77 The circling of birds

Office Bǎo had trained twenty four men. They worked in groups of three and had developed into tight units which operated independently. 
Xin and I were extras. That suited us, it meant we could play our own games and create fear in ways that would cause their morale to fall over time.
Bǎo assigned each grouping a different area. Our task was to, one, take out any foreign troops we could and two, monitor their activities and potentially their future intentions.
Both Xin and I had seen the state of our men at the front and were horrified. 
I was relieved when I saw Hao Yang. How he had grown. The horror of war had aged him and the young innocent who had come to my camp all that time ago was long gone. Instead, stood a battle hardened man who had honed his values with a sword in his hand and his men at his side.
He was a broad, brute of a man now, with a look of steel in his eye. His hair, partially unbranded, held no signs of rank. He didn't need it, his demeanour said it all, "a leader among men".
The horrors I had seen made me angry.
"Xin, it's time to play." I said, "you ready?"
"Yes. Time we went and did what we do best." And with that, we turned and left. With us, we had an area to patrol and our weapons of choice. We silently waved to other groups as we split off and vanished into the undergrowth. 
It was good to be back home. Xin squeezed my arm. I smiled and nodded. We broke into a silent jog, covering the space between the troops and our area of 'study' in no time. The moon was quarter full and we could already see pockets of soldiers around camp fires.
It was going to be a busy night. 
Pulling out my two killing blades from my belt, I saw Xin doing the same. Our silent gestures worked like clockwork; one would never believe it had been over nine months since we had played together. 
Tonight, there would be much death in the air, and it would start...... right........ about......Now!

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