Fools In Love
Soldiers filled the tent with chatter and the occasional laugh here and there.
But looking at her friend, Alina was quiet.
More than she was before, Valeria noticed.
But that might have something to do with the propaganda posters hanging around the confines of the tent.
Anti-Shu propaganda posters.
And when she spotted some soldiers giving Alina a look, that she did not like in the slightest. She gave them a glare and put her hand on the sword that is still attached to her hip, which made them freeze in their spots in fear .
Nodding her head to the side, with the glare still present on her face, the soldiers then immediately fled from their table.
Seeing this, Alina then gave her a small smile in gratitude, which Valeria returned.
"Ignore them, they are pathetic, and not worth any of your attention. Do not let them put you down, make you feel as though you are less. " Valeria hissed at the end, she then added while making certain Alina kept her eye contact, "Remember what I told you?"
At which the girl's small smile blossomed into a full blown one.
"That I should keep my head high, and not let those beneath me bother me in the slightest. That I am better than them." At which she then started to straighten her back and almost held her head high to, but she then cocked her head to the side with a pout on her face, with her eyes almost popping out of their sockets in an alarming way, in an almost beseeching, but also whining manner she then said to one of her dearest friends "But, Rieeee…I don't think like that, I'm not better than anyone!"
The girl opposite from her only huffed in amusement and also in exasperation.
Her friend's never going to change out of that habit, Valeria thinks in pity.
Lieutenant Bogdan then walked up to the wooden stage, that is sat in the middle of the tent.
Looking into the crowd around him, he then adresses the matter at hand.
"All right, listen up." He started, at which the occupants of the tent then quieted down, giving the older man their undivided attention.
He then continued, "I know some of you have been on the road for a week, so I'll be brief. Most of you will continue North of the Fjerdan frontlines; or South, to the Shu Han border." He then added,"The Second Army, however, had a shiny new solution to our food shortage, and it sails tomorrow for Novokribirsk. If this model works, it means a full meal for everyone in this tent next week. "
Murmurs then began to spread amongst the soldiers.
'I'd rather not go back to that icy and dreary place, which did not help her thoughts from spiralling when she was there. It brought back unpleasant memories. Not the cold necessarily, okay maybe the cold did play a part in it , but the stillness of the place. That made her remember that hell.' Luckily her fellow soldiers, which included Mal, did not hear her screaming during those nights, that she spent in that frigid place, because of the silencing charm she applied each night on herself.
Speaking of magic, she hasn't told anyone of it. Not even the friends she has made here, while they seem to be 'accepting' of the First Army, with their Small Sciences, for what they can do for them , Valeria does not see herself as an equal to them.
She has pure and unadulterated magic in every pore of her being, which she holds the most of it in.
To not let herself be known.
To protect herself, at which she admits, when the worst comes to worst, she knows they all won't be a match to her.
But back to the matter at hand.
Although she has tried to learn everything she can from this place she has found herself in, Valeria knows, that to let it known that she has magic; that the outcome won't be positive.
They would distrust her, they will not even let her explain herself. For she has experienced a similar moment.
She knows humans, and especially their fear for the unknown, and what it can consequently lead to.
She'll never forget that.
Valeria thinks, all the while clenching a fist under the table.
Noticing her friends stare at her in concern, Valeria loosens her clenched fist, then shakes her head and offers them a small grin, that nothing is amiss with her, all the while tilting her head to the Lieutenant before them.
Which they then turned their attention to, immediately forgetting what ensued before with their friend.
"-It means bullets for your guns and sugar for your tea." The Lieutenant continued, all the while pointedly looking at their famed Soldier carrying a sword at her hip at the last part, at which the girl in question raises an eyebrow in question. All the while mouthing to him that she doesn’t put sugar in her tea. It's for the weak, she cheekily adds, at which her two friends beside her tried to hold their laughter in.
Before he could retaliate a response to the girl, another soldier asked the Lieutenant a question about whisky.
Huffing in amusement, the man then answered "Yes, that would be nice, but don't hold your breath. Of course they need our help bringing in those supplies back, so some of you will be assigned to the task." He announced, and the amused air from the whisky comment then abruptly went away.
Mal then turned to the two girls beside him, but mostly Alina.
