A Different Landing

Chapter-18

Tris wasn't happy to be entering the Azgeda camp again. Her last trip after finding Mozu with the body of Atom hadn't been pleasant. Also, she didn't like being separated from Aden and Charlotte. The two Ice Nation warriors, Aden and three of the commander's guards had returned to TonDC instead of continuing with them to the Azgeda camp and the last of the inspections. The looks they were getting from the Azgeda warriors were not friendly and she recognized them. It was how the Trikru warriors looked at Char when she and Aden were sparing with her.

The Azgeda camp was clearly well organized, she had no doubts it was one of the most secure sections. The underbrush had been cleaned up outside of their section making it incredibly difficult to sneak up on them. Then, they were organized into a series of tree binds with spaced out camps allowing for fast reaction times if a threat became apparent. Also, thanks to spending time with Char, she was picking up on their communication method. A series of clicks and whistles from the trees followed their movements. She had no doubt the signals were being used in such a blatant manner in part to announce their presence to the commander's guard. She was fairly certain that snap, pause, snap was the signal for allies.

They'd passed through two smaller camps so far and the captain in charge of each one had reported to the commander. The first camp was run by a captain who introduced himself as Xander. He was a tall broad warrior with neatly groomed hair and a large sword strapped to his back. His entire camp was clearly ready to scramble at a moment's notice and was designed to be highly defensive. The warriors tended towards heavier armor and being more physically fit. The next camp had been less defensively set up and was captained by man named Leo.

Leo looked strikingly similar to Xander but with a smaller frame and several years younger. The differences hadn't stopped there however. Leo had been dressed in lighter armor as were most of the warriors milling about. She also was fairly positive she'd spotted a pauna hunting team around one of the tents. The use of large bones and teeth in their armor was distinctive.

Now, they were making their way into the lead camp and it held several differences. Most strikingly, it was larger, there were far more warriors about, and the blue of the ice general was prolific. She recognized the tall grey haired form of Gunter standing at attention waiting for them to approach. She dismounted along with Anya and Ryder as had been their orders ahead of time. Leaving her reigns with the warrior beside her, she made her way to Anya's side.

"Greetings, the general is in the medical tent supervising patients. If you'd just follow me." Gunter said with enough deference towards the commander to be polite.

"Lead on then," Heda said.

Gunter nodded before waving over a warrior. "Mozu, see to it that our guests are taken care of and given the proper hospitality."

The medical tent was surprisingly large Tris realized as they approached. Once inside, she saw the clean cots ready for injured as well as four reapers tied down to the ground with rope attached to metal stakes. She only knew they were reapers because they were tied down. Curiously, she examined the unconscious men. They all had had their shirts removed and there was a strong scent of vomit in the tent. She guessed that the buckets had been used and then cleaned recently.

There was a medical apprentice, the one she had never been sure if they were a boy or girl, slumped across a cot snoring. Brady was applying a salve of some kind to a large burn on the chest of one of the reapers. There was also Lincoln strapped down with the angry warrior, Octavia, watching over him.

"Lincoln!" She exclaimed surprised to see the man they had all assumed was dead.

Klark appeared from a sectioned off part of the medical tent and greeted them with a tired smile. "We caught him two days ago. He's through the worst of it as far I can tell." She said while wiping her hands down with a rag. She had the sleeves of her shirt rolled up to her elbows and hair braided back and away from her face. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to greet you personally when you arrived in my camp, but as you can see we've been wearing ourselves thin keeping these guys alive."