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BlackBear could not believe all of the events that had happened. It was unusual for a company of men to abandon their commander. Following his horse here was a lame excuse for a group of men sworn to serve their king. Sure he was only king because of this war, but to treat a royal prince with such disregard was punishable by the laws of kingship.
The laws of kingship stated that it was unlawful to commit an act that was outwardly offensive to the king. He would have to talk to them, in fact question them, about their motives. In a kingdom, no matter what the circumstances, an heir to the throne’s safety must be considered at all times. His son’s death would be on their heads.
If that was not all, his four other sons were on four different fronts that had no scouts reporting in to the command tent for six days. He hated waiting like this with no information of what was happening on the fronts in the field. At least he knew more of the front that he was commanding, but what had him concerned was the lack of enemy confrontation on this front. A few days ago they had chased away many of the enemy.
Over five hundred of the enemy in five separate units of over one hundred men had attacked them outright. The enemy had no real plan of attack and would hit a specific unit of theirs and then pull back. Doing the same thing for each unit they eventually left the field all together. BlackBear’s command had lost two hundred total troops while the enemy lost three hundred on the field and about one hundred and fifty of the ones that fled the field. It was estimated that more than fifty enemy troops had escaped to make their report.
Concerned that the enemy would come in force from any direction at any time, BlackBear had posted scouts up in the trees three miles, two miles, one mile and half a mile from the command tent in each of the main directions of the compass, North, South, East and West. It was obvious that all of their strengths and weaknesses had been tested to their fullest.
A hundred troops had been posted at the northern, southern, eastern and western perimeters to prevent them from being completely surprised by an attack. Despite all of his preparations, there was still no sign of his son SilverFox. Later he would see the men that were at least partly responsible for his son’s disappearance, but for now he would think of the possibility of him not returning.
In a way he blamed himself for his son’s disappearance after all he did give him the post. He actually thought that his son would be safe, but what surprised him most was his son’s uncanny ability to translate enemy ciphers. This deed was what would later find him in trouble.
“My Lord High General,” one of his many aides called into his tent. “Captain Greenwood is out here to see you. May I send him in?”
A few moments passed as BlackBear prepared himself for the eventuality of speaking to the one of most senior rank in the command most responsible for the disappearance of his son.
“Send him in Gordon.”
Captain Greenwood entered the tent by lifting up the flap. He was a relatively tall man and was still wearing the monk’s robes that he had arrived in only a few hours ago. BlackBear did not know what to make of it. It did not occur to him that this man had ever spent time in the monastery like his son. Putting aside those thoughts he began his questioning and let the man remain standing as he sat in his chair that was fit for a king.
BlackBear, facing Captain Greenwood, began his questions. “I want a report of everything that happened from when you left the post to your arrival here.”
Captain Greenwood gave him a detailed report of the events that he wanted. The disappearance of Tree made them go off course and in the confusion of arrow fire they lost track of SilverFox and had assumed that he was still on his horse, which took off through the forest. For days they had tracked the horse but were not experienced trackers and did not notice or know that there was a small difference between the tracks of a horse without a rider and the tracks of a horse with a rider.
BlackBear called in the rest in turn, but got the same account or similar account of the events as he had gotten from Captain Greenwood. He decided to determine their punishment at a later date, which would most likely be after the war. Even if he had the real message that was supposed to have gotten to him, no one was able to read the report, but his son SilverFox because it was in a different code than their usual cipher and that meant that his son expected himself to be caught.
Greenwood had mentioned that his son switched messages just before the horse took off, if he had not have done so the cipher would still have been on SilverFox.