We walked across the field with the scouting party. Julius held the reins to both our horses while I walked in the lead with Mitchell. I asked him questions about the state of things as we walked. He was reluctant to answer anything that pushed the boundary of Divisional operations, but I was persistent and got a few answers.

Julius made small talk with a few members in the scouting party. They seemed like good people. He even got a few of them to laugh.

We passed the earthwork checkpoint without any issues, the few men stationed there gave Julius and I odd looks but with Mitchell leading us on they went about their duties. Another hundred yards past the checkpoint and we came across another barricade, this one was much bigger and had large guard towers erected behind the walls.

As we neared the gates, a siren call rang out. The bustle of people running inside and the ‘thump’ of something heaving bracing against the wooden gate echoed through the open field.

A woman’s voice yelled out from atop one of the towers, "Halt! Identify yourselves!"

Mitchell let out a sigh and looked up towards the guard tower, "Hanna, it’s Luke. We’re back, and we need to see the Commander. We’ve got a situation."

"It’s patrol group seven, open the gate." she called down to somebody below. "I said open the gate! Now!"

Mitchell wasn’t kidding about them getting worried if they were late, this woman was absolutely flustered.

The gate swung open and we were met by twelve fully armed guardsmen. Hanna had come down from her post atop the tower, and was running towards Mitchell.

"Luke! I was worried when you didn’t come back on time—you’re an hour late! Are you hurt? What kind of situation? Who are these two? What happened out there?" she rattled off questions in rapid fire.

Mitchell’s hands were up in defense, "Woah, Hanna, slow down," he pointed at me, "This is Commander Airis Vanixi." He then pointed at Julius, "And this is her second-in-command, High Protector Julius Adaemus.

Hanna snapped to attention her arm raised to her chest in salute, the guardsmen behind her mimicking the actions.

"At ease everyone," I gave a salute back with an awkward smile, "No need for all the formalities right now. We really need to see your commander."

Mitchell continued, "We spotted them on our way back from patrol and followed them through the forest. We confronted them just before the clearing. I’m sorry for the delay."

Hanna looked at Mitchell, "Did you need one of us to escort them or are you and your party taking them?"

"Don’t worry about it, I’ll take them. I want to see the look on Hailey’s face when she finds out Commander Vanixi has risen from the dead." He flashed a smirk back to me, "She was the one who told us that you fell in battle after all."

The gate closed behind us and the guards went back to their posts. Hanna walked with us for a while, and once we were out of guard’s line of sight, she wrapped herself around Mitchell in a hug.

"You’re not allowed to be late again, I was worried something had happened to you, Luke." Her voice was muffled, her face buried in his chest.

"I said I was sorry," Mitchell patted Hanna’s head and hugged her back, "Now you gotta let me go Hanna, I really don’t think Commander Vanixi would like to wait any longer to see Hailey."

"Of course, I’m sorry for keeping you Commander. Please keep an eye on Luke for me. Don’t let him cause you any trouble with Hailey."

Hanna started back to the gate post. I looked at Mitchell with a raised eyebrow. The scouting party members all looked away and pretended they didn’t see anything.

His hands fidgeted and his eyes darted around.

"We… Uh, we’re all childhood friends. Hanna, the Commander, and I."

"Hey, I didn’t say anything." I laughed.

Divisional regulations didn’t lay out specific guidelines on professional conduct. Some officers made it a big deal if you called a superior officer by their first name, but it was mostly because they were nobles. The noble classes in Axio often got uppity and offended when ‘commoners’ addressed them by their first names.

"It's refreshing to be around people who aren’t so wrapped up in silly city etiquette."

Mitchell gave me a knowing smile and we followed the rest of the group that had walked up a small hill.

Reaching the top I saw the rest of the camp. A sea of canvas tents filled the large clearing. There were hundreds of people moving about their business.

This is insane, there are way more people here than I thought.

A few large tents were scattered about, Mitchell pointed them out as we walked towards the center; a Medical Bay, a Mess Hall, and a Blacksmith.

"There is an Artificer at the blacksmith, a Dwarven lass, goes by Dörien. She’s a very skilled craftsman. She was with some refugees that joined us when we fled Axio."

We passed by a makeshift stable on our way in and turned over our horses. I grabbed my pack and slung it over my shoulder. Julius grabbed his as well, but then must have decided against lugging around the heavy thing because he left it with the stable attendant.

Our group finally arrived at a large tent that was smack dab in the center of the camp. Noticeably, there were a few guards stationed around this tent. Mitchell stopped and talked with one of the guards near the entrance. He pointed at us and the guard’s eyes locked on to me. The guard gave a salute and Mitchell motioned for us to follow him in.

"They’re in a meeting right now. Apparently it has been going on for about three hours."

