“That’s just the way it is, Emon. But think of it this way: there are probably a lot of things in the human world that, to a kobold, would be considered illogical or inefficient.”
There are countless examples of someone with an outside perspective finding something obvious when it never would have occurred to those on the inside. Assumptions and blindness that come with customs and tradition are more serious than someone who isn’t part of that culture might think. It’s not rare for religion, tradition, or values to halt the progress of cultural or technological advancement for even hundreds of years.
“You’re totally right, Sashalia. If you hadn’t pointed it out to us like this, we probably never would have thought to change how we look at spirit-speak. It never would’ve occurred to us unless our village... I mean, our country, ended up in a situation like this.” Red Eye crossed his arms, as if convincing himself of what he was saying even as he said it.
“You’re right, this is much faster than sending messengers back and forth. The sound will travel farther than normal howling, and we don’t have to worry about the wind wiping it out, either. It’ll be perfect for the guards at the mouth of the river to report back to us... That’s what you mean, right?”
“Yes, that was my first line of thought, too, that we could use it instead of alarms or smoke signals. But this power could prove even more useful.”
The kobolds all cocked their heads.
“We can use the length and the pattern of the sounds to create a code. For instance, ‘short-long-long-long’ to mean ‘1.’ Or codes for places or actions. I have several ideas already, so I’m hoping to get everyone’s input before I decide on them. If we combine these patterns, we can send much more information than a simple alarm could. And in an instant! Imagine being out on a hunt and being able to coordinate your movements, even when you’re far away from each other.”
After Sashalia’s explanation, an older housewife let out a code in spirit-speak. That got a bigger reaction than anything else thus far from the men, especially those of them with shaman training.
“But Sashalia, it’s gonna be a pain to send and listen for these while we’re busy fighting,” one of the older men objected.
“Yes... That’s why those soldiers tasked with listening to and sending messages should be focusing entirely on doing that, not combat. I think we could call them ‘spirit messengers.’”
“Soldiers that don’t fight, huh...?”
It was only warriors that went on hunts. For the kobolds, battle was synonymous with hunting, so this was another idea that was obvious to someone from the human world that the kobolds would have never considered on their own.
The older kobold who’d spoken nodded to himself several times, deep in thought.
“Spirit messengers, huh? I’ve got no shaman training, so I don’t totally get it, but it seems like it’d be really difficult to keep track of everything everyone’s sending around.” Rain Grass looked very pensive, still in Gaius’s arms.
“I have ideas about that, too. Please look at this.” Sashalia directed everyone to the parchment before her, clearly expecting this reaction. “We’ll organize the information here.”
“On the map?”
“Yes,” the half-elf said, indicating the stones atop the map. “We’ll say each white stone is an ally. And each black stone is a group of enemies. It’ll be even easier to understand if we use different sizes of stones to represent the numbers in a group, or we could put symbols on them. These blue stones will be spirit scouts who we’ll have hiding up in trees or in bushes.”
Rain Grass and the rest of the kobolds watched the map.
“A scout reports the enemy’s movement. The ladies around the map receive the spirit-speak, and... if you would.”
One of the housewives standing next to Sashalia used a stick that had been fashioned into a T-shape to push a stone. The stone, which had been polished smooth, slid across the map with a faint noise.
“They move a black stone. Now, we need to give directions to one of our units.”
Sure enough, another housewife pushed a white stone with her stick in much the same way.
“We can even have several people doing this in multiple places at once.”
The housewives used their sticks to move the white and black stones around the map at the same time. It looked almost like several small creatures were rushing over the surface of the parchment.
“This is how we’ll keep track of our allies’ and enemies’ positions during battle.”
It was a fact for all humanoids, not just kobolds or humans, that a commanding officer can only be immediately aware of what’s happening within their ranges of sight and hearing. Their orders can only reach as far as their voice does. Beyond that distance, they must send a messenger or a signal using flares, horns, drums... That of course limits the contents of their message, naturally leading to a delay in the time it takes to be received. But with this new system, the kobolds could achieve overwhelming superiority in the speed and accuracy of their communications. Their commander could maintain a visual understanding of the status of the battle and the positions of their allies and enemies. All armies strategized before battle using pieces atop maps, but no country on the continent had yet devised a way to update the board in real time. This was in the realm of dreams. Fantasy, really.
The men all gulped. Even the kobolds, who lived in the forest and had no experience with warfare, could instantly grasp what a boon this system would be.
“If we amass information here... let’s call it the command center... then there’s no need for individual squads to decipher every spirit-speak message. All the spirit messengers will have to do is send their reports to the command center and decipher the messages sent to them. As for the large amount of communication to the command center, the housewife alliance has enough members to handle that task.”
The fearless members of the kobolds’ strongest faction flexed and smirked. Their sons and husbands scrunched up their shoulders and shrunk, cowed.
“For kobolds who were born and grew up in the Greatwood, this might be hard to understand, but for humans, being in the forest is like being blindfolded. If they let their guard down, they could lose sight of their way home. On the other hand, you are sensitive to scents and sounds and have a great sense of direction, too. The trees do nothing to hamper your movements. Last time, the best we could do was lead the adventurers into the forest and run around, but now... with this technique, we could split up, slow them down, create diversions, maybe even team up to take them down.”
Sashalia paused there, then corrected herself, expression solemn: “No, we will take them down.”
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Dwaemon hummed to himself for a moment before speaking up. “But, y’know... Ye probably cannae do this on the move, right? If the old man’s back here commandin’, won’t that be a real blow to our fightin’ power? If we wanna take out groups of ’em in the forest or hold ’em off at the river mouth, I really think we’re gonna need the old man swingin’ ’is sword around.”
A stir went through the kobolds when the young man made his point.
Sashalia raised her hand to quell the commotion and answered the dwarf’s question. “True, the command center is not something a fighter can take to the battlefield... And it is a heavy blow to our fighting power to remove Sir Gaius from the front lines. However, this strategy will be much more advantageous in the long run than what Sir Gaius alone could contribute in combat, as much as that is. We’ll make up for the loss... one way or another.”
There was a short silence that was broken by Gaius, who had been silent up to this point.
“No, Miss Sashalia, Emon. It’s all right. There’s a way to utilize this strategy without reducing the strength of our front lines.”