The Anvil (73 page)

Of
the
forty
-
five
Dragon
Guardians
only
seven
were
women
.
The
group
followed
the
Ilemite
soldiers
for
three
days
until
they
caught
up
to
them
,
the
Ilemite
troops
camped
by
the
same
small
river
that
went
passed
Blangto
.
The
Arstanian
troops
camped
about
a
mile
away
in
a
small
gully
.
No
fires
,
just
cold
rations
and
tents
.
They
had
caught
up
to
them
about
noon
and
the
Arstanians
decided
to
wait
until
night
to
attack
.

About
midnight
Tom
woke
as
Tyler
shook
him
“
Get
up
,
it
’
s
time
.”
was
all
he
said
then
left
Tom
’
s
small
one
-
man
tent
.
Tom
stood
put
on
his
armour
,
put
on
a
black
loose
shirt
and
black
pants
,
buckled
his
belt
with
his
dagger
in
it
,
strapped
his
quiver
to
his
back
along
with
his
crossbow
,
picked
up
his
axe
and
walked
out
of
his
tent
.

Almost
everyone
was
awake
and
in
similar
black
clothes
.
Tyler
walked
over
and
stood
by
him
as
Alex
made
sure
everyone
was
there
.
Alex
’
s
dark
purple
armour
was
already
dark
enough
so
he
had
only
covered
his
shield
.
All
the
Dragon
Guardian
had
armour
the
same
colour
as
their
scales
,
one
of
the
symbols
of
a
Dragon
Guardian
. “
Everyone
form
up
.
Archers
in
back
,
warriors
in
front
.”
Alex
said
simply
then
waited
as
everyone
got
into
formation
.

Tom
and
Tyler
were
near
the
back
of
the
warriors
as
they
were
young
.
Tom
and
Tyler
would
shoot
some
shots
before
joining
the
fight
with
their
close
range
weapons
.
Tyler
had
a
bow
and
had
trained
a
little
with
it
so
he
could
have
a
better
range
.
The
group
started
walking
as
quiet
as
possible
towards
the
Ilemite
camp
,
apparently
the
enemy
didn
’
t
think
anyone
was
near
and
they
could
see
their
fire
about
a
mile
away
.
As
they
neared
the
camp
the
archers
,
along
with
Alex
,
Tom
,
Tyler
and
two
other
young
warriors
stopped
.
They
all
readied
their
weapons
as
the
rest
of
the
warriors
crouched
a
few
yards
ahead
.

Alex
nodded
to
Tom
,
who
raised
his
crossbow
and
shot
the
sentry
nearest
them
as
Alex
shot
the
next
.
Tom
’
s
bolt
whizzed
passed
the
sentry
’
s
ear
a
split
second
before
Alex
’
s
arrow
hit
the
next
sentry
in
the
throat
.
The
sentry
Tom
shot
at
yelled
as
Tom
’
s
next
bolt
hit
him
the
the
arm
.
More
Ilemite
soldiers
ran
out
of
their
tents
,
half
in
armour
and
bleary
eyed
.
Tom
set
his
crossbow
down
and
yelled
with
the
rest
of
the
warriors
as
they
stood
and
ran
towards
the
camp
.
Alex
sent
a
large
rock
at
a
enemy
soldier
with
a
spear
,
killing
him
.
Alex
flew
over
the
troops
,
landed
and
started
running
in
front
of
them
.

Tom
stayed
with
Tyler
near
the
back
as
they
ran
towards
the
camp
.
As
the
scout
had
reported
earlier
,
a
little
less
than
one
hundred
enemy
soldiers
were
running
around
,
some
starting
to
fight
back
.
Soon
there
were
small
groups
fighting
while
the
two
groups
of
archers
fired
at
each
other
and
the
random
troops
away
from
their
warriors
.
Tom
and
Tyler
stood
with
two
other
warriors
,
back
to
back
as
the
enemy
warriors
realized
they
could
take
out
the
small
group
easily
.

The
one
enemy
soldier
jumped
at
them
,
sword
raised
above
his
head
.
Tom
stepped
forward
and
used
his
leg
to
sweep
the
man
’
s
leg
out
from
under
him
and
followed
with
a
cut
to
the
neck
.
Behind
him
one
of
the
other
Arstanian
soldiers
went
down
and
Tyler
thrust
his
spear
at
the
killer
,
who
didn
’
t
see
the
attack
until
it
was
to
late
.
Tom
spread
his
wings
and
buffeted
the
enemy
soldiers
with
wind
while
Tyler
protected
his
back
with
the
other
soldier
.