Annie and Virginia ended up in the field medical tent, located in the temporary field camp, hidden in the shadows of massive crawler-type vehicles. The battle was still raging within the arena, but this was but a mop up operation. With both Crawler and Alpha out there, chances of defeat were now nil. Alpha briefly left the battlefield to oversee the situation in a temporary camp, leaving Crawler in charge of the joint forces. This was unexpected, but in Annie’s view, a sensible move. The further Crawler was from the enemy, the more prisoners ally forces would receive. By forcing the command duties on this creature, Crawler’s personal assault was slowed down. Dragena visited Annie, shortly before leaving her armor and storming away. As Angoro explained to Annie, during his brief visit, Dragena was still technically on maternal leave. The only reason why the warlord even participated in this operation was because of her sense of duty, the command found no way to keep her back. Where Dragena’s pack walked, the warlord led the way.

The Ice Fang order already contacted Kassandra, offering their own hospitals in the Core Lands for all the wounded members of the Wolf Tribe as a gesture of thanks for the rescue of their kin. Alpha left the decision up to all the wolfkins involved in the operation. Naturally, all of them planned to refuse, but Alpha commanded everyone to think first. Alpha only denied Bel, the wolf hag who was injured by Hecktricktsen, the choice, making the choice for her. The wolf hag lost her upper body, was blinded and refused to accept the cybernetical replacement. She was kept alive through the medical support, but her refusal meant essentially being self-sentenced to euthanasia. Alpha refused to allow her soldier to die. In the Core Lands, a new lower body will be grown specifically for Bel, along with a new set of eyes, while the wolf hag will spend time in emergency care. Expenses for this procedure will be covered by the Ice Fang order and yet this still means that Bel will be leaving the military for almost five years, recovering, getting used to her new body, and being observed by medics, who will ensure that Bel’s body won’t reject new flesh. Bel was less than happy with this development, but was left with no choice. The wolfkins could only dispute the command about treatment of the wounds received during the combat operation in only two ways. Either through petitioning to a higher commanding officer, and everyone knew what Scorpio would say, or by beating the superior in a ritual challenge, which against Alpha was impossible, even if Bel could fight. Virginia seemed relieved by this turn of events.

"I believe you owe us an explanation as to why, in the name of the Spirits, are you even here?" Annie said to Ulrica. All three of them were put in the same tent. The Ice Fang bore no injuries on her body, yet her presence agitated other wolfkins, who viewed her as a potential bad omen. Only Alpha and Dragena were unbothered by Ulrica’s presence, but even Alpha decided to hide Ulrica from the eyes of her soldiers, as the Ice Fang was frightening them. No one would admit it, but it was how it was. The wolfkins had to be content with lying on the ground due to the shortage of medical equipment. This was unimportant; fresh medicaments were being looted from the arena, and evacuation from Pearl's territory would begin in a matter of hours. Annie was just glad that she finally got a set of clothes to wear, even if it was just army gear. She never would have guessed that she would miss such mundane things so much.

"I came to the Ravaged Lands in search of Aranea." Ulrica said, and Virginia spit the water on her body. She put the bottle of water aside and wiped her mouth.

"And you are still alive? Where the hell did you hide from the critters during the night time?" Virginia asked in disbelief.

"Actually, the people in your villages were not aggressive toward me," Ulrica replied, "They refused to answer any of my questions, but provided me with food and water, gave some general advice on how to stay alive, and even provided me with a safe place to stay."

"She probably mentioned that she was not a fighter," Annie said to Virginia, and Ulrica nodded, confirming it. Had the Ice Fang omitted this fact, someone would have challenged her. By mentioning it, Ulrica, due to her also being a wolfkin, unknowingly put herself under the protection of the shamans, and no one in their right mind would go against them. Annie turned to Ulrica, "Who sent you? I thought a pact was made, we wouldn’t get involved with the ice boys and you left sand dwellers like us alone in peace."

"No one. I… decided to come myself," Ulrica saw how Annie raised her brow and continued in a stubborn voice, "It was because of you. After I saw that our cousins send their young into the war, abuse their young physically, the thought of leaving one of our own blood among you was unbearable."

"Did any of you even ask this Aranea if she wanted to return?" Virginia exploded in anger, "Seriously, we don’t make people stick up with us by force! Aside from times of war or during a military mission, anyone could just come to shamans and say that they want to leave."

"So, Aranea is alive." Ulrica said.

"Crap basket," Virginia threw her arms up, "That’s it, I am not talking with you any longer. Alpha is gonna beat the shit out of me again. Argh!"

"I won’t tell anyone…" Ulrica tried to say.

"That’s not how it works!" Virginia snapped, pressing the index finger of her right paw to the palm of her left paw and cursing from the pain in the broken knuckles, "Honor, loyalty, and honesty are not the empty words around here. Don’t even dare to suggest it. I betrayed the warlord, I will pay with my hide."

"They already know. Ygrite spilled the beans to the sword saint Camelia." Annie added and smirked, "Also you just spoke with Ulrica again."

"Irrelevant," Virginia replied sourly, "Crime is a crime. Ok, I am off to sleep." She crawled into the corner of the tent, curled into a ball and wrapped a blanket around her body.

