Slosh. Splash. Scrub. Slosh. Splash. Scrub. Slosh. Scrub. SPLASH!
"Stupid laundry. Stupid water. Stupid army. Stupid life." Terralyn grumbled, wiping the water off her face. Slosh. Splash. Scrub. Slosh. Splash. Scrub. "I hate my life. I hate everyone. And most of all, I hate Captain Vil. Hate. Hate. Hate."
Now, I highly doubt any of you have felt this frustrated ever in your whole entire lives; and if you think I'm wrong, well, let's take a look at this scenario: Terralyn joined the army to get away from slavery, and now she is stuck back in it. Only this time, she is catering to hundreds of stinky, sweaty men who expect their laundry to get clean. The hundreds of filthy shirts and pants stacked up beside Terralyn are evidence enough to that. And, to top it all of, she has to wash it all in the stream (which is also muddy and filled with algae) with a bar of soap.
I think it's safe to say that not one single person living in modern day North America has ever had to go through that, and if any of us were forced to, one simply has to call the police or the children's help phone and explain what's going on, and they will come and stop whatever injustice- such as being forced to wash hundreds of pairs of shirts in a stream- is being done. It's as simple as that. But things aren't so simple for Terralyn; Captain Vil currently hates her guts, and to mention or complain of anything would only lead to more teasing and more bullying from her fellow clean up boys and soldiers.
So she kept quiet, took the dirty laundry, and proceeded to scrub it quite a ways away from the camp.
Finally getting frustrated, Terralyn dumped all the shirts straight into the stream and left them to soak, while rubbing her aching back with shaking hands. Her lashes were healing, but very slowly, and she was afraid that they may have gotten infected. She had been marching for quite a few days now, and her back seemed to be only a little better. She wondered if she should say something, mention how swollen and puffy her back was, but she figured that just by mentioning it she would be whipped again. Above everything else, she never wanted to experience the bite of the whip ever again.
Terralyn stared unhappily at the pile of now soaking wet T-shirts. She realized there was no way she could get the work done unless she got right into it. Literally. She took a quick peek around, but she was about ten minutes away from the back of the camp, so she was in practically no danger of being spotted by scouts or wandering soldiers. And they wouldn't search for her unless she'd been away for a full day; that was generally what happened anyway. So she stripped down to her underwear (and took of the constricting bandage around her chest) and stepped into the water. It was fairly cool, just cool enough to raise the goose bumps on her arms. She grabbed the soap and got to work.
Three hours later, everything was done, and Terralyn's arms were killing her. She strung all the clothes up on tree branches to let them dry. She strode down the stream a ways, and found a slightly deeper pool near the end of it. It was still frigid water, but at least that meant there wouldn't be any algae. She slipped into it and used what was left of the few bars of soap she had brought with her to scrub the dirt off herself. When she was done she got out of the pool and lay down on the somewhat itchy grass to dry off in the sun. She placed her clothes close beside her in case of emergency. Sighing in relief, she flipped onto her stomach, letting her back be exposed to the air. She was exhausted from washing laundry, and her eyes kept falling, slowly, slowly, pulling down…
A snap of a breaking twig startled her awake. She scrambled up and, realizing her clothes were not close to her, made a dash for the nearest bush, but a hand reached out and snaked around her waist.
"How are you, my dear?" a deep voice purred in her ear, sending shivers down her spine. His lips pressed to her throat tenderly, and she felt her heart speed up.
"I knew you'd come after me," she breathed. "I missed you so much!"
"I missed you to, my darling," he said, turning her around to face him. He looked as he always did: blonde hair, ocean blue eyes and mischievous smile. She smiled back at him and fluttered her eyelashes. He reached out his hand and tilted her chin up slightly.
"I've been waiting a long time to do this," he whispered. Then he leaned forward and kissed her tenderly, his arm hugging around her hips. She ran her hands through his hair and responded eagerly, tongue meeting his. Their breathes grew ragged and Terralyn realized just how little clothes she was wearing- but he stopped first, and pushed her away gently.
"No," he said. "I won't let you throw away your innocence like this," he was always so gentlemanly. "Put on your clothes- I have something important to ask you."
Ever obedient, Terralyn put on her clothes (although all she felt like doing was taking everything off… but that's probably too much information for you dear readers) and faced Neptune. Smiling, he strolled over to her and took her hand.
"Terralyn, do you love me?" he asked.
"Yes." No hesitation. "Do you love me?"
"I've loved you ever since the day I've met you." He got down on his knee, and looked up into her eyes. Sunlight fell straight down onto them, bathing them both in a heavenly light. "Will you-"
CRACK! A real stick broke somewhere near Terralyn, forcing her out of her lame romantic totally-been-done-before dream, and slammed her awake. Or rather, someone slammed her onto her back, sat on her, and pinned her arms over her head, therefore waking her up.
"What do we have here?" a cynical voice asked. Looking down at her from his slightly awkward position was a young man with dark hair and a hooked nose. He was wearing Jupiter's colors.
She cursed him with every foul word she knew. When he felt as if he'd heard enough, he slapped his hand over her mouth and let out a low whistle. "I'm mighty impressed with your vocabulary miss," he said. "But the fact is, I'm on a mission."
