A Distant Voice

Three days and three nights march by without any movement from the two forces. The allied forces know, however, that any more time wasted will increase the peril that the enemy has on the Capital. They must act swiftly and decisively. They must reinforce the Capital and the cities, regions, and provinces surrounding it.

It is at that day that General de la Falaise decides on a tactic to break the enemy blockade. As soon as the sun on the fourth day defies the horizon, all of the fortress gates open and the soldiers in them cascadingly pours out like a great torrential river. Gianni prepares as much medicine and bandages as he can to treat wounded soldiers. He marches along with the first unit, making an encampment a distance away from the fortress along with Franz, and other physicians.

"We will divert the enemies' attention," the general speaks inside the war meeting on the night before the attack. "The first and second units shall engage the enemy first. During that moment, the third and fourth units will join in the confusion. The first unit are the soldiers in this fortress. The second unit is the fortress next to us. The third and fourth are the two nearest this point."

The forces from their fortress and the fortress nearest to them attacks the enemy first. Knights from other fortresses join in the fight. The Essenian army defends as hard as they can. Not expecting an early morning assault, some of them panic and flee, while others fight hard.

Casualties begin to pile up. Wounded allied soldiers retreat back to the infirmary camp that Gianni and the other physicians set up. They receive first aid treatment as soon as they arrive. Some, however, were already lost cases. First aid could not save them.

The snow on the ground becomes crimson after the blood waters them. The shrieks and screams of struggle overpowers the sound of the chilly winter wind. The slaughter, the horror fills the entire ambiance. Even the sky turns dark and gloomy as the dead piles up.

"The fifth and sixth units will attack the camp after the retreat of the first and second units. During the attack, the first unit will head north and flee. They will use the northern road and take a detour to the capital," the general continues stating her plans.

With the third and the fourth units, the last two units charges. They begin burning the enemy encampments. The tide of battle burns to their favor with their preemptive strike. Soon the sky drenches with burning black. The entire blockade becomes a revolting painting of pain and suffering. The first unit finally flees amid the struggle.

Reinforcements from the faraway fortresses eventually arrive and join in the battle. However, he burning camp drenches and douses with the blood of the alliance soldiers. The flames could not burn as the Essenians finally muster up a counterattack. Their forces rally behind their general, who effectively uses their larger numbers to their advantage.

The alliance army can no longer fight and hope for victory. The general sounds the retreat and they all return to their fortresses. They reoccupy the fortresses of the units who were able to take the northern road. As the sun starts to descend, the fight shifts to the infirmaries.

The infirmary room packs with the wounded and the dead inside the fortress. It is high afternoon, right after the battle. The room resonates with the screams and cries of the wounded knights. The air smells of blood and hostility. The black and unsanitary stone cut floor paints with red and crimson.

Besides Franz, there are two other physicians with Gianni in the fort. They have to tend to hundreds of soldiers. Gianni grabs his aprons, and the bandages, rushing to the nearest injured knight. The knight has an arrow stuck in his left shoulder. Gianni inspects the lodged arrowhead and notices that it is quite superficial. He pulls it off and applies pressure on the bleeding wound. He cleans the area around the wound and applies ointments on the wound to clean it. He applies bandages and stops the bleeding.

He rushes to his second patient, who has a stab wound on his abdomen. Gianni stops the bleeding as much as he can, applying pressure on the area as hard as he could. He cleans the area around the wound and attempts to open the wound to check how deep the wound is. The knight is losing so much blood. Gianni knows that he has to do what he must do. He opens the patient and seals the internal bleeding using sterile threads. The knight shouts and screams in pain, as he does the procedure. He acts swiftly, closing and dressing the wound saving the patient.

His third patient has multiple small open wounds. He cleans them and seals them all. His fourth patients is similar as his first, but the arrow is lodged in his right leg. It is a deep lodge. If he pulls it, blood would violently gush out. If he does not, the wound would be at risk of infection. Gianni is in a dilemma on what to do. He cuts the arrow and leaves the lodged arrowhead on the site. He cleans the areas around the wound and on the wound itself. Eventually, he pulls the entire arrowhead and stops the bleeding using a lot of bandages.

The fifth patient has a large open slash on his leg. Gianni pours a lot of liquor around the wound to clean it. He checks if there is anything inside the open wound. He then sutures it, and dresses it.

Continuously, Gianni and the other physicians continue this series of tending to the wounded until night strikes. On Gianni's seventeenth patient, fatigue starts to sap his strength. His vision becomes blurry and his hand starts to tremble. He begins to hyperventilate and his knees start to weaken. He is about to collapse, when a hand saves him. The hand is warm and comforting.

