Volunteer Medic Kusma's View
"Look, all I'm saying is th-" A one-eyed doctor is cut off as a stretcher team runs into the, mostly empty, medical tent.
"Doctor!" One of the stretcher carriers yells as the stretcher is lead to one of the better cots. "We need help now!"
The doctor pulls me along to the cot as the patient is put on the cot. I freeze as I see the patient. It's the Quartermaster! I take a glance up to the doctor, he's shocked as well, but he recovers quickly.
"There's a couple worth of rifle rounds in the patient's right leg, Kusma grab me a tray now," He points to another medic, "You, get here and tie her down." I don't hear the rest as I sprint to the other side of the tent, grab a tray along with the necessary tools, and sprint back to the cot. I quickly give the tools over to the doctor as I look over at the Quartermaster. Her right leg has two bullet holes and only one exit hole. She is barely breathing, most likely damage to the ribcage, or even possibly a victim of poison gas.
"What are you doing Kusma?" the doctor's words brings my attention back. "Kusma, pay attention! Hold this tray while I dig around in the patient's leg. You," He points to the medic in front of him, "put a rag in her mouth before she bites her tongue off!"
I hold onto the presented tray as the doctor begins to push the hole open with the blunt end of the scalpel as he brings a small extractor to the wound and starts to search for bullet fragments. From his position, he could see the Quartermaster involuntary clenching the sides of the cot as the doctor digs into the wound. The muffled screams from her shut mouth made him thankful that the doctor put a rag in her mouth, she would've bitten off her tongue immediately. I barely hear the cling of fragment falling on my tray, but as I look down on it and see a moderately sized piece of a fragment from what looks to be a .22 from so kind of hunting rifle probably, makes sense, the Commonfolk are... well commoners.
This goes on for a minute and a half until the first bullet hole is clean of fragments. "Alright," the doctor says as he looks up at me, "You dress that wound while I deal with the other one alright?"
"Yes sir!" I started to quickly dress the wound, a small dash of medical alcohol and the wrapping of a bandage around the bullet hole as the doctor started to quickly pry loose fragments from the wound and onto the Quartermaster's chest. Blood flowed as the doctor worked as fast as he could safely. With at least half a liter of blood gone from the mouse's body, the doctor finally pried the last fragment from the woman's body and started to sit back as I started to dress her wound.
"Well sir, I hope you got all of them out," I say as I wrap the bandage around the Quartermaster's wound.
The doctor just starts to laugh, "Ha ha ha... probably not, she'll get an x-ray when she gets back to the Kitchens. More likely than not, I'll get double ration from saving the Quartermaster!"
I just narrow my eyes at the doctor, "Uh... right... I'll just notify the soldiers that she isn't dead." I started to move to the entrance to the tent.
Sergeant Volkov's View
"NOW DON'T TALK ABOUT FALSE RUMORS, OR ELSE YOU'LL BE ON THE MENU, YOU DRUNK BASTARDS!" Volkov gave a good look at the soldiers he was "lecturing", two of them looked like they were going to shit themselves, another looked like he was, barely, holding back tears, and the older squirrel had narrowed eyes and was visibly trying to hold back a smirk. He was about to say something about that before a pigeon came out of the medical tent.
"Alert all soldiers! Quartermaster Letova has beaten death itself and still lives!" The pigeon bows before saying, "That is all!" The pigeon then goes back into the tent.
She's... still alive? He needed to see him! Volkov started to walk to the tent before turning back to the older squirrel, "We'll talk about this later," He then started to quickly walk over to the medical tent to see it for himself. His thoughts turned to what she might look like, she had some injuries to the leg... what if they cut it off? Or maybe she was affected by the lack of air and is mentally deficient? What if... he was at the tent's "door"... he pushed the thoughts out of his mind and quickly walked into the tent.
"Doctor!" He yelled at the nearest person, "Bring me to the Quartermaster's bed!"
