The wagon door opened as Razier stepped out, as he stepped out he scanned the eight-armed men looking like he’d fight all of them if needed. When he felt like it was safe he gave a nod seemingly to nobody, however, out came a man dressed in a white robe tied off across the middle with purple strings. “Commander” bowed Alexander greeting the commander as he continued, “I hope you treated my shield like someone affiliated with one of the great families and not a prisoner”
The commander spit a black wad of hummingweed on the ground, “There wasn’t much treatment that could be done” Alexander arched an eyebrow as he asked the commander, “I heard it was bad but I didn’t know it was that bad. “
The commander dragged his hand over the stubble of his beard as he spat again he said, “It ain’t got to do with Whether it's bad or not. The kid has only woken up a few times spouting out nonsense he exhausted his reserves.”
Razier standing behind Alexander put his left hand on the hilt of his sword as he watched the commander spit closer to Alexander. Alexander seeing this told the commander,. “Watch yourself, commander”.
The commander quirked his lips and raised both his hands in the air chuckling to himself, “Cubs got some bite.” He said through his laughter. Before anyone could say anything again, there was a large commotion inside grabbing the hospital building of nurses running.
The group entered the building expecting to find a large commotion, only
To find a petite lady with brown and slight gray hair, “Lord commander” the petite nurse said as she came running red in the face. The commander scowled at her, “I ain’t no lord”
“I’m sorry I was told to find you, sir.” The commander scowled down at her again but motioned for her to continue.
She blew her bangs back, as she picked at her shirt “The person you brought in has woken up.” The commander blew her off with a wave of his callused hand, “That ain’t my business no more” he said turning to walk off.
However, the small nurse stomped her left foot getting the commander's attention. The commander whirled around but the young nurse stood her ground from the menacing man a whole foot and a half taller than her.
“The patient is in a lot of pain. He is screaming and yelling but we can’t get him sedated because he is too strong.” The commander looked down at her as she finished sneering,
“Tough luck to the kid, but like I said nothing to do with me or my company” he got ready to leave again when a voice interrupted from the side.
“How much for your service commander”.
The commander hearing the voice gave a toothy grin, “For a young lord like ye self.” He tapped his chin mockingly, “I’ll give a discount of four gold foundation coins”
Razier stared hard at the commander, making two of his company come up next to their leader. However, Razier didn’t say a word out of line, letting his ward do the talking.
Alexander noticing the commander's company looked behind Razier lifting his left brow, he grinned seeing Razier's glare as he turned again speaking to the commander. “ I will give you five if you will train my shield and sword”
The commander laughed so loud everyone’s eyes were on him, he finally stopped as he looked around and said, “ Do you think I’m a sell-sword boy”
Alexander smiled at this, “Do you think I’d trust a sell-sword to train my battlement”
The commander laughed loud again causing eyes to turn on him again, however this time he was laughing mockingly.
The commander flared at Alexander as he said, I’ve always wondered what a palace looks like, but the foundation doesn’t have you going to the school.” he said as he looked questioningly at the young lord
. “The foundation is as dangerous as my father said, yet, the commander there are some things that they will never know,” Alexander said as he locked eyes on the commander.
The commander's eyes went wild as he grinned like a crazed animal his eyes locked on Alexander.
“Are you saying I can get one over on those old devils” he laughed boyishly at this, rubbing his hands together like rough sandpaper.
The two shook hands and the lobby room seemed to lose pressure, as the commander and Alexander’s hands released in both their palms there was now a tattoo. The commander's palm had a buck with antlers, with a snake wrapped around them, while Alexander had four connected circles.
Alexander looked down at his right hand rubbing in the middle, he then asked the commander, “Will you need to speak to your men?”
The commander waved it off with a shrug of his shoulders, “Alright, I’ll guess you’ll deal with that after we deal with my new shield”.
The commander gave hand signals quickly, only the company seemed to understand as they left the lobby room, back outside.
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The commander turned back to Alexander telling him, “I told them to wait with the horses, I will talk to them after we deal with the village boy.”
The petite nurse must have been listening close by as she walked up, “Well I’m glad to find such noble help” she spat, glaring at the commander.
Who shrugged it off as he said, “ Lead us, Nurse”
The nurse gave the commander one last glare as they ran through the first floor of the hospital, patients were watching them from their beds, they were all pale with a ghostly complexion and sunken eyes
The first floor of the hospital is for patients who knew the issues they were facing some had pox; others were missing legs or fingers, however majority of the first floor were the lucky patients who survived Qi exhaustion.
Once they reached the end of the first floor, they went up the stairs and onto the second floor where the air was heavy and eerie. Every step felt like it was heavier accompanied by patients coughing, some were laughing, but the loudest was in the room three doors down from the stairs.
