Henry turned his gaze towards me, "Wait in here, while I go and investigate," he said.
I grabbed his arm and held him in place, before he could leave the tent, "No, the doctor just said that you need three days of rest, literally like a minute ago. Remember that!?"
"I'm not going to do anything, I'm just investigating," Henry said, but didn't attempt to remove the hand I had coiled tightly around his bicep.
"No need to worry," the doctor with the icy blonde hair reassured us and came up behind us. He placed a hand on either of our shoulders, "It's just the supply party coming back from getting food."
"Oh," I said, and let go of Henry's arm. The doctor let his hands drop away from us, and both Henry and I turned to face him.
The doctor smiled warmly at us. "They go out once a week and do some hunting and gathering. Almost all the big game has been scared out of the valley, due to the large concentration of people here. Any edible plants have been picked and eaten already, and so has any herbs with medicinal properties. It's not easy feeding 10,000 mouths."
My mouth formed into an O, "Ten thousand people!?" I mouthed. I mean, I had seen that there were a lot of people here when I flew in on Vivian's dragon, but I hadn't realized that there were that many. This camp didn't look like it contained 10,000 people.
"There are a lot of people who chose to live back in the forest, instead of in the main camp," he explained, "And a bunch of people even got together and built their houses underground!"
"Still, that's a lot of people to be living in tents all year long in one spot. And surely you can't get everything you need for all these people in one place. "
"It is, and that's why this isn't our only camp. There are two other ones too, both stationed in different areas. Their job is to provide resources for this one. This camp is called Strong Pine, and it's also the largest of the three and The others are Blue Fish and Fire Rock.
"How many able-bodied troops at each?" Henry inquired, and I turned my face slightly so I could see his face and whatever expression may cross it. His reaction to what the man said would indicate how much of a chance this rebellion had at succeeding.
"In this camp, we have about 7,000, and I think that the other two camps have 4,000 combined. That makes for a total of 11,000 fighters."
Henry's eyes slid over to me, and he shook his head. I felt my heart sink. So we didn't have much of a chance, huh?
"Unless you were to summon the dead, just like your father," the little voice in the back of my mind reminded me. "Then you would win, and it would cost only a couple of lives. Think how many people would die, the people you love could die!"
"The people I love?" I muttered softly and then gave my mind a mental shake. What was I thinking! I couldn't do that!? Right??
"But that isn't quite enough men, is it?" Henry said, glancing up at the doctor. "How many dragons do we have, griffins, mist reindeer?"
"I'm not sure about the answer to either of those things; armed forces aren't my specialty. I'm more worried about how much singing-root, fairy-queen, and aloe, we have," the doctor told us, "And if you would excuse me," he said and motioned to the people on the tables behind him, "I must get back to work."
"Oh, please do!" I said, realizing that the more he talked to us, the more his other patients had to wait to be treated.
The doctor pointed at Henry, "Remember, three days of rest," he moved his finger to me, "You remember that too, and make sure he gets it," he said, and I nodded.
"Jason! Where are you?" Tears had begun to appear in the corners of her blue eyes. Magic had begun to leak out of her body as her emotions were taking over her...
"You don't have to worry about that," I lopped both of my arms around his middle and squeezed, much to Henry's annoyance. I smiled up at him, "Right, Henry?"
Henry mumbled something under his breath. I couldn't make out exactly what it was, but it didn't sound too nice.
I pushed away from and cocked my head to the side, "What did you just say to me?" I asked, letting my voice become a little icy.
"Alright, just back off," he growled, and I smiled in satisfaction.
"Thanks," I said and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
The doctor had just turned away from us when the flap of the tent flew open, and two men came staggering inside while supporting the third man between them. All three looked like they've been through hell. Their exposed skin was bruised and marred by scratches, and their clothing looked like they had gotten into a fight with a pack of vicious scissors. They were torn to shreds! And as my eyes traveled down to the men's feet, I noticed the one in the middle had no feet at all! Where his feet should've been was nothing more than mangled flesh and bones.
I felt the tent tilt ever so slightly, and I began to lean into Henry, and suddenly I was leaning too much. Henry grabbed me on either side of my shoulder and steadied me on my feet.
The blonde-haired doctor's eyes widened at the sight of the men. "Dr. Nightingale, I need your assistance!" he shouted and ran towards the beaten men.
