"March! March! One, two, three, four! March! March! Know what war's for!"
"Pride!" The Lilty men called out together in unison. "Honor! Pride! Honor!" Over and over again they shouted.
Miach watched as her father joined the ranks, ceremoniously entrusted to his leadership of one of the smaller groups, now two years after the war had started. "Is war really about pride, mama?" The fourteen-year-old looked up at her somewhat taller mother as the soldiers marched away.
"Sometimes." She took her by the hand. "War is our way of showing the world that we can do whatever we want. We show off our power. We conquer anyone who will oppose."
Miach pondered her mother's words for the rest of the day, lying awake in bed as she stared up at the ceiling of her small hut's room. "Lilty's creed. Pride of war." Those were the lessons she had always learned in her youth. If that was the Lilty way, why was she not a part of it?
She stepped outside silently. It was dark except for the glistening stars above. "What are we but inhabitants of a land mass? Even Lilties are different from one another." She looked to the west, where the crystal was prominent, even in the darkness. "We all live on the same earth. What makes this corner separate from the others?" She sighed and sat down, against a small tree. "From the lands that we well know…" She closed her eyes and was cast into a deep sleep.
.
"Our pride is great! We'll fight back!" Uday and Celerina called.
Miach stood with her father, spear in hand. "We will conquer you!" They countered.
Leading Selkies behind them, the twins charged. Other Lilties followed Miach and her father. The battle waged on, longer than Miach could have imagined it would. Then, an arrow pierced through her father's armor. "Daddy, no!" She cried, but he fell and seemed to bleed into the ground. The crystal in the distance seemed to disappear as she screamed out her own battle cry and charged at the twins.
Miach sat up, gasping. She was blinded by the unexpected light of the morning sun. "Only a dream. But it was so real." She looked at her hands. "Anything could happen now. I can't just sit by." She stood. "What if that dream was a warning? What if it was planted in my mind for a reason? What if…" With a gasp, she started running to the army's lines. "What if daddy's in danger?"
.
That dream was a premonition, she was sure of it. A terrible warning of what the future could hold for a loved one. But when she arrived at the camp, all was at peace. The army hadn't even advanced yet. "Miach, my daughter. What are you doing here?"
"I want to help. I want to make sure no one is killed."
"This is war, my dear. Sacrifice is impossible to avoid."
"Then I want to help the best I can! Let me help heal!"
"Very well. Stay behind our lines, here at the base. You will stay safe that way."
And she obeyed. There at the camp she stood, helping the injured when the time came. Soon, her father took his army, along with another group, to start moving into the Selkie territory. "Be careful, father!" He promised he would. She waved to him, then continued to her work.
It was just as she had dreamt, her father against the Selkies. What did this mean? Could her dream come true? She shook away her horrid thoughts and tried to focus on her jobs. As if to reassure herself, she glanced up, where she could clearly see the blue crystal against the equally blue sky. She smiled. It was just a dream. Nothing would happen to her father, so long as that shining hope stood on the horizon.
.
The Lilty army advanced in each corner of the land…