Annie pressed two paws together, ignoring the pain and speaking a silent prayer to the Spirits, thanking them for keeping them safe and guiding them during the mission. She opened her eyes upon hearing a familiar name. Ultis moved and stepped inside the tent, without the power armor that she wore before. Now she was dressed in a simple shirt and pants.

"Wait just a couple of minutes, we will remove it, once I finish treating the patient…" The doctor, an elderly woman with a prosthetic arm, told Ultis.

"No need to bother." Ultis replied and spit something into her paw, causing the doctor to turn around. The scout spit out a ball of metal, covered by a thick layer of both dried and crimson blood, the remains of the flesh from within Ultis’s throat were visible on the device.

"You idiot!" The doctor shouted in anger, charging at the scout and making her open her mouth. She took a flashlight, looking for something within her throat, "You want to remain mute for the rest of your days?" Ultis simply rolled her eyes, patiently waiting while the doctor took a syringe and injected something inside her throat.

The scout nearly jumped from the injection, but the doctor held her jaws in an iron grasp of her prosthetic arm. Finally, the doctor let go of Ultis, turning toward the patient on whom she was working before. Ultis wiped something from the corner of her mouth before walking toward Ulrica and Annie.

"Please forgive me for your treatment, lady," Ultis squeaked in her usual high-pitched voice. When blood appeared on her lips, the scout wiped them with his backhand. Instead of speaking, she gestured with her paws, speaking through sign language, "This was either that, or they would have given you up to that sadist," The scout stepped to the side, making sure that Annie would always be before her and the Ice Fang.

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"What?" Ulrica asked in confusion, unable to understand the sign language. Ultis rolled her eyes again and reached for the terminal in her pocket. She typed the words and showed the display to Ulrica, keeping a distance, "Oh… I guess everything is fine now. What about Rexy?"

"Donated it to the zoo in the Core Lands. Will be taken away along with other beasts from the arena." Ultis typed the answer. The scout scratched behind her head, putting the terminal away and addressing Annie through the sign language, "Sorry for arriving so late, wolf hag. I had to check on my pack first. And sorry about the treatment, wolf hag. I was not aware of your promotion. Ready to accept the punishment."

"Just forget, Ultis," Annie replied, being glad that everyone is alive, "Explain to me, why are you bleeding from the throat so often? What was this thing?"

Ultis started gesturing but then stopped, unable to find the right words in her sign vocabulary. She sat on the floor, cross-legged, and took up her terminal once more, furiously typing the words, before showing it to Annie:

"The Omega team asked for my participation in the mission. You remember how I told you that I was a slave before? Well, it turns out that the people who worked for the bastards who killed my family are still running their "hunts", as they call their raids to get the slaves. They knew me since back then and were not aware that it was I who told auntie where the slaver’s base was. Idiots assumed that I really trying to get away from the Wolf Tribe and become a slave owner. Well, they only believed me because Roll and his crew were with me… And because the Omega team did all the groundwork in preparing your "capture" and in revealing the ones who worked with the slavers … But I worked hard as well! And through them, I got in contact with Hilda, explained to her my plan to capture you, got help, and you know the rest."

"That doesn’t explain the throat." Annie noted. Alpha said that the police forces in the Ravaged Lands were already busy capturing collaborators with the slavers. Sadly, many of them lived on the lands of the Regulators and thus were immune to the Reclaimers’ touch. But this trouble was for another day.

Ultis began typing again: "That is a bit of a long story. Back in my years as a slave, I wore a similar slave collar. You know how it is, you don’t come back in time, shock! You don’t bring enough, shock! You sleep too much, talk too much, feel ill… Shock! And if you walk too far, a bomb in your insides," Ultis tapped at her stomach before typing again, "Goes off and you are no more. It stopped normies easily and kept me scared for a long time, until I had…" The scout noticed that Ulrica was also reading the message. Ultis put away the display, her cheeks were turning red. She squeaked, spilling blood from her lips, "Want to spread gossip, Ice Fang? Yes, I was weak enough to become a slave! Ha-ha, so funny, isn’t it everyone?" She spread her arms wide. Patients ignored her, Virginia was loudly snoring in her sleep, elderly doctor casually threw something about the stress to her colleagues.

"I was not planning to spread anything!" Ulrica snarled back, "Why do all of the Wolf Tribe assume only the worst of us? What is wrong with you all?"

Ultis coughed, grabbing and massaging her throat, before reaching for the terminal: "Because this is all who you are! Each time when the Wolf and the Ice meet, the Wolf is the one who ends up being humiliated," Ultis raised a finger, stopping the Ice Fang before she could speak and typed more, "Annie went to the Core Lands to meet with her sis and ended up being attacked by one of your kin."

"It was a bit more complicated than this, Ultis. Ygrite was the one who…" Annie started to talk, but Ultis was already typing.

"I was talking about the situation in the swimming pool."

"Oh that. It was a minor embarrassment rather than the attack, but yeah, fuck Zeke and the Sunblades for spreading all these rumors," Annie nodded before putting a finger to her lips, "But I was a jerk too and at fault as well. I hurt Zeke."

