Chapter 2

The night before

The first stars were beginning to appear. The sun was just disappearing below the surrounding mountains. The moon was rising. It was nearly full now; just a few more days, and it would be full. Very few clouds covered the sky. Tonight was perfect. The cold of autumn was starting to set in. The wind was getting stronger and the rain was becoming more frequent, but right now it was perfect. Autumn has always held a special place in my heart. The temperature was mild—never too hot or too cold.

Calla interrupted my thoughts: “Rico, how many more do you think there will be tonight?”

“I do not know.” As I said it, I moved in closer to him. “We will have to wait and see.” Too much is what I wanted to say, but I held my tongue. We were already burdened with enough sadness and fear.

As the darkness increased, more stars appeared. More than the night before. Just another reminder of the war. Calla wasn’t as religious as me, but he still believed in the stars (everyone in our village did). He came out with me every night to stargaze. We lay under the dome of night and looked up at all the lost lives. Not just from the war but from all of time. We prayed for the safety of our families and our village on the outskirts of Ossory.

The night got colder and the wind blew harder, but with Calla beside me, I was warm and comfortable. The wind got stronger. I pushed closer into Calla. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my neck. “It’s getting a bit cold; maybe we should go to bed now.” He shivered slightly as he spoke. I didn’t want to leave yet, but I knew he was right. It was late and cold. I knew I needed sleep for tomorrow, but I didn’t want the new day to come any faster than it needed to.

He looked at me pleadingly. I relented; he pulled me to my feet and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. I put my arm around his waist. He was too tall for me to reach his shoulder. He was not really that tall; I was just short. We made our way towards the tent. I hadn’t realised how late it was until I heard snores from inside the tent. I look up to see the moon high in the sky. When did that happen?

I changed into my night clothes as quietly as I could so as not to wake the other boys. When I finished, I clambered into my bedroll on the floor, pulling the blankets up to my chin. I closed my eyes.

I had only just closed my eyes when Calla got into bed beside me. “I thought you wanted to go to sleep.”

“No, I said it was cold. And I was still cold in my bed, so I got into your bed.” I could just make out a stupid grin on his face through the dark. “It’s simple as that.”

“You are such an idiot.” I flicked his nose.

He put his arms around me, pulling me towards him, and whispered, “But I am your idiot.”

“Ga adro tam.” I love you.

“I love it when you speak Dallie.” Most people do not know how to speak Dallie anymore; it is only spoken in small towns like ours. Now most people speak Mino. Calla knows how to speak Dallie, but we mostly speak Mino when we are around others. No need to stick out more; my accent already does enough to stick out. I blame my parents for that; they were the ones who taught me Dallie as my first language. I didn’t choose it.

I was warm and comfortable lying in bed next to Calla. I hated sleeping on the ground. The bed provided very little padding against the rock of the valley. Calla made being on the ground easier somehow. He had a way of making things easier and more comfortable by just being there. It was just one of his ways.

Calla shifted beside me and asked, "Are you scared?” Calla’s tone had completely changed, “for tomorrow.”

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I turned to my side to face him. I was scared. I really was. I ran my fingers through his light, short hair and said, “I am scared. Terrified really. Really fucking terrified.”

I put my arms around him, pulling him towards me. His muscles relaxed as I held him, but I could still see the terror in his eyes. I so badly wanted to tell him we would be fine. Nothing would happen. We would both come out unscathed and unharmed. But I couldn’t promise any of that. I couldn’t. That is what made his terror that much worse. It was well-founded. He had always been the scarred one. This was not the terror of a small boy. This was the real fear of death. The fear of death hung over both of us.

* * *

I must have fallen asleep, but I didn’t realise until I woke up to the loud morning bell. Calla was still in bed next to me. I was glad for his presence because, as my sleepy brain began to catch up with the world, panic for what I was about to do started to swell. Calla’s eyes were open, and his brown eyes reflected my emotions—pure terror.

The wind was still howling, pushing the canvas against the tent poles. The wind was unpredictable and harsh. My breath was coming far too quickly for my liking. It is not even like this is my first battle. I had done this before, but then I had just been a pîdantrës archer. Hidden behind the Bwânnéia sword soldiers. Me and Calla’s training was a rush job. The army had lowered the draft age to sixteen. They needed men fast, and training was long and expensive, so they condensed it into two weeks. We had had a day to learn to wield a sword. A day. One Day. We were archers, not close-range fighters. Well, we were pîdantrës. Yesterday, the commander decided we had lost enough men that Pîdantrës needed to become Bwânnéia. He had even taken some of the Spâtètie Cavalry off their Pegasus. This war was descending into pure chaos.

I sat up and started shaking. Calla sat up and wrapped his arms around my waist. I fell back against his broad chest. He gently started playing with my dark curls. Wrapping and unwrapping them around his finger. He always did that when he knew I was stressed. It had a magical way of calming me down.

“We should get dressed,” I said while I turned to look up at Calla.

I pushed myself off the ground, then offered my hand to Calla. He took it and pulled himself up. I pulled my uniform out of my pack and started to put it on. The white shirt was buttoned in a diagonal across my chest, the loose yellow pants with the very helpful leather knee pads, the blue sash, which I tied in the way we were taught in training (they were very specific about the way it should be done), and finally I pulled on my brown leather boots that go to about halfway up my calf. I would put the armour on later.

It felt weird to wear a blue sash. When I was a pîdantrës, I wore a light purple sash. But now I was a Bwânnéia, which meant a light blue sash instead. I’m mildly pissed because I was about to move up a rank. I would have gotten a darker purple sash, but just before that happened, I was pulled into the Bwânnéia ranks.

Once I was dressed, I went over to Calla. He was talking with Pill (Pill is from the same town as us). They were speaking in Dallie, which was unusual. I headed towards them to hear what they were saying.

“Ga la nan frolm xi mansi geesa.” I do not want to kill anyone. Calla had the same look as when I taught him how to gut a fish.

“Ga revelan, ga revelan,” I know. I know Pill replied, “Meas naouse la nan parat ama shozen,” but we do not have a choice.

Calla switched back to Mino and said, “I should finish getting ready.”

When he turned, he spotted me. I pulled him into me and kissed him. His smelled faintly of grass and dew from last night's lying in the grass. I pulled away and looked him straight in the eye and said, "Tam frain enta fee men gi adro.” You will be all right, my love.

He looked as terrified as I felt. Before we both started crying, I pulled Calla towards the meal parvillion. For breakfast, it was the usual whèintõmba. I did not mind whèintõmba, but after a few weeks of having it for breakfast every morning, it gets pretty boring. It was just corn cooked in a large pot with some eggs, meat, and sesame seed oil, but recently they had cut out the meat and the sesame seed oil (the only good parts) due to war rations.

We joined the line for food. I clasped Calla’s hand in mine. He was shaking. I wanted to tell him how it would all turn out fine. We will both come out unscathed, but I couldn’t tell him such blatant lies. And it is not as if I can promise such things. There was a high chance that one of them would die. Our fears were very reasonable.

After we got our food, we found Pill in our normal spot. The sun was only just coming over the mountains. Our spot was one of the first places to receive the sun's light. We sat on the ground. It is not like they give us pillows or anything. The grass was still slightly wet from the night's rain. Some stars still sat in the sky, but it was only the brightest ones—the most important lives.

Just as we were finishing breakfast, the horn was blown to call us to the green. The briefing would begin shortly, and then we would go to battle with the Tiffer army. I couldn’t wait.