Raiding Recon

Job Details:

The road to recovery and subsequently the road to getting back to normal life was a long and arduous one. At first, Ani had gotten used to her djinn becoming able to wield the arms of Gamigan for the first time. While that had been a big milestone for the mercenary it had put her on a path towards more self-reflection. It was during that time afterwards she had spent a majority of her time getting used to riding her wyverns and developing new signals to aide her and her lack of sight. This combined with caring for Kor had kept her busy for a couple of months as she planned the next step forward for her raiders.

With the Shadow glass squadron having been restless since their formation due to being unable to enter any serious confrontations since. However, this was soon to change as two of them found themselves in Ani's quarters late one night. It was obvious that the pair shared a resemblance, but only Ani knew that they were father and son. They were once poor Kouen farmers who joined up after the boy's mother died in the civil war. Having been chosen to enter the squadron after they protected large numbers of civilians while routing the enemy the two of them were proud members Ani knew she could trust. Standing in front of a large wooden desk the two of them looked at their commander with different expressions, the father seemed composed and ready to listen while his son was glowing with excitement.

"I'll be brief and honest, we haven't been on many missions since the dungeon due to my disability," Ani spoke firmly as she leaned forward on her desk, her eyes staring off into the void with her useless eyes as she listened to their movements to figure out who was where. Ever since she had lost her vision she had been trying to hone her other senses into building a map of the world around her. Before she could give either of them a chance to respond to this statement she continued. "However, this is to change soon. I will train myself to overcome this, and in order to achieve this I've planned something for us where we will all be tested."

The younger of the two, Liqin, couldn't stop himself from responding to this as he stepped forward his obsidian boots clanking a bit against the ground. "Really?! Oh commander I've just been dying for another chance to show you how strong we are!" As he spoke and moved with enthusiasm the desk shook a bit as Ani chuckled under her breath a tad.

Suddenly his father, Niu, put his hand on his son's shoulder and pulled him back to stand with him. "Calm down son, we're here to prove ourselves as warriors, not fools." His words might've seemed a bit harsh, but in reality, he was also filled with excitement at the chance to fight with her once again. "Hold your excitement till after we learn what the Commander has planned for us." His stern expression broken by a gentle smile as he gave his son a firm pat on the neck before looking towards Ani once again.

"It's all good Niu, I'm sure you used to get riled up at the idea of a fight once." Ani commented with another laugh as she would reach around on her desk for a document her assistant had written up for her earlier. "Alright, while I have no idea if you two are looking at me I need you both to read this scroll, its details on where we are going, and what the goal is."

With Niu stepping forward before his hasty son could snatch up the scroll he would open it and show it to Liqin as Ani would continue informing them of what they were doing. "Now from our base here in the mountains I want to spread our influence, we're going to go on some raids to stop other plains warlords to the west and take their people for ourselves." As her words fell on Niu's ears and he read the letter he looked to Ani with clarity his son had yet to gain.

"You don't mean?" Niu had asked without any context causing his son to look at them both before just make a quizzical look.

"I do mean, we're going to establish ourselves in the plains with the goal of building a settlement which we would bolster with plain's people whose respect we've gained." Ani smirked as the two of them gulped at the idea of them moving from being stationary in a fortress to having borders which they would have to protect. "We're going to scout the northern tomorrow, try to wake up around sunrise and I hope you're both used to riding Wyverns."

Having dismissed them the father and son had gone back to their barracks for the night so they could get a good night's rest before their first real mission in a while. Ani, however, would head back to her own chambers rather than continue working on the plan. She was confident in herself and the rest of the night could be spent with Kor, playing games with him and enjoying dinner before she would fall asleep telling him a story from her childhood.

Having woken up earlier than the rest of them Ani had already with the help of her assistant saddle up the wyverns, pack camping supplies, as well as food supplies and medical supplies should they get wounded or take longer than expected to return. With Ani mounted atop Dragotsenny the two soldier wyverns weren't far behind as they were laying down waiting for their riders. As Niu and his son appeared they both seemed a bit tired, albeit they also appeared determined to continue with the mission and Ani's assistant would even notice this whispering something into her ear.

"Good, You're here I was starting to think you guys weren't coming. Though if it wasn't for Zahra here I would've thought you never came." She announced with a laugh as she waited for them to mount their wyverns. While they did she would run her hands along her own saddle until she looped her hands through the reigns and got ready to take flight.

"All set commander." Niu said simply as he got settled in his saddle with his sword firmly strapped to his back.

"Ready for takeoff!" Liqin had blurted out after his father as he was still grabbing the reins but was ready soon enough.

With a simple grunt of affirmation, Ani whistled and snapped her reins before suddenly all three of the wyverns had taken flight. The Trio having quite a distance to go Ani had spent the time answering any questions her two soldiers had for her on the way. Most importantly she explained how she wasn't actually the one leading them, it was her wyverns as they had migrated around the world and the intelligent animals remembered places they had been and through extensive training with Ani she was able to get them to go to places they had before just by whistling in different tones. The second most important question was why they were doing this, and Ani had explained to them it was purely a means to build a land where their goals could be achieved.

After hours of flight, Liqin was the first to notice that the plains they were flying over weren't empty. "I think we're here!" He said almost a bit too loudly, but quickly turned it down in the case any of them down there had a beast that had hearing that strong. "Sorry commander, but I see the banners that Zahra had drawn in the scroll. "

Niu nodded as he began to speak after his son. "He's right, I assume you want us to proceed with the plan to fly overhead and gather numbers as well as travel patterns?" His words had hinted at his previous life before the Azure raiders, and even further before he was a farmer and instead was a volunteer soldier. "We're skilled enough to fly without getting caught."

Ani took in a deep breath as she soon addressed Niu and Liqin with her plan of action. "Yes, but I'll be flying with you, we need the wyverns to memorize their patterns as well." With her statement, she didn't leave them any time to argue as Ani whistled and Dragot suddenly dropped to get closer. With this happening the two had no choice but to immediately command their mounts to follow.

As they circled the nomads Ani kept herself low to her beast while Niu and Liqin looked out occasionally so they could count numbers of warriors to civilians, as well as count how many beasts they had. The reason they circled was to appear like scavengers who were waiting for animals in the plains to die. While they thought they would get noticed a few times they were able to follow the nomads until they were able to get a good size-up of the people they were planning to raid. Once they were done they were quick to let Ani know.

"Alright Commander, me and Liu are finished." He said putting his last scroll in his bag with the others they had written. While these scrolls were technically useless to Ani they would be able to relay the info to her later where she could come up with a plan.

"Perfect, let's pull back and create camp at a distance once they stop." Ani said as soon they begin to allow the caravans to move past them as they stayed circling, waiting for them to find a place to settle for the time as the raiders followed behind.

With their reconnaissance done they were able to focus on the rest of their plan. Once the caravans had stopped the three of them found a cliff where they could stay out of sight while watching them from far away. While it was by no means time this would give Ani and them plenty of time to strategize and it was an opportunity they weren't going to let go to waste. With all their planning only the future would let them know if they would be successful.

Beasts:

Glass Soldiers: