BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan (25 page)

And once that hour was over, the support team
cooked up breakfast, while the advanced team unset the tents and
broke up camp. By the time breakfast was ready to serve, the
assault team had just finished packing all the gear back into the
wagons. Finally, once chow was over, nearly two hours after
sunrise, the riding recommenced.

It took nearly a month’s worth of hardcore
training for the assault team to show serious improvement; training
that first consisted of blind fighting against another
non-blindfolded opponent.

Once they had all gotten decent, but still
needed much more practice (in Humonus’s vocalized opinions), he
began to instruct them how to ride blindfolded upon their horses
during the day, after of course having already assumed the riding
formation.

Just before they practiced this for the very
first time, Humonus specifically instructed, “Rule number one—never
veer the direction of your horse or chariot for any reason, without
first alerting your buddies to your left and right, by calling out
the direction you now need to travel…yell, if necessary. Rule
number two, if you don’t alert your buddy, you will cause a very
serious and painful accident!”

At first, the riding was at a slow gait, but
as the days progressed into weeks, Humonus had the assault team
gradually quicken their paces, ultimately into full gallops.

With only minimal injuries sustained
throughout, once the assault team had begun to show serious
improvement with this task nearly three weeks later, Humonus then
integrated the training so they would learn how to fight blindly,
while riding at a full gallop. Moreover, because the troops had
gotten good enough to keep themselves at a safe distance of twelve
feet away from each other’s horses through the sense of sound, it
wasn’t very hard for them to pick up this bonus feature.

An hour after breakfast, eight weeks and
three days after having departed Pavelus, the army began to see a
vast mountain pass that covered the entire length of the eastern
horizon—the Bospa Mountains.

An hour after lunch, they could clearly see
that these mountains were jagged, ice-encrusted, and very
beautiful. An hour after sunset, they set up camp within a fertile
valley at the base of those mountains.

At about eleven that night, Stormea and his
two top officers arrived at the command tent. Both Humonus and Cheo
had just begun to take off their battle armor.

After snapping a salute that was immediately
returned by Humonus, Stormea reported, “Ruling-General Humonus, the
grand total of casualties that we have sustained since having
traveled through the desert these last two months is one hundred
eighty-eight, sir. Most of the accidents came as a result of the
horseback riding accidents while your forces were riding
blindfolded at a full gallop, but per your order, I had the support
team spread out our columns into rows of one as we rode directly
behind the entire length of the assault team. Fortunately there was
only one fatality, six life threatening injuries, thirty-four major
ones, and all the rest were minor…sir!”

“Excellent work, Commanding-General,” Humonus
commended.

Cheo, who was lying down in his bunk, snapped
his fingers once.

Humonus glanced over at Cheo, and asked,
“Yes, King Cheo?”

Cheo quickly signed something to Humonus, who
interpreted, “King Cheo agrees with my commendation of ‘excellent
job!’”

Stormea proudly replied, “Thank you
Ruling-General Humonus and King Cheo!”

At a normal tone of voice, he next asked,
“What are your next orders for traversing through these Bospa
Mountains, which you vaguely mentioned before, sirs?”

Humonus answered, “We are going to divide the
assault team into two sections with three columns in both
sections—the first half will lead the formation through the
mountain passes, while the second half will trail at the rear—in
between we will place the support team—in columns of two. As for
you and the command wagon, you will ride at the rear of the
support. Now remember that trouble could arise at any time, so keep
your soldiers on yellow alert—understand?”

“Yes, sir!” Stormea said just before he
snapped a salute, which was returned by both Humonus and Cheo.

Stormea then departed, along with his two top
generals—meanwhile, Humonus and Cheo ate their dinner of dried
rations that the soldiers had just brought to them, and then they
went fast to sleep in their bunks.

