After they left, I didn't go back to the garrison. I went out into the forest and hunted down a wildwood tree. They were a lot rarer this far from the marsh, so it took a while. I found a nice one and felled it, dragged it back to Diane's place, then peeled the bark and sliced it into enough coins to add enchantments to all of the barge boats.

I used the same trick to conceal them into a large piece of wood and each bench at the front was that much thicker. I even added a protection ward to one of each of the building supply crates that would be left in each section as we dropped the workers off for the second part of the mission, just so I wouldn't have to do it later. I even made a small batch of replacement movement wards, just in case, and hid them on my boat.

With my hidden work completed, I went to bed and relaxed as I waited for the very early morning to come. I had a feeling that it would happen before I knew it.

Only a moment later, the morning arrived and I woke up rested, then went to the mess hall to eat and everyone else showed up shortly after I did. As they ate, Alex handed out a general health potion to each of the strike team members to drink and then gave them to the construction crew. When he came to the mages, he handed one to Mage Lukas and waited.

The potion glowed for a second and Mage Lukas nodded, then Alex handed potions to the six mages that I had trained last night. When everyone drank it, they all reacted to it in a similar manner as Donna had when she drank it the first time, as if it was a rush, which meant that most of them had been at least a little sick. Mage Lukas reacted that way, too.

“I didn't realize how tired I've been lately.” One of the mages said. “That was a great potion!”

Alex went back to the strike teams and gave them a single healing potion each, then told them to not guzzle them whenever they get hurt. That wasn't what they were for and he explained how to properly use them for minor injuries and then if a major injury happens, to drink it all. After that was a quick briefing to make sure that everyone knew their roles, then we all went to the two prepared boats.

The mission had begun.

I was in my boat and had the tandem barge behind it that was attached by a very thick rope and several guide ropes. I activated the weight enchantment on mine and Mage Larson activated the weight one on the other. Both boats lifted half out of the water and I turned to nod to her.

“With the way I feel right now, I could do this all day!” Mage Larson exclaimed and several of the fighting mages laughed. It was much easier to power the enchantments now and the other two boats that were controlled by Mage Lukas and Mage Falcon rose out of the water.

“Let's get to the drop off point.” Alex said to me and nodded to Donna, who was on the rudder.

I eased us out from the dock with the pole, as did one of the construction crew on the other boat, then I eased us out into the middle of the waterway. Mage Lukas was right behind me and I made the forward motion and took off with the boat at half the speed the weaker enchantment could achieve. He kept up easily and we travelled down the waterway a short ways and then out into the harbour. To my surprise, a whole bunch of soldiers had populated the village dock and waved to us.

“Go get them!” “Kill those dragons!” “It's the Gulf Kingdom's marsh now!” “YEAH!”

We moved across the harbour and the cheers and hollers followed us the whole way.

“You'd swear we'd already done it.” Alex said to me with a laugh.

“Did the potions master come through?” I asked and Alex nodded. He held out a pouch that was similar to my bandoleer with many small padded pockets in it.

“The two red ones are immolation potions and cover the target in fire that will burn for two full minutes. The two orange ones are just a general fire potion that will cover a large area with normal fire. The four white ones will put out fire of any kind, which we might need if these creatures are anything like western dragons.”

“No anti-venom or anti-poison?” I asked as he closed it.

“Unfortunately, no. All we have are the healing potions and normal medical treatments.” Alex said. “You don't know how glad I am that we planned for that.”

“We have to hope the defensive mages can get their shield up in time.” I said.

“It's their job. Those construction crews will be safe or we won't deploy them.”

I nodded, because that was the downside of going into combat with non-combatants. They were a lot more vulnerable to death than a normal fighter was, mainly because they weren't fighting and concentrating on combat. I increased speed to the fastest that the other boat could manage and Mage Henrietta that sat on the bench beside me moaned a little.

Mage Lukas kept up with me and we travelled for several hours. When we approached the drop off point that was far enough away from where I suspected the nest was, we came to a stop. Alex held up his hands and did several hand motions, then I and three others from the first boat crept out onto the marsh. We didn't make any sound and flowed into the marsh as if we belonged there.

