The Last Stand (The Eleven Years War: Book One)
Chapter One

Theevening was cold and quite rainy, as was to be expected in Caitha during thespring. Due to the weather, the dirt streets - now turned to mud - werecompletely deserted, everyone in Thaos having escaped the first storm of the seasonby hiding in their sagging, wooden slat homes. They were all probably huddledaround their warm hearths, their roofs steadily leaking rainwater, but Eliseand her father were lucky; Milo had patched up their old, leaky roof the weekbefore. It meant that, for the first time in a long time, they could only hearthe rain pounding on the roof, rather than feeling it drip down on them as theycurled up in their beds that dark night. With how exhausted she was from a dayfilled with serving ale and food to the quarry workers who frequented thetavern her father ran, it was a blessing.

Despite how tired she was after a day on her feet, Elisejust couldn't seem to sleep: she was too worried about her little brother,Milo. He'd left for Asfalis, his first post as a Watchman, just a few daysbefore. When he'd visited for a few days after finishing his military training,he'd assured them that he'd be perfectly safe in the town, and due to how closehe was to Thaos, he'd be able to visit more often than he would otherwise.Despite his reassurances, Elise still worried about him. No matter how safe heclaimed he'd be in Asfalis, he was still going to a military post in the middleof a war, even if it was a far off one; it scared her to death to think thather younger brother could be marching off to battle.

Eventually, Elise sat up in her bed and ran a hand throughher pale blonde hair. If she wasn't going to sleep, she might as well dosomething productive.

Elise silently got out of bed, padded over to the window,and looked outside. Through the rain-soaked glass, she couldn't see anyoneoutside, as was to be expected. Even so, she pulled the thick, scratchy curtainacross the window; considering what she was, it was better safe than sorry.

Once she was certain that nobody would be able to see her,she cupped her hands together and watched as a small, flickering flame began toappear.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been able to do it, butever since she could remember, Papa had been telling her to keep her gift behindclosed doors. People in Thaos tended to be quite superstitious, to the pointwhere they went searching for witches whenever something went wrong in thequarry; only the Gods knew what would happen if they found someone who actuallycould do something out of the ordinary like she could.

However, Milo had loved watching her control fire, evenafter he'd grown up. She thought about him that night as she practicedmanipulating the fire that night, making it grow larger and smaller, making itturn into different shapes. How was he? Was he homesick? Did he have a roofover his head that didn't leak? Did he have good, warm food three times a day?

She probably would've continued practicing, if someonehadn't barged through the front door.

When she heard the front door snap open with a bang, sheclasped her hands together and looked over at her closed bedroom door,terrified. How could anyone have seen her? She'd been so careful!

"Elise, we need your help!" Elise's shoulderssagged as she relaxed; it looked like that wasn't the reason behind this latenight visit.

She lit a candle, grabbed her canvas bag filled withmedical supplies, and walked outside her bedroom.

The two men she saw in the doorway were sopping wet, theirsoaked clothes dripping rainwater onto the wooden floorboards. She recognizedthe non-injured man as the town's blacksmith; however, she didn't recognize theman the blacksmith was carrying. She could tell that he was a Watchman, though;nobody else in Caitha wore dark gray cloaks or carried short swords on them, asto avoid being confused for one. He was clutching his shoulder, which hadsomething - a wooden stake? - sticking out of it.

"What happened?" Elise asked as she set thecandle down on a nearby table. Papa, who'd wandered outside of his room, aswell, rushed over to them and helped the blacksmith set the injured man down onone of the tables. He moaned softly in pain.

"I-I heard him out making a ruckus in mysmithy," the blacksmith said as he ran a shaky hand through his gray hair."By the time I got there, he was out cold." Pa helped him into achair as Elise put two of her fingers against the man's neck. Thankfully, shecould feel his pulse beating against them.

"Is he going to be alright?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," Elise admitted as she set herbag down and began to inspect her new patient. When she pulled the hood of hiscloak back, he saw that he wasn't a man, but a boy, one that didn't look to bemuch older than she was. He had shaggy, dark brown hair, eyes that were screwedshut in pain, and ghastly pale skin. He looked like he'd received quite the beating,judging by his black, swollen eye and the long, deep cut above his right eye,one that would almost certainly leave a nasty scar.

After she was done seeing whom her patient was, Elisebegan to inspect the object in the boy's shoulder. It was long, narrow, andmade of wood, with three feathers attached to the end. The other end of it wasstained dark red in the man's blood, just as his beige, parchment-thin shirtwas around his shoulder. Just by her barely touching it, the boy tensed up andgroaned. It looked like one of the things she'd seen the soldiers stationed inThaos carrying in their quivers...

The blood drained from her face. It was a crossbow bolt.

Elise looked over her shoulder at Pa. "Can you comehold him down?" He nodded, walked over, and held him down by his shoulder.

Elise grabbed the crossbow bolt and began pulling it outof the boy's shoulder.

Almost immediately, the boy tensed up in pain as thecrossbow bolt slowly came free of his shoulder. His teeth and fists wereclenched as he began to scream in pain, though quietly. He kept squirming,which made Elise go a little slower, as she had to use one hand to hold himdown rather than using both of her hands to try and pull out the bolt. Theblacksmith looked like he was going to be sick; as he watched, his face turneda pale shade of green.

