I can’t believe how much I hate everything. I ate my breakfast hungover and barely alive this morning. Well, well, well. If it isn’t the immediate consequences of my actions.

That said, I decided to be quiet and observant for the rest of the trip to try and take my mind off things. I missed my wife, I missed home, I missed good food, and I missed my own bed and all the kinky sex I’d have on it. And God help me when I go into heat- I won’t even be able to properly get myself off what with Adrian and I sharing a tent.

Ugh. Either way.

Something interesting I found out about the diamond dogs- they can just eat their hardtack as is! It makes sense- their teeth and jaws strong enough to break rock make them a perfect match for our bread. Sometimes I’d see them crushing up gems into a sort of dust then adding them to a pan with flour and water, creating a sort of “jam” which could be spread on the crackers. So that was neat.

Back to relevant information. Honestly, the only reason we brought the dogs along was for two main reasons. Reason one being that if things really go to shit, they can join in on the melee. But again- things would really have to fall to pieces for it to get that bad.

But the primary use is as a sort of warning. They’re instructed to contact the dogs of this warren to convince them to lay down their arms. This is… an act of mercy on my part. At the very least, it would hopefully convince them, or at least give them a chance to evacuate the civilians.

It would soon be midday, and once again we found ourselves munching away at our pemmican ration, only the mood upon the group was far more somber than the last time we were in this situation. We were waiting on our signal- either a volley of fire telling us to charge in or silence until nightfall will let us know we struck a peace deal.

Somehow, I don’t think this one will be as bloodless. Rosco, the twins, and I have been passing a bottle of liquor between us to ease our nerves and Sinan has been chain smoking since we got here. Not even good ones- he was smoking the cigarettes from our ration barrel, which we’ve dubbed “sandpaper cigarettes” or “sandpapers.”

“Well, here we are again.” Adrian said to himself, idly staring off into the distance. “About to descend into darkness once more. This time though- we won’t have the element of surprise.” He said, and I sighed.

“Yeah, yeah. Not the smartest thing I’ve done tactically but… Fuck, I just felt bad for ‘em.” The decision was… quite unpopular. Especially amongst the line fighters, who were never actually in the gas, nor did they ever have to see… to see…

Fuck.

Jos just snorted. “You still on about that crap?” She asked, taking a sip of the bottle. I huffed in annoyance.

“Yes, I am. I can’t help the fact that I see that... that carrion thing every time I try to sleep.” Of course, Adrian just had to give his opinion on the matter.

“I know. You mumble in your sleep.” He said, gaze never leaving the horizon.

“Shush.” I pocketed the bottle, figuring that getting absolutely shitfaced wouldn’t be a great idea right now. I was fine with just being a little tipsy.

We heard the first volley fire in the distance, and we all sighed, putting our masks on tight. I signed the cross, as though that gesture had any meaning here. We dropped a gas can down and followed it after a minute. I struggled for breath against the charcoal filter of my gas mask, although I knew it was better than the alternative.

The cave we found ourselves in was dark as shit, and much like last time the lanterns only did so much. And like I mentioned before- we’d be fighting uphill, so waiting for the gas to flood ahead of us would be fruitless. We’d displace the oxygen with gas at that point.

“Adrian, Sinan. Cans on half.” I instructed them, making heavy use of gesticulation to make sure the point was crossed. They looked like demons when the cloud of green gas started flowing from their sides. “Let’s roll.” I said, gesturing for everyone else to follow.

Already, I realized that this battle would be hard fought. We heard shouting in the distance, carried by the echo of the cave. I turned to my compatriots and yelled, “Stay close! Let the gas do most of the heavy lifting!” I stroked the backstrap of my pistol with my thumb.

“URAAAA!” One of the dogs yelled, charging forward like a bull.

BANG!

I quickly sidestepped and shot him in the back- his shouts turned to coughing and hacking as gas filled his lungs. A few more dogs charged in like this and I realized their plan.

“THEY’RE TRYING TO SPLIT US UP SO THE GAS ISN’T AS CONCENTRATED!” I yelled as we made our way forward. The gas and the darkness made seeing an almost impossibility, so there were many close calls with these chargers- who often charged with their sword on their back on all fours, relying on a small spiked shield to do most of the damage.

“Look out!” I heard Jos yell too late as I was barely able to dodge this one. He clipped my side pretty well, the point of his shield leaving a dent in my armor that poked my side.

“YOU FUCK!” I yelled at the dog before-
BANG!

-putting a bullet in the back of his head. I holstered that pistol and swapped for another one.

“FUCK IT!” I heard Adrian scream at the top of his lungs. “GOING SLOW ISN’T WORKING!” He yelled, to the surprise of all of us. We’d never heard him yell like this!

