I scrubbed with vigorous energy to take out my frustration and embarrassment. My armor was already gleaming and my sword glowed underneath the polishing rag but I didn't stop. The enemy turned out to pull one over us and the higher lords were absolutely livid with anger. All the plans were pushed back a week for one of our scouts had missed a big fleet of reinforcements to the enemy. To say the least of what happened to the man all you had to do was look at the main part of camp, his rotting body emitting a horrid stench. But that wasn't from where my embarrassment stemmed from but something less dangerous.
Two hours earlier I was filled with panic and running to Mama Zia-Zia while holding my stomach. I had, after a few tries, been able to get out how I was bleeding and their was no wound. I was in pain and I thought I was about to die or something but the woman only laughed softly at me, and then grew somber. She explained things that Ashalle would never have said, that Ashalle never told me. One could say after that I was mortified to show how ignorant I was.
"I think that's enough unless you want to break it." Conner said snapping me out of my thoughts and my fingers slowed but I didn't look up at him.
"Something isn't right today." I told him, for this was running under all my thoughts, down in my core and I ignored it until now.
"Well it does look like it's going to storm." He said looking to the sky and his robes moved a little to show his newest wound. I sighed and placed my sword down on my lap and ran my fingers over my eyes. "You know that's not what I meant." I scolded.
"Then what did you mean...?" He asked and his indigo gaze left the sky and settled across my features.
"Be careful today." I didn't know why I said it but nonetheless I knew it needed to be said.
"I always am." He said and clapped my shoulder softly, tenderly and not like a friend. I pushed that suspicion aside, for that was a foolhardy notion, and rose up from my perch.
"It is time for dinner." I stated and placed my armor against the wall but did not part from my sword. We started walking side by side to the main part of the war camp as the sun lowered farther and farther in the sky. My muscles ached from the battle today and my new predicament but I didn't show it as I walked.
We were still on the outer rings of the encampment when a loud,shrill sound pinched the air and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Everyone stopped dead at the sound went down into the bones but it only lasted a second before there was yelling and bodies moving as fast as they could to grab weapons, armor, anything they needed. I turned back around as the warning horn sounded again and ran to my tent, grabbed my armor as fast as I could.
Luck was not on our side. The enemy stormed into the war camp on every side, people were cut down by axes, swords, maces and arrows. I only had time to put on my breastplate before someone came rushing at me with shoulders pulled back to deliver a blow. I rolled onto the floor to avoid it, barely cupped some dirt and threw it at the foe. The foe kept coming and coming and I had no time to grab my weapon from my back but scrambled away from the offending piece of steel.
The foe roared when I barely got away from one of the slashes, I had no time to think but reacted by having my foot fly out and connect with the person's calf and pulled making them unbalanced. I swung onto my bare feet and my blade sang through the air leaving a head on the ground alone with a pool of blood. My heart didn't calm down as my gaze assessed how bad the situation but was able to calm some jitters.
"Stations, get to your stations!" I commanded and flew into the chaos with my sword and breastplate. I lost myself to the rage inside and allowed it to take over me. In times like that I could only comprehend certain things, faces and objects to not hit. The rage controlled me quite easily until a voice broke through it leaving me blinking with the suddenness of it. The scream sounded again and then a blue orb flew through the air as my ears finally comprehended what the person was screaming; Mage.
I rolled away from the next orb and easily found where it was coming from, for mages always seemed to know how to stick out from a crowd. A person, a boy really, stood with only a few around him and muttering under his breath words of magic that could kill anyone.
"Farja, run!" Conner's voice snapped me into noticing that the mage's next blast of power was going to come towards me. My body tensed and didn't have time to move. A body collided with mine and time went quickly, swam so fast that I could understand what happened when my body touched the ground.
But when I could the world was no longer.
I moved the gasping body from my own and moved it to see if it was friend or foe, but my heart died in my chest as my eyes caught the red hair and the fist clenching his bloody chest. Conner's face was pale making his markings on his face and hair stand out starkly, you could see the bags under his eyes, how his cheeks were gaunt. Something was shaking and it took me a moment to realize that I was the one doing so. I quickly ripped off part of his robe and applied pressure to the wound as fear choked me.
"Hold on, hold on, everything will be fine." I said but it came out more rushed, panicked. Conner's eyes met mine, the whites of his eyes bright and more then they should. There was acceptance in his eyes and some other emotion in them along with pain as he looked at me. His breath came out faster and faster and I found myself yelling.
"Help! Healer! Healer!" I cried in the battle field as my fingers were covered with scolding hot blood. Conner opened his mouth to say something and I had to lean down to where his lips almost brushed my ear to hear him. "It's...alright...we."
"Don't say anything, conserve your strength to survive." I told him and blinked quickly but he only shook his head weakly. His fingers reached up to his earring and pulled it out of his ear, cupping it. He grasped one of my hands and placed it and then whispered again.
"I...love...you." He said it and tears slid down my cheeks onto his chest becoming quicker and quicker.
"I love you too." I sobbed as his eyes grew duller and his lips didn't pull in another breath. I could see from the tears and breath from the sobs but pulled him onto my lap shaking him. "Come back! Come back!" I cried into his hair but his body was becoming cold and colder and the battle continued. Finally my eyes opened as I felt magic move through the air and they rested on the mage.
Slowly, wobbly, I got up onto my feet and placed the earring in my own ear while a low wail hummed in my throat. I bent down and picked up my discarded sword and the wail broke threw my throat and I lost myself into a dark rage.