The Fifth Element

Part 2 Chapter 11

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Henry turned his gaze towards me, "Wait in here, while I go and investigate," he said.

I grabbed his arm and held him in place, before he could leave the tent, "No, the doctor just said that you need three days of rest, literally like a minute ago. Remember that!?"

"I'm not going to do anything, I'm just investigating," Henry said, but didn't make an attempt to remove the hand I had coiled tightly around his bicep.

"No need to worry," the doctor with the icy blonde hair reassured us and came up behind us. He placed a hand on either of our shoulders, "It's just the supply party coming back from getting food."

"Oh," I said, and let go of Henry's arm. The doctor let his hands drop away from us, and both Henry and I turned to face him.

The doctor smiled warmly at us "They go out once a week and do some hunting, and gathering. Almost all the big game has been scared out of the valley, due to the large concentration of people here. Any edible plants have been picked and eaten already, and so has any herbs with medicinal properties. It's not easy feeding 10,000 mouths."

My mouth formed into an O, "Ten thousand people!?" I mouthed. I mean I had seen that there were a lot of people here when I flew in on Vivian's dragon, but I hadn't realized that there were that many. This camp didn't look like it contained 10,000 people.

"There are a lot of people that chose to live back in the forest, instead of in the main camp," he explained, "And a bunch of people even got together and built their houses underground!"

"Still, that's a lot of people to be living in tents all year long in one spot. And surely you can't get everything you need for all these people in one place. "

"It is, and that's why this isn't our only camp. They're two other ones too, both stationed in different areas. Their job it to provide resources for this one. This camp is called Strong Pine, and it's also the largest of the three, and the others are Blue Fish and Fire Rock.

"How many abled body troops at each?" Henry inquired, and I turned my face slightly so I could his face and whatever expression may cross it. His reaction to what the man said would indicate how much of a chance this rebellion had at succeeding.

"In this camp, we have about 7,000, I think that the other two camps have 4,000 combined. That makes for a grand total of 11,000 fighters."

Henry's eyes slid over to me and he shook his head. I felt my heart sink. So we didn't have much of a chance, huh?

"Unless you were to summon the dead, just like your father," the little voice in the back of my mind reminded me. "Then you would win, and it would cost only a couple of lives. Think how many people would die, the people you love could die!"

"The people I love?" I muttered softly and then gave my mind a mental shake. What was I thinking! I couldn't do that!? Right??

"But that isn't quite enough men, is it?" Henry said, glancing up at the doctor. "How many dragons do we have, griffins, mist reindeer?"

"I'm not sure about the answer to either of those things, armed forces aren't my specialty. I'm more worried about how much singing-root, fairy-queen, and aloe , we have," the doctor told us, "And if you would excuse me," he said and motioned to the people on the tables behind him, "I must get back to work."

"Oh please do!" I said, realizing that the more he talked to us, the more his other patients had to wait to be treated.

The doctor pointed at Henry, "Remember, three days of rest," he moved his finger to me, "You remember that too, and make sure he gets it," he said, and I nodded.