Love in War

Meeting

(3rd Person Pov)

Alexandria walked with her friend and the squad dog through the muddy fields searching for any sign of a disturbance. The dog, Echo, was trained to let out small barks when he smells enemies. Though he barks at small animals too because he's a hunting dog. His bark echos to alert the fighters so they can prepare to fight or to alert the hunters that there's an animal near by. Alex's friend, Daniel, was a trained fighter. So most of his training was just fighting and using weapons. Alex was a tracker, she was trained in tracking, trapping, and hunting. The army she was part of relied heavily on the two trackers they had for their food source, and since Alex had been hunting for years it gave her an advantage to this specific role. Nobody actually knew that Alex was a woman, because they weren't allowed to fight Alex had disguised herself as a man and joined the army. Everybody was put through tests to see their strengths and their weaknesses, that's how their roles were assigned. Everything about how they lived was determined by their strengths and weaknesses.

Ophelia walked carefully through the woods with her furry companion, Athena. The mastiff walked a few paces behind Ophelia, checking in case any important herbs or berries were missed. She was trained to look out for herbs and bark when enemies were scented or spotted. Ophelia was a faerie that mainly used herbal magic, though she did know other forms of magic. Her position in the war was as a nurse. She did help cook food though and add more flavor with certain herbs.

The mastiff sniffed around the base of a tree before letting out a small bark catching Ophelia's attention. She turned around and walked over to the tree and crouched down to see why Athena barked.

"Burdock root! Good job Athena, we're really low on this." Ophelia said rewarding the dog with an apple slice before working on collecting some of the burdock. While she was putting the burdock safely in her basket the mastiff started barking and growling urgently, that meant someone she didn't know was nearby. Ophelia quickly climbed up into the tree and hid just as two soldiers walked into the forest with a dog of their own. Athena backed up and hid behind some trees, while Ophelia peered down and watched as the small dog slowly fall asleep. One of the soldiers spoke.

"Echo? Echo buddy are you okay?"
"I'm sorry Alex, but nobody can know what happened to you." The other soldier took out a knife and stabbed it all the way into 'Alex's' side. He watched as Alex fell to the ground and then walked away. Athena ran up to the fallen soldier and sniffed at him while Ophelia worked on getting out of the tree.

Ophelia reached the ground and rushed over to the fallen soldier. Athena had begun nudging at the smaller dog to try and wake it up. The faerie searched through her basket for some goldenrod and looked at the mastiff.

"⟟ believe the dog was given some sleeping herbs, it won't wake for a while." Ophelia said.

Athena grabbed the dogs scruff while Ophelia lifted the soldier up and half carried him to the lake hidden deeper in the woods. The large mastiff laid the smaller dog on ⏃ rock and laid next to it while the faerie laid the soldier next to the water and began searching for the herbs to help.

The faerie began by taking the soldiers jacket off and setting it in the water, she then began to slowly remove the knife and work on dressing the wound.

Alex groaned and sat up without realizing what was happening she opened her eyes and stared at the fairy who had just finished applying bandages.
*Smack* "Enemy faerie!!" Alex yelled and stood up before falling back down and clutching her stomach.

Ophelia stumbled back a little from the slap but walked back over when the soldier fell.
"Get away from me!" The soldier yelled glaring up at the fairy.

Ophelia sighed before using her magic to make vines hole the soldier down.
"If you keep moving your wound will only get worse." The faerie stated watching the soldier struggle. The soldier stopped trying to free herself.
"Why are you helping me?" The soldier asked suspicious of the girl's intent.
"I'm a healer, it's my job." Ophelia said smiling.
"Yeah, to heal your soldiers not enemy soldiers!" The soldier spat.
"Actually us healers don't have to heal only one side, we're technically supposed to heal whoever we find hurt." Ophelia explained.
The soldier looked around confused but then just relaxed keeping a close eye on the faerie .
Ophelia walked over to one of the fruit trees around the lake and picked an apple off, after some inspection she places it in her basket and continued picking out apples.

Alex watched the faerie even though she seemed harmless, she was an enemy. Though she decided to try and talk to the faerie.
"So what's your name?" The soldier asked.
"Ophelia. And that's Athena" She said pointing towards the dog after setting another apple in the basket. "And yours is?" The faerie said turning around.
"A-Alex, my name is Alex." The soldier said.
"WHERE'S ECHO?!" The soldier suddenly shouted.

To Be Continued...