The lady pointed towards the door that’s where you're needed. The lady then went down the steps and kept looking back up every few seconds like she couldn’t wait to be further. The commander walked into the room first then Razier and finally Alexander. In the room were five doctors with cute and bruises already forming. “Holy hell,” the commander said as he covered his face.
Thrashing around and trying to sit up was a young teen who looked slightly younger than Alexander. The young teen was dripping in sweat, his eyes were bloodshot red and opened wide.
The bottom of his lip was bleeding from what looked like bite marks. He was very pale in the face though it seemed to be his natural color. His hair was bright red with a slight brown at the root. He had red freckles around his nose his eyes were blue and green and shone even with them being bloodshot.
. “Are you the man who brought him here?” Alexander asked the commander.
“Aye” he responded
“ Well, however, you got him here please do it again,” the male doctor said trying to hold the patient down. The commander gave him a sour expression as he said, “He wasn’t awake then, what do you expect me to do?.”
However, despite his words, the commander still walked up to the bed to try and hold the young teen down by the shoulders. It seemed to work as the commander was pushing hard his forearms flexing as the young man thrashed to move around.
The young man yelled still thrashing to move, his legs squirming along with his shoulders. He began whipping his head up and down head butting the commander in the nose.
At that moment, one of the doctors an older woman walked in with a needle. She came in quickly, before the commander could ask anything she injected a green fluid into the patient's neck.
The commander touched his nose gnashed his teeth and punched the young man to the terror of the doctors. The doctors would say it was the injection that put him to rest but the commander from that day forward would always tell his men he saved a kid with a punch.
Once the young teen was asleep for half an hour, Alexander was out talking to the doctors when the commander came out of the room. “I’m going to go talk to my company”
Alexander looked to the commander who just came out of the room, “Alright, you can wait for us outside, actually Razier will go with you so the whisperer will know to get ready from him”
The commander nodded, as he waited for Alexander to tell Razier he looked to the older doctor who injected the patient, “Are you letting them take him, doctor?.”
The lady fixed her glasses and pushed back her short black hair, “We can’t do anything for him here we have no potions”. The commander now looked at the young lord who walked out of the room now with Razier, asking “How will we take him?”
Alexander looked around for a second, realizing he was being asked he answered, “How did you get him here?”
“I rolled him up lying down and tied him to the back of the horse on my rear” the commander responded. Alexander smiled, “You can do that again, it sounds quite interesting”
The disdain was clear on the commander's face, but he didn’t protest, instead nodding as he walked towards the stairs, Alexander signaled Razier to follow
The commander and Razier disappeared down the stairs and past the rooms on the first floor reaching the lobby. The commander was looking from left to right, but his soldiers were nowhere to be found.
The lady from when they first answered walked from behind a curtain, “Your soldiers were an unpleasant sight to the healing patients, so we asked them to wait out front.” The commander grunted as he went outside.
The sun was beginning to set with half the skylight while the other filled with shadows. In the front of the hospital, the seven soldiers were standing with their horses the whisperer next to them sitting in the wagon.
As they saw the commander, they touched their chest with their left arm quickly all at the same time.
“You jackasses are so hardheaded. I told you don’t do that every time you see me.”
The commander reached into his pocket and pulled out his humming weed a brown and green leaf as he stuck it in his mouth.
He began chewing it as he spoke, “I know you all must have heard from Lavis and Trestin that I’m going with that young Angelus”
Most of them shook their head, but one large man with a dark complexion spoke in a deep voice, “How long will you be gone commander?”
The commander scratched his chin, “ I don’t know that yet, but I’ll send a hawk when I do. You all should go to the nearest Foundation Temple I think there is one in Ančford, You should reach there before nightfall if you leave now”
The soldiers were quick as they got onto their steeds, they gave another salute to the displeasure of their commander and were off headed northeast to Ančford.
While the commander was talking to his company he didn’t realize that Razier once he talked to the whisperer had gone back inside the hospital. He didn’t realize until Alexander came out with Razier behind holding the sick teen.
The commander came up to Razier giving him a displeased expression as he told him, “Let me take him, it’ll be easier for me if I can position him myself.” Razier eyed the commander.
Alexander was amused as he spoke, “It’s fine Razier,, you’ll have to get used to listening to him he will be teaching you how to cultivate”.
Razier handed the young patient over with a slight bow as an apology, to which the commander responded in kind.
The commander's horse was about half a foot shorter than the Angelus family. It had milk colored with spots of brown. The commander put the young man slightly behind the horse saddle. Blankets were set on the horse so the teen would have some comfort. The commander then used a rope and pulled it around the teen between the horses' legs. He wrapped it around three times and then tied the rope across the patient's shoulder and down to his hip.
“Is he tied tight?” asked Alexander standing in front of the wagon door.
“Aye” responded the commander
. “Alright, let’s go” commanded Alexander tapping the hood of the wagon. The whisperer spoke to the horses, and they launched to the gate and back up the mountain to the Chateau.