"Welcome to Black Fire Fortress."

As we approached the gate it opened slowly with a loud creak. Only once we were through the gate itself did the horses begin to slow down. As we moved through the fort i noticed people"s gaze first looking in awe at the knights then seeing us who were clearly not knights there expressions changed to one of confusion.

Eventually we stopped in what looked like the stables as there were piles of hay scattered around and areas for horses to be kept. There were wooden water troughs as well scattered around. We all dismounted. I nearly fell over and my feet hit the floor. My legs and my a.s.s felt like they were lead.

"Ajax, take them to the infirmary to make sure their wounds don"t get infected and get them cleaned up."

The knight Ajax looked at us indicated for us to follow him. As we were about to leave the commander of the knights yelled out again. "Get them out of the blood soaked kit first." Ajax smiled. Gave a quick salute then led us two what he called the baths. When we got to where he was leading us I realised what he called the baths was just a bucket of water. Standing where he told us to. He pulled on an old weathered rope. This led to the plank of wood above us to point down letting out a torrent of ice cold water. I looked down straight away to stop the water getting into my eyes. Looking down I could see the water turning into a deep shade of red as it washed the blood off of us.

"Hahaha. You don"t stink of that foul blood anymore. I can finally talk to you without gagging. Come on, I"ll show you the way." It turned out that the giant looking, scarred man was more friendly than I thought he would be by looking at him. As he took us to the infirmary he told us a bit about the fort. It turned out it was from the early days of the Imperium. It was meant to serve as an outpost to warn and slow any invasions.

Then we arrived outside of a thick door. It has no distinguishing features at all. All there was, was a red handle on the door. "Alright, this is where I will leave you all. I wish you the best of luck in the future. You will all make brilliant soldiers I think." Ajax walked off waving his hand goodbye. I looked around at the others.

"Let"s get this done then." I pushed open the door without any trouble surprising me when I looked at its size. Going in we entered a spotless room. It was surprisingly clean for an infirmary.

A man in full white clothes walked in. "So why are you here then?" He was rather small but his presence gave a surprising calming aura among all of us.

"We are here under orders, to make sure that we haven"t sustained any major wounds and have our wounds cleaned out."

We followed him into a hallway which had doors running down the side. "Each of you go into a room. There will be someone to come see you shortly." I ended up in room number eight. There wasn"t much in it but a bed to lay on. There was also a mirror and some water. There was a window in the back of the room which enabled the room to be filled with natural light.

As I was going to look outside of the window I heard the door behind me open up. Turning around I saw a woman in white walk into the room. Instead of trousers like the man she was wearing a skirt. "Please sit down on the bed." I did as she said. Then looking at my armour that I still hand. She frowned slightly. Muttering some words under breath. A flame appeared on the top of one of her fingers. It then turned into a very small blade. She used it to cut off my armour which fell to the floor with a bang. It revealed the linen top I had underneath. Well it was more linen rags now as there were numerous rips all over it. Then using the flame she made a few small cuts on my top causing it to fall off my body revealing my upper half of my body.

She let out a small gasp seeing my torso. Looking down I understood her gasp very clearly. I was covered in small cuts and sc.r.a.pes. There was also lots of bruising on the side of my body where I had been chucked by Jason before he was killed. What surprised me most was that I had not felt any of this at all. Like it was new that I was looking at it, the pain came all at once. Feeling it I feel backwards on to the bed while letting out a gasp.

I heard an angelic voice at that moment. "Wait here, I will go get some materials to help you." I didn"t hear her leaving or coming back. I found out that she was back when I saw her face appear above me. My heart froze for a moment as I looked at her. She was beautiful. Her skin was a darker shade than mine so she probably came from somewhere out of the kingdom. Seeing me gaze so intensely at her face she blushed. Her face looked like it was her who had been in the battle not me. Then she applied something onto my cuts. My face froze. "Ahhhhhhhhhh," I yelled out in pain. Then she applied some bandages onto them before applying the same paste like a slave to my bruised side. Although the pain wasn"t as intense it still hurt alot.

Just before she left she looked back at me. "I am Sam by the way."

Then I blacked out. By the time I had come to the room was pitch black. Slowly dragging myself out of the bed. I went to the window looking outside. The fort walls had lots of red lights going all the way along. I could also see some soldiers on patrol in the streets with torches in their hands. It seemed peaceful, if I hadn"t known any better I would have thought that this was an inland fort where there was no danger present. Not a fort on the border pof one of the most dangerous places in this area of the world.

Seeing that there was no reason to carry on being awake I decided to try and get some more sleep. Getting back into bed I drifted to sleep with thoughts in my head of the woman called Sam.