Influence

PROLOGUE

The children sat in a deep, damp corner of the tunnels. Adults bustled and hurried all around them, but they were enthralled by the old man before them. At his feet sat a small lantern and none of them could see the finer details of his face. They sat at his feet; all around him.
In his hands was a ball of flame, and as all the children watched it turned from yellow to blue to red. Suddenly, it disappeared with a definite ‘pop’ sound. The children shrieked, and then began to giggle. The old man laughed with them, and opened the lantern so it illuminated all of them in the little corner. Despite his age the man had no beard. He sat up straight, his broad shoulders against the wall of the stone tunnel.
Without the use of a staff, the man stood up and tried to walk away. The children all protested and grabbed onto his robe, using it to pull him back to the stone floor. Laughing, he settled himself with them still circling him. As he did, the children began calling out the names of stories they wanted the old man to tell. Ignoring their requests, he started to tell them the well known story of the tunnels.
“Several years ago, probably before most of you remember. The people of Carnunrca were all farmers and lived in the fertile land along the River Loreal. They had done so for as many generations back as anyone knew. They made little contact with any other countries, just Ifnimhel in the desert on the other side of the mountains. There were rumors of a race of giant men living at the southern tip of the mountain range, but such monsters were seldomly seen, and then individually. About five years ago, larger groups of them began coming north to the farms of Carnunrca. At first people were frightened, but when they realized how strong they were they put them to work. They seemed willing workers who asked for only room and board in return for a days work of five normal men. For several months the giants, known as Nacikates, continued to come north for work.”
“When the rainy season started, the Nacikates became generally more testy and disagreeable. One day, after several days of steady, strong rain, every one of them disappeared. For days, no one knew where they had gone. Farmers were furious and tried desperately to keep their farms going without their hired help. “
“Then, one day, they all came back, as an army though. Though killed every man, woman, and child they found on every farm they came across. Buildings were burnt or torn down. Hundreds of people were killed before the Doyen gathered an army to put down the rebellion. Unfortunately, the Doyen’s palace was so far north that the troops he sent out couldn’t reach the serious threat in the far south. So, the farm people that lived there had to defend themselves. In one particular farming village, a farmer named Minucher and his six children successfully defended their farm, and began to help their neighbors to defend theirs. Even with the aid of other nearby farmers, their numbers were insufficient to defeat the Nacikates, only to defend themselves. Still, word of their success reached the Doyen’s court. He invited Minucher and his sons to the capital city.”
“When they arrived, they went deep into council with the Doyen. He informed them that the attacks had reached even the far northern capital city, and no army seemed to be able to defeat them. The plan was to move the entire country into a complex system of caves that had been used as shelter during the last Great War. From there, they would form and army to defend all of the people from the monsters. The Doyen invited Minucher to be the general of the army, and his sons to be the commanding officers, so that they might lead the country to victory. Minucher was very flattered, ‘But,’ he told the Doyen, ‘We cannot be credited with the success in our village. My sons and I are only farmers and don’t have the wisdom to plan a fight against these monsters.’ He told the Doyen that the one who had planned their strategy was his youngest child, called Shadow, who had stayed at the farm. The Doyen quickly appointed Shadow the general of his army, and instructed that she be sent for. Minucher and his two oldest sons, Siyamek and Mopsus, went home to fetch Shadow, however their convoy was ambushed by the monsters and they were all killed. The other three men, Haoshyangha, Tanngrisnir, and Arjuna went to try and bring Shadow to the capital, but were mortally wounded. Arjuna, the youngest, alone survived long enough to reach the farm and relay the message.”
“Three weeks later, Shadow reached the cave-city, where the court had already moved and people were beginning to pour in. The Doyen was dumbstruck when he saw that Shadow, the new general of his entire army was an eighteen year old girl a head shorter than him. Still, he didn’t even consider sending her away, because despite her diminutive height and the fact that she was a young woman, she carried herself with so much self-assuredness that every guard in the caves stepped out of her way wherever she went. So startled and intimidated was the Doyen that he put up no fight when she took over her role as general.”
“Now, Shadow is in charge of every soldier in Tuireadh, the entire army of Carnunrca. Her second in command, Pritchard, was one of the greatest known soldiers in all of Carnunrca before the move to the tunnels, and now everyone in every nearby kingdom knows of his deeds. And finally, there is Hahhimas, the army mage, hired by Doyen Dipankara to aid the army.”

