Yes, My Alpha: Mother of an Empire

Chapter 3

Shortly after packing up the stage, the army marched out of the valley where Flat Trench was located. There were no tearful goodbyes and Ophelia didn't have much to her name anyway. To be honest, Ophelia on some level or another had been waiting for an excuse to leave. Just a strong gust to send her flying far beyond the hills she grew up in. Darius had been that strong wind, and Ophelia followed him with nothing but the clothes on her back and her axe. 

She wasn't met with a joyful welcome wagon as they marched. The soldiers had their own duties and didn't seem to have much time to welcome someone new in their ranks. She was informed by a passing officer that when they made camp, she would be issued her new equipment. 

"Alright." Ophelia nodded, "Just try to bear with marching for now. We're going to be doing a lot of that." The officer explained. Ophelia nodded, used to being on her feet all day, she had been working before the sun rose anyway. She had no idea how long the army had been marching but a tired old donkey pulling a cart seemed exhausted. Climbing the hills that surrounded Flat Trench was not a laughing matter. Even most of the soldiers had labored breathing trying to make it up the steep hills. 

Ophelia eyed the cart finding it was about the same size as the cart she usually pulled the kids in from the church whenever the priests wanted them to gather medicinal herbs in the forests. "Come on Maybell." A cadet was trying to encourage the tired donkey. Ophelia sighed making her way over. She sat her axe inside the cart and looked at the cadet.

"Let her loose, I'll pull." Ophelia spoke, and the cadet looked surprised, "The cart's going to fall back down the hill." The cadet argued. "I'll take care of it if it does." Ophelia replied, the cadet eyed her and shrugged, "your loss then." He responded letting the donkey loose and pulling on her lead. As the donkey left Ophelia quickly moved into the hitch grabbing onto it and pushing. 

A little heavier than expected but nothing she hadn't lifted before. The donkey seemed relieved, and Ophelia kept pace with the army pulling the cart. In fact, she ended up making her way toward the front with relative ease. Passing Darius as she headed for the top the commander eyed her looking surprised as she marched on by with the cart behind her. 

Ophelia gave him a sideways look, she raised an eyebrow as she passed him on by, she felt Darius's stare dig into her as she reached the top. At the top of the hill, the ground was much more even, and Ophelia had a far easier time pulling the cart. Going a few paces away she stopped leaning against it as she saw the army come up the hill.

"Impressive. Let's see if you're really worth those extra silvers Reeds." He teased, Ophelia folded her arms and looked up at the omega. "Commander by the time I'm done, you'll have to give me a lot more than a few measly silvers." She replied, Darius leaned against his horse petting it, "Oh really?" he asked, his voice thick with a flirtatious tone. 

Ophelia was just about to reply when the others finally reached the top of the hill joining them. Darius shot her a coy look, "Another time Reeds." He spoke in a low tone. Ophelia's eyebrows rose, "Assuming you get the chance." She responded taking up the cart once again.

They continued marching and as they moved further and further away from the valley, Ophelia was crowded by the other cadets. It seemed her display with the cart was enough to gain some popularity. Especially after Ophelia agreed to let exhausted cadets ride in the back of the cart. The even ground outside of Flat Trench proved to be fairly easy to pull on, so the extra weight was hardly an issue.

As she pulled the cadets talked her ears off giving her a pseudo-orientation into the army. Darius's army, or as Ophelia had learned the Imperial army was small, about five hundred men in total. Though with the addition of Ophelia that made it five hundred and one, though many of the cadets joked amongst themselves that she counted for at least five.

"She's got the strength of five of us anyway, it should be alright if we fudge the numbers!" They laughed to themselves. Ophelia kept quiet and rolled her eyes, it seemed whether it was Flat Trench, or the Imperial Army people were people. This fact only exhausted Ophelia mentally. Falling into the dazed-like state she often did when working, Ophelia felt like she had blinked, and then she was at the set-up imperial camp being given her supplies.

"These are your uniforms, this is your tent, here is a sword, and..." The quartermaster, an aging beta man loaded Ophelia up with equipment. "That should be it!" he announced, by the time he did Ophelia couldn't see his face. "Thanks?" She replied surprised she was given so much stuff.

A bit overwhelmed Ophelia made her way over to the edge of the camp and sat everything down. She stared at the small pile, her hand ran across the red surcoat with a golden dragon. It felt like it was finely made, very much unlike the cheap clothes she was often given by the church. It also looked brand new. 

Her eyes went to the other things she was given, it was a little overwhelming, she had never had this much stuff before. Ophelia then turned to look at her tent, well now was a good time as any to learn how to put this up, she decided.

It took a few minutes before she naturally fell into habits, she didn't know she had. A tent was raised, and Ophelia stared at it shaking her head. She was sure she put it upright, but why did it look different?" rather than a triangle shape like the other tents, Ophelia ended up with a circular-shaped tent. 

Looking up to the sky, Ophelia stared at the moon, a slow breath escaped her lips. She gave up, this was good enough for tonight. She'd figure out how to put things up like everyone else later. After filling up her tent with her things. Ophelia stepped inside and got dressed in her uniform, the quartermaster must have had a good eye because everything seemed to fit perfectly. 

Ophelia smoothed out her uniform and redid her hair, she exited her tent coming face to face with Darius and one of the other generals. "Who would even make such an insane-looking tent-!" An older alpha man exclaimed just as Ophelia exited the tent. Darius looked over seeing Ophelia and covered his mouth chuckling. "It seems our new recruit would," Darius remarked his eyes curving upwards, he was clearly delighted that Ophelia had been the culprit. 

"This is how they make them in Flat Trench." Ophelia lied blatantly, not a single soul knew how to pitch a tent in that village. Ophelia didn't even know how she managed to get it to look like this. But she'd be damned if she'd let the little man know she didn't know how to put up a tent. She heard a quiet snort from Darius. "You're lying." He had a chuckle in his voice as he called her out. "You have no proof of that." Ophelia deadpanned, and the general and Darius stared at her. "Go get some food, Reeds." Darius laughed shaking his head. 

Ophelia stared for a moment feeling surprised she was given a meal after everything else. Taking this as a chance to leave she followed the smell of cooking. She stood in line and was given a reasonably hearty meal. She ate quietly by herself; she felt a stare dig into her the side of her face from far off and saw Darius glance over at her from a larger tent before heading inside. She didn't see too well, but she was sure the omega had smiled at her.

After her meal, Ophelia headed back to her tent. Heading inside she flopped down curling up on the bed roll. As she closed her eyes, she couldn't help but think how comfortable the padded material was. Ophelia fell fast asleep dreaming of traveling carts and tents that looked a lot like the one she had put up.