ESKARINA

Four weeks went by,and home sickness gripped me in a tight embrace. How I longed for mother's warm stew on the cold nights,and more importantly,my bed on said cold nights. I was extremely exhausted most nights,and was suprised to see the Pauline and Sven often rose up much earlier than I,and I would usually wake up with my head resting upon Pauline's back as the horses galloped.

One day finally came when I was awoken by a sudden shift of weight. I felt as if I was falling,and when I opened my eye's,I was greeted by the sight of the muddy earth beneath me slowly getting closer and closer to my face.

I remember thinking "Strange,am I being sucked into the ground?" before I landed face first in the muck.

Instead of helping me up,Pauline's laugh rang in my ears,and a mocking laugh wasn't exactly the best thing to hear in the morning.

I pushed myself off of the floor,my dress covered in mud and dirt as Pauline's laughter continued.

Standing up,I dusted myself off before glaring at Pauline,who was gripping her stomach,face red as a tomato from how hard she was laughing.

"I-I'm sorry!"She said through several giggles. "I forgot you were laying on top of me."

"HOW THE FUCK DO YOU FORGET THA-"

"ATEEENTION!" Came a loud yell.

Pauline almost immiediatley stopped laughing and clenched a fist,which she then placed against her chest,with the other hand behind her back.

I looked around to see Sven,who was doing the same.

I was able to somewhat get my bearings. I was in a circular space with high white walls surrounding me. Atop the high walls were men wielding crossbows,however they weren't facing me. They looked outwards as if they were staring at something else beyond the walls,although what it was that they were looking at was beyond me. Behind me were Massive wooden gates with a dragon isignia carved into it.

As I observed my surrounding's,one thing caught my attention. Straight ahead of me,were two individual's. One was yet another beautiful girl,with long blonde hair and green eye's.She wore armour almost identical to Pauline's,with the only difference being the gauntlets,which allowed for the tips of her fingers to be revealed partially underneath the armour.On her back was a sheathed sword covered by a Kite shield. Next to her however,was a boy. While there was nothing particularly special about him,he did seem rather off. He looked at me,then shifted his gaze to Sven,and finally Pauline,then turned and walked away without uttering a word.

The girl stayed behind and descended down the steps,slowly approaching us. Her walk was one of confidence,authority. It was almost as if Dominance radiated off of her very being.

When she finally reached the bottom,she looked round at us and gave a stern nod before she spoke. "At ease"

Sven and Pauline no longer stood on attention and went back to their more casual stance.

"You two are late. You were meant to be back here a week ago." The girl said,paying little attention to me.

"Don't get your panties in a knot Elena,we made it back safely didn't we? That's what matter's right?" Pauline said.

The girl shook her head,rolled her eye's,then pointed at me. "And who is this?"

"Girl who says she wants to join the Undead hunting unit." Sven said,speaking before I could. "She says she's an archer,and we could always use more ranged fighters,especially in the UHU"

"Have you seen her shoot a bow?" The girl asked.

Both Sven and Pauline exchanged looks.

"Well...not really but-"

"So you just believed she could fire an arrow because she said she could without even checking if she could actually do what she said?"

Pauline looked away while Sven tried adjusting his sword as if it were uncomfortable. For me the only thing uncomfortable was this conversation.

"ELENA!" A defeaning voice suddenly came. The girl's body suddenly lost it's sense of dominance and strength and she became somewhat soft and...girly.

"Coming!" She yelled back.

She quickly regained her composure and glared at the three of us. "I will be having a very stern talk with you two later," her gaze shifted to me and her eye's slowly scanned my body. "As for you...Sven and Pauline will take you to the auditorium where all the other new recruits will be. "

She turned on her heel and sprinted back up the stairs,almost as if she was desperate to get somewhere.

"Gods above,must she always be so two faced?" Sven asked with a sigh.

"I know right? Honestly Elena needs to decide on whether she's girly and cute or scary and dominant. It's so weird to always see her so strong and composed one moment and girly the next."

Sven gave me a gentle pat on the back. "Come,we'll take you to the auditorium"

The two led the way up the stairs,and although we were alone,I got the strange sense that someone was watching me. I brought myself to a stop and looked around,but ultimately found no one.

"Hey!" Sven's voice came.

I snapped out of my trance and saw the two several flights higher than me. I ran up as quickly as I could to try and catch up with them.

"You okay Eskarina?" Sven asked.

"Yeah.Yeah I'm good"

"Hey,don't let Elena get to you okay? She isn't really a bitch. She just doesn't get along well with strangers,and worries an awful lot about us when we go out on missions or assignments."

Admitedley,at first I didn't really believe Pauline. My first impression of Elena was that she was a pure bitch,no more,no less. But if Pauline said she was a good person,there was no reason for me not to believe her,she did know her better than I did after all. We ascended the steps which led us to a large complex of connected building's all connecting to one another through hallways which stretched for quite sometime. The floor was marble stretching across all of the hallways,with the walls being a lightly tinted oak. There were paintings on the wall which showcased paintings of the night sky,famous political figures and more. We made our way down one of the hallways. At the end,we were stopped by a set of metal doors.

"This is you."

"You guys aren't coming with me?" I asked,suddenly worried and afraid of being left alone.

Both of them looked at me as Sven shrugged and gave Pauline a pat on her back. "This is on you. I'll wait for you outside Elena's room"

Sven then left,leaving Pauline and I alone outside the doors.

