The Knights' Chronicles Part 31
The first things that he was aware of in the darkness that surrounded him were the sounds beyond the abyss that made up his consciousness. Voices were crying, yelling and giving directions. There were wails, moans and sobs of pain, some begging for help. Coughs and the cold ring of metal being scraped together floated in the air.
Next came the smells of sweat, dirt and blood. Their scents were intertwined, not one being more profound than the other. It was a nauseating mix.
Groaning, Wufei forced his heavy eyelids to blink open. Much to his relief he was not greeted immediately by piercing bright light. Instead of looking up at the sky, he found his world covered by a fabric high overhead.
A tent, he realized. He was inside of a tent. Having been inside of one many a time over the course of his training, he recognized it instantly.
Everything else sank in at the same time- his lying on his back atop a cot, the other injured knights all around who were laid out in the same fashion, the sights of the healers hurrying to aid the soldiers that were being brought in. Some of the wounds of those new arrivals were too ghastly for the swordsman to take in.
Quickly turning his head to look over himself, Chang gasped at the sight of the five, deep gashes that ran diagonally across his bare chest. Suddenly, the last memories before his blacking out came rushing back... the ogre that managed to take him by surprise and the strike from the flail that nearly took his life.
Had it not been for the serum from the old man at Romefeller, he never would have found help in time. It was also thanks to that magic that there was no pain, something he had fully expected when he moved himself.
It had been a wonderful token of which he would never be able to thank the kind gifted for.
Finally, the last thing that the teenager noticed was the quiet beyond the large tent. Where there should have been sounds of battle, there was only more of what he heard inside, sobs and voices speaking quietly as people moved about...
...meaning one profound thing- the battle was over. Sanq was lost.
"The Creator must love you, boy," a deep voice announced. His head turning, Wufei watched as Jacobs, one of the encampment's regular healers, approached his bed. Running a hand through his short brown hair, the man gestured to the knight-in-training's chest and frowned deeply, "By all rights, you should be dead."
Wearily, the blood-splattered gifted turned himself to scan the crowded space around, muttering, "I... I have never seen anything like this... so many killed."
Panic took hold of Wufei, sending a chill down his back that had his whole body stiffening.
Quickly pushing himself upright, he began, "An-" His attempt to speak came out in a raspy croak that was cut off by a rough cough. Gladly accepting the cup of water handed over by his caretaker, he gulped it down to dampen his parched throat. With a deep breath he tried again, this time much more clearly, "Anna. Do you know where she is?"
A flash of worry crossed the healer's face. "I-I am not sure of the details, but I believe that she was taken to another tent to be tended to." There was a shift in his brown eyes in his loss of focus. Normally sure and strong, the man seemed on the verge of losing his sanity as he whispered, "So many killed today." Shaking his head, he walked off aimlessly amidst the many injured.
Stricken by the news that his lover was out there somewhere and hurt, it took a moment for Wufei to blink his enlarged eyes and return to the present. Scrambling off the bed, he took up his discarded tunic from the ground. Completely ignoring the urging of the healers around to lie back down, he waved them off as he hurried outside.
The only thing that mattered in the world to him was getting to Anna.
It was an anxiously pacing Nataku that was the first to greet the swordsman when he rushed into the warm night air. At the sight of her rider, the dragon made a bright chirp and hopped to him.
Breathing a deep sigh of relief in seeing his steed, Chang wrapped his arms tightly around her muzzle when she pressed it against him with a quiet, "Hello, my girl. You handled yourself beautifully out there." Pride filled the crystalline eyes and a wide smile curled along the beast's long shout, her tail flapping happily against the soft grass of the hill where the tent was pitched.
Slowly pulling away, Wufei allowed a moment to take in the sights around him. What remained of the army was spread out somewhere in the middle a thick forest. How far from Sanq they were stationed was not certain, but he did not recognize these hilly surroundings amidst the tallest trees he had encountered.
For as far as he could see, there were tents like the one he had ran out of with bewildered knights and their dragons alike milling about in the flicker of torches stationed sporadically through the area. Considering the lack of natural light and the confusion that would have ensued immediately following the attack on Sanq, the camp actually had organization to it.
Of course, that only came with the experience and training that every one of these men had undergone over the course of their lives. Wherever he was, Odin was no doubt proud.
Pulling his torn and blood encrusted tunic back on when, Wufei turned to his asked urgently, "Do you know where I can find Anna, Nataku?" The smile on her face faltered as she answered with an enthusiastic nod. Not waiting for her charge to climb back into his saddle, she wrapped the end of her tail around the knight-in-training to lift him into it.
