The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 182

Madison POV

‘Any idea of the figures?’ I asked, more interested in getting this information than joining in the other chat that Zeek had tried to steer us to.

‘Not an accurate number yet.’ She answered, to the annoyance of Zeek, who seemed to be trying to allow us women to converse. I could see the narrowing of his eyes, and I was not sure if it was because of his annoyance that we were discussing this in the open place where it seemed even children were close by, or where other members that should not hear about this were close by and could listen. Or that he had no prior knowledge of the information his mate was giving out, or if he was picturing the area in his mind’s eye and trying to place the rogues, I would give him the benefit of the doubt and not worry about what I was picking up on his discomfort for some reason, and possibly this idea to attack first, was a whole new concept to him and his people, I would be shocked if they did not have some reservations on attacking and how to go about it.

‘Best guess?’ I continued to quiz her. I wanted more information. If I was to work out some plans, that is what I was good at. How best to place men with the least possible injury and death, but the Deep Earth people’s fighting skills were an unknown factor that I was not happy with.

‘About one hundred.’ She replied.

‘That is okay, if rogues are not well trained, and should be easily dispensed with, but if someone had managed to train them? We could replace ourselves a little under pressure.’ I said, thinking out loud as a plan was starting to form.

‘We can wait and see how many come and what Gladys intends to do with them.’ Zane suggested and I nodded, we could. But do we really want to? Waiting to see Gladys gathering more strength is not something I thought was a good solution, but until I had more information I could hardly do more than what Zane suggested..

‘Zeek., have you set traps out there?’ I suddenly asked and he looked up at me in surprise that I had called out his name.

‘Traps? What do you mean?’ he asked and we knew then, that he had little experience with surface fighting, against groups of men. They could handle small amounts, but, a full-on war, they would most likely do what Alex had done and close off the caves until the threat had past.

‘Have you had surface mass fighting before?’ I asked as simply as possible.

‘No, when trouble comes. We close off that area till they are gone. We can handle a small amount of fighting, but we have so few surface inhabitants’ fighting skills.’ Zeek’s mate replies and Zeek blushes. I am not sure if it is because he is angry with his mate replying or because his warriors are not fully trained for a full-on attack.

‘That is okay, we can go look at your diorama again and see what we can figure out.’ I said and gulped the last of my coffee down and stood to head to the diorama room.

‘Wait, we can do that later. I would like to talk a bit more with you and get to know you more.’ He seemed to have some sort of urgency to his voice, that made no sense.

‘Why? I have a person to kill and troops to get back home, and the more we sit talking the more fighters Gladys is amassing.’ I answered coldly, not understanding his delay.

‘I wanted to know more about your mother’s life after she left here.’ He was suddenly hesitant as his eyes flicked over to his mate and back to me.

‘No, I am not here to discuss my mother. I was six when she died. There is little I can tell you.’ I used the age I was at the time of her death as an excuse. I know a lot about my mother. Whenever I asked, dad would tell me everything I wanted to know about her, but I was not about to share that with this stranger.

Standing, Zeek’s mate stood too and we walked to the diorama room together, with everyone else following behind.

‘We have plenty of warriors, but we have little fighting experience above ground. We train and the men are good. If you can lead them, and instruct them about what you wish for them to do, they will follow.’ She said with a kind of determination in her voice.

‘Zakary’s men fought well against the Dark River pack. If your men fought like that, they would be fine. We can use the Blue River warriors to lead a group of yours. They are good at tactics and following my instructions.’ I said, and I entered the room and stared down at the map before me, and waited to be told which town the rogues were spotted arriving at. I had my suspicions, but I wanted them to tell me, and open up to me.

We cannot communicate here, we are not going to be able to fight together.