Hans struck the parade ground hand bell, sending forty militia recruits scrambling into their secondary wedge formation before the signal faded.
"First bell indicates perimeter contact—fall into secondary wedge formation immediately!" Veteran Sergeant Hans roared from the wooden signal platform mounted above the palisade.
Forty militia recruits scrambled across the raked gravel, locking their bronze-trimmed bucklers into an overlapping wall six paces before the masonry gap.
Loccy hopped onto the top of the revetment wall, holding her oversized practice mallet effortlessly on one shoulder while swinging her legs over the drop.
"The masonry gap is still three inches too wide, Sergeant Hans!" the rabbit girl called out with a toothy, mischievous grin.
"If hostile cavalry wedges their horse shoulders into that crease, your front rank gets trampled into sausage meat!"
