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Devin had little time to react to the girl's sudden appearance, or, rather, he wasn't quick enough to react. As soon as the question was verbalized the girl had started towards Kaleb, leaving Devin to haul himself off the ground with only one arm, which turned more or less into him rolling onto his side so he could use his knees to get up, so, more or less, he looked rather odd, rolling and all that. So odd, in fact, that one of the healers had started from her station towards the boy to reprimand him for irritating the stitches to his arm. But the healer didn't reach them for awhile, and by the time Devin stood he noticed the girl had taken to Kaleb like some kind of shadow or something. Devin fumed, no one was going to take the shadow position from him!

Kaleb hadn't noticed the girl's presence, of course, because he was too entranced with a few soldiers shirking some kind of duty, so the girl stood there unchallenged. Well, Devin thought, he wasn't going to stand by and let her just... stand there!

"What do you think you're doing?!" Devin all but shouted when he finally reached the two.

He tried to look menacing(sp?) but with his arm in a sling he looked more like a pouting child, which always grabbed Kaleb's attention. Kaleb had turned around then to face Devin, but as he turned so did the girl so she was still positioned one step behind to to the right of him, out of his line of sight.

"I'm just giving my mid-morning orders!" Kaleb answered, frowning.

Devin opened his mouth to say something, then closed it after glancing at the ever-viligant girl.

"There, that girl just walked right in here! Undetected!" He pointed at the girl for further evidence.

Kaleb turned, but again the girl turned out of his field of view.

"Devin, are you sure the healers said it was alright for you to be out in the sun while on those drugs..."

The concern on Kaleb's face only made Devin more angry. "Don't you see that stranger behind you?!"

Kaleb put a hand on Devin's shoulder. "Now, now, let's get you back to the tent for some rest."

Before he could object Kaleb was turning over command to someone else and ushering Devin along with gentle pushes. All the while Devin kept mumbling what seemed to be nonsense to Kaleb, and the girl silently followed behind.

Fifty two birds flew over the camp, their shadows spalyed across the ground.

Devin watched in horror as the birds attacked, not in the least bit eased when Lilly-Anna had given her purpose for being present after the initial attack. He watched as a stunned Kaleb climbed back to his feet. The surronding soldiers were still in awe of the event and didn't pay much mind to Kaleb, who had for once not been killed. From behind them Katrina, Kaleb's official healer, came trotting up and stopped short beside Devin.

"Where is he-" she started, but didn't finished when she was amazed to see Kaleb brushing himself off, virtually unharmed.

"Oh- Katrina! I just- I almost- I would've been killed if Lilly-Anna hadn't saved me!" Kaleb shouted, the panic of the attack still written on his face.

Devin took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down as well. earlier the drugs hadn't affected his mind, but now that he was worked up he definitely felt dizzy. Instead he left the questionable situation in Katrina's hands.

The healer evenly stared at the girl. She knew this one from somewhere, but couldn't place from where... but, as a high spirit, she could never forget an energy signature. She shrugged it off, as she did the overall situation, and crossed her arms.

"I see you have hired help now, Kaleb."

Kaleb glanced at Lilly-Anna before replying. "Well, she's not exactly hired by us..."

"We can't possibly trust her then!" Devin commented after recovering from his dizzy spell.

Kaleb went to his friend's side and continued his ushering from earlier.

"Now, now, don't you worry about this, you just worry about resting and getting better." He said cheerfully.

"You can't be serious-"

"I am," Kaleb sternly said, "Your only concern right now is getting better. We need a top-qaulity scout to figure out who sent these birds and why."

Devin forgot any arguments to Lilly-Anna's presence after that and resigned himself to Kaleb's orders. He would later blame it on the heat and drugs, but truthfully similar flattery always gave Kaleb the win to any argument the two had.

14 hours later...

Devin really, really wanted to grin with a told-you-say kind of glint... but he refrained. Kaleb already seemed irritable enough and he didn't want to provoke it any longer. He and Kaleb were sitting on the cushions in his tent enjoying dinner, or, at least, Devin was enjoying his dinner. Kaleb sat in agony as he looked over his plate of 18 veggies. With an expression of disgust he pushed the plate father away from him and crossed his arms.

"How am I supposed to eat this stuff?!"

Devin took another forkful of some-generic-camp-meat and held it up in place of a reprimanding finger. "I told you she's not good news-- hey!"