The doctor silently brings the wolf over to a relatively small bed. The doctor quickly backs out and leaves the two alone. Volkov takes a quick glance around him before sitting on a nearby chair. "Letova?" Volkov gently shook the mouse and got no response. "Please, by the Tree, don't be..." His hand went down to her's. "How long have known each other? It feels like... forever..." Those thoughts rushed through the wolf's mind, they met... at Red Clover River. He still remembered the first words she said to him "Why are you so tall?" Of course, the seven-year-old wolf took insult to that comment and an insult spree happened between the two... they've been fast friends ever since. He silently chuckled, oh how odd their friendship began. Of course, he went on to become a shy bureaucrat of some notability and she went on to be Quartermaster in the KSR. They fell apart as the years went on and their paths moved each other from one another. Then the Bonepit riots came and ruined everything... the civilized took one son from a powerful noble and that was the end of it for peace and order. Bellafide and his band of mercenaries rose up and slaughtered the police and priests of the town. They called themselves the Longcoats. Another band of self-described "heroes". He was actually the bureaucrat in that town, and he almost got eaten... but something snapped in him that day. The only thing he remembered that day was the taste of blood and him escaping the city with a small band of refugees, fearing they would get eaten by the Longcoats. He managed to organize them to such a point that when the KSR found them, they thought they were looking at an army before they saw the large number of unarmed children and women. They were taken someplace safe, where he meet Letova again. He was shocked she was leading the KSR now but apparently, the actual leaders of the KSR were killed by a mob of peasants led by some "Hooper" some months before the Bonepit riots. Letova noted the apparent change in Volkov's attitude, the shy wolf was gone and Letova needed someone she could depend on in aid. That was... three years ago? This war has been going on for three years... the thought of it worried Volkov.
Volkov looked back down at the mouse, she was resting so calmly... makes sense, she did just lose a lot of blood, her body is probably running overtime to make more of it. He won't lie to himself, looking down on the mouse made him feel... protective of the mouse. He chuckled at the thought. 'Not like Letova needed protectio-' the very sight of her bloody form lying in the bed caused his thoughts to stop in his throat. 'She... shit...' the last time he saw her was when Letova asked him if the rumors of poison gas from the commonfolk were true... he personally saw poison gas but the gas stopped early on in the battle and all the canisters they found were utterly empty. He thought they didn't have any left... he should've said for her to be careful, but no. He said it was "nothing to worry about." The only reason she's still alive is because one of the AFBs was with her and she could've used his gas mask. Maybe he should just of- coughing from the small form in front of him silenced his increasingly depressing thoughts.
Quartermaster Letova's View
Her body felt so cold but her mind still lived! That was the thought running through her head as she coughed. Where was she? She could feel something on her left hand and as she looked over she could see a large grey blob. 'That's not right... a-are my eyes not right?' She thought as her arm tried to move up to wipe her eye, only to hear a small clinging noise. She, as quickly as she could, snapped her head to the noise. She could barely make out a metallic-looking device with leather coverings around her arms... she was imprisoned... She needed to get out! She tried to move her arms in a vain way to get out of the clasps around her. Thoughts of being slowly tortured by Commonfolk filled her mind with every second that she doesn't get out of this place. Suddenly she feels something holding her down, she looks over only to see the grey blob! It's some kind of large creature obviously but what was it? Was it going to eat her? She needed to get out of her- "Letova!"
Her shaking stopped immediately, that was Volkov... right? "V-Volkov? Is that you?"
"Yes ma'am, I'm here. Don't worry, you're safe. You're not in enemy hands. Those doctors forgot to unclasp your limbs so you wouldn't make the surgery harder."
She could feel the clasp loosen on her limbs before being taken off entirely. Her hands go to her eye and start to rub at them. As she takes her hands off her face, she can see better, that gas mask might have some fur in it that got stuck in her eye. She can see Volkov... it was nice to see that he was the first thing she'd see. "H-" a coughing fit cuts her off, "N-nice to see you're still alive..."
"Not like I'd get killed by some common peasants with hunting rifles and cutting knives on sticks," Letova rolled her eye, Volkov became surprisingly confident when he came to the KSR after the Bonepits riot... she swore, it would get him killed one day when he decides that hunting rifles can't kill him.
"Y-yeah... how did you even find me anyway?" She was honestly surprised she was found, despite being near the train station.
"Well," Volkov looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was nearby, "I found you by luck actually".
She sighed as she looked around her. "You know, I had a feeling you'd say that..." she made some kind of noise that sounded part coughing and part laughing. "Ha ha... dumb wolf..."
"Wha- I save your life and I get called dumb?" Volkov knew she was playing with him, just like every other time the two of them were alone.
"Perhaps... you know I value you, even if you do have more bullets then brains in you," She made a small wink as Volkov gave a small smirk.
"Shut it, one eye, and get some sleep before you call me something you'll regret," She just rolled her eye again as she saw Volkov start to leave.
"Yeah yeah, night and love you, Volkov," It only took for the word to come out of her mouth to realize what she said. Volkov simply stopped walking for a moment, before exiting the tent.
'Shit... why in the First Given's name did I say that?' She thought as she watched the slightly flapping tent "door". She was sure it was a mistake... right?