***Thyra's POV***
My weekend was the same as always, sleep, train, study, eat, sleep, rinse, repeat. Friday evening, I calmed down from that rage monster that was building. So, I did do something a little different to distract me this morning. I am starting at the results in the mirror of my barracks room now. Since I was 16, I have kept my hair cut to my shoulders tucked back in braids. I needed to focus on something other than my anger, and I took some clippers to my hair and buzzed off most of the right side of my hair. My scalp is only a little paler than my complexation, but I have always been pale. My black hair is combed over to the left side of my head, showing off the new style I gave myself. I look into my murky green eyes, and thank the Goddess that I got bored with cutting my hair before shaving all of it off in frustration.
Ana has clinic hours and isn't in our barracks suite right now. She has always been the one that cares for anyone else, the pack mom of our little group, and now is focused on becoming a combat medic. Just one step of many toward becoming a doctor for her. Her being at the clinic is another reason to thank the Goddess. She has been trying to get me to go out with her and Kenny tonight. I just want some time to myself. I have been stressed about moving to Capitol City for the leadership course and stress makes it harder to control my rage monster. I really need to come up with a name for her. But, I am lucky to have the three of them. After rogues destroyed the Onyxbite Pack, the three of them are my family. Ana and Kenny are from the same pack, and we picked up Mak along the way.
Makawee is my other roommate, and is off on a scouting mission. She is a little weird and awkward, and we love her for it. She doesn't look like a scout, she looks more like she would fit in behind a computer working on something brainy but cool. She can also move so silently that she sneaks up on me all of the time and loves to jump scare us. My wolf, Sel, loves it and never tips me off when Mak is making her sneak attacks. Mak has different colors in her hair every month, and is covered in piercings and tattoos. While Ana is beautiful in a feminine way, Mak has more of the dark alternative beauty that turns heads.
Turd McFergusson... seems like you already have a good name for the rage monster. Sel mentions to me.
What?! No, that is what I call you. I snark back.
Oh, well I don't answer to that moniker so I figured that was the rage monster.
No, I like that name for when you are being too snotty.
Sel "hurrumphs" in my mind and languidly stretches out and curls back up going back to her nap. See, snotty. And she knows she is pretty. She is mostly black with some white markings, a lightning bolt down her chest, and a gray circle on her shoulder. But the most pretty part is her eyes, they are the same green as mine. But set against black fur, her eyes don't look like murky green swamp water, they almost glow to a jade.
Mak and her team are out surveying The Darkness making sure it hasn't grown. Mak is always worried that she will come back with bad news, but in over 1,300 years The Darkness hasn't grown. Everyone knows about the prophecy, some screaming birds, a tree, fated mates returning, and the return of the royal family. Mak is always talking about some new theory of the prophecies coming true, but it never really concerned me. Everyone is taught the prophecy in primary school:
"In the bygone era, the royals, beacons of luminance, relinquished their celestial radiance to shroud The Darkness, veiling it from their subjects, but only for an ephemeral epoch. For in the weaving of fate, an evil unseen shall unfurl The Darkness anew, a forecast foretold by the lamenting birds departing their ancestral throne."
"A great tree, colossal and venerable, rent asunder by an inferno's fury, stands bifurcated—half in desolation, half in verdant resplendence."
"Fated hearts, intertwined by cosmic loom, shall rediscover their resonance amidst tempestuous tides. Their union, ordained by celestial weavers, shall ignite forgotten embers, crucial in the tempest's midst."
"The Darkness, shrouded in its insidious might, shall succumb solely to the ascendance of a royal born from the crucible of loss and rebirth, one from the ashes to the fire."
"Upon their visage, the countenance of the celestial orb, completed by the sacred sigil upon the union with their fated's mark."
Thinking about the prophecy makes my skin crawl. Any time I think about ashes, I see my home, burnt to the ground. I hear howls of pain, remembering that they came from me as I held my baby brother's burnt body. Who needs screaming birds when I have already seen the hell that The Darkness hides.
