The march to the pony settlement would take the span of several days and Nolan was spending that time getting to know the new player in this party, Captain Shining Star. She was a soldier, through and through, her demeanor and attitude that of a career Army soldier. She was a mustang, that being a soldier who had started off as an enlisted common infantry fighter, and through hard work and effort had managed to earn an officers appointment. Her magic was a huge aid on the battlefield both for fighting the enemy, but also for helping her troops. Granted, by her own admission, most of her magical training had been focused on fighting and how she could use her magic to keep herself alive in a fight, but she had enough training in healing spells that unless the injured were on deaths door, she could probably keep them alive until a doctor or surgeon could be summoned.

While they traveled, both Tempest and Feris were of the opinion that Nolan and his Hunters should act as forward scouts while on the march, and hunt for extra provisions when camped. Both of these activities would allow for Nolan to demonstrate how effective he and his fellow Wolves would be to Captain Shining Star. Nolan, after some thought, didn't see an alternative and agreed. After a few days, Captain Star didn't seem to raise any further concerns, verbal or otherwise aboiut the young wolves and their low numbers.

Nolan tiredly walked into the part of the camp that was given over to the Wolven one night. He had been busy most of the night already talking with Tempest and Star about the next day as they were going to be getting very close to the settelment.

"Is there any food?" Nolan asked Crow Caller, who was out at there fire. Crow Caller simply nodded as he dished up a bowl stew made of fresh vegetables, braised venison and mushrooms. There was also light biscuits, Fravfnir infused with strawberries and dried fruit mixed with nuts for desert.

"War Leader." Crow said as he handed Nolan a plate with the bowl of stew and a few of the biscuits. He also handed a mead horn of Fravfnir to Nolan.

"Thank you." Nolan said as he took the offered dishes and drinking horn. He took a couple of spoonfuls of the stew and bit into a biscuit with a certain ferocity. He had been hungry part way through the meeting. By its end, he was almost ravenous. He tore up a second biscuit and mixed it into the stew as he finished the first one off. Feris walked up to the fire at that point with a hunk of cured venison and a horn of mead.

"Cousin. How are things with the ponies?" Feris asked.

Nolan rolled his eyes and smirked, "They are getting tense, but their morale is high. Shining Star and Tempest are concerned about our readiness, as we don't follow similar military doctrines. It took me this long just to convince them and make them realize that we're as ready as we can be, seeing as none of us here are experienced with war or fighting Griffons. Feris, in thew event we need to shift someone to help with the pony infantry, I want to send Traivor. I think he'd work well over there as phalanx fighting is something the pony infantry train in and practice regularly. Tomorrow, we won't be ranging vary far ahead of the main force, if at all. I want us to remain close to the center, while still being able to provide early warning. We don't know anything really, aside from stories passed down about how Griffons fight. Hell, we don't even know how they think or live. We know nothing about their culture or how their government works.
"If we're going to have more contact with them, be it militarily or through trade and commerce, we need need to know more, and not just about them. Tempest has told me about Dragons, Zebras, and others besides. We may need to be aware of the challenges and threats these others may pose to us in result to us willingly helping the ponies with this current situation." Nolan said at length. Feris for his part nodded in thought. After some time he took a drink from his drinking horn.

"As your second on this expedition, I am with you, War Leader. That being said, everything you've said is prudent. I have heard that there are many peoples out there in the wider world, but they've mostly left our kind alone. Whether it's because we are below their notice, to much of a problem to deal with or because they don't know we exist, I don't know. When we get back home, you and I will have the opportunity to bring your concerns to the Council. They may not listen, but we will have at least done our duty to our people by voicing those concerns and letting them know of these other peoples.
"Nolan. You're my cousin, and my friend. Do you want my opinion and advice?" Feris asked at length.

Nolan nodded, not quite emphatically, but definitely in a way that indicated that he very much wanted to hear what his older cousin had to say.

"If you have a chance to serve with the pony armed forces, take it. Yes, you will likely be taken far from home, and you will miss opportunities to find a wife, but if you manage to serve with them until your term of service ends, then you'll bring a breadth of knowledge about the wider world back to our people. Even if you never make Chief, you'll have the knowledge and will be of great value, even as a War Leader, though I think War Master isn't too far off the mark of your future accomplishments. If you go, I will stay and work to make sure that when you return, you'll have a place of honor amongst our Council. I would make this a Blood Oath if you want."

Nolan and Crow were both taken aback from Feris' offer. For him to make such, he was saying that he was willing to sacrifice himself to uphold his promise. Nolan shook his head an placed his hand on his cousins shoulder and squeezed it in a friendly and reassuring way.

"No. I appreciate and understand your offer, and respect you even more than I already do for such an offer. But, I don't need that kind of commitment. Your word is enough for me." And with that Nolan finished eating and went to bed after the next sentry shift came on duty.

🔆

The next three days were spent going over the basics. Traivor was was drilled almost endlessly, and all of the Wolven were given very basic lessons in the use of swords, with those lessons being taught and lead by Tempest and Nolan, with the latter being pushed to his limits and shown even more advanced training with it and the spear. Nolan got a chance to train with the Equestrian Knights in the use of a lance, which, Nolan could just barely use. It was a bit too long for him and the weight distribution and point of balance made it difficult for him. Nolan would probably need to be mounted on a specially trained beast to make use of the weapon fully, but a number of the skills and techniques translated to the spear well.

Even Captain Star was impressed with how well the Wolven appeared to be learning the different ways of fighting. The Captain even wanted to see how well the wolves would do in hoof to hoof fighting, but there wasn't time before they got to the settlement. Nolan wondered if that would come back to haunt them.