All of the children were so enraptured by the old man’s story that none of them noticed a figure standing behind them. The man had noticed, but made the choice to ignore her presence. Impatiently the figure moved to his side, and when his story ended, he stood up, towering over the figure who was hidden by the darkness of the tunnel. He adjusted the lantern again, revealing to all the children a small woman with dark black hair, which fell freely half way down her back, and dark blue eyes. Looking far up at the old man, the girl spoke quietly.
“It’s time to go.” she hissed impatiently.
“Now?” he asked nonchalantly.
“Yes, now! We got a report from the field a quarter of an hour ago! Everyone else is ready to go!” she said louder.
“I’m coming, my lady. Don’t rush a tired old man!” he said exasperatedly. Her mouth didn’t change it’s indignant form, but her eyes looked away suspiciously.
“Hahhimas, the day you are tired, much less a ‘tired old man’, is the day that I let you get you get away with calling me ‘my lady’.!” The man laughed loudly at her response, his ice blue eyes glittering more brightly than those of the children who stared at the small woman fascinated.
“Alright, Shadow, you win. I’ll be there before you can get yourself the gate.” She turned and walked away, him following right behind her. The children stayed seated for a moment, looking at each other in wonder. Then suddenly, they jumped up and ran in to their homes, anxious to tell their mothers that they had seen the legendary General Shadow that day.

CHAPTER 1

Leaning against the side of his wagon, Nante watched his lady emerge from the caves at Hahhimas’ side. Ever since Shadow had rescued him from the Nacikate attack that killed his parent’s, he had served by her side. She had appointed him as leader of the wagon drivers, who followed behind the army and carried the wounded soldiers back to Tuireadh. As she neared the wagon he jumped down to the ground to receive orders. Despite the fact that she was five years older than him, sixteen-year old Nante could still see over her head, but only just. Her companions however, Hahhimas and Pritchard, who joined them, both towered over him almost as much as her, and scared the breath out of him. The scout who reported the Nacikate’s presence led five huge, shaggy black horses over to the wagon. Nante took two leads from the scout and proceeded to hook the two smallest of the horses to his wagon.
“I was able to count 30, my lady, but I know there were more. They were moving around too much to get a definite count, but it looked like a whole group.”
“Alright. Pritchard, we have to get the men moving. I want to come up on them from the hills in western Aerl so they don’t have the advantage, but we’ll have to move fast to keep time. Hahhimas, make sure you’re ready for long distance attacks. If the men wear down, I’ll need you to give them time.” she turned and faced Nante, who was tying the last knot on the wagon. “Just bring your wagon today, Nante. Have the other drivers ready in case we need to send for them, but have them stay behind. Our number of wounded has been dropping, and there’s no reason to drag a horde of wagons to the plains for nothing.”
She turned back to the guide, who was giving Hahhimas and Pritchard their horses. Hahhimas swung up onto his, but Pritchard stood watching Shadow, waiting for the signal. Nodding to him, Shadow took her horse, the largest of the huge creatures and swung up onto it’s back. The horse danced impatiently, and Shadow had to pull hard to keep him from bolting. She nodded to Pritchard again, and he mounted his horse and rode hard across the field at the entrance to Tuireadh. Upon seeing him, all of the unit leaders under his command mounted as too and began yelling to their men. When he reached the peak of the hill he stopped, turned back, and blew into a horn that had hung at his waist. Shadow turned to Nante, and he responded with a call from his own horn.
When the soldiers heard the second horn, they all climbed onto their horses. Almost in unison, hundreds of legs in close fitting black pants swung over the backs of hundreds of horses, and the uniform gray, sleeveless fighting vests appeared all across the field. Within moments, they were following behind Pritchard who had ridden down the other side of the hill.
Shadow and Hahhimas hung back, despite their horses pulling and fighting to follow the army. When even Nante’s wagon had gone over the hill, Hahhimas turned to face Shadow, who was still looking at the hill, now devoid of men.
“What’s wrong?” he asked simply. She hesitated, considering denying her worries, but decided against it.
“This is a large group.”
“Yes. But it’s not the largest. And the men are well trained.”
“They’re close.”
“They’ve been closer.”
“Damn it, Hahhimas! They’re haven’t been nearly this many Nacikates any where near this close to Tuireadh in almost six months.”
“So? Shadow, we’ve handled worse before. And they still haven’t made it even within sight of the tunnels. And the soldiers are going to stop them, just like they always have.”
“Don’t you dare try and reassure me like that. Can you honestly say you’re not a little worried about it being like the old days. When everyday there were hundreds of the Nacikates just outside the gate; when hundreds of our soldiers were dying every single day.”
“I am concerned, and there’s no one in Tuireadh who doesn’t think about it every day. But try and have some faith in these soldiers, who you’ve trained, and who don’t want those days to return any more than you do.”
“Whatever. Let’s go catch up.” As she finished speaking, she relaxed her hold on her horse and he bolted towards the hill. Just second later Hahhimas had done the same and nearly caught up with her as they both tore across the hill towards the battle ahead

