Make Me Crumble

CHAPTER 1

Picture: Avalorn Army Base camp

"Men, this is Lady Eileen Tuffin of Avalorn. She's a mechanic and will be joining your division." Captain Colton was a man in his mid-forties. He seemed like the type of man to turn away any female help offered, which was why the earl had spoken to him about Eileen's interests in joining the army, hoping the captain would turn away with a hard no.

But, to Eileen's great advantage and the Earl's utter displeasure, he turned out to be quiet the opposite.

"Hello." Eileen smiled warmly at the group of males in front of her. There about twenty-five, and most were humans. The rest seemed to be elves, and there were two dwarves. There were women in this army, too, but none of them were mechanics and none of them seemed to be in this division. Most were elven nurses, or full-fledged soldiers. Eileen would be training with them, and living with them, just working with males.

"My lady." The two dwarves said in unison as they bowed their heads slightly in respect. The other lads just nodded at her.

"Ms. Tuffin will be treated with the utmost respect while she's with your division, since she'll be riding with you soldiers during most of the missions. Is that understood?" Captain Colton said in a very loud voice, and it made Eileen flinch a little. She quickly recovered, hoping no one had noticed.

"Yes, Sir." They all said in unison.

She looked at all of them one by one.

She hadn't noticed when one of them was standing right in front of her.

"Eileen, this is Lieutenant Calix West, the leader of this division." The captain's voice snapped Eileen back to attention. She surveyed the man in front of her.

Black hair, jet black. He had sharp features, and he was easily a foot above her. His face seemed to be twisted into something near a scowl... but that did little to dim his handsome features, Eileen realised with a slight tint on her cheeks. His eyes seemed to be black in the middle around his pupil, then slowly fade into grey as they expanded outward, almost as if they were entrances into a deep void...

"Ms. Tuffin?" Captain's voice always seemed to be booming. Eileen cleared her throat.

"It's a pleasure, sir." She held out her hand, hoping it would do something to diminish that scowl on his face. But it stayed as he simply stared at her hand.

"Welcome." He spoke. His voice seemed to carry an air of maturity... like he had lived a thousand years and gone through every lesson life had to offer.

"You're in good hands, Eileen." Captain Colton said, with a hint of a smile that she could see he put effort into displaying. She smiled back in appreciation of that, and his assistance.

"Thank you, sir." She said, saluting the captain as he left.

The moment he was out of the room, the atmosphere seemed to change. The soldiers chuckled to themselves and sighed.

"Ma'am." A man came up to her, taking her hand in his and gently touching his lips to her knuckles. "Daniel Dobrick, at your service."

Eileen smiled. This, she was used to.

"Hello, Daniel." She beamed. Daniel had chestnut hair and dark brown eyes. A horizontal scar stretched below his lip. It didn't look like a major injury, but Eileen guessed that was only thanks to the elven healing methods. It must have looked and felt really ugly.

"Excuse his partiality." One of the elves spoke from against the wall. "The only service he'll provide is lessons on how to cheat."

Daniel chuckled at him. "That's Doriath. He's got his nerves in a twit because I won his dragon off him."