In the morning, I awoke to the drums of war and quickly dressed. Scortha used no armor so I grabbed my war ax and placed it on my side before going out to eat breakfast. We would be riding into battle soon. I would do my best to protect my host – not just for the prince, but for myself as well. I wanted to stay "living" for as long as possible this time.
Breakfast was just how I remembered it – gruel and mead. Tonight would be a feast for us ... for the ones that survived to fight yet another day. Soon, I found myself on the back of a tall, black demon stallion. The boy had high friends indeed.
All of us were tense as we waited for the call to charge into battle- well, all except for me. I was ready for this. Where most hated the call to being a Scortha , I embraced it. Perhaps I had always been crazy. It was possible with my father being one of the strongest demons of all time, known as Cazami.
The drums of war sounded again and we raised a hellish war cry and descended down the sand dune towards the army that awaited us at the bottom. They yelled back hellishly as we clashed against them. Tearing one man after another down for what seemed like hours, finally the enemy tribe retreated and we were called back to camp as victors. As we left the battle field, I looked back to see at least three Scortha had fallen, a dozen or more archers, and more than I could count in swordsmen. I rode back into the swordsman ranks to look for the prince. When I finally spotted him, his shoulder was bloodied and he had an arrow in his leg. I worked myself through the crowd and stood in front of him offering my hand.
"Need a hand, my prince?" I asked.
He looked up at me and nodded his head. I dismounted and helped him into the saddle of my mount before leading the horse towards the shaman's tent.
"This is against code isn't it?" he asked weakly.
"Aye, but I'm a Scortha and we are reckless by nature plus I'm escorting the prince. Who would dare call code on me?"
The prince chuckled lightly.
"Your general might. This could get you flogged."
I turned my head to look back at the prince. "It will be fine."
Who would have me flogged for getting the prince to the shaman quicker? The quicker he was tended to the less blood he would lose. Even if it was against code for a Scortha to meddle with the normal military, this had to be an exception.
We soon made it to the shaman's tent and the prince was put on a cot with high priority. As I was leaving, Demni caught my shoulder.
"You know that was against code," he said with no emotion to his voice.
"Yup, but he got here faster didn't he?"
Demni crossed his arms, looking conflicted about what to do.
"As usual, Iblis, you think you are above the code."
I looked at him surprised.
"Demni, come now; there must be an exception just this once."
He rubbed the back of his neck.
"Make yourself scarce and I don't want to see you near the prince again."
I bowed. "Thank you."
With that I went back to the Scortha camp a smile crossing my face. I was really starting to like Demni.