Welcome To My Dark Side

Chapter 10 The Trouble With Teens

While Lyria was suffering in the alternative reality, her counterpart was having a much better time despite being bored. Commander Hilda had been ordered to take a small patrol out to cover a part of the Frostbourne's territories to tackle any possible threats. "...We've been marching for hours. The point of this I cannot see for we have not engaged with the enemy..." Fractureverse Lyria chanted loudly much to everyone else's annoyance as her repeated singing threatened to put them all in danger. "Lyria for the last time be quiet! You'll give our location away and we might end up being the ones who are ambushed." Hissed Officer Agatha, who was now feeling better after Fractureverse Lyria's malicious prank but it was still unknown to everyone else that she had been the one who had poisoned her with the pufferfish.

"Hey don't speak to me like that! I still outrank you." Fractureverse Lyria snapped back. "Well at least I'm not the one who has been messing around the whole time and is putting everyone's lives in danger." She replied in self defense. They continued bickering until Commander Hilda intervened. "Both of you be quiet and stop squabbling like small children or you will both be responsible for giving our location away!" Commander Hilda yelled in a half whisper and stopped walking to turn around and face them. "Lyria is a small child." Officer Agatha pointed out. "I'm still a lieutenant." Fractureverse Lyria argued back. She was about to say something else before Commander Hilda interrupted. "If you carry on like this then I will personally take it upon myself to demote you further right now." She said firmly which soon silenced her.

Officer Agatha jogged up ahead to catch up with the commander. "Why did we decide to take her with us." She wisphered to Commander Hilda. "I wish I hadn't but I offered to take her with us because Lady Azura was busy today and I thought that we would have a scout with aerial advantage not be babysitting an immature child." Sighed Commander Hilda looking over her shoulder only to see throwing snowballs at the other 4 soldiers who were on the patrol. "Couldn't we just leave her here?" Agatha asked observing the chaos behind her, before she turned back to face the commander. "Um.. well...I.." Hilda's voice trailed off when she noticed that Fractureverse Lyria was no longer marching in a straight line and was now lagging behind.

Commander Hilda brought everyone to a halt and waited for her to catch up. "Stop messing around or you will be left here." Hilda said crossly and folded her arms. "I'm afraid we can't do that Commander." Replied a soldier who was closest to Fractureverse Lyria. "And why not?" Commander Hilda asked him. "She's drunk!" He exclaimed. Hilda was horrified that a soldier under her control had gotten drunk without her knowing. "How? I haven't seen her drink any alcohol." She said, puzzled. "It must have been whiskey or something instead of water in her flask." Suggested another soldier. Fractureverse Lyria had managed to catch up with the rest of the group but had to be supported by two soldiers in order to remain on her feet. Commander Hilda approached her to check the contents of the flask for herself.

Unscrewing the lid, Commander Hilda could clearly smell the strong scent of spirit. She was shocked because last time she checked Lyria wasn't a heavy drinker, on the contrary, she couldn't stand the taste of strong alcoholic drinks. "I'm afraid she'll have to come with us now, Officer Agatha. Looks like we'll have to go back to Dreadfort because we can't carry on in such a haphazard manner." She sighed before continuing. "We are three soldiers down. One drunk and the other two will..."She explained as she saw Fractureverse Lyria attempting to free herself out of their grasp. "...have their hands full trying to drag her back, which means we will have to be extra careful from now on." Commander Hilda finished and her small patrol prepared to head home.

A few days after the whole patrol incident Commander Hilda had noticed a decreasing trend in Lyria's behavior. She found the young girl lying around idly on a bench when she was sure that Lyria ought to do something more useful with her time. "Good afternoon Lyria. Should you not be filling some of your duties right now?" Commander Hilda asked her as she came up to the bench. Fractureverse Lyria did not even look at the commander let alone salute her. Commander Hilda was not impressed with her lack of respect and ignorance of her question. "Lieutenant Lyria, will you please inform me of what you are supposed to be doing?" She ordered. "Whatever I wish to do with my free time." Fractureverse Lyria answered. "Then if you are off duty, why are you still in uniform?" Commander Hilda asked her. Fractureverse Lyria sat upright and rolled her eyes at the commander.

