Lianne thought it would take forever to reach the rebels and she was right...
They seemed to have walked through about three forests by now but she kept walking while the elite people rode on horseback.

And to make matters worse, dark thunder clouds had begun forming and all this armor was beginning to weigh down on Lianne.

And that's when she heard it...

"To war!" A familiar young male voice roared, and it carried as the warrior took it up till it reached Lianne's ears, and she nearly sobbed.

Soon after the world erupted into the chaos of war. The clashing of swords and screams of dying men resonated throughout Lianne's entire body, and she shook as Iciz led her away toward the back as the thousands of warriors rushed forward to assist in a battle Lianne could not see, but could definitely hear.

Lianne covered her ears from the awful screams and agonized shrieks of the dying. The ground seemed to shake as horses and men alike ran into battle but as the army advanced, Lianne immediately noticed the shocking amount of bodies being left behind.

There were so many, Lianne rushed forward to the nearest fallen warriors as the battle continued far ahead.
It was a female in her late twenties with dark raven hair, two small delicate curled horns adorned her head and she gasped as her blood gushed out of a knife wound at her side.

Lianne immediately dropped to her knees and applied pressure to the wound, the female screamed in pain, and Lianne's eyes watered at her anguished face.

"Iciz! Can you please tear her shirt, I need a strip to hold this pressure in place!" Lianne screamed above the sounds of the battlefield.

Iciz stared at Lianne for the longest time, before finally dropping to his knees, and tearing the female's shirt which Lianne used to tie around the women's waist to stop the bleeding.

Lianne would have to clean the wound later, with the lack of medical supplies Lianne needed to save those with wounds that would heal naturally in time. Lianne quickly moved on to the next breathing warrior, a young male with fangs who had a dagger stuck in his midsection.
It embedded him to the ground "princess, please" the male begged with teary green eyes, chin-length blonde hair caked with blood, and Lianne immediately rushed forward, barely escaping Iciz's hold.

She dropped to her knees before him and without giving herself time think, pulled the blade out in one fluid motion and the male warrior screamed into the sky, and oddly enough it started to pour down rain. Lianne prayed it was unrelated.

"Please, please princess, I will pledge myself to you, just please save me!" The man moaned out in pain and Lianne in her haste to save him nodded frantically. And that is when the man gripped her wrist forcefully and brought it to his mouth, and before Lianne could free herself, he sunk his sharp fangs deeply into her flesh.

Lianne screamed as her flesh tore open and the man hungrily gulped at her golden blood, but just as suddenly Iciz yanked Lianne away.

"The hell do you think you were doing!" Iciz yelled at Lianne

Abruptly the man—who seconds before had a deadly wound—now stood perfectly healthy and snarled "Don't fucking talk to the princess like that!" And yanked Lianne away and pushed her behind him protectively, Iciz stared in shock at the man.

"You...you pledged yourself!" Iciz gasped and the man simply nodded fiercely, unashamed of whatever it was Iciz accused him of.

Lianne didn't know what to think and honestly didn't much care, her wrist felt fine as the skin was already beginning to seal,  and this man was alive so this was a win in her books.

Ignoring both men Lianne continued her search for signs of life in the piles of fallen warriors left behind in the wake of war.

So many casualties, so so many.

And that's how Lianne ended up crying as she treated as many warriors as she could, but mostly, they just kept dying and every death slowly killed her inside.

Suddenly though, as the sun hid behind the Mountains and moon rose the fighting stopped. The night was plunged into eerie silence except for the moaning of the fallen.

It broke Lianne's heart.

"Why aren't they fighting?" Lianne asked the two men who trailed her everywhere " The night has risen, so the fighting has ceased till tomorrow" Iciz responded coolly, he was still mad about the whole fang thing.

Lianne took this time to drag most of the warriors she deemed would hopefully survive into the safety of the woods, some walked themselves while others where carried.

When Lianne and the two men had carried all the wounded to safety that's when Lianne finally dropped to her knees in front of all the wounded.
She buried her face in her hands and let the tears stream down freely. So so many dead, and she hadn't been able to save them, what killed her the most was the fact she could've saved nearly all of had she had proper equipment.

And what if Casper was lying face down in some ditch?

She had become a nurse to save lives but life had a cruel way of making it even more determined to steal the life out of people right before Lianne's eyes.

This was all too much for her, she felt like she was being choked, as though her life was all a big joke.

"Shhhhh" she heard the man gently coo at in comforting noises "it's alright" he said while rubbing Lianne's back which only made her body shake with a loud sob.

"It's not alright, I'm supposed to save them! I was supposed to heal them," Lianne sobbed on and on till the night sky now resonated with the moans of the wounded and her heartbroken sobs.

"You saved me, you healed me," the man whispered softly "and you took care of these warriors, they would be left to die...it is the Aquiline way." 

Lianne shook but made herself look at the man, he had a gentle face framed with golden blonde hair which just barely touched his shoulder, while one side of his head was shaved short. All this was topped off with high cheekbones, and soft green eyes that searched her own. "What's your name?" She asked.

