"Hah!" I screamed as I woke up. I was expecting to be alone in the tent, but found myself, opening my eyes to behold a good-looking stranger, sitting less than ten feet away from my bed.

Who is he? What does he want? Did Randall send him? Early this morning, Regalis and his close friends, left for the South. According to Regalis, they were going to investigate a certain matter and would be gone for a number of days.

"Who're you?" I asked, no longer interested in rubbing my sleepy eyes.

"Griffin, my lady" he stood up and bowed. Opened the cloak, he was wearing.

I let out a relief sigh. He was an Imperial servant, from the outfit he wore beneath the cloak. He most likely served Regalis. Despite this, he shouldn't have been in the tent. 'Cause, I often slept with barely enough cloth to cover my skin. I was only sleeping now with a blanket and thick clothes, covering every part of me, because of the intense cold, up here in this side of the North.

And so, I started to question him, to know why he would just sit here, while I slept, "why're you in..."

"Oh, fear not, my lady. Griffin is a lover of men. You need not think he's here for anything obscene" he spoke, referring to himself in the third person. "He only wanted to sit here and make sure that he doesn't miss you, when you wake up and decide to leave the tent".

My heart calmed down. "Miss me? What for?" I asked.

"His Highness assigned me to assist you today. Show you everywhere around the camp" he explained, grinning "I'm so excited about this" he said.

An hour later, with Griffin waiting outside the tent, I stepped out, having prepared myself for the day.

"Lots of men are here" Griffin said, "but soon, you'll get used to it".

And we started strolling. And as we walked, I noticed the camp was really really big. Much bigger than I had assumed when I first arrived. It had several corners and paths to several places. The training grounds. The recruit centre. It even had a river and a waterfall. It was just so enormous and well-organised.

As we strode along, we reached the dining centre for low-ranking soldiers. It was a large open space, filled with several tables and benches.

And at the moment, the low ranked soldiers were having their meal.

Joy, in the air, as laughter and noise came from multiple tables at once.

And as we were about passing by, the atmosphere in the dining centre changed, and screams filled the air.

Some soldiers started fleeing from the dining centre, while some, sped to the centre of the dining space, where I believed whatever just caused the catastrophe came from.

Griffin gripped one of the fleeing soldiers. "What happened? Why're you running?"

The soldier who was sweating profusely, panted out, "sorcery. Someone is using sorcery".

Impossible. I thought. If someone was using sorcery right now, in this place, I won't feel any iota of my Gift flowing through me. "Are you sur...?"

He didn't wait for me to finish and sped off.

Griffin tried to grip another fleeing soldier but, it proved futile. This was how much people dreaded sorcery, that even soldiers, who were ever ready to run into battle, fled so fast from it.

I thought to myself, as this wasn't sorcery at work, whoever was in the so-called grip of sorcery attack, has to be in danger of losing his life.

"We must find out, what's going on?" I told Griffin. As we marched passed the tables and benches, and reached where a crowd, the soldiers that did not flee, were gathered.

I forced my way through the crowd, and reached the front.

What I saw at the centre of the crowd, shocked me.

A man's hands were clutched to his throat. His eyes, wide. He could not talk. Noisy breathing. His skin, lips and nails, were turning blue.

This man was choking to death! And these soldiers thought dark magic was at work?

I pushed the soldier that moved to my front. And sped to the choking man on the ground.

I looked at Griffin. Quickly, we helped the man stand up. And helped him lean forward.

Swiftly, with my left hand across his chest, I used my right hand to give him five back blows, between his shoulder blades.

Then, swiftly, put my hands, round his belly, and did another five abdominal thrusts.

And the blockage in his throat was dislodged.

He spat out a chicken bone, he must've been eating while laughing, when the choking incident occurred.

And he started breathing freely! His eyes slowly regaining their brightness.

He turned back to look at me. "You saved me" he said.

"It's what anyone would..."

