Never let me go

Chapter 1

Wall Rose Year 847 - Military training camp:

The sunlight was in her eyes, blinding her slightly. The day was incredibly hot, her palms and armpits felt moist, and the air smelled of the dust that a hundred feet had kicked up as they all arranged themselves into orderly lines. This day way enlistment day, and Iris Bachmann, in her sixteenth year, had come here to become a soldier.

She could not exactly say when she had made this decision; was it that day she'd had lunch with her mother about a month ago? Elfrida Bachmann was a fine, proper lady of good social standing. She knew good people whose opinions mattered in the world of the inner city. She had done everything right in life, including marrying the physician who'd come to be Iris's father. And during lunch that day she had eyed her daughter up and down critically like she was a prized possession about to be pawned off. With a few well chosen but cold words she had told her daughter that she would be sold off to anyone who would have her. She was a troublesome young woman, and should be thankful to anyone who'd take her. Ruined and barren as she was. And even though Elfrida was too much of a proper lady to say it, her daughter knew she was ashamed to have a child such as herself.

Or had the decision been made long before that? She had never been a proper young lady. As a child she would run off and play alone in the woods, climbing trees and building hidey holes. She loved horseback riding, and the fact her mother considered it 'too dangerous' made her love it even more. She also loved books, and would spend hours in her father's study where he kept books of all kinds. Her mother thought all that knowledge was wasted on a girl. A good woman needed to know how to keep a clean house, know her courtesies, dance, speak well and have other pleasant skills. Iris though was a terrible seamstress, she hated cooking, made fun of the proper language she was taught and danced only if she was forced to. She dreamt of bigger things, darker things... wilder things. Even after the day she got a taste of just how dark the world could be, she kept on dreaming.

The instructor, a scary looking, wrinkled and worn man, stopped before her. He had spared some of the cadets, but most of them he'd given a verbal lashing. His eyes bulged and glimmered wildly as he critically stared her down.

"You look like a spoiled brat who's never seen a hard days work. What's your name?" he bellowed at her incredulously.

"My name is Iris Bachmann, sir!" she shouted back, trying to match his tone, and then she saluted him. He snorted loudly at her salute.

"And where are you from, you pudgy sack of shit? You look as soft as an overripe plum" he replied without trying to mask his disgust. She scowled. It was a lie, she wasn't pudgy at all. She just wasn't half-starved like some of the other aspiring cadets. She gritted her teeth.

"The inner city, sir!" At the mentioning of this she feared his eyes would pop out of his skull.

"Then why are you here instead of sitting on a soft cushion somewhere living out your useless existence?" he barked at her and Iris felt her temper flare. What could he possibly know about her existence. She bared her teeth at him, afraid and angry at the same time.

"Because the backyards smell of piss and shit and the streets stink of perfume. The people there are ignorant, corrupt and lazy and I hate them all." she growled. She really did think she hated them. They at least made her angry, how different could hatred be?

For a second the instructor seemed to contemplate this, and then his face turned into a hard mask.

"You will do as titan fodder as well."

Then, thankfully he turned his attention elsewhere and went for a smaller boy with brown hair in a buzz cut. To her shock, he lifted him off the ground, and Iris averted her eyes. What was the point of this show? Scaring people into dropping out right away? Didn't they want their 'titan fodder' as the instructor had named her and many others? A thud made her look back up. The instructor had dropped the short boy to the ground and now headed to a girl who was eating something. A potato? The weirdest part was that despite being completely out in the open, the girl looked like she thought she could eat her potato without being discovered. Iris just gawked at her when she offered the instructor a piece of the potato. Her mother would say that people from the outer districts were of a different, lesser sort of people than them. Seeing something like this would add fuel to her prejudice no doubt.