[CaptainofDespair]

With the Sun’s decline, the night slowly crept over the slowly marching host of Gondorians. The darkness also brought its seasonal friend, the winter cold, and no one wanted to be out with those two roaming the land. Not only could the cold kill, but it relaxed the senses, and the darkness was eager to hide the dangers of the night, which included the roving Orcs raiding parties. Thus, the soldiers were craving a safe, somewhat warm hide-out, some place they could rest easy. Apparently, such a place had been found by Mordred, one of the scouts sent forth to find a camp site. It was a small cave, which would provide some manner of insulation from the weather, and was rather easy to defend. Uther was pleased with the find, and ordered the troops to it, with Mordred acting as the guide.

The march was still not as easy as Uther had hoped. Many of the men were struggling to make it through the light snow, which had hampered the movements of the overburdened soldiers. After an hour or so of leading the column, Mordred halted, and whispered to his commander that they were now only a few hundred yards from the cave’s entrance. The lieutenant dispatched a small contingent of soldiers to explore the cave more fully, and to begin constructing the palisades to defend them. The next hour crept by slowly, as the forward expedition finally sent word back that the cave was cleared, and that the stockade wall was nearing completion.

But, as Uther gave the order for the final leg of the march, there came wheeling out across the snow, a single horsemen. It was one of the other scouts sent out to discover a habitable camp location. But this one didn’t come back with good news. The scout, after pushing his horse the last bit to the column, brought news of a small village, and the carnage and burnt wreckage of what was left after the supposed Orc raid. Yet, the scout was not done. He also had sighted the Orcs, some ways from the village, along a tree-line. As he explored the trees, looking for any prisoners the Orcs might have left behind, he discovered the unconscious body of what appeared to be a man, one of Dale. He had brought the body some ways, upon his own horse, before coming across another scout, to whom he transferred the incapacitated man to. That scout, would be due back any moment.

After his discussion with the scout, Uther, and a small group of soldiers acting as his guard, made their way to cave, where they unloaded their burdens, and prepared to rest themselves for the next day’s march. Slowly went the night, without any signs of the Orcs. The final scout, bearing the body of the man, who was now wrapped in the furs of the soldier, had appeared earlier in the evening, and had taken the man to a tent where he could rest, and be treated for any wounds. Uther spent his night dwelling on the day’s events, and planning a sortie against the Orcs the scout had seen.

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Even before the sun had arisen into the sky, Uther was up and about, planning the day’s march. He had been displeased with the first two, in which his men had constantly complained of the harsh conditions, which they claimed they could not fight in. But, he was determined to force the best out of these soldiers, and bring the Orcs to their knees.

With the sun’s ascent into the dim morning sky, the soldiers slowly came to, as did the mysterious man the scout had found the day prior. After the men had finished consuming their morning rations of gruel, water, and small portion of salted pork, they quickly began to pack up their camp, and load the supplies onto the pack animals. Once this chore had been completed, Uther ordered them into marching formation, and gave them the order to move out. Some of the men wished to stay in that cave only a bit longer, for it was warm, and more comfortable than the hard soil of the plains of Dale.

Slowly, the column began to weave its way through the snowy fields. Uther was quite pleased at the moment, for his men seemed to be invigorated, and reborn with a new life. They moved faster then what he expected, and were far more orderly now. Deep within himself, he wished it would hold like that until their task was done. But in his mind, he knew it would not. Mutiny could crop up at any moment, and knowing his luck, it would happen when it was most unwanted.

But he kept up his somewhat stern facade, hoping to keep his thoughts as that, just thoughts. Needing a change of pace, he took himself for a trip down the broken paths of his memory, to his campaigns in Harad, and his tenure as an administrator in Minas Tirith. He slightly missed those days, where life was easy, and he didn’t have much work to do. He was eager to retake that position now. This small stint as a commander was not going well for him, and he generally disliked leading such soldiers, who were obviously ill-prepared for the rigors of war. Maybe he could retire after this, and buy a farm, and live out the rest of his days away from the cities of Men.

But Uther could not keep up those thoughts, and his mind drifted back to the current, almost desperate situation. He immediately began wondering where those Orcs had gone, for he wished to hunt them, and bring them down. He thought for a while, and realized a scout had brought back that man, who has been lying unconscious in the cold snow. Thus he ordered the man to be questioned, preferably by a sergeant, or even the scout who found him. Then, he sat back in the saddle of his horse, and waited for the answers, and for the day to pass him by.