“Adrian, the fuck you thinking?” I asked him,

BANG!

Shooting a dog that was charging right at his side. He stopped and looked down at the corpse… then looked deeper into the cave… then shrugged.

He raised his cutlass in the air heroically. “SINAN! FULL GAS, BOTH TANKS!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, and Sinan paused, regarding him with confusion. I looked at Sinan with a wide grin.

“Do it.” I couldn’t see his face, but I could see him nodding.

After using his cutlass to aerate a dogs neck artery, he raised his sword to the sky.

“FOR THE MOTHERLAND!” He screamed, charging forward like an utter lunatic.

“FOLLOW HIM!” I yelled, and we all gave chase to our compatriot. The twins were laughing like madwomen, Rosco gave a Yee haw! And Sinan… didn’t say anything aloud, but his overall stature and demeanor matched our hype.

“FIGHT LIKE DEMONS!” I heard him yelling, and I cranked one of my gas tanks on for support. The room we charged into was in utter chaos- dogs ran in fear, some stayed to fight, many got trampled by retreating soldiers. With the line having been breached, many dogs drew their claymores. It was utter chaos- my senses were being drowned out by screams and gunfire in every direction.

Fin was fighting dogs off in melee while Jos provided her support with her pistols. Eventually, Jos commandeered the blunderbuss since Fin hadn’t used it all that much. Watching Sinan fight with a sword was like watching a ballet- the way he moved was so smooth and elegant, like a ballerina. Meanwhile, Rosco was providing fire support for Sinan. As usual, I fought with a combination of the two, but mostly favored my pistols because I was good with them.

But Adrian? He fought like hell. Somehow, I saw him break away from the rest of us and was fighting off three dogs at once. He was constantly moving, rolling around and dodging swings from their massive swords- so massive in fact that it was kinda disadvantageous. I drew my pistol and shot two of them,

BANG! BANG!

As Adrian finished the last one off by putting his cutlass through the dog's heart.

“Cover me for a minute!” I said to him, “Gotta reload!” He nodded and began fighting at my back while I started the process of pouring powder, wad, ball and wad into eight different barrels.

“You done yet!?” He yelled, slicing a dogs throat open.

“Finally!” I yelled back, having primed the last of my pistols. I then decided to celebrate the occasion-

BANG!

By shooting a dog that was charging towards Adrian. “You're welcome.” I said to him with a smug grin.

“BEHIND” He yelled and pointed at me, and I-

Clang!

Fell to my side as a massive diamond dog pummeled into me. He had me pinned and I struggled fiercely. He looked furious- mouth covered in a damp, bloody cloth and the front of his chest was covered in blood. It dripped down and smeared against the lens of my mask.

I put my arms up defensively, “NOT THE FACE!” I yelled,

BANG! The deafening report of a blunderbuss let me know that the situation was over. I kicked the dog off of me and took a look around.

I heard Adrian scream.

“Shit, I’m coming!” In the gas, I could barely make him out. I shot a dog and saw that Adrian was doubled over, clutching two hands to the left side of his face. Fuck!

BANG! I shot a nearby dog and approached my apparently hurt friend. I looked to him for an explanation.

“Hit. Broke the lens.” He said, tearing off a piece of his cloak and shoving it in the hole.

“Ffffaaagh!” He half yelled half groaned, the residual gas on the yellow cloak getting into any open wounds and burning like hell. That eye was fucked. I went up to his side and offered him help.

“Come on, I’ll make sure you get back safe.”

“Are you kidding me?” He asked incredulously. “I can still fight!” He said, to my utter disbelief.

“But-but your eye-” I stuttered,

“Is gone!” He said, pulling himself from my grasp. “But damnit, I’m still breathing!” he yelled. At this point, the number of soldiers had thinned considerably so there was more breathing room. I regarded him with a smile.

“Good man, good man.” I said, taking the time to reload my pistol. Once I was done, Adrian looked at me and said,

“What’re we waiting for? Those fuckers took my eye!” He yelled out, and I raised a fist in triumph.

“LET’S GOOOO!” I yelled, and we all charged forward.

Forget any notions of mercy. Forget any notions of caution. We fought off an army and they were on the run, tails between their legs. Or so we thought.

We met up with other stormtroopers at about a halfway point where the mine path delta’s off. At this point, morale and hype were high.

Then, we heard something. A faint droning in the distance. A whine almost- as though a thousand souls screaming out in anguish as they burned. In the wide, empty, echoey caves, did they play the bagpipes. It sounded as though 100 pipes played in unison, and we were terrified.

I looked around to my compatriots in fear. “FULL GAS! FULL FUCKING GAS, EVERYONE!” I turned to Adrian with a deep breath and said, “Okay, so I’m thinking that if we make a tactical retreat here, we can make them follow us through the already gassed sections to whittle them down. What you think?” I asked him calmly.

