Chapter 29.3- And so the Dragons Danced

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I rode my ostrich horse with my head held high at the very front of a long line of fire nation soldiers. They marched in unison, one and all. I had put my helmet away and instead of having Toji next to me as usual, I had a standard bearer. The Fire nation insignia proudly waved in the air above me as we left the gates of Gaoling. The goal here was simple. Draw as much attention as possible to this segment of the army. Under the cover of darkness last night, both Toji and Maki had snuck out of the city with about a couple hundred men each and would be the lynchpins on which the success of this plan depended.

They had all the most powerful firebenders with them while I rode with the infantry of non benders and lesser benders. Needless to say, I was the distraction. The bait. We rode with nary a care in the world. I did not bother sending scouts out because I knew exactly what was waiting for us. Gaoling was a city on a hill and that meant there was only really one way to ambush my army as we left. The hill top was flat land, and that was where the city itself was built. There was quite a lot of excess flatland that we traveled across, and then we approached the crest, the area where the hill began to slope downwards.

The base rank and file were not aware of what was coming. In fact, the only person in this unit who knew what was coming was me. So we walked into the belly of the beast with wide smiles and open eyes.

“NOWWWW” The sound heralded total pandemonium. Arrows flew at us from all directions even as most of them were stopped in their tracks by the heavy plate favoured by our infantry. Another set off arrows were launched and this time, Iactually ad to move to avoid two that would have nailed me in the neck and one that came close to killing the horse beneath me.

“Form up. Form up you dirty bastards” I screamed into the air. “Hedgehog. Hedgehog” I shouted the name of the manoeuvre over and over again, and slowly but surely, my men listened.

They turned around, forming a circle of wide shields that ensured we were protected on every side.

“Rush them” I heard the shout from the opposing group, and suddenly had to grit my teeth to avoid wincing from the sound of thousands of men rushing in at us from all directions. On top a horse, I could see above the shields of my soldiers to tell that we were heavily outnumbered.

“Hedgehog” I shouted again, making them implement the last bit of the strategy as each man with a shield now had a man with a spear behind them poking the spear out from behind the wall of shields.