Red Queen

An Awakening

Nobody knows what happened to Mela and her troop. It hasn't even been a week and they haven't been seen at the training grounds. The general and his sons wanted to dispatch some people to go find them but Slona demanded that they put trust into what Mela was doing, so that was what they did. But even Slona was starting to get worried. At night only Mela would come back to her chambers, she wouldn't tell them anything and would close herself behind her doors. The family thought that she was getting bullied but there wasn't any indication on her cold face. However today was the day that the King and the people will come and see how the troops were doing and hopefully the general would get some new recruits after the King expanded the number of soldiers. Mela also had to bring her troop back and hopefully they didn't make a laughing stock of the army.

"Father, have you seen Mela yet?" Ashyer entered his father's study in a rush wearing his commander uniform. "Stay calm Ashyer. Remember we have to put some trust into Mela." Although the general said that internally his heart was pounding, he was even beginning to sweat in his general uniform, which was the same as his son's but instead of the white rope and slash his was gold. "Father! Mela's troop has been seen entering their chambers just now!" Arvel also came bustling into the study room. The general and Ashyer were about to rush over there but the King announced his arrival so they had no choice but to wait for Mela and her troop at the training grounds.

The general's step-brother was also attending because their son wanted to join his uncle's army. The King and his family took their seats with the general next to him. There were a lot of young recruits in their mid-20s who wanted to join. The troops showed their synchronized formations and the field they were specialized in to the audience. Ashyer's troop was specialized with arrows, Arvel's troop was specialized in sword fighting, and Mela was left with combat, one of the hardest to learn. After everyone was applauding the troops the only one left was Mela's. Princess Renee and Prince Trystan anticipated how Mela had been commanding her troop. Everyone heard that the general's spoiled daughter was given a troop and they were ready to make a laughing stock out of her, especially her cousins.

It took a while longer for her to appear making the general nervous with sweaty palms. Ashyer and Arvel tried looking for her but they couldn't and her troop haven't come out of their chambers so there was no way of interaction. When the general was about to conclude the demonstrations there was a sound of marching. Everybody look behind the other troops who were standing to the side. They saw a young girl dressed in a white tunic with the hem stuffed in black pants wearing knee high boots, and a cape just like her brothers'. The audience was expecting to see the troop behind her unorderly but the more they looked they could see none of them had any sort of expression on their face. Mela led them to the center of the field where there were cages of vicious animals in the center. Mela turned to her troop and they all stopped moving. None of this were to be taken seriously but joining the army meant you were going to get hurt and see a lot of gore so one of the rules was to go all out, but for the comabt troop they had to learn fast reflexes and learn how to control their strength, since these were animals the King wanted to see them dead to prove the troop's strength. Mela only took a glance at her troop and moved to the side. When she stepped away there were some people on top of the cages who opened the cages and let the animals loose.

Everybody stood still with anxiety as the troop wasn't making any moves. There were so many large animals with hungry looks in their eyes charging towards the troop. Just as the general was going to command Ashyer's troop to shot at the animals one of the beast was already too close to a solider. Just as everybody was about to close their eyes something unexpected and bloody happened. The solider got into a weird stance and kicked the animal to the ground then in a second took the heart of the animal out holding it up. The audience went quiet until they heard a whistle then a loud screech. Everybody looked up with their jaws down. "Is that a wild mountain eagle?" Someone said. Before they knew it the eagle came swooping down grabbing the heart with its feet and flew toward Mela. The general was about to give the signal to Ashyer to shoot down the eagle but another unexpected happened. With Mela's outstretched arm the eagle landed on it and ate the heart, making everybody hunch over in sickness. Mela petted the eagle and it flew away again. Everybody's attention went back to the action and saw a lot of strange movements from the troop but they killed every beasts in a matter of minutes. There wasn't much of a blood mess on the soldiers except on their hands where they ripped out the hearts, small blood splatters, and the blood under the dead animals. All went silent and all that could be heard was the wings of the eagle who was throwing the hearts of the beasts to the other eagle who weren't getting closer to the ground. "How was it?" A young voice said in the middle of everything. Princess Renee looked at the clean young girl and felt something in her awaken.

Everybody were still in a trance from the bloody and heartless scene that was just showed. Mela had stepped back with her troop behind her. Ashyer and Arvel wanted to talk to her but they didn't know how to approach her or even if they did they didn't know what to say to her. "Commander, how was it?" Sam the young man who had offended her before now had an respectful tone. Mela replied with a "hmm." "Sorry commander, we will do better next time!" Sam said with his head bowed and the others in her troop followed. Everybody heard what the solider said and turned wide-eyed at the troop. Do better? Do better?! What could they do better?! They barely took 10 moves to rip the beasts apart! Everyone shuddered at the scene again. The son of the general's step-brother was planning on choosing his timid cousin's troop so he could bully her into going easy on him and talking good things to her father but after seeing what just happened he couldn't help but gulp a couple of times just from thinking of his heart getting ripped out.

After a moment of the King giving praises towards the general and his troops he let people who wanted to join the army to decide on the troops that they wanted to join. Everybody seemed to have not want to get close to Mela's group and they thought she would be humiliated but she just looked bored wanted to have nothing to do with this. Majority of the young recruits went to the sword troop and arrow troop. Lastly, Princess Renee was the last to choose, her brother had chosen the sword group and she didn't want to follow him. Princess Renee would be the first female in the royal family to choose to fight in battle. Everybody was anticipating her decision. Princess Renee wasn't on bad terms with Mela, but she also wasn't on good terms because of all the rumors that had been going on around Mela being an idiot and liking her brother. The first time Princess Renee had met with Mela was a couple days ago when the general had come back from battle and she saw Mela as rude for not talking to her, but after seeing her troop's performance there was something in her that wanted the same power as them. Princess Renee heard gasps as she walked towards Mela's troop. Mela didn't bother to look at the princess as she yawned.

After the King dismissed them the troops were welcoming to the newcomers, but Mela began leading her troop away leaving Princess Renee at the back to catch up to them. It seemed like her troop didn't care if the newcomer was a princess or a girl, they ignored her and followed their commander.

"Um...where should I stay?" Princess Renee asked one of the solider. "You have to talk to the commander," he said and began walking into their chamber. She didn't see Mela anywhere, then a different solider walked up to her. Renee was getting afraid of what might happen to her, but the solider stood in front of her not moving any closer. "The commander said that there is a room in the chamber made for you, but you'll have to learn to live and be one of us. The commander doesn't care of your title and if you cannot keep up then you are better to be a princess not a warrior." The solider said then left to enter the chamber. Renee didn't get to say anything as she followed him. He showed her the room next to many others then left. Renee was afraid that the men surrounding her might get desperate for a woman but it seemed as if they didn't care about her, they almost seemed annoyed that she was here. Renee entered the empty chamber where there was only a single bed and a nightstand with a lit candle. Renee sighed and told herself that this was her decision and that she had to carry on with it to show her father that she wasn't meant to just stay in the castle, be pretty, and get married.

The uniform picture inserted is just for the clothing. I don't know anything about the position of the people wearing them.