late afternoon-evening, before sundown
Warden Malcolm's camp, Eastern Campaign
Elyna's tent had been set up even though she was up in the sky somewhere, the camp had been set up in general and people were starting to settle down for the night. Sintih had dragged his stuff into one of the tents that he shared with a group of airmen. While they were all busy unpacking and getting comfy, some of them had night duty, Sin had been assigned yet more equipment to clean. Somehow, he was convinced that Elyna had ordered her unit to be extra dirty and maybe drag a piece or two across the ground before handing it over to him. There was no way these people were this dirty. But Sin wasn't alone, airmen who didn't have night duty or early morning flights were sharing in the same burdens.
So, like every other time Elyna wasn't around, Sintih was cleaning bridles and saddles under the watchful eye of major Emily Warren, who was busy with her own work. Not that that meant she was less aware of where Sintih was at all times. Sin wondered how exhausting it must be for her to be so diligent at all times. A break passed while Sin scrubbed, cleaned, checked, treated, checked again and stored equipment. When he finally managed to finish the pile he had been given, Emily was about to give him another task but Sin had learned to recognize the signs. "Half a break, just half. I just need some space to catch my breath. It's very cramped with all these people all the time."
Sin usually didn't mind large groups of people, he preferred it even. But the people here all reminded him constantly of where he was and how he got there and that put quite a bummer on anything fun he could think of doing with these people. So Sin asked for a short break. Since it was not the first time he'd asked for some space, Emily only needed a moment to delegate her job to people she trusted before she was ready to go with him. He always hoped that maybe she'd let him go on his own but either her distrust in him or her loyalty to Elyna, or both, were too high. Sin fished his kit out of the tent and hung it over his shoulder as he started walking into the camp, Emily on his heels.
Sintih walked from the skyrider's section of the camp to the middle, where the commander's tent was set up before angling himself north eastward and heading in that direction. As he walked, Sin silently counted the tents he passed until the edge of the camp. Three or four on one side. Once outside, Sin and Emily passed the guards as they took the ten bit walk to the hills that made up most of the terrain for the next day. Still clearly in sight of the camp, Sin turned to face the camp and started counting tents as he could. Considering four knights per tent, Sin got to about forty before he lost count. A quick calculation told him that that wasn't too far off from their numbers.
Sin unpacked his kit and pulled out the board and a new piece of vellum which he held to it with his thumb while he picked the piece of charcoal from the previous trial out of it. Ready to go, Sin quickly sketched the surrounding areas of the camp from his overlooking position. A bunch of bumps in the top right of the vellum marked the location of the hills he was on the edge of. A whole lot of quickly drawn trees, barely more than circles with a little line under them, marked the area where the forest was. Unlike last time, Sin was awfully quiet but the major didn't seem too bothered by it, simply watching over Sin and their surroundings while he was staring at the camp and sketching.
With a quick dip of his finger between his lips, Sin put it in the air to feel the direction of the wind. A cold northwest to south eastern wind was blowing over the camp so Sin drew a little flag in the bottom left to depict the wind direction. He also scribbled down the information underneath it. In the middle of the vellum, Sin drew a big, square-ish looking tent and around it he drew some quick tent like houses made up five quick lines each. He repeated the tents about forty times. As he saw the camp, the north eastern side and the south western side of the camp both were more populated with tents and fires than the other two corners. To the south east, the training ground had been set up, taking up a bit of space in the camp. He added some dagger looking symbols there for future reference. On the opposite side he added some horse shoe looking symbols to note the location of the mounts and their feeding grounds. It took up most of the area, considering that almost every person here had their own mount with them. Around the camp, he added some eye symbols as well, depicting the main watch posts around the camp, evenly distributed.
