It was a hot afternoon. It was probably afternoon, at least. Between the Mist and the northern summer of endless daylight, Lieutenant Mattias couldn't be quite sure. There certainly weren't any clocks up here.
The water from the spring on Lieutenant Mattias's arms felt refreshing. One of his men had found this spring deep in the woods, and they had begun using it for laundry and bathing, usually both tasks at the same time, of course. Today was his turn.
It had been several months, and there was no sign that they would ever get back to Arendelle. Nobody had admitted it to anyone else yet, of course, but Mattias could tell the way some men would come to him privately and ask questions. In his gut, he knew it, too: they were here for good.
They needed to keep their uniforms in good repair, as much as they could, and there were no washerwomen to send them off to. Some of them grumbled about this, but Mattias couldn't understand how washing their own uniforms could be considered as bad as the process of making their own soap. He was glad someone knew how, though. It wasn't a product he wanted to trust coming from people they had been fighting, even if it looked like a good trade on both sides.
He laid the pieces of his uniform on the nearby rocks to dry, before jumping into the spring to get himself rinsed off.
"What are you doing?" he heard a voice shout from the edge of the clearing. He saw the Northuldra woman Yelana emerge from the trees, holding her weapon as if she was expecting another fight at any moment.
"What does it look like?" he shouted back while treading water. "I'm washing my uniform. I didn't think this area was forbidden to us."
The Northuldra woman raised her eyebrows and gave a slight nod. "Yes, Lieutenant," she said, emphasizing his rank as she spoke. She walked over to inspect his uniform more closely. She took her time.
"Excuse me," Mattias called out after a few minutes of this, "but are you going to give me some privacy?"
"I'm not going to kill you," she informed him, glancing at his weapons carefully resting against a tree trunk.
"Thanks, I guess," he sighed, watching her sit down on the one rock that had no clothes on it. She wasn't going anywhere.