Shadow reached the peak of the hill that the whole army was waiting on with Hahhimas only seconds behind her. Pritchard was in the lead, looking down at the mass of monsters mulling around in the valley.
“How many would you say was down there?” he asked her as she pulled up next to him. She squinted for a second, then closed her eyes before answering.
“There’s about 40, no, closer to 45 of them. Come on, let’s get some men down there and get this started.” She turned to look at her men as she dismounted, and noticed how tired they already were. Pushing it from her mind, she ordered the men down the hill in formation.
First, Pritchard led down the unit leaders, the rest of the soldiers following behind them. The Nacikates were upon them before they all reached the valley. The units spread out, and the ones in the lead began hacking at the monsters. Many in the front lines were thrown from their horses almost immediately, but most of them were able to get back up and continued fighting. In the beginning, the men were able to kill nearly every monster that came to them. But, as more reached the bottom of the hill, Shadow’s army lost the advantage and the fighting became more overwhelming.
From her point overlooking the battle, Shadow was doing a surprising job of keeping track of the dead and wounded. It was a large number, but, she reminded herself, it wasn’t unexpected considering the size of the opposing force. However, the men were obviously becoming too tired to fight as the hours passed. Finally, she reached for the special horn that hung from her hip and blew into it. Then, she turned to Hahhimas, who was already deep in a trance, preparing a spell. With her back to the valley, she had no idea what was happening.
Pritchard had been knocked off his horse and to the ground by a falling Nacikate just as the horn blew. With the noise of the monster screaming in his ear, he mistook the two blows from Shadow’s horn, meaning to retreat to a safe distance, for those from Nante’s, meaning to charge. The soldiers closer to the hill turned and ran towards the hill to get out of the range of Hahhimas’ attack. The men near Pritchard, however, hadn’t heard clearly either, and followed his lead as he hopped onto a rider-less horse and charged towards the mass of Nacikates.

