Gary and I worked hard for the rest of the day and it passed by in a flash. Diane visited me that evening and we had a great time. She was quite grateful that my dessert idea had given her a perfect opportunity to talk to her son and worked out a few things, while also endearing herself and him to his platoon mates. The more that they were okay with her being around, the more time she got to spend with her son to patch things up between them.

After that, a few days passed by and I had to eat the two pieces of sweet bread that I had saved for Gillis before they went bad. I made the trip to the next town to buy more mechanical parts for the carts Gary and I needed to make to fund the brigade. I also bought another load of supplies from Steve, who wore a coat that was made from one of the marsh panther pelts.

“Thanks so much for giving Diane the extra pelt pieces.” Steve said as his men filled the order. “It let me make a pile of money from the main pelts and still have enough left over to reward myself with this.”

“It looks good.” I said.

“Good? It looks deadly!” Steve said and laughed. “I have to fight the women off with a stick.”

“Really?” I asked and glanced around for a stick big enough to beat someone away with.

“Ha ha! No, my friend. This stick.” Steve said and motioned to between his legs.

I nodded understanding. After being in the army for about four months, I should have guessed that's what he meant. I needed to remember the drill sergeant's lessons constantly, so I wouldn't mess up common sense things. There sure were a lot of things to keep track of, though.

“I'm throwing in an extra bag of sugar and a big bag of raisins for you, just as a treat.” Steve said and nodded at the barrel of spices the crew were loading onto the cart. “Are you sure you really need that many preservation spices?”

“I'd rather have them close at hand, rather than come all this way to get more if I end up short.”

Steve chuckled. “I hear that.” He said and leaned in close. “If you find any more exotic animals parts, make sure to give me first shot at buying them... after Diane, of course. I'm not cutting out one of my best customers. We've been through too much stuff over the years to screw each other over.”

“I know. She said you were a good guy, even for a back-door dealing scoundrel.”

“Bwahahaha!” Steve guffawed. “Ain't she wonderful?” He asked and I nodded. “She's a great woman to have on your side.”

“I'm lucky to have her.”

“Damn right.” Steve said and looked at the cart. “Looks like you're all loaded up.” He took my hand and shook it. “Thanks again. Anytime you need anything, you know where to go.”

“To Diane.” I said and he laughed.

“Get your ass back home to her and tell her she misses you.” Steve said and waved as I hopped on the cart and it took me to the dock. The boat was quickly loaded up and I used the enchantments to take off at a moderate speed after poling out to a good distance. I made it back to the garrison without incident and used a new hand cart to load everything up, leaving Mrs. Hansen's supplies for last.

I went to her place first to drop them off and she was very grateful for the delivery. I noticed that her house was much nicer and she even had a separate room built on to hold the ingredients. I showed her the bag of raisins and she wasn't sure what to make of them. I had a small bag before and they had been eaten by the others while they were out scouting the Eastern Empire and I was unconscious.

I had completely forgotten about them, especially since it hadn't been listed on the requisitioned provisions form that Alex had submitted with the potions they had taken at the time. It still annoyed me that they had wasted so many doses during that mission and used up my whole supply. I was also surprised that the snake juice had actually worked, since they didn't administer it properly.

I had to assume that either they didn't get that big of a dose of venom from the snakes, or the snakes themselves weren't venomous, which would be that much more annoying for me. I pushed the thought away, because like the drill sergeant said, going over the past wrongs would only make me angrier and wouldn't let me get past it.

“Go ahead and taste them.” I said and ate some myself. It was a huge bag, so they would last me a long time.

“Mmm! They're delicious!” Mrs. Hansen said.

“What are?” Gloria asked as she came into the kitchen. “Oh! Hi, Marsh Man!”

“Hi, Gloria.” I said and she came over to me and hugged me. When the protection ward touched me, I felt that it was quite a bit weaker than when I had first made it.

“I want to try baking a batch of my sweet cookie bread and throw some of these in when I'm mixing it up.” Mrs. Hansen said. “Could I have some of them?”

“Do you have a small bag?” I asked.

She nodded and went to the kitchen to get one.

I knelt and looked at Gloria. “Diane was right. You are growing like a weed.” I said and she blushed a little. “Can I borrow the ward for a minute?”

“Sure.” Gloria said and took it off to hand to me.

I put my hand on it and infused my magic into it. It glowed for nearly thirty seconds before I felt it reach its limit. “There. Now it'll work all winter and it works a lot farther out, too.”

