Treason and War

((Need to know: Two kingdoms are at war. Why? The princess of one had been raped by her ex-fiance, who is the eldest prince of the other kingdom. The alliance had been broken, and the worst case scenario erupted. The princess is now dressed as her twin brother -- who is too scared to fight, on account of how buff the enemies are -- to get revenge. But there is one thing wrong here. She is a female; it's considered treason against the king to impersonate a soldier. Punishment is to be hanged.

No one knows of the princess takingher brother's place, who is to lead the regiment that is currently stationed in No Man's Land, where the weather is bipolar, the fauna is scavengers, and there is nothing but dry lands in a five mile radius. Needless to say, the food and water rations are small.

But after a day of drinking the mead that the king sent to the regiment, not only is a raid of the enemy kingdom coming, but the princess's identity is about to be found out.

(I do not have a name for the two kingdoms, so you guys get creative.)))

Dressed in her kingdom's colors of blue and white, Princess Marina rode into camp stationed twenty miles north of her kingdom's gates. Orion, her courser steed, huffed and puffed after pulling a large wagon full of alcoholic breveges. She herself wasn't much of a drinker, but her brother's men loved their mead, and after a month of being stuck in the barren wasteland that they were currently stationed in, Marina thought they deserved it.

The manly crown on her brow said that she was her twin brother, Gregory, but her feminine hands thathad just now started getting calluses told otherwise. Thankfully, no one noticed her slip ups as of yet.

She was flanked by two guards, so it wasn't surprising when her knees almost buckled after sliding off Orion when the two guards slid off their own steeds to run towards her. "Are you alright, Your Highness?" one asked, a concerned look on his face.

She waved him away, and almost puched him when she saw his hand go to grip her upper arm. She didn't want anyone to touch her, probably causing her men to think that the prince was an odd character for not letting anyone to touch him. But after being raped at the age of fourteen by the person you thought you loved makes you wary of everyone. You'd think that after three years, she'd get over it. But no, she's still scared of men touching her.

Sometimes, she wondered why she was even doing this. But then she would remindherself that not only was she doing this so that she could get revenge, but to keep her brother from the sight of war. Gregory was supposed to be the strong one, out there fighting for his sister's honor, but he didn't have courage. She, on the other hand, did. And she wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty.

"I'm fine," she snapped in her brother's voice, looking pointedly at the hand that was reaching towards her. She turned around to her horse so that she could remove the many equipment that tied her horse to the big wagon. While she did so, she yelled through the camp so loud that she was certain her men heard, "Men! Report!"

Life at Fort Prospero was one irony after another. From the name, to the "food", to the absolute lack of anything to drink. We had a small cistern, mind, but that was water. Of course, being a quartermaster meant that I knew everything about the fort's materials, including the six failed attempts to build a still. Thing was, there was a convoy coming in- and right there on the top of the list was the copper coil we needed to finnish the rig. Grinning, I watched the wagons come rolling in- including an extra one full of something only the teemsters knew about.

A few coppers later, and the truth came out- it was a wagin full of booze! Scuttlebut raced through the four-hundred odd man regimemt like wildfire, and as night came up I watched the portly old captain get up on his chair at dinner.

"And now, as a reward for dilligance in gaurding a valuable tract of land for the kingdom, the Crown Prince Gegory himself has brought you all an aproxoment five hundred gallons of mead!"

The only thing I heard after that was cheering. Men raced to fill skins with the honey-wine, while others kissed the princes feet. I myself smilled, knowing my ration was safe in my quarters. As the men priceded to degrade in to drunken revalry, I slipped away to finish my still and put a small dent in my own liquor supply. Let it never be said Dawnstar lier Drake would turn down his drink!


It was early in the morning when I finally departed my warehouse. Like all QM's before me, our personal quarters had been quickly abandoned in favor of sleeping near our gear in a rather draconian fashion. Stumbling over to the privy, I bellied up to the bar and unbuttoned my flap to let rip on the wooden trough that drained in to a giant, clay-lined pit we had built a roof over. On the roofnof the pit stood the crappers, which were unglorified holes cut in the roof with lids to keep the smell down. As I continued releiving myself, I watched a odd figure walking strangly towards the array. While they walked up, I finally relized who it was- the prince. This relization was powered by the fact he was the inly person here not drop-down staggering drunk, explaining his odd walk. Finnishing my buisness, I re-buttoned and watched him curiosly. Bet he's never had to use ine of these before. Let's see how well he does... I thought, mocking him slightly in my head. If nothing else, it would serve to humor my hangover the next morning.