The Legarthan Saga

Chapter 12

Axton slowly walked through a makeshift hospital, with the few medics that had been assigned to him, and the enemy, working tirelessly trying to treat the multitude of injured soldiers from both sides. As he watched the medics do their work, he noticed one soldier was being intentionally ignored by the nearest medic, who was treating a soldier with a much less severe injury. Quickly walking over to the medic, he cleared his throat. "Excuse me, is there a reason why you're treating this man before the man behind you? I'm no medic, but he seems to be much more in need of medical assistance than your current patient."

The medic looked at the man and then back at Axton. "I'm prioritizing the needs of our soldiers over those of the enemy. If he wanted quick treatment, he shouldn't have become a traitor to Eshal."

Axton glared at the medic. "I believe I ordered you all to treat patients based on how severe their injuries are, NOT on which side they fought on! You had better quickly finish up here and begin immediately giving the man the proper medical care he needs! Am I understood?"

The medic quickly nodded and immediately increased the rate in which he was trying to finish up treatment of the first soldier. Seconds later, he had finished and ran over to the other soldier. Axton watched the medic for the next few minutes to make sure the medic wasn't disobeying orders before moving on. Several minutes later, content with how the rest of the medics were performing their duties, Axton made his way out of the hospital and to a corner in the outpost. At the corner, he saw his six soldiers, swords drawn and pointed at the woman who was sitting down.

As the soldiers spotted Axton approaching, the tension in their bodies eased a bit as they stepped to the side, allowing Axton to walk up to Kailyn.

"At ease everyone! Good job with your guard duties. Go get something to eat. I'll call for you if I need you." The guards saluted Axton before walking away, leaving just the two of them.

Kailyn sighed. "Aren't you afraid that I'd use this opportunity to make an escape attempt?"

Axton chuckled. "If you wanted to make an attempt to escape, I'm not stopping you. However, good luck trying to get through an entire outpost of soldiers that are still on high alert."

Kailyn was silent as Axton sat down next to her. "I've read what information we have on you, and I must say, your rush to end the battle without a siege was definitely a surprise to me."

Kailyn shrugged. "What can I say? I was under orders to pacify or eliminate your resistance as quickly as possible. A prolonged siege wouldn't have accomplished our orders. Besides...I have a feeling that strategy wouldn't have worked anyways, considering you had the bulk of your forces hiding in the forest. They would have just attacked our rear flank when we focused all of our attention into infiltrating your defenses. The results would have been the same."

"I'm not so certain about that. Your troops were also quite well trained, especially a few of them that would have absolutely destroyed me in a one on one fight. In fact, had you not surrendered when you did, I'm pretty sure one of your troops would have struck me down."

Kailyn slowly nodded. "In direct violation of my orders too. I explicitly ordered that you were to be captured alive. Though I do have an idea about who you're talking about though. He was always one of my strongest soldiers, but he has a mind of his own."

Axton chuckled. "At least he wasn't so independent that he ignored your surrender."

Kailyn didn't respond, looking around the outpost. "So, how in the world are you planning on imprisoning all of us?"

"Hm?"

"From what I've seen, the outpost isn't exactly built for imprisoning prisoners of war. You could comfortably keep maybe fifty of us, but any size larger than that would be...problematic to say the least."