"We're almost there, keep holding on." Gianni turns and finds Franz. "Keep holding on, all of this will end. I'll be here to help you."

Franz's voice gives Gianni his strength back. He returns to his hyper-focused state. He finishes treating most of the knights. He does not lose a single patient. He is swift and precise in his operations. But the casualties in the war is piling up.

After they finish tending to all the wounded, Gianni falls asleep on the spot. He finally makes it. He sleeps soundly and with satisfaction. Franz sees him, and carries him to bed. He removes his bloody apron. He pulls the flannel blanket up to his neck, making sure that he does not feel cold. The fight is a lot to handle, but it is still the beginning of something that will end in more bloodshed.

After days of battles and skirmishes, General de la Falaise decides that the blockade must be destroyed once and for all. Four units will not be enough to fend of a fight from another front, thus they must break through and join with them. Their body count is also piling up so did their enemies.

Gianni and the physicians holds out as much as they can. They work all around the clock mending knights and taking care of them back to health. But their strength is now failing and they have to take a break from all the fighting.

At late afternoon, the general goes out of the fortress and summons the remnants of the alliance army. Numbering up to more than twenty-thousand, they are greatly outnumbered against the enemy's twenty-six thousand.

They begin marching from the fortresses assuming a wing formation. The cavalry leads the company, next to them are the footsoldiers, and at the rear are the archers. Gianni rides behind the archers, he along with Franz and the two physicians establish a small infirmary camp a distance away from the army.

The thick snow makes it hard for them to march. Even the horses are reluctant to make a single step. When they come close enough, the general stops the entire army. He blows a horn which signals the archers to fire burning arrows at the enemies.

Volleying burning arrows from a great distance, the alliance army set the enemy camp on fire again. Though the Essenian army are prepared for the attack, they are preoccupied by putting out the flames in their encampments.

"Charge," General de la Falaise shouts as she charges towards the enemy lines. The entire alliance follows her. They begin making their way inside the camp, slashing and attacking any Essenian knight they see. The cavaliers pushes on until the end of the camp, the footsoldiers deal as much damage as they can to the camps. The archers support both battalions.

The Gallian-Inglateran alliance eventually overwhelm the Essenians. From an army of twenty-six thousand, the alliance decimates the Essenian army to a third of their original force. The tides of the entire war begin to shift. The alliance army breaks through the entire blockade. Nothing stands in the way anymore. They can defend the Capital and secure the entire region.

The once fortified encampment of the proud Essenians, now turn to ash under the hooves and boots of the alliance. Corpses lay still on the freezing crimson. The sky and the ground paints with the color of crimson, and the air becomes putrid with the smell of death.

As the battle ends, Gianni and the physicians ride past the enemy encampments, where the alliance army, now reduced to twelve thousand is. While on their way they stumble upon a sea of corpses. Gianni could not help but shed a tear for the fallen both ally and enemy.

"Is this what we end up doing just because of a piece of land?" Gianni laments and contemplates hard, while his tears slowly stream from his eyes. "Is there no hope for peace in this long and bitter conflict?"

As they arrive past the ashes of the enemy camp, the battle again shifts from the sword to the infirmaries. As the physicians once more fight to save the lives of the injured and the wounded. In front of them, an open road which leads to the Capital waits.

As Gianni and the other physicians arrive at the scene, they mend the soldiers immediately. Because physicians from other fortresses join them, they are a bit faster in rendering care and service. But a handful of people healing thousands of injured men is still a challenge.

As they are on the fiend, things get easier but bloodier. They cannot provide the care that they can at the fortresses because of the lack of supplies and equipment. There are not enough tonics for sanitation and wound cleaning. On injuries in feet or in hand, they decide to amputate them to prevent further infection. As they are in the middle of a cold meadow wasteland, it is their last resort.

As the physicians are treating the soldiers, the general does not waste any moment and marches back to the Capital. The order interrupts the physicians in their treatment procedures. They resort to carts and continue their procedures.

Gianni is all alone in a cart. He just finishes dressing the wound of his last patient. An emergency happens and the next patients rushes to him. He has a great cut on his left leg and arm. And he is losing too much blood. Suddenly, he feels lightheaded and loses his balance. Once again, a hand keeps his balance.

"You should take a rest, I'll take care of things." Franz comes to his rescue once more. He grabs the last of the sanitation tonics and pours them on the wounds. He sutures the cuts, doing Gianni's work for him. "Don't push yourself to hard, little bird. You can flex your wings, but it is fine to let others do the work. You can be the best, but you still need help, right?"

Those words pinch Gianni's heart. He smiles and blushes a bit.