Free Reborn: War's Nightmare by D. W. Jackson

don’t you try and prepare some tea?”
    For more than an hour Ash was made to make tea, but not once was what he did acceptable. When Fay had made the tea it had looked so artful yet simple, but Ash had quickly found that it was much harder than it had looked. His stirring speed was either too fast or too slow. He was either stirring it too hard or too soft. It was not only the speed, but Fay often complained that he had the wrong state of mind when he was mixing the tea. “If you mind is not calm and still when you are mixing the tea, then the tea will not calm the soul. Instead it will anger it,” Fay had said over and over as she loomed over him like some vicious taskmaster. Now that he was lying in his bed looking at the bland tent above him, Ash was thankfully that it had already been so late otherwise Fay might have kept him there until the end of time. Though he was tired, it was the first time Ash slept in peace in a long time.         

       12-8
    Two days quickly passed and Ash found himself sitting atop a large black winged horse. Though the horse had wings and could fly, it was not like the flying horses in the myths from his world as it could only fly a few feet above the ground. Even then, it could not do so for a prolonged amount of time. The true value of the winged horse was that it could travel across any terrane very quickly. It also has a very thick hide that can take most normal attacks.
    “Nervous?” Fay asked with a sly smile. Just like Ash, Fay stood at the front of the army waiting for the beginning of the battle. Ash had a slight feeling of relief for not being alone. His guards/wives gave him some comfort, but Fay made him feel more secure in his decisions. She looked young, but each time she spoke Ash could feel the years of experience in her words. It both encouraged him and at the same time reminded Ash how much farther he had to go to be a true leader.
    “It would be a lie to say that I didn’t feel some misgivings,” Ash replied as he gripped the sword in his hand, reassured by its presence as he looked at the town ahead and the men standing on top of the battlements and roofs of the buildings near the wall.
    “Lord, I think we should start or the soldiers are going to start getting sunstroke waiting,” Fay said in a joking tone.
    Feeling slightly embarrassed, Ash nodded his head then raised his right arm his sword pointing high into the sky. “Eagle knights go!” Ash’s words echoed through the air as if they were shouted from the top of a mountain.
    At Ash’s command the air was filled with the sound of the wing beats of large birds as the massive eagles passed over the head of the demon army.
    Though he was near a mile away from the human city, he could hear the faint sound of yelling coming from the distance. Though there were only a little over a hundred eagles, they seemed to block out the sky since Ash’s eyes were glued onto them as sweat rolled down his forehead.
    The archers were the first to attack the flying enemy but their arrows fell short. Only the few who had overbearing abilities seemed to have any luck getting close to their targets, but even those attacks seemed insignificant as not one eagle fell from the sky. The next wave of attacks came from the cities mages once the eagles were directly over the city. Ash watched, his stomach clutching as more than half a dozen birds dropped from the sky.
    The eagle knights did not just idly accept the attacks of their enemies. Almost like one massive machine, the eagles flipped over and the riders launched their most destructive abilities and soon the air above the city was filled with flames and dust as buildings collapsed.
    After three passes, the eagle knights had lost more than a quarter of their numbers and started to return having expended the majority of their strength. As soon as the eagles had retreated to half the distance between the city and the demon army, Ash raised his left hand and one of the