gentle but firm with his words.

“Yes father” he replied, he looked at the messenger and said “Please, continue”

“However I’m sorry to report that the ruling noble of the province, Duke Charles of Nenana, passed away in his sleep on the day of our Lord May the 26th” he continued, some trebling in his voice.

“Well that’s the sad news alright” said a diplomat of Harold’s; “Yes, I knew the man well, god rest his soul” said a minister.

“That is terrible, my old friend having been dead for six days” said Harold, sitting back down, thinking that was all of the bad news.

“There’s more your Highness. The new noble of the land says that he doesn’t recognize his highness, Emperor Harold II, as his ruler nor any other man, and that the tax collection will not be paid to anyone loyal to the Royal family” continued the messenger, both his voice and hands shaking.  

“What? I didn’t appoint any noble” exclaimed Harold whilst rising from his chair, a consensus of bewildered “what’s” and “how dare’s” going around the room, a number of people stood up from there seats.  “Who put themselves in charge of a province without his highnesses appointment?” asked a diplomat from another kingdom.

“Yes, who did this?” asked a commanding minister.

The messenger gulped, “Instead of a tribute of tax money, his highness shall receive this gift-” he gestured to the chest, “-as a token of his rule.” the two men picked the chest off the ground and brought it near the table. “It is signed, Baltar, Duke of Nenana.” finished the messenger, putting the scroll of parchment down and rolled it back up.  

“How dare he defy my father!” exclaimed Joseph, his frustration was felt all around the table.

The two men unlocked the locks on the chest.

“We might as well see the fool’s gift” said another minister.

Many gathered around the chest, wanting to see how a man was going to try and make up for his arrogance with a simple gift.

When the lid was opened a horrible sight was seen by many. The chest was filled with heads of the dead at Nenana’s castle; on top was Duke Charles’s head. Many people drew back from this sight, some women gasped, a few screamed, a few people used the Lord’s name in vain; everyone gave the cross motion and gave some sort of prayer to God. Be it a prayer of forgiveness of speaking his name in vain, or for seeing such an evil before them.

Though Harold felt angry, he suppressed it for now. He needed to think of what to do now.

On the inside of the chest lid was a message painted in what was either blood or red paint. It read: Daeth to tyrants.  Veni! Vidi! Vici! 

“Death to tyrants. Veni! Vidi! Vici!” Harold read out loud.

“This man should be killed for the murder he has done!” exclaimed Joseph, many others gave similar statements. Harold thought this over rather quickly, and then thought of something.

“He cannot be noble because I’ve never heard his name before. Nor can he be a man. Baltar is not a name given to any man.” said Harold, rather calmly. He seemed very unaffected by what he had seen.

 “It sounds like a canine name! Your highness.” said a servant.

“Yes, it does. Is Baltar a canine?” Harold questioned the messenger.

“I do not know your Highness. I never saw him nor his face” he replied.

The cardinal, his name is Gioranitti, gave some prayers of his own prayers to god before he approached Harold.

“This animal is a demon sent from hell, by Satan himself!” he said, “Your Excellency! We must stop this demon now before his evil and perversion are allowed to spread throughout the land!” he continued.

“General Costovna!” Harold shouted.

“Yes your highness?” he questioned.

“How long will the garrison take to reach Nenana?”

“Forced march: eight days!”

“Then prepare the troops to move out. Leave as soon as you’re ready.”

“Yes your Highness!” he bowed his head in acknowledgment.

Chapter 2 

Eleven days later, roughly twenty miles south of Nenana

General Costovna had brought a little over 900 men from Anchorage, roughly 9/10 of the garrison there. He had 100 archers, 400 peasants, 300 armored infantry (2/3 are dismounted knights), 150 mounted knights, and fifty miscellaneous (Priests, engineers, aides, doctor’s, etc). His men were exhausted from the marching; the days growing longer with more sunlight caused many to be sleep deprived, they were running out of food, thus getting weaker and demoralized. The weather and terrain weren’t helping either, they had been slowed down by muddy, rough, and mountainous terrain, and the rain just topped it off. It was hard to tell to when to stop for sleep because of the longer days, it was all frustratingly slow for the General.