"The Sunblades made an official apology!" Ulrica screeched, but Ultis ignored her, typing more on the terminal and continuing her story.

"One day I decided that I had enough. I hadn't had a sip of water in two days, had been denied food, and was half insane with fear and anger," Ultis wrote on the terminal, "So I went to the farthest cave I could find, as far as I could without a bomb going off. And then I grabbed my slave collar and pulled with all my might, feeling the burning of my flesh because of all the electricity. I lived. Next came the hard part. I ripped the bomb from myself, along with some other parts," Annie remembered the words that Lacerated One said to Ultis. The scout lost a bit more than simply some blood, "Pain knocked me off. I woke up a week later, now fully mad with hunger but alive. Raced all the way to a nearby village and sneaked into a simple looking tent, devouring every scrap of food that I could find within. Then I run and run, afraid of everything and everyone. During the night auntie Ygrite found me and beat the living shit out of me for stealing from her, dragging me back to the camp. No one knew me, thus Ygrite put me into a cage and gave me as much food and water as I could eat while everyone waited for police officers to come. In a few days, auntie made the slaver’s camp disappear. My voice never recovered, and if I speak for too long, my throat starts to bleed."

"But why are you with Dragena and not with Ygrite then?" Annie frowned in confusion. Usually, when the warlords pick up the youth from the pits, the youth stay with them. Transfers existed, of course, but were very rare and only used by the most exceptional individuals. And Ultis was a competent fighter, a trusted friend, and a loyal comrade. But she was not exceptional in any way, aside from being exceptional in her laziness.

"No idea," Ultis typed, "The police and Ygrite wanted to take me to an orphanage, but I whined and cried to be left with the Wolf Tribe. Being surrounded by the strong is safer, you know. I tried my best and never complained when auntie kicked me around like the rest of her troops. But one day, she just sent me to Dragena, saying that Dragena had a free place for a new scout. Personally, I think that Ygrite was angry that I was stealing food from the kitchens, instead of eating alongside with the others."

"That’s horrible," Ulrica said. The scout looked at her, trying to find any signs of mockery in her face. The Ice Fang continued, "But why didn’t you fix your throat? Surely the military insurance covers this. And if not, you are a new breed in the army, thus have access to additional benefits…"

"Have you ever seen our facilities in the Wastes and Ravaged Lands?" Ultis typed quickly, "They look more like a slaughterhouse than a place of healing. Nope, never, ever. They didn’t even give you painkillers there!"

Annie folded her arms across her chest, cursing her side pain and broken paw. She carefully put her paws aside, trying to think. Something bothered her about Ultis’ story. If the scout really was afraid of pain, which was ridiculous since she came from Ygrite, why didn’t she ask for help in the Refugee Center Gamma? There was a plethora of first-class medical equipment over there. This whole situation was weird.

"Ultis," Annie said finally, "The Ice Fang order offered is the medical services of their hospital in Houstad. You will go there and have your body fixed."

"Not needed!" Ultis gestured quickly, something strange flashing in her amber eyes for a moment, "All is fine. Just give me a couple of…"

"This was not a suggestion, Ultis," Annie strictly said, "As a wolf hag, I command you to go and sort yourself out."

Seeing the frantic movements of Ultis’ paws, Ulrica added: "It will be fine. Ultis, you know that it is for the best. I mean, each time you go to toilet…"

"I am always cleaning up after myself!" Ultis squeaked like a bird, resulting in sign language once more, "Annie don’t do it with me, please. What if they put a collar on me again? I can’t stay in there, not in the medical room, not again…"

"Stop panicking, Ultis," The wolf hag commanded, and for a moment, it looked like the scout might actually challenge her. Sheer desperation and fear were in the eyes of Ultis, "I was there, and you saw the result yourself. Relax, breathe in and sort yourself. Think of it as a vacation. We will be waiting for you."

Ultis froze in place, one of her eyes had a nervous tick from anger: "Understood, wolf hag."

"Don’t worry, I will ask someone to watch over you." Annie said, but Ultis bowed with a stone expression on her snout, turning around and storming from the tent, trembling with rage.

The operation was over in a few hours. The Joint forces of Oathtakers and Reclamation Army filled the vehicles with refugees and prisoners and contacted the government of Pearl. Among the prisoners were several politicians from Pearl, including the chief of the ministry of health. Wyrm Lord gave the order to hand them over to Pearl, not wanting to further complicate relations between the two countries. Ivar contacted the president of Pearl, and somehow an international scandal was evaded. Pearl pushed no charges after a military operation on their territory, underground base in which the arena was located, fully looted by now, was to be handed over to Pearl. Hilda, Hekanta, and all the other prisoners were taken straight to the Torment. The Oathtakers took their own people with them, while the state sent their own wounded and prisoners into the capital of Wastes for recovery. Agents of the Investigation Bureau had already waited for an opportunity to question both the criminals and former slaves in order to find out who had supplied the arena with the drugs. Annie and the wounded wolfkins were sent straight to the military hospital, while the warlord led the soldiers back to base.