Divine Wind sat silently. Her body rested on the cobblestone pavement, which was still partially wet after the morning's rain. She had to postpone her morning worship, as her estate shrine wasn't roofed.
Divine Wind deeply inhaled the air, the burning incense made it as sweet as autumn cherry. Divine Wind closed her eyes and deeply bowed to the shrine, almost touching the pavement with her belly. Her offering was already resting on a wooden roofed pedestal that constituted her shrine. She chose a stripe of expensive silk today, to make sure her offering would prompt the spirits to send her smoothly to the end of today's challenges. She silently asked the spirits to guide her today and then stood up again. On her way from the shrine, she touched the sacred basin again to purify any remaining filth that still was on her hooves. She would've liked to pray for a little longer, it would've brought her greater comfort, but time was too short today. She must have angered the spirits for them to send such an untimely rain. Besides, peasants from the neighboring village would likely come to make an offering in thanks for helping them to water the fields.
Divine Wind slid open the door to her house and entered. She stood on the entrance mat for a moment, to let her hooves dry and then proceeded to the backroom. Her house was small, especially compared to her lord's, but she was still bestowed a great honor to have it this soon.
"Mistress." It also came with a single female servant, Bamboo. She was from a peasant family and therefore not overly mannered, but she was a great help in keeping the estate clean and repaired.
"Is my armor ready?" Divine Wind asked with restrained eagerness. This day of the year always excited her.
"It's polished and the straps changed," Bamboo answered gesturing at the mannequin.
Divine Wind slowly approached it, admiring Bamboo's work. It positively gleamed despite being painted red and black, the colors of her lord. She wanted to check the polish with her hoof, but stopped halfway through, not wanting to get any dirt on the chest piece where it would be most visible.
"Satisfactory," Divine Wind said with a nod, in the end. "Now help me. It would not be good to be late."
Ten minutes later, Divine Wind was ready. Greaves, chest piece, pauldrons, helmet and facemask were all in place quickly and efficiently with the help of her servant. Her two swords were neatly pressed to her side with her cloth belt. Now was the time to choose her weapon. When she was much younger, she favored her longspear. It was the first weapon she truly mastered. Her trusty weapon was still proudly displayed in her armory. Her second choice was her bow. She long questioned why her teacher insisted that she must train with the bow instead of specializing in one weapon only, but there soon came a time when she witnessed firsthoof why it was so important. Their school was attacked by a large gang of bandits, hoping to capture fledgeling heirs to be ransomed later, but they were quickly driven back by volleys of arrows and quick sword strikes when some of them managed to draw close. Divine Wind trained with bow vigorously ever since, in fact, she was considered the best archer this side of White mountains.
Eventually, her experience prevailed over her nostalgia, her trusty bow would serve her yet again. She didn't need to check it, she just trained with it yesterday.
"Aim true, mistress, and come back in good health," Bamboo bowed again and this time stayed down. Divine Wind took the hint, it really was time to go. She passed through her estate's gates, meeting two peasants on their way to the shrine. They gave her curt bows and she nodded back. She wasn't concerned with them being inside. Bamboo would see to it that they won't steal or damage anything. That's if they would even try, after all, it was very unwise to get on a warrior's wrong side.
Her road down the hill from her estate was still wet and muddy, but nothing could be done about it. Her Lord would forgive her for not being in a totally presentable state in such a circumstance.
She stopped in the village to pick up some groceries for the road. It was technically hers, at least nominally the land belonged to her clan. Peasants showed her the customary respect, but it was not her right to demand anything more from them. Her Lord was the rightful owner and she wasn't even related to him, despite being accepted into the clan. She suspected she would've been regarded as a peasant if she wasn't, although rules applied somewhat differently to foreigners.
The sun was getting to the midpoint when she was passing the final woodland before her clan's force was in view. They were camped in their usual place, in the middle of a meadow in direct view of the other army, who have camped about twenty arrow shots to the east, by the large hill where that ruined castle stood.
Other warriors gave her the customary greetings, a few of the ones she knew better gave her a little more, but her Lord gave her the best one.
"Ah, Divine Wind! Welcome!" Lord Snow Strike said, getting off his small, wooden stool, interrupting his conversation with an officer she spoke a few times with.
"Master, you called for me," Divine Wind promptly prostrated herself.
