The first one lunged for Iris, as she was the closest to them. She caught the movement, and quickly moved out of the way. The sword whistled as it swung inches from her neck. Silently, she said a quick prayer of gratitude to the gods. Iris knew that the blow would have taken her head off if it had actually hit. With three quick steps, she got closer to the other soldiers, who were drawing their weapons.
As soon as her opponent's got within arm's distance, she quickly tumbled behind them, knowing that she would do much better at their backs. She hoped that perhaps that they would disregard that she was there, though she doubted it. However, her quick moves did do well to offset them, giving her an opportunity to strike. Seizing it, she swung one of her daggers at the one who had just tried to kill her, right at the spot he had tried to hit her.
Unlike his swing, hers actually connected. She grimaced as her blade sliced through skin and sinewy muscle. Blood immediately spattered all over her weapon and hand. Upon contact, the Token yelped out and slowly fell to his knees. Iris knew that he would die soon, and she almost felt guilty.
Then, all hell broke loose. With the clashes of swords in the camp, both sides took injuries. Even as fast as Iris was, one still managed to clip her in her side within a few minutes of the outbreak. Even still, she considered herself lucky. After all, the wound wasn't fatal. Not to mention that only one of the Tokens was paying her any mind at the current moment. As the warrior and knights took the attention and the archers shot their bows from afar, Iris danced among the Tokens, leaving injuries where she struck.
After a few minutes, she had killed another one after finding a weak spot in the back of his armor. She could tell that the vulnerable spot in the chainmail was there due to wear and tear, and also because the armor itself didn't appear to be made especially well. This led her to believe that these were likely just typical Token infantry.
Her knives slid easily from person to person, still without drawing hardly any attention to herself. Most of that was thanks to Ra, who was loud and angry as he swung his axe about. With quiet feet, she flanked the one in front of the General, leaving a nasty gash from shoulder to shoulder. Upon feeling the blow, the Token turned to her, ready to fight. Yet, he did not make it far. Zayn thrust his sword through the opponent's torso with ease, and then moved on to one of the final two that were standing in their makeshift camp.
Iris, however, took a moment to wipe her face. After all, Zayn's blow had been a hard one. Hard enough to smatter Iris's face and upper body with more blood than she was even accustomed to seeing. Even though she had not considered herself Iris Gwenneth for a very long while, blood still made her a tad bit squeamish. With a grimace, she moved forward again, not halting her assault.
Ra finished off one with a great swing of his axe before she could even get all the way over to them.
With one alive, it did not take very long at all for him to fall in combat as well. Against three swordsmen, a warrior, two archers, and a rogue... he didn't stand a chance. Iris could tell that he knew that as he took his final swings. The desperation and hopelessness in his eyes made Iris feel guilty for continuing to attack.
It had to be done.
"Well hell yeah," Ra said, sheathing his axe, "Any more o' the shits?"
The comment made Iris want to laugh. Instead, she looked over at a leering Kayde and shook her head. He nodded his in response, as if he were agreeing with her gesture. Ra was definitely different from most of the soldiers she had met. While the rest of them had a somber and calculating look as they battled, Ra fought things with mirth, arrogance, and a slight trace of humor.
"Hopefully not. At least not tonight," the general said, looking quite agitated, "We should move our camp. We know from experience that blood draws wolves. Especially in places like this." Iris wanted to sigh as he said it. She was unbelievably tired, and just wanted to lay down and sleep for the night. Yet, she knew that he was right. If they were to stay here, they definitely would not have a peaceful sleep.
"Let us hurry then," said Dregar, wiping the blood off of his blade.
"Couldn't have said it better myself," said the general, "Maybe we'll find a safer spot to sleep. And hopefully no more of those damned Tokens show up while our eyes are shut."
Iris grumbled inaudibly, and packed all of her things with all the haste she could muster and then waited for the rest of her group to do the same. They were all considerably slower than her at doing so, beside Kayde and the general, who got finished at about the same time as she did.
"Good job again, Ingred," the general said with a brusque tone, "You've proved yourself well to be so new to war." Iris responded this with a nod of appreciation, trying not to let it get to her head. Her father had always taught her that arrogances could be any man's downfall, no matter how just it may be.
After a few more quiet minutes, they continued on.
The second time they set up camp, there were no disturbances. In fact, even the crickets had silenced for the night. Iris knew that it had to be very late. Not only because of the moon's position, but because of her drooping eyelids. She half-heartedly threw out her bedroll, not even caring where it landed.
The general sat up again, Iris noticed as she climbed under the covers. Tonight, though, she would not stay up with him. Even though it was always nice to chat, she knew it would be foolhardy to lose sleep, especially with the days of travel that were ahead of them all. Iris wondered if Zayn was daft for a few minutes before shutting her eyes.
Let him be a halfwit if he wants to be.
With that, Iris went to sleep.
