Abigail Fredrickson

Ariel

Kelly’s abundance of healing spells is both a blessing and curse, I reflect, moving my shoulder in a circle.  It means a lot less lives are lost if the person critically injured is reached in time.  It also means the recovery process for most of our wounds is quicker if nonexistent, so they don’t have to wait long before being able to get back out on the field.

But I think some of us underestimated how much of a relief it can be to have a forced break from the war.  And Kelly can’t always heal everything and everyone without losing too much energy.  She sticks to the wounds that are more likely to be a problem.

Even so, a couple of the people with those insisted on her bending her focus elsewhere, like on her magic studies.  Which is a good thing.  It means she can grow her strength and skill set just a little bit quicker.  It also means that the person can take some much needed time to heal, and not just physically.

Maybe it’s not healthy for me to allow myself that.  But then, I’ve never been able to before anyways.  When your parents are taken from you and you’re left to care for yourself, your brother, their business, and the secret Rebellion they’d begun…You don’t have time for breaks.

You don’t have time for breaks during war either.  Not when you’re a crucial leader both on the field and in the council chamber.  So I don’t take them.  When all of this is over, then maybe I can take some time to heal.  But for now?  Being a thorn in Prince Liam’s side is just as good.  I smirk at the thought.

Ambushes, surprise attacks, quick ins and outs.  That’s the tactic the council ultimately decided on to deal with this large force.  We’d never win in a straight on battle.  However, we have the terrain as an upper hand, if we’re smart enough to use it.

We chose to send out a fair sized party of warriors, of which I insisted on leading.  Rowan had wanted to come too, but we’d received word from Lunn.  They’re struggling to hold Shoji and need reinforcements.  He and Tewa volunteered to go there instead.  So right before leaving, he came up to me.

“If you see her-…” he pauses, conflicting and confusion shining in his eyes.  I get it.  “…just…” he falters again.  And I know why.  I’d struggle to.

Because what do you even do in that situation?  What do you say?  You know you want something to be relayed, even if not a message but an action of some sort…but you don’t know what.

In the end he just sighed and nodded, I’m not sure if it was to me or himself.  I’d squeezed his shoulder and given him a smile, then mounted Smoke and started off.

It’s been easy to trail the large group of samurai.  And for me personally, it’s been downright fun launching attacks at the randomest possible times and places.  Unfortunately I haven’t seen the prince or Tigress except from a distance.  However, I had to laugh the last time I saw the prince.  He was positively livid.

Every time we’re in and out before things can really get messy.  Every time we normally manage to make off with some of their own supplies.  It’s a loss for them, and also means we don’t have to pause and replenish our own, so win-win.  I get the feeling that I’m getting on the nerves of not only the prince though, but Tigress herself.  Last I saw her, the frustration was very clear.  According to our scouts, she’s taken to standing night guard herself.  Maybe a bit more often than is healthy.  A couple times they’ve attempted to turn the tides on us.

However, my scouts are fast, stealthy, and trustworthy, and we’ve been alerted beforehand each time.  They only caught up to us once, but even then we were able to use the terrain to our advantage and get away with minimal loss.

If things continue as they are…eventually they’ll have no choice but to draw back to replenish supplies and rethink their strategy.  So hopefully things do continue as they are.

I pass out some dried and salted meat amongst several ‘Gracias’s and ‘thank you’s.  I know we all want something cooked and warm.  Unfortunately, smoke from a fire, however small, would be all too easily tracked in the crisp fall atmosphere.

“Ariel,” a scout emerges from the brush, “hey.”

I recognize Mor and smile slightly, “Any news?”

He shakes his head, pushing his long black hair out of his face, “No.  Ro took over for me.”

I nod and hand him some meat, “Here.  You look hungry.”

“Thanks,” he accepts it gladly.  Instead of sitting down though, he follows me while I continue passing out the rations.  I smile wryly at that.  Even after the first few meetings when he was still working as our spy, before the war was in full swing, I’d recognized him to be restless.  The kind of person who can’t remain still for long.  As a scout, he has to, and he does.  His intense training allowed him the self control and endurance to do so.  However, it does mean that the built up energy needs to be used another way after his shifts are over.

“How about we spar after I finish this?” I suggest.

He perks up, “I’d like that.”

I make a show of thinking hard, “Or you could ask Shani if she’d be willing to do that instead.”

I don’t need to see his face to know he’s turning red as a beet, “How did you-“

“I have eyes, Mor, and I use them,” I flash him a smirk.  His gaze flits to the dark woman.  She and a couple others are huddled close together, and her hands move animatedly as she spins a tall tale.  She glances up.  I laugh when his eyes quickly snap back to me, trying to act as if he hadn’t been watching.

“Shut up,” he grumbles, half heartedly smacking my arm.

“I didn’t say anything,” I reply cheerfully.

He huffs and changes the subject, “How long do you reckon it’ll take before they give up?”

“Probably till last moment,” I shrug.  “They will if I know anything about the two people leading them anyways.  They’re not ones to give up easily.”

“Neither are you, I’ve noticed.”

I smirk, “No.  No, I’m not.  And I’m not gonna let them have a moment of peace for as long as they’re still advancing.”

“You’re enjoying this,” he shakes his head.

“Maybe just a little.”

“Sometimes I feel bad for them,” he jokes.  “I wouldn’t want to be on your bad side.”

“Good,” I wag a finger at him.  “You should be careful not to be.”

He rolls his eyes, “Mhm.”

“Now if you don’t want to be, I suggest going over there,” I give him a little push in the direction of Shani’s group, now laughing at someone’s joke, “and either join them, or ask her to spar with you.”

