Prologue
Year 380:
The smell of food was in every corner of the Little house in Shiganshina. A small wooden house, with just a kitchen, three rooms and a bathroom. That was all they could afford but it also was all they needed. They were happy. The old couple was proud of how they had raised their two girls: Jaquelin and Lily Dekker.
Of course they were not the perfect marriage, but they loved each other and they loved their daughters. Jaquelin, the oldest daughter, was brave and adventurous, even a little rebel during her first years of puberty. She nearly destroyed her parents when she decided she wanted to join the military at the age of twelve, that made her mother faint and her father stopped eating for almost three days. The worst came when she turned fifteen and told her parents about joining the Scouting Legion… Fortunately, everything turned out ok… Every time Jaquelin was out of the walls her mother prayed for her to come back in one piece and it always happened… Jaquelin was healthy and her wounds were never serious. She was a beautiful twenty-year old girl, with green eyes like her mother's and black hair.
The second daughter, Lily, was beginning to turn into a beautiful little girl. With just eleven years-old it was not difficult to see that she truly was adorable. She had beautiful black her and deep blue eyes. Her parents loved her as much as they loved her sister but, deep inside their minds, they were thankful for Lily's calm demeanor. They couldn't bear the idea of their youngest daughter as a soldier; besides, Jaquelin adored her little sister and she knew the dangers of going out of the walls, she did not want Lily in that kind of scenario.
That day, Evangeline Dekker was preparing dinner while looking absently through the window just as she did every time Jaquelin was out of the walls, praying for her daughter to come back to her. At the same time, she glanced over to her youngest child that was sewing a dress for her doll out of her old clothes while sitting on the table were her mother could keep an eye on her. Her husband was working, they had this little fruit stand in the market and he'd probably be home until dinner. Evangeline shook her head in order to concentrate in what she was doing… Of course she was worried about Jaquelin, but she had another daughter that needed her and couldn't be left without unfed. So, she forced herself to put her energies into the soup she was making.
The minutes went by and the only noises she was able to hear were the ones that she herself made while cooking and her daughter's that was probably inventing a new tune with her voice while she sewed. Suddenly, the sound of the bells reached the ears of both of them, making Lily sigh expectantly… That sound meant that Jaquelin would be visiting soon… They did not come to greet her like other soldier's families, they waited for her to come home because they knew that comforted her… To see her mother cooking and her little sister playing… That helped her recover and made her smile for a while, at least until she was forced back into the headquarters.
It was not until two hours later when the knock on the door they expected came, when the dinner was soon to be finished. Of course that wasn't strange, Jaquelin lost companions in every expeditions, she took her time to grieve by herself so her family wouldn't have to see her like that… Lily didn't even wait until her mom told her to open the door, she ran to it and didn't realize of her mother's intentions of stopping her… Evangeline couldn't even talk due to that strange oppression in her chest, she seemed to be frozen.
"Sist- Oh…" the little girl had shut herself up when she realize she did not know the person in front of her. She hid behind the door immediately letting just her head come into view "Who are you?" asked Lily shaking slightly.
"Is something wrong, honey?" asked Evangeline coming next to her daughter to see the person standing in the doorway "Squad Leader Shadis… Is everything okay?" deep inside of her she knew the answer to that question…
"As leader of the squad conformed by Natasha Hanscom, Nicholas Collins, Jaquelin Dekker, Julia Covey and Byron Martin; is my duty to inform you that the soldier Jaquelin Dekker was found dead yesterday's noon when she sacrificed herself to save Hanscom,s life… We couldn't retrieve her body…"
Time froze in Lily's mind… She couldn't process the information she received. The sound of a thud made her turn her head to the place her mother had been just three seconds ago to found her kneeling in the floor while an incessant shriek could be heard all over the little wooden house…
Lily didn't have a taste of food in all what was left of the day….
