Letty grimaced and hobbled over to the back side of the cave. Despite Lew’s healing, her body was slow to recover from the battle. She drank three health potions in the same hour after nearly dying up on the canyon wall. During the flight from the enemy camp, she had taken even more wounds, and drank another health potion. Her insides felt fried and raw, her joints were aching, and headaches came and went.

She slid down next to Lews, who was sleeping against the wall. The poor boy had run himself ragged trying to heal everyone for the last three days. Alton and Jonah were laid out on the other side of Lews, both breathing but neither awake. Her brow furrowed as she considered the situation they were in.

While she trusted Amelia, without Alton waking, their chances of living through the week were slim. Eventually, they would be forced to flee the cave to find more food. Try to force a way back down to Agorran controlled territory. Letty sighed and slumped down, feeling overwhelmed.

—

Elda stood at the far edge of the clearing, opposite the cave. Her unit had taken the night watch rotation. They were all experienced scouts and were comfortable in the cold and dark. The kids inside…needed to rest and heal if they were to live through this. Elda had complete confidence in her unit to evade or win in combat against units of similar skill, against the enhanced?

She shook her head and tried not to think about it. The mountains were splayed out before her, though she could only see a few in the sparse light of the moon. She craned her neck up and saw it was only a sliver full tonight. A new moon in the next few days would make it treacherous to move around, lest they be seen by Edorian forces.

Elda stretched and walked over to start her patrol. They had scouts posted on the trail below, above, and spread out on both sides of the clearing. Everyone was in pairs of two, in vision of each other at all times. Edorians were not the only threat this high in the mountains. Fiends haunted these reaches, scouts knew to avoid any fiend dens.

Her nose crinkled as she passed the hidden entrance to the cave. The Rima roasting was putting out a smell that would travel far. Against her better judgment, she said nothing. Her stomach rumbled a protest to her protest. They needed the food.

She continued her route down past the other checkpoints. While the group was in such a vulnerable state, she was patrolling every two hours. When she reached the supposed check point higher on the trail, she found no one present. Two bows were leaned up against a rock with no sign of their owners.

Elda called a bird like chirp that served as scouts warning calls. She strained her ears to listen, but heard nothing but silence. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she turned in a slow circle. None of her scouts would wander off, especially not both of them. She started back down towards the cave to warn the rest when she died. She never even saw the attack coming.

—-

Alton shivered himself awake and turned to pull the blanket up over his shoulders. Carli was nestled in against his side and he had to roll her over to get the blanket free. He smiled at the frown that showed on her beautiful face. For such a deadly soldier, she sure was a deep sleeper.

He re-adjusted himself on the small cot and cursed that they kept their relationship secret. Sharing one cot was a quick way to a day long back ache. The camp aides would gossip endlessly if they dragged another in. He found a reasonable position with his shoulder and worked his way in closer. The scent of her hair always brought him peace.

It must have been too much moving, as she woke up and opened her eyes. “Can’t sleep?” She asked in her melodic voice.

“Just stealing the blanket back from the evil witch that keeps taking them and rolling them under her.” Alton laughed and replied.

A frown once again adorned her face. Alton reached out to cup her cheek and smiled at her. Her gaze became piercing, and Alton felt his pulse increase. Why did this feel so wrong?

“Alton, you need to wake up.” She said, to his utter confusion.

“Wake up, Alton.” She said again, more insistently.

—

Lews woke up from his sleep sometime during the night. Most of the cave was asleep except for two scouts near the mouth. He nodded to them and bent over to check on the captain again. Alton was breathing normally. His pulse was strong and frequent. His face moved as if he was dreaming, yet nothing Lews did would wake him.

“You have to wake up, Alton. We need you. You have to wake up, please.” Lews murmured and finished his assessment.

He crawled over the captain’s body and looked at his mentor next. Jonah had taken Lews under his wing many years ago after a chance encounter at a library in Agorrath. The old man had been kind to him, ignoring his stutter and lack of confidence. Seeing instead the drive for adventure and thirst for knowledge. He had given Lews a chance to explore the country and learn so much.

It pained him to see Jonah now, lying there as he was. Were it that he looked like Alton, peacefully dreaming. No, Jonah was covered in sweat, a fever from the infection that set into his injured arm. The stump was infected, dead tissue surrounded the small amount of healthy. Every few hours Lews would use his limited mana to heal as much as he could before the pain became overwhelming.

None of them had full use of their cores. The price paid in the enemy camp was steep. It had bought their survival, though it remained to be seen if it would cost them more. Lews leaned over the stump and again healed it as best he could. The yellowed and dead tissue sloughed off onto the cave floor.

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Lews checked over the rest of his body before pouring one of his last health potions down his mentor’s throat. Jonah would suffer from the aftereffects of too many health potions, if he lived. When he was done, he re-wrapped the dirty bandages, wishing again in vain for clean supplies. His field kit was abandoned during the rush, immense regret settled over him.

—

Alton slumped down onto the dusty bleachers in the training yard. Today, he regretted joining the army. He should have stayed and worked harder to find an apprenticeship. One of his father’s friend would surely have helped him. No, they wouldn’t have. He had begged them for help after his father’s death, before his mother…

Davih grunted and sat down beside him. His only friend in the recruitment camp, the two boys were of similar builds and minds. Davih was coated in sweat from the heat of the day. The valley became a frying pan during the high summer, heat trapped in the air with no breeze to speak of. The two boys lamented their situations in silence.

“I never thought it would be this hard.” Alton mumbled.

“Nothing worth doing is ever easy, Alton. Thats what the instructors keep saying, at least,” Davih replied with a cheeky grin.

