The Hand

Part 14

"Are you ready?" Rook asked, holding Elle's hand.

"Yeah, I guess so. I have to get this over with," She replied.

Rook pulled her up off the ground. She stood there a little shaky but was soon sturdy. She nodded to him. He began to walk towards the main area of the encampment. There was a large fire in the centre and groups of men huddled around it. There were remnants of smaller cooking fires around the site. 

He cleared his throat. "Attention everyone,"

All the men stopped and looked to him. There faces were all surprised to see the woman next to him. Elle blushed and looked away. She shuffled her feet and swayed back and forth. Her hands were fidgeting with the edge of her shirt.

"I hear that there has been a rumour spreading that there is a woman with us. Well, it is very true. Everyone, this is Elle," She offered a feeble wave as Rook spoke, "But all of you already know her, just by a different name. She was Everett," 

The men burst out into laugher, "That's a good joke Captain! We needed that!" One said as he clapped a friend on the back. The laughter died down when everyone noticed that Rook wasn't laughing.

"You mean, this is the truth?" Sammy asked.

Rook nodded.

"So, is she still going to be fighting with us?" Another voice asked.

Rook nodded again. He began to notice the stares that Elle was receiving from the men. She was beautiful, no doubting that, and women were hard to come by when the men were out on a mission. They had . . . needs. Addressing this, Rook spoke up.

"Also, if any of you so much as look at her inappropriately, I will personally cut off your manhood. Understood?" Rook said, very authoritatively.

He saw the men avert their gazes and grumble. He trusted them. Nothing bad would happen, as long as they thought with their heads.

"Alright, that's all I needed you for, return to whatever you were doing. Oh, one last thing. I want to get moving tomorrow morning. All of the wounded have been treated and all will be able to march. Stay organized and try to get to sleep early. We need to stay alert. We aren't out of Wildmen country yet," Rook was happy no one was badly injured. A few men have their arms in a brace but there were no broken bones. Only bruises and sprains. Yorick did good work. He was able to stitch up all the wounds and keep anyone from getting infected. He was glad he had been assigned to Red Company.

He watched as Elle went to go and mingle with the men. She had never been shy. She sat down with Flint, Tucker, Sammy and Tom. They were all playing cards. She joined in and began playing like she was one of the guys, the way it should be, Rook thought.  Rook was happy, it was one less thing he had to worry about.

He sat down in front of the fire and pulled out his whetstone. He unsheathed his machete and began to sharpen it. He let the flames warm his face and hands. It was a soothing feeling. As he dragged the stone along the edge he watched the card game.

"Who's your money on?" asked a voice from behind. Rook turned and watched Tonk sit down next to him.

"Uhh . . . Flint. Definitely Flint," Rook responded.

"You always choose Flint,"

"Flint always wins," Rook said with a grin. Flint had the best poker face Rook had ever seen. You could never tell if he was bluffing, or if he had a good hand. It was just best to play it safe if he was in a game.

"That is true, I wish I could win," Tonk sighed. He had most of his money playing cards but Flint had given all of it back. He didn't like taking money from a kid. Tucker on the other hand, he loved beating.

"Ah, its all in the cards and your facial expression. If you have a good hand don't let people know it and just stay in till the end. If your hand is bad you can scare everyone into folding by betting higher and higher,"

"I know, but it never works out for me. I just have bad luck,"

"If your luck was truly bad then you would be rotting in a prison or dead,"

Tonk laughed, "If my luck was good I would be at home, enjoying the fireplace and a good book,"

"Miss home?"

"Eh . . . not really. Rebels burned it down anyways. Wouldn't be anything to go home too,"

"And yet you ended up in the battalion led by a rebel sympathizer. Your luck really is bad,"

Tonk laughed again, "Yeah, but now I'm here and I'm gonna give it to those blasted rebel bastards! They've had it comin' for a long time,"

"That they have . . . that they have," Rook sheathed his blade after running his finger down the egde. He deemed it sharp enough.

"So . . . I can't believe Everett was a girl. I mean, there were no signs, or clues or anything. I treated him - er . . . her like any other guy,"

"And that's the way it should stay. She doesn't get special treatment for being a woman. She is one of us and her gender won't change that,"

"Yes, well . . . I don't think I'll ever be able to have  . . . er . . .  certain conversations with her again,"

Rook laughed hard at that. "You and Tucker both!" Rook made a mental note to ask Elle about these . . . conversations.

"She is beautiful though. I bet she had plenty of suitors lined up at home. I wonder why she left," Tonk said, staring at Elle. 

"The same reason all of us are here. Unfortunate circumstances. None of us have anywhere to go back to. This is our home now. Being together, this brotherhood. That's our home," Rook said, gripping Tonk's shoulder.

Tonk nodded. "Yeah, one big happy family, including the family nut," He said pointing at Grim. He was huddled against a stump fidgeting with human finger bones.

"He's always been that way. He's a loon but he's our loon. And he gets his job done as good as anyone else. I just wonder what is going on in his head sometimes,"

"Oh yeah, I'd like to see the world the way he sees it. Maybe it would be better through his eyes,"

"It's possible . . ." Rook trailed off.

"Alright Captain, it was good talking to you. I'm gonna go try and win at cards. I'll take your advice," Tonk smiled and walked off to the card game.

Rook sighed. Other captains told him not to get so close to the men. That way it hurt less when you lost them. But it was then that Rook knew that they were absolutely wrong. If a man died and you never knew him, then you'd never know what he was fighting for.