"I am Soren, second in command to the General's regiment" Soren said with a slight bow of his head.

"Were. You used to be the second in command" Iciz said in a clipped tone "Now Soren is simply a warrior, he threw away his standing the minute he sunk his fangs into your blood," he snapped.

Soren went rigged "And in doing so, I was able to help the princess save dozens of my warriors. Dozens of my family " Sorens eyes glowed in the night as his jaw worked in fury.

But before Iciz could respond his features seemed to go blank, and his icy blue eyes glazed over in what Lianne thought was the creepiest thing she'd seen.

Then abruptly he returned to normal and immediately spoke " My brother has informed me the King requires your presence"

Informed him! How the frick did his brother tell him anything!

"Telepathically," Soren said softly to Lianne, guessing what she thought " If it is alright with you princess, I would like to stay with the wounded while you go meet the king"

Lianne nodded " That would be best, and please call me Lianne" she offered him a weak smile before taking Iciz's outstretched hand.

He cradled her to his chest and then they burst upwards into the night sky, his lights grey--nearly white--wings flapping powerfully till they were uncomfortably high up, and Lianne found herself struggling to calm her thundering heart.

Iciz then swooped down and glided to an area beyond the wreckage of the battlefield, where a large black tent stood, and landed with a huge gush of wind that made the tent flaps shake.

"Iciz, don't tear the tent down!" A voice shouted before appearing out of the tent and Lianne noticed he was the spitting image of Iciz, except whereas Iciz was light with blond hair--almost white in the right lighting-- and fair skin, his brother had brown hair and dark brown eyes with wings darker than the night.

Iciz only gave his brother a lazy grin "Oh shush Ivan, I've brought the girl," he said while handing Lianne to Ivan like a package or something.

Lianne bristled as she shook out of Ivan's grasp " I can walk by myself, thank you very much," she said with a bite and Ivan grinned down at her curiously before opening the tent flap for her.

What met Lianne's eyes was dozens of men gathered around a large table (where in the hell did they get a table!??)
The king stopped arguing with his generals and commanders when she walked in, instead he narrowed his eyes at her body.

Lianne looked down at herself to discover her armor drenched in blood, in fact, blood and dirt covered every inch of her body, caking her Auburn hair with so much dirt and grime it looked brown. Except for the trails on her cheeks where she'd cried the grime clean everything else was filthy.

Someone stood at the edge of the table and moved with lightning speed to her side, and it was only then Lianne noticed it was Roman, and she practically hissed at him. Roman ignored her completely as he leaned down to take a lengthy sniff of Lianne, lingering a tad bit longer than necessary at her exposed neck. His eyes widened in surprise before turning to face the king "Not her blood my king, she's covered in the blood of many others,"

"Of course I am!" Lianne snapped and shoved Roman further away and he ruffled his wings in irritation, seemingly frustrated at the distance she always insisted upon.

"We will discuss..." King gestured to the bloody mess known as Lianne "this later,"

This comment earned Lianne some very questionable looks from those gathered, and she arched her brow at everyone in return-- silently challenging them--before the king continued. "But at the moment I need someone to help the princess into something clean before we ride out to meet the rebels," 

Lianne didn't hear a word, instead, she searched the gathered men and only found unfamiliar faces...no.

"Where is Casper?" Lianne immediately said, startling everyone into somber silence, and no one said a word.

"Where is he? why isn't anyone answering me!?!" Lianne shouted in hysteria, the events of today making her lose any sense of restraint over her emotions.  

"Because he hasn't been seen since a spear threw him off his pegasus," Roman stated in cool emotional detachment. " he would have returned by now had he still lived...He's dead" he said flatly and Lianne's ears rang.

Her vision blurred at the cruelty of these men living, while they sent off a young man to die just so he'd fight their battles.

Cowards! they were all cowards.

They watched her now, as she struggled to hold in a sob, and then she turned to leave but not before Ivan tried to stop her.

"If you fucking touch me again I'll tear your throat out with my bare hands!" She screamed at Ivan who flinched back, in fact, everyone gathered watched lianne like she'd gone crazy.

She ran into the battlefield, through the piles and piles of bodies Lianne searched. She searched for the boy who'd told her she would be fine, who had told her she had nothing to fear.

Lianne couldn't quite explain this overprotectiveness she felt, as though Casper was her little brother. She knew he wasn't but he was the only one besides Ri who had shown her a bit of kindness.

Besides, Casper should be king, he was perfect for the role.

"Casper!" Lianne screamed out his name, but there was no reply.
But Lianne didn't stop, she kept searching the through the bodies, praying she'd see his face among the many faces of the dead. But then again, praying he'd alive.

"CASPER!" Lianne screamed, her voice cracking when she didn't hear a reply. Lianne shook the heavy exhaustion from her body and continued going through the awful carnage of the dead, men and horses alike littered the ground. She remained blissfully unaware of the burning gazes of those who'd been in the tent, they all witnessed her anguished sobs as she turned over bodies, and removed helmets in her effort to find their prince.

No one said a word, they all knew he was died. Let the princess deal with it in her own way.