"Ho! I didn't know we were on such formal terms again. Get up before anyone sees you and thinks wrong things!" Snow Strike chuckled. "It is good that you've brought your bow. I was just speaking with Cut String about who would fire the first shot for this battle."
Divine Wind calmly nodded. She had consistently gotten the honor three times in a row. To fire the first arrow at the beginning of a battle was an honor reserved for the most favored warriors,
"You honor me with your favor," she said the usual response.
"Everyone knows that you are the best with the longbow our clan has, no need for modesty," the Lord answered in the usual way. This dialogue has become something of a routine, happening yearly. Divine Wind knew that she was the best archer as far as the White mountains, at least, she proved as much every year at the archery range every time Lord Snow Strike hosted a competition in his castle, which was about four times a year. Sometimes they even had champions from the clans from over the mountains come by ship along the coast, but they rarely were anything impressive.
"I'll show you to your unit myself," Snow Strike proclaimed. Her ears perked up, this was new.
"Wouldn't Master Cut String be a more productive way to spend your time before the battle?" Divine Wind carefully asked.
"Nonsense!" Snow Strike waved the notion off. "Cut String knows what he must do already, we've been doing this every year since my father." That was true. The battle was more of a ritual than a real war, it has happened every year for the last thirty-three years since Divine Wind arrived at Lord Snow Strike's honored father and possibly for many years prior. From what she understood, this was something of a friendly sparring match between Komi and Hirokawa clans, they gathered in these plains every year, battled for a day and then went home. The clans were honorably tied this year and it was up to them to win the honor of earning the leading victory.
Divine Wind obediently followed her Lord out of the tent, but instead of leading her to the side of camp where archers usually gathered, instead, he led her to the inner wall.
"My Lord, I believe we go the wrong way," Divine Wind dared to point out.
"Not at all, I simply require something else from you first," he suddenly stopped and looked around to make sure no one else was there. "Divine Wind, I have to say, I spent many a sleepless night planning this, but today I suddenly realized that none of it will help. I knew you for many years and I think I could tell you all the same. Divine Wind, be my wife," Snow Strike finished with the same simple attitude he approached anything else.
Divine Wind was feeling as if she had just taken a war club hit to her helmet. She knew her Lord since he was still a foal, but it never was in this way! She wanted to ask if she heard right but no noise escaped her as she couldn't formulate coherent thoughts. But to all her shock, there still was a part of her that was flattered...
"I am not good at this, am I?" Snow Strike awkwardly chuckled and smiled, just as awkwardly.
"Master, I am old enough to be your grandmother!" Divine Wind finally managed to say something, it was true too, she was almost forty years older than him. Her own argument suddenly served to calm her a little. He was young and only recently became old enough to take after his untimely expired father. Surely it was simply a youthful obsession. She was sixty-seven, for Ce... for ancestors' sake! The only reason why she could still draw her bow was because of amazingly developed herbal medicine, extending ponies' lives to possibly hundreds of years if one could afford a potion maker, that was sufficiently skilled for that long.
"Divine, I have been in love with you since you entered service with my father! I only loved you harder over the years! Everything that you are... something that timid mares in our clan couldn't be. You lead by example and other warriors not only obey you out of obligation but also out of respect. I expect half of our young warriors are in love with you and I am just the first one who finally found enough courage to tell you!" he stopped for a moment, but Divine Wind was at a loss. "Just imagine, we will be perfect together, you and I. Your valor is like that of Blessed Lady herself. Stallions follow you willingly and your opponents respect you. Imagine how much prestige our clan will gain with both of us at its steer! Your popularity and my heritage, this union is blessed by gods!"
"Master, I must be in a fever dream," Divine indeed didn't feel well. What made it even worse is that she couldn't, exactly, refuse. It would be dishonorable to refuse genuine affections. "H-have you consulted with your honorable mother first? Is she sure this is a wise choice?" Divine Wind found a way to not answer the question directly, if only for a moment.
Her Lord immediately frowned upon mentioning his mother,
"I have not," he admitted. "My mother will likely not approve of me marrying someone not born into the warrior class. She won't be able to deny your merit, but she will consider the dishonor of such a union first."
