Read Kudisha Departure Episode 1 Journey to Rehnor series for Free Online

to the squadron of
the Royal Guard’s worst lieutenant. Bleckerd was not only stupid,
but completely lacking in common decency. His greatest source of
entertainment was when one of his men fell face first into the mud,
or nearly drowned crossing a river with an eighty pound pack upon
his back.
    There was something sadistic in Bleckerd that
led him to taunt the men under his command in ways that left Wooter
shuddering even now, in ways that left Wooter emasculated more than
a dozen years later.
    Wooter’s temper got the best of him one night,
or it might have been the abundance of alcohol consumed at a bar.
Coupled with the inability to enjoy a girl already bought and paid,
Wooter’s patience for Bleckerd was sorely tested. Upon returning to
base, the young guard was confronted by his commander, and
subsequently, one ended up with a broken jaw, and the other locked
in jail. From there, Wooter was sent to the northernmost point on
the entire planet, to man an outpost with non-other than Lt.
Karukan, the then-crown prince.
    Initially, Wooter found this new assignment as
grievous as the prior, for what would the prince be but another
pampered ass? Karukan, in the meantime, regarded the other’s
arrival as an intrusion, for he was perfectly content in the ice
bound cave all by himself.
    “What are we to do up here anyway?” Wooter
demanded, purposely avoiding any reference to the prince’s
rank.
    “We are monitoring Hahr’s troop movements,”
Karukan replied. Casually, he glanced at the screen before him,
waggled a finger at a few red dots, before returning his attention
to the book laid flat upon his lap.
    And, this is how it went for the first few
months with the two men only meeting upon changing shifts. Wooter
grew restless, though, for he was unused to silence, and
interminable snow, so despite his initial reluctance, he made an
effort to speak to Karukan.
    “The weather…do you think it’s going to
change?”
    The prince looked up from his latest book with
a shocked expression.
    “Well…no,” he replied, after a time. “No, the
weather here only varies by ten degrees year round. During the
summer months, we can expect a high of forty-below.”
    “The troops,” Wooter began again at another
attempt to converse with the prince. “Do you think Hahr is making
any progress in their movements?”
    Again, Karukan looked up, bewilderment
stretched across his furrowed brow.
    “Well…no. It appears they are advancing only
meters at a time.”
    “Ach well, we have nothing to fear,” Wooter
proclaimed.
    “Certainly, we do,” Karukan protested. “For we
are watching the wrong place, monitoring the wrong
thing.”
    In order to demonstrate his meaning to the now
bewildered Wooter, Karukan produced a chess set from the drawer
beneath his desk.
    “Who do you play with all alone up here?”
Wooter asked, as the prince set the pieces upon the
board.
    “My…my…myself.”
    Wooter noted the hesitation in the prince’s
voice, as if he fully expected the other to recognize this as a
lie.
    “Now, you see,” the prince continued. “Hahr’s
army is like this group of pawns. Our’s are here and here, for my
brother is hesitant in his moves. In the meantime, Kalila has set a
bishop here, and a rook over there. Another move and he’ll have my
brother trapped.” Then, he shook his head and made a tsking noise
between his teeth.
    Wooter had never played chess, and while he
couldn’t say whether or not it equated to the armies in real life,
it gave the two men something to do, for lack of anything else. The
prince was happy to teach him the game, and thereafter, they played
incessantly, as their duties required little effort. In fact, most
nights one or the other chose to stay and compete, forgoing sleep,
which in this assignment, was hardly required.
    When Karukan was called back to the Kudisha to
assume the throne newly vacated by his dead brother, he insisted
Wooter join him there.
    “You are my greatest