Return of the General's Daughter
Chapter 87: He Heard Me

Chapter 87: He Heard Me

Lara rose unsteadily to her feet, her legs trembling from the prolonged strain of kneeling on the hard ground. The makeshift bed, an arrangement of tattered blankets and a thin mat, sat unusually low, forcing her to remain in a crouched position for what felt like an eternity.

The dim light flickered around her, casting shadows that danced across the room.

"Bener." She called.

"Can you boil water? Please put it in a canteen."

Most soldiers she saw were using gourds to carry water. She used bamboo tubes. She noticed that the Norse siblings, the lieutenants, and the generals were carrying metal water canteens, which she estimated to carry one liter of water.

"How’s my brother," Bener asked from the outside. His voice was laced with worry. He had seen his brother’s condition and prepared himself for the eventuality that his brother would not make it.

"He is in a coma," Lara said, trying to mask the choke in her voice with the indifference that doctors would have.

She took her bamboo tube water supply, added salt and sugar, and used cotton to moisten Asael’s lips. She could not force water on him. She wished she had an IV or an injection but in this era...

Lara sighed deeply. All she could do was wait. She removed her surgical gown, which still reeked of ethyl alcohol and hung it in the pole that supported the tent. She dabbed it with alcohol earlier in her attempt to make it sterile as soon as possible.

"Bener, Aramis. I’ll catch some sleep. Try to rest, both of you." She raised her voice as she lay down the mat beide Asael’s bed.

Silence enveloped the inside of the tent.

Moments later, the man lying still on the bed moved his lips.

"Sister.."

Lara, in a state of wakefulness, thought she heard a weak voice.

"Sis.."

It was just above a whisper.

The camp lay shrouded in an enveloping stillness, broken only by the rhythmic snores of Aramis and Bener outside the tent. Their breaths mingled with the nocturnal symphony that surrounded them. A distant hoot of an owl added to the enchanting tapestry of sound, creating a serene harmony that danced on the cool night breeze.

Lara felt disoriented. She just drifted into sleep a few minutes ago. The crackling sound of the bonfire outside reminded her that she was at a camp on the eastern slope of Mount MarNubes.

"Lara... Sis..." A gentle voice, barely more than a whisper, reached her ear, stirring her from the depths of sleep.

Startled, she shot upright, her heart racing, and found herself kneeling beside the bed as if propelled by an invisible force. It was dark outside. Only the soft glow of the moonlight and flickers from the distant bonfire filtered through the narrow opening of the tent, casting a delicate silvery hue across the room and illuminating the shadows that danced in the corners.

"Asael, you’re awake! You need to drink water." Lara exclaimed.

She reached out for the bamboo tube she prepared earlier. Lara cradled his head to raise it a bit, and she helped him drink bit by bit.

Asael was in so much pain. It was the pain that woke him up. As Kane fed him water bit by bit, he remembered the words that had guided him out of the darkness until he saw the light.

It was his sister’s voice that kept telling him he must not die, that he must survive because she did not die, and she survived.

When he awoke, however, it was just Kane. Maybe he was hallucinating. Weren’t people at death’s door said to be seeing and hearing things?

Asael closed his eyes and lapsed into unconsciousness.

"Brother!"

Lara sighed. But it was good that Asael had woken up. It was a good sign.

When morning came, Lara was disappointed because after the one time Asael woke, he lapsed back into a coma.

Lara asked Aramis to watch Asael while she accompanied Bener to the command center, which was a bigger tent than the rest.

"Uncle," Bener started. "It was very chaotic yesterday that we didn’t have a chance to talk properly." Bener stood respectfully in front of a general who somehow resembled General Odin. However, he was slightly leaner and was just as tall as Bener, which meant he was half a ruler shorter than General Odin.

"Father was worried about why Uncle was delayed by more than a day; hence, he sent Asael’s eagle team to check on the situation here."

"But someone sent a message saying we should camp here and wait until the next message was sent, " the general protested.

"But Uncle, Father never sent that message."

"Is that so?" The uncle’s expression turned thoughtful. "Then, someone must be trying to sabotage us."

Lara observed the general closely. The general noticed a piercing gaze from the side and turned his head sharply to his left.

He froze when he met Lara’s brown eyes, which seemed the color of amber from his angle.

Bener noticed his uncle’s strange gaze on Kane. He must have found his looks so similar to that of Asael.

"Kane, this is my uncle, my father’s first cousin. His name is General Marlon Norse. He is the father of Merlin Norse..." Bener hadn’t finished his introduction when Lara cut him in.

"The man who brought disaster to you and Asael?" Lara asked.

General Norse felt the sarcasm in his voice.

"Watch your word, young man. I don’t like its tone." the general’s voice rose a pitch higher.

"Uncle, I.. Kane." Bener felt the tension in the air and did not know how to diffuse it.

"I am just telling the truth, Bener. Isn’t he the reason why Asael is still hanging by the balance even as we speak? Yesterday, you were surely winning against the Zuran’s soldiers. But because he is incompetent, he got hostaged and caused you to lose one of your men and almost cost your life as well."

"You!" General Norse lost his composure when he raised his voice. "How could you, a mere soldier, talk to me, a General like that?"