The careless general

A friend?

Layla woke up, still outside, but with a blanket over her, to keep her warm. The sun was shinning , birds were singing. She must have fallen asleep while sitting with Jackie and Evelyn last night, thinking about them, she looked around, not seeing them she jumped up, and started to look around the cave for them. 

She looked around finding other people sleeping, and there at the fire Evelyn and Jackie were prepreing breakfest for everyone.

When food was done, they didnt wake people up, they let them sleep till they woke up themselves. Today was gonna be a relaxing day, of course they would have to go hunting at some point, but they had time, sense the boar had gotten them a lot. 

Sense it was early morning and Layla had eaten, she dicsided to go hunting, so that the others could rest. She grabbed her sword, dagger and knives, then walking over to Jackie and Evelyn "Im going hunting" she said, hugged them both, and went out of the cave. 

When she had walked for a while, she found a little boar, luckly not a big one, like the one they killed yesterday. Now that she thought about it, she had never heard of a big boar before, atleast not that size. How was that possible? she thought. Then stopped thinking, and looked at the boar. She in a quick move pulled her dagger, and threw it, it hit the boars side, and it feel on the ground, dead. 

She walked over to it, grabbed her dagger, and draged the boar back to the cave, just left it in front of it, and turned around to leave. She walked around again, now finding 2 rabbits, on the edge of the forest, she was in before. She took them both down, dragged them to the cave, and left again to continue hunting. 

Layla was now walking around close to the forest, looking for animals. She suddenly heard a bird, she looked up, seeing the owl again. This time Layla ran after the it, the owl noticed after it, and started flying faster, Layla speeded up to keep up. They now hit the forest, the owl flue easily over the trees, while Layla was on the ground, keeping eye on it, and making sure not to run into something. 

But of course now there would be a fallen tree in front of her. Layla desided to slide under it, easily getting back up and kept running after the owl, which still flue over the trees. After running a bit more, Layla noticed a clif, could she jump to the other side... only one way to find out, she thought. The owl flue over, while Layla now jumped, flying over the clif, and landing on the other side, while she kept running, she smiled to herself, as a good job. 

The owl kept flying, but now it went uphill. Layla tried to keep her speed up the hill, she lost it a little, but not a lot. When she hit the top, she stopped... where did the owl go? she thought, not seeing it any where. 

Layla looked around for a bit, then stopped, and said "Show yourself" she continued "I know your watching me" nothing, she thought for a second, then smiled "I can see you" Now a woman, stood right in front of her, Layla stepped back a bit "How can you see me?" the woman asked, she had brown hair, her eye colour couldnt be seen, sense there was a mask on her face. Layla now smiled and said with a laugh "You fell for my bluff" 

The woman smirked now saying "You know you could be a great leader, with the right person to lead you through it" "Like a mentor?" Layla asked, looking at the woman, knowing who she was by now. The woman now said "Whats your name?" Layla took the answer as a yes, and said "If you tell me yours, i will tell you mine" "We are gonna be here all day" she answered back, Layla now smiled "I already know who you are, your Athena" she continued "A famous fighter, you fought a lot of wars, known for wining every fight" Athena took of her mask, showing her bright green eyes, Layla knew she was right. 

"Your name is Layla, an orphan who ran away from her orphanage, leading a group to a town, started making good money after killing my boar" Athena said, and paused to see Layla's face lose the smile, she then continued "The boar i used to test peoples strength, you were the first to kill it, people didnt make it, or didnt dare try" she said with a smile. Layla looked down and said "I didnt do it alone, i had people to help me" The woman now lifted Layla's head up by her chin and said "You stepped forward when someone was about to die, you risked your own life, and killed the boar" 

Layla stayed silent for a while, then Athena said "I could help you become a great leader" she paused to see her expression, then continued "You could show the world your not just a stupid, unwanted orphan, be a picture for many other orphans" Layla now said "With your help i could do all that?" "Just a little help from me, and you will do the rest" Athena said. Layla now smiled and nodded as a yes and said "As long as the group can stay with me" Athena looked happy at her "Of course they can, just keep me a secret, no one can know im your mentor." her face being serious, Layla nodded.

Athena now smiled, leaned back and fell down the hill, but of course she now flue up as the owl. Layla watched as her now mentor flue away, after a while looking at the sunset, she decided to walk back to the cave, as she knew Jackie and Evelyn were waiting for her return. 

As Layla got closer to the cave, she noticed 2 figures standing outside of the cave, looking in her dereaction. She waved knowing who those 2 were, as she did the figures started to run towards her. When both of them were close, she opend her arms and gave both Evelyn and Jackie a big hug. With no word being said, they all walked back in the cave, where the others were waiting. Before walking in Layla looked up in the sky, seeing Athena fly around, Layla smiled and turned to walk inside.