The woman’s hand was warm and soft to Larisa’s touch. A complete opposite to her own hands, that were tough and rough from all the work she did with them over the years. Ha’na’s hand got almost swallowed by the sheer size difference. Was everyone around so small or was Larisa simply enormous compared to everyone else?

“A pleasure to meet someone like you. Larisa was it?” Asked Ha’na as she let go of Larisa’s hand. Larisa missed the warm immediately.

“Yes.” Answered Larisa.

“And you must be Farre? Nice to meet you too, sergeant.” This time Ha’na stretched her hand out to Farre. This had to be some form of a greeting.

Farre, to Larisa’s surprise, took Ha’na’s hand gently and lowered her head a bit. Larisa had a feeling this was some sort of submissive showing. She would never have thought that Farre would submit to anyone this easily. Larisa had to show her she had an upper hand but in this situation Farre only just met Ha’na. What was the reason for something like this?

“It is my pleasure, my lady. Please forgive this oaf -” She looked briefly at Larisa. “- her manners.” Said Farre. Her voice lacked any biting quality as she spoke. She sounded like a different person.

“Oh, I understand. She is not of this land, is she? That is obvious she would not know some things like that. It is I who should have thought about such things.” Ha’na let go of Farre’s hand and took a step back to look at them both. Most of her attention seemed to be on Larisa. She felt her gaze on every single piece of her visible. Larisa couldn’t help but feel there was something unsettling in her gaze. She touched her forearms unwittingly and only a moment later realize what she was doing. This person - Ha’na - was making Larisa a little bit nervous. That wasn’t really something Larisa usually felt.

Larisa wasn’t sure if she liked the way Ha’na spoke about her. It was true that the woman was beautiful, but her tone of voice sounded a lot like a hiss of a latavi. That wasn’t as attractive to Larisa.

“Who are you?” Asked Larisa. Maybe she was like the captain Farre spoke about earlier. Someone of importance. She most surely was, but in what way? That was the question. Should she be careful of this woman? She was very powerful, as her Essence was pure and focused. Larisa wasn’t sure if she’d be able to win the fight with her if push comes to shove. Larisa’s control over the Essence and her sense of it was very good, she believed. But was if as good as whatever skill Ha’na possessed?

“I am Ha’na Raan-Tan. I’m here as a part of the Academy personnel, but I believe you don’t know what this means, do you?” Said Ha’na. Larisa had a feeling the question was not for her to answer, but rather to make clear how little Larisa understood of this situation. How dependent she was on the people around. Knowledgeable people like Ha’na.

“What you need to know is that from here on out you’re coming with me. You as well, sergeant.”

“What? I’m afraid that is not going to happen, my lady. I need to debrief the captain with Larisa in his presence. You must understand why.” A deep growl or some other sound a beast makes could be compared to how those words felt on Larisa’s ears. Mild wariness and scalding irritation flew around Farre like a cloud of disapproval. Some of her fire came back, it seemed.

“The captain has been informed of the Academy’s intentions so I’m afraid you will not be debriefing anyone but me. Guards! Please escort us to my tent.” And that was that for the conversation as far as Larisa was aware. Farre’s space instantly filled with desperation and fear as she stumbled on the way to Ha’na’s tent. Larisa followed carefully. Looking at the guards around. They were dressed similarly to Farre, in leather armour but with additional short cloaks of red fabric. The same shade of red that Ha’na’s robe was stitched with.

As they walked through the camp Larisa let herself watch the people and buildings around.

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The camp was located on a plain of green grass and in the distance, on one side, Larisa could see the jungle that they came from with the verdant mountain in the middle of it. The mountain where Vitash the dragon rested.

On the other side, in the northwest, Larisa saw a stretch of land with hills reaching high and some leafy trees growing here and there in clumps. The grass was abundant and shone brightly in the sunlight. A sprinkling of different bushes and plants were growing here and there. Most of them Larisa couldn’t recognize. Mostly because her eyesight couldn’t make out the characteristics.

The camp was quite big, it stretched wide and far on the even terrain. Wherever Larisa looked there was someone doing something. Most of the things Larisa saw the people do didn’t make much sense to her. Even though the tents looked mostly the same, people coming in and out of them looked different from each other. Most of them wore the same thing as Farre and Izaaj. It was a simple leather armour with small packs hanging from their belts. Every single one of these people had the same dagger attached to their hip. Those were the soldiers, Larisa guessed. The sergeants and the lieutenants, like the names Farre and Izaaj called each other before.

Some wore robes of cloth similar to Ha’na’s but without any red stitching. They were plain grey and visibly worse quality than hers. Even their looks spoke of status lower than Ha’na’s as their hair was clearly not washed and skin had smudges of dirt on it. Though every single one of those robe-dressed people had a piece of halcite hanging from around their neck. The pieces of halcite they had were not as strong in power as the one in Ha’na’s possession.

As they walked further into the camp a rhythmic thud could be heard from up ahead. As they turned around one tent, a smoke could be seen coming to the left of them. The thuds were coming from there as well. As Larisa squinted her eyes, trying to look through the grey smoke rising in the air, the thuds stopped.

“Farre?” A woman’s voice rang through the inside of the smoke cloud.

Larisa looked to Farre as she felt joy raise in the surrounding Essence. A matching feeling could be felt from the inside of the smoke. This person, like Farre, did not hide her emotions.

The group stopped as the woman came into the view. Larisa’s heart soared as she saw the way the woman looked like. She was like Larisa. Her body was tall and muscular, her hair was fair and blond. Her skin, although smudged with black dirt here and there was as white as Larisa’s. She was like her. She was a nachtak like her. Whatever that meant.

“Oh, Rowela! So good to see you!” Said Farre as she came closer to the woman.

“I thought you died, little one! Come here!” Said Rowela as she enveloped Farre in her arms.

“Hello, Weaponsmaster. I’m afraid this heart-warming reunion must wait as I was just escorting sergeant Farre here to my tent for debriefing.” Ha’na’s voice cut through the joy in the Essence like a well oiled blade.

The two women separated, and as they did, Rowena’s eyes fell upon Larisa’s silhouette.

“Hal! Nachtak here?” A surprise was evident on Rowena’s face, then another wave of joy flew over to Larisa. Larisa took a step closer to the woman, but a hand on her forearm stopped her.

“I’m afraid we must move, I insist.” Said Ha’na as she gazed from Larisa to Rowena and Farre.

Rowena must’ve noticed Ha’na and their escort just now as she immediately bowed her head upon seeing Ha’na.

“I’m so sorry, my lady! I’ll get back to work immediately.” Said Rowena. Then as she moved past hopeful and sad looking Farre she whispered. “We’ll talk later, alright? I’ll find you after dawn, mm?” She said to Farre. Farre gave a small nod and then they were off.

Larisa started to walk but Ha’na’s hand on her forearm stopped her. When Larisa looked to Ha’na she could see her brows were scrunched together and her plump red lips puckered out. She looked thoughtful.

Larisa was about to ask but then she felt Ha’na’s hand squeeze through Larisa’s leather bracer. The only sound Ha’na made was a thoughtful hum.

“How curious.” She said as she looked into Larisa’s eyes. “You’re going to be more interesting than I thought.” She said to Larisa quietly, then she let go of her arm.

“Let’s move everyone!” She said a little bit louder and then the group moved on.

A shiver went through Larisa’s body as she could still feel Ha’na’s touch on her arm. A phantom feeling that she couldn’t shake off. Larisa wasn’t quite sure about how this made her feel. But, well, there was still a lot of time to think about it, right?