HOW TO LIVE AGAIN (girlxgirlxgirl)

Seitsämän; Bitter taste

"This is stupid"
7

🦚

⚠️ murder threat, mentions of death, starvation/hunger ⚠️

10 days after Andra's escape

"We stay until evening, the roads are blocked by day further up east"

Heavy words leave her mouth. The General is pinning a map to the table, as it would roll up otherwise. It's the latest model, with all the new names that were adjusted when Aryan came to power. Still it's made out of a yellowing paper that is wrinkly and slightly broken on the edges, because of the heavy use. A single candle is lit on the table, the night falling deep outside. In the room sit five people, one of them the General, one of them princess Andra. The rest are high officials on their side, all seriously listening to what Dawn is saying.

Andra sighs. Traveling at night is not ideal. You can't see what's in front of you, and it sucks. Lately they have been going from traveling at night and sleeping during the day, to traveling by day and sleeping at night, with no forewarning. It has completely messed up Andra's strict sleeping schedule and she has been feeling quite moody because of it. It's not the only thing that has been messed up because of their fast travel. Her food intake has been good on some days, bad on other days, and filled with uneven amounts of different nutrients. The unfamiliar way of life is creating a big storm cloud over her head.

Otherwise their rebellion is going well. More and more recruits are joining them after seeing the posters. Some cities have so many that they have taken over the government there, and the local army serves the rebellion instead of Aryan. Of course it's only been around ten days since it all started, and they have a long way to go from here. But it still feels nice to have the support of a big part of the people. This far they have traveled a long way from the capital, visited seven cities and are still heading northeast to recruit and gather more. The further they are from the capital the easier it is to base and gather a big army.

Now they have stopped here, at the golden eagle's home, near Aryan's river. Although the name of her brother tastes bitter on her tongue, Andra has this far called it Dragons tongue like the locals do. Nobody else in her army has dared to utter Aryan's name either. It's a nice big town, where around thirty people joined them. Not much, but still thirty more soldiers on their side than yesterday. They are hospitable here and allowed them to stay in all three of the inns, leaving many travelers understandably angry. The whole town is now packed with rebellion soldiers, which has lead to the local army retreating and looking for backup. They will of course be gone by the time any kind of backup arrives.

"The next city is very big, as most of you will know. It's the clans second biggest city after the capital, "crown jewels". It's going to be crawling with enemies, so we have to be prepared for an inevitable resistance of the local army"

Andra bites her lip in worry. Crown jewels will have a lot of people that are willing to join their army, but it's a risky place. It's protected by a big part of the clans army, as they are stationed there. Not only will there be a resistance, it could be life threatening to enter. But they have to do it, otherwise Dawn wouldn't even have suggested it. The more people the better, not to mention the northeast part is controlled by the crown jewels city, and they need to create some sort of base there.

"Do we have any estimation of the number of soldiers in the city?"

Andra's deep voice rumbles through the air. Dawn looks at her with a thinking face, before it twists into a teasing smirk.