"It would be best to ask her first nonetheless, Master," Divine Wind continued, emboldened by the sudden success. "If there is nothing else, I must see to my warriors."
"Yes, of course. We still have a battle today after all," Snow Strike straightened up and smiled at Divine Wind like he always did as if he didn't just confess to her. She awkwardly smiled back, bowed and trotted away.
Her lord caught her entirely by surprise, although she never really thought about him in this way in the first place. Him or any of the other warriors in the clan. She remembered most of them as tiny colts, thinking about being desired by them was novel and, she had to admit to herself, terrifying. Her legs carried her on their own while her mind was somewhere else. She was turning the corner of the inner wall when another warrior appeared directly in front of her. She would have reacted, if she paid attention to where she was going. Their helmets prevented them from hurting themselves but not from fright. Divine Wind instinctively reached for her sword but managed to stop her reflex before drawing it.
"Oh... Mistress, I am terribly sorry I wasn't looking where I was going!" the fellow warrior-mare bowed in apology. She was very young, as well as being a fairly uncommon warrior-mare. Divine Wind couldn't help but wonder if she just met one of her admirers.
"It is alright, you can't see around corners that well, what's your name?"
"Cherry Blossom, mistress I was sent to search for you you are meant to be in command of our formation,"
the words were flying out of her mouth so fast that Divine Wind wasn't sure if she was getting slower or the mare learned to talk from squirrels and songbirds.
"Yes... I've heard. Are you my second?"
"Yes Mistress." Divine Wind sighed, she never volunteered to teach, but somehow, every other year she was made to lead a formation of inexperienced warriors. Which mostly resulted in an awful performance and hurt her reputation. Although other clan warriors learned to show her some understanding.
"Fine then, let's get this over with. I hope you could assemble in a timely fashion, we still have an inspection to go through and ideally some archery exercise."
The next three hours were spent watching some of the most abysmal warriors Divine Wind had to lead in her life. She didn't know which exact school they were studying at, but they surely did their teachers shame. Most of them were so young they could hardly boast a single skirmish. Those who were old enough to have seen a battle could at least wear their armor without caving under its weight, which was a vast improvement. This was the other side of her reputation as a master-archer, she was expected to improve other warriors' skills, regardless of whether she wanted to bother or not. Her second, Cherry Blossom, was not entirely terrible herself, she had some promise, but at her age, she could barely draw the longbow. Divine Wind suspected that she only trained with a shortbow before and this was either her first time doing battle with a longbow entirely, or at least she didn't spend much time with it in school.
There was a slight stigma about warrior-mares, although mares of the warrior class were taught to wield weapons, the traditional choice was glaive, not bow or spear which stallions learned. The glaive's length was believed to offer much greater striking force to compensate for the overall lack of training and experience that mares were expected to suffer from. Divine Wind was still glad that her example at the very least chipped away at the tradition in her clan.
At least for these yearly battles, peasants weren't levied, it would break the last straws of her temper to have to train peasants to shoot a longbow right before the battle.
Divine Wind was relieved to hear the steady beat of drums pick up. Drums were a way to transfer signals, each formation had a drummer and was merged into another in case of losing him. Every warrior was taught drum signals since early foalhood as receiving and interpreting orders was the foundation of warfare. Divine Wind swiftly made her own drummer start banging, calling the formation to assemble. She already had the battle order and knew exactly where to lead her warriors. They stood in the field for another fifteen minutes until the war host assembled fully, the Komo doing the same on their side of the field. The sun was burning hot today, the moisture in the air minimal. This battle would be decided with arrows for sure.
Another set of drum signals and they were on the move, marching towards the enemy formation. Divine Wind and her young archers were put in the center of their battle order, Snow Strike with his retainers directly behind her. They were ordered to stop at the range of an extreme arrowshot, as she calculated. She proudly trotted to the front of the host, where everyone could see her and looked over her shoulder. Snow Strike smiled and nodded his approval.