"I've only just come off duty." She explained. Commander Hilda was not at all impressed with her attitude. "Then in that case would you be so kind as to inform me of what you were doing beforehand." She said accusingly, suspecting that the girl had not done any of her work that day. "Oh just this and that." Fractureverse Lyria replied. "I think you ought to have a look at your own behavior. You have been terribly impolite with your manners lately." Said Commander Hilda. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure." Dismissed Fractureverse Lyria. "I think you are getting too big for your boots." Hilda said crossly. When she said this she noticed how dirty and uncared for the girl's boots were. "I am horrified to see that you no longer take pride in the condition of your uniform. Even if this is no longer the case, I still expect your boots to be as shiny as mine." Hilda exclaimed.

A smirk spread across Fractureverse Lyria's face. She looked at Commander Hilda's dull brown boots. Clearly the commander was unaware of Fractureverse Lyria's bad job of cleaning her boots the other day. Commander Hilda's eyes were now drawn to her boots seeing as Fractureverse Lyria kept staring at them. She immediately noticed that her boots were not as shiny as she had made them out to be. When Fractureverse Lyria saw the commander's reaction she burst into laughter. "Ok perhaps I am not leading by example at the moment but I expect your boots to be just as shiny if not shinier than mine after I have cleaned my own later today." Commander Hilda exclaimed. Fractureverse Lyria got off the bench and started walking away and replied by whining "Fine.". Commander Hilda watched her abrupt leave and thought that it was awfully rude of Lyria not to say goodbye.

A few hours later Commander Hilda was seated inside her office, still filling through the most recent reports that had been placed on her desk. She was just sorting out the last couple of documents before she was going to polish up her boots. A knock came from the door of the office. "Come in." she called. Lady Azura opened the door and stepped into the room and saluted the commander. "Good afternoon Lady Azura. What may I do for you today?" Commander Hilda politely inquired. "Good afternoon Commander. I would like to talk to you about Lyria's change in behavior." Explained Lady Azura. The commander motioned for her to sit down. "I also wanted to talk to you about her recent behavior." Commander Hilda began as Lady Azura sat down. "Her overall manners and attitude are exceptionally rude and disappointing. She seems like she is looking for another demotion rather than a promotion." Hilda continued.

"I have also noticed this downward trend in her behavior." Sighed Azura. "You must put a stop to this." Replied Hilda. Azura looked down briefly at her hands before speaking. "I have come to you to ask for your advice as to how I should handle the matter, seeing as you are so great at disciplining the soldiers and keeping them in line." Azura admitted. Even though she was nervous and a little embarrassed for having asked such a question, these feelings were not evident in her composure nor in her voice. "Well this is my responsibility as a ranking officer and I have had many years trying to fulfill my role as a leader." Commander Hilda replied hummblaly.

"Now regarding Lyria's behaviour, I suggest that you start to add and reinforce boundaries with her or else this problem will continue, although do you have any idea as to what might have caused her to act like this?" She asked. "I know that Lyria has been a little upset that I have not been given her enough attention lately as her mentor however I don't think that this is the root of the problem." Replied Lady Azura. "Could you not talk to her instead as I feel she will be more inclined to listen to you." She suggested to the commander. "I would but if you say that she is upset with the lack of time you have had for her, then I feel that I would only increase this problem and besides it's probably just a teenage phase she's going through." Commander Hilda explained kindly. "I understand Commander and it is likely that is the case. I will try and talk to her again. I will leave now not to continue taking up your time." Azura said acknowledging the commander's advice and with that she got up to leave. She only hoped that she could resolve this issue.