"There's nothing to fear, I will be now selecting names for what I call the 'Nightmare Lottery'." The Lieutenant continued.
Lieutenant Bogdan then walked around the stage, to get a look at everyone around him.
"For the supply run accros the Fold! Sergeant Yuri Teplov. Tracker Malyen Oretsev…" Mal quickly turned to face Alina with a distressed look on his face, a look she returned as well.
"...Did he, but you're in our unit." Alina whispers.
Mal looked down in shock, " …It has to be an error. It has to be."
"Didn't sound like an error Mal." She said back.
Their Lieutenant then continued to list off the next names until he finally ended with, "and lastly, I'd like to add our very own Dark Knight, Sergeant Major Valeria Charniak, to make certain that nothing will be amiss. I have full confidence in each one of you." He concludes.
This time Alina and Mal turn to the girl next to them in shock. Linking her arm around Valeria's, Alina holds it tight, as if that would make the girl stay.
While her friends were panicking, Valeria didn't mind.
Because she'll be visiting her Shadow cats again, which was a weekly occurrence anyways. The spoiled things that they are, she almost huffs in amusement.
"That's it, dinner in one hour. Come back and line up by rank. Dismissed. " One of the highest ranking officers in the tent announced.
"Mal. Rie.." Said Alina quietly.
"Well, if it does work, I'll get to visit Ketterdam," Joked Mal, but that didn't exactly lay the girl's worries to rest.
"Don't worry, he won't be alone out there, Alina." Valeria says, while adding with a smirk, "I'll keep the fool alive." She said in an attempt to comfort her, but the girl only turned her big worried, doe eyes on her.
After that they then went out of the tent, each going their own way before dinner, they'll meet one another when it's dinner time.
It had grown dark when dinner was being served, Mal and Valeria had already gotten their dinner and were waiting on their friend with Dubrov and Mikhael next to them at their table.
As the girl in question stepped up with her plate, the cook serving the food gave Alina a sneer.
"What's a Shu girl doing here?"
At which Alina then clarified in a shy manner, "I'm Ravkan. On the Cartography team."
Her friend in line behind her, Alexei, then defended her. "She's half Shu. An orphan."
The cook then sneered even more, "Is that an answer? Back of the line, your friends too." The cook continued.
Before Mal could react, Valeria was already striding over halfway to where Alina was standing in a vengeful manner.
'Not on my watch you don’t. You'll regret what you just said, you twat.' Valeria thought, her mind whirling around in anger.
"I don't know them." she heard her shy friend say.
She almost scoffs at that in frustration.
'Always a loyal friend, aren't you, Alina?'
When will the girl stand up for herself? Valeria wonders in despair, all the while continuing her vengeful stride.
All the while the girl is being oblivious to the hurricane, that is her friend, that's coming towards her direction from behind.
Before the cook could say something, Alina saw his gaze shift from her to something behind her, the cooks sneer quickly faded away and his eyes grew wide in recognition and in fear.
"The-the Black Knight…" The cook whispered to himself, frozen to the spot.
"That is what they call me, yes. Now, is there a problem here?" Was her friends voice behind her, all the while she's gently resting her hand on Alina's shoulder.
Valeria.
Just as she was about to answer her friend, the cook cut her off in a shaky voice, all the while he trembles in fear at the person that just joined them.
"No…No problem here, she was just about to get her food. It was just a misunderstanding!" at which he then proceeded to serve Alina her food, all the while glancing towards Valeria in fear, while also asking her if she would want something else from the kitchen?
"No thank you." The girl answered in a cold manner, her voice silky.
"Let's hope we don't have another misunderstanding, shall we?"
The cook almost cried, all the while furiously nodding, before finally breaking eye contact with the blankly faced girl with very cold, and unnerving green eyes, that made him feel as though he's drowning in their frosty depts, in front of him.
He then went and served Alexei after that.
Alina was then steered away to where Mal's two friends were seated, which he was sat at previously as well.
Making eye contact with the boys in front of them, she then asks where he went. They, shrugged their shoulders.
After we were done eating, Alina found a perch for herself and I to sit at, undisturbed.
The girl was drawing and staring out into the Fold, while I was trying to take a nap.
We then heard footsteps, and I automatically recognised them as our friend's.