As Devin spoke Kaleb had leaned over and bit the fork. Devin tried to pull his fork back from kaleb's predator-like mouth, but the boy didn't pull back until he had taken all the meat off the fork. Kaleb sat back with an evil expression, satisfied with his pilferage(idk if that's even a word or if i totally ruined the spelling lol).

"Just because you got rationed doesn't mean I should too!"

With a guilty frown Kaleb swallowed the food and sat back up. "Yeah, yeah... I guess you should be eating more than usual, anyways."

Devin sighed and took another bite of his own meal. Although he didn't want to admit it, Kaleb was right earlier. Whether it was the heat, the sun, or just Lilly-Anna grating on his nerves, he wasn't thinking clearly earlier. After falling asleep in the cool shade of his tent, though, he felt almost good as new. Almost. He wasn't going to feel completly better until Lilly-Anna was kicked out of the camp.

"I guess this doesn't look too bad..." Kaleb muttered before taking a bite of one of the 18 veggies. He swallowed it, but with a grimace.

"You know," Devin started, venturing into the topic, "There's never been a case of poisoning before, why are you censoring what you eat now?"

At least, Devin added silently, not a case you remember.

"Well, Lilly-Anna ordered me-"

"Ordered?! Since when does the-highest-commander-in-this-army-position have to take orders?!"

Kaleb kept his eyes glued on his plate, scrapping around some of the veggies with his fork as he did.

"Since Katrina told me to-- and before you interrupt, she advised me as my healer... and you know going against a healer's advice is bad, no matter what that advice is."

Devin blushed a little when Kaleb actually stopped him. Then he was reduced to scrapping his own food on his plate. He wondered, though, why Katrina was so adament about keeping this girl in the camp. She was a healer, afterall. It was her job to keep Kaleb alive! She should be happy with the work!

As if to respond to the mention of her name and position, Katrina herself came through the front flap of the tent. She nodded at both of them before going to a table to set down the tray of medicene she was carrying. Devin eyed the tray suspciously. The last thing he wanted was to take even more medicene! Katrina turned around with two vials in her hands and looked down at the two boys. Suddenly, Devin's shoulder began to burn in sharp pain again. He cringed and put down his fork so he could rub his still-bandaged shoulder.

"It's no surprise it still hurts, we couldn't get the bullet out afterall." Katrina observed as she sat down beside them.

Devin still eyed the bottles in her hands. "Why do I have to take more? How many exactly are there?!"

"There are 36 in all, but a few are for Kaleb."

"For what?" Kaleb asked.

Katrina went on to explain the various reasons, mostly to 'keep up his health,' but Devin figured it was probably from some past mortal wound Kaleb had recieved. Instead of listening he focused on the familiar bottle in her hands. His stomach felt sick just thinking about the various pills he had to take. He sighed and eventually pushed his plate of food away, no longer hungry.

When Katrina finished explaining Kaleb had a vacant expression on his face but nodded anyways. After she turned from him, Kaleb went back to the task of eating his food. Regardless of how extremely nasty these veggies were, he knew it'd be worse to finish up the night's tasks on an empty stomach.

"I need to redress the bandages first to replace some of the salve, then I'll leave you to the pills." Katrina said.

Katrina always had that bland expression on her face, but she was still humorous in her own way. Devin could sense the amusement in her eyes.

"The last healer left the bandages in a drawer." Devin briefly pointed behind him, unwilling to stop clutching his shoulder for fear the pain would worsen.

He was currently using the make-shift dresser as a support for cushions. Despite the camp's well-supplied furniture both Kaleb and Devin preferred the ground to sit and sleep on. Back in their earlier days, before Kaleb owned an army and what-not, they were accustomed to the ground. It was a habit neither had out-grown. (lol random back-story)

Katrina reached behind Devin-- at least, that's what he registered before the pain in his shoulder suddenly intensified. He gasped but kept his cool (or at least, what he thought was cool) and simply ground his teeth.

Although Katrina seemed to not notice this change in pain, Kaleb frowned at his friend.

"How long until his wound completly heals, Katrina?"

She glanced at Kaleb before unwrapping the bundle of bandages. "We've already been over this--"

"I know! But I can't have my top scout down for much longer!" Kaleb almost shouted.

As much as Devin appreciated the compliment, the pain was actually starting to pull away. He closed his eyes and focused on it, hoping somehow it would dissipate if he willed it to. During this state of focus he heard rushed footsteps approach the tent. Perhaps a guard or--

"Oh, Lilly-Anna, good evening." (katrina says this lol)