"Mmgrarg!" she spat through the hand.
"I'm supposed to scout out your little army here- going around back is the best way to go unnoticed of course- and then report back to my master so we can kick your army from here to earth and back again."
Terralyn glared up at him soundly.
"But the fact is, I don't have to be back till nightfall. I still gotta few hours left. And you know what I'm gonna do during that time?" She really did not want to know. "I haven't been with a woman for months," he whispered, staring straight into her terrified eyes. "Mind if I take a tumble with you?"
She thrashed with all her worth, but couldn't get free. He was too big, too heavy, weighing down on her like a huge rock. She bit his hand that still covered her mouth and he pulled away slightly, loosening his grip on her hands. She wiggled her right one free, groping around- she knew the rock was somewhere- AHA! Got it! She thought as her hand closed around the rock. Boldly, she smashed it into his gut.
"Oomph," the man bent over and clutched his stomach, still straddling her. With all of her strength, Terralyn brought the rock down on the man's head. He collapsed on top of her completely, knocked out cold.
Vainly Terralyn struggled beneath him, but his dead weight pinned her down. Giving up, Terralyn almost laughed at what she had gotten herself into. She was stuck under him. How sad was that?
But, after pushing him around a bit, she did manage to wiggle out from underneath him. Breathing hard, Terralyn grabbed her bandage and clothes and dressed herself back into the boy she was pretending to be. Then she ran down the stream, grabbed a particularly filthy shirt, and ripped it into strips. Running back to the unconscious man, she tied his hands behind his back and his feet together as best she could, and then she gagged him. Grabbing the dry clothes from the tree branches, she trudged back to the camp, dropped the clothes carelessly into a basket, she raced to Captain Vil's tent.
"Captain?" she asked uncertainly.
"Enter." She did.
"Captain, I caught a scout from the other side," she said quickly, staring at the floor. Her comment was met with a moment of silence.
"I don't see him anywhere," Vil said coolly.
"I bound and gagged him and left him by the stream a ways back, Captain."
"I see no profit in that."
"Captain, you do not seriously think that a g- boy such as myself could carry a full grown soldier all the way back to camp?"
"I expect no less. Have the prisoner here in less then twenty minutes. Dismissed."
"Shit. Screw you, you terd," Terralyn spat- though this was when she was walking back to her tent, very much out of Captain Vil's earshot. "How am I going to do this?"
That's when she spotted all of the clean up boys scattered around, doing nothing and looking very much bored. "Boys!" she shouted, they all looked up. "Boys, how would you like to take part in a capture of an enemy scout?"
Of course they agreed to help. What boy didn't like to play the part of a soldier? And also, Terralyn offered to do all their chores the following day. It was an offer they could not refuse.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
"Good work, Mr. Garrow. I expected a lot less," Captain Vil said briskly, his hand hovering over his row of lined up weapons on the ground of his tent. "He's quite bashed up- seems he's taken a bit of brain damage, insisting he was lured into a trap by a sprite who was sleeping by the pool. His head was bruised- presumably by you, of course?" I nodded. "And his gag and ties were all securely done. The work of a fine worker, I must say."
Terralyn fairly glowed with pride. "Thank you Captain."
"Which is why I've decided to promote you to a Scout," he said, finally choosing a fairly small sized sword and testing it's weight in his palm. "You're small, quick, able to follow orders fairly well," he eyes the box which contained his whip, but didn't acknowledge it in any other way. "And I believe you could be silent if you wished. And of course, you will wish that, seeing as if you are caught by the enemy, they will no doubt kill you."
Terralyn simply nodded in response.
"You'll start two days from now, seeing as how you must keep your promises to the other boys," he cracked a grin. "A very ingenious deal, although you'll be working until you could take it back. But no doubt you will get it all done. Dismissed."
"Thank you, Captain."
"Oh. My. God." She resisted the urge to squeal. No more dishes? No more cleaning dirty clothes? No more cleaning ANYTHING? Terralyn could live with that.
But her happy smile faded. What had he said?
'And I believe you could be silent if you wished. And of course, you will wish that, seeing as if you are caught by the enemy, they will no doubt kill you.'
'Oh.' Terralyn thought, her smile melting into a worried frown. 'Well, I guess I'll have to be silent then…'
When she had signed up for this army, she had only ever thought about the escaping and fighting part. She had not even acknowledged the dying part.
And now it seemed that she was to walk these forests- where the slightest noise could lead to death- all by herself.
Shit.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
Authors note: how do you like them apples? Lol. Yes I'm sure I confused you guys on the scene/dream part since I didn't really announce it as a dream (that was the point) it was meant to confuse you, and of course there were several hints in there indicating that the dream was indeed a dream. Can you honestly see Terralyn batting her eylashed? Pah-lease!
Thanks to all my super reviewers: Aurora, Galloping somewhere, Bumbledbee, Matsudpie, heart-of-a-tiger92, Sara, sailorgurl13, No-Way-Princess, Ihaconch, porkypick, Viva Andromeda, bordeauxdaffodill, and sweet thoughts. And my fiction press reviewers Carmel March and Delicacy of Mind! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I love all of your reviews (good or bad) and your support is what's keeping this story alive! SO please keep on reviewing!
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