Chapter 6

"Um, Avizasi, the troops are waiting for your orders." Count Azifirat came in just as Avizasi pounced at Gerrod who was already out of the way.

She was sweating and Gerrod was smirking.

'As if an amateur at CQC would be able to catch me once I'm standing.' He thought arrogantly.

'This bastard dares go against me after I saved him?!' She thought mercilessly, "I'll castrate you-"

"General Ci Shoka!" Count Azifirat yelled slamming his crutch into the hard earth.

"...Yes." She flipped her hair back and straightened out her clothing, "I will address the troops."

Gerrod rolled his eyes and followed beside her, 'I'm still verily unaware of everything so... I'll ignore what she just said and stick around just a bit longer.'

Count Azifirat came to her other side.

Soon they arrived at the head of the army.

Count Azifirat took one step further forward and spoke deeply, "You're Queen has arrived to give her words!"

He took a step back.

"Warriors of Shokan! Elites of the Plains! Guardians of the Fields! We, the Ci Shoka family declare this a victory! Tenli will fall!" Avizasi didn't step forward but instead spoke where she stood forcing people to shift around if they wanted to catch sight of her.

At this point, Gerrod realized that while many were kneeling, not all were.

He realized that the prisoners were here too.

Immediately upon realizing that they weren't kneeling he released his nightmarish aura. Combined with his vicious glare many of the prisoners instantly crumbled.

However, not all of them did. For men with nothing left to lose do not feel fear even against a power far above their own.

He smiled. Avizasi caught his smile and replicated it.

"Men of the mountains! Forge of the North! Guardians of the mines! We, the Shokan Kingdom have destroyed your armies. We have taken the head of your King! You have all seen it laying upon my palisade! But we have no intention of destroying you. Join us! We will treat you fairly! We will feed you! We will defend you!" Avizasi smiled triumphantly but the prisoners did not.

Some came around quickly but most were lifeless like dolls.

The soldiers cheered stirred on by the Royal Cards.

Today was a day for the celebration of a decisive victory. But no one felt like celebrating. Too many had been lost to truly be able to celebrate.

---

"The impregnable menace in the mountains still remains. They will not be conquered so easily. This invasion is simply a precursor to something much worse." Count Azifirat said calmly in the strategy tent, "It's likely that someone else has a hand in this, not to mention the Independence Faction will now be coming for us in open rebellion."

"The Tenli won't be an issue." Avizasi said calmly. She looked over to Gerrod, "We will send an envoy to offer them our terms."

Gerrod's eyes widened, "Absolutely-"

"No! I refuse! That man is inept! He'd sooner spark an even worse war with those eyes of his!" Count Azifirat shouted slamming a hand on the map table, "He cannot be our envoy!"

Gerrod felt his blood pressure rising and glared at Count Azifirat which promptly forced him to stop moving, through grit teeth Gerrod spoke, "I'll do it. I'll get them to surrender."

"You just need to deliver the terms-" Avizasi said calmly.

"I will get them to surrender." He said again more fiercely this time, "If I can't make them surrender than my middle name isn't Thom."

"Why? Why do you want to make them surrender so bad?" Count Azifirat leaned back staring at him suspiciously, "Do you want power that badly?"

Gerrod stiffly shook his head a vengeful fire burning through his veins, "They had children."

"What?"

"They had children for soldiers." He repeated coldly, "I will not stand back when children are being abused like that. It harms me to even breath knowing that I can do something, but am not."

"Still-"

"It burns."

Count Azifirat stopped arguing and instead looked to Avizasi.

She nodded and he smiled but just as he was about to speak, "Gerrod T. Dradir, if you can get them to surrender by the end of the year in three month's, I will grant you lands."

"I don't want lands." He replied coldly, "A house with a big courtyard would do fine."

She smiled deeply, "I knew I picked the right choice in sparing you, though you do know, I won't be able to spare you any special resources, correct?"

He nodded, "I just need access to the granary and I will have the Tenli in the palm of my hand."

"Wait-"

"Granted." Avizasi laughed.

Gerrod went back to silence.

Count Azifirat felt his bowls churning.

"Are we finally going to begin assassinating the Independence faction heads?" Count Azifirat said wistfully, he'd been saying they should for two years since the previous king died.

Avizasi nodded, "It's time to cleanse these lands, but first, we move to clear the remnants of the Tenli warriors in our lands, Gerrod, you are being given the status of Royal Hand, now go to your task."

Gerrod rolled his eyes, "Just make sure I'm not the right hand."

She stared at him with a weird gaze.

Count Azifirat felt his bows churn again.

And Gerrod? He laughed the whole way to the prisoner's pen.

Standing in front of the hundreds of prisoners he saw that a large number of them were children, he felt it right to exercise his new authority.

"Children will be returned to their families, if they don't have families or don't wish to return to their families, I will take you in." Gerrod caught the attention of the majority of the prisoners in a single line before speaking the latter half, "Adults will be treated fairly as prisoners of war and given food as well as shelter. I will say this however, Tenli will fall, either to Shokan or to Daray or Maali, but it will fall, so I will also be willing to recruit those who wish to make sure when it falls, it does so into the hands of one who truly cares about it."

