Thought/Flashback/Dream

Chapter 27

Two months had gone by and Elmont found himself in battle, again. But this time it was different and he couldn't tell why.

They had appeared suddenly when he and Elissa's and Isabelle's cousin were in the town. He hadn't expected the retaliation so soon but the only thing he could do now was fight.

Elmont cursed, they were surrounded, when he looked at James, Elmont was fast when pulled his sword out and strike. He felt the unexpected steel bite in his leg and clenched his jaw to swallow a shout of pain.

"Captain!" he didn't know who had called him but he ignored and turned around to see who had shot at him. He pulled the man's head back he was holding by the hair and opened his throat. Then he throw his dagger to the archer, he fell to the ground.

He cut down the first man as he turned to her cousin, he was surrounded and Elmont shoved a man and past a second man, slashed at a third.

"Elmont, watch out!" James called his name and he turned, blocking the attack with his sword.

Long hours later, the battle had stopped, the knights were breathing deeply and Elmont felt a deep throbbing ache in his right thigh. When he looked down, he saw an arrow jutting out the back of it. He seated in the ground with careful, a hand in his shoulder made him look up and he saw James worried face.

"I'll be okay"

"Do you need help?" Elmont shook his head, grabbed hold of the shaft, and gave it a tug, but the arrowhead was sunk deep in the meat of his leg, and the pain when he pulled on it was excruciating.

He tried to stand alone and he couldn't so he keep himself in the ground, cursing. The arrow had to come out, though, and nothing good could come of waiting.

"Wait, Elmont" James said but it was to late. Elmont curled his hand around the fletching, took a deep breath, and shoved the arrow forward. He grunted, then cursed.

"What you pretend to do?"

This is going to be agony.

"You need to stop the bleeding, Elmont. It's bleeding a lot…" Elmont looked pale and James didn't know what to do. A knight approach them and kneel beside the Captain.

"Did anyone died?" Elmont asked and the knight shook his head looking to him wound. "Listen to me Thomas, you have to see if any of the people's town was hurt"

"But Captain you need help, you're bleeding and we…"

"Do as I say!" The young knight left them and Elmont clenched his jaw, again.

"Elmont…"

"First the arrow was to come out" Elmont pushed James away from him; he grimaced, and tried to take off the arrowhead… and soon stopped, trembling.

"Wait, Elmont, you need help"

"You can't do this!"

"What can I do then?" James said hopeless, Elmont shook his head and tried once more. And this time he screamed, but when he was done the arrowhead was poking through the front of his thigh. Sweat cover his forehead and he closed his eyes, breathing heavily.

I Promise…

"Listen to me, James. I need to take this off or I will bleed to death," Elmont said and James nodded, he could see fear in his brown eyes.

"What do you need?"

"To get a better grip of the arrow that is still inside I need to cut the breeches" Elmont took a deep breath "Can you do it?"

"Of course" James said and took off his dagger; slowly he cut the material of Elmont's bloody breeches. Elmont grimaced, and made a gesture for him to stop, and slowly drew the shaft through his leg.

James never would know how Elmont had taken off the arrow without fainting.

Elmont lay on the ground afterward, clutching his prize and bleeding quietly, too weak to move.

"You will bleed to death if you don't bound the wound"

"I know but first I need to wash the wound"

"You'll need water, you can die" James disappeared to come back with the water he needed. Elmont washed his thigh, and bound it tight with a strip of his breeches.

"This will have to do until we're back to you house" he tried to slid from the ground.

"Let me help you, Elmont. Elissa would never forgive me if I didn't" Elmont looked at him confused and James smile.

"How do you…" His wounded leg buckled under him, and he had to swallow a scream.

"Know?" James took his arm and rested it around his shoulders and they began to walk slowly "The necklace. The last time I saw her, she had the same necklace you have and protect. The first time I saw you; I saw it and didn't take long to pull he pieces together." Elmont grimaced

"And you don't judge? You have to know how wrong…"

"Just because you vowed to protect her? Or because she's to be married soon? Of course not, we can't choose who we love, and I would be a hypocrite if I thought it was wrong. My father fell in love for my mother, and she was only a handmaiden, but now she's much more, because of my father and they fought to be together" Elmont shook his head.

