“Know your body, push its limits. That’s the only way you’ll
survive here” My aunt’s voice rings in my ears as loud as the pain. I push
harder than I have before, knowing I’ll regret it later. But I can’t live in
the later when in battle, I must live in the now, another lesson my dear, sweet
aunt has drilled into me.
Suddenly the forest is moving faster than I am...and at a
different angle. I realize that I am now rolling through the foliage, a branch
must have caught my overworked legs by surprise. Cocoa is already at my side
when the sky stops spiraling, she sniffs me gently checking for signs of life.
“I’m alright girl, thanks for the concern.” I gently scratch her
once soft, now mud caked chest fur. I retain the urge to cry out as I sit up.
“Or maybe not,” I feel my ribcage and discover a couple bruised ribs along with
the arrow wound that had already soaked my shirt with blood “Aunty Aella is not
going to pleased.”
“Lia, are you okay?” Keagan’s comforting voice approaches from
behind. He lowers his bow and crouches beside me.
“Just bruised. I’ll be fine.” He ignores my words and checks the
gash in my side.
“Keagan, step away from her, training isn’t over.” Rease rebukes
sternly. “Get up Zollia.”
“She’s injured.” Keagan stands to my defense.
“Silence. Aella demanded we be ready for initiation and whining
about a few cuts and bruises is unacceptable. I said, get up.” he stomps
over and jerks me up by the arm. I bite my lip in an attempt to hide my
weakness. He takes notice of the blood seeping through my tunic and down my
thigh then mumbles something under his breath. “Gwen, bandage her side. It
doesn’t need to be perfect, just enough to keep out infection.” Gwyneth shakes
her head but gets to work, muttering about loss of blood and my death not being
her fault. She finishes with a sigh and Rease briefly examines her work, he
nods and tells everyone to gather their gear. “We’ll start again from the
ridge. Maybe this time you’ll pick up your feet.”
Since I came to live with aunt Aella, Rease and his friends have enjoyed
trying to make me feel inferior, when really, they’re just intimidated by my
awesomeness and natural-born talent. I don’t blame them, but it’s a fair battle
to make it onto the Tolan - The largest of five spacecrafts our government
developed when we found out there is life on other planets. The United
Federations Tolan was built to maintain relations with our allies and explore
new planets.
My aches cause me lag back. Keagan casually glances at me now and
then to make sure I’m still alive, but gracefully keeps his distance. Not with
me, but not with them either.
Keagan and I bonded from the moment we met. My mom died when I was
born, and my dad died when I was twelve, so I was sent to live with my aunt.
Keagan had said girls couldn’t be soldiers because they don’t hit hard enough,
so I knocked him out right then and there. No matter how many times he pretends
to not be interested in me, I can feel the unspoken hope for a courtship. The
only reason neither of us have made the first move is because we don’t know if
we’ll see each other ever again after this year.
An initiation process will begin by all qualified cadets
demonstrating their skills and the chosen will leave for up to fifteen years,
taking on various occupations.
For a young man of nineteen he’s respectably built, standing
roughly six feet tall with broad shoulders and muscular forearms. I must have
missed his ‘scrawny’ phase, if he ever even had one. He’s never one to boast
his stature either, not that he has to, he walks with a notable confidence: his
head held high yet stooping to greet small groups of children that crowd around
him, never failing to greet them with a smile and a small sweet he’s acquired
from his scout travels. He glances back at me and I realize I’ve been staring.
A blush burns my cheeks as I quickly look down at Cocoa. He smirks and shakes
his head.
We ran the forest trail three more times without a break, it’s a
miracle I was able to walk all the way back to camp. Keagan offers to walk me
to my tent, but after being caught gawking at him, I choose to walk in
comfortable silence.
~ * ~
Warmth. The only adjective that can properly describe the feeling
of being held by someone you love. The way your body melts, the unashamed blush
that dances on your cheeks and makes you dread letting go.
I don’t remember falling asleep, or even getting ready for bed,
but this moment couldn’t be anything other than a dream. There was that
haunting feeling you get when you know you’re dreaming, the sensations were
almost palpable, but empty. I look up to his face, already fading quickly. He
gently wipes away tears from my face,
“You’ll be okay without me.” he whispers.
“How do you know?” I shamelessly whimper.
“Because I raised you. And I know you’re stronger than you think.”
