It is always greener when we look back.

30th day of the 7th month 579th year of the 8th era

Akuchi woke to someone shaking him. Mayu stood over him, her hair framing her face.

“Hey.”

“What time is it?” Akuchi asked sitting up, allowing the sheet to fall.

“It’s time for food.”

Akuchi tossed back the bedsheet and stretched.

Mayu handed him his morning ration.

“I ate better on the farm,” Akuchi groaned.

Akuchi sat back down on the bed placing his plate on his lap. The plate contained a couple of pieces of bread, some egg, and what looked like a tuber that Akuchi couldn’t recognize.

“The food must be rationed, we don’t know when the next food shipment will come,” said Mayu.

They both ate in silence, as they chewed on the hard bread, the eggs the only thing making the meal palatable.

“There isn’t much variety either,” Akuchi continued to complain.

“Surely you didn’t have great variety as a farmer?” said Mayu.

“No, but I got accustomed to eating better on the trip over here.”

“Ship’s food couldn’t be that great?”

“I ate at the captain’s table.”

“Hmm, the captain would have had a good spread,” Mayu agreed as she chewed on her bread.

“Why aren’t we training today?” said Akuchi.

“After the workout yesterday followed by the hard ride, we deserved a day off.”

“Or are you hiding from Oggy?”

Mayu smiled, not rising to Akuchi’s barb.

“I heard that the people from Ishtaree don’t like to wear clothes,” commented Akuchi, looking at Mayu.

“Yeah, that’s true. We see wearing clothes as a sign of distrust, or ceremony.”

“That is interesting. For the people of Crece, we don’t worry about clothes too much, but we do wear them, but very rarely.”

“Really,” commented Mayu. “When do you guys dress up?”

“Well, if we were to go outside or about the town. Though I didn’t wear many clothes as a child.”

“Yes, you mentioned that your family were farmers?”

“Yeah,” reminisced Akuchi. “We would work the farm from dawn to dusk, after that Mother would send us all to the river to wash. After washing we would have dinner with Father, then we would go to bed.”

“My parents worked the farm during the day while I was at school,” Mayu started. “When I came home we would all gather and discuss our day as we washed, then I would go to bed. Because we lived near Ishtaree, wearing clothes could ostracize you.”

“Why is that?” Akuchi prodded.

“Well, people would think that you distrusted them,” Mayu explained.

“My parents were pretty poor,” Akuchi said.

A loud horn blasted, disturbing the quiet, Akuchi and Mayu separated.

“What is that?” Akuchi asked, watching as Mayu reached into her trunk and pulled out her weapon.

“We are under attack!”

Akuchi reacted immediately, grabbing and stepping into the trousers that he had discarded at the end of the bed last night. Once dressed, he pulled out his falchion from the trunk at the foot of his bed and followed Mayu out the door. The horn blasted again. Men and women, all soldiers, were running towards the north-eastern wall. Mayu dashed after them, heading towards the same wall. Akuchi ran after her. The rushing wind cooled his skin. Mayu and Akuchi ran to the wall and entered a door at the base of the tower, then ran up the spiraling stone steps. Their feet padded up the stairs. At the top, they exited through a wooden door that led to the top of the wall. From the top of the wall, Mayu and Akuchi could see a huge host of trolls over the open grass. Akuchi stood to Mayu’s left, leaning over the wall's battlements. Behind them, soldiers from the fort ran along the length of the wall.

“This is what we are here for,” Mayu instructed.

“Those trolls,” said Akuchi. “There are so many of them.”

“The grasslands to the north are extremely vast. In all the years we have not found its end.”

“The trolls can’t come from the grass,” observed Akuchi.

“Scouts have gone out and never returned. I believe that those people found where the trolls come from.”

“They have to come from somewhere. Surely they couldn’t come out of the ground.”

“People have thought that they do.” Mayu laughed. “But I believe that somewhere out there is a troll city or several of them.”

Arrows from the soldiers on the battlements let loose, raining onto the troll host.

“We should get going,” ordered Mayu, “you are not trained on the bow, and we are to be part of the sally force when the Commander orders it.”

Akuchi nodded and followed Mayu back into the tower and down the steps to the ground.

“What are we to do while this is all going on?” asked Akuchi.

“We wait,” said Mayu. “And when they bring their ladders we will be ready to push them off.”

With that, Mayu walked away from the wall and headed into the training room. Akuchi followed her.

After several hours, Mayu called the practice duel to a halt. She then went over to the table that had been left from yesterday and took another glass of water. Akuchi could see sweat trickling down her back in several places.

“Why the punishing practice?” Akuchi asked taking a glass of water from her outstretched hand.

“I am not certain you are ready for real battle yet,” Mayu replied.

“How will you know for certain?”

“After your first battle.”

Akuchi placed his glass down and followed Mayu back onto the dueling ring. He could see that she was angry; her eyebrows were bunched up, giving her face a fierce look.

