Hounds of War [Yandere Generals x Female General Reader]

44. Midnight Memories.

The halls of the military temple dedicated to the goddess Estain were dark and cold. The tall walls were constructed from dark graey stone, with small glassless windows set into the topmost part of the walls. They let in next to no light but allowed the bitting breath of the frozen winter to reach every corner of the stony interior of the temple.

It was here that those destined to hold a position of power in the Estainian Army would be trained, but not every student who entered into training at the temple left it alive. The training was intense, the quarters unnecessarily cramped and filthy, the food abysmal, and the priests and priestesses responsible for the education of the potential warriors more cold and merciless than the winter winds that lashed against the hard stone of the temple.

It was on one especially cold winter night that a young student was being brought to face her punishment for sneaking into the food stores to try and get something more to eat. It was her first winter at the temple and she was barely nine years old, but that didn't earn her any leniency from her instructors. From the moment she had entered the temple she was treated no differently than any other soldier, and the punishment for disobedience in the Estainian Army was severe.

Two of the temple keepers, one priest, and one priestess dragged the small child into a large rectangular chamber that was used for the disciplining of students. The room was barren and dark, built from the same graey stone that the rest of the temple was made from. The only things that distinguished this room from the others in the temple was the single carved stone pillar that stood in the center of the chamber and the water that ebbed and flowed through small holes purposely put in the walls to allow the freezing briny waves of the northern sea to flood the floor in a thin puddle.

The two priests shoved the girl forward forcing her to stand with her bare feet in the icy seawater. Ignoring her protests they stripped off her thin wool tunic, the only thing protecting her from the winter air. She stood there, her scrawny body shaking from cold as she stared at the two priests in fear.

"Get down on your knees and face the pillar - that's an order!" The priestess barked, her voice more bitting than the winter. When the girl didn't comply at once she forced her down, making her kneel with a splash in the shallow water. "She's too small to tie to the pillar, so I guess we'll just have to continue without that."

The priest handed the priestess a whip and the girl's eyes widened in terror at the sight of it. Without hesitating, she cracked the whip down on her exposed back, causing the girl to shriek in pain.

"Aah! Please stop!!" She begged salty tears sliding down her cheeks and joining the salty seawater. "I promise I won't do it again!!" She sobbed.

"That's not good enough first you must atone for your weakness!!" The priestess growled as she struck another blow with the whip.

"AAH!" The girl screamed as it dug into her flesh, beads of blood appearing along her back.

"Cease!" A deep, booming voice called as the door to the chamber was suddenly opened. An intimidating man stood there, as tall and as broad as the doorframe. He wore a long blue cape with a fur collar, the mark of an Esedict General. He strode into the room with confidence his blonde hair and blue eyes shining like silver even in the dim light as he beheld the scene that was unfolding. "Give it to me." He commanded, holding out his hand for the whip.

"Esedict General Denlleonis," the priestess bowed to the man as she presented him the whip before backing away respectfully.

"Father please!!" The girl sobbed, turning her head around as best she could as looked up at the intimidating general in desperation. "Help me!!"

"YOU DARE DISRESPECT ME!" He roared, his indifferent expression transforming into one of rage as he brought the whip down against his daughter's back unflinchingly. "I AM YOUR GENERAL AND YOU WILL ADDRESS ME AS SUCH!!"

"Y-Yes," She bit her lip to keep from wailing, but a few whimpers still came out. "General D-Denlleonis," she said through a haze of tears and pain.

"Quit your crying you pathetic girl and bear your punishment with honor," the general scolded sternly as he lashed her again, drawing blood. "It was your own weakness that is bringing you this pain! If you hadn't tried to take more than your allotted rations you wouldn't be here!"

"But I haven't had anything to eat in three days!!" She cried, the ribs poking through her taut skin proving her claim. "I'm hungry!"

"Three days of hunger will be nothing if you are ill-supplied on the front lines!!" Her father lectured as he landed one final blow with the whip. "Now get off the floor and salute your general, you worm." He ordered.

She scrambled to her feet, trembling from cold and unsteady with the pain that seared across her back. The feeling of her warm blood trickling down her back making the coldness of the air feel even more noticeable against her naked body. "Yes, General Denlleonis!" She saluted her father, stretching her face into a grimace to keep from crying.

"You really are a pathetic little girl aren't you," Her father sneered as he leaned his face close to hers, no trace of love or familial bound on his war-hardened face. "Remember that if you continue to behave in such a weak manner I will kill you just as easily as I killed your sister for being weak." He rumbled.

"Now tend to your wounds!" He commanded, in a louder voice as he tossed her some medical supplies that she had to scramble to catch to keep from getting wet. "You will be let out when I deem that you have either grown stronger, or you have died as a result of your weakness." He spat, not bothering to look back at his daughter as he left with the two priests, taking the girl's tunic with them.

The heavy door closed, taking away almost all the light in the room. She stood there naked, shaking from cold and from pain, clutching the bandages that she had been given to treat the bloody wounds on her back that she couldn't even see. "Father..." She whispered more tears falling into that lapping seawater.

Y/N sat up with a start, a cold trickle of sweat rolling down her back. She was out of breath and her eyes were wide. Even though it had been over a decade ago she could still remember that night as though it was yesterday.

It was not the only disciplining she had received during her time at the temple but it had been the most painful. She had felt so weak and so worthless during the time she spent alone in that chamber. The pain of the lashes and the cold had been nothing in comparison to the sickening shame she had felt.

Tears clouding her eyes the general got up from her cot and hurried to the flap of the tent, only grabbing her sword and not even bothering to change out of the thin tunic that she slept in as she walked out into the chilly night.

A/N

Some more background on General Denlleonis that I hope you all will like. If nothing else, it gives you more of an idea of what Estain is like as a country.

Until next time I'll see you on the other side

~J. C. Coltt.~