He grabs my shoulders and pushes me away. A sob steals my words as he kisses my
forehead. The scene blurs to room 213, the last place I would see my father
again. With all we’ve discovered, cancer is still an undefeatable demon. “I’m
always with you.” were his last words.
“Dad!” I jolt awake, breathing heavily. Grasping for anything to
remember, the color of his eyes, the sound of his voice, the smell of his
cologne, nothing. I jump up and dig through my desk drawer, sighing with relief
when I find the tattered photograph. I hold it to my chest and breathe deeply.
“His eyes, green. His voice, soft. He never wore cologne, he was a
blacksmith, he smelled of smoke, and ash.” Three simple
things my eleven-year-old self-vowed to remember. I close my eyes tight, trying
to lock the image from my dream behind them.
~ * ~
I dodge a jab at my right side. Keagan recovers quickly, pulls the
dagger from its sheath around his waist and swipes at my left shoulder, my
awkward angle denies me movement and the small dagger slices a clean cut. I
falter back and regain a defense position, low and ready to strike. Cocoa barks
and pulls on her leash, I smirk, imagining her cheering me on, “Go for his
legs!” I hear her say. My feet slide in the sand as I charge at him
unexpectedly, the sharp ringing sound of metal fills the air as we viciously
swing at each other, calculating the others’ move before they make it.
The physical exertion from the past three days is finally catching
up to me; I can feel my arms growing weaker and my breath burns in my chest.
Keagan must have noticed, he starts to slack in his offense. I glare at him and
push myself harder, my body is slow to respond so Keagan takes the upper hand.
He swiftly disarms me by twisting my sword with his own then pressing the hilt
into my injured shoulder. I stumble back but manage to stay standing and
maintain some amount dignity.
“Zollia!” I hang my head at the sound of my aunt’s harsh tone. “What
was that? If I didn’t know better, I would think you've had no training at all.
He disarmed you with the simplest attack to defend.” She shows no kindness in
her reprimand, despite the large crowd watching and listening.
“I apologize Aella. I’ll do better next time.”
“If that were a real battle there wouldn’t be a ‘next
time’.” I’m not taken by surprise as she steps into the dueling circle and
takes Keagans place, initiating her ‘if you want something done right, you have
to do it yourself’ motto. “We’ll try it again.” she signals for two wooden
swords, used when teaching so as not to injure anyone. I catch the one that is
tossed to me and place myself in the position I had before Keagan disarmed me.
Aella comes down hard on my sword, I expected her to start out gently and talk
me through it like she has in the past.
“Again!” She snaps, “Don’t be afraid of your own strength.” I
parry a second unexpected blow she had aimed for my injured side. “Dig deeper
Lia.” she spins, and in my disarray, I miscalculate where she is going to hit
next. I block low and she does hit my sword, but then her elbow digs straight
into my sternum, knocking me to the ground.
Aella walks over to me and at this point I don’t know what to
expect. She offers her hand, I grab it and she helps me to my feet. “never
trust your opponent, friend or foe, don’t think you understand their next move,
because you never will.” There was a solemn tone to her voice. “We’ll go
through it slower this time.”
I finally got the upper hand on the fourth try, which surprisingly
earned me a break. “You’ve earned your rest.” she’d said, “No further practice
until the initiation ceremony.” I couldn’t believe what I heard, so after
eating and taking a small nap, I made my way to her tent site.
“Commander Aella?” I question formally.
“Over here Zollia.” I walk around to the back of her tent to find
her standing, looking at the vast meadow below. “In less than 48 hours the U.F
Tolan will be docking in that valley.”
Being recruited to staff aboard the Tolan was an honor and a
dream, because once you’re accepted, you stay with that ship and crew, opposed
to constantly being transported, dropped off, and picked up. Never with the
same group of people for longer than a couple weeks.
My father took me to watch it dock once, when I was only five
years of age. He always had a dream to be a member and travel amongst the
stars, but he didn’t want to expose me to that kind of atmosphere so young, we
discussed applying when I turned fourteen...but that never happened
I turn to my aunt and notice her shoulders are relaxed from their
usual intimidating hold, her face wears a melancholier appearance than I have
ever seen on her. “Is everything alright Commander?”