Instead of flying them, the dragon covered several yards in long bounds through the trees. Nearly a hale-mile later, they came to another clearing much like the one that they had left and Nataku slowed to a trot to sniff at the air for a familiar scent. Overhead, the skies above began to brighten at the first signs of the sun stretching to the horizon.
Sitting up in his saddle, Wufei peered around to the different tents and faces for any sign of faces that he recognized. Everywhere he looked, the survivors were either civilians that had made it out or the first line of knights that had been around for decades upon decades.
Not anywhere was there hide, hair or steed of any of the other knights-in-training. That realization hitting, Chang's heart sank heavily in his chest. Suddenly, the conversations, groans, wails, howls and cries reached a deafening level along with his raging thoughts as he heard himself calling desperately, "Anna!"
From on one of the shorter hills, a bellowing howl rose up as if in response. Chirping at the sound, Nataku raised her head in the direction of the heart-wrenching sound. "Ingier," the swordsman breathed. Eyes narrowing, he ordered, "Get us to him, girl!" His steed was off before he finished his sentence, carefully navigating them around the crowded opening of survivors and the barely alive.
Then, at last, they came to where they found the blue-purple outside of one of the hill-top tents. Held down in leather restraints that bowed over his body to be staked into the ground, the dragon growled and fought fiercely against his bindings while snarling through the steel bit in his mouth at the squires that tried to take care of the bleeding and burn marks in his hide.
Instantly, at the sight of the tears in those large green eyes, Wufei knew that the steed was not being so difficult because of his wounds... he was trying with all his might to get to his rider, regardless of what shape he was in. Scuttling down from his saddle, the teenager ran to his scaly friend, rounding towards his front as he cupped his mouth and yelled, "Ingier! Stand down!"
Startled, the blue-purple snapped his head forward to look down on the boy before him. Whimpering at the sight of his rider's mate, Ingier's tears fell down his face as he lowered his neck to nuzzle him. Lightly running his hands over the distraught dragon's snout, Chang glared heatedly at the squires around and snapped, "Get these restraints off of him! Now!"
Reluctant at first, the men looked to one another before they nodded to the soldier and hurried to remove the bit and ties. Sighing deeply when the metal was removed from his mouth Ingier gave his rescuer a profound look of appreciation and licked the side of his face.
A sad smile spreading on his face, Wufei continued to pat the muzzle against him as he soothed, "It will be all right, boy. I will go in and look after Anna. You know that I would never let anything happen to her. In the meantime, you need to be looked after as well."
Ingier found solace in the fact that his rider would be in capable care with the swordsman, even if he was not completely happy about having to stay out. When the dragon eased while the restraints fell away, Chang grinned, "Thank you, friend." Peering around to the squires that continued to work on their charge, he was rewarded with grateful smiles from the team that could now work unopposed.
While Nataku hurried close, Anna's voice shrieked from within the tent, "I told you, I want this arm grafted! Try to take it and I will kill every one of you! I still have one good arm to do it!"
Fear washed over Wufei like a cold splash of water at his lover's words and Ingier was about to rise up as he released a pained groan. Spinning, the teenager raised his arms and reassured, "I will handle this! You stay calm!" As he turned on his heels to rush for the tent, he pleaded to his own steed, "Watch after him, Nataku."
Lowering herself beside her counterpart, the swordsman's steed let out a soft purr to comfort him. With a sniffle, Ingier leaned into her touch when their heads brushed together and their necks twined in an embrace.
Inside the tent, the scene was the same as it had been in the one that Chang woke in. All around, cots were filled with some of the worst cases of injures as healers moved from patient to patient. Most of them, however, were surrounding one particular bed, working to restrain the flailing patient lying on it. Screaming and cursing, Anna rocked her body as best she could while protectively cradling her left arm against her chest.
At the sight of the mangled appendage, highlighted with exposed bits of bone from its shoulder to its wrist, the swordsman felt his stomach lurch and bile filled his mouth. Pushing back anyone in his way as he reached the cot by his partner's head, he cried, "Anna!"
Damp blue eyes snapped up to lock onto the worried onyx watching her. Gasping sharply, the archer whimpered, "Oh, Wufei! Thank the Creator you are alright!" The healers gathered around stepped back to give the pair a moment to reunite.
Wrapping his arms around the redhead's torso, Chang held her close as their lips locked in a fierce kiss. Tears of relief rolled down both their faces that they rained more kisses on.