As they crested a hill that overlooked the area that the settlement was located in, the ponies gave out exclamations of despair and shock, anger and awe. The Griffons had come in a large ship, and kept it out of range of the limited coastal defenses. The Griffons had more than likely gone to the air and swept in on the pony defenders in stunning and brutal attacks. Part of the settlement had or was still burning as made evidence by the plume of smoke rising into the air.

"That ship is going to be a bastard to deal with." Feris said to Nolan as they looked over everything.

"No kidding. How many do you think they had packed in there? That ship's huge!" Traivor asked with trepidation.

"Good question. Tempest? Captain Star?" Nolan asked looking at the two more experienced pony officers.

"Rough guess? I'd say around fifty to one hundred as actual shock troops and shore party. Maybe another twenty five to thirty, forty on the outside as crew for that ship. Captain?" Tempest asked as he gave his estimate.

"I think it's likely that we're looking at seventy five or eighty to one hundred and twenty five to one hundred and thirty five for actual attackers. As for crew, I'd agree with it being no more than forty. The ship isn't flying any Griffon Chief's flag or one from any of their kingdoms, so I would guess that they're a privateer. If we're lucky, it's an entire mercenary or brigand group. In the face of organized and disciplined real soldiers and Knights, they'll fold like bad parchment. That still leaves the ship itself. I'd wager a years pay that they have heavy ballistas and bolt throwers as its weapon emplacements. Not to mention any of the crew using crossbows and the like. Attacking it from the air would be suicidal at worst, dicey at best. The settlement hadn't been able to get heavy coastal defenses brought in yet, as they had just gotten finished with the preparatory work for that kind of upgrade, so they weren't able to attack the ship as it came in. They didn't have a lot of Unicorns here and very few Pegasi warriors to try to fight the invasion off. We're looking at an up hill battle, but if we can rally the ponies still inside, we'll have enough bodies to force the Griffons back to their ship. I still recommend that we call for reinforcements. Two more full strength platoons from the Seventh could be here in much less time than it took us, and I know that there's at least two or three Ranger teams in the area. The Princesses could have the Rangers here in a day or two, with the reinforcements from the Seventh here in another two or three." The Captain said as she appraised the situation.

"Rangers? What are they?" Nolan asked.

"They're kind of a special operations group. They are allowed recruit from out side the Equestrian military and citizenry. They train in infiltration, espionage, sabotage, information gathering, and unconventional warfare and tactics. It's rumored that they also practice assassination, bribery and other less than savory tactics. The Ranger Commander holds and equivalent rank to a General in times of war, or Colonel in peace time and answers to the Princesses or their appointed representative only. Likewise, the Rangers only answer to their own chain of command, unless temporarily assigned to a different force. If the teams in the area are combat and infiltration teams, then they could be a huge asset. If they're a bribery group, they could still help by bribing the Griffons and making them leave without anymore risk to loss of life. Otherwise, they wouldn't be as much help as we would like." Tempest said as an explanation as he thought about his options.

"Captain, send a message to the Princesses. Apprise them of our current situation. Request any combat units in the area to be sent to our aid, as well as reinforcements from the Seventh as well as a detachment of siege Unicorns and some siege class catapults and trebuchets as well. To sell all of that, be sure to mention the ship in the harbor, its size and distance from shore, and the estimated numbers and quality of the enemy troops. I just hope we can get some reinforcements, but even still, it'll be a hard fight even with the extra troops." Tempest stated as he took one last look.

Nolan and Feris had been talking quietly in Wolven to each other while Tempest gave his outline for the letter to the Princesses. They finished as Tempest did.

"We have a plan. Crow Caller got his name because he's able to to call crows to him and use them to carry messages. Feris and I believe that we and Crow can slip inside posing as traders and merchants. If the Griffons are here to loot and plunder, they'd be chomping at the bit to get in a few traders to increase the size of their loot holdings. To sell the disguise, we would need a day to make some basic field and handcrafts. We have many gems between us, but we're going to need bits to make it look believable. How much could you reasonably give us?" Nolan asked as he laid out his plan. Tempest grinned, then laughed with a grim pleasure.

"Pup, I can probably get you around about a thousand bits, just from the other Knights. Probably close to double that if we take up a collection from the Army troops. I can even get you a few of our lances, which the Griffons would definitely buy. I'll throw in some extra swords we have, and if you Wolven put in some pelts, meat a bit of your Fravfnir, you'll make lots of friends with the Griffons." Tempest said with a chuckle.

Preparations were made, and by the time Nolan, Feris and Crow Caller left, they had just about all the gemstones in the group, almost three thousand bits in a steel bound lock box, a large number of pelts, a couple hundred pounds of cured meat and a number of pounds in Wolven craft work, a few spears, swords and lances. All said, they looked like fairly prosperous traders. Each wolf had to pull a travois and wear a heavily laden back pack, but if everything worked out well, they wouldn't need to keep all of that with them the entire time.

With both Nolan and Feris leaving the main force, Nolan had to decide who would take over while he and Feris were gone. There really was only one choice. Sven would lead in Nolan and Feris' absence, and was really the most level headed one, and therefor the best one of the lot remaining. He gave a few parting instructions to Sven, and he and his group went along another road that would take them far out to the West before circling back to the main road that lead to the settlement so that they looked like road weary traders. This would work. Right?

Author's Note

Well, here it is, chapter six done and published. We've reached the halfway part of this story, which I'm hoping will be part of at least a trilogy. The updates might be a little slower at this point as I need to work on the second story in the trilogy and I'm going to try my hand at a contest here on FiMFiction I saw that's peaked my interest.

Likes, questions and comments are always welcomed.