The Trilogy Of Nillett: An Alliance

Keeta

Keeta is just your average 12 year old elite Mer soldier, and today is her 13th birthday. Ever since she was 8 years old, Keeta has been obsessed with combat. Her best friend Lateesha, a hippocampus, is 3 years older than her and knew exactly what to do: join the fight of the Great War. Though Keeta was way underage, the general was impressed by her fighting prowess and enrolled her. Keeta's parents are very distant and hardly ever visit her, plus they are in the Kliallian Army too. They hardly even heard Keeta when she told them plainly that she was going to military boot camp, they just nodded their heads and kept practicing battle moves. Heck, Keeta hadn't ever even learned her parents names! Ever since she was tiny she had called them Ma'am and Sir, never mom, never dad. Looking back Keeta thinks that she was just trying to get their attention at first. By the time she was out of the 4 month boot camp, the army turned into somewhere that she belonged, where she was with others like her. Sure they were at least 10 years older than her, but she was just as good if not better than most of them at fighting. And she understood them and was as mature as them. In the army, she wasn't just some talented little girl, she was a soldier.
In the Sea Army, soldiers use bows and arrows made of driftwood and seaweed for weapons, anything else would be too heavy. The arrows have coral on the ends in place of feathers, and shells for the arrowheads. Usually, fleets that attack Wingeds are purely mermaids and mermen. However, since most of the soldiers don't have opposable thumbs, the Mer are losing to the Wingeds and winning against Landgoers. But for the Landgoer attacks, the other Mer soldiers just plain use natural combat instincts and succeed in missions. Especially because they can move about ten times as fast as they could if they did not have the appropriate tail and fins. Combat strategy is difficult to figure out. Though all of the Mer can breathe air, they cannot move on land, unlike Earth Mers who can dissolve tails into legs. Soldiers have to ambush inland, even though most visible waterways are blocked. See, the Landgoers have seen this strategy and have blocked all of the rivers and streams that lead to Kliall to prevent this. However, Mer are smarter than that and found underwater tunnels that lead inland and up into the rivers and lakes. From the below vantage point, Mer can shoot arrows upwards or jump out of the water and attack foolish Landgoers that go too close to the water. Or, in the case of river villages jump up in an arc and land back in the water with victims in tow. Keeta can do all of the strategies and perform all of the battle moves above and underwater.
Keeta is known among the soldiers as the Beast. When she's around acquaintances she's sarcastic, professional, and violent. Plus she's pretty much a little ball of terror. Keeta is pretty smart when it comes to history and culture, but if you were to talk about math, magic, or science, she wouldn't have a clue what you're talking about. She knows all about geography though, she has to for battle strategy purposes. Normally, Keeta isn't very open about her feelings but when Laoli's around, Keeta's extremely open. Keeta has grown more insecure as she has grown older. She just wishes for her parents to be proud of her, at least to notice her. And in Mer society, success is everything.
But besides her insecurity, Keeta is very proud of her status among the soldiers. Status in the Kliallian Army is based on the notches in a special armband that fits over paws, hooves, and hands. 1 notch is for trainees, 2 notches is for rank 1 soldiers, 3 notches are for rank 2 soldiers, 4 notches for rank 3 soldiers, 5 notches for lieutenants, 6 notches for colonels, and 7 notches for generals. Keeta has 5 notches. Normally only 20 year olds have a chance at gaining that rank, but Keeta is special. At age 12 she has surpassed all of the challenges set before her and earned her rank as lieutenant. Even though she is called the Beast, she is formally called Lieutenant Keeta.
Even though she is a rough and tough soldier, her dorm is immaculately clean and her appearance is tidy. Unlike most militaries, soldiers in the Kliallian Army are allowed to have long hair, fur, manes and tails, as long as they are up in a braid when training or in combat. Keeta has long, black hair with a natural red streak and pale skin due to being underwater all the time. Her vibrant tail was a stunning red, almost the same color as some coral, and had two barbs at the two tips of the main fin of her tail. Her crop top is a slightly lighter color than her tail.
Even though she is a soldier, she's also 12. Other than her dorm, Keeta has a secret cave underwater in the side of the Great Trench wall. Only she and Laoli know about it and it's totally secret. Keeta's base is in the middle of the Sorceress Gulf, the Great Trench runs in a complete circle in the center of the Sorceress Gulf. The higher seabed above the trench has an underwater mountain range on the north side of it which peeks above the waves a bit to form the Begonaye Islands.
All the years living with the other soldiers she's always been younger than everyone who acts like her. All the 15 year old recruits are soft and immature, but the soldiers who have been there as long as she has are all 20 or older. So each birthday she gets closer and closer to the age of her true comrades, even though they get older too. And this birthday is especially important because she'll finally be a teenager! It was also special because now that she is 13, Laoli is 15, the age to be recruited! Keeta had the maturity and skills to join the Kliallian Arm way early, but Laoli was just barely unable to join early. So now Keeta gets to share all of her favorite activities with Laoli. Laoli was even assigned to Keeta's training group!