----
Zayn was up for a long while after everyone else fell asleep. In fact, he would wager that if he stayed up too much longer, the sun would rise. He glanced over at the sleeping figures, surprised that he was not accompanied by even the rogue tonight. With a blank expression, he looked up to the now-fading stars. Even as emotionless as he looked, he was weighed down with something that had bothered him for a long time: the death of Angrir. His friend. One that had died because he was careless. Ever since he had talked to Iris about it, it had not left his mind.
"The ones that we care about will not die... until the moment we forget that they lived," he murmured Iris's words under his breath. It surprised him that her words had helped comfort him, when nothing else had for years and years. Not only with the incident with Angrir, but with his parents. Well, besides trying to bury it within his mind and forget about it.
Either way, even though the words had done some good to ease his conscience, Zayn found himself disappointed in himself that he had even brought it up. He didn't know why he felt as if it was a mistake to tell the story of the other rogue, because from the very moment he had chosen his scouting group, he felt as if he owed at least that much to the rogue.
"Gods damn it," he spoke to himself.
Upon the words being spoken, there was movement in one of the bedrolls. Zayn knew in an instant that he had probably woken someone up. With an inaudible curse, the general watched as a figure rose from the ground. Immediately, Zayn figured out that it was Kayde.
"Oh, it is only you," Kayde said and stretched his arms, walking over to the general, "I half expected more Tokens."
"I'm glad you were wrong," the general replied.
"Me too," Kayde said, narrowing his eyes, "Is something not right? Why are you up this late, general?"
"I'm generally up late, so nothing's out of place." Zayn's words flew quickly from his mouth, shutting out anything that might concern the Remorda Guardian. Even still, Kayde walked over slowly, and took a cautious seat beside General Zayn. It was if he was testing the waters.
"Do you mind?" Kayde asked. The general shook his head, focused more on the accent of guardian's voice than the actual question. It was a light accent, but just enough to give away that he wasn't raised among a normal society for some years of his life. The general figured it was probably something to do with the Guardians.
"Very well, I will sit then. I am no longer tired."
"No longer tired? How so? You didn't sleep for very long. Not to mention the sun," the general gestured to the dark sky. Immediately, Zayn saw Kayde glance up at the night sky and then furrow his brows. With an odd expression, he spoke again to the general.
"The sun isn't up, General..." Kayde raised his eyebrows.
"That's my point," replied Zayn, "You should get some more sleep."
"Oh no, I am truly fine. My entire life, I have awoken before dawn. I don't expect that to change anytime soon," said the guardian with a small smile, "And you are the one who should be getting sleep. You haven't moved since everyone else went to bed."
Zayn disregarded Kayde's last remark.
"Is that something they taught you when they trained you to be a Remorda Guardian? To rise before the sun?"
"Of course not," Kayde laughed a little, "As a guardian, I am obviously meant to rise early. Still, the rest sleep until dawn. I simply wake up before the sun rises because I like to watch the sun come up. Beautiful sight, it is. Stay up much longer, and you will see it for yourself..." he retorted. It was the general's turn to wonder if his companion was, in fact, crazy. What sane person enjoyed getting up that early?
"You look at me as if I am senseless; have you never watched a sunrise?"
"I've seen one, but I've never paid much attention to it. And you are strange individual," he said, and then added, "But you're not the only one."
"Perhaps," Kayde said. "Who else, then?"
The general pointed at Iris's sleeping figure. "Him. It's not much of a surprise, I guess. He's got a lot of damned spirit to be so young -even more than I believe I had. It's pretty damn hard to believe he is only a first year soldier. He has a knack with the daggers, yes. But what of his determination and will? Do those come so easily?" he asked Kayde.
"Perhaps he has seen more battle than you know."
"What?" Zayn said with a confused look.
"Not all battles are fought with weapon in hand, General. I suspect that you know that. Who knows what inner battles he has fought? Sometimes, those are worse." For a moment, Kayde's eyes looked sad.
"You look as if you are speaking from experience."
"Perhaps, I am." Kayde said, but did not elaborate. "But that is far from here now. I do not wish to speak of it." A few minutes of silence passed. It was a small while later when the guardian pointed to the sky. "Watch," he said simply.
At the general's side, the Remorda Guardian was staring up at the sky. Seeing this, Zayn's eyes flicked to the spot Kayde was staring at. As he watched, he thought of his own personal battles. What the guardian had said was very true.
He then realized that most of those battles were lost. He still held on to the bitterness of the death of both Angrir and his parents. With a breath, he let the deaths flood his mind. Especially the death of his mother. Gods. Despite the underlying huilt, it was different this time...
There were two new things that Zayn experienced for the very first time in the very last hour of the night. One was watching the sun rise, and the other was taking a step to accept the passing of those he cared about and try to move on from it... to try and convince himself that none of it was his fault. Even though he didn't show it, or talk about it much, he had carried a rotten conscience for as long as he could remember.
Ironically enough, both of these new things that happened for the general led to exactly the same thing: a new dawn.