Wings of War

Chapter 2

From the journal of Alven Maera,

"I was born to parents who had their entire lineage of fathers in the army, so I had a lot to look up to, and a lot of hard work to prove myself to the king. I first began my work as a regular soldier at the age of 19, and was assigned to Officer Brell. That was when I first met Molu Hallen. He was a tall guy, age 20, born of peasants. He decided to improve the life of his family, and try to raise their status in the kingdom. He had big plans, and so did I. When we began training under Brell, Me and Molu were always the first to volunteer to any of his 'special tasks' as Brell put it. They were always ridiculously hard but we always found a way to complete them first. Brell quickly moved us up a level, and gave the king personal recommendation that we be promoted. My father was extremely happy to learn that I had: 1. Made a friend (ha-ha) and 2. Been personally recommended for a promotion. The king was pleased with our performances and promoted us both to the rank of Officer. (The 3 main ranks are Officer, Captain, General. It is possible to skip the ones in between, as proven by me and Molu.)  We both got to train our own soldiers in less than a year!

One day, a small skirmish broke out between a robber band of about 50, and a few soldiers outside the walls. It was my first real time seeing what real combat is like. I was hard pressed to win, but we only had 2 major injuries and sent the robbers running to the hills, and arresting their leader. I was disgusted seeing the bloodshed, but my father told me that is normal the first few times, so I worked through it. 

After a few more events like this, I was promoted once again, to the rank of Captain at age 26. I joked to Molu about this, of course, and we continued to grow even closer.  When I turned 30, Molu was also promoted to captain. He was glad to be on my level again (Bringing jokes from him this time). My father was very proud of us both, killing a two calves for us to feast, and bringing us both to see the king for the first time. The king was glad to meet his two best recruits, And we were awed to actually see the king and his throne room. 

After that, being promoted to General was just a matter of seniority. After 17 years in the King's army, and still having the best stats for soldiers I trained, (slightly ahead of Molu!) I was promoted to General. The king quickly brought me in to the circle of his most trusted informants, and my father was very proud to see that we were on an equal level."