Carefully lowering his lover onto her back again, the boy took in the extensive damage done to her arm and shook his head. The fact that there was not a drop of blood to be found told him that she had used the same serum that saved his life to prevent further harm.
"I almost became a meal to one of those ghost rider's steeds back there, but Ingier kept that from happening," Fraise explained, wiping away the wet trails from her cheeks with her good hand. Glaring at the faces waiting at the foot of her bed, she hissed, "They are trying to take my arm away."
Quick to defend himself, the oldest of the healers raised his hands as he informed, "We only said that it is a possibility that we would have to take it. It all depends on what we-"
Cutting him off, Wufei growled, "It is not an option. Anna is an archer. If she loses her arm, you may as well kill her, and you will not want to know me! Whatever it takes, you are going to graft it back together!"
Mouths fell open and eyes filled with alarm at the fire in the swordsman's glaring eyes. Turning to one another, the four healers conversed in hushed whispers.
Then, the oldest man shook his head of thinning blonde hair and sighed, "Very well." His focus falling on his patient, he warned, "You are going to be in a lot of pain, as you will have to be awake through the whole process. It will be long and extensive, but between all of us overseeing the healing, we may be able to repair the damage."
Making his way to Anna's right side, Wufei gathered her back in his arms to hold her close as he nodded firmly, "Get to it, then." The tight squeeze that he gave his trembling lover made it known without words that he was not about to leave her.
While the gifted stretched out her grotesquely injured arm to discuss how they would go about the procedure, Anna put on a brave smile and breathed, "Thank you, love." She was answered with another light kiss.
Intense heat rose up through the nerves as her wrist glowed with the magic flowing through it. Her eyes squeezing closed, the redhead let out a pained cry as she clutched onto her partner as tightly as she could.
* * * * * *
The healing was a very slow and agonizing process, one that not many would have endured if they had the option of simply losing the appendage. But in the end, even the caretakers were impressed with how well the archer's arm came back together.
Sitting on the edge of her cot, Anna ran her right hand over the skin marred by twisting, turning scars that ran from her shoulder to her wrist, left by the teeth that had cut to the bone. A proud smile on her face, she looked to her lover when he neared her and stated, "The mark of a real warrior, as the knighted soldiers say."
"And now we both know what they meant by that," Chang smirked. Rising to her feet, Fraise frowned at the deep markings in the swordsman's chest that she finally had a good look at through the holes in his tunic.
Resting a hand over hers that rose up to gently run its fingers over the long scars, Chang reassured, "I am alright. Just an unexpected run-in with a flail."
The archer was in the process of opening her mouth to snap at him for how nonchalant he was over how close he had clearly come to dying when a finger fell over her lips. Gesturing back to the door with his head, Wufei suggested, "You should go see to Ingier. He has been out of his mind with worry over you."
Her breath hitching in her throat, Anna's eyes grew at her steed's name. Running for the door with her lover, she pulled the cloth door back as she called, "Ingier!" As soon as she was outside, her dragon wrapped her in his tail and lifted her off the ground towards his head, to lick the side of her relentlessly.
Laughing, the redheaded girl kissed the end of his muzzle and hugged it tightly. "You were brilliant out there, Trouble," she complimented.
When she was lowered to the ground, Fraise made it a point to examine every large leaf that had been placed along her steed's hide to protect the ointments and bandages over his injuries to make up quite the number that he had earned.
Biting her lip as Ingier wheeled his grinning head around towards her, she spun to face him and threw her arms around his muzzle again. "I love you, you big lizard." A deep purr rumbled from the beast's chest and he gave her another quick lick. Nataku pressed her body in to curl around her rider and his mate for a squeeze of her tail.
"Wufei! Anna!" a deep voice cried from above. In one of the few spaces still available on the hill, a certain orange-red dragon lowered in a graceful landing.
Elated to see the pair before him, the knights-in-training ran for them as they chorused, "Commander Odin! Peacemillion!" Before her rider could hurry down her side, the faithful steed stretched out to nuzzle the two young warriors.
Rounding his scaly comrade, Lowe breathed a seep sigh of relief when he neared his charges. "I cannot tell you how happy I am that you are both safe," he said with a small grin before he pulled them against his broad chest as a father would their own children.
For the teenagers as they returned the hug, they knew his sincere relief to be based mostly out of his love of them and not only because of their roles as the Sword and Shield in the prophecy that only they knew.
Opening her eyes again, Anna lifted her gaze to the tall officer and asked urgently, "Do you know where my father is, Odin?"
