Hi everyone! I just realise I didn't post the chapter like I had planned to, so I'm doing it in the middle of class (I'm failint philosophy anyway). I need to remind you not to take this story seriously. This is just for fun.
Anyways, here's the chapter!
Onya rode her horse down the main street in Polis.
Locals bustled about as usual, outdoor kitchens were improvised all along the street, stalls of old world artifacts lined up next to each other. The city was filled with life, voices and faces.
After the long solitude of the woods, the shock with Polis was violent. Onya stood dazed for a few seconds, stepping forward, looking around as if this was the first time she had seen these streets.
She crossed the road in silence, toward the tower that loomed in the air.
Leksa was waiting for her at the bottom of the tower, Onya guessed that she was due to return from her training with the Natblidas. Straight, hands behind her back and slender with her two bodyguards, Leksa possessed impressive authority and Onya was proud of the young woman her seken had become. Leksa watched her arrive without any emotion showing on her face. A mask that she had managed to perfect after years of training.
Onya dismounted from her horse and gave her a salute.
"Heya, Heda."
"Heya, Onya."
After two months of not seeing her, she had missed the Commander. Onya found her looking more peaceful and relaxed than when she left. But after all, after the fiasco that had taken place then, it wasn't very difficult. Onya shook the idea out of her head.
"Did you have a good trip?" Leksa inquired politely as she took a few steps, and Anya followed suit, following her as they circled the square.
"Sha, Heda," Onya replied. "I ran into a bunch of Reapers. There are more and more of them."
Leksa frowned.
"I know. All reports from other clans indicate this. Those who succumb to the mountains are more and more frequent. "
"Indra had several comments on this."
"Of course she has," Leksa replied, the shadow of a smile on her lips.
She accelerated slightly to put some distance between them and Gostos and asked more soflty:
"How are you, really?"
If there was something they never asked each other, that was how the other was. To love was a weakness. Onya had told her over and over again. Nonetheless, Leksa held a special place in her heart, so Onya allowed this seemingly offhand question which reflected all their friendship.
"I am perfectly okay, and ready to get back on the field, Leksa."
"You know that's not I'm talking about."
"I don't want to talk about it."
Perhaps Leksa had banished the Skaigada and she had been killed by Azgeda, or someone else had taken care of it for her and got rid of this annoying woman.
Good riddance. Onya was done with these jokes.
A sudden cry made them turn their heads, passers-by stepping aside as someone passed.
And suddenly she appeared. The Skaigada.
The young woman was running at full speed, holding her skirts in bundles against her hips. With disheveled white hair, she was chasing an escaped chicken that was trying to get away. Behind her, another young woman with dark hair was chasing them both, laughing.
Natshana ran past them, skidded on the ground, and turned around a corner of a house before resuming her run. She slipped in the mud, leaned over to avoid the outstretched arm of a passer-by, a smile on her lips. Behind her, the young woman was still running, choking on her own laughter.
"Catch it! Catch it, Kassy! "
Natshana then threw herself forward, slipped into the mud, and closed her arms around the chicken, which she lifted into the air to prevent it from escaping again. Delighted, she brandished it at arm's length, uttering a cry of victory. The young woman ran up to her, grabbed the chicken in turn, thanking her for preventing it from running away.
With a big smile on her face, Kassy shook her arm to wave in their direction.
"Hi, Lexa!" She cried, and Leksa politely responded to her greeting.
Kassy didn't seem to notice Onya's presence as she turned to the young woman with the chicken and disappeared with her into the tower, hopping and chatting.
Onya turned to Leksa, unsure whether she should be angry or grateful.
"You kept her?"
"Yes," Leksa replied calmly. "She has been a model citizen the past few months."
"Yeah, right," Onya scoffed.
Leksa frowned.
"I'm serious."
"Really? She didn't seem like any type of model the last time I saw her. "
"She has changed."
Onya didn't answer, preferring to remain silent as she thought about Natshana's smile as she ran after the stray chicken. She wasn't so sure. After all, the young woman had been very good at hiding her pain behind her nonsense. Her daughter was dead, and yet she had spent all those weeks on Earth laughing at her. As if joking distracted her from her pain.
Leksa observed her for some seconds with a very slight smile.
"Would you like me to tell you about her?"
Onya wanted to say no. She wanted to tell her she had moved on and she didn't care about anyone anymore, let alone an anoying woman running around town.
"Yes."
Or she could say that, too. Leksa's smile widened for a few seconds.
"She has become fluent in our language, she knows even the most complicated terms. She made friends with a woman from the kitchen, Oksana, and she almost burned the tower to the ground by trying to make a traditional dish. She's watching the warriors and learning our ways and she is telling people strange things she calls 'poems'. "
Onya painfully hid her smile. It sounded exactly like Natshana.
"Once, an ambassador from another camp disrespected me and she started barking at him like an animal. He never opened his mouth again for the whole meeting. "
"Like an animal?"
"Yes. She said it's what… Uh, 'bad bitches do to men and we should put them in cages'. I have no idea what that means. "
This time, Onya couldn't help but smile.
"I can agree with the last one."
"Of course you do," Leksa replied, rolling her eyes.
Silence enveloped them for a few seconds, Onya just stared at the forest that opened up before them.
"She's better now. I won't force you to talk to her or even be in the same room as her, and she hasn't said a word about you since you left. But I think she deserves a second chance. We all do. "
"It is not mine to give."
Leksa shrugged, turning on her heels to walk away.
"Then who is it to give?"