The boy laughed victoriously as he plopped himself between the both of us.
"I finally found you both!" He says.
Alina tore her focus away from the Fold and finally put her drawing away before giving Mal her undivided attention.
"You always do, somehow. "
At which the boy then replied, "Well, it's not hard. You always perch, and Rie naps everywhere where there is a bit of height."
"I'm brooding." Alina scoffs, all the while Valeria is watching the sight in front of her with one eye open. Still trying to nap again, but she thinks she will not have the chance with the oblivious, loud fools, she calls friends, in front of her.
Mal then pulls out a crystal bowl that is filled with grapes towards Alina, "Well, I have something for you." he says, while giving said girl the bowl.
Alina took the bowl with a shocked but expecting look.
"Where did you get these?" She asked before finally taking one.
"I stole them." Mal replied.
Valeria then finally chuckles, now fully awake.
"From a Grisha tent? Really, Mal?"
They all then laugh, while Mal continued his explanation, "I just thought it would get me an invitation to go to jail, but it just got me an invitation to tumble with a Grisha."
That made Alina quickly look up at the boy.
' Figures.' Valeria thinks in amusement, all the while being amused at what she's hearing from their tracker friend.
"You tumbled with a Grisha?" Alina's tone changed, you'd be a fool not to notice it.
From the first time I have met these two at the orphanage, I knew they were stuck to one another like glue. That they liked each other since they were young children. Alina always worried over the boy, gave him lingering looks when he wouldn't notice. Mal did too, honestly it's exhausting to watch them dance around the fact that they could be more than friends, and it was also a bit disgusting, Valeria admits, to watch these oblivious fools in love.
'Why did she always have to be the thirdwheel, seriously, even in this world??'
Mal then chuckles at Alina "No. No, I just flirted with her. Maybe she flirted with me?" He says.
She couldn’t hold it in anymore and snorted "And anyways, our Mal, tumbling with a Grisha? Fat chance." She then adds, "I'd sooner tumble with one, before you ever would."
"Valeria!" The boy shouts in outrage, which the girl in question raises an eye brow in return at the boy. "What?"
She then makes eye contact with Alina, and they eventually both gave the flustered boy a look.
They both knew he flirted with her.
The boy then started defending himself.
"Look, Grisha women scare me. Okay?" he says all the while raising his hands in surrender.
Alina then looked down at the grapes she had been picking at.
"Did you see the Lieutenant?"
The boy had tried to find a way to get them off the list, with Valeria telling him that the Lieutenant's not going to change it. Which he didn't.
"Yeah." Said Mal.
"And?" Alina asked hopefully.
Am I glad that I'm not the one explaining it to her, talk about awkward.
"Well…turns out, they need us. So…" the boy trailed off.
Devasted, Alina then took a deep breath while trying to process it all.
She understood her friend's worry. But it was really unnecessary with her being in the picture, she wouldn’t let something happen to Mal during their trip into the Fold.
If her cats do cause trouble, she'd discipline them.
"So…" Alina then says, "I could shoot you both in the foot." she offered to the both of us.
That drew a genuine laugh out of us.
"But you're a terrible shot, love. " Valeria teased, while laughing.
Our laughter then came to an end when all three of us gazed at the large black mass that is the Fold.
"Don't cross it." Alina begs in desperation.
Both of our heads then turn towards her.
Alina then continued, "I used to have nightmares about the thing. Dreams that my parents were still in there, waiting for me."
Mal then shifted his eyes from the fold to her, "Well, orders are orders."
Slapping the boys shoulder for his inconsiderate tone, even though what he said was true. Valeria then turns towards Alina "Don't worry, like I said before, we'll be fine and you'll see us again."
"I'll find my way back to you. I promise." Mal then said, while intensively looking into Alina's eyes.
Then they started to lean into one another …Okay .
Yes, I'm feeling like a thirdwheel again.
They continued leaning in, until Mal took a sharp breath and pulled away.
Coward.
"But first, I am going gambling in Ketterdam."
"Without me?" Alina joked.
Mal then joked in return, "I'll write you a letter." And they both then weakly chuckled.
' These damned fools.' I say to myself, with my arms crossed, watching them both with a raised eye brow.
Fools in love indeed.