That Others May Live

by CptBrony

Offload

Offload

Duke and Frost walked back to the village, feeling disappointed but determined. They knew that OGA was alive and here in magicland. They knew who was holding him. And they knew that they wouldn’t be alone in the fight, even if it meant fighting in a foreign war.

As the men approached the village, they heard a series of loud cheers coming from the group that had been held in the center of town. From where they were, they could only see the glow of torches lit in the dark that signified where the villagers were. The light permeated every crevice it could reach, and shadows were cast all over the place by the dancing and prancing horses.

The men decided that they didn’t feel up to a celebration at the moment, having just failed to secure OGA. They decided to go around all the celebrations and observe from the shadows, see if they couldn’t find Nedal to have a discussion on how to proceed. They moved through a little side street, looking for the big house that they had been on the roof of to observe. There was intel to gather there, as well as a place to just sit.

They didn’t find themselves going there, though. Right on the other side of the row of homes on their left was the celebration, fires illuminating the night and horses enjoying their freedom. One of them spotted Duke and Frost through an alleyway.

“هناك هم!” he shouted. Duke and Frost’s eyes went straight to the source of the voice, a stallion with two others who was approaching them with smiles on their faces. “أنت هم الذين أنقذوا لنا!” the same one said.

Before they could explain that they didn’t understand, Duke and Frost found themselves being pushed to the center of the party. As soon as they were out of the alley, cheers rang out around them. The men were pushed right into the middle of the celebrations, where they were greeted with gifts of necklaces, bracelets, and strange baubles the likes of which they had never seen. Little fillies and colts ran up to them and hugged their legs, and the mares would give them unexpected pecks on the cheek. The men squirmed away from all the attention.

Their salvation came in the form of Nedal and his stallions running in and looking around for enemy griffons. They scoured the place quickly, checking homes, crevices, alleys, and looking to the sky. When they found nothing, they stood off to the side somewhere while Nedal walked in.

“It would seem that you appeal to the peasants. Shocking,” he said as he walked up to the men, getting the villagers to back away.

“And what does it tell you, how the peasants and YOUR KING like us and want us around?” Duke replied. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you’re not worthy of peasant love.”

Nedal frowned. “I am much too worthy for them to even consider speaking to me. They know their place. As you should know yours.”

Duke stepped forward. “And you ought to know yours.”

Frost remained in his spot with the villagers, not wanting them to feel like they were exposed to Nedal and his stallions. “We had a plan and we have our Rules of Engagement. We don’t put civvies in harm’s way, and we explained that to you, yet you disregarded us. You seem to forget that you have no authority over us, Nedal.”

“Shut up. I only speak to officers.” the stallion snapped at Frost.

“You don’t tell my partner to shut up, Nedal, just like you don’t try to tell us how to do our job. We came in to rescue our guy and to rescue hostages. Not only did you very nearly get these hostages beaten and possibly killed, your actions resulted in the griffons managing to escape with OGA.” Duke leaned in to the stallion and touched him, nose to nose. “You ignored the deal we made with your king. And guess what? He’s gonna hear about it.”

“Ha!” Nedal replied. He held up a hoof and waved it over the crowd. “He does not care for them any more than I do. He will not care about that.”

“Oh, but he does. And he will. And you’ll be in deep, deep shit.”

Duke turned back to Frost. “Go back to that house and grab the intel. We’re gonna personally deliver it to King Sauri.” He turned back to Nedal. “And I hope he delivers me your head on a silver platter,” he said darkly with a finger poking Nedal’s chest.

Frost had already gone off to collect the intel, so Duke just walked back over to the villagers. They all looked at him expectantly, like they thought he would be able to tell them something. Instead of speaking, he just smiled and held his arms up high in a victorious stance. They all cheered.

On his way to the intel house, Frost kept an eye out for any straggler griffons. But he was looking out for more than just that. He wanted to keep an eye out for Nedal and his stallions. He wouldn’t past that dude to send someone to do something, especially after that little display in front of an entire village. In the darkness, Frost made sure that no shapes appeared too suddenly or looked too much like horses.

When he got to the house, before he went in, he checked it through a window to make sure it was clear. When he confirmed it as such, he quietly entered and made his way to the room with the intel. When he got there, he noticed that the body of the griffon was gone.

“Odd,” he said.