When I found a pungent enough smell, I directed them to it. We covered ourselves to blend in, both physically and smell-wise, then continued on. I was in front and had my vigilance technique going, so I dealt with anything that was even close to threatening. The other three scouts were surprised as I easily dispatched poisonous snakes, tangling vines, and even several spiders. I had to ascend a few trees to get the spiders.

I let the scouts handle the other small creatures we came across and only handled the deadly ones myself. We slowly made our way through the marsh, waded through waist deep water in spots, killed several near-crock lizards, and finally approached the spot where the fungus blooms used to grow. I say used to, because now it was a giant nest made of trees. Not sticks or branches. Nope. Full trees were bent and twisted together to make a nest.

It was also full.

The momma dragon was there and she had three babies with her. Luckily, they were a bit too small to be much of a long range danger, since they couldn't fly yet. Her on the other hand, could lunge a hundred feet in an instant. I made the retreat motion and we backed off, very carefully, and retraced our steps all the way back to the boats without speaking a word to each other.

“Good news and bad news.” One of the scouts said as we reported to Alex.

“Goddammit, there's only one.” Alex assumed.

“Worse. It's four and it's only the mother and three new babies.”

Alex closed his mouth on his response and turned his head to curse silently. I recognized the mouth movement from the Hag's constant cursing when she was angry.

“Nothing on this side.” Someone whispered.

“Clear in the back.”

“Clear in the front.”

“Give the primary build crew the coordinates.” Alex said to one of the scouts and the man went to them. “David, I'm going to need you to check the other suspected spot.”

“I'll need another scout to get the coordinates right.” I said.

“I'll go, just for the hell of it.” One of the men said. “I can die happy after seeing you move like that.”

Alex chuckled. “It's amazing, isn't it?”

“Unbelievably.” The scout said and looked at me. “You're self taught, aren't you?”

I nodded. “Survival in a hostile environment really hones your instincts.”

“I'd like to learn from you... except, I have some idea of how you got that way.” The scout said and nodded at my face. “I'd prefer a much less deadly way to learn, thank you.”

“Me, too.” I said. “Let's go.”

The scout nodded and I led him to a thinner part of the waterway, then we waded across it... after checking for water beasts, of course. I might have been away from the marsh for three months and learned a whole bunch of stuff; but, I would never forget how to stay alive. Despite it being a harsh way to learn by having the Hag beat the knowledge into me and removing flesh when I did it wrong, I was never going to forget her lessons for the rest of my life.

It took us almost two hours to get to the alternate site that the mages had pinpointed as another area with a lot of magic in it. When we approached, the sight we saw was staggering. It was another nest with another female, quite a bit younger than the other, and she had two babies and a very large male hovering near them.

I urgently made the retreat signal several times and we got out of there carefully and quickly. We were back at the boat an hour and a half later, much faster than the journey out, because we had to warn everyone.

I waited until everyone gathered around before I spoke. “We're screwed.” I said and Alex looked at me with shock on his face. “There's a second nest, with a second female, and a huge male is near her and her two babies.”

Alex lost the shocked look. “We can handle two nests. That's why we have two crews to...”

“No, you're missing my point. I only saw one male and two nests, both with nesting mothers.” I said. “There's at least the first male and possibly another teenage dragon.”

“How do you know that?” Alex asked.

“None of the dragons I've seen have the wounds you caused to the baby.” I said and he cursed again.

“What's the problem?” Mage Lukas asked and we told him the situation with the two nests. “We can deal with the ones we know about and then we can deal with the missing ones.”

“I wish it was that easy.” Alex said. “Once we open up with an attack on the nests, which have to be at the same time or it won't work, the missing dragons could show up out of nowhere and kill us all.”

“The defensive mages...”

“...will be quickly overwhelmed if the dragons come for the catapult crews.” Alex said. “They will easily see the trajectory of the shots we lob in on their positions, especially when flying.”

“We'll have a few minutes, maybe. Maybe.” I said. “If we're lucky.”