Pauline scratched her head and spoke. "Listen Eskarina,you don't need to be afraid okay? Behind those doors all you need to do is just listen,and that's all there is to it."

My eye's scanned the doors once more,then made their way back to Pauline.

"You'll be fine. I need to go before Elena skins me alive. Good luck okay?"

Pauline turned and began sprinting full speed down the hallway.

Now I was alone,looking at the doors ahead of me. I was nervous. I felt a feeling similar to being a new kid at school. Butterflies littered my stomach and I slowly pushed open the doors. Beyond the doors was a large circular room filled with benches and seats except no one sat on them. The room was almost entirely empty. Almost.

In the middle of the large room was an empty space which was partly filled by the exact same boy I had seen beside Elena a few moments ago. He sat on the floor,his legs crossed as he stared up at me.

Something about him was different from Elena. From everyone else I had seen so far. Unlike everyone else who wore steel plate armour and the white colours of the Empire along with the insignia,He wore nothing of the sort. No armour,No protection whatsoever,not even leather armour. Instead he wore a black coat lined with a strange blood red design which complimented the black quite nicely. He continued staring at me,not saying a word for awhile before he finally broke the silence.

"Well?" He said suddenly.

I was taken aback by his sudden attempt to make conversation. At least thats what I hoped he was doing.

"I um...I was told to come here,and that there would be other recruits." I replied nervously.

"You're nervous" he said as he stood up. His approach was much,much more different than the way Elena or anyone else I'd met so far in the army was. He didn't carry himself confidently nor was he extremely shy. He walked in a similar fashion that a snake would slither up to it's prey. Not swinging side to side or anything like that. What I mean is,he carried himself in a way a predator would approach it's prey. Not confident,but focused,precise,deadly.

Despite his slender appearance,he seemed as if he was quite strong. He didn't appear to have any muscle on him,but again I couldn't take his clothes off to see if he did. Not that I would. I'm just sayin.

Instead of walking up to me and telling me his name or introducing himself,he simply walked straight past me and kept walking. Instinct told me to follow him,and so I did,following close behind his heels.

The strange feeling I had before,the feeling of someone watching me had a much greater prescence when I was around him. I wondered if he was the one watching me,or if I was just so nervous that I was paranoid.

"You're following me" He said.

"Am I...not supposed to be?"

"No you are. Just good to see you have instincts. You'd be dead on the battlefield without them"

"I think you're confusing natural instinct with survival instinct."

"They're one in the same." He said.

We kept walking down an ever growing maze of hallways until we came to something so similar to a school hallway that I felt like I was thrust right back into pre school. Lockers were on each side of the corridor,and doors with different labels so similar to subjects were on gold metal plates on each of the doors.

We stopped at a door,with the doors label reading "Homeroom"

"After all" The boy continued. "Put any man in a life or death situation,and natural instinct will instantly become survival instinct. It's natural for every human being,and so there is no difference. They're two concepts but ultimately,they're one in the same"

The boy opened the door and we stepped inside. Chatter filled my ears,with the voices of countless students talking giving me a sense of nostalgia. The boy stood behind the desk and I wondered if he was the student council president,or something to that extent.

He looked at me and pointed to the desk in the back of the room,where a girl with a dark skin tone sat. She smiled at me and I politely returned the smile.

"That's your seat" He said,and I almost didn't hear him over the sound of the class chatter.

I made my way toward the back and sat down next to the girl,who introduced herself to me almost as soon as I sat down.

"Hi!" she said.

There was a hint of excitedness in her voice as I sat.

"Hi" I replied.

"I'm Amaani." She said as she extended her hand out to me. "Amaani Wilkinson"

I took her hand in my own and we shook for a moment. "Eskarina. Eskarina Lyria."

Amaani had...interesting features. Her eye's were brown,so they were a common colour,her hair was black as soot,tied up in two seperate ponytails behind her head. She wore a pair of red glasses,a white shirt,and black leather leggings,but her most interesting feature was her ears.

Pointy,and inhuman.

"You're an elf" I said,with almost no suprise in my voice,which suprised me.

"I am. Only one in the entire army apparently."

I felt everyone's eyes on me once more as whispers circulated the room. Obviously this would be bad for me if I stuck with Amaani. After all,Mordrid was at war with Elysium,which is the homeland of the elves,and the propaganda spread during wartime about how elven kind were savages were easily believed by young minds,especially teens.

But Amaani seemed to be the furthest thing from a savage or brute to me. I guess the old saying stands true. One bad apple spoils the bunch. Only the bad apple are the lies spread by the Empires propaganda.

The room soon fell quiet,and all eye's fell onto the boy who sat behind the desk in a chair.

He stared round the room with a steel gaze. "Finally,you've all shut up"

He clicked his neck,stretched his legs and placed them on the table. "Next time you guys take that long to be quiet everyone runs a hundred laps in the training yard."

Again,everyone was quiet until the sound was broken by a boy with green hair. It was strange,I'd never seen anyone with green hair before.

"I'm sorry,who are you?" He asked.

"Yeah who are you? And you should get out of the teachers chair before Commander Nova gets here."

The boy sighed and stood up from his seat as he clicked his neck again.

"Idiots,Commander Nova isn't coming,"

A large amount of what,why,how come's and more questions followed,and again the boy spoke,cutting everyone off.

"He's already here. You're looking at him"

For a time,only Nova spoke,and everyone stayed quiet.

"Hello." He said,his voice monotonous and cold. "My name is Nova,and I'm your commanding officer"