I didn't get to finish. He fell on his knees in front of me. He, along with three other men, who resembled him.

"Thank you, for saving our brother" they thundered.

I put my hands on their arms "please, stand up. There is no need for this".

They continued kneeling. "There is" the one, whom I believed was the oldest among them said.

"We really thought we'd lose another brother today" he said.

Another brother? So, they had lost a sibling in the past? Then, I was grateful to the gods that I could help this time. Again, they bowed, and finally, stood up.

"Our mother, though not here, will be grateful, you helped sustain the life of one of us" the second oldest said.

I smiled "though I haven't met her, it's an honour to put a lasting mark on her heart".

They laughed. And every other soldier present, did the same.

And soon, the former atmosphere of laughter and endless talk returned to the dining centre.

And then, as the men separated from me, something dawned on me. A lot of men had been here having breakfast, yet, not even a single one had the basic skill to recognise when one was severely choking.

Perhaps, the choking, they were used to, was people around them, just coughing, and then, the blockage in their throat is vomited out, however, like today, choking could require more than coughing, to let go of the individual it traps.

I shook my head. Watching as two men with open wounds on their arms, used a jug of water to rinse the wound. With the way, the injury looked, it was definitely not this particular day, that the soldiers sustained it.

I turned to Griffin, "why're they just rinsing the wound and not going to either the healing mage or unGifted physician?"

Griffin shrugged. His pink lips, shining "King Randall" he said "he likes to keep Gifted healers around him. So, most of them reside in the Capital" he said.

Not so surprised. Randall had his fair share of haters. To ensure his safety, healers had to be readily available.

"But...this is King Randall's army too" I said.

Griffin replied, "in case, you haven't heard or noticed, my lady. King Randall thinks only of himself".

My eyes went back to the injured soldiers. I can help these soldiers, using my Gift, I thought. But then, recalled, that I could leave the military camp at anytime soon, and at that time, these soldiers will have to go back to this current lifestyle - simply rinsing off any injury they sustain.

"And the unGifted physicians?" I asked.

"Oh. We have them" Griffin answered.

"And?"

"Soldiers are many. So, more often than not, it's the higher-ranked soldiers that the unGifted physicians attend to".

"What?" I said, appalled. "So, what if, a lower-ranked soldier was dying, and there was also a higher-ranked soldier who was simply injured, who will the physician attend to first?"

Griffin kept quiet. And that made me know the answer. The physician would attend to the higher ranking officer. I bit my lips. To prevent me from saying something I will regret.

"It's the way things work in the military" Griffin explained "King Randall's law considers the life of a higher ranking soldier more important than that of a lower ranked".

I looked at him "you don't believe that, do you?"

He kept quiet.

"All lives are important" I said. And a part of my mind whispered, except if, one life has to end, for hundreds (my Marjol people) to survive. Was I a hypocrite? Preaching every life should be valued, yet, considering the idea of terminating one, because of another life.

I chose not to think any further on this, "a quill and a sheet, please" I said.

"Yes, my lady" he ran off to get it.

And within an hour, I wrote down a long list of herbs and plants that could be used for injuries that I chose to class as, minor injuries. These were wounds that when sustained, if you take care of yourself, using the right herbs, or ointment, or lotions, from the right parts of plants, you won't get infected and soon, you'll get restored to sound health, all without seeing a physician.

The next day, early in the morning, Griffin and I entered the vegetation surrounding the camp. And began, picking the long list of herbs I wrote down. I didn't want to forget a single one. By noon, we were done. We had baskets and baskets of plants.

However, I knew one thing. No matter how much plants I picked, I couldn't pick enough for the number of soldiers I hoped to help.