Pritchard was deep in a trance. He heard nothing but the inarticulate voice of the earth. His mind flew through the air; he could actually feel the pain right behind his eyes. He searched through every particle of the sky and the air until he came across what he was looking for. The brightness and the heat were overwhelming and he hesitated for a moment before embracing it. In the language of storms and fire and power, he became part of the power. He called it to his will, it fought for just a moment, but then filled him willingly. Then, not through his eyes, but from miles above the battlefield, Hahhimas focused on a cluster of Nacikates following the soldiers to the hill. Calling on all of the power through him, he struck them, and they fell. With other groups of the monsters he did the same, pushing small parts of the energy out of his soul and towards his enemies. Through his blurred and strange eyes he could see them fall, but he could feel the energy burn them and then come racing back into his body.
Lastly, he focused on the large crowd of all of the remaining Nacikates on the field. He expanded all of his being and gathered all the energy of that kind into himself. Carefully, he focused on the group that was running around in a panic in the center of the valley. Suddenly, he pushed every ounce of the power out of himself and towards the monsters. As the power rushed out of him and towards the battle field, his vision cleared for an instant before it returned to his body; only then did he see the gray uniforms scattered among the brown bodies of the Nacikates. But it was too late.

Shadow was watching Hahhimas when the first lightning bolt hit. She turned then, and watched the bolts fall among her enemies, burning their bodies. The faint smell of burning came with the breeze up the hill, but the electricity and excitement it carried from the magic and her men was more potent. She looked to where all the surviving monsters was running. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Hahhimas inhale deeply and then go pale, and realized he was preparing for his final strike. Turning back, she saw for the first time soldiers on shaggy black horses within the crowd of Nacikates. She reached for her horn and blew as hard as she could, but she knew the men couldn’t retreat before the lightning hit.

Pritchard had his arm raised to cut a fallen Nacikate’s head off when he heard the first lightning hit the ground. Terrified, he realized that he had misunderstood the horn he heard, and that he and all of his men were going to die. He yelled to the unit that was fighting with him, and those that could began to ride like hell across the valley. He stayed, trying to get the rest of the soldiers to ride away. From behind him, he was picked up off of his borrowed horse and into the air. He felt the sharp claws of a Nacikate dig slightly into his abdomen, and then was thrown towards the ground. He landed and laid stunned for a moment. Then he shook himself and tried quickly to stand. He stopped when he was on his knees and held what remained of his shirt against the bleeding wounds on his chest, and then pushed himself to his feet. Just as he did, a cloud of lightning hit where he had been moments early, killing the rest of the Nacikates and all of the men who had followed him. He fell to the ground again and passed out quickly in the bloody grass.

CHAPTER 2

Shadow rode up the hill for the second time that day, this time leading a whole caravan of wooden wagons with gray covers. She looked out on her army as they rested at the top of the hill. Those who had not been injured were gathering and comforting those who had been. Hahhimas ran around frantically, the most distraught she had ever seen him. Seeing him like that, she knew he felt guilty and solely responsible for what happened. She planned on making it very clear to Pritchard that he was the one to blame, when she found him.
Just as she thought that, Nante came running towards her. He was speaking so fast that she couldn’t understand what he was telling her, but let him lead her to his wagon. When she looked inside, her heart dropped in her chest and for a second she couldn’t breath. Lying there, on a pile of blankets in the center of Nante’s wagon was Pritchard. All over his face were cuts, and his hair was singed from being so near the fire. His left shoulder was bandaged and splinted. But his chest was covered in bandages dyed red and he had a huge bruise on the side of his head. She was so busy staring at his wound that she almost fell backwards out of the wagon when she heard him speak.
“It’s not as bad as it looks.” he said, sitting up and clutching his head. She looked at him in shock as he pulled his bandages off, revealing shallow cuts across his chest. For a full minute she was speechless, and he looked almost amused at the look on her face. After trying to speak several times, she finally found the words she was looking for.
“Your head had better hurt like hell.” she said before turning around and storming away.
“Don’t worry.” he mumbled before lying back down, still clutching his head.