“Water stance,” Mayu ordered, taking the relaxed open stance that water stance required. Akuchi took the stance himself. Mayu attacked. He blocked as he moved with graceful rhythm, the ebb and flow of water stance allowing for the attacker and defender to trade attacking and defensive postures. Akuchi focused his mind as he stepped forward and swung his sword in a low arc. A loud clang rang as their swords clashed. A grinding sound followed as Mayu stepped back, sweeping her sword into an attack.

Akuchi saw the attack and prepared to defend. He brought up his falchion and blocked the swipe, causing both blades to glide along with each other past them both. Stepping forward, Akuchi forced Mayu back as he twisted his sword in front of his body. The move surprised Mayu for a second before blocking it.

A loud horn bellowed twice, echoing from outside.

“What is it?” Akuchi asked, looking down into her eyes.

“The trolls are bringing ladders,” Mayu stated, “We are needed on the wall immediately.”

They headed back up the tower, arriving at the wall as a ladder came crashing against it.

“They normally do this on the second day,” Mayu commented, “what has changed?”

“They seemed ready for this today,” replied a soldier next to them who wore full leather armor and sported a long siege fork.

The first troll came into view and Mayu reached out and stabbed it in the eye. It collapsed back dead, leaving the sword coated in blue blood.

“Akuchi,” Mayu ordered, “take the other side.”

Akuchi stood on the other side of the ladder and together they pushed against it. With a hefty push, the ladder sailed away from the wall and tottered for a moment before coming back to the wall as another troll climbed to the top rung. A chorus of laughter from the trolls on the ladder went up as the troll stepped onto the wall. A yell of war cries rose from the trolls beneath.

Akuchi stepped forward and swung his sword, decapitating the troll. The soldier with the siege fork pushed the now-dead troll backward and it plummeted to the ground, taking the troll behind it with it.

“Thanks,” the man in leather said.

“Great work,” Mayu cheered. “Let’s see if we can find another.”

“Sure,” Akuchi agreed, and moved on with Mayu.

Together they moved past the defenders on the wall, moving west towards the next tower. Men and women on the wall fired off arrows into the crowd of trolls at the base of the wall. A loud whump came from further along the wall. Akuchi looked up at the tower and saw a catapult launch a huge stone into the mass of attacking trolls. The stone flew and crashed down, crushing a group of trolls. A ladder arose from the mass of trolls. Several trolls clung to the ladder. Akuchi grabbed Mayu’s shoulder and pointed.

“I see it,” Mayu exclaimed. “It will land just ahead of us. Come, let’s go.”

They both ran until they stood in front of the oncoming ladder. Akuchi braced his sword in rock formation with both hands ready to strike. When the ladder hit the wall with a jolt, Akuchi struck forward, hitting the first troll in the neck. Warm blue blood spurted out from the neck and the troll fell to the ground. The sudden movement pulled Akuchi forward. He braced and the blade came free of the flesh and the troll dropped to the ground.

A horn sounded from beyond the wall. The ladder was pulled back and the trolls pulled back from the wall. A troll jumped off the top of the ladder as it teetered away from the wall and landed in front of Akuchi. It swung out with its scimitar and struck the man in leather next to Akuchi, killing him. Akuchi brought his sword up and swung it in a fluid water strike, bringing the blade up from the ground to above his head. The blade cut through the troll, cleaving it from navel to neck. Mayu stepped forward and cut off the troll’s head with a powerful air spin attack move.

“What’s happening?” Akuchi asked. The troll’s body slumped backward and fell to the foot of the wall.

“It’s nightfall,” laughed Mayu, “trolls are afraid to fight in the dark. So, they always pull back at dusk.”

Akuchi noticed that the sun was setting. He glanced west and saw the sun touch the horizon.

“I wonder what they are afraid of?” mused Akuchi. “It must be something really frightening for them to abandon an attack.”

“We don’t know that much about the trolls. They do have a very predictable fighting style. At the sound of their horn, they retreat.”

Akuchi followed Mayu down the tower steps and into the command building. They gathered their food for the evening meal. They had entered a room off the side of the command building. Inside was a long bench with bowls sitting in neat rows that contained dinner. The rest of the room was filled with large tables and bench seats on either side of the tables. The tables were arranged in simple rows to maximize the people contained at them. Akuchi looked in horror at the amount of food he was given.

“How is anyone meant to live off this?” Akuchi complained, looking at the simple soup sitting in front of him. Mayu laughed as they made their way to a table and sat.

“If you don’t want it,” Mayu said, stretching out her hand for his bowl.

“I didn’t say that,” Akuchi growled as Mayu laughed. “What could the trolls be so afraid of that they would obey their horn signals so faithfully?”

“If you find out, let us know. We might be able to use it for our benefit.”

The soup tasted faintly of meat, of what exactly Akuchi could not tell. The soup was pale, thin, and watery. He could taste several familiar vegetables and greens in it. After drinking it all down and placing his bowl back on the mess table, his stomach growled.