“With two nests, the dragon's territory definitely crosses every route we could possibly make through the marsh.” Alex said. “David's right, we're screwed.”

“No, don't give up.” Mage Lukas said. “You know the prince's life... all our lives... are dependent on this working.” He said. “Seeing it on paper is one thing while trying to ignore the consequences of not doing this part of the plan was a mistake on Princess Ellen's part. I admit that, as does she. It's another thing to cancel the plan because the circumstances have changed to not be in our favor.”

“There's nothing we can do. As soon as we open fire with the catapults, they will be attacked.” Alex said.

“Lieutenant, I am one of the strongest mages in this country and I work for the Royal family. I can perform magic and cast spells! There's nothing in this world that mankind can't face off against! We've fought wars for decades! We can't let these giant overgrown birds defeat us!”

Alex closed his mouth on his response and didn't say anything.

“Is there anything... anything at all... that can be done to save this mission?” Mage Lukas asked.

No one spoke for about ten seconds. It was then that I remembered what Mage Lukas said during the meeting last night about using a movement enchantment and not having it attached to anything. Boy, oh boy, did it give me a crazy idea.

_______________

You have a critical choice to make. Will you speak up and tell them your crazy idea or let the entire plan fail?

A) Stay silent. B) Go home. C) Speak up. D) Attack. E) Sigh and give up. F) Sit and rest.

Well, damn. Okay. I think... no, I'm sure that if it works, it'll be great. If it doesn't... well, we were going to die during the attack anyway. So, I'll choose C.

_______________

“I have an idea.” I said and everyone looked at me. “It's really crazy and I'm going to need to borrow a construction crew. I also need Mage Lukas and Mage Henrietta's help.”

“YES!” Mage Henrietta agreed enthusiastically without even waiting to hear my idea.

Mage Lukas gave her a stern look and she ignored it.

“He's going to do something amazing, I just know it!” Mage Henrietta said, excitedly.

“What's your idea, David?” Alex asked.

I told them what had just popped into my head. A lot of the strike team laughed. The combat mages were a mix of disbelief and hope, and Alex and Donna stared at me like I was crazy, as did Mage Lukas. His warning had been to stop people from using a movement enchantment that wasn't attached to anything, not to encourage it.

Mage Henrietta smiled and walked over to me, then she wrapped her arms around my arm. “I told you it was going to be amazing.” She said to Mage Lukas and looked at me. “Even if none of the others want to help, I'll help.”

“We'll help, too.” The two mages that knew the weight enchantment said. “You need to make them lighter.”

“We're in.” One of the construction crews said. “Just tell us what we need to do.”

Alex looked around at everyone else and their reactions.

“What's the word, mission commander?” I asked him.

“We're screwed anyway, so go ahead.” Alex said and waved at the soldiers. “Disconnect the first boat and unload the provisions.”

“Sir.” They said and my boat was disconnected and quickly emptied.

“I assume you can get back to your house from here?” Alex asked and I nodded. “Then get going and hurry back.”

“Sir!” I said and saluted with my real hand, then I helped Mage Henrietta into the boat. The construction crew and the other two mages climbed in as well. I looked at Mage Lukas with a question on my face and he sighed.

“I hope I don't regret this.” Mage Lukas said and climbed into the boat.

“Hold on everyone.” I said and poled us out into the right direction.

“David, don't waste time.” Alex said from the shore and I gave him raised eyebrows. “It's just a movement enchantment that faces different directions.”

“YOU CAN DO THAT?!?” Mage Henrietta yelled.

“Apparently.” Mage Lukas said and rubbed his ear.

“Hold on, everyone.” I said and put the pole down and sat beside Mage Henrietta. I used the movement enchantment like I always had and finished turning the boat around in a circle, which surprised everyone. I brought us up to nearly half speed, which was twice that of the limited enchantments. Mage Lukas gave me a pointed stare, I assumed for not showing him the full enchantment, which I ignored.

What I couldn't ignore was Mage Henrietta and her constant shivering as my magic flowed through the much more powerful enchantment. Her face had a euphoric expression and she kept a death grip on my arm as we took turns and curves in the waterways without someone on the rudder to steer.