Untitled

It had been devastating from the start.

The group of Wanderers had been small and wiry but no less fierce, and Queen Amelyn had vastly underestimated them. She wished she could say it was her mistake alone to bear, but her soldiers had retreated back to camp with the consequences bleeding freely into their fur. She had watched them limp into their dens and crumple to the dirt in exhaustion and pain, and maybe devastation. Their Physician Orion has rushed to treat the worst of them, with equal parts grief and urgency, the knowledge weighing on his shoulders that not all of them would heal. Queen Amelyn shook her head, and with sorrow and regret weighing heavy, she pushed out of her den and faced the scene.

As she surveyed the extent of the damage done by her own foolishness, Scorpius pushed his way over on shaking legs, his fur matted with the blood of his housemates. "I'm sorry." He breathed, as if this loss was his fault instead of her own. "There was too much damage, we had to retreat. We had to." 

Queen Amelyn bowed her head -- she already knew. She'd had to turn her head from a couple of her cats, their injuries too gruesome and her regret too heavy for her to stomach. Still, she raised her gaze and forced her voice steady. "Are there any casualties?" She asked, her voice betraying her and cracking on the last word.

Scorpius hung his head. "There are three missing."

Queen Amelyn furrowed her eyes. "Missing?"

Scorpius just nodded, unable to speak. His chest heaved as if he were inhaling smoke, and then he exhaled slowly and forced the words from his throat. "Askella, Carina and Diya. The soldiers haven't seen them since -- since the battle. I haven't been able to ask them all -- some are unconscious and the others can't.... they can't speak." 

Queen Amelyn wasn't sure if they couldn't speak due to their injuries or their trauma, but she didn't dare ask. This was something she was better not knowing, because either answer would haunt her. "Okay." She pushed out, forcing the acknowledgement from deep in her throat. She had to push the solid weight of regret and grief from her head and focus on those three names, because if she didn't focus on one thing at a time she wouldn't be able to focus at all. It was easy to be weighed down by sorrow, by devastation, as she saw so clearly in the battered soldiers lying before her, but she couldn't afford to let herself buckle. She had a House to lead, soldiers to care for, and three lives to find. Though she feared, after such a ruinous battle, there wouldn't be any lives left to find.

As she was deciding what to do, an apprentice's urgent voice cut clearly through the heavy silence. 

"Queen!"

She snapped her head toward the entrance, seeing Orion already running over. The entrance shifted and two of the souls declared missing minutes earlier crumpled through, limbs buckling. Askella and Diya were carrying a small and limp body on their backs, and Queen Amelyn realized it was Carina. They slid her gently off their shoulders before buckling to the ground as their limbs gave in to exhaustion and pain.

Looking at the crumpled body lying a few feet away, Queen Amelyn feared the worst, before she saw the cat's flank rising in shallow breath.

"Help her," Diya rasped out, voice weak and paper thin, before letting her head fall to the ground once again.

Orion reached Carina first, his ears flattening and body going rigid. He looked back at Queen Amelyn, shock and sorrow painted on every one of his features. Queen Amelyn reached them not long after, the sight greeting her making her sick. The new soldier's left forepaw was bent unnaturally toward her body, blood coating her fur like a second skin. At first, Queen Amelyn thought it was broken, but as her vision focused in, she numbly realized the young cat's foreleg was almost completely detached from her body.

"Oh, God," She heard Orion whisper beside her, body still frozen. A few heartbeats later he seemed to snap himself out of his stupor, and turned sharply toward a nearby apprentice. "Get my herbs," he said urgently.

"Which ones?" The apprentice asked, their voice small and body nervously still.

"All of them!" Orion snapped, and the apprentice rushed to his den, returning moments later with jaws full of pungent herbs. 

"Go find as much cobweb as you can carry," Orion pointed to two sentries whose eyes were wide in horror. They both turned tail and ran out of camp, and Queen Amelyn thought they were glad to get away from the terror of it all.

Orion turned his head toward her, eyes full of grief. "We can't save her leg," he said softly, his ears flattening. "But we can save her life."

Queen Amelyn nodded. Orion always knew what she needed to hear, as hard as it was to say. We can save her life, she said again in her head. We can save her life.

She would be crippled, disfigured for the rest of her life, but at least she had a rest of her life. Queen Amelyn sent a pleading prayer up to a God she didn't believe in and squared her shoulders. She wasn't letting anyone die easy today.