[ WP ] Some men lead , and others follow . I do neither ; I watch .

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 The two barons vehemently hated one another with a passion for decades, the feud going back to the their grandfather's generation. Every year some peasant's cottage would be burnt to the ground and its inhabitants slaughter or else some woodsmen would be discovered hanging from the trees of the forest their baronies shared. Most nobles and travelers saw the feud as a tragedy and a waste of lives. Mercenary captain and montador Samuel Hitch saw it as a business opportunity. 
 
 He and his free company had camped along the banks of a small river, the rows of patchwork tents orderly and neat. Horses and dinosaurs were tied down at staked ropes, buckets of food beneath their heads. Women did laundry down stream from where water was collected, the animals further. The air smelt of horse and saurian dung, of smoke from the cook fires and of semi-washed bodies. There were few diseases in this world, but dysentery and cholera were still a danger in large populations. 
 
 Inside the largest tent, Captain Hitch leaned back in the seat of his chair, a pleased smile in his lips. The two barons of Teufelberg and Dettwinger sat glaring across the camp table at one another, the air of the space somehow heavier. 
 
 `` I'll be frank with you two,'' Hitch said, pouring wine into mugs for them both. `` I came to this county because your situation offers me a chance to make money. Right now you're in a stalemate and neither one can gain a victory. You sit in your castles, content in knowing that neither one can move without risking a defeat in battle. As long as you remain entrenched, you ca n't lose. 
 
 `` I'm here to change that. In my company I have six hundred good men, trained and battle-hardened soldiers all. Billmen, halberdiers, crossbows, longbows, knights, even dinosaurs. I have an engineer in my retinue who can crack the strongest fortress imaginable. I have the parts to construct siege weapons and the men who can build them in a matter of days. Whoever hires me will emerge victorious whether in battle or in siege. The only question is who. 
 
 My starting price is one thousand silver pesos. Whoever offers the better figure gets me and my men.'' 
 
 The Baron of Teufelberg looked as if he ate a piece of rotten meat, saying, `` And what if we refuse?'' 
 
 Hitch smiled and leaned forward conspiratorially. 
 
 `` If you both refuse, I'll flip a coin and join up with the winner of the toss for free, minus any looting my company does. Are you sure you want to risk that?'' 
 
 Dettwinger stared daggers at the mercenary knight as he said, `` What if we temporarily set aside our differences and attack you both?'' 
 
 `` I'll just retire and move on,'' Hitch explained. `` Or failing that, I'll flip that same coin and direct all my efforts against one of you, mauling that baron so viciously that he'd be easy pickings for the survivor. The starting price is now one thousand two hundred pesos. Do you have any other pressing questions?'' 
 