Shadow ordered the healthy soldiers back to Tuireadh immediately. She then preceded to oversee the loading of the wounded into wagons, and sent them on ahead. When they were gone, she rode down into the valley once more to see if they’d missed any living soldiers. There she found Hahhimas performing a burial service for all of the dead men. She stood just behind him until he finished, then went to stand beside him. They touch or look at each other, but they comforted each other in their silent way.
When she was fairly confident that he was at least stable, she went to set fire to the pile of dead Nacikates across the field. For one of the first times since she’d started fighting these monsters, she rejoiced in every dead and bloody body she saw in the fire. It was hard not to maintain a calm attitude when they had killed so many of her soldiers. She would be the first to admit that she couldn’t tell you any of their names. There were so many, but the real reason was that she didn’t care. To her they were just soldiers, not men. But they were her soldiers, damn it. She had at least a small part in each one of their training. Also, she knew that back in Tuireadh, there was a family for each one of them, mourning, just as she had for her father and brothers when she heard of how they had been slaughtered. She was deep in thought about the great loss that they had suffered when Hahhimas laid his hand on her shoulder for an instant. They both turned and walked back up the hill and mounted their horses. For just a minute they looked back over the battlefield, remembering everything. Then, by unspoken consent, they rode as hard as their horses had energy left for back to Tuireadh.
When they were within sight of the gates, they slowed down to a slow walk.
“Well, it wasn’t a total loss.” Hahhimas looked at her, shocked, not believing he had heard her say that. It was then that he realized that even her pessimistic outlook had taken a beating that day, and all that was left was the young women inside she was always fighting, clinging to a shred of hope that the world wasn’t over. Desperately, he tried to get a rise out of her and shake her unnatural behavior.
“A few more battles like that and we might not have to deal with those monsters again,” he glanced at her, and just for affect, added, “my lady.”
She actually laughed. “Don’t let Dipankara hear you say that. We both know what he’ll do then.” Hahhimas too laughed at her attitude towards the Doyen.
“I’m serious, my friend.” she said turning to face him, “If he hears that their numbers are dropping to a level like that, he’ll order us to make an offensive attack on them.’
“Would you mind reminding me one more time why that would be so bad?”
“The only reason we’re out there killing, getting ourselves killed, it to defend ourselves and our people. If we made the first move, we’d be no better than them.” As she turned away at the last words, Hahhimas decided to drop this issue with her indefinitely. Anyway, they had reached the stables, carved out of stone just inside the gate.
“Whatever you command, my lady.” she groaned loudly.
“Why do you insist on doing that? How many times must I tell everyone in these blasted tunnels not to do that?”
“You are our leader, my lady.” she glared at him even sharper at his sarcasm, “I believe it is totally and completely out of your control.” When he said that, Shadow sighed loudly and walked away towards her chambers.
She was sorely tempted to change into a different pair of breeches and one of her loose blouses from sword practice. However, Doyen Dipankara had made it very clear that she was to wear “dignified and respectable” clothing while she was in the city. So instead, she pulled a red dress with a long skirt and forearm length sleeves over her head. There were to many things she and Dipankara disagreed on that were more important than her clothes. It was easier on her nerves to resist arguing with that man unless it was unavoidably necessary.
Hahhimas and Nante entered her outer chambers so that the three of them could go do rounds. Shadow quickly grabbed a long white shawl, thinking about the coldness of the barracks. First, they went to the armory and made sure that every weapon had been put away properly. Shadow had very strict rules about handling weapons, one of them being that no matter what condition you were in after a battle, if you could walk, you put up your own equipment. Finding everything satisfactory, they moved onto the rooms were the soldiers slept. The room was filled with a comfortable, heavy silence as each of the soldiers slept. Most were still wearing their dirty and bloody uniforms, having fallen asleep as soon as they sat on their bunks. Shadow, Hahhimas and Nante made sure to cover the soldiers whose uniforms were the least intact. The army camp was right next to the entrance to the caves, and far away from the main city and the great fires they kept burning there. It wasn’t uncommon, even this time of year, for the men to get sick from the cold of the dark cave they slept in.
The distance of the camp from the rest of the city was another of Dipankara’s ideas. He felt that if the people knew when the soldiers were on the battle field, they would worry and that would negatively effect the city, so he put the soldiers as far from the public eyes as possible. A small number of officers had permission to go home to their families at night, but spent days with the rest of the troops, to further keep the public from knowing the army’s actions.
Shadow released Nante to his chambers, as she could see that the boy was going to collapse in a pile on the floor any moment. She also let Hahhimas go, proceeding to the infirmary on her own. There, she sat and talked to each wounded soldier, making a mental list of families to inform first thing in the morning. When she asked about Pritchard, several of the nurses told her that he wasn’t seriously wounded enough to stay in the hospital, and that he’d gone to his own chambers.
She was exhausted, but she couldn’t fall asleep until everything was in order. As she passed the gate, she saw that the sun was beginning to set. She needed to meet with the unit leaders as soon as possible, and they had been given several hours of sleep. Then again, they had been through an especially difficult battle today. She decided to give them a couple more hours of sleep, while she went and inventoried losses for the day.