Costovna was however, confident that he could hold his own against this Baltar fellow. He knew that once they reached Nenana, they’d have plenty of food for themselves. Navigating to Nenana was easy, a small dirt road built for carts followed a system of natural rivers and lakes that almost made a path directly too the town from Anchorage. However there were the few land gaps in between rivers, mostly small, but there were some large gaps too.

At this point in the journey, the army was roughly a mile or two from a small settlement named Adreyson, later in history named Anderson. This village was on the opposite side of the river, the same side as Nenana was on. This was a crucial moment for Costovna, he saw a chance for easy food for his troops, but also there was a bridge crossing the Nenana River, thus getting its name the Nenana Bridge. It was the only bridge in these parts, and he knew that if Baltar were to attack, it would be at that bridge. This was where the only problem was: he had to get his army across that bridge. But first he had to reach it. Thus any battle that would occur here would be named The Battle of Nenana Bridge.

Costovna got reports from his scouts of enemy troop movements to the North-east, only a mile or so off from the river. Seeing a chance to destroy his enemy and to raise morale, he got his army ready for battle. He turned his army to the North-east and prepared to engage Baltar’s forces, getting his soldiers into their formations.

However upon seeing his battlefield he knew that Baltar was no fool. Baltar had camped on top of 1200ft hill, though Costovna’s scouts reported of a creek that ran behind this hill and in plain sight was another 1400ft hill on the opposite side. Both these hills wrapped around in a bit of a “U” shape.

Though Baltar had a complete view of his army and its movements, Costovna saw a force that was outnumbered 3-1. Not to mention that he had no cavalry and roughly half of Baltar’s force was archers.

The battle lines were drawn as this, Baltar’s force was spread six feet below the crest of the hill, the terrain not exactly being the perfect rolling hills that would have been preferred for the General.

Two groups of sixty archers, with long bows, split between the flanks of the force, the center was made of a hundred armored infantry, and two small groups of thirty-five unarmored peasant units in between the center and flanks. Roughly 290-300 men in total, in five formations. Though outnumbered, Baltar’s force had the advantage of the high ground and Costovna suspected his foe had better supplies then himself.

Costovna on the other hand, had his army in two or three lines, the peasant infantry in front, the cavalry in second, finally the armored infantry and archers in the rear. Roughly formed into a total of ten formations. He had positioned his army about 150 yards away from the foot of the hill. They been allowed to get that close.

Costovna sent forward a flag of truce, but no one from Baltar’s army came to discuss any terms of surrender. The flag returned unhindered.

“They musn’t want to surrender” said Costovna’s aide-de-camp.

“Apparently not. But then I wanted it that way too” replied the general.

 Before the battle, the priests that had come along were giving Gods blessing to the spirits of those who would be sinning and dying, throwing holy water to cleanse the soul and  the land of the sins that were about to occur, also making blessing for a holy victory. Everyone either kneeled, or in the case of the mounted knights, bowed their heads.

However Baltar, nor his men, didn’t have the courtesy to hold off a fight just so that his foes could cleanse their souls. He had no respect for religion; he had no formal or informal religion of his own, thus he had no respect for such things.

His archers fired a volley of arrows into the front lines of the human army. They had of course been forewarned by those who had seen the archer’s fire. Thus, they were able to raise their shields to meet the falling arrows from the heavens, whilst the priests tried diving out of the front of the soldiers. Most arrows either hit the ground or into the wall of shields of the soldiers, though a few did hit living tissue. 

Some men fell; others were still able to stand, most screamed from their wounds. There only a few casualties and even fewer were mortal.

Howling from Baltar’s lines was very loud and echoed across the land.

“Those bastards!” Costovna exclaimed,

“They must be using the bows from the Castle guards” concluded his aide.

“They won’t even let us have a