Frost approached the area where the body had been laying and looked around. There was still blood on the floor, of course. It looked like it had been smeared, though, and a trail led to the ladder. “Must have gotten the body out.” he thought. They did the same thing that Al Qaeda fighters did in Iraq; they would make sure that the bodies were taken away before the battle ended so the kills couldn’t actually be counted.

Frost ignored that in the hopes that the intel was still there. He took a look at the table and quickly determined that not all of it was still there. “Dang it,” he said to himself. There was still some left, illegible to him, but it would have to do. Frost stacked all the documents and put them under his arm to bring them to Duke.

Frost strolled back to the center of town, where he was once again greeted with enthusiasm bordering on worship. He had to gently push his way through the crowd of horses, shaking hooves, accepting gifts, letting little ones see him. Eventually, he was able to make it through and find Duke.

“Yo, boss man, got the docs,” he announced. “I think we’re about ready to get moving.”

Duke walked over to him and took the documents, looking them over and then sticking them underneath his plates. “Good work,” he said.

From there, the men waved goodbye to the villagers and left with Nedal’s stallions to the caravan home. They went and gathered all of the gear and camping materials from their previous location and set out to return to the capital, where they would further learn about the war and just how deep they would have to delve to get their guy back.

*************************************************************************

The ride back to the capital was silent; no one spoke. The stallions all stuck to their own group while the men rode in their carriage with their weapons in their laps. It was tense -- not only was there still a constant risk of ambush through most of the ride, but there were new tensions between the men and Nedal. And those tensions would likely only get worse.

They arrived at the city in the morning, right around 0940 hours. The sun was out and blazing, the heat waves coming off the ground distorting light. Any horses that they passed were wearing veils or large hats to protect against the sun. The men thankfully had a roof on their carriage.

The gates opened for them when they approached and they just rode right in. All of the locals watched them as they passed by, in awe over the presence of two warrior humans. They may not have known about their involvement in the war before, but when they rode in with the guards, it became very clear. None cheered like the villagers had, but most of them were wearing big smiles. Duke made a note to find out more about this obsession with humans at some point, if they ever entered a country in which the men could actually communicate with the inhabitants.

The caravan went straight to the palace and dropped off the team and pair at the front gates, then went off on its own to do whatever else it had to do. The men watched it as it went, then turned to enter the palace. Nedal wanted to keep them from going in, though.

“Hold on, humans,” he said, walking forward. “You aren’t going to see the king yet. He is much too busy, and you must be exhausted from travel. We will go see him and tell him of what events occurred, then you can see him later. He will want to see you, probably.”

Duke and Frost turned and looked uncaringly into Nedal’s eyes. It was very clear from how they were shifting about, focusing on different things, that he was lying. He probably wanted to tell King Sauri about how the humans actually made things worse, nearly blew the whole thing. He would receive no such pleasure.

“Our policy is to immediately meet with the highest authority and to debrief them on the op, regardless of circumstances. If our spouses are giving birth, if there is a funeral, anything... we go and debrief. We’re going now, as is our standard operating procedure,” Duke explained. “You’re free to tag along, if you like,” he finished with a sneer.

Nedal scowled, but before he could speak again, the men turned around and walked into the palace. They moved at a brisk pace through the halls, eager to offload the information to King Sauri and his guys. They would be able to make sense of the intel, and with any luck, he would smack around Nedal for being an ass.

The guards, upon seeing the men in their Combat uniforms and carrying weapons, allowed the men to pass without questioning. They went right past all security and into the throne room, where the king sat, looking antsy and eager for the men to return. And probably his stallions, too.

“Ah!” he shouted when the men entered the room. “It is good to see that you have returned safely. Please, come along.” King Sauri leapt off his throne and ran around behind, making his way to the War Room. Duke and Frost looked behind themselves, seeing no sign of Nedal and his stallions. Frost shrugged to Duke, and they went on.

“Where do you think they are?” Duke asked nonchalantly.

“Probably being questioned for authenticity by the other guards. We got past cuz’ we aren’t exactly the easiest dudes for them to impersonate.” Duke agreed, and they went on in silence.

King Sauri had already run to the room, leaving the men to go the rest of the dark hallway alone. When they finally emerged, the king looked back and smiled wider than either man would have believed possible.

“Good, good. Now, let’s get on with the information.” The king sat down with another group of horses, all wearing very different outfits than the guards. Some wore lab coats, some wore suits. Generally, very different from the culture in that place.

