“The men are ready, Lord.” 

Eorl looked out upon the assembly plain.  Marshall Wulfgar had assembled his twenty two eoreds in full combat formation.  Each rider wore a heavy tunic under a chain mail hauberk.  Soft deerskin pants were in order for the long ride ahead.  As to arms, they all bore a sword, spear, shield and axe. Saddle bags were full.

Eorl too was in full battle dress.  As with his men, his long golden hair fell out from a shining steel helm.  His polished chain mail hauberk lay over a leather padded tunic.  Light vambraces shielded his forearms, greaves protected his legs below the knee. 

“We do not as a rule mass in such numbers” Eorl remarked to Aragost and Borondir, joining him and the Marshal on a small rise overlooking the plain. 

“No more than five hundred men easily suffices to keep any orc incursions from Gundabad at bay.  But we prepare for much worse.  And it is a joy for us to ride so it is no labor.  We imagine such a foe that we would muster the entire eohere.  And that foe presents today to our south.”

Aragost looked out at the horsemen in the formation that constituted the right wing of Eorls’s army.  The twenty two eoreds of one hundred riders each were clustered into five groups of four to five eoreds.  Each group was led by a first captain, selected from among the captains of each eored.

“I battle I will lead the eohere at the center.” Eorl instructed. “Each Marshall leads a wing.  When we are upon the enemy I will give the order of battle.  My herald will sound the horn and Marshalls will sound theirs.  We then advance at speed to deal the enemy a terrible blow!”  Eorl’s ice blue eyes glittered for a moment, swept up in the scene he envisioned.

“The Balchoth will not stand idly by for slaughter” Borondir remarked.

“It would be quicker for them if they did” Eorl replied with a grim smile, “But adapt we can and our lead captains are expected to exploit what presents itself.  They will sound the horn for their eored group and take what prize may be offered.  Now watch and see.”

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Leofric waited several yards in front of the line of his five eoreds.  The Captains vote had chosen him Lead Captain for their section at the tail end of the right wing of the eohere. 

They were all mounted and ready, fully armed and pack laden.  It would be so in battle.  Leofric’s horn lay on his chest, strap cast over his right shoulder.  Upon the signal from the Marshall he would sound the horn as would all the Lead Captains.  Then they would ride in formation, charging across the assembly plain towards their targets, hundreds of posts, some with shields attached, others bound in straw.

His group would take the targets on the far right, hacking them to pieces in a single charge, then wheel around and charge back to their starting points heaving spears at freshly placed targets. 

He looked to the left.  The Marshall was galloping down from the knoll where he had met with Eorl.  Leofric watched intently.  Then as the Marshall approached the first of his troops he raised his horn and sounded the charge.

Immediately five horns echoed his signal.  With a shout, Leofric spurred his steed into action, hooves sending dirt flying.  The ground trembled with the terror of hundreds of horses charging at speed across the plain.

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Borondir and Aragost watched, transfixed as over two thousand horseman charged over the assembly plain towards their targets less than half a league away.  A great wave of hooves and steel led by the Marshall and his five lead Captains.

“See, the main formation, how each group of five eoreds maintains a slight separation from their neighbor group.”  Eorl was getting excited, watching them sweep across the plain in combat discipline.

“Now watch as the target masters in those scattered copses of trees cut the long ropes to raise new targets.”

Aragost and Borondir swept their gaze out into the distance.  Abruptly what had been rolling plain was dotted with a maze of new stakes risen up the far end of the wing. 

“A little surprise.  All tied down under tension, easily released by the target masters cutting the restraining ropes in the trees.  Now we will see if our Lead Captain at the end of the wing remembers his training.”  Eorl commented.

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Leofric saw it on his right as he closed the distance to his assigned targets.  A thicket of new targets, suddenly emerged, painted black, simulating orcs.  They would have to be struck down or the wing would be flanked.  At full gallop he raised his horn and sounded three times, then veered right. 

Three of his five eoreds split off from his formation and followed him.  The remaining two stayed on their original course.  Off to the left, the Lead Captain of the next eored group heard his signal and closed ranks with the two remaining eored’s providing support for their original mission.

Up on the knoll Eorl smiled in approval and gestured to Aragost and Borondir.

“Nothing is fixed in battle.  We train for change.  Watch now as the Lead Captain cuts his way through the orc targets.”

Down on the plain Leofric’s three hundred made short work of the stakes and straw dummies, leveling them with vicious cuts of their swords, then wheeling left to rejoin their other two eoreds which had decimated the original targets. The entire wing formation made a turnabout in good order, reforming the line, then charging back to their original position where large targets had been quickly raised.

Once again the ground shook under the pounding of incessant hooves. Dust and dirt flew in the air.  Men raised their voices in battle cry as they closed with spears drawn in their right hands.  Fifty yards out the spears were released, shredding the canvas targets.  A great cheer went up in the ranks.  They had performed well.

The cheers grew deafening as Eorl rode down to address the men, his sword held high in salute.

“Men of the Eotheod!  You have done well today!  In two days we depart to meet an enemy of flesh and blood, not straw and sticks.  But they will fall as hay before the scythe.  Gondor will be saved!”

A great roar went up in the ranks.  Men brandished swords, shouting. 

Up on the knoll Borondir spoke to Aragost.

“His men would follow him to any doom.”

“The doom will be for the Balchoth.”  Aragost replied

“If we are in time…if we are in time.”  Borondir said quietly to himself.