***Thyra's POV*** After lunch, I was on my tablet trying to finish the prerequisite reading list for the Officer's Leadership Academy. I will have to report to the academy a week from Monday, and plan to be in Capitol City in a week to get my living quarters established and scope out the new area. I've never been to Capitol City, the largest city I have been to isn't even a quarter the size of Capitol City. And I will be leaving Mak, Ana, and Kenny behind here at Lyngvi Training Garrison. The academy is usually for year six cadets, but they accept one year four or year five cadet each year. It is an application process I completed after losing a bet with Kenny. I didn't expect to be chosen, but he claims he knew it would happen the entire time. Usually, year six is the year we focus our training on our specific fields. Ana will apprentice in a clinic at a garrison, and Mak will be out with a scouting unit at a field unit near the border of The Darkness. Or if she is lucky, she will
***Rolf's POV*** The small city outside Lyngvi has all the amenities you would expect, but with a focus on getting soldiers to part with their monthly paychecks from the Regency. Everything, restaurants, clubs, tattoo parlors, car dealerships, and even some of the seedy strip joints that started popping up more and more since the mate bonds of the past started to fail to happen. From what I read, it started before The Darkness emerged from the warlock tribes of Somsak. It feels like a myth at this point that mating bonds ever existed. The best investigators still only assume what actually happened, but as the story goes, The Darkness was in response to a warlock that fell in love with a prophetess. She was lycan, and his fear was she would find her true mate. So, he kept her locked away in Somsak, and tried to convince her to stay with him and return his love. Then one day, the royalty from Osvald arrived in Somsak to hold diplomatic trade discussions. As King Oran was touring Somsa
***Rolf's POV***Grandma Petiet is in her element. She flits around table to table in the small diner, like a humming bird floats from flower to flower. The place is casual, and she seems to treat us all like we were invited to her own dining room for a meal. As she walks over to us her smile brightens, instead of standing at the booth she scoots in next to Axel."Dear, I have fresh doughnuts frying for you right now to take home with you." Grandma Petiet turns from Axel to look at me. "And you don't get any of them after teasing this sweetheart about being obsessed with little more than dough, oil, and sugar. I heard you being a snot to this growing male right here," she leans over and attempts to nudge Axel's shoulder with hers, but really only comes up to a few inches past his elbow. Axel wrapped his arm around her shoulders for quick hug."Thank you Nana! I keep telling him that the main ingredient isn't dough but love from your hands that roll it out." Axel gives Grandma a peck o
***Thyra's POV***Today feels like Muphy's Law decided to set up camp and follow me around. In the Army, we all like to joke about it. The thing you need, broken or disappeared, the weather is going to be crap for training. Or in my case, the travel approval orders you were supposed to get to go to a leadership academy aren't there when you need to start turning in equipment to get ready for that move. Murphy's Law is basically, anything that can go wrong will go wrong, usually, at the worst possible time. Of course, while I was standing around the supply office trying to turn in gear, I don't need to take with me the hard ass behind the desk said she couldn't accept anything because her system didn't show my orders.As I walk to the Admin Shop for the garrison, I get a chance to look around at all the activity on post. Creatures that are just getting ready to start year one in gaggles while waiting to get their own supplies issued, or heading toward the barracks that year one's share
***Rolf's POV***Looking down at Axel on the ground wasn't something I could brag about last year. We came to the training fields to spar before lunch. I had just gotten done with another one of the hand-to-hand combat sessions with one of the Finrir Elite trainers. And right now I was gloating just a little, and I hold my hand out to help Axel get up."OK, you need to explain that move to me, that was pretty good," Axel said as he got up, but bent over with his hands on his hips. "Just give me a moment, that knocked the wind out of me.""Hollis showed me that one. His training the only reason I was OK with Onyx changing the normal training schedule for me a little this year," I reply while trying to keep the gloating to a minimum."You think that the general would be willing to smooth things over with the garrison commander, so I can get in on that course?" Axel grins a little as he doesn't quite mention the blow up with the commander last year."If he could have done that he would h
***Thyra's POV***We don't have anything personal decorating the barracks room. However, this has been home since year 2, and I am going to miss being here. The layout is like any other suite in the buildings that house year 2 through 6 cadets. There is a common area that is a sitting room and kitchenette combined. The sitting area has a couch, facing an entertainment center with a small television and bookshelves. The kitchenette has a small refrigerator and microwave along the wall with some cabinets. And a small countertop island that is between the kitchenette and sitting area. There is a hallway off the kitchenette that leads to the suites entrance. On the other side of the hallway are three small bedrooms and a bathroom to share. When you enter the door, the rooms are to the left, and directly on the right before getting to the kitchenette there is a storage closet for all of our military gear.This is where we really grew as a small family. I was lucky to be assigned a room wit
***Thyra’s POV*** Getting to the D-FAC is only a 7-minute walk from the barracks. Mak and I are seated in our normal area when Kenny walks up with his tray of food. He smiles when he sees us at the table and sets his tray down. Before sitting down, he ruffles Mak’s hair. “Why does it always take like 3 days before you don’t smell like The Darkness after your scouting missions?” He teases in a good naturedly. Then bending over, he sniffs at her hair and sighs in relief. “Seriously, you are the only one to complain about that. You should be a scout with what that nose could track,” Mak laughs as she ducks her head away from Kenny. This is what I will miss the most, the moments where we are all just relaxing and carefree. The mornings when we are rushing around the suite getting ready for classes and training that day. Or some of the movie nights where Mak is curled up with her head on Ana’s lap and Kenny is sitting on the floor in front of them throwing pop corn behind him at us. See
***Thyra’s POV***I try to hide that I am sniffing at this stranger, so I pick up my napkin to wipe my nose. The stronger sent was more sandalwood than forest. My nose must be turning as sensitive as Kenny’s. This movement does catch Mak’s eye though, and she sends me a concerned look. I shake my head indicating I am alright.“I apologize, I must have been so struck by your beauty that I forgot to introduce myself earlier. I’m Axel Grist, Pro-,” he starts making eyes at Ana then coughs interrupting his introduction. “Um, proudly at your service.” He ends his introduction with a small bow while stumbling over his words.“Well, Axel,” Ana says trying out another more courteous look that matched his bow. “These are my friends, that in fact can call me Ana.” She starts nodding toward each of us as she provides an introduction. “Mak is my roommate and unofficial little sister. Kenny who is in fact my official brother but don’t hold that against me. And Thyra, the friend that is leaving nex