Fernwood commander

After The Change, the community of Fernwood allied with the rest of the Topanga Canyon dwellers to remain independent of The Valley. Part of the joint defense involved creating and maintaining a community militia. Some thirty years after The Change, Valley forces attempted invade Topanga. Fernwood formed up a detachment of soldiers under the command of one of their own and were heading up to the Glenview border wall when they were warned by Connor Tillman of a Valley force trying to slip past the defenses through the wilderness.

The Fernwood commander ordered Fred to head up to Glenview to warn them of the second attack and that Fernwood would be delayed trying to stop it. The commander then had his men take cover in some houses on the east side closest to where the Valley troops were coming. They fired arrows at the Valley men when they came within range and received fire but were under cover and so took less casualties. One Valley soldier took an arrow in the belly and started screaming animal sounds of pain. The sound disheartened the Valley soldiers and while they received a charge by Fernwood swordsmen, they quickly broke and fled back into the woods. With their ploy of trying to slip past the Topanga defenses while they were distracted by a large, direct attack thwarted, the Fernwood commander hoped the Valley men wouldn't stop until they returned home. In any case, they were out of the fight and so the commander reformed his men to continue to march up to Glenview.