“THANK YOU!” Gloria yelled and hugged me around the neck.

Mrs. Hansen came back into the living room and saw her daughter trying to strangle me. It made her laugh. “Gloria, let the poor man breathe.”

“S-sorry.” Gloria said and let me go.

“It's okay.” I said and pat her head after I hung the ward back on her neck. “If you want to know a secret...” I leaned close and whispered. “...Diane hugs me just as tightly.”

Gloria gave me a big smile and hugged the ward.

“Here's the bag.” Mrs. Hansen said and I dumped about a quarter of the large bag into it to almost fill it. “That's good!” She said and I closed the big bag. “Thank you. I'll save you a loaf from this batch, so you can taste the difference in...” She stopped talking when I took the small bag from her hand and put the large bag in it. “D-David, what...”

“I know how big your dough batches are.” I said and took a handful of raisins out of the small bag and gave them to Gloria. She took them without question and ate a couple, moaned like her mother had at the taste, then shoved the whole handful into her mouth.

“Gloria!” Mrs. Hansen exclaimed.

Gloria had to cover her mouth to stop her laugh and probably from spitting them out. She chomped and chewed for several minutes, occasionally made swallowing sounds, and her mother and I watched her the whole time. She eventually finished them and took a deep breath.

“Those were good!”

Mrs. Hansen shook her head. “Get your butt into the kitchen and prep the kneading table with some flour.”

“Yes, momma.” Gloria said and eyed the still open bag of raisins I had in my hand.

I glanced at Mrs. Hansen and she sighed.

“At least she didn't choke on them or force them down. She made sure to chew them all first.” Mrs. Hansen said. “If you want her to have another handful, she can have them.”

“THANK YOU!” Gloria yelled and hugged her mother tightly for exactly two seconds, dipped her hand into the bag I held and then took off running, laughing the whole way.

“At least she has small hands.” Mrs. Hansen said. “ Thank you, David.”

“You're welcome.” I said and closed up the bag and tucked it into the large thigh pocket of my army pants. I left her house after saying goodbye and took the hand cart back to the garrison. I had arrived just in time, because as soon as I stepped into the maintenance building to greet Gary and offload the mechanical parts, Alex burst in through the door and was out of breath.

“David!” Alex gasped and bent over to try and make it easier to breathe. “I am... definitely out of shape.” He said and stood up. “The CO wants to see us right away.”

The three of us left the building and met up with Donna on the way. We arrived at the main building and went inside. The secretary there waved us through and Alex knocked once on the door, then opened it. Inside were four people, Colonel Ellen Rivers, CO Sandra Rivers, Private Gillis, and Mage Lukas. Sandra sat behind the desk and not the Colonel.

“Reporting as ordered.” Alex said and the four of us came to attention and saluted.

“At ease.” Sandra saluted back and looked at me. “I assume Private Drake just returned.”

“Yes, ma'am. I haven't even unloaded the maintenance order from the cart.” I said.

Sandra smiled. “Good. I like hustle and priorities... especially now that you'll be starting your plan.”

“We have the go ahead?” Alex asked, surprised.

Sandra nodded. “Despite the events that have transpired over the last three weeks and how a certain person handled those events, we've gone over your plans in detail over the last few days.” She glanced at Gillis and gave her a smile, then spread it over Gary, Alex, Donna, and myself. “It's an ingenious plan and is almost too smart to have work on the first try.”

That didn't sound good. I thought.

“What do you mean?” Alex asked.

“We can't afford for it to fail, so we're doubling up on everything and...” Sandra said.

“What?” Donna gasped and then blushed. “Please forgive the interruption.”

Sandra smiled and nodded. “I expected at least one of you to react like that.” She said and looked at me. “I even bet Jacqueline a steak dinner that it would be you.”

“I think I know why.” I said and looked at Mage Lukas.

“One of the first things we need to do is figure out how to duplicate your marsh magic on another boat.” Mage Lukas said. “If we can do that and have a mage pilot the second boat, we can move everyone twice as fast.”

Both Gillis and Donna let out short sighs.

“No, it's not like that.” Sandra said. “Instead of 2,000 troops going on the first run, only 1,500 will make the first trip. That cuts down on both the danger and the amount of people per boatload.”

“No, that's not possible.” Alex said. “I've allotted the plan to work if each piece fits perfectly. Changing the boatloads of personnel right before the mission will mess everything up.”

“You're a logician. Figure it out.” The Colonel said.