She snickers and turns to face me, looks me over from head to toe
and back. I tense as she pulls me into her arms. My aunt hasn’t given me a hug
or treated me as family since the day I arrived as base camp. She pushes back
to arm’s length and looks me in the eye. “I’m going to miss you. I just need a
moment to pick three things.” Tears jump to my eyes.
“Three things?”
She laughs again. “Your father and I had this thing, that when
someone would leave, we would pick three of our favorite aspects of them to
remember. You can never remember everything, but if you remember just three
things, the rest seems to build from those.” A hazy memory of my father
explaining the same thing while in his hospital bed fills my head. He laid
there patiently waiting for me to stop crying long enough to list them off with
him. I would hold myself every night and repeat them over and over again.
“He told me that…” I whisper. “His eyes, his voice and the way he
smelled are what I hold on to.”
“Your laugh, freckles, and the way you sing when you think no one
can hear you. That’s what I’ll remember about you.” I stand there, truly unsure
what to say or do. She clears her throat, returning to her commander stature
and cutting off our intimate moment. “Now go do whatever it is you do in your
free time.”
“What do you mean? There’s only two day left for training.”
“I know. You’ve worked hard, I have nothing left to teach you.” I
nod and turn to walk away. “Zo zo.” a nickname I haven’t heard since I was a
young child. “You’re going to do great.”
“Thanks to you.” I state gratefully before heading back to my
tent.
~*~
Cocoa barks her excitement as I finish fastening my knife sheath
to my thigh and slide Callan - my 3-foot saber with a single turquoise ruby
embedded in the pommel - into the scabbard at my hip. I have a firearm
concealed on my person as well, but I prefer a sword. It’s more personal;
when I was 7 or 8 my father and I lived in a dangerous neighborhood and he told
me I had to learn how to defend myself so he laid various weapon choices before
me, the sword is what I was drawn to - the way the hilt grip felt so natural in
my palm like an extension of my arm, the way it flowed through the air and made
a slight whooshing sound, it simply felt right. Ever since I’ve become familiar
with many weapons, but my weapon of choice is the blade.
“Come on girl, let’s go see how all these years of training have
paid off.” I attach a strand of leather to her makeshift collar so she can be
restrained from jumping in to fight with me.
“Lia!” Keagan greets running over from the mess hall, otherwise
known as the tarp over tables. Aella likes to keep things as rough as possible
to make any situation aboard the Tolan seem high-quality. “Did you get any rest
last night? I was tossing and turning all night. I can’t believe today is finally
here.” He looks and sounds like a child on Christmas morning.
“I stayed up most the night practicing.” His smile fades, and he
stares at me, his eyes darting to every inch of my face.
“I hope they chose us together.” He bashfully looks away, losing
whatever courage momentarily overtook him.
“I hope so too.” I steady myself with my hands on his shoulders,
raise on my tippy-toes and gently kiss his cheek. He looks at me confused “For
good luck.” I lie, it was truthfully a just-in-case goodbye kiss, but if I said
that, it would make things sad and sappy. I don't want to end things that way.
He grabs my left hand, cradling it gently between both of his. “If
we are chosen...would you like to maybe meet for coffee or something with me? I
mean, it's just that...” It’s both adorable and painful to watch him fumble
with his words. Despite the fact he’s been trained to be a ruthless hunter, he
remains every bit the gentle, caring, twelve-year-old boy I fell in love with
all those years ago.
“Yes. I would love nothing more than to go on a date with you.” I
blurt out with a school girl giggle. Suddenly, I notice what a glorious golden
sparkle his eyes hold, the subtle dimple that only appears on the right side of
his mouth. Things I knew were there, but took for granted, or decided to ignore
because there was always a chance, he wouldn’t ask me to be his. I can hardly
believe he finally has, but at the same time I feel that dream-like feeling
everything will slip away at any moment. I hold on it to with all my will power
and admire every second.
He lets go of my hand and we begin walking a respectable distance
from each to the training grounds, while making small talk about how we think
we’ll do in the assessments. There is only one open position for his skill as a
hunter this year and at least five cadets being presented. My chances were only
slightly better with ten openings and twenty-four soldiers literally fighting
for one.
