IronGuard

CHAPTER 11

"Hurry up with the tent Finn!" Dello shouted at Finn who is miserably failing on putting up their tent. 

Their company arrived at the old citadel just before nightfall, a day after Marcus left. They make camp beside the ruins of a once great fortress built long before the demons came to Perion, they dare not sleep inside it because of its unstable structure and scary rumors which frightened Finn so much that he could not even look at the walls of it. The IronGuard said to have found hundreds of sleeping demons inside it when they arrived and slaughtered them all, leaving none except what the rumors say of the restless spirits of the demons still linger within its deep halls. 

When the sky finally became black and dotted with stars their company started cooking their dinner. The camp had three fires separating the company's members; the first campfire had the knights and soldiers of captain Gildas, the second for captain Gildas and his three former students along with a few officers of the soldiers and the third was for the recruits. 

The recruits gathered together around the fire, keeping warm from the cold the night. Merriell was in charge of cooking and she commanded the handling of ingredients well, two cauldrons hung over the fire, filled with Merriell's secret recipe rabbit soup which was always the favorite of their group even captain Gildas took a liking for it. 

While waiting for their meals everyone took their own things to do like cleaning weapons, armor, carving something from a small piece of wood, stargazing, feeding and grooming the horses but for Dello he noticed someone missing from the group and it was Rithia he looked around and found her standing on a hill nearby watching the horizon. 

"She must be waiting for Marcus" Merriell said while stirring the soup. "She's been quiet since we left"

"She's always been quiet" Finn replies as he makes finishing touches on his carved piece. "Besides. She's got nothing to worry about. Marcus can handle things"

"How do you know?" Zel asks. Everyone now listens to their conversation even from the other campfires. The soldiers and knights glance at the recruits.

Finn puts down his knife and raises his shoulders, "He's Marcus, for four years he handled everything very well if not perfect"

"Even so, he shouldn't have done what he did" Merriell says, taking a spoon to taste the soup to see if it's ready but she makes an unsure face. "He should've told us before he left with a damn demon"

An awkward silence covered their campfire making everyone uneasy until Finn decides to tell them something. "Remember the time when our training camp was surrounded by a huge pack of wolves because of me" Finn says and everyone stopped whatever they were doing. "In the middle of the night I woke up to take a piss in the woods and accidentally found a lost cub and pissed at it?" the camp lightly laughed at the thought. "And its entire pack followed the scent of my piss back to me. Before I knew it there were at least fifty of them chasing me back to camp, I shouted and cried for help and Marcus was the first one I saw. 'wake up the others' he said to me and I ran to each tent and yelled my throat out to wake up everyone. i can still remember what captain Gildas said when he woke up 'It's not even dawn yet Therese!' he shouted at me. of course I didn't know any Therese back then" Everyone then bursts into laughter even Owen, Elos and Annalyn. Gildas just tries to hold his anger to not ruin the story telling. "When we all grabbed our swords and gear, we saw him holding off the wolves with a torch in one hand and a sword in the other and he said 'Stay back I don't want anyone to get hurt'. Right then and there I knew that Marcus was someone worth trusting" Finn looks at them and in his eyes he showed them how much trust he has in Marcus. "Funny enough captain Gildas took my pants by force and rode away with it, the wolves followed it and I had to spend a week wearing only a blanket" one last wave of chuckles and giggles and they all returned to their work and Finn continues with his carving. 

"Everyone it's done. Start going at it" Merriell says as she finished cooking but she still has that unsure face on her but everyone else dropped everything and hurried like beasts for the pot. Secretly Gildas, Owen and Elos lined up as well. 

"Why are you there!" Annalyn exclaimed. She just gave them a bowl of her own cooking and suddenly they disappeared like ghosts. 

"Forgive us Annalyn but your cooking is horrible!" Owen replied. Annalyn turns to Elos and Gildas but both of them can't even look at her for they were too excited to get to the pot. "Ingrates" She whispers and grudgingly takes her bowl and sits alone the campfire but later Elos comes back with two bowls, for him and for her.

The soldiers and knights notice the clamor going on around the campfire of the recruits and one of them secretly takes a bowl full of Merriell's soup and just by seeing his face full of satisfaction as he takes a mouthful drink, they hurry to join the recruits. 

Dello sees Merriell sitting by her tent alone and he decides to sit beside her. "Is something wrong?" He asks her and she looks at the bowl of soup in his hand. 

"There's something missing isn't it?" She asks him but Dello only shakes his head in disagreement. "Hemmeth used to cook with me remember? And now that he's gone I feel like there's something missing" 

"You and Hemmeth did make a lot of good meals for us" Dello looks down at the bowl. "Our training was hard and each day we were on our last breathe but when meal time came. All of that pain and exhaustion went away once we took that first bite" He points at the soldiers lining up for the pot. "You see them"

Merriell turns to where Dello was pointing and saw how eager the soldiers were for her pot with such big smiles on their faces and those who already have their share sat down and ate their fill with joy.

"I imagine they haven't tasted something this good since their mothers, sisters or wives cooked for them before they joined the army. Some of them might have never tasted something this good until now" Dello says. 

"I wish Hemmeth was here" Merriell says as she looks up at the stars.

"I wish all fifty of us were still here but things happen and that's how the world is but if you fall down, stand up and keep moving. Hemmeth would want you to keep moving" Dello holds her hand, "You know some of us might die in the next few days, weeks or months but none of us will forget the moments we all shared eating the meals you made for us" Dello stands up and leaves. 

"Sorry lads the pot is dry!" Owen announces and everyone fell into despair for they wanted seconds.

"Wait!" Merriell shouted as she picks herself up. "I can make more. Hand me the other pots and I'll do what I can" 

"You heard her boys!" A soldier shouts and the others cheered. 

While the camp was so happy, Rithia on the other hand stood silent on the hill watching and waiting. Thinking about Marcus, thinking about his plans and what reasons he may have. By midnight Gildas comes to replace her as watch and she returns to camp where there are still some awake while others are already in slumber. She passes by Finn who by the looks of it fell asleep just after finishing his carving. He made a beautifully carved knight on a horse. Even if it was carved from wood, Finn made such detail like armor and a huge sword on the knight's back the only thing confusing about what he made was the knight has a long cloak on him and a hood over his face.

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