CHAPTER 3

When Pritchard woke up, he saw through the small window in his stone room that the sun had just only gone down. For a moment, he considered giving into his aching body’s wishes and laying back down, but he knew that Shadow would soon be sending a messenger for him. She met with her unit leaders after every battle; the fact that it had already been as long as it had since they returned to Tuireadh was unusual.
Stiffly, he sat up and swung out of bed. His head was throbbing, and every muscle was sore from being thrown across the battlefield, but he pushed himself to change out of what remained of his blood soaked uniform and into another just like it. Looking at the discarded pile of torn and dirty clothes, he decided that the damage was beyond repair and to get it replaced. He sat back down on the bed, and was pushing his feet into his boots when one of Shadow’s messengers entered his room. He was so surprised to see him already awake, that Pritchard was able to speak before he recovered.
“I know, I know. Her ladyship requests my presence. I’m on my way.” The messenger saluted quickly and scampered back out the door. Smirking at the young man’s fear, he laced his boots tightly and started through the tunnels to the war council room. Just around a corner, Pritchard saw Hahhimas headed there as well, and the two began walking together. Neither looked at each other as they walked side by side down the long tunnel.
Though the two men were bound to each other by their duty to the Doyen and their lover for their commander, they each knew they were of different worlds. Pritchard was a living legend, a king among men. Hahhimas was also a legend, but shrouded in mystery from his association with the magic that was little known in this part of the world. Everyone knew that Pritchard came from one of the best families in Carnunrca; it was rumored that Hahhimas came from a long line of enchanters and enchantresses, but truthfully no one knew were the mage appeared from when the attacks from the Nacikates on Tuireadh increased. There was nothing approaching friendship between them, but there was no question that they respected each other deeply. Although Pritchard was a giant mass of solid muscle where Hahhimas was a lean, imposing tower, each was the only one in all of Carnunrca that could look at the other eye to eye; both towered over everyone else in a room. While he might not care about his background, Hahhimas recognized Pritchard as a superb fighter, and Pritchard was in awe of the mage’s power. But, most importantly, the knowledge that either would lay down their life for their general, the young woman that both of them loved as greatly as a father ever loved a daughter was manifested in an understanding and respect that nothing else could touch
Pritchard dreaded walking through the thick wooden doors that were before him and stepping into Shadow’s council. He had made a horrible mistake and he knew it; he knew she would bring it up. She had the decency and self-control not to chastise him in front of his men, that he was sure of. But she was without a doubt too good of a leader to let something as important and devastating as this go. Breathing deeply once, he strode into the room and sat across from Hahhimas at the massive table. He looked to his left down the table and saw that all of the unit leaders were already present. He hesitated, then looked to his right and saw Shadow standing at the head of the table, talking quietly to Hahhimas on her right.
Once the meeting started, everything moved rapidly. In her quick and efficient fashion, she praised the leaders, naming some in particular, for how the battle was handled and addressed problems in strategy and procedure. She did not keep them any longer than the issue required; soon she sent them back to their small rooms in the barracks. Hahhimas stayed in his seat as the men filed out of the room and watched Shadow for a minute, then got up and followed them out.
Pritchard was left sitting in his chair while she looked through a huge pile of papers that sat before her. As she made notes on each one, he tried to determine if she knew he’s stayed behind. After being ignored for several minutes, he quietly stood up and walked towards the door. Only then did she address him.
“Would you please explain to me what happened on the battlefield, Pritchard?” When he turned back to her she had silently stood up and was looking right at him.
“What exactly would you like me to explain, my lady?”
“I want you to tell me what happened when I blew my horn and Hahhimas attacked,” she leaned forward on the table and rested her hands on two piles of papers, “I am sure beyond any doubt that you did not deliberately endanger your soldiers or disobey my orders. I want you to tell me what did happen.”
“I couldn’t hear the call very well, and thought we were being instructed to attack.”
“Why couldn’t you hear very well?”
“I’d just fallen off my horse, my lady. Also, men were yelling and the Nacikates were screaming as the were attacked.”
“What about the men that followed you?”
“Some of them could hear and ran towards the hill. I thought they were running away.”
“What of the men that followed you?”
“I assume they misheard as I did.”
“Or simply trusted you to lead them, commander.”
“Possible, my lady.” Shadow sighed and stood up away from the table.
“In the future, carefully listen and think before you follow orders you couldn’t hear. Watch the people around you. If we have another problem like the one today, I might have you stay in Tuireadh and review horn messages the next time we ride to battle.”
“Yes my lady.” When she looked away, he turned and walked out the doors. He stayed calm until the doors closed, then stomped down the tunnel.
Even though he had been careful about containing his rage as long as he did, she still heard the slight pound of his angry footsteps walking away from her. For a quick second she thought about running after him and apologizing. Instead, she sat down into her chair, gripped the arms of it for a moment, then returned to her paperwork.

