I Am Not Cinderella

Chapter 44

The Nu'lu had been destroyed.  The battlefield was littered with their dead corpses.  Scattered amongst the Nu'lu were those that Barrie recognized.  They wore the red uniforms that signified Barrie's house.  The only difference between her armies uniforms and her father's was that her insignia was a phoenix while her father's was an eagle wearing a crown. 

Barrie walked through the battlefield tending to the wounded.  She had given orders not to kill the wounded Nu'lu.  The Nu'lu were going to be treated till they were well enough to travel.  Each would be given no quarter.  If they tried to attack then they would be instantly killed.  Barrie had already sent two of the least injured Nu'lu back to her father.  The rest would be released to go home. 

Barrie wiggled her toes and grimaced as she felt the blood that was soaking through her boots.  A look down at her clothes revealed that they were a dark blood red where once before they had been a light red.  Barrie frowned as she looked at her clothes.  A thought occurred to her.  She'd always hated the light red of her father's crest and know that she saw how dark the blood had stained her clothes, she decided right then and there to make her color a deep blood red.  Barrie filed that thought in the back of her mind to think about later.

"Help me!"

Barrie turned towards the sound of the voice.  She searched the dead till she found the young Nu'lu warrior who had an arrow sticking through his shoulder.  The man's eyes widened as Barrie squatted down beside him.  She eyed the arrow in his shoulder before she dropped to her knees.  She dug in a pouch at her side and pulled out a short piece of leather wrapped wood. 

"Bite on this while I remove the arrow from your shoulder."

The Nu'lu warrior's eyes were wary.  "Why should I trust you?"

"If I had wanted you dead," Barrie said as she held the leather wrapped piece of wood in front of his mouth.  "You'd already be dead."

The young man looked at her with his black eyes before he opened his mouth.  Barrie stuck the wood piece of wood in his mouth.  He bit down and pulled his lips back so she could see his strong white teeth.  Barrie shook her head as she braced her left hand on his chest and wrapped her hand around the arrow that was embedded  deep within his shoulder.

"This is going to hurt.  Our arrows are made to inflict major damage.  It's in too deep to cut out so I'm going to push it out the back.  After that, I need you to lay very still so that I can stop the bleeding.  Understand."

The Nu'lu nodded and closed his eyes.  Barrie took a deep breath before she began to push the arrow through his shoulder.  The Nu'lu bite down hard on the wood and let out a muffled scream of pain.  Sweat trickled down Barrie's face as she worked on pushing the arrow out of the man's shoulder.  She winced in pain and her own shoulder ached in sympathetic pain.  Finally the arrow came out the other side. 

"The arrow's out, but I need you to roll over to the right so that I can pull the arrow the rest of the way out."

The man rolled over so Barrie could finish.  Barrie broke off the feathered end of the arrow and easily pulled the arrow out of the man's shoulder.  Footsteps sounded behind her and then Claude dropped down beside her.  Barrie gave him a relieved smile as she saw the bandages in Claude's hands.  Barrie and Claude worked in silence as they patched the Nu'lu up. 

"You can roll back over now," Barrie said and helped the man roll onto his back.

"We need to move him."

Barrie looked over her shoulder and to judge the distance to where they needed to go.  All of the wounded were being moved from the battlefield.  Women and children were tending to the wounded that were being brought in while the older boys were busy helping to dig graves. 

Barrie looked back at Claude.  "I can help you move him."

Claude nodded as he leaned over and spoke to the young man.  "We are going to move you away from the battlefield.  It'll be painful, but it's something that needs to be done.  Do you understand?"

The young man spit out the leather wrapped wood that know bore his teeth marks.  "I understand," he said in a weak and pain filled voice.

"Come on Princess."

Barrie helped Claude haul the man to his feet.  She put the man's arm over her shoulder as they made their way slowly through the battlefield.  After many long and painful minutes they reached the makeshift hospital.  Barrie and Claude handed the Nu'lu over to several of the women that were busy running around tending to the injured.

Barrie wiped an arm across her forehead.  Claude clapped her on the shoulder.  Barrie gave him a weak smile.  With a sigh Barrie turned and headed back to the battlefield.  A young boy was struggling to move the body of a dead Nu'lu into the shallow grave he'd dug.  Barrie grabbed the corpse by the legs and helped toss the body into the grave.  The boy gave her a smile before he started to shovel dirt onto the body.  Barrie moved on to the next body.  She spent the rest of the day helping to bury the dead and there were a lot of dead to bury.