, he had a face of "please don't shoot the messenger."

He invited the messenger inside while he read the declaration. He handed it to Syvis so she could look it over and gave the messenger two messages back, one for the lord, one for his men.

"To your lord, thank him for observing the formalities, and to your army, and this applies to you too, tell them that if they don't want to die, they may Kay down their arms, and once this conflict is resolved they will be set free and granted citizenship in my lands. Tell this to them directly, I don't trust your lord to be honest and inform them of such an offer."

 

[Syvis]

The messenger came in timidly, he was a young lad couldn’t be more then thirteen. He had a thin haired moustache growing in that despite its sparseness seemed to be a point of pride to him. He stood awkwardly in a corner as the giant man and small woman comparatively read over the letter he’d been sent to deliver. He couldn’t read great but he understood the little words like ‚war‘ and ‚pain‘ and a couple big ones like ‚declaration‘ and ‚economic‘. He smiled proudly to himself as he marvelled at his own skill, before his face fell afraid again as he realized where he was, and that they could kill him at any point.

****
Syvis read over the declaration, well by read she skimmed. Blah di blah blah „farm land seizure.“ blah blah „death to you all“ she had got the basics. Syvis took their crest stamp and there was a thunk as it hit against the table and a squish as ink poured out. „Here.“ she gave it back to Conrad, so he could send it back with the messenger. Now all the paper work was done.

****

The messenger nodded his head viciously his ginger mop flopping around as he did so. „Yes ser, right away ser.“ he said with a couple of voice cracks, as he tried to make himself sound bigger and tougher. Yet it didn’t seem to be working.

„I will tell all the people myself, you’ll see.“ he added excited to have such an important roll.

****

Syvis‘ face fell a little as she gave a little frown. He was just a boy, and they sent him to his death every war. She flashed her husband some puppy dog eyes, as if begging not to send him alone.

 

[Conrad]

Syvis‘ face fell a little as she gave a little frown. He was just a boy, and they sent him to his death every war. She flashed her husband some puppy dog eyes, as if begging not to send him alone.

He looked over at his wife and the look she was giving him. He smiled and with a head shake and a sigh he said, "okay."

He called over one of the Knights they'd brought with them. "Go with the kid, make sure his lord doesn't decide to kill him. If it looks like he will, bring the kid back here."

With a nod the black clad man complied, and went to the kid's side and accompanied him back.

Conrad rubbed his wife's shoulder and said, "you softie."

He than planted a kiss on her forehead. "Love you."

 

[Syvis]

The kid looked afraid as the Knight approached, his dark looming stature would scare a proper warrior let alone a boy. He looked like a shadow of menace. His shoulders fell as he realized what was happening, afterall the Lady? he hadn't an idea as what to address her by hadn't spoke, she just looked at her husband and he understood. It seemed their marriage was one of love rather then most lords and ladies who married for diplomatic conquests.

He shook his hands vigorously in a thanking motion. "Thank you. Thank you so much." It was then the kid determined he would shed his weapon. The 'enemy' so dubbed by his heartless lord was actually a real man, one who cared about even a lowly messenger boy. And his wife? She was kind too, effortless smiles with a good heart.

The people would follow suite.

****

Syvis smiled happily as he did as she asked. Soon the familiar feeling of his hand was on her shoulder. His pressure with her was always soft, as if he was afraid of crushing her. It was adorable. She grinned up at him, it was nice the way their fort was set up, he didn't have to wear that mask all dang day and she could look up at his handsome face.

He called her a softie and to that she laughed. "Softie?" she questioned in a happy and fake accusatory tone, "I could never be!" she added with a little giggle.

She stood up on her tiptoes as he bent down to plant a loving kiss on her forehead. It didn't do much to help her height but he didn't have to bend down that much more. After all they did have a roughly 41 cm height difference and she was tall for a woman. His voice was familiar as he told her he loved her.

She closed her eyes in utter bliss as she opened her mouth to speak. "I lo-"

CRASH​

Syvis was interrupted by the bang of a catapult hitting a wooden wall. "HOW AND WHERE THE FUCK DID HE GET A CATAPULT?" She shrieked, grabbing for her bow and quiver, within moments she was ready to go. The dust was still settling as she opened the door, her arm shot up to her mouth as she coughed into it. Dust falling into her hair as she blindly stumbled to find her horse. The shakes of the catapult left her legs wobbling.

BAM​

Another one hit the same spot. It was war now. The impact of the boulder hitting their wooden wall left Syvis' ears ringing. Her hypersensitive hearing messing with her head as she fell onto her hands and knees before she got back up again. Her hand searched for something familiar, and she felt the wall brush her fingertips. She was on the right track. The dust settled leaving her coughing as she found her horse. She ran as she saw the horse her hand grabbing its mane the rest of her body swinging her onto the beast.

Both Syvis and the mare had to get to a vantage spot, so she could brace herself for the incoming waves. That's when she saw the cliff over top the fort and she kicked her mare into action. Her hair whipped at her face as she watched the catapult and bodies progress on them. She hoped her husband got everyone ready in time.

 

[Conrad]

She closed her eyes in utter bliss as she opened her mouth to speak. "I lo-"

CRASH​

Syvis was interrupted by the bang of a catapult hitting a wooden wall. "HOW AND WHERE THE FUCK DID HE GET A CATAPULT?" She shrieked, grabbing for her bow and quiver, within moments she was ready to go. The dust was still settling as she opened the door, her arm shot up to her mouth as she coughed into it. Dust falling into her hair as she blindly stumbled to find her horse. The shakes of the catapult left her legs wobbling.

