General Zayn watched as his rogue reacted to the sounds first, by leaping up and grabbing the hilts of her daggers. He stood up, cursing himself for being foolish. Of course there were wolves here in the woods --wolves that would be able to follow the scent of the deer's fresh blood until they reached their campsite. The rest of his solders followed suit, and Ra went as far as to draw his weapon, ready to attack.
"What's the new plan?" Shen asked him.
"Not sure. We can't stay here, that's for sure."
There were no responses for a good few seconds. Everyone, including Iris, just seemed to stand there in shock at the fact that they might be attacked.
"Well, come on," said the general, who was the first in motion. "There's no need in getting ourselves injured or worse before the real fighting begins. Grab what you can and let's get the hell out of here."
With that, everyone seemed to be moving quickly and efficiently. The howls were growing closer and closer with each passing second, and that in itself only inspired them to move faster and faster. In what seemed like no time, the horses were packed and ready to go.
The song of the wolves was now right upon them, and Iris knew that it was only a matter of seconds before they breached the campsite. She looked around fearfully as she mounted Gretchen. The other soldiers in her group seemed to be doing the same thing.
General Zayn was the first to take off, and everyone went right behind him. For that moment, they all revoked the position they were supposed to ride in and simply just went as fast as their horses could carry them. It took a good while before General Zayn finally called them to a halt. Once everyone was completely stopped, the general dismounted his horse. Iris saw the way he glanced quickly at their surroundings.
He seemed to see nothing within the nearby trees, yet he was still watchful.
"We shouldn't go too far, lest there are more than wolves in the woods. We'll set up camp here," he motioned to the ground beneath him, "but we won't light a fire this time."
It took a few minutes for everyone to calm down from the sudden change of camp, and become somewhat comfortable with their surroundings. Iris found this especially hard because it was so dark, not to mention the trees that surrounded them. She knew that the trees might be hiding unfriendly creatures.
With a sigh of acceptance, she rolled out bedroll, which was severely wrinkled since she had hurriedly stuffed it in her pack moments earlier.
Several long minutes went by as the men listened for the wolves. Iris heard them get very loud at one point... and then it was as if they were never there. Well... almost. A few minutes later, she heard some of them cry out in pain, and she wondered if they were fighting over the deer carcass they had most definitely found. She watched as the archers grimaced at the wolves' brutality with each other. She assumed her face held the same expression. The cries kept getting louder and louder.
"Gods, what ferocity..." General Zayn commented as he listened in as well.
----
The group finally, after the wolves had seemingly finished their meal, went about trying to relax. Iris was watching them as they set everything up. As the general had suggested, there was no fire this time. However, it was still decently easy to see because the stars and moon were so bright. Iris found herself to be content... for a minute.
Then, it happened. As the men were getting ready for bed, they were talking amongst themselves, which wasn't half-bad. Iris listened to the mildly interesting conversation for a good while. It was what happened as they were still speaking to one another that had come without any warning.
She hadn't known to expect that the men would change out of their armor, especially not out here. After a moment's thought, she realized that it was silly that she had assumed otherwise --of course they wouldn't sleep in armor as she did.
Nevertheless, Iris was pretty sure she looked as thunderstruck as she felt as everyone around her stripped down to... well, nothing, and began putting on their bed clothes.
She clasped her hand over her eyes for a minute, before she realized that it might look suspicious. Unwillingly, she pulled her hands back away from her eyes... trying her best to fade out anything besides the other fighter's faces.
"What's wrong, lad? You look like you've seen a ghost," Ra said, a little concern in his tone.
She gulped and tried her best to shrug it off.
"It's just the wolves," she lied quickly, hoping it would be enough.
"I believe we'll be safe out here," came General Zayn's voice.
She tried to look him in the face without looking leery. He began pulling up his breeches, still looking at her. Then, he raised a brow at her.
"Aren't you going to change, Ingred?" he asked.
"Uh..." she stumbled over words for a few moments before answering his question fully, "No. I think I will be just fine sleeping in my armor. After all, it is just leather..."
This made all of the men look over at her.
"You mean to tell me that you even sleep in your armor?"
Zayn pulled his hair out of the topknot he wore. She looked away from his face now that he had on some type of covering. It wasn't as if she'd never seem him like this before, anyways. She, for a moment, found herself remembering her and the general running and exercising together the preceding night.
"It's safer," she finally confirmed.
"Well then, suit yourself," she said with a shrug, and then pulled on the same rough tunic he had worn by the campfire.
She was grateful that he did not ask her any more questions. After a moment of silence, she stood up and walked over to Gretchen, and rummaged through the saddlebags.
She found the small pouch that she had been carrying with her for some time now. Upon opening it, she popped one of the familiar thorny fruits into her mouth and silently hoped that no one would see her do it. With a quick glance around, she saw that no one had been paying her any mind, as they were all putting on the rest of their sleep garments. For now, her worries were sated. She sat back in her bedroll.
Well, she thought her worries were sated...
There was something not right.
Once she cleared her mind, she felt that there was something off. She took a few good minutes trying to figure out what was suddenly sitting very badly in her gut. It didn't take long for it to grow worse and worse.