Divine Wind took three arrows from the quiver on her hip and put them through the small hoof band ends first. She then took another arrow and put it on the string. She eyed the enemy line carefully, seeking the best target. The arrows were real, as well as the blades were, she reminded herself as she always did. The battle was friendly, but it wasn't fake, ponies will get hurt and possibly killed on this day. Divine Wind picked a stallion with an ornament on his head, it usually meant he was an officer. She reared and pulled her string back, inhaling deeply, then she sharply let go. She never understood how she could pull something without some kind of a device with hooks for it, but it always worked and she preferred to not think about it. Her arrow was a bit low, hitting the officer on his foreleg, but he fell down all the same. He wasn't in any way useful with his leg injured. Perhaps it was better this way, her bow wouldn't have penetrated his armor if she hit his chest or head anyway. Immediately after, the drums picked up again. She instinctively touched her mask to make sure it didn't slide and rushed back to her formation.
They were ordered to run into the arrow range in loose formation, while infantry stayed put and prepared.
"Alright everypony, here it comes!" Divine Wind yelled to her warriors. "Fire on my command and fire quickly, offer them your armor, not your weak points!"
She pulled one of the arrows from her hoof band, "Draw! Fire!" she ordered in quick succession. She was content that they would be able to follow her tempo, they were inexperienced but they were taught to fire bows for their entire lives. They could manage a good tempo at least until the return volleys came back. "Hold!" she shouted once the arrows were away. A few seconds later the air was filled with the whistling of arrows and their arrowheads clinking against metal. It was over as quickly as it started, with no one crying in pain as no arrows found their way past their armor yet.
"Draw!" Divine Wind ordered and immediately as she herself lifted her head to take aim a late arrow hit her directly on her cheek causing her to flinch and almost let the string go prematurely. The only thing that saved her was her mask, but there was no time to think about that. "Loose!" It gave her valuable intel, however: Komi archers weren't disciplined or experienced either.
"Draw!" she ordered again immediately, but this time she waited. It was risky, if any other formations were to fire on them, they would suffer losses, but battles were not won by being safe. As soon as she saw the opposition formation lift their heads, she cried: "Loose!" Her little trick worked, their arrows didn't hit the thick tops of their helmets and plates on their backs, but the chest plates, legs and bellies as the warriors were drawing their bows. Some of them were immediately on the ground, while some others managed to stand, but only a few let their arrows fly. Divine Wind heard a cry of pain from a warrior to her far-right, but didn't pay it any attention. There was nothing they could do for him right now.
"Draw-loose! Draw-loose! Fire at will!" she yelled, pressing her advantage. They would have to flee now as they had no chance of winning the archer duel after suffering losses. So it indeed happened, all of them who could still move on their own were routing as Divine Wind and her archers were pelting them with arrows without stopping until they were out of range.
Divine Wind heard her clan giving her a loud cheer, well she was the best archer this side of the mountains after all...
After the skirmish, Divine Wind and her archers were lazily pelting the infantry with their arrows until the enemy had no other choice but to charge them head-on. Divine Wind then simply retreated behind the infantry and only took potshots on lightly armored pegasi formations as they tried to gain some sort of an advantage by using their speed, but the battle was already lost. Hirokawa clan infantry and pegasi smashed the Komi line with their alternating charges, a tactic invented by a clan, living in far-away plains beyond the mountains.
Divine Wind was left to leisure for the rest of the day, as she couldn't fire on the infantry in melee without hitting her own. Her mood was vastly improved, she even considered giving her warriors public praise. But elected to not do so in the end, it would be wrong to pamper them in this way at such a young age. Stuck-up warriors were not a boon to any clan. She still gave them a good word for their performance though.
That said, they could still get themselves stuck in melee, but they never got the order to do so and none from the formation volunteered. They were still terrified after their first time in the battle. It would never truly go away, that feeling. But they would never learn the true terror of war as Divine Wind knew it, no matter how many volleys would strike their armor. When she was young, she already was a warrior. It was a different world back then and a much different way to wage war, very detached, some never even saw the damage they did. She preferred how it was now, a personal, almost intimate contest between warriors who trained for that exact moment throughout their whole lives.
The battle was over with the first rays of the setting sun and the time came for counting losses. As usual, the battle was mostly clean. There were plenty of wounded, but actual deaths were typically avoided unless an arrow would strike an eye. As is custom, after the battle was done, each warhost went back to its camp, where they could celebrate. Divine Wind spent her evening with her warriors, as the leader should. She was later called to the Lord's tent. Other officers were already there and gave her a loud cheer as soon as she popped inside.