"Elissa never told me"

"So I can't let you die" James said and smile, his brown eyes sparkle with happiness and Elmont clenched his jaw. "Because she loves you and you make her happy…"

"I doubt"

"But I don't, the last time I saw her she was happy, truly happy since her mother died and you made that happen"

Elmont doubted his words, but when he looked at James's eyes, he didn't doubt… He believed.

An east wind blew through his hair, as soft and fragrant as Elissa's fingers, and he closed his eyes for a moment. After so long, the world seemed much better and he could breathe mush easier. James was a part of that; their conversation had made him looked different to her and her actions.

A harsh sound erupted from his right and closed his eyes as a sighed left his lips.

"Quiet," he criticized.

"Sorry Captain" a young man whispered beside him. Elmont just nodded, he was young and he wondered if the young man had already take a life. He doubt it, not for his youth but the innocence he still held in his eyes. And he hated this, hated when young men were forced to fight. Elmont still remember his first battle, his first kill, but he had wanted to be a part of it, and it was something he wasn't proud of, he wasn't proud of the lives he had taken.

The silence prolonged as he watch carefully the trees, waiting.

It had been almost two months since he was in the border, where the attacks had begun and Elmont had done a good job, so far. They had attack less but the Captain had to deal with the real problem, had to deal with the leader behind the attacks.

The two months had gave him time to think, time to breathe, even if he was far from her.

He missed her, he loved her and he couldn't deny it, he couldn't fight it and he realized, from talking with her cousin she had to feel something for him. Not just because the passionate kiss, they had shared before he left but her gestures, stares and words. She had to been hiding something from him, he had the feeling that Roderick was behind it.

He shook his head lightly, his leg still hurt when he put his weight on it, and he remembered when his man tried to stop him from fighting that day.

"I can fight," he insisted when they grabbed his shoulders and forced him to sit in the chair, trying to stop him from standing and put weight in his injured leg.

"Your leg's healed, is it?" James snorted and approached him, his eyes criticize him,"You won't mind me giving it a little tap, then?" he raised his hand and instantly Elmont's hand covered his injured leg.

"I'd rather if you didn't. It's stiff, but I can walk around well enough, and stand and fight and you need me, you can't deny it"

"Yes, I need you but you won't be of much value in that estate"

"I will. They…" he gesture to the knights

"Trust you and respect you! They are worried about you, about their Captain! You need to rest and heal"

"I'm going to fight, no matter what you say James" James sighed.

"Very well then, but be careful"

He heard distant shouts, he gave the order and saw the archers preparing. Elmont took the bow that was resting in the ground, he clenched his jaw as pain shoot through his leg. Then he raised the bow, and drew. He wait, wait...

"Fire!"

The arrow made a soft hiss as it left his string. A moment later, there was a grunt, and suddenly men appeared from the trees. Elmont pulled a second arrow from the quiver resting beside him. This time he hurried the shot, and a body fall. He searched for another target, and found four. The moonlight glimmered off their spears, swords and axes. Some carried shields of black wood, plain and unadorned.

Elmont pulled the feather back to his nose, aimed, and loosed the arrow, then nocked and drew and loosed again. The first pierced a shield, the second one a throat.

These men were trying to get to the town but he couldn't let them. He was protecting her too…

Knights with swords advanced, ready to fight, die or kill.

He heard the young man beside him

"I got one!" the boy cried hoarsely. "I got one in the chest."

"Very well. Get another," Elmont said.

When his quiver was empty, Elmont draw his sword and began walking slowly, his leg hurting each time he took a step but he wouldn't let them win.

Not long after, the sky opened. Lightning cracked and thunder rolled across the hills, and the rain fell in blinding sheets.