The Soldier

Fights

"Are you that girl?"

I looked up from shifting my spoon through my oatmeal to see a couple pairs of curious eyes focused on me. "Huh?"

The girl that had spoken looked nervous to be talking to me, but she addressed me again anyway. "Are you the one that we saw on the train last night? The one that was supposedly attacked by a group of factionless?"

I shot Calvin and Jenna a look and then dropped my spoon in my food so that I could rub a hand across my tired eye. "Yup, that's me." Breakfast had barely started and I was already bored of repeating this story. First to Four and to the doctor on duty in the infirmary while I got my chin and neck bandaged up and then to some of the transfer initiates when I returned back to the dorm.

"Sick." The guy next to the girl commented. "Everyone's been talking about you and about what happened last night."

"Great." I said, dropping my eyes and picking up my spoon to take another bite of my food, wanting to go back to eating my breakfast in peace.

The girl's hand shot across the table to shake hands and introduce herself. "I'm Ava, and this is Tyler." She offered me her left hand so I reluctantly brought up my left hand out from underneath the table and gently placed it in hers. Ava gasped as she softly shook my bandaged hand. "Did the factionless do this to you?" She whispered.

Her somber tone caused Calvin to snort, which he attempted to cover up with a cough, and I decided it would be easier to not contradict her. Explaining the story behind my hand this early in the morning would require more effort than I was willing. "Yes," I whispered back, matching her energy.

Ava's eyes grew wide and she looked even more aghast. "You poor thing!"

Tyler shook his head with disapproval but put his elbows on the table to lean in closer. "Horrible. But what happened? We don't know the full story." He gestured his head towards Ava to connect the two of them. "We'd love to know some details."

Ava eagerly nodded her head but was silent, giving me the opportunity to speak. I thought over all the events that had occurred last night. "Well--" I started and stopped myself. The image of a paint-soaked Dauntless leader's jacket stuck out in my mind and the memory of how warm his hand had been around mine as we ran down the pier together caused me to stare at the back of my hand. "I don't know where to start."

"How many factionless were there?" asked Tyler.

I leaned back in my chair and yawned, preparing myself to recount this story once again, but Calvin spoke out, inserting himself into the conversation. "There were about fifteen of them, right Olivia?" There was a spark in his eyes as he nonverbally communicated with me to play along. I suppressed the smile I could feel forming on my lips and nodded. "At least." I replied.

Tyler and Ava were enthralled. "Were they armed?"

"Yes." I said, touching the small bandage on my chin from when I had been knocked to the ground and the bandage on my neck where the factionless woman had briefly held a knife to my throat. I had checked the cuts this morning and they had stopped bleeding, but I replaced the bandages to keep the wounds clean and I planned to remove them after training. "A lot of them had knives and they managed to nick me a couple of times."

"You fought them?"

"Olivia is one of the top initiates in our class." Calvin said. "Of course she fought them." He gestured over to the table where Davis was sitting. "See that guy over there? Olivia knocked him out cold our first week here with a single hit." He was beaming with pride and I was beginning to feel somewhat bashful. Tyler and Ava studied Davis, who was thankfully not paying attention, and then turned back to us.