Bloodline

The Light - part 18

"N-No...! Dont hurt them...!" The sound of someone familiar shouting, Zircon tries to see through cloudy vision, only making out the clothes and weapon in someone's hand as they face him. Through an unbreakable urge, he charges at them, dagger in hand and a red gem in the other, he swings at their face, when he suddenly shudders under a blanket, waking up to the sound of metal clanging and voices, the smell of food, and the light touch of someone stroking his hair, Zircon opens his eyes, looking around. "Oh, you're awake now." Zircon looks up to see Tesath smiling at him, realizing he overslept as he sits up. "What time is it? And why were you stroking my hair?" She blushes as she looks away, moving a chair nearby next to him. "When I woke up, I saw you were still asleep, but you were moving around in your cot uncomfortably, almost like you were having a bad dream. I remembered the time back at the tavern when you saved me from the forest, so I decided to try to comfort you, which worked as you then looked like you were sleeping more comfortably, and even let me stroke your cheek a bit as well." Zircon, embarrassed and blushing as well, looks away and clears his throat. "W-Well thank you for that I guess... I will admit I was having a bad dream, so if that helped then I should find something to return the favor." "Theres no need, you looked like you were sleeping well in my care, and you looked cute while sleeping snuggly with my stroking your hair and cheek." She smiles at him, holding his hand.

He looks back at her, and smiles, getting up, "So where are the others? I wouldn't expect them to leave without a reason to leave us alone." "Well...your assault of the fort yesterday has left a bad taste from the lieutenant, so Damian went with Lutol to clear you of any wrong that day...And I believe Maralyne went to scout parts of the area ahead along with a small team towards the mountains." he chuckles, shaking his head and getting the mask he set down on a rock nearby, putting it on before exiting the tent, Tesath following behind him. "She definitely would've done that more than likely to show Damian that she's better than she is, I think she might have a crush on him or something." Tesath snickers a bit, walking closer to him. "She definitely does, almost ever since she met him, but don't tell her I told you that." They laugh a bit, moving towards the commanding tent as they hear the sound of yelling from inside.

"The fort is destroyed and we took down the enemy, he did a good deed for us!" "Not without destroying their supplies, which we desperately needed, my men are dying or are too sick to fight, and we could've used anything they had to help them!" Walking into the tent, Zircon and Tesath see the lieutenant and Damian bickering at each other, Lutol leaning back on a chair too small for him. Seeing them come in, the lieutenant walks up to Zircon, sizing him up as the chair Lutol is sitting on breaks, him falling backwards. "You better have had a good reason other than the enemy was in there to destroy their supplies you thief!" Looking at the lieutenant, he walks to one side of the tent, and picks up a bottle from a table. "Hey! You better answer to your superior this instance!" He walks to Zircon, but is stopped when a knife is all of a sudden in his face from out of nowhere.

"I'll let you know this really quick, I was hired by the king directly to help in your campaign as an assassin in the shadows, seeing as you went through many ranks to get to your position, and I was ordered directly by the king, you have no say in what I should do." He opens the bottle, and pours a glass of the stuff, letting it sit in his mouth for a while before swallowing. "The army sure does supply you with quite the wine, I wonder why they have enough to supply you with lots of this stuff while your forces are dying." Zircon says as he opens a small chest near the lieutenant's cot in a corner, revealing more bottles of the wine. Everyone inside looks in the chest, and the lieutenant stutters. "That was for the successful skirmishes we had earlier in the war, we pushed them back earlier on, and now we're moving in on them even more. Our unit has seen more battles won than any other, and I'm being congratulated by the king for it, as I also celebrate with my higher ranked troops." Zircon chuckles, and sets the bottle down, removing the mask and looking at the lieutenant as if he were nothing, staring deeply into him as if he were plotting to kill him. "Then why haven't you ordered more reinforcements for your troops, why havent you been building a fort to protect your men, why instead are you celebrating a war that's still going on?" The lieutenant takes a step back, looking at Zircon in disbelief, sitting on a chair nearby.

"What do you suggest then, if you so clearly can order these troops better than I can." Zircon looks at Damian and Tesath, them waiting for his answer to the question. "We wait, we will get a supply line set up to this camp and set up an FOB, which will then be a useful and strategic stronghold during further battles, since we all know they have more troops than we've seen so far." Everyone looks at him, and grabbing a rolled sheet of paper from nearby, he sets it on a table, unrolling it to reveal a map of the areas near them and to the kingdom. "There should be other camps nearby so we could make a supply chain around everywhere, so once the first batch of supplies comes in, we will then set up a perimeter, and make a fort large enough to keep the enemies away and to heal any who fall in battle. My friend here can help with the healing right now if she doesnt mind, after all, she is one of the few remaining Valkyries alive, if you've heard of the tales." "I dont mind at all, I shall head to the medical tent right now." Tesath says, Lutol also following her. "So soon, we'll get stone and wood to make the fort, but who'll build it? We are stretched on workers as they are fixing the castle back at home, and we surely dont have enough people here that are capable enough..." Damian says, looking at the map. "We'll do with what we have, Lutol can definitely be a great help in its construction, but at the same time, we'll need some of the soldiers here to build it, with you leading the construction Damian." Zircon looks at him, putting his mask back on and leaving the tent. Just as he leaves, the lieutenant mocks him, but he only ignores it as he moves toward the tent he was in when he woke up.

Ths war will be a short one if we keep moving forward, but why aren't they sending more troops against us, do they expect us to move in to them already for an extreme defense? Thinking to himself, Zircon lays on his cot, gazing at the sky through the tent's roof. Hours go by as he thinks, Maralyne and Damian entering eventually. "Took you long getting back here, how's the scouting been?" Maralyne looks at him, and sighs as she sits on another cot near the door to the tent. "It was hell, we encountered many soldiers, found many places of interest, and came across the mountains, in which we figured out they're using an old abandoned mine as a base of operations, it running through the whole mountain and then some." "It definitely sounds like hell, but I think I know what would bring the mood up once everyone gets back." He then reveals in his cloak a bottle of the wine from the lieutenant's tent, displaying it to the two. "How did you get that from Druettus's tent without him knowing?" Zircon smirks as he takes his mask off, getting a few glasses from a small chest given to them by the camp. "He called me a thief, so I went ahead and fulfilled that role, he won't miss it anyways, I made sure of it." Maralyne and Damian look at each other for a second, then get to their cots, resting until everyone arrives back.

"You took that from Druettus? How did he not see it?" Lutol asks as Zircon pours him a glass. "It was the very bottle I questioned him about, and it took quite a bit of waiting and distracting before I did, even you guys didnt notice as I explained the future plans for the camp before I took it."
Everyone smiles and they take their glasses, Damian standing in the middle of the tent. "Either way, it doesnt stop us from celebrating a successful attack and getting to this point in the war, we'll soon be on the attack, and we'll bring hell to them. Zircon will strike where they least expect it while we cut them down from the front. I'm glad to have known all of you to be able to do this." Everyone raises their glasses in cheers, taking a sip of the wine before Damian looks at them. "Its a shame Osred isn't here to celebrate with us, but that wont stop us from completing our objective, he's out there somewhere, looking over us and watching our back, so we cant do this for nothing, we're going to finish this war for Osred, for the people, and for each of us, together as one." Everyone lifts their glasses and gives cheers, talking through the rest of the day as the sun starts to fall behind the mountains, Zircon smiling through the mask.