Una Di On Ta Milotia Criatosia

The battle had been hard won… the skirmishes at the Eldin border worse every day…
But there was something like desperation in the air around the enemy forces.
They fought harder every time, even as their numbers very clearly waned and their forces grew thin along the border.
They battled as though they were the avatars of their god, determined to throw themselves against the tide of Kandia swords and spears, against the cliffside that was their perfectly uniform, universally mastered shield walls.
And the forces that struck against the Leconia every week or so took less and less to drive back each time.   No longer were the Eldinia attacking in good cavalry formation to SMASH the Kandia shield walls and open the lines of Leconia to be stricken by their fast moving, light infantry.
Nor were they using the old harrying tactics that had so hideously kept the Kandia at bay in years past.
Thousands of horses had been confiscated from the Eldinia after battles over the past few months and now it was mostly poorly armored infantry that charged the lines… against which the Leconia themselves were so specialized.   The fields, because of this, were bloody and tangled.
There were no trickles of bodies here and there nor were there areas where bursts of conflict broke out before just as quickly ending while battle began elsewhere.
No… the bodies here were like a sea which the Kandia had to push back as they slew them… thousands of men who had once been feverishly throwing themselves against the line, only to be encircled in the second hour and slaughtered to a man with minimal losses to the Leconia that rent them asunder.   Levi stepped about the carnage with her little metal soled boots and bounced over a body to get a better position at pulling off the rings on its fingers.
Though she had a bit of understanding of how battles worked, she had to wonder why the enemy would allow themselves to die like this… why the Eldinia had been so organized just months ago but now that The Founders had started returning they were losing their nerve.
She was told it was because the enemy knew that their greatest foes were coming to the aid of Kanda… but how could the Eldinia REALLY know that?
She, after all, didn’t know anything about the happenings of THEIR nation and she was literally on the front lines.
She figured there must be something more to it.   To the north she listened to the gently crashing waves of Ta Nagir Mira as she pulled out her Paga and cut at the straps of the man’s armor to pry off his chestplate, enjoying a small, ruptured purse of golden nuggets that came pouring forth and sneaking away a single nugget just for herself… nobody would know.
The man’s fingers were a bit fat, true to an Eldinia with good armor, so she decided it was probably easier to cut them off with her Paga instead of try to pry the rings off and risk damaging them.
The Censaria preferred intact jewelry because it was more valuable than the sum of its own materials.
And the Superior officers LOVED rings, after all.
A nicked band of silver could be destined for the smelting kiln but a spotless one would go to a commander who might favor her for her find or recommend her for a higher station of scavenging and handling when her time for promotion came!   The bones were hard and there were a bunch in the hand but she found out over the past year that fingers could easily be separated from the hand if the end of the Paga was hammered into the main knuckle with force.
She’d even bought herself a little chisel mallet for just such an activity and, with practiced precision, she went to separating each finger from its body before massaging the rings off as the fluid in the fingers drained out and the fat squelched around the bones.
Her mask, the gods being merciful, protected her from the smells of blood and death but she had to wonder how it was for the men fighting during the thick of it.
Doubtless they couldn’t smell a thing after just a few minutes in the field.   Once she was done cutting all the straps, paring off the jewelry and pulling off the big man’s stinky boots it was all recovery.
She’d learned that breastplates could be used to carry things like giant platters, so she stacked everything on top of the man’s armor and began carrying it back to her unit’s wagon.
A hand grabbed her ankle and tripped her but she quickly rose, dagger drawn!
However, she dropped her Paga in shock when she saw it…   An Eldinia soldier with an eye out and a face half gouged by some spear or sword crawled after her!
She wanted to scream but instead her training kicked in and she grabbed at her neck, pulling the whistle to her face as the enemy dragged himself in her direction; groping at her legs to drag her closer with fanatic rage in his eyes.
She blew the whistle long and clear as she kicked at him and scrambled back, unable to get out of his grip.
She blew HARD!
So hard that her lungs hurt.
So hard that her head got fuzzy, all the while struggling and fighting, scrambling back with her free hand.
Other signals sounded across the field and multiple whistle codes went out in alert!
To the north her fellow scavengers blasted out code that she was south of their location... and from the distant south, the noise called that danger was north.
The sound of horns blasting and men screaming reached her ears but she didn't let that bring her comfort and security just yet.   A pair of strong arms grabbed at her right before the Eldinia soldier got his hands on her tunic and pulled her away as she just kept blowing as hard as she could, now dizzy from expending all her air on it.
The man stopped as two nearby Leconia shoved their spears into his back, pinning him to the ground and allowing a third to race in and behead the man even as he dragged himself toward her with single minded zeal.
She nearly passed out from lack of air but those strong hands pulled the whistle away from her,
“You are alive! You are safe!” an adult’s voice told her,
“You are safe, Levi!” She recognized the voice…   She looked up at Kinatar Julus Armondosad Endamos, breath slowing a bit even if her heart still pounded in her chest,
“Kinatar Julus?” She gasped.   He nodded at her and she threw herself into his embrace, sobbing from the terror of her near death experience.
Her unit was excused for the day, as there were plenty others to tend to the job.
Her training had been worthwhile; kicking in when her fright instincts tried to bring her to make a much smaller and more strenuous noise.
Instead the piercing cry of the whistle and good training of her unit had allowed the surrounding soldiers to save her life… for there was no doubt that man would have killed her if given the chance.
They showered her with praise and comforts and her whole unit was rewarded with stewed pork and soft buns bought by the Kinatar for their efforts!
The Kinatis had not lost a single injured man thanks to the work of her fellows so they were given great rewards by their superior officers!
And now, in light of that, the children of the unit were given similarly great rewards; little trinkets, baubles and the occasional foreign coin to appreciate where they’d been and what they’d triumphed over.   Some back home were horrified that The Kandar had ever considered letting children set foot on the field of battle, even after the carnage had concluded.
However, to Levi it was an experience nobody else could truly understand.
Unlike the crowded alleys that she’d come from, always crawling with prying eyes looking to snatch up orphans for slavery, here Levi was a valued member of the troops; well paid, well protected and well appreciated.
Some scoffed at the idea that a little girl should be wandering around the dead, prying off rings from their fingers and gathering their lost goods.
But to the men she idolized, she was a necessary cog in the framework of Ta Miloti Do Kanda.
She was one of Ta Milotia Criatosia… The Military’s Children!