He splutters, “Wait-“

“That’s an order,” I push him again, hiding a smile behind a stern look.  “Go on.  Get going.”

Mor huffs, but then slowly walks over.  I let myself grin at the accomplishment, but as I finish passing out rations, it fades.  The prince and Tigress aren’t stupid, as much as I’d absolutely love to be able to accurately call one of them that.  Not stupid.  But determined and headstrong?

The truth is, it’s a fifty-fifty chance that they double back when supplies run too short.  The other option is they swoop on some helpless, yet unplundered village and stock up there.

There’s only so much a band of about fifty warriors can do to keep them away from one of those villages…

Liam

“I never knew that one person could be so aggravating.”  I smile ruefully as Tigress plops down by the fire, rubbing her eye.  “How does she keep managing to pull these things off?”

“Lots of practice and a death wish,” I shrug.  “I don’t know.”

“I’m serious, how have you managed to tolerate that?”

“I haven’t.”

Tigress sighs, letting her eye rest on the dancing flames, “How long has that been going on?”

I blink, glancing at her, “Uh…Five…six years?”

“How are you still sane?!”

I shrug, “I don’t know, but Ariel Winter is a menace, and I call her that with every ounce of frustration in my soul.”

Tigress shakes her head in disbelief, “I’m going to go take second watch…..”

I hold up a hand as she starts to stand, “Nope.  The last few nights you’ve been taking too many watches, and you’re not getting any sort of a decent amount of sleep.  There’s a reason the night watch rotates every hour instead of every two nights.  If you don’t get the sleep you need, you can’t fight as effectively.  It’s basic common sense.  So you are going to either go to sleep or help me figure out our next move.  No night watches for you tonight, and that’s an order.”

She glares at me, “Whatever happened to if you want something done right, do it yourself?”

“When I got some actually good captains,” I raise an eyebrow.  “Believe it or not, if they were doing a terrible job, I would be doing it for them until we could get back to Contra and have them relieved of duty.”

She snorts, “I can believe it.  Fine.  What have we got so far?”  She sits back down.  I pass her the map I was pouring over before she joined me, as well as the updated list of casualties and missing supplies.

“Captain Hakan had a medical tent erected so the more grievously injured can be better cared for.  It will hamper our progress though, and with every ambush the Rebellion gives us, they manage to make off with more of our supplies.”

Tigress frowns thoughtfully, “We could replenish those from Tsūro-gawa, Hoippu, or Ryakudatsu…We could also leave the wounded there to be cared for.  Better for them that they can remain in one place, and better for us that we can move faster without fear of causing them further harm.”

“Maybe…” I frown.  “But these are all smaller villages.  They don’t have the resources for us to restock without us taking everything they have.”

“And there’s no honor in that,” Tigress finishes, brow creasing.

I nod, “This is war…but there is a reason there’s a war in the first place.  We don’t need to push more of our subjects to join the Rebellion or we’ll never win.”

Tigress taps the paper for a moment, thinking.  “We could send our injured to the villages…that way they can get the best care and treatment possible under the conditions…and restock with only what they have to spare.  It’s not much, but it’s a start.”

“We can’t move everyone though.  It’ll take too long and take us too far off course.  Ariel may not attack the escorts of injured men, she’s not that cruel, but a small party attempting to bring back supplies?  She’s not gonna let all her raids go to waste.”

“I think we’ll have to take that chance,” Tigress sighs.  “We can send our quickest and best soldiers for it.  There’s a chance they’d be able to return before Ariel can catch them.  And if we send them to all three villages at once…”

“She’d either miss at least one of them, or she’d have to spread her forces thin enough that our side would stand a fighting chance,” I nod.  “That could work.”  Tigress smiles slightly.

I return it for a second, but clear my throat when something pokes my heart.  “I’ll talk to Hakan and Mehmet about it.  You need to go rest.”

She sighs heavily, but nods and goes to leave, “I’m only doing this because you’re the prince, and I unfortunately swore to serve you.”

“I know,” I smirk.  When she’s gone though, I feel it drop, and the relative silence doesn’t do much to curb the sense that my heart is being filled with lead.  I take a deep breath and plaster a neutral expression on my face before going in search of the captains.

Cearia

“Really, Demien, when you said you would send her into the field, I thought you meant something smaller.”

I pause a few feet away from my parents’ quarters.

“If you were so against the idea, why hadn’t you told me to stop?”

“Because you wouldn’t have listened.”

“How do you know that?”

A brief silence.

“Alright…I understand your point, just stop looking at me like that.”

Amusement laces my mother’s tone as she continues, “You’re too impatient.  Wars were never won by haste.  I thought you would have learned this long ago.”

“Yes, yes-  I just…This is a very dangerous game we’re playing, Blanca.”

“All the more reason to exercise caution,” she replies softly.  “I’m aware of the dangers, of the potential for this all to go terribly wrong, but it won’t if we play our cards right.  However, we cannot play our cards right if you continue to be rash.  Now, Liam and Tigress have been trying to take back land, but a decent sized party of rebels has been plaguing them.  They can’t continue on for long without needing to find ways to resupply themselves.  Now would be a good time to call them back.”

“Yes, yes…I’ll…” my father sighs heavily, “I’ll send out a messenger.  I just hope this plan of yours works.”

I quickly turn back the way I came, darting into a room just before someone comes out of theirs.  I frown into the darkness.  Lying to Tigress about her entire identity and forcing us and all the samurai and staff to do the same is already bad enough…

But now what are they trying to do?