Mitchell flashed a hand signal and his party members dispersed as we entered the tent.

Inside there was a large crude timber table and a number of chairs and stools, all with occupants. A cherry-red haired woman sat at one end. She was silently glaring at the others seated at the table, who were arguing loudly over each other.

Should we try and get her attention somehow?

Julius ribbed his elbow into my side and whispered, "Want me to call her over for you?"

I let out a quiet squeak and moved to put myself behind him.

“N-No… We can wait for them to finish up.”

He glanced down at me and raised an eyebrow.

“What’s up with you?”

“Nothing is up with me!” I hissed back at him.

The meeting members were too engrossed in their yelling match to notice us. I tuned Julius out, before he could start to tease me, focusing on the meeting going on instead.

"There are barely enough rations to last another three weeks! We need to organize new hunting and foraging parties."

"Bah, rations are the least of our problems if we don’t get our hearths stocked with something heartier than these pines. We’ll freeze before starving to death."

"The medical bay is at capacity looking after the sick and wounded, we need to be mindful of work shifts to not over tax our population. People are stressed beyond their limits!"

"We don’t have enough raw iron to equip the initiates who have enlisted from the refugee pool. We have men and women whose duty armaments are made of wood."

"We don’t have the manpower or resources to form a survey team to look for ore deposits. We’ll just have to re-purpose some non-essentials, like cutlery, and make hardened spearheads."

And so continued the needs and gripes of a makeshift camp...

Hailey’s gaze drifted over our direction during a lull, her eyes moved right past me, hiding behind Julius in my rugged leather outfit and messy appearance, locking onto him. Her face twisted in puzzlement.

Julius’ gaudy officer's uniform screamed ‘look at me’ with its golden trim. Paired with the crimson red armor he was wearing now—he stuck out in a crowd.

Her eyes grew wide when she recognized him. Julius slowly and calmly pointed at me, her gaze followed.

Hailey let out a high-pitched squeal, nearly falling out of her seat.

The others gathered at the table all fell silent and stared at her, as she was now trying to squirm out of her seat.

She freed herself and yelled, "Meetings over!"

A few of the attendees tried to voice their disapproval of the abrupt end, but the dissenters were met with a death glare, “I said, the meeting is over.”

Nobody wasted any time shuffling out of the tent.

Hailey ran full speed into me, sending us both tumbling to the ground.

“Gaaah!”

I reached out to Julius in an attempt to stop my descent, but as I fell backwards a wicked grin spilled across his face.

We hit the earthen floor with a thud and I let out a pitiful groan.

Hailey’s exuberant smile and rosy-pink eyes filled my view. She grabbed my hands and exclaimed, "You’re not dead! You survived! And you’re here!"

I stared up at her as she continued rambling. After the excitement for my miraculous return faded enough for her to regain some composure; she turned her attention to Julius. She began a rapid fire beratement session, blaming him for letting me be captured.

Her arms flailed as she cursed up a storm. I was still pinned to the ground and was starting to get my senses back.

Hailey was straddling me at my waist, jostling around wildly while arguing with Julius. Overtaken with embarrassment I closed my eyes and tried not to make any noise.

Nnnnnngh!

“Hey, Airis. Why’s your face look like that?”

My eyes popped open and Julius was peering down at me.

Hailey had stopped squirming around and was looming over me as well. “Are you okay? You look really red—You’re not getting sick are you!?”

“N-no! It's not that, it’s—nevermind! Just let me up!”

She hurried off of me and Julius reached out a hand. I glared at him with narrowed eyes. I swatted it out of the way and scrambled up on my feet by myself.

“Is your face stuck in that weird look now or something?” He turned to Hailey, “I think you might have broken her with that tackle.”

“My face isn’t broken, Julius!”

I huffed and stomped away from him.

Hailey followed after me and jumped ahead of me. A great big smile was spread across her face.

“I really am happy to see you.”

She took a step back and looked me over. "But, Commander, you’re out of uniform." She teased. She placed her arms on her hips and her smile turned to a smirk, "That is so unlike you."

"Well, you see," I raised my arms in playful defense, "the guards down at the prison didn’t give me a chance to change before we left Axio. Also, the service there was terrible. I wanted to leave a review but Julius was adamant that we left in a hurry."

She paused to take in my excuse and started giggling, "I guess I’ll accept that as an answer."

She let herself laugh for a moment, but then let her arms fall, "I am so glad you’re safe. I thought you were dead!"

"Yeah, I heard that. From your man over there actually." I pointed to Mitchell, who was now slowly backing out of the tent, "It made for a rather tense first impression."

Hailey peaked around me, "Oh, Luke! I didn’t even see you were here. You found Airis on your patrol? That certainly is lucky."