“I just wanted to get off the streets. A roof over my head, you know? I didn’t want to learn to be a killer.” Alton complained, ignoring his friend.

“Well, you still haven’t learned to be a killer. Unless killing those wooden posts with your practice sword count.” Davih elbowed him in the ribs.

“You make it look so easy, how? Did you train like this before?” Alton asked.

“Train? Nah, never. I’ll tell you my secret,” Davih kept grinning. “I just lie. Keep a smile on my face so no one knows when I’m ready to quit. Keeps them from giving me extra work.”

Alton was about to respond, but Davih’s face turned serious. Alton looked behind him to see if an instructor was sneaking up on him, but found nothing. He turned back to his friend and met piercing eyes of steel.

“You have to wake up, Alton. They need you.” Davih said.

“What?” Alton replied in shock.

“You have to wake up. Wolf team needs their captain.” Davih said again.

“I don’t understand.” Alton mumbled.

—

The attack came without warning in the dead of night. Rico was slumped against the cave wall in a half sleep when the shouting started. It took him a few precious seconds to fully wake up. He jumped to his feet as the other stirred and reached for his sword. He was the first out of the cave.

A massive shadow of pure night was devouring one of the scouts in the clearing. Two more were shooting it with arrows that it ignored. Rico charged at the living shadow, hoping to buy the rest more time to wake up. He reached down to his core and winced at the pain, powering through it and circulating.

He reached the living shadow and stabbed his sword into it. The sword was deflected by the scaly hide revealed under the moonlight. It flopped harmlessly in his hands as the creature turned to see what had poked it. Rico cursed and found himself facing against a grown drake.

The young blade stumbled backwards and held his sword before him. The giant fiend took a step towards him and leveled its head. It roared out of its maw and Rico shivered in fear. He could hear more activity behind him, and it bolstered his courage. Help was on the way.

He flashed forward with a stab that did little more than the first. Rico had to throw himself to the side to avoid its retaliation strike. Its tail whipped over his head and he fell back to his butt, trying to get out of its range. More arrows thudded off its scales as the scouts tried to help.

The drake advanced on Rico with speed that defied its massive size. It looked like a giant snake up this close, its wings folded in against its hide. It reared its head and Rico saw hundreds of razor-sharp teeth inside. An arrow took it in the gums and Rico heard a shout.

“Rico! Get out of there!” Prian shouted.

Rico made it to his feet and turned to face the fiend. It was angry now and advancing on the cave entrance. He couldn’t let it get in, the injured soldiers wouldn’t stand a chance. Rico threw himself into the fire once again and tried to force his sword into its armored body. The steel sword just couldn’t cut through the drake’s scales.

He grunted in frustration. The drake turned on him again and whipped its tail in his direction. Rico hit the ground, dodging the tail. He tried to roll and create distance, but it stomped down on his leg and clawed through it. Rico screamed in agony as he felt the bones break and his skin light on fire.

“RICO!” He heard Amelia shout.

Rico looked down at his mangled leg and back up at the drake. It was staring at him, fury building in its eyes. It roared again and bit down at him. He wedged his sword in its jaw and tried to keep its mouth away, surging with everything he had. His enhanced strength managed to hold it back for precious seconds, but it was a futile effort, fangs sinking deep into his shoulder and ripping out.

“RICO!” He heard another shout and then saw Alton crash through the sky and against the drakes back. The captain was blazing with mana, and his famous sword was alight. He slashed down into the drake over and over, scoring deep cuts against the scales. The drake panicked, trying to twist its head around and bite at him.

Mana rolled off the captain as he hacked the fiend apart. Rico was grabbed by the collar and pulled back out of the fight. A bitter healing potion was poured down his throat by a soldier he didn’t recognize. The drake was roaring in pain and anger, drowning out any other noise. Rico tried to stand up and run back in, adrenaline masking the pain in his leg.

“We have to go help him! He’s hurt!” Rico shouted at his would be captor.

“She doesn’t need our help, son. Lay down, don’t fight us.” It was one of the infantryman, he was pushed back down to the ground and held there.

‘She?” Rico asked in confusion.

“Aye, son, she.” The soldier responded while looking around. “Healer! Healer!”

“She…?” Rico trailed off and looked back at the scene of the battle.

The drake was roaring its last pitiful defiance at the figure on its back. Fang was held up high and infused with enough mana to force Rico to look away. He got his sight back just in time to see the sword plunged deep into the drake’s skull, killing it. The figure hopped off the back of the fiend and ran over to Rico. He was shocked as Amelia knelt down next to him, cradling his head.

“Rico! I’m so sorry. I was asleep. I thought it was a bad dream…” She looked down at his leg and her face sank. “I’m so sorry.”

He tried to speak to her and tell her he was fine, but it came out garbled. Rico tasted blood and looked around in confusion. What was happening? Why was she looking at him like that? He reached up with his good arm and laid it on her shoulder. He needed to comfort her. She was so upset.

“Rico…” Amelia said, with tears in her eyes.

Lews and Miser were there next. He tried to speak. Why did they look so sad? More blood flowed from his mouth, nearly choking him. Rico felt mana flowing into him from the healer, and another healing potion was poured down his throat and on his wounds. Tears fell from Amelia’s face as she cradled his head in her lap. Rico thought to himself how embarrassed she would be when he brought this up in their next spar.

Ricorde Dulrim died in the arms of the closest friend he had ever known. Surrounded by the only family that ever loved him. A team that he would gladly lay down his life for. He died with a smile on his face and love in his heart.