Personal Account 11
From the Kingsland Rifles
The Zagorlad foragers were scattered all throughout the fields, gathering late autumn ears of corn, picking berries, and snaring rabbits. When they had gathered enough food they would return to to the main army camp along with the other foragers, and the army would eat for another day.
High up in the branches of a tree, what looked like a patch of green shadow stirred. The man rested his rifle on one of the branches and, quietly adjusting the sight, searched among the ranks for the enemy officer. It took him a minute before he could find the man, who stood watchful guard over the collected supplies. The narrow foresight of the rifle lined up on the officer's upper torso, and then with a crack the bullet sped on its way.
The back of the officer's head seemed to explode at the bullet passed rhough his skull. At the sound of the gunshot the Zagorlads grabbed their weapons, but the sudden death of their commander made them unsure of what to do.
The rifle shot had been a signal for the canopies of the forest was suddenly filled with flames and acrid gunsmoke. Most of the enemy fell, while the rest franticall opened fire on the trees. But they were at least 150 yards away, too far for a musket but perfect for a rifle. The Zagorlads, knowing that a rifle takes longer to load then a musket, fled for their lives, but they were too late. The hammers once again sparked against frizzens, and the remaining men staggered and fell.
There was a long silence, and then fifty green coated figures dropped from the trees. They moved among the dead, checking for wounded and rifling through the bodies for coins or drink. They gathered up the supplies the Zagorlads had collected a took what they could, burning what they couldn't.
"I wonder how the others have fared," said the first man who fired the first shot, speaking in the brogue of the Northlands of Sicinia. The men formed into skirmish order and left silently, leaving a smouldering pile of food and a score of bodies behind them.
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