The sound of men chewing filled the forest air. It was a disgruntled chewing as the food was cold. The party couldn't risk a fire being seen, so they ate their cold beans, stale bread, and unsensitized water out in the open on a cold forest floor.

"When do we attack," said a young freckle-faced boy, one of the squire knights. "By daybreak, correct?"

"Yes," said the Commander. "We're far ahead of the convoy. We'll rest up here tonight, and gather our strength. When we see the wagons come over the hill, we'll unleash Hell upon them."

The Bastard King's convoy had food and supplies for the enemy army. If this little squad of knights from the Rebellion could cut off the convoy, they could rather. They could win. They could overthrow the king. Fifteen men in total - two knights with spears, six with swords, a couple squires, the Commander, and the rest were archers. They could do this.

The freckle-faced boy, Thedius, took his sword out of his sheath and studied it. He never wanted to be a knight - in fact, he wanted to be a farmer like his granddad. But his father, the Commander, forced him to follow in his footsteps. He sighed. He could bet money, a lot of money, that his strawberry field had died by now.

One of the archers whirled around on his butt, drawing his bow and aiming an arrow at a rustling sound. The rest of the knights turned, and waited. Out of the shadows came a squirrel.

The men all exhaled, then looked at each other. 'Fresh meat' they all thought. The archer aimed his arrow once more, and...

"Stop!" Thedius whisper-shouted. "Can't cook the poor thing anyway. Besides, what if you break the arrow? You'll be down one." The archer shrugged and nodded. The rest of the group eyed the boy for a moment, and came to the realization that they didn't want to eat raw squirrel meat.

Thedius offered some of his beans to the squirrel on his spoon, which the squirrel gladly accepted.

"Well, don't go feeding it now," said the Commander. "You'll attract all the woodland creatures and they'll blow our cover."

"Go on now," said Thedius. "You've had your fill, get out of here." He shooed his squirrel friend away. The animal scampered off, hurrying back into the darkness.

"Let's get some sleep," said one the other knights. "The sooner we get this done, the sooner I get to go back home and have squirrel stew."

The lads slept. Well, they slept a little.

In the middle of the night, a had shook Thedius awake. The boy rubbed his eyes, coming face to face with the Commander, his father.

"Look what you did, boy."

Thedius looked. Surrounding the squad of knights was about two dozen squirrels, foxes, skunks, owls, and even a bear. A fucking bear.

The knights drew their swords and bows, ready to fight whatever the fuck was about to happen.

The animals began to grow, and the bear began to shrink. Their fur was replaced with metal armor, swords, helmets, and a Royal crest that belonged to a Bastard King. It was the convoy. They had found them out.

A massacre took place around Thedius. His father, and comrades, all dead. A boy no older or younger than Thedius walked up to him, brandishing his sword.

"Thanks for the beans," he said before slicing Thedius' head clean off.