The next morning, just after a very colorful
sunrise, Humonus called for formation through his megaphone. Then
and there he briefed the same information to the army that he had
shared with Stormea the night prior. Through his vocalized
commands, he next re-shifted his entire army around until they were
now in the new formation. Finally, together, as a single unit with
he and Cheo in the lead, the army traveled through the summery warm
valleys…

Six afternoons later without a single
encounter, incident, or even a chilly night, the army finally
arrived at the borders of Valakan, which lands consisted of all the
fertile valleys surrounded by jagged mountain peaks around here.
Most of these soldiers had never seen “beautiful landscape” such as
this—not even Cheo, whom had come a different route through the
mountains.

The only person who did not pay much
attention to the scenery was Humonus, as his focus strangely
remained locked on the road ahead—about an hour later, relief
finally crossed his face upon discovering that the town of Valakan
itself, consisting of hundreds of giant-sized log-cabins of all
styles, was entirely unscathed.

Thankfully, the giants of the village, mostly
ranging from seven-foot to nine-footers, were now running out of
their cabins and uniting together—however, all bore alarmed
expressions, and all wore metallic armor, helmets, shields, and
possessed at least one weapon! The women and children stayed inside
the cabins.

As the army drew within fifty feet of the
first cabin, Humonus lifted up his left-armored fist into the air,
and called out loudly to his forces through his megaphone,
“Halt!”

The troops stopped in perfect synchronicity.
Meanwhile, the giants had just finished forming themselves into the
shape of a triangle—in the very next second, the giants not only
simultaneously slammed their shields together on the ground around
them, yet also over their heads, which instantly formed “a massive
shield fortress!”

A second later, a door/shield in the top of
the fortress disappeared right near the front, and “the leader of
the pack” stood to his feet, which revealed everything above this
ten-foot tall, six-hundred pound giant’s waist—a man who Humonus
instantly recognized as Yaush, one of his close friends.

He had also observed that this giant’s
massive hands not only possessed an equally massive steel bow and
arrow, which already had an arrow “locked and loaded.” A very
intense look was in his eyes as he carefully analyzed the size of
the arriving army, while simultaneously looking for any and all
people who looked like high-ranking officers.”

Only a second later, Humonus realized that
Yaush certainly wouldn’t recognize him with the helmet on, so he
took it off with one hand, and while waving his other hand through
the air, he said one of the dozen or so sentences that he had
learned how to say in Valakanese: “Visha blaka, Yaush!” (1)

Both of Yaush’s thick eyebrows rose in
surprise, recognition and happiness—all at the same time. In the
very next second, he lowered his bow to the ground, while his very
loud and booming voice greeted back, “Visha blaka fe mao, Humonus…
Jaosaim!” (2)

It was then that Humonus instantly remembered
that the Valakanese word “jaosaim” meant, “friend.” He asked,
“Jaosaim, mensa sahu mao?” (3)

“Visha! Mao?” Yaush answered with both
enthusiasm and happiness in his voice. (4)

Just as enthusiastically, Humonus answered,
“Visha!” (5)

He did not understand the semi-lengthy thing
that Yaush said next, (6), but he did notice that the giants right
away began to relax their shields, while simultaneously rising to
their feet as they had been kneeling, though they did not move from
their current location.

A second later, Humonus spoke aloud the name
of the only seven-foot giant he knew that could fluently speak
twelve languages, including that of Thoriumite, which he could also
speak, “Salami?”

Humonus had first met Salami during his last
one-month stop in Valakan, which was but nine months ago in fact.
During this wonderful visit, Humonus, Chelsea, Baltor, and Brishava
had all been traveling westbound from Chao-chu-sha-maen to Pavelus,
so that Baltor and Brishava could inherit the Sharia Empire, which
they did.

Again, Humonus asked the old giant’s name in
the form of a question, “Salami?”

This time, Yaush turned around, looked
amongst the crowd of giants, but after a few moments without
success in locating Salami, he boomed out loud and clear, “War sahu
mao, Salami?” (7)

Salami, now possessing a completely white
beard and a very wrinkly face, hobbled his way on a cane through
the group of giants with a bow and arrow strapped onto his
back.

He yelled out in the language of Thoriumite,
“Hold on there. Even though I’m not as good of hearing as I used to
be, ya young whippersnappers, that doesn’t mean I can’t see the
both of you!”

