"Do not worry my lord, we will patch you up as soon as possible." Sentis assured Cadin as they brought him inside.
Cadin snapped his head to Sentis, walking on the side.
"Ignore me, this can be fixed, put most of your efforts in the wounded outside. Especially Joken, I can deal with this." Sentis looked shocked at Cadin, surprised at his response.
The soldiers placed Cadin on the table, but before they could do anything, Cadin motioned them to stop.
"I can handle this, this is merely a flesh wound." he sat upright, turning his body to the edge of the table where his legs dangled from the ground. He clenched his wound tightly, feeling the sharp pain while coughing blood onto his hand.
"Are you sure my lord?" Cadin looked to his hand, seeing the coughed up blood on it.
"Focus most of your efforts into helping the others, just hand me wrappings for this." Sentis hastily rummaged through his satchel, pulling out a small roll of cloth wrappings for Cadin.
After taking it, the group rushed back outside.
'Should not be so hard, not the first time I got hit in battle. Luckily it was the lung and not the heart. Hope this can still heal.
Cadin slowly pulled out the arrowtip from his body, groaning from the pain as he immediately wrapped the wound, forming layers of cloth on top of it.
A red spot was left in the wound, slowly growing in size. The pain started slowly leaving his body, he looked down, inhaling and exhaling deeply, feeling some liquid in his throat and coughing a few times.
The arrowtip lay next to him on the table, drenched in red and staining the wood it sat on.
After a few minutes, his breathing became more and more clear, and the pain subsided, leaving a large spot of dried blood in the canvas.
With the wound healed, Cadin cut off the bandages from his body, placing them next to him and leaping off the table.
HIs shield rested above his head while stepping out, cautiously looking around before stepping foot outside.
In front of him, a few soldiers sat down or lay down, tended to by the team of healers, wrapping bandages and removing arrows stuck to their body, the sound of groaning and grunting from the soldiers as they endured the pain filled the atmosphere.
As they watched, the sound of running alerted them, soldiers immediately formed up next to each other in a shield wall, Cadin joined them, slamming his shield down and unsheathing his sword.
As the sounds became louder, they braced themselves.
A group of people revealed themselves at the camp entrance, some running with horses in tow. Soldiers donning armor similar to Cadin's own and other allied tribes ran with them.
Cadin looked at them confused, before realizing.
"They don't bear armor nor the color of our enemy. Are those our villagers?" The people threw buckets of water at the raging fires, starting to put them out, desperately running back and forth with horses being rushed back to get more water.
Cadin stood up from his position, placing the shield above his head while standing up, the rest of the soldiers took notice, slowly lowering their shields, looking at the people rushing around. A few ran down, stopping in their tracks upon seeing the soldiers, frozen for a few seconds before running around the area with their buckets filled with water.
"Soldiers, provide aid to them. Those are our fellow allies from the other camps!" He yelled out to the soldiers.
His men scrambled around, joining with the other people carrying buckets and outside the area to the rest.
Cadin ran out, helping the unarmored people risking their lives to put out the fires, some slapping parts of their clothing, putting out small flames on their tunics and pants.
He threw buckets of water at the nearest burning homes, moving back as more began crumbling down, sending fractured chunks of burning lumber in all directions, creating a breeze oh hot wind that flowed through the entire camp.
As he slung more water at a burning home, slowly killing the fires consuming it, Cadin joined in, limping with both hands holding wooden buckets filled with water.
"Forgive me, my lord. I could not save the camp itself, but I did what I could to save as many soldiers as possible and civilians."
Cadin turned to Joken, "You did an excellent job. The odds seemed three to one, and you managed to hold. Despite my absence you led the soldiers and people of this camp. Do not be saddened that you lost some people. We could not save all, what we can do is save all we can. Now provide aid in putting out these flames." After speaking, Cadin handed empty buckets to the leaving people with their horses, grabbing ones filled with water and fighting the flames.
An hour had passed, some homes were already fully extinguished, Cadin, soldiers, and civilians all worked to put out the flame, exhausting themselves further.
With each extinguished home, the light of the camp grew dimmer and dimmer, being replaced by torches, held by some of the soldiers.
More began joining in the rescue, wounded men from Cadin's army ran to them, feeling their pain worsen as their bandages were starting to soak with blood.
Soon, the final home was extinguished, the only light that remained were torches. People started catching their breaths, some falling down from exhaustion while others sat down and stared at their broken homes, what remained of their camp.
A mix of sadness and fury grew within the people and soldiers.
Cadin simply stared, a flood of thoughts rushed around in his mind. But only two were certain.
'This camp must be repaired…And that candidate must die." He turned around, walking back to his home, already barren with everyone standing outside.
Many started excavating the extinguished homes, dragging out bodies of the dead or their belongings.
He entered back inside, only lit up by a few candles, Cadin placed a piece of paper and a few maps on the table, writing down on them plans, plans for what to do and a few new requests to give to the tribe leaders.