The minute the catapult hit he looked around, and saw instantly where the wooden wall had been damaged.

Wooden walls were thick, thicker than one might think. In fact, wooden walls were mostly dirt. So it was significantly harder to break through than one might think. So the wall was two palisades of wood with earth filling between them, which resulted in a dry moat around them, and allowed men to be on top of the walls. This also meant that they had a little bit of time before the catapult broke through.

"TO YOUR STATIONS!" he ordered.

In response, some men moved to get atop their rudimentary gatehouse, and the rest mounted the walls. Syvis was let out by the Knights guarding their gatehouse so she could do what she needed to. Meanwhile, the other troops were ready for a fight, getting on the walls and observing.

Conrad joined them and looked over the enemy force. Too soon to tell if this was a diversion or the real deal, so he waited, and ordered men to look out for one another.

 

[Syvis]

The army progressed over the hill, in the distance black armour could be seen flashing in the reflections of the setting sun beside the mass a sprinting 13 year old boy could be seen. The knight made way back with the boy as chaos started to ensue, at first it was the knights on horses with the archers pursuing on foot. Following the marching formation they kept the mounted knights with archers within the center cohort; the soldiers on on foot with lances and shields progressed as the left and right wings, and the lord and a mass of fit knights kept the reserves.

(Formation: red. Ideally archers would be front flank infantry meaning they kinda a weakness right now.)

****

Syvis watched as the army progressed over the hill, she debated staying perched on her mare but her better judgement told her no. She still had time. Tying up her mare in some nearby bushes, she perched herself within a tree. They'd have to progress closer to the fort for her to be of any use. If Conrad and their army didn't let them storm the fort like they should, she'd need to move. For now she stayed perched watching through the leaf cover.

 

[Conrad]

He'd just wait. Let the idiots come to them. Frankly the only smart thing they did was keep the Knights in reserve, that way his knights would, theoretically, be exhausted by the time they fought with the enemy's knights.

But they had a few vampires among them. So they had the power of the supernatural on their side. He had his knights form three lines on the inside of the breach, creating a box where the enemy would be, with knights on three sides and their comrades pushing them in from behind. It was a killzone

 

[Syvis]

The army approached and as they came over the hill, half of them dropped their swords. Their lord screamed at them as they ran over the battle line to the other side. "COWARDS!!" he bellowed in rage, it was all that more personal now, not only had the bloody demon taken Syvis hostage, thralling her into marrying him, tried to steal his wife, he'd now used empty promises to take his men? The bastard. The spawn of Satan.

Still they approached, their small numbers adjustining to make a battle box formation. The knights and lord making the center. The archers the second line after them, and then the sworded peasants, finally their horses their outer layer. The adjustment would still make the enemy tired by the time they reached the center, it just made them more compact.

****

They got closer and Syvis let out a arrow, it revealed her position but it struck home like it always did. It dropped one of their archers, and they continued forward walking over his body. She looked disgusted. They marched over the body of their dead. She understood war, but there was things dignified men did not do, and that was one of them. Her skin pricked with rage.

She loaded arrows quickly, as she shot at the soldiers on their horses. She hopped that if she killed the men, the horses would be spared. It was easier to kill the horse and then kill the men when you were fighting on the ground, but the horses did not ask to be here. So she fired arrow after arrow. Knocking the horseback riders numbers down by just over a half.

****

The men panicked as soldiers on horses dropped like flies, where were the arrows coming from? They scanned until they located the arrows coming out of a tree on the tree line. The information was passed around, "HE'S IN THE TREE!" they screamed as the archers loaded and shot all at Syvis' tree.

****

"Damn" Syvis muttered as she clued into what was happening. She moved nimbly to the back of the tree and started climbing down just to hear the thunks of arrows hitting the tree in various places, the ones that missed flew by her face body that was tucked behind the tree trunk. It was good they shot her although, a waste of arrows, and more arrows for Syvis. She grinned evilly as she grabbed one of their arrows and sent it back to them hitting an archer in the eye. "SHE is in the tree!" She screamed recklessly from her tree, in a taunt. A man could not shoot like her.

 

[Conrad]

The army approached and as they came over the hill, half of them dropped their swords. Their lord screamed at them as they ran over the battle line to the other side. "COWARDS!!" he bellowed in rage, it was all that more personal now, not only had the bloody demon taken Syvis hostage, thralling her into marrying him, tried to steal his wife, he'd now used empty promises to take his men? The bastard. The spawn of Satan.

He was pleased to see that so many had defected. He was going to show them the benevolence that he'd promised. They'd remain alive so long as he did. He let them in, he had a few knights watch them just in case, but otherwise they were trusted not to betray his trust.

His knights let them pass, then reformed their box. And waited for the enemy to approach. But then he thought, they were approaching and ready to fight up close. They could save a lot of lives if they killed the enemy quickly. And now their archers were on Syvis.

The time for defence was over. He sent a few knights to get the horses, and a few more to get the Lances. They'd break this box with a cavalry charge. And a few knights would remain as reinforcements, to hammer into the flanks while the enemy was focused on the main charge.

Eighteen riders for the main charge, and sixteen per each of the two reserve units. And Conrad spearheaded the first cavalry charge.

He lead the eighteen, who formed a wedge, and thundered forward, intent on breaking the enemy with the speed and force of galloping war horses. They'd win, that had been guaranteed already. The lord wasn't deploying his knights properly, a mounted knight was less effective when stationary or moving slowly, especially against charging knights. And infantry were at a significant disadvantage Against heavy cavalry such as knights.

It may have been premature to mobilize his entire army.