All of Salami’s “s” sounds were more like
“shh” sounds. Upon completing his sentence, Salami then began to
cackle an old man’s laughter!

With a nod, Humonus greeted, “Visha blaka fe
mao, Salami.” (7)

Once Salami had hobbled his way over to Yaush
and Humonus’s position, about three minutes later, he immediately
greeted with a toothless grin, “Good morning to you, Humonush!”

Yaush said something to Salami. Salami then
interpreted, “Yaush wants to know what brings you out in our
direction, especially with this huge army following behind you,
which is obviously is under your command?”

Humonus answered, “Though I am one of the two
main commanders of this army, this army isn’t mine. They belong to
Baltor and Brishava. I sincerely hope our arrival hasn’t frightened
anyone, especially the women and children around here, but we—the
army, King Cheo, and I—are traveling eastbound toward the Jungles
of Galgaa.”

Instead of interpreting Humonus’s answer into
Valakanese, Salami looked quite excitedly around as he asked,
“Where are Baltor and Brishava, those blessed children?”

Yaush politely reminded Salami to interpret
with a tap on his shoulder.

Now remembering that he was the interpreter,
Salami cocked his head around to look at Yaush, who began to
interpret Humonus’s answer in Valakanese.

Once done about fifteen seconds later, Yaush
said something to Salami. Humonus detected the words “Baltor” and
“Jaosaim” used in the sentence, remembering that jaosaim meant
“friend.”

Salami straightened his head to look at
Humonus once again, and then asked, “Yaush also wants to know where
Baltor and Brishava are?”

Humonus answered, “Baltor is traveling with
the bulk of his army—more than a one hundred ten thousand elite
soldiers—to fight against another army that has just stolen a city
of the Sharia Empire.”

With disbelief clearly in his voice, Salami
asked, “Did you say one hundred ten thousand elite soldiers?
Wow!”

Without pause, he cocked his head back to
Yaush, and interpreted Humonus’s answer ... in turn, all of the
giants either whistled aloud, or made some other type of
“astonished noise.”

Once Humonus saw that Salami was looking his
way, about twenty seconds later, he added, “Yes, the numbers are
true. As for Brishava, she remains back in Pavelus with a ton of
unbelievably important tasks to accomplish, as there is yet another
army heading our way—yes, we have many enemies. In case you haven’t
figured it out yet, Baltor has successfully become the Sultan of
the Sharia Empire, and Brishava the Sultaness!”

Salami breathed out in awe, “Really? So their
plan really succeeded?”

Humonus answered with a smile, “Yes…so
far.”

Yaush politely tapped Salami on the shoulder,
in order to interpret—Salami did.

Though a mixture of emotions crossed Yaush’s
face as he listened to the interpretation, a wide smile crossed his
face upon hearing the conclusion!

As soon as Salami had finished interpreting,
Yaush immediately commenced to say something else, which sounded
like a question by his slightly uprising tone of voice.

Upon completion of Yaush’s question, many of
the other giants began to boom out the word, “Gav,” while nodding
their heads up and down.

Salami interpreted, “Yaush offers his
congratulations to both Baltor and Brishava for their wonderful
successes—all of us want to know, however, why they are sending
your army through our lands?”

Just then, coincidentally enough, Cheo had
just gotten off his chariot and now stood to Humonus’s right.

Humonus first pointed at Cheo, and then
explained, “This man here is the King of Chao-chu-sha-maen, which
as you know based off Baltor’s history, is a friendly nation that
lies to your east deep within the Galgaa Jungles. They are also
your neighbors…

“Tragically, Chao-chu-sha-maen was attacked
not too long ago, and destroyed by a dark and evil army that is
making their way west toward your direction…your new-new neighbors!
Before I continue, I will break here so you, Salami, can translate
what I’ve said so far, okay?”

“Okay…” Salami said. He next looked over at
Yaush, and interpreted. As soon as he had finished, many of the
giants began grumbling toward each other.

As for Yaush, he nodded his concerned-looking
face at Salami but said nothing—at that, Salami looked back at
Humonus, and said, “Continue on, please.”