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Recap: Vera's Parents are quite upset with her decision on going and joining the war and although this bugs her Vera doesn't seem to take it heart and goes with the plan for war, meanwhile Sebastian is deep in thought and cant seem to take his mind off the fact that almost no one from his kingdom that leaves for this war will come out alive and the fact that he may need to prevent a certain someone from going off into war because of their value to him, he falls asleep underneath a tree only to be awakened and summoned to dinner with his father who doesn't seem to be taking Sebastian's thoughts on the war too well.
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Sebastian's POV:
I stumbled my way back through the hallways of the palace weaving my way through so that i could get to dinner remotely on time; though now I was probably late yet again and as always the rest of the men in the room would scoff at me for my laziness and sure enough when I entered the gathering space every single eye was on me and when I walked further in to sit next to my Father I could hear the other whispering of the men in the room talking to their wives telling them about how I didn't want to go off to the war and that I was afraid of dying and loosing many men. I wasn't about the spartan lifestyle; so why in the world should I become a leader to their people If I wasn't even willing to give up my own time and possible wife in a measly war with Athens and their rivals. They didn't care that I was just trying to look out for their sons and daughters that needed mothers and fathers to grow up along side. I sat there glaring at them all and they all did the same back to me; of course my father didn't notice anything of the sort and even if he did he wouldn't care.
"son?"
"yes father," I loosened my hard glare at everyone to glace over at my parents.
"you seemed rather upset at the meeting today, leaving all of a sudden not stopping to check in on the lives of the men you will be leading into battle rather un-polite don't you think?"
" I suppose so," I paused stopping to look around the room in an attempt to pick up the faces of the men I was fighting alongside with; hoping to get a glimpse into their lives and make it seem like I knew them when in reality I knew none of the sort. I came back with I suppose a rather mean response to his questioning " isn't It rather rude of them to place themselves and their riches above the needs of the army though?"
"Yes exactly why there will be punishments to those who do it; they wont be taken lightly Sebastian this is war that we are talking about. "
"You think that a darker punishment will prevent them! they will trade no matter what! you tell them the punishment and they wont care its what benefits them in this war nothing else."
"is that what you think?!? Is this just another excuse to get out of battle! you act nothing like a soon to be king would ever act like that is why I may consider another man for the throne and you will fall in line among the rest of the money mongering peasants or so you call them could you say that you truly are any better?"
" no, I am not better than them and yes this is an excuse not to go to war and help Athens we need to stay where it is safe where no one has to worry about making a profit to support their family while they are away and the judgments placed are ones that need to be forgotten I will fight along side them and my heart will belong to Sparta but I will not stand behind this idea of war if it is the last thing that I do and It most likely will be." With that I grabbed an apple and a birds leg off the platter in front of me and then existed the room with a cool gust following behind me leaving the majority of Sparta's officials to whisper and Gossip among themselves and with their wives and children.
Vera's POV:
I awoke the next morning to nothing but silence. No birds, no crackling of the fire, no moans of the goats outside; and there was a strange feeling in the air. I rose out of my sleeping mat letting my thin linen dress hit the dirt floor as I padded on bare feet out into the living space of the house only to find the fire put out and my parents missing I quickened my pace to look out the window and the goats were gone too. Panic was now starting to set in. there was no way that anyone would have taken my parents and the goats put out the fire without me noticing is there? that would be too loud unless my mother and father left me in the middle of the night. that wouldn't surprise me now at this point I'm sure they would sell off the goats and then buy themselves a nice home in the city and then forget about me and move on with their lives I was a disgrace to the family and its not like this sort of thing hasn't happened before. our neighbors well not exactly neighbors unless you call about a hours walk ones then sure. they left their son simply because he didn't want to take on the family business and went into the city to become a senator; the night his family found out he was abandoned the next morning. And after running outside which I have done a million times in search of goats but now looking for my family I came to the dirt path that was vacant as far as my eyes could see. My family had left me and there was absolutely no one left. I would search for them but rage filled me. They had the audacity to leave their only daughter that had done everything risked her life by acting as a man everyday and hiding her true self and this is how they treated me for following a path that they set up for themselves how dare they! Im done with them and their stupid feelings who cares! I signed up for my death okay! Isnt that what I did years ago just to make sure that the buissness was alive and that we didn't starve to our death or die from random food we found outside!
Soon enough I stopped running and was now at the cliff that I slowly climbed down and then walked through the silky sand towards the waters edge placing my feet yet again in the water letting all of my anger flow back into the raging waves that were far out in the sea. My family was gone but now I had the chance to find myself.A/N:
Hey sorry for the extremely late update. Schools been VERY crazy. Please pardon all the errors. This was typed up on a mobile. Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and continue on. :)
Thanks and have a lovely day filled with joy and cats (lots of cats)
-ellie
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Eirene
RomanceEirene is a goat herder who pretends to be a boy during the day but once she gets called to war and realizes that all she really wants is peace . She stands up in front of the whole Spartan and Athens army and announces that she's a girl and wants...