Chapter 5

Mark resumes the Narrative:

New characters introduced in the next two chapters:

Colonel Williams

Chief of Staff, 5’-9” tall, 170 pounds, close to fifty years old, gray hair, blue eyes

After clearing away the carnage in front of where G & G had their shell, the guys and I create additional defensive shells, one on each end of our Sisters’ shells, across the width of the valley making six shells, and two more on each side of the valley to form a deep, wide U-shaped area protected by our defensive shells.

“Mark, don’t you think those are enough shells for now?” my older Sister Gwyn asked sarcastically, once we had finished.

“Those should be sufficient for the time being,” I admitted with a smile.

The General and his staff had also been busy while we were doing this. They were receiving reports from the returning Commanders. They had sent riders to order their support people to move forward and begin preparing food for the returning soldiers. Their medical people had also moved forward. They were amazed to find our Mage Sisters already there and treating the wounded.

The couriers from the flank positions soon arrived with their reports. They were amazed to see all of us here before them. Their reports were quickly passed to the General, and confirmed what Seamus and I had told him.

The units that had not been in pursuit of the British were put to work clearing away the carnage in front of the remaining shells, and out on the field. They also collected any usable equipment from the dead. The bodies were another problem, as there were a large number of them.

“What are we to do with all of the bodies?” I heard a harried officer ask some of the staff, who didn’t have a good answer.

“We can’t just leave them out there!” the officer protested on hearing their excuses.

“Arrange them in piles of twenty or so,” I told him. “My Brothers and I will dispose of them.”

“But how?” they all wanted to know, looking questioningly at me.

“Magic!” I told them, but went no farther.

After that there wasn’t a lot for us to do for a while, and I called all of our people who were free together for a meeting.

“We should all eat,” I told them. “And after that we need to see about relieving the others working on the injured. Then Seamus and I will try to see the General to find out where we are, and to get some idea of the overall situation,” I finished.

“Where do we want to go to eat?” Gwyn asked.

“To one of our shells,” Saraid answered. “I don’t like the way some of these guys are ogling us, and I don’t want them watching me eat.”

“That’s fine. Everyone get your backpacks, and we’ll meet over where G & G had their defensive shell. They can re-establish it now, as most of the soldiers seem to have returned,” I told the others.

“We’ll give it a partial silver tint so enough light will get through so we can see to eat, but no one on the outside can see us eating,” Gwyn added. Everyone went to get their backpacks, and we all assembled at the location of G &G’s shell, which they re-established and tinted silver.

“How are we going to relieve C & C and D & D?” Saraid asked, as we ate the sandwiches, that had been prepared that morning, while sitting on the ground.

“We’ll have to have them eat in shifts, so there is always someone there to help the wounded,” Seamus told his Sister.

“M & M, you can relieve A & A while they eat,” Sererena told her Sisters.

“I can see that only having four Mages may be a problem,” I told the others, while we ate.

“Yes, I wish Ken and Kell were here. Not only are they Mages, but we could use their Magic Talents also,” Seamus agreed.

“We’ll just have to do the best that we can. Maybe they will show up after they return from Ireland,” I told the others.

We were surprised later when Cessair and Dealla showed up together to eat along with A & A.

“What happened to your twins?” Gwyn asked them.

“We work better together, as do Coleen and Dymphna,” Cessair told her.

“So now it’s C & D, and D & C?” Glanda asked them with a smile.

“Yeah, I guess it is!” Dealla answered with a grin. “We just work better like this.”

Seamus and I had been resting for a while, but were now ready to try to see the General, who we hoped wasn’t too busy presently to see us.

“We’re going to see the General. Do you want to go with us?” I asked G & G and S & S, who were the oldest of all of us. They all just looked at each other for a few seconds.

“I don’t think so, Mark,” Gwyn finally answered. “He wasn’t all that impressed with us earlier.”

“It was probably because we are women,” Sererena added. “They all think that we should be at home having babies, and cooking them dinner!” she finished snidely.

“Yeah, that is kind of the role model here,” Seamus agreed, but got dirty looks from the four of them.

“Hey, I didn’t set it up that way,” he objected. “It’s just the way things are here.”

“Yes, we know, but it doesn’t make us any happier,” Glanda told him.

“We’ll need to do something about changing their concept of women’s roles here,” Gwyn added, before Seamus and I left to find the General.

We quickly learned that General Sullivan was at the medium size (16 x 20 foot) Marquee tent that had been erected to serve as his Headquarters. We also noticed that various regular Army units were in the process of setting up wedge type tents for their personnel. It was fairly obvious that they intended to remain here at least overnight, and perhaps longer. We were met by one of the staff officers when we arrived at the Headquarters tent.

“What do you want here?’ he demanded.

“We need to talk to the General,” I told him.

“The General is busy. Come back later, maybe tomorrow, or next week,” we were told in no uncertain terms.

“That’s not acceptable,” I told him.

“Well, that’s just too bad,” he answered with a smirk, which only lasted a few seconds. Large pink frogs don’t have the ability to smirk. I turned and looked at Seamus.

