The Dragon Ascendant

General Flocki

CHAPTER 1 - General Flocki

The sun was setting, casting an orange glow over the blood-drenched battlefield. The Eastern Rebellion's famous general, Flocki, stood amidst the chaos, surveying the pandemonium with his battle-weary eyes that had seen far too many wars. 

His soldiers were valiantly holding on but were slowly being worn down. The enemy was just too numerous. But Flocki? He was rock-solid and unwavering.

“Sir!” A young soldier, panting and covered in dirt, dashed to his side. “The western flank... they’ve broken through. We can’t hold them any longer.” 

Flocki tightened his jaw. His plan had been so detailed, even a bit obsessive, but good tactics sometimes come undone when the bulge in the balloon has to go somewhere and when the other side barely thinks and just pushes and pushes and pushes. He turned to his lieutenant, a man of middle years who had been with him long enough to know what he didn’t want to hear and what he did want to hear.

"Calder, when will the reinforcements get here?" Flocki asked. He maintained a calm demeanor, but his body was tense with anxiety. 

Calder shook his head and wiped sweat from his forehead. "I think at least an hour, maybe longer.” 

“We don't have that kind of time." Flocki narrowed his eyes and thought about what had to be done. 

He was intimately acquainted with the plan's price tag and wasn't eager to pay it, but there was no real choice. Reinforcements weren't coming in time, and the altercation could not be allowed to continue.

"Then we hold our ground," Flocki asserted. 

"We stand and fight until reinforcements arrive. Retreating now would mean total defeat." 

Calder grunted in reply. "We'll gladly comply with your orders, General, but the troops are worn out. We've been in combat for some time now." 

Flocki placed a hand on Calder's shoulder. "You need to pull the men together, Calder, and briefly restate our reason for fighting. We are not fighting just to survive; we are fighting so that, at some point in the future, a human being can go about his business in a way that doesn't include just running, hiding, and human cephalopods."

Calder gave a curt nod, then spun on his heel to bellow out orders to the soldiers nearest him. Flocki watched Calder move off, then turned his attention back to the skirmish line. The enemy banners were in sight now, a hundred or more, whipping with the wind and held aloft by fervent soldiers. 

Any thought he had about not being able to see his family again was balled up tight; there was no room for it to expand during the next few minutes. He and the men with him were about to cross the threshold from safety to danger and, potentially, death. 

Flocki would not dumfound himself with images of an uncertain outcome that could soften his courage.

"General!" another soldier said. This one came limping up to the general, and it was apparent that he had seen better days. His uniform looked like it had spent the last few hours tumbling around in a blender. It was soaked in blood. 

"They’re pushing faster than we thought," said the soldier. "We can’t stop them…and…" 

Flocki cut him off. "You need to slow down and remember to breathe," he said. "Now, tell me everything you know, starting with what direction the enemy is coming from."

In the midst of the chaos, a voice Flocki knew well cut through the noise. "General Flocki, are you really going to die here like the rest of these men?" 

Floki turned to see a familiar tall figure standing behind him. It was Jared, his oldest friend and once his closest ally, now a traitor who had defected to the enemy's side months ago. Jared had led Flocki's betrayal and had put him and his men in this desperate position.

"Jared," Flocki growled, gripping the sword hilt tighter. "You dare come here?" 

Jared smiled, a twisted sort of smile. "Flocki, I've come with an offer…." 

"You could never offer me anything, Jared. We've already made our choices; yours is loathsome. Valor allows me to stand with these 'fools' against you. You don't get to call us a dying cause from up there on your high horse. You serve only death you and your masters can dish out."

Jared now wore a full smirk, and his tone had become sarcastic. "You always were the goody-goody, Flocki. But what has that gotten you? Just look around—your men are dropping like flies. You can't win this one. You were never going to." 

Flocki stepped closer, hand now at the ready on his sword. "We'll see about that." Jared laughed, "Anyway, you'd best be remembering that I gave you a choice when you're lying on the ground, bleeding."

Flocki observed his dissenter slip back into the fray, about to unleash joyous chaos upon their enemies. Anger flowed hot in Flocki’s breast. The betrayal stung like nothing he had ever felt before, but there was no time for that. He had a battle to win. 

"Calder," Flocki called. 

"Let me guess. Things are not going well?" 

Calder's serious face answered before his lips had a chance to move. "They're breaking through on all sides. We're surrounded." 

Flocki felt his heart pounding, but the expression on his face did not change. "Get the men ready for a final stand."

Calder hesitated, searching for some sign of hope in Flocki's eyes. "And you, General? What about you?" 

Flocki drew his sword, the blade glowing beneath the vanishing sun. "I'll lead them, Calder. We probably won't win, but I promise you this: we'll give them a fight they won't forget." Flocki smiled then a grim, determined smile. 

"And I hope to hell they remember our names when it's all said and done." Calder nodded, respect and something else for Flocki clear in his eyes. 

"It's been an honor, General."

With one last nod, Calder pivoted and started to group the soldiers for their last known position. Flocki looked upon his men long and hard. No man was without visible fatigue, yet every man was full of determination as they set themselves to confront the certain death that awaited them. 

As the weight of the enemy bore down on them, Flocki lifted his sword and issued forth as loud and clear a battle cry as he could muster. 

"For the honor and glory of the Empire!"

The men answered with a roar that filled the air and proclaimed their intent to the enemy. They charged forward, a well-drilled machine of death and destruction. And at their head, though separated by a full battalion, was Flocki, his civilian heart pounding in his chest like a drum, the only rhythm he could hope for as he sliced his way through the enemy. 

He was reputed as the best general of his time for a reason. He was as good with a sword as anyone could hope to be. And righteous fury was driving him into the enemy.

Amid the chaos and destruction of the battle, Flocki spotted Jared again. There he was, up on a hill, just watching the fight play out, and looking pleased as punch. 

Flocki felt his anger go from simmering to boiling and forged ahead through the enemy lines, no care for how wide he was opening them or how many Zassen he was taking out. All he knew was that reaching Jared up on that hill was now his only goal in life. 

But then he felt something piercing through his side and saw the enemy blade sticking through him and into nearly the same part of the Zassen he was already fighting. 

Jared observed him with a frigid smile, fully aware that Flocki's prospects for survival were virtually nil. Yet Flocki seemed to take the news that he was actually losing the battle with unusual calm. Even as he was clearly in the process of dying, he maintained a stubborn posture of defiance. 

His sword was just about to hit the ground when he graced the blade with one final thrust of energy, leaving the door open for descanting heroic phrases that I was imagining.

Flocki's last thoughts were of his family. He remembered his son’s laughter, his wife’s welcoming smile. 

He had fought for them, for a future that now seemed jarringly out of reach. Yet, as life ebbed from his body, Flocki felt no regret. His vision dimmed until it was no longer a vision, just a darkness that fell over him like a shroud. He whispered a promise into the emptiness. 

“I’ll take you down, Jar….” And then, nothing.