Clash of Captains

Chapter 24

The pair continued up the mountain, Devyn's head full of a wide array of thoughts as she turned over what Aneira had said again and again. Clearly the blonde girl had no idea what she was talking about. Me? Brave? Yeah, right. But her words held a wisdom — and, perhaps, kindness — that Devyn was far from used to. She fidgeted with her hands as she considered the words.

I've never even thought of myself as brave for... pretending. I thought that was a move of a coward, Devyn told herself, glancing curiously up at Aneira. The blonde was too focused on the rough terrain of the mountain path beneath them to see that Devyn was watching her. The dark-haired girl turned her gaze back to the ground. How can she possibly see me as more than a failure? All she's seen of me is from the battlefield and from a prison cell. I doubt she could even come up with a decent view of me. But Aneira somehow saw beyond all of that, and it made something inside of Devyn swell with a warm feeling she was unfamiliar with.

Devyn was about to open her mouth to ask how Aneira had come up with the words to tell her, to ask how she had managed to lie so easily while keeping such a pleasant tone, but she paused as soon as her eyes lifted from the path. The environment around them had changed. They were no longer surrounded by only rocks and sand, but strange silhouettes of twisted, dead trees were popping up on either side as they continued to climb. The path had widened into a clearing; they were no longer at such a steep incline, but instead a much more gradual one as they came closer to the peak. The sky had seemingly darkened, even though Devyn's instincts told her that it was still no later than midday. Clouds had crawled their way in the higher they went, blocking out the sun and causing a light breeze to tickle her cheeks. Devyn's spine tingled with unease. There was something that felt so terribly wrong about this place. She eyed one of the strangely bent tree trunks, lacking leaves and stripped of their bark, and shuddered despite herself.

"So," Aneira blurted suddenly, and as Devyn glanced over at her she could tell that the other young woman was just as unnerved by the eeriness of their new surroundings as she was. The blonde bit nervously at her bottom lip, her grey eyes darting between the twisted trees and Devyn. "Um, what's life like in Dreg?"

Devyn's eyebrows hitched up, surprised by the question. "Oh. It's... nice. I mean, there's not much to the place in particular — it's probably no different than other places — but I have some friends I like hanging out with and such." She trailed off there, but Aneira still seemed to be waiting for more, so the dark-haired girl rolled her eyes a bit and continued. "My best friend is Rhona. They're the greatest. They're working as a healer right now, which was their dream from the beginning. Especially before I became a captain, we'd goof off with each other all the time." She paused, considering whether she should be revealing any more about her personal life, before continuing.

"There was this one time when we sneaked out of our houses in the middle of the night and ran down to the lake nearby. You know, the one that feeds into the river we passed on the way here. Anyway, Rhona and I were the only ones there; no one would go out for a swim that late at night. For a while, we just... hung out. Sitting at the edge of the lake, barefoot, our toes dipping into the water as it lapped gently at the shore." A hint of a smile crawled its way onto her lips in spite of herself. "And then something jumped out of the water — looking back, it was probably just a big fish — and the two of us just up and bolted. We didn't even bother to put our boots back on; we just carried them as we ran. We didn't stop until our lungs burned and our legs gave out beneath us." Devyn chuckled, shaking her head in amusement, as she lifted her gaze to glance up at Aneira. The blonde was listening avidly, her grey eyes watching her with interest and perhaps something more that Devyn couldn't decipher. "My feet were killing me that night. I regretted it in the morning, but... I think that's the last time we really hung out with each other. The war got bad after that, and... Yeah. We didn't get the chance."