Manald was not amused. In his mindset, 'varying reports' was a quite shameless euphemism for one's system of intelligence having either broken down or been successfully deceived by the enemy. It shouldn't be that hard to keep track of a horde of Orcs marching straight for one of the more important settlements humanity had, should it ? Being outnumbered was one thing, but not even knowing whether it would be one to four or one to twenty if one only counted the soldiers around the prince himself was another.

Setting up camp here was a gamble. If it had been his own decision he had not stopped just 5 miles before the destination after days of marching, but pushed the troops harder so they would have arrived earlier, reducing the enemy's chances to do so before them. The big downside of this idea ? The possibility that the Orcs might already have reached the city even before that, resulting in 50 soldiers who had not been given any opportunity to rest running right into them. Manald could have made an argument out of that, but he held himself back. In his opinion they all had been thrown into a situation that had already been a dilemma, caused by others. He'd really liked to have a serious word with Leonidas' master of spies instead...

As the beastman meandered around the camp at a sluggish pace he could almost feel many of the soldiers turn their heads towards him behind his back. At least some of those had to be new people, not part of the gang that knew him already. Another item on today's negative list... just knowing that the men around oneself were good was much better than merely hoping for it. And then he heard the splashing sound of someone falling into the mud. Or, given the intensity of the noise, maybe one should even say 'having been dumped into it' ?

Out of sheer curiosity, Manald took the detour around the bunch of tents to investigate. What he saw made him cross his paws in front of his enormous chest: [color=darkgreen]"Already starting the fighting before the fight, are we ?[/color] The lycan chuckled.