Once the camp was done, Sin was rushing along to use what little sunlight he was still getting before the light would disappear behind the horizon, he added some tufts of grass to indicate the rest of the plains between the hills and between the camp and the forest. The rest of the map he left empty, indicating that it was most likely without features or landmarks. Once he was done, Sin put his charcoal down and stared over the camp, often time glancing down at his paper as well. Apart from the tilting of his head whenever he looked down, Sin remained still. His lips, however, where doing a lot of work. It looked like Sin was talking to someone only he could see. He didn't make any noise but his lips moved every now and then forming words.
For the rest of his half break, Sin remained standing like that, looking at camp and his sketch while the sun set. Before it got completely dark, Emily walked up to Sin. "Time to go or we won't be able to see our way back." Sin turned to look at her, as if he suddenly realized she was there as well. "What? Oh, oh. Right, we should go back." On their trip back Sin seemed to be elsewhere with his head and he walked slower than on the way over, something Emily might construe as unwillingness to go back and something she might report as well.
Once they got back, Sin had barely enough time to put his kit and drawing board away again before he was put to work. Skyriders had come and gone in the time they'd been away and there were more bridles and saddles to clean. There was also firewood to be gathered for the night. For the next two breaks, Sin was constantly busy doing those tasks and whatever Elyna had in mind as well. During his tasks, Emily noticed that Sin was constantly checking in the direction of the forest for something, often standing up in order to see in between the tents and mounts. But nothing else came of it and by the time his chores where done, Sin was too tired to go anywhere else.
With most of the airmen either in bed or on guard with the mounts, Sin was one of the only ones still awake, sitting on a log near the main fire of the skyrider camp, staring at the map he'd made before. Like before, Sin was talking to himself without making a noise, this time his fingers moving over his sketch as well. He often shook his head and then moved his finger differently. Emily sat and watched as the Eidisi seemed to have gone completely over the edge. Every now and then, Sin nodded his head and tapped the map in front of him. After seven or eight of such vigorous nods, Sin suddenly stood up and walked to his tent, fetching his kit once more.
Unscrewing the red ink vial from his kit, Sin dipped the quill from the kit lightly in it and started drawing on his sketch. He added some quick red fires to the plains to the north west of the camp and then some red lines going from the mounts to the middle of the camp. With the air as cold as it was, the fire would burn bigger and quicker then most men knew. Sin only knew because he'd almost burned down part of their farm once during Vhalar so many arcs ago. On the total opposite side of the camp, in the south east corner of the map, Sin drew some more horseshoe symbols, this time in red. Dipping back into the red ink, Sin drew a thicker line from those horses through the camp and up towards the hills in the top right, where he added some crosses as well. Putting the quill aside for a moment, Sin looked at his map to make sure everything was as he had planned it. All correct.
After wiping the remaining red ink from the quill, Sin closed that vial and opened the black one, dipping his quill in there. Starting with his red fire symbols, Sin started scribbling down instructions. Start with fire after sundown. In the empty space above the camp, he wrote sideways. Horses will sweep through. Massive chaos. On the other end of the map, where the red horses were, Sin scribbled some more instructions. About 50 should do it. Charge in, pincer with wild horses. Bank right into hills. Dipping his quill back into the black ink, Sin moved to the space between the hills. Ambush anyone following riders. Capture horses when possible. Leaning back from his work, Sin left himself a moment to check for mistakes before he scribbled on the only available empty space. Total losses: 80-110 knights 20 rebels max.
Using the same cloth from before, Sin cleaned out the black ink from his quill as well while he waited for the ink to dry on the parchment. When he was done, he left the quill to dry on his seat while he brought the vellum with his plan to destroy Malcolm's camp to Emily. "Can I leave this on the captain's desk so she can see it when she comes back?" Looking Sin up and down for a moment, Emily didn't really see anything she considered a danger to her captain and let Sin into the tent, remaining in the opened canvas of the doorway while Sin placed his map on the top of the paperwork, moving a book to keep it pinned down on top. When Elyna got back, it'd be the first thing she saw. Sin put his kit together again and placed it in his pack before going to bed.
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