"Theokritos! Time to get moving!"

Theokritos sat up so fast he slammed his forehead into the low ceiling of the militia barracks. They'd cut his hair last night to be short on top and shaved on the sides so it was still weird being woken up in a rush. He dropped out of his bed and slipped his duty tunic -- blue and gold checkered -- on before gathering up his breastplate. It felt heavy, was a pain to clean and hadn't been fit for him yet but it was his armor. Pulling on his sandals last, he hung his knife off one of his breastplate's straps and grabbed his iron spear. It was going to be his first true day on duty and he looked the part -- five feet and eight inches of scrawny muscle.

"Are you coming?" His partner called, silhouetted within the doorway. "Or are you going to sleep all day?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm on my way, relax!" Theokritos brushed himself off before settling his spear clumsily to his shoulder. It was just like back in drill school when the imperial instructors came looking for soldiers. His hands had proven too shaky to be a proper soldier and his lungs too weak to handle long marches but that didn't matter much now. Sweeping his brown hair aside, he joined his ever impatient partner Diaras.

Although he was young, Diaras was a painful four inches taller than him. His family had been out of the village on a trade run but now that he was back, he volunteered immediately. The Artiosi family had no dynasty but had certainly set out to make one; Diaras had six brothers and three sisters. All of them -- like their mother -- had strikingly beautiful black hair. Considering all of them worked a farm together, it was no surprise that Diaras was broad-shouldered, muscled and probably the fittest man around after the raid. The deaths had been mostly among those of fighting age with a few exceptions like Theokritos' parents so there was some good luck for Diaras. He gleamed his father's charismatic grin and raised his banded finger, his golden eyes shining like all his precious money.

"My fiancée and I are going to be having a private ceremony after duty hours. I think I'm going to try and get her pregnant on the first go!"

Theokritos smiled but didn't try to mean it. "Were we all so lucky to have piles of gold and a farm to fall back on, I'd probably find myself a girl too."

"Haha! Or maybe you'd use it to get some more meat on those bones, eh?" Diaras boomed with laughter, smacking Theokritos' arm. Even though it was a joke, it wasn't off from the truth. The taller and stronger of the pair took the lead and Theokritos resigned himself to following along. It had only been a few days and things were finally starting to get on track. All of the houses with damage were either being torn down by the elders and boys while the women were carrying goods, tending to a few of the wounded and directing the young girls who were dividing food for those working. Things were far from ideal in Burolo however, particularly among the few boys who were just a hair too young to fight. Without their fathers and brothers, many of them were the future for the village.

The only issue was without others to keep them in line, the understaffed militia had to be their parents.

Diaras whistled and drew Theokritos out of his funk, looking up and spotting two delinquents kicking and shoving another. The pair looked at the two before taking off; Diaras cursed and tossed his spear down so he could chase after them. Theokritos groaned but didn't go running off quite yet. He instead grabbed the tossed spear and carried both in the crook of one arm, making his way over to the young teen on the ground. He kneeled down -- setting the spears beside him -- and reached out, taking the younger one by the shoulder.

"Are you alright kid?"

They groaned but stayed down, brushing at his hand to try and dismiss him. But then, with a soft voice, they spoke. "F-Food... please..."

Their voice's softness wasn't what he expected at all from a kid who'd been getting beaten; normally they'd be angry and at arms. Theokritos squeezed their arm to confirm his theory.

"Ow!" They spoke louder with a higher, womanly pitch. They rolled over and shoved his hand away but revealed quite a bit thanks to their tunic's tight-fit. It was no boy but a blonde-haired woman. One he knew well.

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"Euria what did you do this time?" Theokritos grabbed her wrist, wrestling her up from the ground and forcing her to sit-up.

"Why is a weakling like you in the militia?" She venomously spat, bringing her arm close and covering her modest chest as if he could see through her blue tunic. She looked him up and down with those same green eyes that had looked down on him years ago. "You couldn't do anything right, could you?"

Before he had failed to be a soldier or a mage, he had once wanted to be part of Euria's adventurer group. There were six of them that left the village that year to pursue their own glory. If Euria had come back and wasn't even defending herself from brats, it could only mean one thing. Theokritos released her, bottling his anger.

"I came back and I'm helping the only way I can. Both of my parents are dead so it isn't like I can rely on them to take care of me."

Euria's face burned in shame and she turned away. She was only about five feet and four inches tall but had been the strongest warrior in the group that left. Her father had been a soldier like his and she had hoped to build a legend of her own. From the way she stayed silent, Theokritos figured it was possible she was either alone now.

He carefully stood up to avoid dropping either of the spears, finally offering her a hand. She looked scrawny and probably wasn't eating well but her pride kept her from taking handouts. Euria was the kind of person the village dreaded perhaps above the boys since she was desperate and on her last leg. Theokritos waited for her to finally shove it away, watching her stumble to her feet and set off. There wasn't anything he could do for her in his current position except watch. Diaras' whistle echoed through the street. Both of the tough guys were being dragged along by the back of their tunics. Both of them were sporting some bruises while Diaras only had a scrape on his near-perfect jawline.

"I finally caught the two bastards; was the person they attacked okay?"

Theokritos nodded, reached out and grabbed one of the boys by the front of their collar. The pair exchanged a captive for Diaras' spear. "Yeah, it was Euria. I didn't know she had come back too. Was she here during the raid?"

Diaras shrugged and looked past Theokritos for a moment before taking the point of their prisoner train. It wasn't a surprise given that he was away but surely someone knew more. The barracks weren't far but the walk back was rather quiet. Considering he'd been running so hard it made plenty of sense that his partner wasn't in a talking mood. Both of the runts made a good effort of struggling against them every few steps but neither Diaras or Theokritos were going to let go. Neither one of them were going to go chasing off after them.

It didn't take long to get back and find the captain at his table. The few guards left were either patrolling or on a break but he was the one organizing most of the workforce with the oldest elder in the village. Elder Ronias and Captain Theben were both handsomely old and had no children albeit for different reasons. Ronias hadn't ever had children in his pursuit of serving the local lord; it had left him lucky enough to gain many things that had often spared his life from thugs or even the few raids in his life. Theben had three daughters and lost two to a plague while the third died in the raid.

The captain turned his helmet enough to see the pair, setting down a marker on a map laid across their table before he rose to his feet.

"Guardsmen, I see you've brought more troublemakers?"

Diaras smirked and nodded but left Theokritos to answer. He did so frowning. "They were beating up Euria in the streets."

Ronias reached a hand to his grizzled white beard. "Euria is back in the village? We could use an ex-adventurer at our side..."

"If she's back then it means she didn't become successful." Theben barked, reaching out and grabbing both of the boys from the pair and turning them around. He ushered both into a wooden cage -- more for shaming kids than restraining someone long term -- and locked it tight before looking to Ronias. "Euria's father passed away a year ago. She came back just before the raid and ended up using all of her inheritance up in a week. I wouldn't be surprised if the raid were some loan collectors who wanted to get even on her and ended up taking it out on all of us."

Theokritos looked to Diaras hoping he'd know whether to leave or not but the more confident of the pair looked to him. If they stayed, no doubt the captain would try to give them a job of looking into Euria; but patrolling would mean that another pair of guards might get stuck into doing it instead. A peaceful patrol wasn't eventful but it would put more money toward getting out of the barracks. The safe militiaman was one who survived and etched out a living -- one that could have a chance of bringing about a dynasty. And he had to protect his village if he didn't want to lose everything in his feeble view of the world.