The soldiers' faces were filled with confusion and curiosity, looking at the unknown man walking behind their leader.
"My lord, who is that man? He looks nothing like us, his clothing and weapons look foreign."
The leader whispered into the man's ear, the soldier nodded his head, looking back at Cadin with an eye of suspicion.
"All of you, begin resting and make the night's supper, as for you." He looked at Cadin.
"You can join us, but you are not one of us." He spoke clearly to Cadin. The soldiers all walked inside the small makeshift outpost, some began to rest while more stayed guard.
"The night is coming with haste, we can't transport these people to the other camp, lest we get besieged by more of those tribesmen or from the animals that linger in this place." He explained, the soldiers nodded in agreement, quickly they started bringing in the civilians, all wearing basic sewn clothing fit for peasants.
"We will provide just a mat of wool for you to rest in warmth, but you will have to rest outside the camp, mostly on the trees that grow near us." He explained.
Anger filled Cadin's mind at the terms, but quickly calmed down, knowing possible opportunities that await him.
Night came quick, enveloping the forest in darkness, anything just a few steps beyond the camp were shrouded in pitch black.
Heeding the leader's orders, he rested on a tree, facing the bright fire.
In a few minutes, a soldier walked forward cautiously, in his hand was a small metal plate. He slowly knelt the plate down next to Cadin, moving back in haste as the plate met the grass.
'This worked better than expected, guess they are quite desperate.' He thought to himself, thinking up plans of what to do after.
On the platter was a slice of rye bread coupled with a small bowl filled with boiled vegetables coupled with a wooden spoon to scoop it up.
"Quite heavy desperation to put trust in a man they just met that saved them just a few hours ago. But this is better, the quicker I can rise the more I can get." Cadin spoke to himself, he began eating the rye bread, it was hard to bite but it satiated what hunger he had.
Finishing the bread, he started munching on the boiled slices of vegetable, still hot. They were sweet, soft and easy to crunch on.
The soldiers chattered loudly but incoherently, reaching Cadin's position.
The night was calm with the cold breeze of the wind brushing Cadin's clothes. As the night went on one of the soldiers went to him carrying a folded up square of wool.
"So you don't freeze over while we rest, you should be lucky, the leader doesn't trust many well." The soldier commented while he gave Cadin the wool.
He finished his meal after a few scoops, what hunger he had was now satiated, Cadin began wrapping the wool square around his body, feeling its warm embrace while the cold air continued breezing through the quiet forest. A sense of alertness filled Cadin, the lack of noise causing him to look around attentively.
'If I support them in more battles and such perhaps I can climb through the ranks quicker.' He thought to himself.
'Hopefully that happens.'
A feeling of eagerness hung over Cadin, now hoping for more opportunities to rise and become more trusted by the leader he saved.
As he began closing his eyes to rest, a sudden roar of shouts filled the forest, echoing in all directions. Cadin stood up quickly, wide eyed he paced around the forest, finding any signs of a fighter lingering in the dark.
All at once, rapid footsteps of seemingly tens to a hundred boots ran towards the camp, getting louder by the second. The soldiers stopped resting, forming up around the civilians they braced for the attack that was approaching them quickly.
Cadin readied his sword, prepared to join in the fight with joy in his mind.
He quickly turned back to the noise of footsteps behind him. In a sudden strike, a fighter lay dead in front of him, falling to the ground hard.
Soon, the entire flood flooded with a drove of fighters on all sides.
'Don't know if they can survive for long with these numbers, I'll have to make this quick.' Cadin charged forward towards the loose but sturdy line of determined soldiers, cutting down anyone near him as he ran.
Now in front of the circle of stakes, he began assaulting anyone that charged towards them, denying them a chance to strike back as bodies continued falling to the ground. Cadin started running around, quickly creating a small barrier of corpses around the camp, warriors that passed through found themselves taken out by the defending circle of warriors.
The last attacker fell to the ground, silencing the entire forest once again. Corpses of lightly armored footmen lay everywhere, all killed by slash marks as Cadin stood around them, his sword draped in blood, driving it through the enemies to slash them in quick strikes.
The leader stepped out, marching forward to Cadin, he looked around in amazement.
"By the forest's embrace." He was perplexed, tens of fighters all dead beneath his feet beyond the line of stakes.
"Perhaps you are willing to aid us. Very well. I was considering leaving you with the soldiers here, but maybe I can let you join us in one of the established main camps of ours. It takes a different type of spirit to attack this amount of enemies, especially on your own.
Any wounds on Cadin's body were quickly healed back, as if he was never injured in the first place. The leader looked at Cadin with a face of newfound respect, having seen what he had done.
"Join us by the fire's warmth, so we may need you again in case of another attack, this time you can save some for us." The Leader and the soldiers laughed.