Forward:

This story is fiction and the most of the characters are fictional. If I forgot anything in the glossary please let me know via owl or comments.

It was the first day of spring. The forest had awoken after its long winter sleep. The birds sang their playful songs; the squirrels were digging out nuts and seeds they had buried in the fall. The streams rushed with a new enthusiasm. The snow had begun to melt back into the rivers, the foliage had exploded into an ocean of green

All of the forest creatures were on guard that day because newcomers had arrived in the woodland. They watched as the proud newcomers marched in tight formation wearing bright red uniforms and shiny steel armor. Their iron tipped javelins glinted in the morning sunlight. In the center of this sea of red and silver a tall oak staff towered above the crowd of warriors crowned with a proud eagle made of solid gold. This sight was startling and sparked curiosity of the forest creatures as they had never seen folk who wanted to be noticed by their enemies.

At the end of the day the Legion stopped at the edge of the forest and set up camp. Within hours huge wooden walls encased the Legion. Tall watchtowers loomed above the fortification. Above the walls, the battlements teemed with archers. The engineers set up small menacing crossbow like catapults, called “Scorpio ballistae”. Long staves and trenches separated the men from the forest. Neat lines of little brown tents filled the inside of the fort.

Beyond the wooden fort stood another even larger fort made of stone. When the sun fell beneath the horizon the wooden fort fell silent, yet the stone fort could not. It was busy preparing for the long dark road ahead: Siege.