Finally, with a sickening squelch, the bolt came free ofthe boy's shoulder. The boy relaxed and began quietly moaning as Elise handed Pathe crossbow bolt. The blood drained from the blacksmith's face when he saw it,changing the color of his face once again.

"Dear Gods," he whispered as Elise pulled aneedle and some thread out of her bag. She began to carefully stitch up theboy's shoulder, a procedure he stayed surprisingly still for. "Why wouldanyone do this to a mere boy?" Pa sat down by the blacksmith.

"It was probably a bunch of soldiers," he said."You know how much they hate Watchmen." The blacksmith nodded inagreement as Elise finished stitching up the boy's shoulder.

Once she'd finished, she wiped the blood off the needleand put the supplies back into her canvas bag. If this had been anattack by the soldiers, odds were, the wound to his shoulder wasn't his onlyinjury.

Elise took a knife and gently cut off his shirt to seewhat else they'd done to him.

She'd expected to replace other bumps and scrapes, butnothing quite as bad as what she saw. His body was covered in various injuries,most of which were burns that oozed puss with infection. His stomach wasbruised black and there were too many minor cuts to count.

"Why would anyone do that?" the blacksmith askedas Elise pulled out a bottle of ointment and some bandages. She gently began tolather the ointment onto the burns. The boy tensed up when she touched hisburns, but he didn't cry out, like he had when she'd pulled out the crossbowbolt. "I'm not sure that a group of soldiers would do something like that,even to a Watchman."

There was a loud thunderclap outside that shook the house.

"I think I should probably get going," theblacksmith said as he stood up. "The wife's probably starting to worryabout me."

"Take care," Pa said. With that, the blacksmithwalked back out into the storm, shutting the door behind him.

Pa walked over to Elise as she finished lathering theboy's burns with ointment. "How is he?"

Elise sat him up a little and began to wrap some bandagesaround the burns on the boy's stomach.

"I think he'll be alright," Elise said."He's soaked, though; we need to get him warm before he catches acold." Pa nodded and watched as she finished wrapping the bandages aroundthe boy.

Once she had finished, Pa carefully picked up the boy,making him moan again.

"We'll put him in Milo's bed," he said. He beganwalking towards the room Elise and her brother had shared before he left tobecome a Watchman. She put all of her supplies back in her canvas sack andbegan to follow Pa back to the room, the sack in one hand and a candle in theother.

Once they were in the room, Elise pulled the covers awayfrom the bed and Pa put the boy in Milo's bed.

"I'll stay up with him," he said as Elise pulledthe covers back over the boy's broken body. "He'll probably be a littlescared when he wakes up in an unfamiliar place, and you'll need to bewell-rested if he takes a turn for the worse during the night."

Elisewould've protested her father's decision, if the boy's eyes hadn't started toflutter open. He began to groan as his brown eyes opened and looked around athis new surroundings.

"Where am I?" he asked. He tried to sit up, butstopped midway up, wrapping his arm around himself and wincing in pain.

"You're in Thaos," Pa said as Elise eased theboy back down. "You ended up in the blacksmith's smithy somehow and hebrought you over here when he saw how bad of a shape you were in. I was goingto stay up with you, just in case you got worse-"

"Y-you don't have to do that, sir," the boystuttered. "I don't think I hurt anything too vital." Pa couldn'thelp but raise an eyebrow.

"You got shot," Pa said. "What if it turnsseptic in the middle of the night or something?" the boy absently touchedhis injured shoulder. He had a look on his face, almost as if he'd forgottenall about his injury and his eyes filled up with shock. It seemed that he justrealized that there was a possibility of him dying from it.

"It won't get infected that fast, Pa," Elisesaid. "If it does get infected, it'll take a day or so for symptoms tostart showing." Pa was quiet for a few moments, then sighed.

"You'll come get me if you need me?" he asked.She nodded, and he said his goodbyes and left the two of them to their owndevices.

"How does your shoulder feel?" Elise asked asshe walked over to her own bed and sat down, facing the boy. He gently put ahand to his wounded shoulder, wincing, as he got this distant look in his sad,brown eyes, as if he were remembering something.

"It hurts, but I'll be alright," he said. Helooked over at Elise. "I never quite caught your name."

"My name's Elise," she said, pulling a lock ofher hair behind her ear and out of her eyes. "What's yours?" The boybegan to adjust his position on the bed.

"Olrick," he said. For a few moments, the twowere quiet as Elise laid down in her bed, pulling the covers over her. She wentto go blow the candle out in order to plunge the room back into darkness sothey could sleep, but she stopped herself before she could; the questionnagging at the back of her mind stopped her.

"Would you happen to know somebody named Milo?"she asked. "He's a Watchman, too." Olrick paused for a moment, thenshook his head.

"The name doesn't sound familiar," he finallysaid. "Why?"

"He's my brother," Elise said. "He left forhis first post a few days ago; I'm curious as to how he's doing, is all."She blew out the candle, making the room turn black.