The Commander of Orion ✔️

Chapter 18

Zoron has kept a close eye on me ever since the incident with Sascha. He made sure I was never in a room alone with her, and that she never went within a few metres of me.

I didn't mind that he had set these boundaries mostly because they didn't really affect me. I've spilt my day between the study, Anneli's house and going around and visiting the different tribes with Zoron, places where Sascha never really popped up.

Being without Kaelon had its ups and downs. I couldn't sleep without his scent around me, so I've practically moved into his bedroom. My scent was starting to overpower his with every night that he's gone. 

I've forced myself to keep busy to get my mind off him. Kaelon has been gone for 4 days and 3 very long nights. I doubt I will be seeing him anytime soon.

Nublius was a 3-day journey, meaning he had probably just gotten there. Whatever he needed to deal with, still needs to be dealt with, then it's another 3 long days before he's back.

I took my restlessness out on Zoron, who I still trained with in the mornings. Our training sessions weren't as brutal as before, and Zoron refused to use anything that would cause me to bleed in fear of hurting me.

The eye roll I managed to conjure after he explained his reasonings might've been a world record, but I accepted his decision. I knew it had to do more with the clump of cells slowly developing in my womb.

"Do you want to lead their training today?" Zoron asked once we arrived at the Northern training grounds. Normally Edrik trains the warriors in this tribe, however, since he's gone with Kaelon, the job fell to us.

"Sure," I replied, excited that Zoron was allowing me to take charge of training.

Gathering all 13 warriors in front of me, I explained what they will be focusing on. Using Zoron as my sparring partner, I modelled my expectations.

The warriors quickly and easily got the hang of the technique, pairing up and sparing against each other as I walked around, correcting their form if needed.

Training them took a good portion of the morning and by the time we finished, I was beat.

Zoron and I walked back to the packhouse, now needing to fill out reports to give to Kaelon when we came back.

Groaning when we arrived, I slopped down in a chair.

"Why can we just tell Kaelon what happened instead of writing it down," I complained as Zoron placed a stack of paper in front of me.

Shooting me a disapproving look, he sat down in the chair opposite of me. "Because it's important. Being a commander is not just about leading a group of warriors into battle, it's also about keeping them up to date on their training and looking after their well-being."

I pressed my lips together knowing this already but I wanted to whine a little. The workload was much more than I expected, more than what Kaelon had led on.

What I liked about the days spent with Zoron was that he didn't sugarcoat anything. He quickly pushed me into his world, guiding me through it and letting me experience every single aspect of being a commander.

"Do you think I can manage to do this while taking care of a pup?" I found myself asking the first commander a little while after we started filling out our notes for Kaelon.