To Love, Once Again

Chapter 40

"He has a high fever. It hasn't broken for 5 days, and this is the 5th. If it doesn't break today..."

A little boy, who looked to be around 9-11 years old, was laying on a grass mat, body soaked with sweat.

Outside the tent where he lay, sheep bleated and horses neighed, punctuated by the squalling calls of babies crying as their exhausted mothers rocked them to a dry chest, their bodies unable to provide the milk to nourish them.

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Sera had been surprised when Lois rushed her to the cart parked in the back of the castle, near the servant's quarters, and set her mule to trod over what looked like a animal trail leading deeper into the forest beyond the Keep.

"Child, what you're about to see, I need to ask you to to keep it to yourself."

Lois stares ahead as they pass by tightly knit trees.

"I need you to trust me, so please, don't be surprised with what you're about to see"

Her age-spotted hands pat Sera's on the roughly hewn bench of the cart.

Sera could feel the question marks popping into her head. The cart trundled along as Lois clicks her tongue at her mule, doing her best to speed up the animal's steady pace.

Soon, the smell fire and cooking meat permeated the air, and Sera was shocked to see the sight before her.

Her fight-or-flight instincts kicked in.

That's an Azark tent! This was enemy territory!

Jumping off the cart while it's still rolling forward, Sera moves away from Lois.

Had Lois betrayed her!? What was the motive of Lois bringing her here?!!

Her rib twinges with the sudden movements. Sera puts a hand on the side of her chest, trying to stay calm, as she backs away, eyes roving about wildly for any Azark soldiers in their blue uniforms hiding in the forest around them.

Pointing a finger to the distinct round colorful Azark tents that ringed a large campfire "Lois, don't you know who those tents belong to!"

Lois stops the cart, the wood creaking as she carefully makes her way off it.

She sighs. "I asked you to trust me." Lois folds the finger Sera has pointed at the tents, and taps her on the shoulder.

"Look closely"

Squinting her eyes at the campground, which was hard to see with the thick foliage that obstructed most of the sunlight and smoke from the fire, she noticed small children, grubby and thin, running amongst the tents. Animals brayed and called to each other, making the neat military tents Sera had seen so far off on the battlefield adopt a domestic air.

Taking her hand, Lois brings Sera forward.

"We haven't got much time. I'll explain as we treat the boy."

Yes, there was that boy with a high fever Lois had told her about on the way to this place in the castle.

Lois lets Sera's hand go and marches forward, barking out a greeting in the harsh Azark language.

Sera decided to trust Lois. It was a hard decision to make, when she herself had personally seen all the destruction the Azarks had wrought upon the people of Thornmere. But Lois was a good woman. Everything action she made had a clear purpose and motive, and besides, Sera couldn't imagine kind Lois was a traitor.

Drawing closer, the tents weren't as brightly colored as they'd appeared. The colors were muted and faded, with rips and spots of mud here and there. The mud was all over the children too, who didn't seem to mind as their pale skin and blond hair, trademarks of an Azark, was covered with dirt. From the way their faces and hands seemed to be wiped clean, there was obviously a mother that cared for them, but was unable to keep up with the copious amounts of mud and animal feces that littered the small clearing.