19th Century
"Whoa, now. Let's settle down for a minute. Almyra, put your gun down for fuck's sake," William says as he hurriedly approached.
"What? Why should I? I can shoot him right now, that'll send a pretty clear message. I think that'll help, don't you?" she says as she tightens her grip on her gun while keeping steady eye contact with the officer who had slapped her.
"No, no, no.. There's really no need to do this. I didn't mean to slap you! I was just… in the moment?" the man said with uncertainty as he held his hands up.
"In the moment, you say? Well, I guess I'm only acting 'in the moment' if I shoot you in the head right now. How about that?" She smirks, cocking her head to the side.
"That's a little unnecessary, don't you think? Why don't you put your gun down now and we can talk this out. Why are you all just standing there and not helping? Do something!" The officer panics and looks around, making direct eye contact with William. As the men take a couple of steps back while shaking their heads, William lays a hand on Almyra's shoulder.
"That's enough, Almyra. We don't need any more dead men," William stated, causing the officer to panic even more.
"The- there's dead.. huh? How many dead people do you have here?" the officer whispered in shock as Almyra put her gun down, trying to stifle her laughter.
"Why are you laughing? I'm serious," Almyra looked up with her eyebrows raised.
"Really? This is a fucking battlefield. There's dead men left and right. Where the fuck do you think you are?" She huffs, turning around to face William.
"I'm going back to my tent. Take care of them, I don't want to see them again," Almyra scoffed as she stormed off. The two officers tried to follow her, but William and a few other soldiers grabbed them and threw them out of the camp.
Almyra burst into her tent and slammed her hands onto the table, staring so hard she could burn a hole through it.
"He-"
"GET. OUT!" Almyra yells angrily as the man instantly exits without saying another word. After a few minutes, Almyra calmly walks out of her tent, rounding up her men to tell them that they're going to strike tonight. The men look at each other confused, but they never question her.
"When we get there, they won't know we're going to attack, but they will be ready." Almyra looks around at her men with determination in her eyes.
"William. Talk it over with them." Almyra leaves the group as William starts to talk.
"Alright guys," was the last thing she heard before hearing a gunshot.
Almyra whipped around to see a soldier on the ground. She rushed over to him as the rest of the men quickly ran to their tents and grabbed their weapons. When she made it closer to the man on the ground, she realized it was Benny.
William was the first one to make it to him. He kneels on the ground next to Benny, putting pressure on his shoulder to try to stop the bleeding.
"What happened? Where did the shot come from?" Almyra asks, looking around trying to spot someone, but she doesn't see anyone. Hearing another gunshot from behind her, her men spring into action, running from different directions towards the sound.
As the nurses notice Almyra and William kneeling next to Benny, they quickly run to them, helping him to his feet before guiding him into the medical tent. Almyra jumped up and sprinted into her tent, grabbing what she needed for this battle.
***
As Almyra hastily exits her tent, she observes as her men sprint into the forest. She starts to head their way in an effort to catch up when she spots William. He seemed to be acting very odd as he looked around to see if anyone was watching him before quickly walking in the opposite direction and disappearing behind the tents.
Almyra looks back towards the woods where her soldiers are no longer in view, she makes the split second decision to trail behind him, staying far enough away so she won't be spotted.
Noticing the two officers from earlier, she quickly hides behind a tree as William stops to talk to them.
Completely bewildered, she slowly creeps forward, staying in the shadows of the trees as she tries to listen in on their conversation.
"She should be with the others by now. Since this was a surprise attack, they'll take immediate action without a plan," William explains, as the officer's faces lighting up with delight.
"Very good. I was worried at first that she'd be too smart and catch on to us, but I'm glad your plan on how to catch them off guard actually worked." The taller officer grinned mischievously as the other nodded his head in agreement.
Fueled with rage, Almyra moves from behind the tree to confront them when she hears William say, "I need to head back now before they think I'm missing or dead. Take care of what needs to be done. Quickly." He turns around and Almyra jumps back behind the tree as he starts to walk back towards the camp.
Infuriated, Almyra crept behind him, staying out of sight as they arrived back to camp. She stops beside a tent, taking deep breaths to compose herself while also allowing William to further the distance between them.
Once he was almost out of her line of view, she walked towards the medical tent where Kian had died. As she entered the tent, she took note of all the nurses scurrying back and forth between injured men. She didn't want to disturb any of them as they were working diligently, but she needed to ask.
A petite, blonde haired girl stepped to the side and took a deep breath, gathering her strength to continue, but before she moved Almyra stopped her.
"Excuse me, um. I was wondering what happened to Kian Blackwell's body? Has it been disposed of yet?" Almyra asked, clearly in distress.
"Kian Blackwell?"
"Yes, Blackwell. He was poisoned with arsenic yesterday," Almyra tried to explain as best as she could to get the nurse to remember.
"Oh! Yes, I remember now. Since he was of high rank, we had him placed to get ready for burial." The nurse said, growing seemingly more agitated the longer she talked while watching the other nurses.
"Where is he placed?" she asked, trying not to seem anxious.
"Look, Miss. I have to tend to these wounded soldiers, if you would like to know the details, I'd suggest talking to Doctor Brinton. He is the one who prepares the dead for their burial." She quickly turned and left before Almyra could ask where the doctor was located.