CHAPTER 4

Hahhimas was outside the tunnels, watching the guard duty change. The cluster of soldiers who had just climbed down the side of the mountain passed a lantern to the group that had come to relieve them, and walked through the mouth of the cave as the replacements climbed to the lookout tower. Their dark figures were profiled against the deep, bright blue of the sky.
He watched Pritchard brush past the tired lookouts as he stormed out of the tunnels. Hahhimas could see him shaking and clenching his fists. He knew what had been said to make him so mad; Pritchard’s pride was too great to easily except a rebuke of the magnitude that today deserved. He started to slip away, but Pritchard saw him and stalked over to where he stood. He didn’t say anything, only took a deep breath and leaned against the stone Hahhimas stood next to.
“You know she had to do it.”
“I know she did. That doesn’t make what she said any easier to bear.” Pritchard answered.
“Whatever she said, it was likely justified. It is her place to correct mistakes. In the end, any blame lands on her. She’s just doing what she can to make everything better.”
“What happened today wasn’t entirely my fault though.”
“Where you the only one she reprimanded? What about the unit leaders she called out? Do you see them out here fussing about their leader calling them on their mistake?” Pritchard snorted.
“They’re all unconscious in their cots.”
“You should follow their example. You look awful.” Pritchard looked at him, smirked, and turned to walk inside. Hahhimas moved for the first time, reaching out to grab his arm.
“You went through hell today. Don’t think she doesn’t know that. She’s been in enough battles to know what being that close to a loss like today’s feels like. And you were injured. You should have seen the look on her face when she first saw you. She thought you were dead, and it terrified her. Remember, she loves you as much as you do her. What she had to do wasn’t any easier on her than you.” Pritchard looked at him for a moment. Finally, he nodded, and his whole figure relaxed; he turned and went back through the mouth of the caves. Hahhimas turned back to the sky once before following him inside.