She swallowed as the feeling of anxiety consumed her and looked around for anything that might explain why she had immediately started feeling this strange apprehension. With small shakes and quick eyes that seemed to flick ever so quickly back and forth, she tried to console herself.
What in the name of seven hells is going on? She thought to herself. Shen seemed to notice the way she was acting and squatted down beside her.
"Ingred... is something wrong?"
"Did we forget something?" she asked him, and she received an answer. However, the answer was not from the slightly worried archer, it was from the depths of the trees. She heard a loud cry of pain... but not from a wolf. No. This cry came from a man.
"Oh gods," she whispered. Kayde...
Before anyone could even put the pieces together, Iris had already mounted her horse.
"What are you..." the general started, "where are you going?" he asked as she rushed off.
Quickly, Iris made for their earlier campsite. The trees seemed to flash by faster than they had when she was running away from the wolves. Luckily, her destination was not far from where she was currently staying, so it did not take her very long to get back.
Upon arrival, she saw a sight that haunted her and impressed her. There were about twenty wolves that all lay dead, some cut up beyond recognition. However, along with them, was her mentor. Dhangru had knelt beside Kayde in order for him to slump against him. Iris immediately jumped from Gretchen and ran over to him.
His robes were torn and bloody, and she could tell he was barely conscious. She used her hand to raise his chin up. His eyelids drooped, but they seemed to register that she was there. Kayde immediately tried to raise his hand to his face. Iris noticed that he had been clawed right above his eyebrow. The gash, along with other wounds on his body, seemed to be dribbling a decent amount of blood.
"Are you alright?" she asked him.
"Yes," his voice was raspy, "Can you help me?"
Before she got a chance to answer, another horse came bursting from the trees. This one seated the general, who seemed to be chasing after Iris. Upon seeing the injured Kayde, he pulled his horse to an abrupt halt. He did not ask any questions, not even about the dead wolves, as he also rushed to Kayde's side.
"Oh gods, is he alright? I had forgotten about him following us."
"I am... alive," Kayde answered him, "will you do me a favor?"
"What is it you need?" The answer was obvious. Healing. He needed healing. Iris was feeling absolutely mortified at how bad he seemed to be faring. She did not reply to his question verbally, as the general had, but simply nodded. He did not seem to notice her, however, as he was mainly focused on Zayn.
"I have a few bandages in my pack," he gave a glace backwards to his black stallion, "would you mind wrapping my wounds?"
General Zayn looked at her and spoke, "Can you go get those? I'm going to go ahead and try to get these robes off him. That, and make sure he stays conscious."
Iris answered by leaping to her feet and dashing over to Kayde's saddlebags on the other side of his horse. She found the bandages he was talking about after only a little rummaging. She felt bad for destroying the organization in the saddlebag, but she hoped that he would understand.
Once she was back with the two men, she saw that Zayn had already removed the black robes he wore and was now dabbing his bleeding wounds with water from his water skin. After a few moments of quick cleaning, he grabbed the bandages from Iris's arms and began wrapping some of them around his torso. The rest of them went to his arms and legs.
"Thank you," Kayde's voice was still rough.
"You are welcome," the general answered, now looking at the scattered wolf bodies, "but I suppose I should be thanking you. Did you do this?"
"Yes. I did."
The general nodded in acceptance, before giving the recovering Kayde a quizzical look.
"Why did you do it?"
"Why? Because I was afraid they would follow you. I didn't suppose that losing a war general during this mess with the Tokens would sit very well with the fate of our country."
Kayde sat up now, and made a grab for his severely tarnished robes. The general stopped him before he could pick them up.
"I believe we have something else for you to wear," the general said, "it is the least I can do for you."
Iris knew that Kayde had done it for her protection and that it was she that owed him. Not only for killing the wolves, but for helping her with everything.
"I... thank you."
"You can ride with us until our paths no longer merge, if you wish." The general finally offered after he took another good look at the wolves, "we are stopping in the next village, so you can fully recover there. We will wait for you until you are doing well. After all, your sword arm might come in handy every once in a while."
"I'd be willing to lend a hand, then. Maybe if I travel along with you... I have a better chance of surviving the journey." Kayde shifted uncomfortably.
"Perhaps so," Iris finally spoke, "Even though our dinner was what drew the beasts to us."
This made General Zayn look away from Kayde. Iris could see guilt lingering in his eyes. She wished now that she had have bitten her tongue on those words. After all, she could have said them when she and Kayde were alone. She hated to make anyone feel guilty... even though she felt terrible about what had happened herself.
"It's quite alright," Kayde told her.
"I am glad you are well," she added, trying to change the subject, "Err... well, well enough."
She realized the fault in her words as soon as they had slipped her lips. There were many things Kayde was right now, and well was definitely not one of them. He knew what she meant though. She watched him smirk a little at her words.
"I am glad too. I was hoping I wouldn't bleed out here."
"It's good that you didn't," the general spoke up, "I would've felt like shit if I had left a man alone to die in the woods." The general grimaced and looked off for a long moment, as if he were struck by some visualization or memory. "For that alone, I am very sorry. You have proved that you are no enemy to us."
Zayn paused for a minute, collecting his thoughts.
"It is all fine," Kayde assured.
With that, and one last look at the slaughtered animals, they all climbed upon their horses -Kayde being the slowest- and made their way back to the other soldiers.