𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒

𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠

October first was always Threshing, and it was no surprise that the atmosphere around Basgiath War College represented the chaos that Threshing proposed. Everyone was gathered in the courtyard as Captain Fitzgibbons rattled off the last few names on the death scrolls. "Trina Glaston." Isolde felt her chest tighten at the mention of the fallen member of her squad.

The list had significantly decreased in length since the beginning of the year. What used to take up to an hour was being finished in five or maybe ten minutes. As they all stood silently thinking about those they had lost, Isolde couldn't help but to linger over the thought of her own mortality. With Threshing coming up, the possibility of her name being called out was highly probable even if she wished it wasn't.

She hadn't bothered to even enter the dining hall that morning as she knew any food that she consumed would be met with a futile effort from her body to try and keep it down; throwing up in front of the dragons didn't seem like an effective way to appear confident.

Grasping at the metal in front of her, she picked up the handheld spears and ran her fingertips over the leather coated hilt. Suddenly, memories from that night with Tomas flooded through her causing an ugly knot of emotion to linger in her chest. She could feel his hands everywhere on her; his breath against her neck, his lips against hers and his hands snaking their way up her bare back. Isolde felt her chest starting to heave before a new touch, a real touch, covered her hands that were still grasping her weapons.

"Breathe, in and out Aritia." Xaden looked into her eyes and demonstrated the technique he wanted her to follow. "You're ok. Look, you are in the courtyard getting ready with the rest of us." She tore her eyes away from his and looked around trying to fill her senses with different and present sensations.

"There you go, you're doing great." Her chest no longer felt like a stack of bricks had been placed onto it and she gave a quick, tight-lipped smile to Xaden before placing her spears into the holsters on her back and dropping her hands back down to her side.

***

"Gods they're going to eat me before I even step into the valley, aren't they?" Xaden looked down at the girl next to him who stayed with her eyes trained forward. "Don't be ridiculous Aritia I'm sure they'll give you at least five minutes before scorching you to death." He spoke with a humorous tone.

Isolde however didn't find it as funny and so Xaden ended up with a smack to his stomach that made him double over as the wind fell out of him. This time she let out a little laugh. "True, although I'm not too sure that the dragons will even give you two minutes Xaden." She smiled brightly at him before wandering over to the rest of their squad who seemed a bit more optimistic.