Much to my surprise, Adrian ignored me. “SHOW NO MERCY! WE SHALL HOLD THE LINE!” He screamed, causing a chorus of Yeah!

“FOR THE MOTHERLAND! FOR PROSPERITY!”

“YEAH!”

“WE SHALL TAKE BACK WHAT IS OURS! WE ARE GRIFFONS!”

“YEAH!”

Just when I was about to ask Adrian if he’s completely fucking lost it, he yelled “CHAAAARGE!” and everyone else followed him like lemmings.

Fuck, fuck, this is bad… With no choice, I followed the charge. We faced the warriors in the gas, barely able to make each other out at this point. I guess this was the plan- keep pushing forward.

This whole plan… worked surprisingly well. Despite our inferior numbers, the cloud of gas was so thick that many of them started suffocating instantly. And we were constantly on the move, so we were leaving the thick cloud in our wake. I said hell with it to the pistols and instead drew my old dagger, using it to quickly dispatch them via slices to the neck.

“THEY’RE RETREATING! PUUUUUSH!” I heard Adrian scream, and I didn’t even take the time to process where I was in relation to the world as we made our final push to the middle. The portcullis which guarded the entrance hole was wide open as dogs scrambled to escape the carnage. We all turned off the gas before leaving.

The sun was up and we could finally see, so I took a look towards Adrian. He was… a bit worse for wear. He was breathing heavily, likely having breathed in gas accidentally. He was covered in cuts and slices, his armor full of dents, and he was covered in blood.

He approached the leader of the clan and said in a raspy voice, “Are you the alpha?” The dog, literally shaking, nodded slowly.

“Ah, wonderful.” He said before proceeding to beat the shit out of the poor bastard. “Leona? Where’s that treaty?” He asked, and I pulled it from its sealed wooden case and unrolled it. Adrian took it and threw it at the alpha, currently on the ground.

“Sign that. You don’t have a choice.” He said disdainfully. The dog seemed confused until I handed him a pen. Without even reading it, it was signed. “Well, I’d call that a roaring success.” He said, making his way towards the medical field. I decided to follow him.

As we walked, he took his helmet off, then his mask…

And I literally gasped at how bad he looked. The entire left side of his face was fucked- covered in chemical burns and with the eye completely destroyed, a shard of glass probably being the cause. He looked at the mask wistfully before putting it back into the little can it came in.

“Jesus Christ…” I muttered to myself upon seeing him. He just giggled.

“What? Do I have something on my face?” He asked, and I shook my head. “Come on, now. We all knew what we were signing up for.” I just huffed.

“Doesn’t make it any easier…” I muttered, idly rubbing the faint scar on my beak.

“Adrian!” I heard Sinan yell. We both turned around, and the rest of the yellow team gasped when they saw the state of him. Hell, all the stormtroopers were there.

“What’s all this about, then?” Adrian asked.

“You friggin’ serious?” Jos asked with a wide grin, “That thing you did back there was awesome!”

Adrian… blushed, giving the crowd a sheepish grin. “I uh… didn’t think what I did was that unusual…” He’d look pretty endearing if half his face wasn’t destroyed. Admittedly- he does look kinda hot, though.

“Are you kiddin’ me?” Rosco asked with a wide grin, patting Adrian on the back, “By doing that not unusual thing, we went from shittin’ ourselves to chargin’ in like lunatics!”

“He’s right.” I said, rubbing my chin. “In fact, I’m willing to bet we left a… good impression on our enemy.” Fin then spoke up,

“If what we did today convinces other diamond dogs to not fight, even better.” I snapped my fingers,

“Very true!” At this point, we finally made it to the hospital. All kinds of people were being treated- mainly dogs, though. As I would later find out, we lost four of our own today. Not bad, all things considered.

One glance at Adrian sent the doctor into overdrive, with the nurse dragging him away.

“GET WELL SOON, YA’ FUCK!” I yelled towards him with a wide grin. I turned to the doctor and asked how long for recovery- and he estimated about two weeks minimum.

Something told me the crazy bastard would be out before then, though. Hopefully, he’ll be all healed up before we hit Copseburgh, though. Even if these lesser warrens surrender, I somehow feel like the capitol will try its hardest to hold.

Here’s hoping. Gonna miss having him in my tent, though.

"PUSH, YA FUCKS! UNBIND EVERY KEY BUT FUCKING W" -my friend at the end of an intense round of PLR_Hightower :3

ALSO- fuck me sideways, 40+ chapters! That's fuckin' wild; it feels like I just started writing yesterday! Once again, I cannot overstate how appreciative I am. Really- thank you all!

As always, thanks so much for reading! Likes and comments are always greatly appreciated!