The old man hobbled down the road...

How did you tame such a wonder?"

"The soul of this creature is akin that of my old war-horse, Umbricius, I didn’t even try to break it in, it just walked up to me and seemed to tell me to get on, and that’s what I did.

"Men, we must make our way now to the secret grove that I mentioned earlier, but we must take a long cut across to some of the villages nearby and hopefully we will able to rally some more men to our cause, we cannot hope to defeat Meilo with the ample number we have attained here." With that said, Aurelius leapt on Umbricius and he galloped towards the other settlements. The other men watched in wonder, before, one by one they climbed onto their own mounts and took off after Aurelius, already so far away.

Five villages, 300 more joined their ranks. We are doing well at this rate, Aurelius thought as he led the men towards the secret grove, checking furtively for any signs of occupation. Today luck is on our side, Meilo may not have even heard of the rebellion yet… all the better for my plans, then. Aurelius sighted the peculiarly shaped tree, and immediately took a left straight into what looked like impenetrable shrub. As Umbricius was such a large animal, it had no trouble getting through the foliage. Other horses followed slowly through the thick vegetation. Most of the men following thought that Aurelius had already gone mad, leading them into nothing more than bushes, sticks and leaves, but even those that believed in Aurelius were astounded by what they saw… a massive plain that blocked view from the seaward side by a large mountain, as well as a ready made fortress and surrounding outposts and signal towers, they later found out that the only way in was from the hard-to-see path that Aurelius had lead them down.

As remote as this location might be, it was still not impenetrable, and as there were about four mountains looming to the seaward side of their grove, and many able-bodied men, building high walls around the fortress would not be too much of a problem.

Spring came, and with the coming of warmth and the finishing of the walls, Aurelius began to train his men in all forms of combat, swordplay, archery, charging, defense, shooting moving targets, riding, shooting while moving, and all manner elite tactics that he had gained from his life as a warrior.

Aurelius rode out every week on Umbricius, the ever-willing steed spurring its master to reach far away locations in a short amount of time, adding more men to join the ranks of the rebellion.

Steadily their number rose, and the living quarters gradually filled in, by the end of the summer their army was already 8000 strong, and as Meilo had not yet discovered their whereabouts, Aurelius began to start planning decisive campaigns to repel and push back Meilo’s control of the area surrounding them. His trained scouts gave him information on the areas controlled and strengths of the garrisons, and with this new information Aurelius felt that these skirmishes would be enough to give his men some battle experience, and a boost to the morale. Aurelius was sure that they would win.

The blacksmiths and armourers worked ceaselessly, tirelessly together, united in their cause and determined to meet Aurelius’ deadline and suit up the whole army in time.

Days after he received information regarding the garrisons, Aurelius lead his men on a brisk march towards the north of the forest, planning to take out the most powerful of the strongholds first. It was during marching this path, however, that he noticed something peculiar on snow-covered road they were marching along. Heavy and numerous, footprints ran down the middle of the road and branched off to the left and right. This is odd he thought nobody should have walked this path for months… what are these prints? Cautiously he surveyed and noticed a freshly cut tree stump, by the look of it not even a day old.

Eyes widening in alert, he issued quiet orders to his legion of soldiers.