I did a quick edit of this story which I wrote years ago. I didn't want to change anything just make it flow better. I still remember the day I could not get this out of my head.
Disclaimer: Just an inspired piece using Tamora Pierce's fantastic characters and world.
The eyes of a dreamer. Those eyes that showed but a little insight to the world of the realms second lady knight. The calm and firm hazel eyes that usually was visible to everyone, now flashed with anger as her temper flared.
She had known that something like this would happen. They had had six years of peace. Six years to rid herself of the nightmares that haunted her every night after the last war with Scanra.
Every night she had woken to fear. The irrational fear that made her forget where she was, the fear that suffocated her at night. The fear that those nightmares had created for her. And every night she told herself over and over, it was just a dream - it was over, just a chapter from her past. Part of who she was and who she had become.
Two Weeks Later
She stood on the wall of New Giantkiller, the battle field before her. A group of her men had been trapped by loose Scanran's and they were too far from the walls for her archers to help them. Yelling for the Company's 8 and 9 she went to mount her fierce war horse, a strawberry roan that so happened to have a mean streak.
She galloped onto the field, her sword raised high and over two hundred men behind her, all well trained and trustworthy. Their training held as their horses took them steadily forward, closer and closer to the enemy.
Not once did they falter.
They would fight for their country. They would fight for their homes and their families. They would follow the Lady Knight to the dark realms and back again.
When the battle had ended a sergeant of Third Company stood atop the battlements gazing out to the torn and bloody field littered with the bodies of the dead and wounded. His blue eyes were intense and concentrated. Trying to find some sign of the one who he loved and loved him.
He looked among the returning soldiers of the companies that had ridden out, not finding what he was looking for he turned his face away, a sick feeling in his stomach.
Now he looked among the wounded, still unable to find her, he then turned to seek her in the midst of the dead bodies.
They were Tortall's protectors. They were what helped to keep Tortall safe. They had died fighting for what they believed was right, for what they knew was home and what they loved more than anything. They would not return to their families. They would no longer see the light of day, the rising of the moon, nor the setting of the sun. They would not see their children grow or their lands prosper.
Suddenly he saw what he had dreaded to see, yet he had expected it in a way. Lying on a blue blanket that somebody had found, was the realms second Lady Knight. The one who had given young girls inspiration and courage. Who had given a new hope to an ever changing realm. She was a beacon on change. To him, she was just Kel – and yet, so much more.
Her hazel eyes were glassy and serene. A wound in her left side had caused blood to seep down onto her chain mail and dry there.
They burned her body at dusk two days later. She did not deserve a battlefield burial. There was hardly a dry eye across the Scanran front. Her friends and her colleagues mourned, her family wept, and her lover, the blue eyed sergeant stood completely still. He knew that for her, death was just another adventure. One day, he would see her again. Everyone ended up in the realms of the dead after all. She would be waiting for him.