Many of the adults who still had some life left in them looked up whilst most didn't care. Not even taking the time to shift their eyes.

Gerrod slowly shook his head and then, with a fearsome sound of the earth tearing he released his aura.

The prisoners, adult and child, full of hope and lifeless, all of them felt fear.

"Know this, if you choose to come under me, I will make you strong, I will make you elite, and I will make sure none of you can escape once your apart of my unit, not until the new year, deserters will be killed on sight." His words shook the men and those who wished to join him previously no longer did.

He sighed internally, 'Weeding out the weak-willed, and lifeless is a daunting process for righteous people but, for people like me, it's just a word away.'

"Raise your hand if you wish to come under me." Immediately twenty people raised their hands, all of them children fourteen or fifteen years old.

'No adults huh.' He sighed again, 'I'm gonna grow old at this rate.'

"Come with me." He said lightly, "If you try and escape I won't chase you."

Immediately several gazes in the prisoner pens lit up and others tried to come and follow but Gerrod beat them back and closed the pen, "If you can't weather the storm then don't go outside."

The children who had followed him outside didn't react much to his words, their eyes showed resolve and that's what he cared about.

Out of the three hundred and some prisoners, only twenty rose to the occasion.

'A tragedy of human resources.' He left for the supply unit of the army.

Once there he spoke coldly, "Each of you is to take as much food as you can carry, eat as much as you can eat. Once you've done that, follow me northward."

The children immediately moved for the food. They were not going to pass up this chance to eat after who knows how long starving.

They ravenously lunged at the food.

Once outside of the view of the camp he transformed and took off at full sprint. In wolf form he was several times faster than human form and had a lot more stamina making the run easy and fast.

Once at the camp he saw that there were very few soldiers within, most of which were starving and dying.

He transformed and walked forward leisurely.

The soldiers immediately perked up but not by much. They could hardly move the emaciation was so bad.

'Conquering these people before the new year? They'll have wiped themselves out by the end of the week.' Gerrod felt a pang in his heart, 'What a vicious little girl to starve out an entire nation, she must have known they'd attack in desperation and was prepared which was why against such overwhelming numbers she still pulled the rug out from under them.'

'Am I on the right side of history?' He slowly shook his head, 'Since when has that mattered to me? Just don't hurt children and don't kill for no reason, that's all I care about regardless of where I stand.'

Gerrod walked over to the nearest dying man and helped him stand, "You're going to be okay, my men are bringing food over from Shokan."

The dying man glanced over sluggishly, his skin had become ragged and dry due to his malnourishment.

His lips chapped and voice rough he asked, "Who-are-yo-u-."

He struggled to pronounce each letter making the words harder to understand by sound alone.

But Gerrod understood. He'd once been starving too. He'd once been desperate.

"I am Gerrod Thom Dradir, Queen Ci Shoka's friend." He saw as the look in the dying mans eyes changed from thankfulness to hatred in a single breath.

Even with how weak he was, the man tried to push himself off Gerrod, "Queen-friend?-Bastard-my-fami..ly..."

His hatred came out pure as a diamonds shine. He truly hated her guts and Gerrod could not fault him.

'How many must have died from starvation due to her decision? How many must have suffered?' He thought sluggishly, 'Damn it, what would Thom do? How should I react to this?'

"Stand up and Live." Gerrod muttered.

The dying man looked at him incredulously, "How-dare-you-after-taking-it-all-!"

Gerrod let the man down gently. He turned and looked at the other's around him, "I lost a brother, you know?"

"I-" The dying man coughed.

"I never had a family to lose." Gerrod knew what he wanted to say and his eyes went cold, "You had a family and lost it to war. I can't understand how you feel since I never had a family. But I had a friend who became a brother. My only reason to live. And now he's dead and I find myself in an unfamiliar land. With unfamiliar people and customs."

"You ...didn't you say you were the queen's friend?" A more able man coughed from the side. His look said that he didn't believe him.

Then Gerrod turned to him and the man's eyes widened in shock. Tears of blood were flowing from his eyes.

"He died for me. I watched him die. I couldn't even hold him as he left this world. I don't know what he wanted for me. But what I know is this. As he fell not a tear ran from his eyes. Not a frown crossed his face. He wanted me to live. He told me to 'Stand up and Live' and I'll be damned if I fail him." Gerrod straightened his back and set his resolve, "I live for him. The life he couldn't have. Despite not wanting to breathe I continue to do so. Despite desperately wanting to see him again. The question is... how will you honor your loved ones? Will you die here or live and make them proud?"

"Then what should we do with this rage?!" He shouted. A fire was lit underneath the other soldiers as they began shouting their grievances. Be it through torn vocal cords or insurmountable pain they shouted. They cried tears of water they didn't know they had.

Gerrod looked to the sky and thought the words he couldn't say, 'I wish I knew.'