“Alright,” Duke started. He pulled up two cushions for him and Frost, who sat down beside him. “First order of business: We found these documents.” Duke took a minute to pull the documents out of his armor. They had been between the plates and the under clothing, so they weren’t sweaty. “They need to be translated and decoded.”

One of the lab coat stallions came forward. “I can take,” he said, extending his hoof out. “We do this well.” Duke handed over the small pile of documents to the stallion, who took them and exited the room. One of the suit stallions followed him out.

“Excellent! We almost never get anything useful like that from griffon-held places,” King Sauri complemented. “Anything else?” he asked.

“Well, there had been some, but before we went back for it, they came back and took some away, plus the body of one of their guys,” Frost explained. “There had been more, but we have no idea what may have been on it. It, or what we did get, may have information on OGA.”

King Sauri’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yes. But you’ll want to hear the events of the operation before we tell you that, since it happened toward the end.”

King Sauri nodded and requested for the entire story. The men started with how they explained to Nedal how they operated, and his initial reluctance and later refusal to comply. They gave Sauri numbers, how many griffons they estimated they encountered, and how many villagers there were and were nearly captured. The men were very stoic when they explained how they rescued the villagers; by shooting the griffons.

“I am glad that you saved my subjects,” Sauri said lightly. “I am sure that you had to do it.”

“Yeah,” Frost said. “But we wouldn’t have had to kill them if Nedal had done what we said. We might have captured some instead.”

“What did my captain do?” Sauri asked with concern.

Duke tapped Frost on the shoulder, letting him know that he would take care of this. “He attacked when we gave him express orders not to,” he began. “We explained the risk of a frontal assault -- we nearly saw the risk become reality -- but he went on with it anyway. And you know what the worst part is?”

“What?”

Duke leaned forward. “OGA was there. If you’re guy hadn’t attacked, just done as we said, we would have OGA, and you might have another highly trained human to assist you.” He had no intentions of letting OGA help any more than he had to help after they got him back. He was just appealing to the mindset that the horses had about humans. “Instead, his actions resulted in the griffons escaping with OGA.”

“How do you know it was him?” Sauri asked hopefully.

“When we called to him, he responded. He shouted back: ‘JSOC?’... our military designation is with JSOC,” Frost recounted.

King Sauri was quiet for a moment. He clearly didn’t like the idea of his best stallion going against the best interests of his subjects, and to top it off, nearly getting them killed. Plus, he ruined the humans’ chances of finding OGA, who would have been a massive aid to them. The more he thought, the more his face went sour.

“I will be forced to speak with him when he gets here,” he finally stated, earning a silent victory cheer from the men. “Where is he, by the way?”

The men both shrugged. “He had been right behind us, but he didn’t keep up by the looks of it,” Duke said casually. “Maybe your guards wanted to check if he was really who he claims?”

The king nodded. “Ah, yes. That could be. There are some ponies who fight with the griffons as mercenaries.” The king stood. “Well, I think that we are finished here. You both may return to your own quarters.”

The men stood as well and gave a light bow to the king. “Thank you, King Sauri,” Duke replied. The men turned and walked out through the hallway from which they came.

As they passed through, the men saw Nedal and his stallions up ahead. Nedal evidently saw them as well, as he made his team step out of the way for the men. And as the two passed, they glanced at Nedal’s team. Some wore looks of distrust or outright hate. Others looked like they were in awe. And a couple actually looked scared of them. Nedal himself wore a stone cold, emotionless face, which very poorly hid his distaste for the humans.

They passed through the awkward moment with the horses and/or ponies, as Sauri referred to some of his subjects, without incident. Or at least no open incident. The men knew that the conflict with Nedal wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

So they opted not to put more thought into things that needn’t be taken care of by them and simply went back to their quarters for some well earned rest and relaxation.

Comments

[Overlord Sparkle]

Are the residents of saddle Arabia ponies or horses?

[Ink_25]

4769133 I don't think that it matters. But the king himself was described as being very big, so he might call himself a horse.
Plus, we have a hierachial society here, so whoever he might refer to as a horse might have a higher position than a pony.
I hope this made sense, it's almost 4 AM for me

[Sheild Blitz]

4769133
Technically (If by going from the show) They're actually camals

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

The mystery deepens...