{"id":1417,"date":"2012-01-03T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T06:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=1417"},"modified":"2012-01-03T00:00:43","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T06:00:43","slug":"christmas-present-snippet-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=1417","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Present: Snippet #10"},"content":{"rendered":"

Episode 10 of Sergeant Vardan and her patrol during the Pargunese invasion.<\/em>\ufeff<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They discussed the best disposition of troops, the best time to strike.\u00a0 Vardan and the Halverics skirted the yard, the barn, the other outbuildings, garden, and fields, at a distance, to avoid leaving obvious tracks in the snow.\u00a0 They settled into the thicker forest; they dared not make a fire, but shared out strips of smoked meat.\u00a0 Vardan set two sentries, and then, with the others, kicked aside snow-covered leaves to make a dry hollow and dozed under her cloak.<\/p>\n

The Pargunese arrived before dark–slowly, cautiously, sending a patrol to check out the farmstead.\u00a0 Vardan, wakened by one of the rangers, crept forward to see what they looked like.\u00a0 Hungry, tired soldiers worried about an ambush, she thought, just like those she’d seen often enough on campaign in Aarenis.\u00a0 Not stupid, either–their approach was just what Halveric would have advised.<\/p>\n

When the patrol reported back to the main body–their formation clogging the farm lane; Vardan could see only the front ranks–they set sentries where she would have set them, and quickly occupied the house and barn.\u00a0 A working party broke up the henyard and pigpen fences, began building a barricade from house to barn.\u00a0 Someone was set to work with a shovel, hacking at the hard ground–for jacks, Vardan assumed.\u00a0 So they planned to stay awhile?\u00a0 She wished she’d brought the shovel they’d found in the rangers’ shelter; the Halverics had nothing to dig with but their boot-heels and it went against all training to leave their filth on the open ground.\u00a0 Smoke blew from the chimney, thickening as Vardan watched.\u00a0 She glanced at the ranger beside her; the ranger grinned.<\/p>\n

Pargunese voices–loud, harsh, some sounding angry and some laughing–and squawks of the remaining hen came to them on the cold breeze.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Thunks of an ax on wood, crack-crack of breaking branches, whinnies from the Pargunese horses; Vardan guessed that someone had found grain for them.\u00a0 But what would happen when they found the ale?<\/p>\n

Not, she was sorry to see, the drunken revel they’d hoped for.\u00a0 She watched as one of the Pargunese commanders had soldiers tip two barrels of it into the snow.\u00a0 From another, each man got one mug.\u00a0 No one got drunk on one mug of ale.\u00a0 Well…full fed and with a chance to rest, they should sleep anyway.<\/p>\n

Daylight seeped away as the Pargunese finished piling up their barricade–waist high, chest high.\u00a0 Vardan could no longer see past it, but she could imagine, from her own experience, the troops lining up for rations.\u00a0 They would have hot ham and sausage, and by now hot bread to go with them.\u00a0 Maybe sib, or whatever brew the Pargunese had instead.\u00a0 Her stomach growled.\u00a0 The farmstead quieted though an officer or sergeant made the rounds with a basket and sentries sounded off, stepping out to receive their dinner.\u00a0 Easy to tell where they all were.\u00a0 Darker still.\u00a0 The wind dropped, and a few flakes of snow fell, then more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Episode 10 of Sergeant Vardan and her patrol during the Pargunese invasion.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-1417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-snippet","tag-snippet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1418,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417\/revisions\/1418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}