There’s a large turnout of towns’ folk coming to watch their sons
and daughters basically compete in a talent competition. The ‘judges’ -
General Liam and his second in command - had our qualifications sent to them
months ago by my aunt and they looked through them, decided who they would like
to demonstrate those qualifications, sent them back, then my aunt trained those
they chose to the best of her ability, now here we are. All terrified and
trying to grasp at any lesson to remember, begging our reflexes to focus.
I personally try to keep my breakfast in my stomach standing in
line as each of the us are paired off with our equally-skilled opponent. One by
one my friends are separated, I take account of who is left, “only six left”
I pause on Reases’ face. “Is he sweating?” I do everything in my power
to not smile or laugh at the thought of him, of all people, being nervous.
Rease is one of the most well-trained, courageous soldiers I’ve seen. But I
guess it proves even the strongest person is still human.
“Zollia Heffman and Rease Gunnars.” Aunt Aellas’ voice pulls me
from my thoughts. I look back at Rease, he looks at me with pure panic on his
face and seems to be breathing heavily. “Is he actually scared of me?”
I see him close his eyes and take a slow, deep breath, opening them to
appear collected. But I can still see his hands trembling.
We stand together watching the other teams battle one by one.
“Stage fright?” I tease when he begins rubbing his hands together.
He lets out a defiant chuckle. “You wish.”
“You’re a good soldier Rease, you shouldn’t be intimidated by me,
or anyone one else here.”
He appears taken back by my kindness, even though I’ve never
parried his harsh words with more harsh words. “Thanks. You too.” we’re called
to battle before anything else can be said.
~*~
Keagan’s hand brushes against mine, his way of reminding me to
breathe. My aunt stands before us all, listing off one name after another for
cadets who need to go pack up their tents. She pauses abruptly, a smile momentarily
appears. “Zollia Heffman. Assigned to faction 12, sector 1.”
I squeal with uncontainable excitement before sudden dread hits my
stomach. I look to Keagan not attempting to hide any emotion. He smiles and
grabs my hand, giving it a soft squeeze. “You’ll be okay without me” I
can feel him say. Tears burn in my throat. I can feel it all fading, the things
we never had - never will have. When gracefully, I hear it.
“Keagan Montenegro. Assigned to faction 13, sector 8.” Relief
rushes over me, I cover a sob with my hand and hang my head to hide the tears I
can’t contain any longer. Keagan wraps me in his arms, placing a kiss on my
head. Warmth. The only adjective that can express being held by someone you
love.
~*~
“Is this everything?” My aunt questions so softly her voice is
almost inaudible. I embrace her without the slightest hesitation.
“I love you aunty. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.” I
give a firm squeeze and let her go. She laughs and wipes away her tears. “I’ll
see you in couple years.”
“I know. I guess I’ve been denying the fact that my little niece
is all grown up.” her soft hands cup my face, “Your father would be so
proud.”
A young man appears beside us and clears his throat “Sorry to
interrupt,” my aunt drops her hand, instantaneously transforming back to
commander Aella. “I’m here for cadet Hoffman and her luggage.”
“Thank you, captain, here is her luggage and I will be escorting
Miss Zollia myself.” He nods, gathers my solitary bag and makes his leave.
“Now.” My aunt turns back to me. “I want you to email me at least once a month,
I want to know as much as you’ll tell me about you and Keagan and whatever else
goes on out there. Also, don’t worry about Cocoa. You and I both know no one
can own her, but I’ll take good care of her.”
Seeing this side of my aunt again makes it harder to leave her. I
go over my three things I’ll always remember about her. Her hugs, a bit stiff
but only given to people she really cares about, her seemingly infinite wisdom,
and the way she loved her brother, shown in the way she always talked about him
with a smile on her face.
Before I know it, it’s time for me to board. I give my aunt a
final hug and head off to join my fellow cadets. I find Keagan at the back of
the small crowd. General Liam gives a short speech and we begin filing in, at
least everyone else does. Keagan stops when he realizes I’m no longer beside
him.
“I’m scared,” I whisper. “What if I can’t do this? What if I
haven’t learned enough?”
“Lia.” He grabs my arms to silence my rambling. “You never stop
learning. None of us do. We’ll all make mistakes and hopefully continue
learning from those. This isn’t an end, it’s simply a new beginning and I’ll be
here the whole time.”
I take a deep breath, letting fear fade and excitement take its
place. He grabs my hand and we take the first step to a whole new life.
Together.
The end
No comments:
Post a Comment