I hadn't even noticed the shard of earth stuck in my shoulder. Must have found its way there in the battle. I wiped the sweat off my forehead as I eased the tip of my blade between the flesh and stone, knocking it out with an ease mismatched with the pain that followed, and an accompanying feeling of hollowness in my shoulder. It was only me in that tent that night. The wounds sustained by Zek and Hizo had festered on the way back and they were spending the night in the armored's medical tent along with along with a quarter of squad Iron Fire.
Boss though, had stuck around despite the arrow that had made its way into his side. I was drinking some warm broth when he took a seat at the fire across from me, warming his blade in the fire before prying it into his side to dig out that arrowhead. He hardly made a sound while doing so. He sat, heated his blade, pried it out, took a bowl of soup from the pot, and left, nodding to me in what, at least to me, seemed a mix of newfound respect and acknowledgement.
Don't let it get to you, Luke. I had to tell myself. They're just a means to an end. A way to fight the Earth Kingdom. They aren't your friends.
But they aren't useful if they don't trust me. I reminded myself. I'm no use a co-pilot. And Hizo's no use a gunner. I'll have to be back there now. Where I'm meant to be. At least, I better as hell be after that shitshow tonight.
At least Danev got what he wanted. He got his magic tunnel that led to the promised land. Good. The sooner that happened the better.
I looked up, and saw that same familiar person come over the hill. "And speak of the devil." I said aloud.
"Aww. You were thinking about me." Danev said. "Good things I hope."
"Quite the opposite. Kind of a mess you got us into back there."
"Yeah." He said, sitting down by the fire. "I know. That one's on me for waiting 'till the last minute."
"Well. At least it worked."
"Yeah. It worked alright."
"You still have all your gear." I remarked, chuckling. "So what? You don't use it during the ambush but now that we're back in camp you decide to get dressed up?"
"I. I didn't bring this. I just put it on."
"Going for a late-night stroll then. Or you up to some more practice. I could go for another round." I said, standing up, ready to put my offhand to use again and, perhaps, make it a bit less 'off'.
"Actually. I am going somewhere. Command's worried the tunnels are compromised. A truck's waiting for me."
"So you're going to check out if the tunnels are intact? Leave some guys to guard it?"
"No. I'm starting my mission. We're going through. I'm going to Ba Sing Se. The truck's waiting for me now. Just thought I'd say goodbye"
I was taken aback in that moment. I realized after the passage of a few seconds that my mouth had been open, agape. "You're joking." I said, confident I was calling a bluff of some sort.
"No. This is it. I'm going in.
"So the siege?"
"Begins tomorrow." He completed. "The assault in two months. This is it."
"So. It's really starting now."
"Yeah." He said, coming to my same conclusion. This was the beginning of the end. And I wasn't going to spend the next two months watching artillery.
"Then I'm going too."
"No."
"I'm not spending the next two months outside these walls counting artillery shells fired per minute. I'm going."
"No, Luke." He said, more tired than determined. "You're not in my squad. You're armored. Squad Iron Fire."
"Then transfer me."
"I don't have permission for that."
"Then get someone who does. Say you won't go unless I come along."
"I'm not doing that, Luke."
"Why not!?"
"Because you'll die. You're a good fighter, Luke, but you're still half what you were. You're improving, and maybe in two months you'll be good, but you're not ready to take on Ba Sing Se."
"Oh, but you are?"
"No, but I'm the one that's been sent. I have a job. I job I've done my entire life that you hardly had to consider in Citadel. You survived because you were smart and clever. Because your words got you what you needed to live. I didn't have that. I spent my life sneaking in and out of places to steal what I needed."
"So did I. Before that info broker shit. With Mini? Remember?"
I knew he saw the same image I now saw in my head. Of the mutilated body of my oldest friend, dangling from a sign post, legs hacked off. "And that's exactly why you're not going."
He held his arm out for me to shake. And at this point, I had come to terms with it. I knew deep down he was right. I just wanted to give it my best shot, but it was true. This was his forte. It never had been mine. All the same, I declined his hand, but not because I was petty. "I don't need to say goodbye." I said. "I'll be seeing you in two months. Then I'll be good, and we'll take on the Earth Kingdom together."
He smiled. "Deal?" he asked, extending his arm again. And I knew in that moment that naivety was something I couldn't afford anymore. So maybe this was it for him. For us. Perhaps I two months' time, one of us would be a rotting corpse. And as unhealthy as it was to thing in that way, that was the reality of it. I knew it, and he knew it, and so I extended my arm, shook it, and we hugged.
No more words were spoken. He smiled, I smiled back trying to only think of seeing him again in 2 months' time, on the other side of those damn walls, and then he was gone, and I prayed it wasn't the last time I would get to say farewell to him.