Chapter 5

It’s early in the afternoon when the Legion begins the march; everyone is much more cheery than usual after all we were going back to civilization. Some of these soldiers have been serving for at least 20 years now, our General Vaxides has been serving for 50 years straight. The smiles on everyone’s faces are clearly evident despite the terrible Northland cold, the Centurions even allowed loose marching formations. So Cohorts were allowed to mix ranks, with that I marched with Lurti and Varkii. I noticed throughout the march Lurti constantly smelt the blue strap in his wrist while Varkii and I talk about our plans to start our own business. Varkii was thinking of making deals with butcher shops at the tower levels in Capua where wild game was pretty much scarce. “We’ll be rich Pup! Imagine all those pompous senators and nobles paying us freshly mint gold for their cravings for wild game!” He said.

Lurti was largely absent from our plans since we both knew he would look to continue his apprenticeship as an alchemist at the Schola Academia of Capua. After future mercantile endeavours I begin to talk about moving out of the docks and start living in the apartments near the gates so I’d be able to be able to be near the woods. “Moving out of the docks? Away from Lurti and I?” “That’s my plan.” “But how about, watching over us?” I look at Lurti and see the worry in his eyes, it’s been years since he lost himself to the trappings of drink. I tap him on his shoulder and reassure things will be alright.

Varkii is really the brother I’m closest, since it he actually thanked me for the twelve hours a day I spent at the butcher’s shop carving up meat and cleaning blood to pay for all his drunken brawls. But Lurti and I had a good level of animosity, he was deadly critical at every tiny mistake I’d make even though I was the one who took care of his worthless womanizing ass for two years. I even protected him from four men and spent a day in the jail cell for using a knife at them. But the guard’s released me after confirming I was only protecting Lurti and myself. They were also a bit lenient since a lot of them knew me from the butcher’s shop. After that event Lurti didn’t even change a bit, he stole another girl the following week and got beaten and bruised in a dark alley once more. Eventually I got tired of it and just stopped buying him medicine or even bringing him to the doctors. So he left his wounds untreated –due to his strange sense of pride- and rendering them infected. I’d hear him groaning at night because of the pain and at that time and I didn’t even lose any sleep over it, after all he knew how to clean his damn scars after all. That’s when he slowly started acting like the older brother he should’ve been. He started being serious with his alchemist studies at the Schola Academia and began consistently courting just one girl, Aquilia. He never really thanked me for watching his foolish back, perhaps it was his older brother’s pride. But deep down inside I knew that I didn’t really care, after all they are my brothers and brothers should always watch each other’s backs.

While talking with Varkii a cavalry scout rides beside us and calls his name. The rider had a bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to her back; her hood was removed showing her bright red hair and burn scars on her forehead. Her name was Salii, Varkii’s “ best friend” as he calls it. Varkii immediately stops talking to me and quickly heads towards her, when the two meet they don’t kiss or hug but they just greet each other while staring at the other’s eyes like two neglected puppies. Lurti, myself and several of our friends at the cohort begin to laugh and tease Varkii but he simply ignores us as the two walk side by side.

Varkii and Salii have known each other since Capua but he claims they’re only friends. I knew better of course, since it was I who would pay for their bail whenever the two were arrested for being violent drunks.

“I know that look Molag. You’re thinking about that girl in the butcher shop aren’t you?” Lurti says.

“What? You mean Miranda? I barely knew that girl”

“Yeah right I caught you 2 talking to each other 3 hours after you closed the shop.”

“So what? She’s fun to talk to” “Oh she’s fun to talk to” He says that while imitating my voice. I tell him to shut up which he doesn’t do and keeps teasing me about it for at least a minute. Eventually when he stops teasing me he starts talking about Aquilia his “immortal love” which I have always found ridiculous after all the womanizing he’s done. He slaps the back of my head but I block his hand and hit him back, we both laugh and have a small play fight. And for that tiny moment we felt like brothers back home in Capua.

3

After hours of marching we finally see black smoke rising from the distance. As we draw closer I see the towering smoke stacks and the gigantic Upper City platforms of Iasi. The site of it causes the whole Legion to cheer. We near the city and see the outer fences of the encampments of other Legions who cheer at us as we pass by. The other Legion’s soldiers run by us and start greeting us by either shaking hands or even hugging us. I look at their banners and see the Black Bear Legion and the Silver Spears, the Capua Legions stationed here in Iasi and we the Bright Tigers Legion are the third and last to return from the war, and it seems all of the three Capuan Legions have survived the war. I search my feelings if I still possessed a tinge of that uncertain fear left inside me but I can’t find it, the sight of cheering fellow soldiers and the reassurance that the war has ended is just a way too happy sight. I let the mood of the crowd affect me instead as I join in their cheering.

3

Finally we reach the Fortress of Iasi and find large tents already set up for us, I look for my squad’s tent and find myself greeted by the rather warm sight of soft beds and the concept of personal space. A fresh change of lodging from the wet grass and sleeping blankets that we would have to suffice with back at the battlefield. I immediately find myself a bed, unpack everything and begin to remove my armor. As I get to removing my red uniform tunic a sharp pain immediately flows through my skin, like hot water being poured in a fresh wound. When I finally get fully everything I see where the pain was coming from, my grey undershirt was covered in dry blood from all the past wounds. Every time I’d get wounded the medics rarely had to remove my armor to heal me so when the blood would dry up it would stick any exposed wounds to the shirt or armor. I remove my shirt inspecting the holes and blood stains and suddenly a realization hits me, I’ve never changed my shirt or removed my armor for the past two months.

I find a mirror and inspect my back. It’s filled with wet rashes and dried scabs; my waist is covered entirely by red bandages which dried into the wounds. My rib cages are riddled with scars from shrapnel blasts and at my belly are dozens of stitches. I touch each and every wound and remember how I got them. I feel a scar in my waist and remember the sting of the Persian blade when it cut me. I feel the stitches in my belly and begin to flashback to my 2^nd year in combat, when I dodged the lance of a Persian Knight. I was able to sidestep just enough for it to miss anything vital but the lance still grazed my belly. The medicae said if the lance hit the right spot it would’ve ripped the rest of my skin off. Suddenly a stinging pain hits my right arm; I remember that I haven’t removed the bandage yet. As I peel it off I see at least 20 stitches covering the entire arm. I also remove the bandage covering my burned leg; the scars were already healed but still stung a bit. “My last wounds” I say to myself as I pull the drapes around my bed then lie down and fall asleep.