“If it were that easy, we wouldn't have spent two weeks working the whole damn thing out.” Alex said. “Pardon my language.”

“I thought you would be happy that we were using your plan.” Sandra said and looked a little confused.

“I would be ecstatic if you actually used it and didn't change anything.” Alex said. “Even just having an extra powered boat is going to change the movement logistics to the point that we have to restructure the supplies shipped on each boat run and change who goes on which boat.”

“I'm sure it's not that difficult to...” The Colonel started to say.

_______________

You have a minor choice to make. It will affect your standing with all three present members of the Royal family.

A) Stay silent. B) Yell. C) Tell her she's wrong again. D) Leave. E) Laugh. F) Sigh. G) Choose two.

I'm not messing around this time. I'm choosing C.

_______________

“You can't always do things your way.” I said and interrupted her, which surprised everyone. “No matter how smart you think you are, you don't know everything.”

“How dare you!” The Colonel spat.

“Look at what happened to me when I tried to do what I wanted.” I said and showed my hands, then I waved at the room. “I acted like I thought was right and now I'm a permanent member of the army.”

Donna's hand reached sideways and touched my arm briefly.

“It took me a long time to realize that I need to rely on others for help.” I took a step forward and became the only person she glared at, in the hope that she wouldn't spread her growing anger over the others.

The Colonel stepped forward as well. “I don't need you to lecture me on...”

“You have to stop whatever you think you're doing and you have to realize the same truth that I have.” I interrupted again and she squinted her eyes at me.

“What truth is that?” The Colonel asked.

“You can't face the world all alone.” I said and her eyes widened.

“But... I...”

“You need to trust someone.”

“I... I don't know if...” Ellen paused and reached up to take off her hat. “I'm not an idiot.” She said and placed the hat on the CO's desk.

“Isn't an idiot someone that doesn't know a lot of things?” I asked and she closed her eyes. “I'm an idiot, too.”

Ellen opened her eyes to look at me and she looked more than surprised. “Y-you...”

“I learned so much since leaving the marsh.” I said. “I bet you learned a lot since leaving the castle.”

“I... I did.” Ellen said and I could see in her face that she was surprised that I had compared myself to her.

“I know some of what Gary knows. I know some of what Alex knows. I know almost nothing about what Donna knows.” I said and Donna laughed under her breath. “Gillis knows different stuff, too.”

“Oh, my god. David, don't call us all idiots.” Gillis said and a few people laughed under their breath like Donna had.

I smiled a little bit and looked at Ellen. “We can all be idiots sometimes.”

“I said not to say it!” Gillis sighed and shook her head and nearly everyone laughed, except for Ellen and myself. “How many times do you think you can get away with telling the First Princess of the Gulf Kingdom that she's an idiot?”

“At least once more. She hasn't sent a message to her father yet.”

Ellen caught her breath. “How do you know that?”

“You need me.” I said.

“I...” Ellen looked deep into my eyes and sighed. “I do. I really do.”

It was Sandra's and Gillis' turn to gasp.

“David, please. I need your help.” Ellen said and put her hands on my chest. “If we go with your plan and only change the personnel load on the boats by adding a second double boat, the movement schedule will be reduced by half. You can have both work crews building in tandem right from the start and you won't need to take double the breaks. The boats can stay and bring the crews to each site and not have to keep travelling.”

I looked at Gary and he looked surprised for a moment, then he frowned. “Gary.”

“It... well, if we put twice the building parts into two boats and have access to two crews right away...”

“We'll need a few hours.” Alex said and looked at Donna. “Do you feel like one more frantic calculation session?”

Donna looked at me and nodded. “I think if David's in, we're all in.”

Everyone looked at me, even Mage Lukas, and I saw hope on all of their faces. I looked at Ellen's face and could see that she didn't know what I was going to say.

_______________

You really should have a choice here. I mean, it's a pivotal moment, isn't it? Yeah, it's so pivotal that it could derail the whole thing. So, go ahead and choose. I just hope you make the right one.

A) Agree and get to work.

I almost laughed when a one second timer popped up and then disappeared. It chose A as the default.

_______________

“I'm in.”

Gary and Gillis did a high five, Alex and Donna clasped hands for a moment, and Ellen gave me a very happy smile, which was something that surprised everyone else in the room.

“Let's get to work.” Ellen said and we went to the desk to start revising the plan.

Ellen's Colonel hat remained on the desk, untouched.