An Axe in the Flames

Out of the Pan and into the Fire

The dim, soft gray light of the moon dappled the chipped stone walls of the prisoner chamber. A narrow slot cut into the stone in a nearby slab of rock with a barred metal door. The floors were the soft churned mud of damp dirt, finally breathing air. Draxx found a little comfort in how the wet ground conformed to his back, giving him the support his old body needed after the fall in the wagon. He stifled a groan as he adjusted and repositioned his leg, the deep cut still throbbing and swollen. Fresh with the rushed stitch job and lack of cleaning supplies...that would be an absolute bastard of a way to die, he thought, infection.

"Amery..." He called out, his harsh whisper echoing off the rock walls.

"Still here. I'm gonna live...maybe. I dunno, really? I'm not a doctor, but I do know that being stabbed by a spear isn't ideal. No matter how far it goes in." Came the weak but headstrong reply.

Draxx smiled to himself; the soldiers had worked quickly to triage and stop the bleeding for both of them. Draxx with his arm and leg, and Amery with his spear to the side. It had done damage, a clean pierce through the side, but it hadn't cut deep enough to reach an organ. After the stitches, they had both passed out and woken up in this damp, little cell. That was early morning when the temperature dropped, and snow fell in round, silent flakes, quickly piling up in front of their cell door and providing a wall of sorts from the wind. He had slept all day, through the snowfall, and into the night, only waking up from the hoot of a nearby owl.

"Have you seen the girls at all?" Draxx asked as he turned to his elbows and scooted closer to the bars.

There was a squishing sound from the cell next to him, and then Amery's voice was closer, "No, it's just you and me in this weird rock turned into a prison cell."

"Shit." Draxx said as his breath formed a fog that clung to his face.

"Shit is right. There's no telling what Minnow will do or what will happen if he sends word to Lucan."

Draxx rolled to his side and propped himself up with his elbow, "I never even wanted to leave Dry Lake, let alone help these girls. I wanted to fade away into the nothingness that becomes an old man. I just wanted the really cool axe you made me. I think they took it. I definitely want it back..."

Amery laughed then coughed, "It was a really cool axe... I ain't sorry you got drug into this, but I am sorry that we got caught. I ain't no fighter, Draxx. I broke my own damn nose with a rock just trying to distract the soldiers back in Dry Lake."

"What?!" Draxx exclaimed, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Yup, picked a rock up and tried to throw it. Instead, I hit the tree in front of me, and it bounced into my beautiful face."

Draxx bellowed a full belly laugh, "I wondered what happened to you!"

"Draxx?" Amery questioned.

"Yeah, buddy."

"Was that Commander's name really, Bitch Tits?"

The two laughed together, the sound bouncing from the stone walls in hollow echoes; it felt nice to forget their predicament momentarily and just laugh at each other. Just like they had done for the past few years every time they met to exchange tools and money. A quick escape from the reality that they had been living an everyday, monotonous life, and here they were now. Trying to take two little girls through a civil war and into the eye of the storm at the Emerald Castle, but being captured instead after winning a skirmish with the Flame Sect. Just their luck.

"Amery?" Draxx said, wiping tears from his eyes.

"Yeah?"

"I am sorry you got stabbed. I never meant to get anyone hurt; I just wanted to...I dunno..." Draxx said as his words trailed off.