“Somebody had to do something,” he said in excuse, as the frog looked around in confusion. A couple of the soldiers guarding the tent had brought their muskets up on seeing this. We were all interrupted before anything further could happen by an older officer.

“Return to your posts,” he ordered the guards before turning to us.

“I’m Colonel Williams, the Chief-of-Staff. You are the men that stopped the threat of a flank attack, are you not?” he asked.

“Yes sir. I’m Mark O’Connell, and this is my Cousin, Seamus O’Connell. We really need to speak to the General,” I told him.

“I see,” he said. “Perhaps I can help you instead. The General is busy. What do you need to see General Sullivan about, and would you kindly restore Lieutenant Colonel McCall to himself?” he asked. Seamus canceled the frog spell, and Colonel McCall reappeared, but very confused.

“Why don’t you go have a drink and a little rest, McCall,” Colonel Williams suggested on seeing his condition.

“What is it that you wish to know?” he asked next, as McCall staggered away.

“This may sound a bit strange, but can you tell us exactly where and when we are? Also, we would like to know what the current general picture of the war is,” I told him. He looked at both of us, as if we were somewhat less than bright.

“You don’t know where we are?” he asked, startled. “How did you get here, if you don’t know where we are?”

“You are aware that we use Magic, right?” I asked him.

“Yes, I have seen you, and your people do some amazing things. If you wish to call that Magic, I can agree to that,” he told us.

“Our benefactor, the party that we work for, sent us here to help you, but he didn’t tell us where he was sending us, only that we were to help you,” I told him.

“He sent you here -- how?” the Colonel asked.

“By Magic. He is a very powerful Sorcerer. Even more powerful than we are,” I told him. I could see Seamus smile, as I struggled to make our story sound believable.

“I see, I think!” the Colonel said, definitely confused. “In any case, I can tell you that we are currently in Fayette County, Kentucky. (At this time Fayette County covered most of eastern Kentucky -- about twenty percent of what would eventually be the State of Kentycky.) Of course, the British still consider it a part of the Colony of Virginia, but then they think that Virginia extends to the Mississippi River, and that Kentucky is merely the western most county of Virginia,” he told us with a laugh. “That stream out there is a tributary of Johns Creek. The Tuy Fork and the Big Sandy River, both east of here, form the actual border with the western part of Virginia,” the Colonel informed us. “As to the date, I believe that it is Monday, the 2nd of June,” he told us.

“And the year?” Seamus asked, much to the Colonel’s surprise.

“Why it’s the year 1800 of course. Everyone knows that,” the Colonel replied. The Eternal Flame had brought us here six weeks earlier than it had been in our Reality, and some two hundred and seventy plus years earlier, also. The General had joined us while the Colonel was speaking.

“Perhaps General Sullivan should discuss the current state of our War with the British,” the Chief-of-Staff commented after that.

“I take it that you are not familiar with our war against British aggression then?” the General asked, as he took a seat on a nearby chair.

“Only in the very broadest terms, sir,” Seamus told him.

“When Cornwallis and Clinton defeated Washington and Rochambeau near Fredericksburg back in ‘81, various parts of the Army fled west, and south in retreat. Many moved through Virginia and spread the alarm of our defeat.

“At the time, I was at home in New Hampshire with my Wife and children recovering from the health problems that I had incurred during the Indian campaign a year plus earlier. When news of the defeat reached me, I prepared to leave. A group of militia men and their families went with us. It was a difficult journey down through western New York, and then through the extreme western part of Pennsylvania. We were joined along the way by others who were also fleeing, but we lost a fair number of people along the way because of the difficulty of the journey, sickness, and attacks by Tories and their local Indian allies.

“We needed to detour around the Fort Pitt area, but eventually made our way to the Ohio River. Many had preceeded us, and boats, or even rafts were difficult to find. There were also British patrols to be avoided. We eventually worked our way down the river until we reached a good place to leave the river, and then made our way to Lexington where we found General George Rogers Clark, and other patriot leaders. We have been fighting the British here ever since.

“The British are constantly making raids on our territory, and also the western and mountain parts of many of the colonies to try to regain control of them. In the south, especially Georgia, and North and South Carolina, and the western parts of Virginia -- all of which are in, or near the Appalachian, or Allegheny mountains -- it has been especially bad. Western Pennsylvania and western New York are also in mountainous areas, and the people there still resist the British as best they can, but many have fled, and not just to the Kentucky country, but to the Ohio and Illinois countries as well. Those south of here have fled to the Tennessee country.

“The British mount raids and attacks on all of these places from their bases on the Atlantic coast, and from their outposts close to the mountains. They also control the big lakes between the Illinois and Ohio country, and Canada, where they also launch attacks from, in addition to inciting the Indians to attack our settlements. Our only outlet, and source of supply is the French in New Orleans. They control, at least somewhat, the Indians in West Florida, who keep the British away from New Orleans. The French have a large fleet both there, and in the West Indies. They also claim all of the land west of the Mississippi River, as far as the shining mountains. They currently have a dispute with the Spanish about how far north the Spanish claim to land goes. We have had many men hunt in the plains and mountains west of the Mississippi, but the French control the fur trade from their fort at Saint Louis and other places,” the General paused there.