Part 5
“And they’re damned hard to kill. If you cut off one of their limbs, or even two or three, it won’t kill them, and they’ll probably be back in the battle in two or three days. Assuming that one of their own doesn’t take advantage of their weakness to kill them and eat them. You pretty much have to destroy their heads, or more than half of their torsos, in order to kill them. They breed like flies, and they give birth by vomiting up a few hundred tiny demons about five centimeters tall, all of whom are battle-ready a moment after birth. They double in size every three months when well fed, and they can change the shape and configuration of their bodies as they’re growing. They can add extra limbs, tails, wings, spikes, horns, whatever they want.
“I mean, I knew a lot of this already, from what Somonik said at the beginning of the War of The Founding. And we just read about it a couple of months ago. But knowing it is a lot different from seeing it, hearing it, feeling it like you were there. I don’t know how our babies haven’t been completely traumatized by this. It just amazes me. Fifty-four years of the demon war, every experience of it, taken in a blink.
“I’m so worried about them now, but I don’t know what to do about it, or even if we should do anything about it.
“And beyond that, I’m worried for us all. I think we’re not taking the threat of the demons seriously enough. But I’m not sure if there’s anything we can do about it. I don’t know that it’ll really help things if everyone knows in advance how horrible the demons really are. Many are having a hard enough time dealing with their fear as it is.”
“No doubt that was Quewanak’s thinking.” Talia mused. “And Povon and Kragorram’s as well, since they have the memory too. Quewanak’s training pushes us pretty hard. He could make it harder, and we could improve faster, but then it would start to detract from people’s ability to enjoy their lives between training. That in turn might slow our progress.
“We have the time to train in the healthiest manner possible. It would be different if we had less time. If we had to fight the demons in six months it would be worth it to hurry and intensify the training. But we can’t sustain that level of intensity for twenty four-years.
“On the other hand, the simulations of demons that we face in the training should be just as dangerous as real demons. If we have to face less of them in the exercises in order for any of us to survive the battle, then we’ll just have to do that. They just don’t have to be as horrible as real demons, not yet anyway.
the demons in Quewanak’s training dream, do you think they were the same as in Somonik’s
the training, and by then I was pretty emotionally numb from it
those demons were bad enough. I haven’t thought about it enough recently to compare it to the training exercises
the exercises are… Well not fun, as I was going to
that we may be forming bad habits that will
thin air, knowing the dragon god’s vast awareness
consideration for their emotional health and for their combat capabilities.” He psionicly answered. “And you’re correct in
a victory over a more numerous enemy feels far better than defeating a small but realistic band of demons. The realism of the enemy, and their numbers, will gradually increase over the full score of years, culminating in fully realistic simulations. You need not worry that you will form bad habits that lead you to underestimate the enemy, because your habits will gradually change as the training changes. The only long-term habit you will form is the expectation that the demons will always be a bit more dangerous than they were the
“That’s good thinking, so long as the time-bubble
no reason to think that it might be, though that is within the realm of possibility. If it ends without warning, we will have to see that these people receive accelerated training in the main time stream, assuming that
so long as things continue as planned, in twenty-four years these people will be as fully prepared and trained to wage war against the
“Thank you.” Talia nodded.
you have any thoughts on the twins’ mental health?” Mark asked.
ready, they’ll ask to join the community training program, and shortly after that their worth will