Slowly stepping back, Lowe took in the swordsman and archer. Nodding firmly to himself in satisfaction that they truly were alright even with the remnants of the battle etched in their bodies, he swallowed roughly.
"I need you both to come with me," he said softly, his voice on the verge of choking. There was no explanation. He simply turned to climb back into his saddle.
At his lover's stiffening beside him, Wufei wrapped an arm around her shoulder and offered, "You can ride with me and Nataku." Not looking over at him, Anna gave a small nod and allowed him to gently lead her for his steed.
* * * * * *
Three days.
That was how long the healers had given Captain Fraise to live with his injuries. Everything that could have been done to save his life had been attempted, but his wound was too grave. The best that could be provided was a painless, peaceful end for the brave officer.
Anna and Wufei never left his side that whole time. In that time, they simply sat and talked about anything but his inevitable end. There would be a time to mourn after his passing... this was a time to enjoy what time they had with him.
It thrilled Justin to no end to learn that it had been his daughter who found the weaknesses in the ogres' armor. That was about as far as anyone was about to discuss regarding the battle that claimed their home and so many lives.
Word spread quickly through the camp of the Captain's state. Once his bed was moved into a private tent, many a knight went to visit with him. Even if they did not personally know Fraise, there was a bond forged amongst those survivors of the Sanq army following their greatest test as soldiers.
The whole experience gave Anna the chance to hear stories of her father's past that she never knew. She had time to laugh with him and his long-time friends as they recanted some of the antics they had pulled when they were knights-in-training. To have the opportunity to really know the man who she had grown to admire... the person she wanted to be... it meant the world.
And he would be leaving her.
On the third morning following the battle, there was an unseasonal chill in the air for it to be mid-summer. In the Captain's tent, Commander Lowe and Wufei slept in cots on the ground. Anna sat in a chair beside her father's raised bed, half draped over his torso with his arm wrapped around her.
Her nose twitching, the girl sighed quietly as she stirred awake. Stifling a yawn, she looked behind her to watch her lover sleep soundly as close to her as he could manage. As she smiled lovingly down at him, she heard her father whisper, "Anna."
Something in the tone of his voice sent a chill of dread down her back as she turned to face him. At the peace that she saw in his eyes, her heart began to hammer in her chest.
Lightly running a hand through his daughter's hair, the Captain took a deep breath and told her, "I am so... damned proud of you, sweetheart." Biting his lip, he swallowed roughly as his grin slipped away. "And cannot tell you how sorry I am if I ever made you doubt that I have ever been anything but proud to be your father."
Tears welled up in the young archer's eyes and she shook her head. Clutching onto the officer, she whimpered, "Of course not, Daddy. You were only looking out for me, I know that."
Odin and Wufei had woken from their sleep to get to their feet as Justin turned his head towards them. Nodding firmly to his long-time friend, he could not find the words he wished to say at the end of his life. The Commander was having just as hard a time and so he simply stepped forward so that their hands could clasp in a firm shake.
"Wufei," the redheaded knight began when his hands fell onto the swordsman.
Stepping close, the boy wrapped an arm around his shaking lover as her father gripped his arm. His full attention on the Captain, he nodded.
The breath that Justin pulled in next was a ragged one before he declared quietly, "I, for one, am very grateful that you came to Sanq to join us. The Creator does not make many like you." When his voice broke, he swallowed again and requested softly, "Take care of my little girl for me... son."
Without hesitating, Chang nodded through the tears rolling down his face and pledged, "With my life, sir." He tightened his arms around his partner when a sob broke from her.
Shaking as a cold set in, the Captain pulled his daughter close again to hold another kiss against the top of her head. "I love you, Anna," he breathed, cupping her cheek when she sat back up. "Your mother and I will always watch over you."
"I love you, Daddy," Anna sobbed back, holding onto the hand against her face.
Justin's eyes drifted closed as his last breath was released in a sigh.
Only holding onto the Captain's limp hand all the tighter, the archer gave into the sobs that she had been holding back. Slowly lowering her father's hand, she leaned forward to wrap her arms around his body, burying her face in his chest.
Falling to his knees beside her, Wufei rubbed her back as he cried silently at the loss of the Captain that he had come to respect and love. Commander Lowe fell back to lean against a tent post, tears pouring from his gray eyes.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles beyond the camp, the skies over Sanq were blackened by the cover of clouds that took away the brilliance of the sun rising to greet the rest of the world.
TBC...
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