My ears perked at the familiar name. With Henry still supporting a majority of my weight, I turned my head just enough to see the man that I hadn't seen since the night of Danny's accident. His eyes locked onto mine through the thick-rimmed spectacles, which were perched high on the bridge of his nose, and he nodded his head in acknowledgment before coming to the blonde doctor's assistance.
"Come on, let's go!" Henry said, pulling me closer to me and wrapping one arm tightly around my middle, and guiding me through the flaps of the blue medical tent. Once inside, I inhaled the fresh air outside.
I pushed on Henry's side with my hands, "I'm alright now, that was just a little too much gore for me," I said, and he removed his arm from me. I stepped away from him and surveyed the scene in front of us. Dragons of all colors and mist reindeer, with their golden horns and white fur, lay on the ground. Men and women alike gathered around them and unloaded canvas bags and animal carcasses from their backs. I noticed a couple more men with scratches covering them, but there was none of the gore I had seen in the tent. I notice that none of the women had scratch marks on them, strange.
"Daughter!" Someone called loudly, and I looked up to see the figure dressed in all black, wearing a black cape, approaching me fast. The figure had straight black hair and eyes the same color as mine.
I blinked, trying to come to terms with the visage, but then my brain caught up with my eyes. "Neeva!" I said loudly and jogged over to my father. I threw my arms around him, while he awkwardly hugged my back.
"Are you well? How has the year in the other world been?" he asked me, like my crossing over the veil to the two worlds had been a planned trip, which it hadn't, kind of. Technically, I had voluntarily crossed over, but I would've rather not.
"I felt your presence in this world, and heard news from your mom yesterday, but I had not expected to see you so soon!"
We both pulled away from the hug and looked at each other, smiling.
"Ah, it was different, but glad to be back," I answered. That's when I noticed the rips in his clothes."
"Do you mind me asking what happened?" I asked, taking the cape in my hand and examining it. It had more holes in it than Swiss cheese.
"Yes, you mean how my clothing received its injuries?" he asked.
"Sure..." I said, pondering over his strange wording. Come to think of it, he always talked strangely, like how he called me daughter, instead of Violet. Oh yeah, I had confronted him on that before, oops! I let the cape fall from my hands.
"We were coming back from our hunt when we ran into a pack of, what the people in the current times call, these creatures, griffins. They went after our man because they don't crave female flesh. We were able to shake them, but many of us were injured. One woman was taken, but we managed to get her back," he nodded at me.
"Um, Dad, can I ask you a question?"
"Yes, you may, daughter," he answered.
I bit my lip nervously. "Did you...ummm...how do I ask this? Did you get my mom pregnant again?"
Neeva smiled at me broadly, causing crinkles beside his dark purple eyes. "Yes, we joined again and had a second child. A brother, or a sister for you."
I felt my face turn red, and Henry coughed uncomfortably from beside me. "Okay, forget I just asked that!? But-"I ran at him a full force, and threw my hands out in front of him. I hit his chest with the palms of my hands and pushed him hard. His face filled with surprise, and he took a couple of stumbling steps backward, "How can you bring more of us into this world!" I yelled into his face, You would think you would've learned from the first time!"
"Well, daughter, it is because I was convinced that you weren't going to reenter this world, at least for a while."
I scrunched my face up in confusion. "And why does that matter?" I asked, wasn't it better if I wasn't in this world!?"
"They needed another powerful Halfling to close the rips in the veils that your departure left!"
"What does that mean!?" I asked him.
"Have you not seen the black vortexes in the sky?" he responded.
"No I've seen them before, we flew past one," I answered.
"Violet, they need a powerful Halfling, like one that possesses the power of the fifth element !" Henry said, "I love you, but gods, it's not that hard to figure out! Since they lost theirs, " he gestured to me, "they had to make a new one to replace the original."
I jerked my head towards Henry, "You don't have to be so rude!" I snarled, half tempted to slap him.
I turned to Neeva, "So because I wasn't here, you decided to have a replacement child to do it?"
"Yes," he answered, "Your mother was also grieving you terribly. She needed someone to help her forget you. That is one of the reasons I embraced her again so soon,"
" Okay, I'm going to pretend that doesn't upset me. But why the desperation to close those things so much? What harm are they causing, besides the fact that they are scary looking, and probably killing tourism?"
"Because Greta has already begun to send people through them to the other world," Neeva replied.