The Long March

Sato

After much pestering from Sato and Leo, Bruno had finally relented and granted their request. They were going to the front. Sato had been training nonstop with both Sensei and Gran for more than two months now. Not to mention his extra training on his own and with Leo. He was ready. 

Despite this, he could sleep a wink. He arose far too early, dressed, and did the only thing he could think to do. He got in some extra training. He had beaten the servants to raise. He wasn't hungry. He was fixated on one thing.

Leo and Bruno met him in the entry. Leo was dressed in his finest pressed red military regalia. Bruno, in his purple silks with a tiny leather vest and his signature serpentine spear. Neither bore any meaningful armour. Leo had a suit of plate. Sato had seen it. It was ornate and intricately scripted silver steel. Sato had never seen Bruno wear a plate of metal. 

Despite this, Captain Whitley, the captain of the guard, quickly drowned Sato in a sea of heavy mail, leathers, and plates. He was aided in the endeavor by Sier Armold, Sato's sworn sword and shield. He was topped with a nasal helm that obscured his view more than he preferred. Leo brought him Kintsugi. He had insisted on inspecting it the night prior to ensure it was ready for its first real challenge. As Sato sheathed the cracked black and gold blade, he heard the shadow whisper nothings to him. Hopefully, it would remain quiet when he needed to focus the most. 

Daniel wandered down the spiral steps, looking groggy. He was up as early as he had been, no doubt awakened by his servant. Captain Whitley ordered Sier Erest, Daniel's sworn knight, to dress him samely. He was handed a short sword he could hardly hold upright. Rebe had decided she would not be joining them. It made Sato sad. That the three of them would go out on their first real adventure together. At least she would be safe. Still, she met them in the yard along with the Princesses to see the party off. She wished Leo luck, who remarked he "had no need for such a thing." She turned to Sato.

"Come back to me alive, please, okay?" she requested. 

"Okay," was all Sato responded. He was in his head. Me? He wondered about her word choice. She asked Daniel to keep him out of trouble. Leo hugged and bid adieu to his beloved sisters. 

With that, the party departed through the great gates of the castle. Waiting in the courtyard was a motley retinue of men-at-arms and knights. There were easily 60 gathered, including 20 mounted on their komodon. Grooms held scaled horses for Sato and Daniel. Leo and Bruno mounted their true horses. Up high on his white mare, Leo didn't seem so young or small. He looked every bit the proud warrior prince. Like this was exactly where he belonged. 

Captain Whitley was already amount. He had command of this retinue. They mounted, Daniel gracefully enough on a familiar 'don, and Sato less so. He had not had much time for riding with his training regime. All the same, he managed without more than the stabilizing support of the hand of a groom. It seems Bucky was not fit for such a trot. He didn't recognize his komodon, but it was well-behaved enough. 

The party departed immediately through the courtyard gates, across the tiny drawbridge spanning the mini moat, through Hill Town, and out the town gate in a trail of dust and dirt. 

"We are avoiding airships so as not to notify our enemies of our arrival." Or so Daniel said as he galloped past the Chaff Sea and Chaffield and the Sawyer family's cottage. Apparently, only Earl kept an airship at Castle Hill, so the departure and arrival of it were easily monitored. Daniel admitted, "That it was a bit of a security flaw," and set himself to discussing it with Frenchie upon their safe return.

Sato was only half listening. While Daniel was blabbering about airships, he was still thinking about what Rebe had said. He had been so excited to go. When she told him she wasn't coming, he had asked her, for the first time now that he thought about it, about how her training was going. That wasn't very kind of him. 

Rebe had snapped and yelled at him that, "unlike him, she couldn't just pick up a fighting style and a profession in a few months." He had tried to tell her he was "far from a natural, as Leo so loved to remind him". That had only made her angrier. Supposedly, she had not taken well to any of the training she had undertaken. 

Despite his father and brother's military background, he had never touched a gun. He was fine with that. Rebe knew how to fire a gun, one of the few things her father had insisted on teaching her, but this training did not transfer to her archery ability. She miraculously managed to never hit a target even once with 100 arrows. The fletcher had groaned, and the master archer had admitted to never having seen worse accuracy, even from the blind. 

In her frustration, Rebe had decided not to join them. Leo deemed it prudent. Sato hadn't pushed his objection. He was conflicted. He wished she were with him, though he often did. Leo was probably right. She was safer at the castle. This was better.

The party rode through rolling hills, valleys, and farms until nightfall. They had long left the hills and valleys of the Chaff Sea. The land beyond the sea was not nearly so lively. It felt like a different, lonelier world. Long stretches of nothingness made up most of the land. Just sand, stone, and Rott. No trees, no fields, no villages near as prosperous as Chaffield. There were seldom few farmers and even fewer farms. Sato was crestfallen. Had it all been an illusion? Was this the work of the Undien?

The party made camp in a gravely gully. Some men set up big red and white tents while others gathered twigs from the treeless land for the large bonfire that other men were assembling. The Grooms tied to komodon to the tent posts, lacking for trees. They all settled around the bonfire as the sun subsided. The soldiers shared stories as they ate the hot barley stew the cook had prepared in a big black cauldron hanging above the blaze. Bruno and Leo took this opportunity to prepare the boys for what they would see on the following day.

"There is no preparing for the horrors of the battlefield. You will see unspeakable things. Not just death. Suffering, torture, disease." Leo explained. "You get numb to it but never used to it."

"You never forget your first time," Bruno added with a sly smile. His eyes did not share in his joke. The fire sparkled off his empty eyes. He was drinking from a fat wineskin filled with barley beer. He was drunk.

"That you do not." Leo agreed, completely oblivious to his guardian's innuendo. "I would have brought you if I did not have need of you. Sato, your Kintsugi could really help our men, if you feel you can manage it." Sato had been listening intently but silently.

"I want to help however I can. I've been practicing my healing arts a lot. I'm ready." Sato sounded equal parts excited and nervous. His voice wavered, but his conviction did not.

Leo wordlessly rolled up his sleeve, pulled his dagger from his belt, and nonchalantly ran the blade down the full length of his left arm. Blood quickly began to rush out. Bruno looked to Sato, unsurprised. Sato sprang to his feet, drew Kintsugi from its sheath, and paused. The shadow entered his ears and into his mind. He pushed past it.  He would not allow his Prince to bleed out here, on the dawn of battle. Not when they both had so much they still needed to do.  

Sato grabbed the back of the blade with his left hand, choking up his grip and steadying his sword-shaped scalpel. He plunged the blade into Leo's left arm. The gold flowed like liquid as he ran the blade downward. Sato remained focused. When Sato removed the blade, a thin gold line of the liquid remained in Leo's cut. The bleeding stopped. Leo inspected his arm, running his fingers through the fluid, which had already hardened, sealing the slice. 

"Finely done. But you may well need to be quicker and more precise next time. I am retiring for the night. Get some rest." Leo lowered his sleeves. 

Sato's shock began to subside. For a moment there, he had forgotten how to breathe. Despite Bruno and the boys still having merriment by the fire, Sato decided he should try to sleep. Again, sleep escaped him. He stared at his eyelids all night.