"Aha! Here's our heroine!" Snow Strike announced. "Come, Divine! We can't start without our champion, can we?" Divine Wind swallowed a sudden lump in her throat and uneasily shuffled forth to the low table other officers were sitting at, there was a mat ready for her to sit on by her Lord's side. "I knew putting you in command was the right decision, you just needed time to develop your own art of command!" Divine Wind awkwardly smiled at him. She must have done the best she ever did in a field battle today, but this still had to be the worst day she had in a year by a long shot! "No one will now dare to say that the Hirokawa clan doesn't have the best archers on the Sunrise Islands!" Another round of cheer followed. Lord Snow Strike was always good at keeping high morale if nothing else. "So let us have a hearty drink in honor of Divine Wind, the champion of Hirokawa!"
By the time Divine Wind managed to make her way back to her estate, it was deep night. Her Lord insisted on providing her escort, but she managed to wiggle out of it thanks to not drinking more than enough, to remember more than he did. The lights were dark, but she thought nothing of it. Bamboo would've long since went to sleep and the night wind could blow them out.
"You are a hard mare to find." The sudden voice made her almost jump and reach for her sword. "Running away to the edge of the world only to play pretend in some backwards warrior culture," the voice continued speaking without so much as flinching at the weapon being drawn. "A quaint little house you have. Your maid wasn't very useful, however. Her language is all wrong." That remark made her realise something, the voice wasn't speaking in her language.
"Show yourself!" she yelled, trying to make out silhouettes in the dark. One of the shadows moved.
"This is no way to greet old friends, Rainbow Dash," the figure suddenly flicked some small object and with a few clicks lit up itself with a small fire. "I hope you don't mind me smoking, I just got tied up in the Jade tobacco," the figure lit a small paper wrap in her mouth and flicked the object close. It was enough time for Divine Wind to see her face. Deep red with a scar across her eye. She's seen her before.
"I know you," she said determinedly, still holding her sword between them for precaution. She knew the language, it came back naturally. The other mare loudly snorted in response.
"No, you don't. Otherwise, you wouldn't rely on that toothpick you've got. If you remembered, you would've known exactly what comes next," with those words the mare threw some round projectile at her with surprising agility even by Divine Wind's standards. She instinctively put her sword in the way causing the orb to shatter at it. Before she could attack she suddenly felt her sword becoming much heavier. At a glance she suddenly realized that the metal was rapidly changing into stone. Divine Wind dropped the sword in disbelief and looked back at the mare who was calmly standing in front of her, balancing her lit wrap on her hoof.
"Who are you?" Divine Wind finally asked.
"Just as I said, an old friend. I won't expect you to remember though, it was a long time ago. Anyways, that's not important right now," she put her wrap back to her mouth and took a deep breath. "What is important is that there's someone else who wants to see you, and you will be seeing them whether you want it or not."
"Who wants to see me?"
"Ah, well, can't tell you right now. Bad business practice, see. Let's just say it's someone with a lot of money to hire ponies like me to find ponies like you."
"So, what happens now? Are you going to drag me?"
"Drag you? Why, no. I was paid to find you, that's all. There are others who would drag you. I just needed to make sure it's really you, can't be totally certain from the distance with all of this crap you wear and how you behave. Now then, listen. For old times sake, I am going to tell you something: if you want your new friends to stay alive for much longer, you should come out willingly. You don't remember me, but I am sure you remember what ponies from the place we both come from can do. Your pretty armor won't protect from lead and the people that pay me sure as Tartarus aren't afraid to use it. ...Well, I reckon that's it then. See you around pretty soon."
"Wait! You come to my home, threatening to harm my clan and you expect to just walk out of here?!" Divine Wind reached for her second, shorter sword.
"Well, no. I expect to walk out of here after I have helped you. We both know that you won't be giving in, that's simply not who you are and I just told you what you needed to know to defend yourself. The only question is how are you going to prepare."
Divine Wind grumbled but didn't draw her weapon. She was right, if she was her enemy, she wouldn't have told her anything.
"You know what, I think I'll tell you something more. There is someone else who can help you. Although they won't be as cheap as me, they would want something more valuable than money." She then spat her burning wrap on the ground and stomped on it, "You still remember where hippogriffs live? Well, I won't be spoiling the surprise for you, but let's just say that the people who want to have you earned themselves some enemies."