And so, I did this, asked the Walter brothers (the family of the 'choking man' ) to help me out. They were excellent at drawing diagrams. They took the herbs or plant, and drew them. Drew them to the last detail. Every line or curve on it, they drew. And in front of each herb they drew, I described how they smelled, to make it easy to identify, and then, I labelled the name of the plant and the purpose it served; be it for cold, cough, running nose, sore throat, diarrhoea or open wounds, the purpose was written. And the parchment papers containing the diagrams and purposes were pasted in different places, round the camp.

None of the low-ranking soldier needs to suffer from diarrhoea for days anymore, before he could be seen by the unGifted physician.

Along with the parchment papers, I explained that for extra caution, after the soldiers go and pick the herb for their particular problem, they could come and meet me, to be fully certain that they had picked the right plant.

And so, for the first few days, almost no one came to ask about the right herbs. I wasn't exactly surprised, after all, many of the soldiers were only humouring my presence in the camp, because of Regalis. Had it not been for him, I believe they'd still hold their ground that the camp was no place for a woman. Even if, she was a healer.

However soon, after a few days, when I had helped treat about ten persons, the number of those coming to see me, increased. Word was spreading, that the herbs I recommended, worked and that I truly knew my way, medical-wise.

As the soldiers picked the herbs, and made ointments from it, the plants they used, stuck to their minds. And if another time, they sustain an open wound again, they could easily locate the plant they had once used and make the needed salve or ointment, by themselves, all over again. There by, protecting themselves from the infection they'd have gotten, had they continued their lifestyle of simply rinsing their wounds.

Nowadays, when they came to ascertain a plant, they came in groups. And so, I knew it was time to achieve my next goal. For I knew deep inside, that if these soldiers weren't assisted, it was the lower-ranked ones, who would suffer.

As they came in groups, before answering their questions about the plant to be used. I chose to teach them basic, but some very important life-saving procedures. Such as, the one I used on the Walter brother, when he was choking. The five back blows. And the five abdominal thrusts.

Then, taught them too, how to revive someone who drowned or swallowed excess water. There was a river and a waterfall here, accidents could happen, they had to be prepared to aid their colleague.

At first, I thought it would be difficult, but soon, I found out, that as I taught a group of five, the group of five, went to teach a group of ten, and a group of ten, taught a group of twenty, and on and on, it went.

And you wouldn't believe how delighted I was to arrive at a drowning scene one time, and learn that the drowner who accidentally slipped, was revived, by his friend, using the procedure I taught.

'Cause had they waited, till either I or one of the unGifted physicians arrived, to save the unconscious patient, several minutes would have passed. Minutes, where the patient's brain wasn't receiving any breath. And at that point, I sure do know, even I, can not resurrect a dead person.

For injuries that required stitches, I did it too where a group was. Stitching slowly, and with very clean hands, so, the soldiers could learn, as I stitched and gave instructions.

For officers whose ill-health could not be treated by unGifted means (use of herbs, ointment, salves and lotions), I used my Gift. Soldiers, who had not returned to their homes, despite being unable to fight again, due to broken spine or paralysis, I restored back to full health with my Gift.

Moments like this, I was grateful for magic. And to the Mother of Light, that out of the millions in the world, I was among those, she blessed with the healers' Gift. And though, the Gifted healing task, took a toll on my energy and strength, as certain Gifts had side-effects, such as, exhaustion or severe tiredness, nonetheless, as always, my greatest joy was seeing the smiles on the faces of the soldiers, after they get healed. As most of them, have given up on ever walking again, after multiple unGifted physicians declared them, paralysed for life.

And lastly, for officers, who lost a limb. I had their soldier friends fell down wood, so that, better support and crutches would be made to aid them.

And soon, in the camp, wherever I went, every low-ranking officer sang my praise, saying, I didn't take their rank as consideration for who got healed first, but instead, I used the severity of an injury to determine whose life I saved first.

And so, to the low ranking soldiers, though I was a woman, with obviously no penis between my legs, I had proven myself, proven my worth, and brains.

And now, they agreed on one thing: I now fully deserved to stay in the military camp, as much as them.

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