Leona was shaking after slumping down on the wet ground of the small cave. She was still crying when they heard the steps of monsters outside. Aquila and Cassius sat next to her, catching their breath.
‘Faust…’ Aquila thought as he squished a little tear out of his right eye and his jaws clenched. He found it unbelievably Faust had just sacrificed himself to save their lives.
‘Damn fool!’ Cassius thought with a sad smile as he buried his face in his hands.
Leona felt broken. She didn’t want to stand up, she didn’t want to leave, but she didn’t want to remain sitting either. She was unable to think clearly as she was overwhelmed by a single thought.
‘I’ve killed him. It's my fault. He did it to save me!’ whenever she had that thought she wanted to sob and the dagger on her waist suddenly seemed so enticing.
They spent several minutes in that state, letting their breath calm down. Leona still couldn’t overcome the emotional burst and every time she stopped crying thoughts of Faust resurfaced in her head. She couldn’t think of anything else but the smiling thin boy that she used to practice wrestling with.
She thought back to the day when they had teased one another and made friends.
‘He was so weak and broken back then… but always smiled when he was with me…’ she caught herself smiling for a second which made her even more miserable right after because she knew that she would never see this boy she held so dearly ever again.
‘No. I can’t just give up! We need to go back and send for a search party. We can’t give up on Faust!’
She hesitated.
‘… I can’t give up on you…’ she thought and sobbed loudly since the steps had disappeared for a few minutes already by now. Her chest felt as if someone sat on it. Her heart ached. She had told him how she felt… but how did that make things any better? He was gone. And she was alone with her feelings. All alone.
Loneliness took hold of her. She hugged her knees and sat there quietly.
Aquila slowly stood up and carefully looked outside of the crevice.
‘They seem to be gone. Faust… I will never forget what you did today. Not a day will pass where I will forget your sacrifice.’ Aquila smiled weakly.
He was grieving. But he had seen a lot of death in his village. 2 winters ago, a plague had almost killed a third of his village and it had taken his mother. When pictures resurfaced of how he buried his mother he hurriedly suppressed them.
‘I can’t let these thoughts distract me.’ He ruthlessly shut them out. He turned to Cassius and Leona.
“It looks clean. Let us wait for another ten minutes, then I will check the perimeter. Alone. If they’re still here at least only I would die.” He calmly stated.
Faust’s sacrifice and their two near-death experiences also changed his mentality a lot. In this situation, almost all selfish thoughts were completely replaced by a sense of admiration for Faust and his selflessness.
Leona and Cassius looked like they wanted to stop him and say something, but neither of them opened their mouths and just remained silent.
‘She is still like paralyzed… I know she had it in for him, but that their feelings were that intense… I’m not envious of Leona.’ He shook his head regretfully and sat back down.
‘But I need to save my grief for after the mission is done. I can’t afford to let it take over.’ He shook his head and so they sat in the rock crevice.
A few minutes later he checked the perimeter, making sure there were no more stray orcs around. He helped the others out and they inspected their pitiful state. The fabric on Aquila’s right shoulder was soaked in red.
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He appeared to be wounded. He disregarded it. They had no time. They needed to leave. Now. Cassius was limping as one of his legs had been injured.
Aquila ordered Leona to help Cassius, jolting her out of her sadness, and getting her into mission mode. The next 2 days would be incredibly exhausting. They had to quickly reach camp. Aquila’s injury was bound to get worse during the marching and they needed to get help to send after Faust.
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2 days later
Lucon stood on the wall of Caurium, the wooden fort where they set out from. He looked into the distance, onto the paths leading back from several directions. The fort was built in a place where 3 major roads met.
‘It's been 5 days. The teams have 2 more days to return… I just hope Androcles’s daughter is alright… he thought of Leona. He had seen her grow up and they were like uncle and niece. He had often trained her when they were younger. He was the one to teach her wrestling in the first place.
He had to smile gently when he thought of the girl and then it turned into a bitter, mocking expression.
‘And now this innocent girl will learn about the cruelties of life and warfare.’ He shook his head.
‘Just like one hundred other young men…’ he sighed dejectedly. ‘None of them will ever be the same.’
The sun was about to set. He enjoyed standing on the palisades and looking into the distance. It gave him the illusion that the world was peaceful. He liked that. He liked peace. But he was a warrior. And there was no peace for a warrior like him.
When he was about to turn and leave, he saw a small group of people approach. He couldn’t see how many exactly, but it sure as hell wasn’t 10.
“That must be Leona’s group!” he exclaimed excitedly, and relief enveloped his mind. He wanted to meet them halfway, so he left through the gate and leisurely walked towards the group he believed to be Leona’s.
‘I knew that they would be the first to come back! With Aquila’s tracking and the group's overall skill, it was set in stone! Hunting those small groups of stray orcs should have been easy for them. He walked towards them until he noticed something was off.
He squinted his eyes and his smile grew wide when he recognized Leona in the distance. Yet when they came closer he froze in place.
‘No… please no. That can’t be! They should’ve been by far the safest group!’ he thought as coldness spread through his body. He had counted the group. Yet he could only see 3 of them… and the state they were in told him all he needed to know. He saw Aquila, then Cassius, then Leona.
‘They are propping Cassius… he is injured… Aquila's shoulder looks terrible! They look so exhausted, they can barely walk… they must have hurried back without rest with those injuries.’ He thought and quickly hurried towards them.
‘What did they encounter there? The groups there are usually no larger than eight and quite rare. Faust… poor boy.’ He sighed as he got closer to the group.
‘Why did that innocent boy have to die? He had been fucked over by fate once already… why again?’ he lamented. He was often misunderstood. Yes, he liked fighting, but the suffering that came with war? He hated it.
When they were only a few meters apart from one another the group stopped. No words were necessary. Aquila’s face showed a distant cold facial expression Lucon only knew too well from himself. It was the expression of a man who forced himself to keep working even if his mind and body had been broken. For the sake of their comrades.
Cassius didn’t look any better. He had been battered in the fight with the orcs and still felt it in every part of his body.
‘Leona is the only one who seems uninjured…’ he looked at her face and his brows furrowed. ‘…physically.’
He could see the expression on her face. He had also seen it. But rarely on soldiers. Her eyes were red, and she had cried a lot, he could see it. Her eyes were empty and appeared like hulls. Where had he seen it before?
On the faces of brothers, mothers, wives, husbands, fathers, and sisters… after a loved one had been taken from them. He knew Faust had been the closest friend she ever had. She had told him.
What he didn’t know was that she had lost her heart to him.
She had never had a lot of friends due to her standing and Lucon tried to be there for her, but a teacher and uncle-like figure couldn’t replace a trusting friend. It felt like a sting in his heart to see her in this state. It hurt him. Much more than he would ever admit.
‘The pain she feels must be so much worse than an injury could ever inflict…’ he sighed and opened his mouth to speak then Leona sobbed, stumbled towards Lucon, and fell into his arms, hugging him and crying. They had finally made it back. Facing her uncle, she couldn’t hold herself back and let herself go.
All thoughts left his mind, and he held her tightly, gently stroking her head and back. He only wanted to hold her like this and console her. None of the four spoke a word. Leona remained in his hug and her body shivered a bit. Aquila showed a cold expression and while he supported Cassius, he took out a small leather pouch.
He walked past Lucon with Cassius and gave the bag to Lucon. With a raspy and exhausted voice that seeped of coldness, he said:
“Mission accomplished.”